What In Tarnation?!?!?

Finally, I found a meme I haven’t done. Thanks Jen.

1) How old were you?
THEN: 1996 - 18
NOW: 2006 - 28

2) Where did you work?
THEN: 1996 - Oh ducky. I don’t think I was working during the school year. In the summer of 96 I worked a Maremec State Park. My duties were many but my main job was keeping all the finances for the campground in order, making the program booklets for the Naturalists, and keeping all reservations for the campground. That summer the campground flooded, I have never been cussed out on phone so many times.
NOW: 2006 - 3rd grade teacher and I have only been cussed out twice in the five years I have been working this job.

3) Where did you live?
THEN: 1996 - Sullivan, MO
NOW: 2006 - Rolla, MO

4) How was your hair style?
THEN: 1996 - Longer than it is now
NOW: 2006 - shorter than it was then

5) Did you wear contacts?
THEN: 1996 - Nope
NOW: 2006 - Frequently

6) Did you wear glasses?
THEN: 1996 - Yes, daily
NOW: 2006 - the other half of frequently

7) Who was your best friend?
THEN: 1996 - I hate the title of best friend. Third graders get all upset about who their best friend is and inevitable I have to hear about it. I had several (unlike third graders who feel best friend is an exclusive relationship) Josh, John, Joe, Glenna, Anna
NOW: 2006 - Again many, cept I have two groups, coworkers make up one and the other group is basically the Cranium Leakage group (current and former). I have also formed some very good friendships via the blogosphere.

Which of your pets were still alive?
THEN: 1996 - None
NOW: 2006 - None

Whoa there nelly!

13) How many piercings did you have?
THEN: 1996 - None
NOW: 2006 - None14) How many tattoos did you have?
THEN: 1996 - None
NOW: 2006 - None

15) What was your favorite band/singer?
THEN: 1996 - I was just discovering Caedmon’s Call
NOW: 2006 - Caedmon’s Call, Derek Webb, Passion artists

16) Had you smoked a cigarette?
THEN: 1996 - Nope
NOW: 2006 - Nope

17) Had you gotten drunk?
THEN: 1996: Nope
NOW: 2006: Nope

18) Looking back, are you where you thought you would be in 2006?:
Yeah, kinda. Most folk their senior year of high school only have a long term plan extending about four years in the future. I did imagine myself as a teacher but I never considered that I would be located where I am.

Ping me with your answers or let me know in the comments.

Later taters!

I was rather surprised by one of my students on the last day of school. By the end of the year that is unusual. This particular student, let’s call him Zeph, is quite intelligent, gifted. He could be compared to Abner but with much better social skill and lacking some of Abner’s Verbal skill. He wants to be perceived as being mature and grown up most of the time. He avoids anything that he would identify as being childish: singing, dancing, coloring, or dependence on anyone or anything. Occasionally his facade will break but normally it is shields up.

The last half day of school, as is the tradition, is a walking trip to the nearby Lion’s Club Park. Before we left to walk down to the park, I was going over my expectations for the day as well as our abbreviated itinerary. As I have mentioned before, my class this year struggled with self-management and as per the norm they started just asking questions. I suggested that we could stay at school and unpack some of those math textbook if we weren’t able to responsible. They decided to bring their questions under control and raised their hands. I reminded them the less questions I answered the sooner we got to leave and the more time they got to play. I fielded several normal questions: When are we going to leave? When are we going to get back? Can I go to the bathroom? When do I get my report card? Can I call my mom and tell her to come eat with me? Is it alright that my dad is going to meet us at the park? Which teacher do I get for next year? Did you fail me? When do we leave? Can I take my football? Can I have a snack from my lunch before we leave? When do we leave?

It was at the end of this line of questions that Zeph raised his hand and asked the question that totally caught me off guard, “After we get back and when it is time to leave can we get hugs?”

“Hugs?”

“Yeah from you.”

“Oh. Sure. As a rule I don’t turn down hugs,” I replied.

“Okay, good.”

At first I thought this was his lame attempt to crack a joke but it only took a few seconds to determine that he was 100% serious.

As a policy, I don’t offer hugs to students but I will accept them though I don’t advertise that fact. I tend to encourage high fives rather hugs. Now there are some exceptions to this guideline, specifically students in the EMH class.

Zeph did get a hug at the end of the day, in fact I think he asked for a second one. Just goes to show you that every once in awhile everyone needs a hug.

I found an old TV Guide Magazine. Way back from 2004. The reason I still have it around is probably because Buffy the Vampire Slayer was featured on the cover or I should say on one of the covers (one of those collector editions, buy all four!). The cover story was the Top 25 Cult TV series. I would define a cult TV show as being a show that has a moderate to small audience with very loyal and what might be described as rabid fans. Evidently I have a tendency to watch cult TV shows because many of my favorite TV shows appear on this list.

I will bold the names of show that I watch or watched regularly and I will add an asterisk (*) to shows that I watched but not regularly.

25. Freaks and Geeks
24. Absolutely Fabulous * - This show found popularity while I was in high school and I had several friends that loved the program however I could not really get into it.
23. Forever Knight
22. H. R. Pufnstuf
21. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
20. Twin Peaks
19. Dark Shadows
18. Doctor Who * - Another one I never really got into.
17. The Avengers *
16. My So-Called Life
15. Quantum Leap
14. Beauty and the Beast
13. Babylon 5
12. Family Guy *
11. Mystery Science Theater 3000 *
10. Pee Wee’s Playhouse
9. Xena: Princess Warrior
8. The Twilight Zone *
7. The Prisoner
6. The Simpsons *
5. Monty Python’s Flying Circus * - I can’t find it on TV to watch, this would be bold if not for that reason.
4. Farscape
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. The X-Files
1. Star Trek

Since this list was generated in 2004 I think I can add a few more shows that I consider to be cultish.

Alias
Angel
Arrested Development
Firefly
The Pretender
Battlestar Galactica (at Ben’s very correct suggestion in the comments)
Do you like cult TV? Tell us in the comments.

The next post is password protected. It contains the link for the class video that I created for my class.

The file is a Quicktime .mov file and is kinda hefty at 21.6 MB.

If you want the password please e-mail me.

Later taters!

Good golly. The end of the school year is just crazy. Fill out this paperwork. Entertain and educate your students who have already checked out a week ago. School has been out since Thursday of last week. So far I have filled my time with cleaning out my room preparing it for the new tables and computers.

This has been one whacky year. In fact when I think about the school year it really feels like two school years. The first part I was sharing a room with the art teacher. That seems like a year ago. As I look back on my initial reflections of the class I had this year I can see that I was pretty much on the mark:

This class is going to be a good one if they can manage to stop talking long enough to listen to what I am trying to get across to them.

They started talking the first day of school and didn’t really stop until I kicked them out of my room on the last day of school. Never had I had a class that couldn’t seem to master the basics of classroom behavior. We were on an almost weekly cycle. 1) They would ignore established classroom expectations. 2) I would slowly (sometimes quickly) loose my patients. 3) I would give a teacher speech to let them know just what I thought. I rotated the teacher speeches so I wouldn’t grow bored. 4) They would be sad for about 15.5 seconds and things would get better. 5) At the end of the 15.5 seconds they would seemingly forget or selectively erase teacher speech from their memories and they would return to their previous behavior. 6) Rinse, lather, and repeat. 7) Once every two months I would get so fed up that I would have “A Day of Despair.” All privileges were revoked for everyone in the class and we worked from the second we got into the room to the second they left. Never have I seen such a group of chatty Cathy boys. If there was silence the boys in my class felt it was their duty to fill the void with their voice. Since there was rarely ever a silence, they didn’t wait for a silence to start filling that non-existent void.

This year was also the first year that I tried to retain a student. Everything was in place, parents seemed cooperative, the student was immature socially and could use the extra to catch up both academically and socially. When I say that the parents seemed cooperative, the stoic father who never said a word in any of the conferences I had, decided to pick up and leave the school district in an attempt to avoid the retention. Actually that wasn’t the first time that happened this year. Early in the year I mention the word retention to two other pairs of parents and within weeks they were gone from the district suddenly. Of course I can’t say that I was the sole reason for the moves but it sure appeared that way.

Year five is complete, 25 more to go. Year six is looks like it is going to be just as exciting. I will be getting the “Technology Enriched Classroom” (or at least that is what we are calling it. Several significant personnel changes within the district will also make things interesting in year six. Oh, and finally I will have Marty in my class!

There were some other developments over my class over the end of the year. Last I discussed it here, it seemed that I would be getting an eMINTS classroom. Everything was going on swimmingly until one of the higher up admins got wind of it and pitched a slight fit. Something about it not being a proven program (balderdash) and that all professional development monies should be spent on a new concept that all the admins are excited about called professional learning communities or some such thing. Since the tables were already delivered he is going to allow it. But I don’t think he is happy about it.

I did get a DVD out to all my kids before the year ended which consumed quite a bit of time. I have considered posting a segment, can’t descide. If I do it will be in a password protected entry (and there are a few of us around here that might remember how well that went over last time I tried it).

In other personal news, I have recently discovered that I may be one of the small percentage of people who “forget” to breath while laughing heartily. I’m sure that you are curious on how I discovered this little nugget of knowledge. During our end of the year technology meetings in which all the building tech contacts and the technology staff, I saw a bug flying about and went to crush it. In doing so, I slammed my hand down on the table. On the table were some tiny cupcakes from Wal-Mart with sprinkles on them. When I hit the desk the sprinkles went everywhere. Laughing ensued. Much laugh and then the next thing I remember is feeling like I was waking up from a dream. I realized that I was now on the floor and everyone was looking down at me with a concerned looks on their faces. Being the genius that I am the first question that came to my foggy mind was, “Did I just fall out of my chair?” Duh. Needless to say that put a squash on all the fun. One of the other people there said here husband had a similar experience; they rushed him to the ER where the doctor informed him that he too forgot to breath while laughing. When thinking about this I was reminded of a similar experience earlier in the year. Much laughing, sleepy feeling, gap in time as if I had been abducted by aliens, waking up as if I had been slumbering from some time, distorted feeling while I figure out what was going on. The earlier time I was sitting in a recliner so no one really realized that I had blacked out. None of this has been confirmed by my own doctor but I feel confident that these two situations bare a striking resemblance and from that I can extrapolate the cause. All in all the whole situation was extremely embarrassing.

Hopefully regular blogging can commence.

It is also time to retire the Class dismissed! tag line for the summer friendly Later taters!

Later taters!

**WARNING** I review M:I 3, United 93, Hoot, and The 7th Heaven series finale and I could be dropping some spoiler bombs so be careful.

Upgrade: Mission: Impossible 3. I really liked this movie. Yes there were a few too many shootouts but there are worse things. M:I 2 comes to mind. I would rank it as my favorite M:I. A few observations: Abrams pulls a few of his TV stunts most noticeably the bait and switch tactic where we are presented with a shocking event and then flash to the past to view the same events with a slightly different perspective or showing the events that lead up the shocking event (I discuss this tactic more specifically here) and did anyone else notice the pale comparison of Marshal? I did. Highlight of the movie would be the breaking into and kidnapping in Vatican City. It was fun. My grade: B

Upgrade: United 93. This film lands on my powerful, moving movie that I will only watch once category. This truly is an amazing film. I would not be in the camp that says everyone should watch it but I would definitely urge people to see it if they feel they are up to it. The part that I found most interesting was the sections that were probably more based on fact; the scenes in the FFA and military control centers. I really appreciated that the movie was solely about was simply about the day. It wasn’t about the people on the plane who revolted, it wasn’t about the terrorists, it was just about the event. No sappy back stories just what happened or what is believed to have happened (who really knows what happened on the plane for sure?) One thing that I would have changed about the movie is I would have done it sans music. It is my favorite movie of the year so far. My grade: A

Downgrade: 7th Heaven series finale. I have admitted that 7th Heaven is one of my guilty pleasures. The show is the exact opposite of what I look for in a TV program I like. It is overly sappy, overly complicated, poorly written, and many times poorly acted. I was really excited to learn that the series was ending. I would finally released from the show. Of course I tuned to the series finale. And let me say, what a shame. They had an opportunity to go back to the show’s roots so what do we get? A marriage that I doubt any fan liked that doesn’t really happen and not one, not two, but three sets of twins. Give me a break. And what a waste of Jessica Beil. The only thing more embarrassing was their “musical” episode. My grade: F–

Neutral: Hoot. The newest movie from my favorite production company, Walden Media, is Hoot. The movie is based off a children’s book by the same name. I didn’t get around to completing the book before seeing the movie so I don’t have the full experience of the book to compare the movie to. The movie is a fun movie about kids who want to save the burrowing owl. Acting is well done and music by Jimmy Buffet (he produces and stars in the movie as well) fits the movie. Overall after the movie was over I really enjoyed it. However, as I have had more time to think about it the more my opinion has soured. First, I just don’t buy that a middle schooler would go to all the trouble that we see Mullet Fingers go through. The overall effect made the movie too preachy. What really bothered me though was the actions that these kids make are not ones they should be making and there are very little consequences for these actions. Not the message I want my third graders see. Then, and I wasn’t going to mention this but after reading the same thought in two different reviews I guess I wasn’t too off base… what’s up with all the slow motion montages of the two boys? I think I was wondering the same thing that Richard Roper was, “Is this thing going to go Brokeback on us?” Thankfully it didn’t but there was a weird vibe there. So at first I was all for it but on thinking on it more, I don’t think I would recommend this to students. For everyone else, well, thank goodness for the funny Luke Wilson. My grade: C-

Your thoughts?

Class dismissed!

My normal routine when I get to school in the morning is to go into my room and turn on and login in to the computers in my room and I put the attendance up on the SMARTBoard for my students when they come into the room (they move their name to what kind of lunch they are going to have for the day). Then I go next door to the computer lab and turn on the teacher computer and projector and then I take the 3 mile trek down to the teacher’s lounge for some coffee. When I get back to the computer lab, I login on the teacher workstation so that it is ready to go for the first class. Last Thursday I was in the middle of my morning routine as I was heading back to the computer lab with my coffee. I wanted to make sure the lab was ready to go because my class was going to be the first class in there to do a fun little activity called Most Wanted Toy. I entered the still dark lab to login when I heard a drip… drip… drip… sound. It had rained the previous night but this is the new building so there shouldn’t be leak, of course there was a leak outside the new library that the construction company didn’t want to fix (their solution was to put a bucket in the ceiling to stop the leak). I turned on the light and noticed water on the window. I went over for closer inspection and to my surprise the water was on the inside of the window not the outside. Then I stepped on soaked carpet with a slosh. Looking around I see that the wall has water all over it and water was on about three computers. There was some kind of leak and it was a pretty big one. Since the bell was about to ring I went and asked the librarian if she could call maintenance and I told her I would call technology and somehow I would find time to move computers around.

Technology wanted pictures everything so I asked the librarians if they could do that as well, my class was now filing into the room.

After maintenance arrived they removed about 8 wet ceiling tiles and I took my class in to start working on the project while I moved computers. According to the maintenance man the drainage pan in the ceiling was completely full. Thankfully there was a pipe with insulation crossing the top of the drainage pan and the insulation wicked water away to the wall and as a result only four computers got wet instead of all of the computers in the middle of the room under the drainage pan. I found it odd there wasn’t any drainage away from the drainage pan.

Later the construction company came over. The guy looked at the drainage pan and said, “Well that’s installed wrong.” I almost responded with a sarcastic, “Really?” but I refrained. In talking with him after he began fixing the faulty insulation, evidently the pan was supposed to be installed at a 12 degree angle and the sensor that is supposed to turn off the A/C unit when the pan get full wasn’t working properly because it was tangled up in the insulation of the afore mentioned pipe. The man who oversees the construction showed up. Interestingly, I have his grandson in my class. I took a few moments to share with him my displeasure with this mess and made it clear how it messed up my morning and how it messed up my (and thereby his grandson’s) morning activity and instruction time. He apologized.

By the next morning they had everything reinstalled (hopefully correctly this time) and the lab was up and running except for those four computers that were wet. The construction company’s insurance will be covering their replacement.

It was a fun morning.

Class dismissed!