Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery. -Horace Mann
Yeah, so I’m back. It’s been almost a year since I blogged last. And I figured that I might blog again about the usual fun stuff. You know, life, the universe, education, comcs, politics, why the Red Sox suck this year…
The Family Is Here!
When last we talked, the family was still in Florida, land of the Mouse and Governor Voldemort. Well, now they are here! Yay!
Big Smiles All Around!
The fact that my family is with me always makes my day. I know I am a lucky man.
My Book Chapter Was Published!
Well, not MY book. But I wrote a chapter. 🙂
So I wrote the chapter on Dr. Mehaffey, edited by my mentor. It was a fun experience. I get no royalties, but you should buy it anyway!
I also ended up getting a couple of quotes into the Washington Post on teaching Watergate. Nothing huge, but it was exciting. 🙂
And finally for now..
I’ve embarked on a new career. Still in education. Still writing. But for now, to the classroom I have said
I will post more soon. Next up: Why The Secret World rocks, why the Red Sox stink this year, and the really crappy New 52.
Been almost two weeks already, hmm? So, hello everyone. I hope this post finds you well, and my teacher friends are settling into the school year. So, what’s going on with me, here half way back to New England and a million miles away from my hearts? Well, as the title implies, there were times I wanted to cry. But I’m better this weekend, so far…
The Dissertation: A Work of Stunning Progress Wrapped in a Piece of..
Working working working
So I am actually making some good progress. My first two chapters, which incorporates the lit review and the methods, are almost done, and I have about 15 pages or so in my data analysis, though that has slowed down some as I continue revising codes and comparing interviews. It is kind of exciting. I am going to be DONE by the end of next spring. And the party will be wicked.
My Family: Miles Away and Always With Me
Smile!
Honestly, I am missing my family something fierce here. Thank Allah for Skype, because I would seriously not be able to do this otherwise. S. is doing a great job getting the Florida house ready for sale. The floors are going in as I type, and the realtors are coming out to look at it and put it up. I am going down this weekend, and I am excited to see my family then!
The Search For A House: Argh
PICK UP THE PHONE!
Yeah, the image I posted above reflects my current quest for housing. There are a bunch I want to see, but the Relo-assigned realtor simply will not return my calls or emails. It is getting frustrating. I HAVE found some nice ones in our price range that are just begging for an offer by the end of the month!
Life at School: Eh, What Can Be Said?
Back to Skool
So our new principal is into the swing of things. She seems pretty good, despite her background as an LSU grad and fan. I am apparently going to be starting up a Student Council with another new teacher. Yes, starting; they didn’t have one last year. On a positive note, they do NOT have a community parade student council must organize, so that would be a nice change. 🙂
I do feel like I am starting to fit in somewhat, though I think I might rub some folks the wrong way with my speaking up during faculty meetings and some of the stuff I have said. Nothing new there I suppose. Honestly, I really do not get a good sense of camaraderie from folks at the school. They all seem little interested in team buildings, and there is little joking or discussion through email like I had at my old place (still missed). I DID grab drinks with one of the counselors on Friday, who is a nice guy, AND I am getting together to watch the Pats on Sunday with one of my co-workers who is also a Mass expatriate. So that will, hopefully, be great. 🙂
Horrifically, I really made a bad mistake with a student this past week. The county I am now in uses a 7 point scale. Essentially, anything below a 70 is an F. I completely forgot this, and told a girl that had earned a 64 on a test that she had passed. I spent 15 minutes trying to console her when I had to share the reality with her. I felt HORRIBLE. SO STUPID. I cannot believe something so simple slipped my mind and made a girl cry.
A New Week
It’s at least almost a new week. Great things are going to happen, and I just know it will be fantastic. Remember to thank a teacher, kiss your spouse, love your children, and hate the Yankees. Oh, and by the way, MY BOOK CHAPTER GETS PUBLISHED NEXT MONTH!
So Disney was awesome. My little girl is just…wow. You know, I am so going to have some problems when she is older. How do I say no to her? I mean, I can do it now, but she gives me those big blue eyes….and I am lost. We went and saw her favorites Buzz and Woody (she told them both she loved them; should I be worried for the future?), and while her mommy and aunty and grammie and friends were on a ride, we went for a walk and to go see the muppets. And of course, I saw a Woody doll at a vendor. And I go over and pick it up, and she looks up at me, with a little grin, and says ‘What you doing with that daddy?’ ‘That’s Woooooody [she draws out Woody :)], I like Woooooody!’ And I bet you cannot guess what I did. God, I am so going to have problems.
M eats my heart with a spoon!
Seeing family is always nice, especially when it is my wife’s mom and sister, and of course my wife. They are great people, and I love them. But my wife? She is just incredible. She does so much and works so hard, and I loved being at Disney with her too. And I cannot wait until she is here.
School today was decent. I am, I think, settling in somewhat, though I still struggle with middle schoolers, and I wish I could connect better with the faculty. Oh, and I sent out an email to the faculty pointing out that ‘under God’, which our principal wished to emphasize in the pledge as she requires students to read it as ‘the original poem’, was not in fact IN the original poem. So there is that.
Have a wonderful week!
Well, hi. I missed you. Did you miss me? So it has been a week, full of sound, full of fury, and just a little full of significance. Last week ended well, and I got to go and see my little girl and my gorgeous wife over the weekend. Oh, that was a fun drive. But worth it!
I was so happy!
Unfortunately, my little princess was sick all weekend, so we didn’t get to go to her ‘bes frien’ D’s birthday party.
we were sad!
Driving back on Sunday, I made it back without incident. Thankfully, I had avoided the hurricane remnants heading down and driving back.
This week in the classroom has been…good..I guess. I am finding that I really do like high school kids more, and I really really miss my old school. BUT I do enjoy this 8th grade department, and I can speak up and be myself, which is nice. I mean, I enjoy being a silent, pretty flower and all, but you know, nobody puts baby in a corner. Like Sammy, I gotta be me!
So I also signed up for the reading committee, though I get the sense that the Language Arts department is not really interested in the ideas and input of a social studies teacher, so we will see how it goes. I also had a chance to finish drafting a 9/11 lesson plan for 6-8th grade social studies teachers, and it seems to have gone over well, so I feel like I have started making a positive contribution.
I have started to connect with my kids I think, though my jokes seem to fall flat. Well, flatter than usual, I suppose, you wiseasses. They seem to like me, and my tendency toward mild sarcasm does not seem to be a problem. Yay.
I love them. Really.
Of COURSE, I have some students who just LOVE that damn team from the Bronx, and they enjoy bringing it up.I, in turn, bring up my control over their grades and their very futures. So it all balances out in the end.
Friday is tomorrow. Only natural, I guess, what with the days of the week and everything. I get to drive down again and see my family, and we are going to Disney! Woohoo!
So, today was the first day of school. I always get nervous on the first day, but then, who doesn’t? New school, new students, new joys, new problems. Ultimately, i think it went well. I had fun with the kids, and while my class sizes are bigger than I would like, they seem bearable.It really was a great day. Well, it was, until I found out this happened:
Apparently, one student stabbed another with a pencil, and I was not aware of it until the mother called the school threatening to call the cops. Sigh. I am so going to love 8th graders.
Well, today was the last day of pre-planning. Naturally, the county decided we would have a 3 hour training that involved watching 30 second videos that literally took five minutes to load because everybody was trying. Literally.
So I guess that happens everywhere. Which is a very good omen for the future.On a positive note, I met with a very nice woman in the county office who is going to make sure I get paid for my MEd. The state, for some stupid reason, said I only had a BA, and demanded I submit a form, because my transcript was not enough to prove I had an Masters. They literally rejected my transcript. Literally.
So now, I just need to get my old county to send me back a form I emailed them with verification of my years of employment. Because of course they shorted me on that too. But it is coming along. I WILL get my money!
(note: the above video in no way is intended to threaten harm on any person or organization. I’m too pretty for prison)
And, at last, the kids come on Thursday. I am so excited. I practiced my lesson/intro this morning, and I hope it goes well. My plan is to have them working with partners to explore my classroom and find 8 to 10 specific objects that can be used to learn about me. This is building off the traditional brown bag activity, and touches on using artifacts to study history and culture. While they do this, I take roll and pass out books! I hope it works!
Sooo. I learned two things today. One: there are, apparently, earthquakes in Raleigh North Carolina. Two: middle school kids are smaaaaallllll, even the 8th graders. I was really concerned about breaking one. I think I met about 80 to 85 of my students today, which is about half of my student load. Really, it was pretty nice; they seemed excited, though honestly, some of my attempts to joke with them led to them apologizing to me, so, yeah, need to work on that. Even had one kid excited that I was a Gator, as he is working (already, in 8th grade) to acceptance into UF. I also have a gamecock. Enough said about that one.
Now, the earthquake. Well, it was weird. I was sitting at my desk creating a powerpoint about the Tidewater region (fascinating stuff, really) when the trailer started to shake. My first thought was ‘wow, I am so awesome I can make the earth move.’ Then I realized that I tend to only make the earth move for one other person in my life, so that probably wasn;t it. Then I thought, ‘hey, I’m in a trailer. They have tornadoes. Am I gonna die, or at least end up in a magical technicolor land of talking cowardly lions and empty headed scarecrows?’ Then I realized that would mean having to land in the Capitol building in DC, and so hoped otherwise. THEN I realized, ‘hey, it’s an earthquake! Awesome.’ On top of the hurricane that is supposed to hit this weekend and the tornadoes that came through recently, I am sooooooo glad to be out of Florida. Ha.
I am looking forward to the kids on Thursday. I think it is going to be an awesome start to the year, and I am excited about the lessons I have planned! And, best of all….I get to drive down and see my women this weekend. As long as, you know, the hurricane doesn’t wipe the roads.
So I went to look at houses today. Oh boy. Yeah, see, I don’t think that I want to get a house that has had the appliances literally ripped out of the kitchen. I mean ripped out: lights, fridge, stove, dishwasher. Everything but the kitchen sink. There is a joke in there somewhere, but I am not drunk enough to figure out what it is.
Randy Newmann once sang that short people have no reason to live. In similar vein, I do think that short sales have no reason to be on the list of houses I look at. Why is it called a short sale? It takes twice as long and can end up with you losing the house anyway. It’s like calling a huge stretch of ice and rock, I don’t know, Greenland, or like saying that you had to deal with Russia because you share a strait. Both things misrepresent reality to tease you into false hopes. If I wanted that, I would root for the Dolphins this season. And that would be simply silly.
I did see some nice houses near our price point, more or less. 3 or 4 bedrooms, 2 and half baths, extra room for my office or M.’s play area. I look forward to exploring the area and the neighborhoods in the next few weeks. Ultimately, I would love to have a place in process by the end of next month. I love the folks I am staying with, but I need my heart and soul here with me. Skype is great, but it just isn’t the same. And sometimes you dial the wrong number and see things you shouldn’t, and that is just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
So it’s Friday! Anyone else happy as all heck? I know I am. Hoping to go out and look at some houses this weekend, though I am waiting to hear back from the agent. I am missing the most important parts of me.
The Two Most Important Things in My Life
If you see them, please make sure they get up to me soon.
We went to a meeting/rally today with the superintendent. This is the Superintendent. He seems willing to listen, and is quite enthusiastic about his work and engaging with the teachers. We shall see. I have hopes that he will do well. But we shall see.
One thing that surprised me was the grade scale in the county. It is, to say the least, hard core.
A = 94-100
B = 85-93
C = 77-84
D = 70-76
BELOW 70 is F
Her Line Leader 