Ebjournal Revisited.

Help?

Tony| Category: General, Site-Based Management | 4 Comments

Mmm, delicious irony:

I’m doing something wrong with my Gatekeeper software, which blocks spam bots. Normally, there’s supposed to be a question with the usual name and email requirements. However, it appears in IE 6 that this is not working, so people who want to comment (Hello Belle and Dev!) are unable to. Can someone help me out? You can leave a comment (ha!) or email me.

My first response was naturally, download Firefox @ http://www.mozilla.org (Safari isn’t supporting adding links today, and I don’t feel like coding it.)

HELP!
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Update… I took out Gatekeeper, and now I’m running Spam Karma 2… hopefully it works! Good luck commenting.

Sounding off

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 2 Comments

Quick entries today…

We’re starting our first science unit, which is sound light, and color. We started having a discussion about sounds, what causes sounds, what we know about sounds, vibrations, echoes, etc. Trying to get them motivated, I started off by having them make “the sounds that annoy your family at home.” So they go off, and I make my elephant sound, too. I have them stop, and everyone stops, except for one of my students. One of the shyest so far, the room is completely silent except for him chirping away “Nit! Nit! Nit! Nit!” Though it wasn’t exact, it was totally a Monty Python Moment. I almost busted out laughing. Instead, I said ” _____, you just made my day.”

And then we went on. Somedays, this job is hilarious. I needed the laugh after some of the battles in the last few days.
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TLEMK just finished The Time Traveler’s Wife. She loved it too.

U.K. school tailors policy to foul mouths

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 0 Comments

U.K. school tailors policy to foul mouths - School Inc. - MSNBC.com

Really? Does this mean I get to swear too? That’s just odd…

I think the choice for me is potty-mouth free.

I prefer to do my swearing off hours, as those of you who know me can attest.

Back to the Future Ain’t Got Nothin’ on THIS…

Tony| Category: General, Chomping on Books | 1 Comment

You may have noticed, gentle readers, that I like to read. And when the bookworm bites, I let him bite. Hard. So it should come as no surprise to those of you who know me that I read and finished a grown-up book over the last 24 hours. (Hey, I went to school today and worked, too!)) The Time Traveler’s Wife was delicious. It had a little bit of everything. Science fiction, intrigue, suspense (to me, anyway) and a little romance thrown in. Okay, it had a lot of romance. But good-macho-ugh, ugh,me-man-you-woman romance. And readers, I suggest you go out and read it. It has a very different way of looking at the world. I can’t give too much away, lest you ruin your appetite, but suffice to say, it was a terrific concept, and well-written. I know I missed a ton of symbolism and allusions, because the ones I caught were not until the last 100 or so pages of the book. Take a leap, and buy into what the author is selling, and enjoy(?) the ride that this book gives you. The narration is very smooth, even though it jumps around for forty years, and there many paradoxes, much to the befuddlement of my Star-Trek-cum-Marty-McFly trained brainiverse on how time travel works. Also, it was very Quantum Leap-y, only on a much more personal level. I can’t keep talking about it, so please, put it in your library queue, and go read it. Zigzag, I’m making TLEMK read it, so you can have it back soon. Probably tomorrow or Tuesday. Mrs. Zigzag, I will read anything else you suggest if you promise to make it good like this one. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a masterpiece for the ages, but I tend to find those a little full of themselves anyway.

Go read. Or I will be forced to bite YOU.

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Update: After reading some reviews on Amazon, it turns out not everyone loves this book. Well, of course not. I try to enjoy books for what they are. I’m not smart enough to dissect them to the point of taking away the story. If I wanted that, I would go back to English 103. I liked it for what it was. That’s all. Now really, why are you reading this still when you could be reading that book and agreeing/disagreeing with me?

Show me the Pyramids!

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 0 Comments

“Mr. K., where are the Egypt books?”

We’re in the library. Instead of having computer time today, we’re doing our beginning of the year scavenger hunt to find out where everything is. (It’s the third day of school.) The kids have been shown different sections of the library, such as fiction, nonfiction, biography, etc. Now they’re working in pairs to find books from different sections of the library, or as we like to call it at the beginning of second grade, “liberry.”

“Honey, why do you need to find books on Egypt?”

“I need pyramid books. It says so on the list.”

“Show me where it says that on your paper.”

“Right here.”
She points at a word, and I start to chuckle. I look over at the LMC teacher, who’s watching this exchange, and she mouths, “Paperbacks?” I nod, ever so slightly, trying hard not to laugh.

“See, right here, it says find a pyramid book.”

I cover up the word paper, and ask her to read the last part. She says “Back.” I cover up back, and she can’t read the word paper.

So when she was reading this on her own, she saw the letter p, and immediately assumed it was pyramids, and therefore needed to look for books about Egypt. That’s pretty smart. I was impressed at her background knowledge, and scared that she had that much trouble with the word paper.

“Great, Mr. K. What’s a paperback book?”

It’s going to be one of those years.

Bring it on.
Oh, it’s already been brought’en.

Kelly Clarkson!

Tony| Category: General, Music and Movies, Entertainment Tonight | 1 Comment

As if the other two blogs weren’t enough for you to devour, here’s one more.

Tonight I, along with the Lovely and Engaging Mrs. K. went on Date Night. Tonight, we went to Chili’s, and to see The 40 Year-Old Virgin.

Now, I like to laugh. Sometimes I suprise myself by laughing with a short HA! in the middle of the movie, especially when it’s a quick, thrown-in joke. Usually I’m the only one. Tonight, everyone was laughing. Because this is a FUNNY movie. Funny? Hilarious? Knee-slapping guffaws of jovial chortles? All of the above, my humor-minded readers. Please go see this movie. Steve Carrell and his sidekicks are great in this. The only reservation I had about the movie was that all the loose ends were tied up way too neatly. And after watching Broken Flowers last week, where nothing was really tied up, I’d like to see something in the middle. Some parts solved, some left open, especially not such minor subplots that they are not integral to the story’s denoument.

This beat Wedding Crashers by far, and the last five minutes had me giggling for so long, I eventually became weepy. It’s pretty close to Napolean Dynamite , and that’s saying a lot.

Now that I’ve said all that, you will probably be disappointed because I’ve hyped it up so much. So unread this, and then be pleasantly suprised, and the go back a reread this entry and be like, “Yo, T hit it on the head!”

Or just go read TLEMK’s story. It’s much better anyway.

Why My Car is Jinxed

TLEMK| Category: General, Random | 1 Comment

Ladies and Gentlemen, and “Other”,

By the way, she is totally a better writer than me. She rocks

I have a wonderful car. I almost own it. It has served me very well, through 4 jobs, 5 homes, and 5 years - handling everything from my slovenly food wrappers and Diet Pepsi cans to moving boxes, a cat who pees on everything, music stands, tubas and other various instruments, children, friends, family, and 150 pounds of frozen cookie dough. I nap, eat, cry, and spend way too much time on my cell phone in my car. I love it. It’s cute. It fits me. I’ve even named it, and (with the help of my favorite red-head) invented a game about my car. I will truly miss it when I have to move on to something else…except for the one glaring detail that is its’ complete and utter jinxedness (Yes it’s a word. My blog entry, my vocabulary).

Here’s the thing about my car. In the 4 plus years that I have driven it, it (my car) has been involved in some way in SIX accidents. SIX! I don’t consider myself to be any worse of a driver than anyone else out there, so therefore, it must be the car. Let’s rehash, shall we?

Accident # 1 (February 2003): Definitely the most traumatic. It involved a patch of ice, those water barrels that keep you from hitting the ever-loving concrete over-pass, lots and lots of spinning, 70 mile-per-hour speeds, ending up facing the WRONG direction on the freeway in rush hour traffic, getting locked out of the wrecked car while it was still running, having to huddle in 20 degree weather under the afore-mentioned over pass that almost killed me, and best of all, getting issued a ticket for “improper lane usage”. Seriously? Seriously. Thank you Officer Friendly.

Accident # 2 (December 2003): Same year, and I wasn’t even IN the car for this one. A former friend (not former because of this accident-our drama happened after that) borrowed my car and then proceeded to be a suburban driver in a large city full of city drivers. People! Listen to me. In the suburbs, it’s okay to wait to make a left-hand turn until the light turns yellow, and then speed through while on-coming traffic stops. It does not work like that in the city. Drivers will kill you to get through a yellow light. They will speed up, not slow down. And when you, as a suburban driver, turn left on a yellow light, you will get yourself hit by a city driver. And it’s your fault. It’s their city, they can drive how they want to. (you can sing that line if you want) Also, for those of you thinking that it might be fun to be involved in this type of accident, make sure that you are in a friend’s car, because it is the owner of the car’s insurance that has to pay for everything. Yep. That’s right. Owner of the car not even IN the bloody car when it happens? Doesn’t matter!

Moving on…

Accident #3 (January 2004): Sister. Backing down driveway into car. Was I in it? No. The end.

Accident #4 (April 2004): Car is parked in the driveway of a friend’s house. Friend’s husband backs out of his garage, and side-swipes my car, leaving dents and car-length scratches to the driver’s side door. Was I in the car? Again, no.

Accident #5 (May 2004): Don’t you hate it when a car is turning right onto a fast street and speeds up like they’re really going to turn and then while you are looking left because you can so make it before that semi gets here too, the car that was speeding up has suddenly gotten a case of the scaredy-cats and has slammed on their brakes so that you run into them? Yeah, me too. And I so could have beaten that semi.

And then finally, the whole reason for this post….

Accident #6 (August 26, 2005): So I’m minding my own business, enjoying the adrenaline rush that is trying to succeed at a new job and trying to get places on time, when I get into my beloved car. I put on my sunglasses (well, it was sunny), put my right arm behind the passenger’s seat, turn around and look behind me, seeing that the coast is clear (except for that glare off the back of the rear window and that stupid shade tree that makes it impossible to see anything), and pull out of my parking spot. CRUNCH. What? What just happened? Did I hit the curb? What happened? Oh wait, it was just a gorgeous black BMW convertible. Yes, that’s right. I backed my jinxed car into a BMW convertible at my new job on my third day of school. And it wasn’t just anyone’s gorgeous BMW convertible…it was an administrator’s gorgeous BMW convertible into which I just put a big ol’ dent and some lovely scratches. Did I back into the 1982 Ford Taurus that was behind the spot to the left of me? Did I back up and not hit anything like I would have if I would have been in the spot to the right? No. I so wish I was making this up. Thankfully, said administrator was just as wonderful as one could be seeing as I backed into her BMW CONVERTIBLE(!!!), and actually wished me luck in my new job. She insisted that the police officer not give me a ticket and that our insurance companies could just handle everything. Take that Officer Friendly.

I have a jinxed car. And what was going through my mind sitting in my jinxed car as the realization of my ridiculous predicament washed over me in sickening waves?

Of course that just happened.

When you’re sliding into first and you’re feelin’ something burst…

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 0 Comments

I have so much to write about, it’s not even funny. So this first post o’ the evening will be dedicated to the monolith that has been dominating my life for approximately 60 hours this week: School.

Last night was Parent Night, where I get to tell the parents Everything They Ever Wanted to Know About Second Grade, and Never Hesitated to Ask (About)*. My time limit was 30 minutes, and of course I took 34 minutes, and I CRAMMED. I never knew I could talk so much. Shout out to my classroom computer, for running iPhoto and Keynote without skipping a beat. Last year, the parents had a lot of questions. This year, nothing. I think they were as overwhelmed by the information as I was in giving it to them. I thought it went well, but who knows? I’m sure I’ll find out as we ease on down the road.

After surviving the first 2 and a half days of the year, I am walking around in state of catatonia , one thought running through my head…

“Where’s my honeymoon phase? Where’s my honeymoon phase? Where’s my honeymoon phase?”

A honeymoon phase for school means you can expect students to be on their best behavior for at least the beginning of the year, usually three weeks, before they feel comfortable enough to let their personalities (read: neuroses) out onto the playground and into the classroom.

Oh no. I got a day. One tiny little day before I was lied to, abandoned, and putting people on the wall for recess. People, it’s Day Three, not WEEK Three.

Today I had a student who went home for lunch (which they are allowed to do.) I didn’t think anything of it because the student was back in class after lunch, no problemo. My boss (you know, the PRINCIPAL) came in and called me over. I put James Brown in charge and went to talk to her. She told me the mother was quite suprised when her little cherub showed up at home for lunch, considering she didn’t know he was coming. Ouch. So this young pup now has to have a note from Mom any time he is supposed to *actually* go home for lunch. And then I put the student aside and HE LIED. Gentle readers, believe it or not, I really don’t get too upset with the little ‘uns, because they’re still learning. I have much less patience for grown-ups because I know that they should have had at least seven teachers that taught them right from wrong. I eventually got the true story from him, but then at recess I had to put him on the wall for throwing a ball at someone’s face, which he admitted to readily. So that happened.

This class is FULL of personality, and I truly enjoy them. Now I just need to work on how to channel it into something productive, instead of some of the destructive behaviors that I’m worried about. Again it’s only been 2 and a half days, so obviously I don’t know how it’s going to play out, and I don’t know enough about them. I just want to KNOW:

WHERE’S MY HONEYMOON PHASE?

* Don’t end sentences with prepositions.

Shout Outs

Tony| Category: General, Site-Based Management | 0 Comments

1) Shout out to Dev, who recently discovered that I have a blog/ebjournal. She’s now reading it daily, and is prodding me to write more. So my diarrhea of the mouth is her fault. Welcome, Dev! You can comment too, if ya feel like it.

2) Shout out to Sarah, Zigzag’s twin sister. (She got the brains AND the beauty.) I’ve added her link to the friends category, and if she continues to blog like her first post, she will become a must read everyday. (No pressure, Sarah )

3) Shout out to my bed, which I’m about to be sleeping in. You rock, Bed!

First Day Jitters

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 1 Comment

First Day Jitters is a picture book I have read on the first day of school each of the last six years. It’s cute because it turns out that the main character in the story (who doesn’t want to go to her new school) turns out to be the teacher, instead of student that the kids all thought she was. The story shows the students that even teachers get nervous when they start school.

Today I read First Day Jitters, and for the first time in six years, I didn’t have the jitters on the first day of school. I knew some of the kids coming in, I knew the school, so I was much more relaxed today. In fact, I was the most cheerful I have been in the last two weeks, because today was the day that I actually got to see kids! And edumacate them!

So, how did it go?

I think I got less than half done today of all the things I wanted to do. (daaaaaaaaaammmmmnnnn) We gathered on the carpet, played a web game with yarn (”What’s your name, what’s your favorite ice cream flavor?” Best Response–”Uh, anything with nuts in it.”), played a get-to-know-you game where the kids asked preset questions of each other, and we tried to organize our school supplies.

Tried.

Gentle readers, as much as this ebjournal is for you, it’s really more for me:

Dear Future Tony:
Remember how you wanted tables this year, and you tried to figure out where you would store all the school supplies? Yeah, you pretty much sucked at that as Past Tony. Next time, why don’t you actually LOOK at the school supply list and remember that you have pencil boxes that need a home.

Love,
Present Tony (Ricky)

Anyway, after a trip to Target, I think I solved the pencil box issue. Is my life cool that my biggest screw-up today was about a pencil box, or is my life that lame?

I have to rearrange my schedule tomorrow to pick up all the things that I missed doing today. No big deal. It will be interesting to see how well the students come back tomorrow.

And the kids? They are an interesting group. They are definitely a different crew than last year’s bunch, but I think that’s a good thing, because it’s going to to stretch me as a teacher. One of the boys admitted to me as I pulled him off to the side that he was nervous, and I told him that it was okay; I’ve been nervous too, and that tomorrow will be better. He smiled then, briefly, and then went back to being nervous.

Tomorrow, first full day of students, and then Curriculum Night for the parents, in which yours truly gets to give a thirty minute presentation to the parents of the children I’ll have had contact with for a day and a half. Talk about jitters…

To sum up (in the Dana Carvey/George H.W. Bush voice)– ready for kids tomorrow, jittery for parents tomorrow night.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any lower…

Tony| Category: General, Entertainment Tonight | 1 Comment

Okay, seriously?

What’s wrong with this picture?

NBC, in their desperate attempts to woo viewers away from such classics as “This Old House Redux: It’s an Even OLDER House!” and CBS’s Big Brother XL: Fat and Forty! (Please think about that last one… there, kinda funny, isn’t it?) has produced what I thought would be the SECOND WORST TV show in history.**

Tommy Lee Goes to College is not the second worst TV show in history. And here’s why: Even though they filmed it at Nebraska (say it together: “The N is for kNowledge), tonight’s episode featured the marching band. And any show that is desperately cool enough to put making the marching band in their show, well, that puts it at least above the fifth worst show***. Now I’M ready for college football. I don’t think I’m ready for alumni band.
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**The worst TV show in (in my opinion) goes to Bravo’s Blow Out. I think TLEMK is coming after me now. (She *likes* that show…)

***I don’t know what the other bottom four shows are. I’ve got to start school tomorrow.

:)

The Final Countdown

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 1 Comment

T-minus….

34 hours. This is until children walk in the door, the bright lights go, and I struggle mightily to remember my name. Showtime! I know I’ve been writing a lot lately about school, and that’s because, well, it’s all I’ve been doing. (We’ve had a lovely visit from V’s mother; more later.)

Today we kicked off the year as a whole district with a special presenter. Our guest speaker, Mawi, immigrated from Ethiopia when he was 7 years old, and grew up in District 200. He spoke about his struggles with acclimating to the first world. You can read more about his story here. I really appreciated him, because, as many of you know, I have two siblings who are from Ethiopia, and have had to go through a life change that I can’t even begin to imagine. So, I was happy to see the message, and a champion for ELL being brought into our district. (For what it’s worth, our district has 46 different languages being spoken!)

Anyway, this afternoon in the classroom, I discovered I am evolving into a real primary teacher. For the first time in six years, I made a door decoration for the beginning of the year. Please observe it below. What’s next? Cute baskets with stickers all over them? I shudder to think of what Hulk Hogan would say. He’d probably start by taking away my Man Card. And then he’d clothesline me.

Don’t know if I’ll get an update in the next 34 hours, so wish me luck. (At least do it mentally, you lazy bums.)

Please notice that I have blurred out the students names. I rock at Fireworks. (That should be followed by “Just Kidding.”)

‘Night.

Mmmm, pictures…

Tony| Category: General, Techie, not Geekie, Site-Based Management | 1 Comment

Between my new toy (the Panasonic digital camera; 5 nMP, 6x Optical zoom) and my new knowledge (Fireworks, and Dreamweaver), I’m working on developing a few pictures to show y’all. Please remember that I’m new at this. Be kind.

Also, I’m looking for suggestions for a hosting gallery. Flickr? What else is out there that’s good?

Anyhoo, here are some pics from my class. Click on the picture to enlarge ( I hope)

More from the classroom:
alt="More Tables" />

Here’s a bulletin board starter–students will fill in the blank spots:

And finally, something I’ll use in the future.. maybe it could be my logo…

Nothing but (Broken) Flowers (You got it, you got it)

Tony| Category: General, Music and Movies, Entertainment Tonight | 0 Comments

Good evening, gentle readers, and welcome back to A Night on the Town. Tonight, we visit the loverly northwest suburb of Schaumburg.

Schaumburg is home to approximately 4.3 billion restaurants, and 7 parking spots. Get there early for good parking!

The Lovely and Engaging Mrs. K. and I had a date tonight. Yes, we’re keeping Date Night alive so long after our wedding. (“2 years is NOT that long.” –TLEMK) Tonight we began our date at Shaw’s Crab House. Take note, loyal subscribers, that Shaw’s Crab House is good. Very good. TLEMK, who is allergic to crab (and only crab, not other exo-sketal creatures that live under the sea) had two pieces of Califoria maki tonight with Alaskan King Crab. Usually, after eating crab (by accident) she bolts for the bathroom and spends the next three hours worshipping the porcelain gods in a way usually only reserved for mixing tequila, beer, and white zinfindel. However, tonight, she only got mildly nauseous. We’ll keep working on developing the resistence. After consulting the Shedd Aquarium’s handy-dandy pocket brochure* on what fish is safe to order without harming the world’s population (Thanks, Christie!), TLEMK decided on the seared tuna, while I got wild Alaskan salmon. Both were delicious, and combined with my Knob Creek Manhattan, we both achieved a high level of satiety.

Moving right along, after dinner we walked around The Streets of Woodfield. (motto: “But we’re REALLY close to Woodfield, and we don’t have good parking either!.) Then we went to see the new Bill Murray flick Broken Flowers I could go into a long-winded review of the movie, and Lord knows I like wind, but I will keep it brief. Without giving anything away, Murray’s character is on a search for his son, who may or may not exist. If you’ve seen Lost in Translation, it is a similar character for the faux Illini fan (THAT’S a rant for another day), and he continues to show some really good acting chops. It’s a movie you should see, but not necessarily go to the theatre to see.

And that concluded Date Night. It was great. Tune in next week on A Night on the Town, when it’s my turn to pick.

*You can find a simliar brochure here. Please print it out and keep it with you. I will now go back to hugging trees. (So barky…)
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Good luck to all you teachers out there this weekend!

Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick TOCK

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 0 Comments

I love my job, I love my job, I love my job…

Words and music by queen and david bowie

Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure
That burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets

Bah bah bah bah bah bah
Bah bah bah bah bah bah

That’s o-kay!
It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming let me out!
Pray tomorrow takes me higher
Pressure on people
People on streets

Do do do bah bah bah bah
O-kay
Chippin’ around
Kick my brains round the floor
These are the days
It never rains but it pours
People on streets
People on streets

It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming let me out!
Pray tomorrow takes me higher higher higher
Pressure on people
People on streets
Turned away from it all
Like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don’t work
Keep coming up with love
But it’s so slashed and torn
Why why why?
Love love love love

Insanity laughs under pressure we’re cracking
Can’t we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can’t we give love that one more chance?
Why can’t we give love give love give love?
Give love give love give love give love give love?
Cause love’s such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care
For people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way
Of caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves under pressure
Under pressure pressure
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I don’t have the time to go in and psycho-analyze if the words really apply to my job right now, but the song is in my head and won’t go away.

The beginning of the year is hard.

Class Lists Posted

Tony| Category: General, School Daze | 3 Comments

(Cross-post ahead… enjoy the school update!)

Class lists were posted today. All the teachers got our class lists yesterday.

I will have 26 students this year, at least to start. I can handle it. They will be a good mix of students with very abilities and needs.

It’s go time. I’m nervous, excited, wound-up, and worried all at the same time. And we still have a week until the kids walk in the door.

It’s becoming real, as yesterday I created the following nomenclature identification devices: nametags for lunch count, nametags for supply pouch, nametags for the room helper chart, table nametags to hang over the six tables, and table nametags to put on the table. Plus name stickers for the students’ mailboxes. I also labeled their math books, with, you guessed it; their names.

Whew!

Today I learned how to make simple Flash animations, and worked with Fireworks, both through the Dreamweaver Studio software. Neither program really has a chance of making it into my classroom, but I enjoyed learning about it for my own personal knowledge. I’ll be able to use Fireworks for my class webpage, and well, now I can say I’ve designed some Flash stuff.

7 days. Tomorrow (Thursday) I’m in my classroom in the morning, and in the afternoon I get to learn how to design CSS, and maybe write a little PHP. Good times.

Arrrrr, ‘Tis Me Postal Booty!

Tony| Category: General, Random | 3 Comments

Stuck wrote a story about postage and getting stamps about a year ago on his website. I would link it, but I can’t find the story on his site… so, I just thought that I would mention that this story is much in the same vein.

Early this morning, much too early for normal people, I went to the USPS website to find out if I would be able to buy postcard stamps. (I’m sending out little greeting postcards to my kids to say “Hey! I’m the one with the facial hair…”) USPS said that the post office nearest my school opened at seven. Sweet, I thought, I’ll be able to get stamps at 8, and get to my teachnology class by 8:30. No problem, right?

I got to the post office at 8:00. I walk up to the door, and there, staring me in the face, is a LIE. The post office, it is not open. Oh sure, the drive-up windows are open, but the walk-in, talk to postal employees part of the building didn’t open until 8:30. So, I could get back in the car, or use the automatic stamp dispensing machines. I didn’t have any cash, just my debit card, so I didn’t want to deal with the drive up windows. I went inside to the lobby to investigate.

There are two machines in the lobby. One is a fancy, new computerized stamp machine that you can print out for packages. The other machine was the good ol’ vending machine that has a variety of stamps in it.

Focus: The computerized machine took credit cards, but did not have postcard-value stamps. The vending machine had postcard-value stamps, but did not take credit cards.

Gentle readers, it hurt my brain.

Quickly I calculated the cost effectiveness of sucking it up and buying 2 books of 37-cent stamp books (20 stamps in each book)=$14.80 vs. $2.30 for ten postcard stamps x 3 = $6.90 PLUS the fee for running across the street to the ATM ($3.50)= $10.40.

I headed for the ATM at the bank across the street. I walked up to the ATM, and it gave me the “Unable to Process the Transaction at this Time.” Twice.

Fine. I crossed the other street to the gas station, and got my cash. This has now turned into a ten-minute ordeal. I crossed the street again back to the post office, and slipped my crispy $20 into the vending machine, and got my three sets of postcard stamps, slapped them on the postcards, and went on my merry way.

Oh, one more thing.

Guess what happened when I was done? I got the $13.10 due back to me in change. Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting. Thirteen dollars in Sacajawea coins. I felt like a pirate with all me gold coins as booty. (arrrrrr…)I headed off to class with my postal booty, thinking about the fast food worker who would take my plunder at lunch time.

Good thing I wore my cargo shorts; normally, I don’t even cargo.

Quick Story o’ the Day #1…

Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Random | 0 Comments

Hello, gentle readers… I haven’t been here in a few days because it’s been busy. Like tech week for a play, this week in teacher-world is known as “bad ju-ju” week because we have so much to do. (Ok, I made that up, but the analogy thing was a good idea. I just suck at analogies.) I’m attending technology classes for the next two days to learn a little more about integrating technology into my classroom. The first class I attended today (and got paid for, woot!) was Intro to Flash. I now possess a basic understanding of Macromedia Flash, and am pretty sure it would be tremendously difficult to incoporate with mouse-click-happy second graders.

However, that is not the story, because that story is boring and useless.

The story today is that I found out there is at least one other teacher at my school who blogs on a regular basis, because the teacher person happened to be at the same class I was this morning, and happened to be logging into her account with a popular name. (Hi there, teacher person!) To be fair, I gave her my address. So now, I feel slightly less of the geek than I did before. But now this teacher will KNOW that I am a total nerd, which you crazy readers knew anyway.

Two more posts later today… (here’s the list, AJ): Arrrr, Me Postal Booty, and Mr. K. Gets a Class List.

Mmm, new category…

Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Site-Based Management | 0 Comments

For those of you teacher folk out there, or those curious to see what I’m doing with my grad school and professional development, I’ve added the Amazon links to the books I’ve been reading to learn myself in this crazy world of edu-ma-cation.

Enjoy.

Or don’t.

The View From Saturday (No, not the Konigsberg Version)

Tony| Category: General, Music and Movies, Entertainment Tonight | 2 Comments

Doesn’t school start soon? Yes, yes it does. So, what better way to finish off a pretty terrrific summer than by going to two concerts in one week? If you’ve been reading this (Hello, Arl Heights, whoever you are) you know that I recently attended the Ben Lee/Rufus Wainwright/Ben Folds Songwriterfest at Ravinia. Well, on Saturday, the Lovely and Engaging Mrs. K. and I went to see Coldplay at Alpine Vally Music Theatre, located in the heart of nowhere, Wisconsin. Instead of our usually tailgating before the concert, TLEMK and I decided that we would head to the Olson’s for a LOTR (Lord of the Rings, for those of you unfamiliar) Marathon. We made it through the first movie and a half before we left at 4:00.
Mapquest ™ said that it only should have taken us 90 minutes to get to Alpine from Chez Olson.

Mapquest Lies.

I knew that it was going to take longer than 90 minutes, but I figured two hours. We left at 4:00, and parked at 7:30.

Yes, three and a half (insert adjective here) hours to go 65 miles. Two main factors contributed to this length.
1) Rand Road (US RT 12) is torn up in the fancy-pants region of Deer Park/Lake Zurich. It took us about 30 minutes to get less than two miles.

2) Because of the snafu in Shopping Land, we ran into the dreaded parking traffic about a mile from our exit to the theatre. But oh no, it wasn’t just regular parking traffic; someone managed to get their car to break down, in the lane everyone needed to be in. (OF COURSE THAT JUST HAPPENED!). So, we waited for over an hour to get a mile down the road. Once the car was towed away, traffic started moving at it’s normal course. We parked very far away (bonus for later!) and headed to the lawn.

I had never been on the lawn at Alpine Valley. It was a fun experience. Thanks to insider information from Kenny, I knew where all the least-used bathrooms and concessions were, but alack! the spots where he said to sit were taken. So we sat the very top of the west hill, where we could gaze upon the masses, and still breathe easy.

Once we got settled in, the concert was great. Coldplay started at about 9. They sounded terrific, and played a good mix of their music. I’ve never been to an intimate band’s outdoor ampitheatre concert, so it was a little weird to try to feel groovy alt rock with 35,000 of my closest friends. The band did a nice job with their lights and themes, but I definitely felt a disconnect from what I was looking for. The night was beautiful, and beyond the too-earnest college kids trying to have deep meaningful conversations on the environement behind us, or the stumbling inebriated 19 year-olds, the crowd was great. However, covering Johnnie Cash’s Ring of Fire was a very nice touch.

Now, faithful readers, I’m about to tell you something. I really hope you don’t think any less of me, but since I like to be honest, I’m telling you this. And if you’re a good friend, you probably will chastise me thoroughly.

Because of the less-than-wonderful experience we decided to leave early. Yes, as the last song finished blaring, we left. No, not when the encore was done, when the last song of the set was done. We bolted for the parking lot, and along with other like-minded people, cruised out of Alpine without any sort of traffic worth mentioning. We made all the way back to Casa Del K in less than two hours, which is good time.

So, Saturday was a good day. Today is Laundry Day, and tomorrow officially starts full back-to-school mode, replete with organinzing books, and Tech Academies. Let the madness begin.