Apr 01
2007
Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine, School Daze, Entertainment Tonight, All about me, Home Improvement |
So.
Well, I finally made it back, 2.857142857142857 readers. The following post contains ramblings and a catch all for my life over the past three months. Suffice to say, it’s been busy. Without further ado, I give you possibly the most disconnected post written by a contributor to this site ever.
SO…Taguchi.
Baseball starts tonight. My fantasy team is drafted, Frank the Tank and Siberian Baseball have made their predictions, and it’s almost time to mow the lawn. My glove is in the trunk, screaming to be let out. Maybe now that we’ve settled into the house, I can think about playing for beer league or something. It would be a lot of fun to get involved on a softball team. For the record, I predict the Cubs will finish third in the NL Central behind the Brewers (1st) and then the Cardinals (2nd) and the Sox will finish second behind the Indians in the AL central. My fantasy team, is again, young, but filled with potential. Pitching will be a problem, but I have enough young outfielders that I’ll be able to make some good trades later in the year.
Sew…A wedding dress.
Two Fridays ago, I attended my brother-in-law’s bachelor party. Two important things were learned by yours truly that evening:
1) I can still bring it. I was up for twenty-five hours and still managed to drive myself home. (Pay no attention to the fact that I confined myself to the bed/couch for the rest of the afternoon/evening…)
2) Traveling with cops gets you a lot. (My bro and his best man are both newly-minted agents of good.) We did not pay a cover charge at any establishment we attended. That saved a lot of money that I was then able to funnel into Lou’s mouth in the form of shots. Good times.
A good portion of spring break was spent discussing gambling and partaking in small bits of it. Wednesday night I had the boys over for a poker game, since I’m apparently the only one able to organize these things, and I got my money back after getting lazy and not paying attention to Marc and his pocket bullets. C’est la vie.
I also did some gambling at Elgin’s finest boating establishment. It took 90 minutes, but I finally managed to lose only $40. It looks like the casino is not going to have $5 craps tables anymore, and since I’m not getting any richer, I had to adjust my strategy for the $10 tables. (Playing only the point, and placing the six/eight seems to be the way to slowly bleed my money instead of instantly losing it.)
This past Friday was the wedding. We now have one more member of our family. She seems like she’ll keep my brother-in-law focused, so that’s a good thing. Congrats to both of them. Seeing all of TLEMK’s family was also enjoyable. Her mother’s side is predictably fun and kooky, and her dad’s side is predictably Greek. You may interpret how you will– feel free to ask TLEMK and Dev to their re-enactment of V’s grandpa and friends having a discussion…
Sow…I reap what I sow.
As you know, we’re in month seven of the House Reclamation Project Which We Will NOT Call a Money Pit Just Yet Project. So far we’ve repainted the exterior (as in, hired someone) and have slowly redecorated it to match our tastes. It’s going slowly, but now that I’m done with grad school (see below) I have a little window in which I can learn to be a real man/homeowner/Mr. Fix It type. There’s a honey-do list about mile long on the fridge that we need to have done in time for the 67th annual McIntosh Family Reunion (appearing in mid-to-late July) which in a moment of insanity, we agreed to host.
Apparently, one thing that’s not on the list that will be added is this wonderful discovery we made over Spring Break:
We need a new roof.
We’ve got curling shingles, pitted shingles, shingles missing, and a lovely collection of pieces of asphalt sprinkling our back patio. We’re getting estimates this week, all the while I keep hoping and praying that it doesn’t rain too much, and that the wind will calm down. (Yeah, I know it’s spring… I just was hoping for a calmer spring.) I know it’s an investment, and I probably won’t have to get a new roof for another 15-20 years, but I was hoping to establish an emergency fund BEFORE we had to start using it.
So…that happened.
I am DONE with my master’s thesis and my classes. I’ve decided not to walk in the graduation ceremony because I don’t think I would be able to keep my mouth shut and would start spewing invectives directed and the entire University. I don’t think they would appreciate that. The last few weeks of my grad school experience was filled with a lot of nights of staring at the computer and going, “Where does this comma go? Should I write that? Should I use italics here? CRAP!” I am happy it’s over, and sadly, already thinking about my next stage of professional development. For those of you that had “ELL endorsement” you are the winner. We’ll see when that starts.
So… there you go.
I’ve had many different topics to write about, but they’re all half-formed ideas, so you got this rambling, gambling, and fambling post. It’s good to be back writing, but I expect the rust to continue for a few more weeks. Topics I didn’t even touch:
My STINKY brackets
Which is ballooning faster? My waistline or my self-defense mechanism? (’You don’t look that bad. Yet. Keep sucking it in.”)
Planning for Greece, planning for the reunion, planning for everything.
Why I allow television to rule my life. (If you don’t watch Friday Night Lights, please do so. NBC.com has all the episodes to watch for free, and Frank the Tank and the Chicago Tribune made an impassioned plea to bring it back next year. End commercial.)
More house crap.
Anyway, I’ll talk to you soon, Internet.
No, you say bye first.
No, you say bye.
Okay, I’m hanging up right now.
You didn’t hang up!
Bye.
(image courtesy of the Associated Press.)
Feb 10
2007
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Unfortunately Serious, In the Reflecting Pool |
Despite the looming thesis that takes up free moments in my life, I needed to take a moment to respond to this article. First and foremost, this article hits home because, 1) I’m a second-grade teacher, 2) I student taught at Thomas Paine (back in the day) and 3) I hate the fact that there are sickos out there that take advantage of children like that.
On a broader scale, there is something wrong with our investigative system when the alleged perv was dismissed from another school district for inappropriate behavior, but was able to find a job almost right away. I’m not a big-brother loving, Patriot Act, wire-tapping advocate, but I do think that if you send pictures of semi-nude actresses to CHILDREN, you should not be in teaching. Being a teacher means you need to get students to trust you and understand that you are on their side. When things like this happen, especially in the classroom, it makes that bond so much harder to establish. Because of things like this, there are several things I cannot and will not ever do as a teacher:
1) No student can ever be alone with me in a classroom, unless I’m standing in the doorway, with the door wide open. It’s also why I usually do any disciplining in the hallway, where others can see and hear, while keeping it private from the other students in the classroom. Female teachers rarely have to think about these things.
2) Kids that I teach are very affectionate; they’re young, they love school, and they want to show it. However, we give handshakes, fist-bumps, and high fives in my classroom. Hugs are a rarity, because I don’t initiate them. If a child (male, or female) offers me one, it’s always a side hug. Despite my emotional involvement with my students (6 hrs a day x 170 days= over a thousand hours with each child… wouldn’t you have some investment?), I will not be seen as overly-touchy, because it can come back to haunt you, no matter how innocuous it is. Female teachers, in contrast, have children hugging them all the time, and I’ve even seen teachers give children a kiss on the cheek on multiple occasions. Not that I would ever want to do that, but if another male teacher did, he would be strung up and kicked out faster than you can say ‘investigation.”
3) This makes things awfully hard to console an upset child. Whether it’s a scrape, an insult, or being sad about something else in their life, as a teacher, I’m supposed to be there for them. I’m sure I’m come off as cold sometimes because I have to keep my distance from students.
I hope the guy gets a huge sentence, and is never allowed near children for a long time, but I’m constantly aware of the fishbowl that male teachers live in.
Overall, it just makes me sad, and it makes my job harder. I’m in teaching because I care about children, and I will continue to make sure that I respect those children, whatever it takes, so that they can learn. I hope our education system does the same. If you’re interested in the rest of this saga, you can go here for the latest updates from the News-Gazette.
Jan 09
2007
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, In the Reflecting Pool |
(Well, that was a little over the top. Let’s try to stay focused, on message, shall we?)
(P.S. Stuck, stop reading now. Truuuuuuuust me.)
Staid, rock-steady, impermeable. When I think of the education system, I sometimes (90% of the time) worry that its traditions are what is keeping it from succeeding. Veteran teachers often refer to teaching as a cycle, or a pendulum, where basically the same ideas are bandied about and whoever is in control (textbook companies, presidents, evil IRA leaders) have the power to shift the curriculum to reflect their beliefs and pocketbooks. “Don’t like whole language? Don’t worry, phonics will be back soon enough.” In the last ten years, there has been some attempt towards balanced literacy, where multiple approaches are integrated into teaching reading and writing. Research is making its way into the classroom more as well. The National Institute of Health’s National Reading Panel, published in 1999, was a serious attempt by the government to look at what helps children learn to read. Based on evidence from research, it made some really great recommendations on how to get students to learn. Desafortunamente, it also lead to the No Child Left Behind Act. This mandate has lead to a more strict curriculum that doesn’t allow for nearly as much creativity and freedom of thought that most of the research says children need in order to flourish. The idea of systemic and explict instruction in reading development is important; most of the research points to that as an effective means of teaching children anything. Where NCLB and publishing companies miss is that they think everything has to be regimented and assessed in the same way. Too many teachers are staying to the prescribed curriculum, using pencil and paper, and not exploring other means of education.
Oh yes, I’m talking about technology. I consider the current district I’m teaching in to be fairly advanced in technology for the area. This means I have 3 computers in my room, two of which connect to the Internet. We have a very nice lab that we get to see for 60 minutes a week. But we are still treating computers like a novelty, like we did when I was coming up through the education system 20 years ago. Technology needs to be a tool, not a reward. On top of this, the computer incentive isn’t what it once was. Students aren’t nearly as motivated to do the same static games and projects on the computer that they once were because a large portion of them (in my middle-class district) have access to these same things at home or at the library, and have already been doing them for the last few years. In other words, we are not using technology that is readily available to its fullest potential, and it’s starting to drive me a little crazy.
So, where are we? Computers aren’t being used to their potential and students aren’t being taught new ways to learn about reading and writing. Kind of a depressing landscape. Until I started thinking about it.
Just because the teachers aren’t using technology doesn’t mean the students aren’t. MySpace is a great way for students to interact with each other, and allows their voice to be heard. (Naturally I mean for older students…I shudder to think of my kids looking at even 5% of what’s on MySpace pages) Even more importantly is how students’ voices are starting to be heard on the Internet. I was searching for the sequel to Eragon on Amazon the other day and came across the comments for the second book, Eldest. Not only did the commenters pan it, but it turns out that most of the critics were between 10 and 15 years of age. Verbose, intelligent 10-15 year olds who pretty much nailed the contents of the book. I would have loved that kind of forum as a student that age growing up, and probably would have even done that assignment willingly. (Note to Mrs. Zigzag– how about having kids acutally post reviews of books to places like Amazon? Feasible?) I realized that students are finding ways to communicate about their learning (both social and academic) that teachers are completely missing in their digital-alien/migrant mindset. What a powerful way to have your voice heard! It made me renew my determination to get technology into the classroom more. To be fair, I don’t think that I’ll be able to get students to write scathing rejoinders about The Cat in the Hat, but they will be able to do more blogging now than we currently are (we’ve got a whopping three posts and ten comments for the school year).
Next Tuesday (pending jury duty…), I will be attending a seminar on podcasting and blogging in the classroom. It’s being offered by the district, and makes me oh-so-happy to see that they’re finally moving towards more 2.0 ideas. Information literacy is here to stay, my friends. It’s time for teachers to start catching up and help students realize the potential. I hope that this is a sign that the district is going to realize how powerful a tool technology can be for the future. Teachers need to use the tools out there to help students become tech-saavy, instead of waiting to say no because it doesn’t fit into prescribed curricula. The students won’t wait for us, and it would be a shame for them to learn this stuff without us!
(On a side, side, side note, I am also putting together a class to teach this summer on information literacy. Using computers, I want students to be able to evaluate Web content, learn flexible searching strategies, and actually realize that the Internet is not the Gospel according to MySpace. Suggestions welcome on what I should cover for students learning to safely use the Internet!)
Nov 05
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
I didn’t ask for these powers, people.
In fact, when I worried about a trap game for the Bears, I still gave them the highest rank in my confidence pool. I sat Ronnie Brown, who hadn’t done anything, and was going against a very good Bears’ defense. (150+ rushing yards for RB.)
I should have trusted my suddenly sharply-honed football skills when it comes to Orange and Blue teams in Illinois.
Bears lost. Badly. At this point, they will lose at least one game of the 3 week East Coast swing, and quite possibly two.
On the other hand, the Illini held their own against THE OSU. If we can develop an offense in the next two games, we might actually win one of them. This was the most fun game I’ve gone to this year– the crowd cheered for a long time, and the defense is starting to come around. It almost made start thinking about buying season tickets for next season.
Stupid Bears.
Frank, will you ever doubt me again? 
Oct 30
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
Verbatim, in my classroom full of 7 and 8 year-old students:
Me: “So, what are you going to be for Halloween?”
Girl: “I’m going to be a sort of Drama Queen.”
Boy: “That won’t be very hard for you. You won’t even need a costume.”
How do you laugh and chide at the same time? Very carefully. The boy nailed it on the head. Can’t wait to see the costumes tomorrow.
Oct 15
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Unfortunately Serious, All about me |
Paul: “Ten years. What happened!?”
MARTIN: “I freaked out, joined the Army, worked for the government, and went into business for myself…. I’m a professional killer.”
PAUL: “Thank you.” ————————————————
Last night I wandered a little out of my comfort zone. All week I’ve been trying to decide if going to my high school reunion was a good idea. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed high school. I even had some people that I considered pretty good friends. As we all know, I’m terrible at keeping in touch with people and as a result, I’ve only spoken with maybe 8 or 9 people in the last ten years. I’ve only kept in real touch with ONE person from high school since I graduated college. I had no idea what to expect as we went to Joe’s Bar (on Weed St. downtown. Side note: I don’t mind having a reunion at a bar, but next time, how about one that we’re actually separated from the rest of the establishment, and one that could actually hold the 200+ people that were there? Just asking…)
Friday night: The Football Game
(second side note: As a reminder, I’m writing this for me, as a way to keep a record of what happened. It will probably be very boring for you, but it’s part of the continual catharsis of me.)
As Joe and I arrived at the game with his wife in tow, the first representative of the class of ‘96 was a gentleman who I thought was destined for the clock-tower-sniper route of fame. He’s still weird as hell, but he’s married and now has four kids. FOUR kids. I’m not sure he should have been allowed to spawn, but whatever. We went up to the alumni section to find no one there. Slowly people started to trickle in, and for the most part ignored us. I spoke with a guy I went to preschool with, but the rest of them (the decidely “jock” crowd, and people I didn’t really speak with back in the day) obviously had hung out with each other, and possibly had not even get past the golden years of high school. Eventually I ran into one of my best friends from high school, whom I hadn’t spoken with since his father died in ‘98. Turns out he has a wonderful 5 1/2 year old daughter, and is living within five miles of my house. He was pretty much the same, and was still hanging out with two guys from high school. At this point I was starting to feel like I was the only one that hadn’t kept in touch with anyone from high school because everyone seemed to know something about other people. Joe, Meg, and I left after the half-time show (the band looks better, but they’re smaller than they used to be) and had a delicious post-game meal at Red Robin. During dinner, Joe caught me up on the bando updates; who was doing what, and who I could expect to see in the near future. Again, he seemed to know a lot about what was going on. This left me trying to justify why I hadn’t kept in contact. Was it because I was in Champaign for 8 out of the ten years? Was it because I am a terrible person? Did anyone even notice I wasn’t around? Should I even care? I have good friends surrounding me now, to the point where I did not even know that I was possibly missing out on the people of my past. (And we ALL know how much I hate missing stuff) So Friday night made me even more confused than I really wanted to be.
Saturday night: The Reunion
Ever the Type-A, TLEMK and I managed to make it to the bar ten minutes before the reunion even started. Again, this made it so there was nobody there that I either knew or wanted to engage in a conversation.
(Side note #3:TLEMK was a godsend all night and she looked stunning.For this I owe her big time.)
Frantically texting Joe to hurry up, V and I got our open bar drinks quickly, and sat around looking at people. (The open bar was pretty crappy as well… I know we could have done better.) When Joe arrived, we grabbed a booth in the corner, and chatted for a while. I talked to a few random people and continued to drink. Because I’m fidgety, I went to make a circuit of the room and within 30 seconds of leaving my seat I found a bando friend and her husband, who, as it turns out, has been in grad school with V all summer. So now TLEMK has two people that she can talk to throughout the evening, without having to face a lot of the pressure to make small talk with inebriated strangers who she’ll most likely never see again. For both of us, it was the best of both worlds. People who wanted to meet V were led back to the table; everyone else I just chatted with for a few minutes and moved on. I went back to check in on TLEMK constantly, making sure that she was okay too. I probably spoke with close to 40 people that evening and all of them were a fantastic combination of familiar and unfamiliar. I like to claim my memory is great, but there were a lot of people I hadn’t thought about in ten years, and many of my high school memories have disappeared. (They’ve been replaced with things like the main characters’ names in High School Musical and the features of Tickle-Me-Elmo-Xtreme. I also blame alcohol.)
Saturday night observations:
1) This fairly conservative group of kids definitely have let their hair down in the last ten years. Our school was never considered a party school, especially compared to the stories I hear from my college friends.
2) I’m so happy I’m not as bald as many of the men in my class. I always think I wouldn’t care if I started going bald but then I realize that I assume this would happen in my thirties or early forties. Not when I’m 25. Yes, it sounds vain. Oh well. TLEMK asked me if we looked that old, and I told her that I didn’t think so. There were definitely some signs that some of the more popular crowd had been partying a little too hard in the past few years.
3)I got my speech about who I was, what I’d been doing, and my standard questions to ask down pat within the first four people I encountered.
4) Our class had some really smart people in it. I in no way feel like a failure in my chosen profession, but when I hear how people are out there, it’s really amazing. We have an Oscar-nominated director, a person who writes articles for The Wall Street Journal, a manager of project managers for Caterpillar, at least two doctors (one working at the Mayo Clinic, another a ophthamologist), engineers, and consultants up the wazoo. That was just the women that I spoke to in two hours. Who knows what I missed? There were also a lot of teachers in the group– I spoke with at least ten people that were somehow involved in education. Amazing.
5) MANY, MANY more people were married than I thought they would be. Then again, they might have been thinking the same things about me. It was so fascinating to hear about how peoples’ lives have developed.
6) Along with numbers four and five, it turns out that a lot of our class were late bloomers. It also seemed to me that everyone in high school (at least in my social class of nerdy/prep/not-popular group) must have dealt with a lot of the same baggage. If I had known that then, maybe I wouldn’t have insulated myself so much.
Overall, it was a good thing that I went. I don’t know what will come of it. I would like to think that the phone numbers and email addresses I got will make a difference, and that I’ll reconnect with people, but the truth is, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll wait for another ten years, or if my life is at a point where I want to explore making connections with people that saw a different side of me than my current friends.
I know Frank the Tank is going to his reunion this weekend, but since EVERYONE knows Frank, I’m sure his experience will be great. I’m not sure what my experience was yet, but thanks for listening, Internet. What do you think? Are you planning on going to your reunion/did you go to your reunion? How did you feel about it?
The next post will return to light-hearted commentary on the potential of this year’s batch of awesome second graders.
Jul 27
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
It’s started.
The nightmares about school have begun! Usually they’re about me not being prepared to teach my class, and my cooperating teacher comes in to yell at me. During the overnight between Wednesday and Thursday this week, I had one of the school nightmares where I’m running late for work. This time I couldn’t get the car started, and every time I looked up, I was in a different place. I had 15 minutes to get to school.
As some of the loyal 11.2 readers may know, every year I go through the dreaded approach to school. This year is particularly precious because a) we’re moving in mid-august, b) I’m doing grad school, and c) I can’t get into my classroom.
Tradiitionally, the first week of August I am back in my room getting things ready to go for the highly anticipated students coming into class and being forever scarred from me laughing at them when they say “I’m done!” This year, we had summer school in our building, which prevented the custodial crew from going in and cleaning the room until late last week. So all of my stuff has been packed, and had to stay packed. Our school is also replacing the carpet in the hallway with tile (an acoustical nightmare, to say the least) and so I can’t get into my room anyway. At the end of the school year, the principal said “You may not be able to get into your room until August 15th.” I laughed. (and then I peed myself a little.)
If you promise not to tell anyone, dear Internet, I’ll share a secret with you. On Monday, I “snuck” into my classroom (the hallway floors are down to the concrete, but the tile hasn’t been laid) and grabbed the materials I needed in order to plan the first few weeks of school. I got a little reamed by the head custodian, but he didn’t tell me he couldn’t, just that he would rat me out if anything was wrong with the floor.
So now I have my materials, my shiny new lesson plan book, and my nightmares. And it’s only July 27th! Woo! Let the countdown begin!
Jun 15
2006
Tony| Category: General, Sports and Wine, School Daze, Entertainment Tonight, All about me |
Yes.
Since last Wednesday, the official last day of the school, it’s been a whirlwind. Here’s what I’ve done in the last eight days (in order)
Wednesday (the 7th): Finished school. Tried really hard not to cry. Blamed pheremones of female teachers and dust as I told the kids that I would miss them. Went to Weber Grill with the staff, enjoyed whiskey. Travelled to beautiful Bellwood, Illinois, avoided getting shot, and picked up my RoboCop moon boot for my ankle, 3 1/2 weeks after I sprained my ankle. I love the HMO system.
Thursday: Started the day with an MRI. Nothing says “Happy Vacation!” like waking up at the same time and torquing your ankle to hold it in a painful position for 50 minutes. For the record, MRI’s don’t bother me. Not finding anything out (more on this later) does. Went back and finished cleaning up/hiding my mess in my classroom so that summer school could move in. Then me, TLEMK, Frank the Tank, and Mrs. Frank the Tank went to the Sox game. My first game in twelve years, and naturally, they lost. I was the big winner, because it was dollar dog night. Those poor hog anuses never had a chance. We stayed downtown with Dev and C (shout out!) in their lovely apt.
Friday: Dev and C left for work, so V and I walked up to the Mexican restaurant for lunch ( I had a jumbo margarita– nothing like zero to buzzed in ten minutes!) Limped back to the apt., and then met the Zigzags in the theatre district for the Flecktones concert. The concert was good, as usual. This was the fourth time I’ve seen them, and the second time with such a mixed crowd of hippies and season-ticket holders of the Chicago Theatre. I did get a decent photo:
but nothing on the inside. I got sleepy in the second act, but that’s okay.
Saturday: Went to TLEMK’s uncle’s wedding. Sounds weird, but he’s only a few years older than us. Got to see some of V’s family (”Is that Aunt Tess, or Aunt Bess?”) and meet some of V’s cousins from out of state. They thought I was funny. Or a funny drunk. One of the two. Regardless, I already posted my picture of my pyramid of Jacks and Cokes. I also managed to get my future sister-in-law to play the “Match Tony drink-for-drink game” which never ends well, right Kenny? I had a good time at the wedding.
Sunday: Woke up slowly. We went to the after wedding brunch, and then stopped by my parents house to say hi. That evening we invited the Zigzags over for Sweet Tomatoes because we are paying them to be our friends. It’s nice to have paid for friends.
Monday: Grad school started. This class is boring, and easy. We spent our evening finishing the first (and only) season of Firefly, and two more Band of Brothers episodes.
Tuesday: Grad school, started packing, went to see The DaVinci Code. I’m glad I didn’t reread the book, because I knew most of the things that were going to happen in the movie, despite not remembering many of the details of the book.
Wednesday: Grad school, and then to the airport. I did much better with flying this time, friends. Despite the fact that there was no in-flight movie, or a place to plug-in headphones, my step-father-in-law found out which seats had the DC power outlet, so I got to watch the first disc of the first season of House. Nothing distracts you from fatalistic grimness at 32,000 feet like a morbid jackass doctor. I loved it, and it really helped me during the flight. Because, as we all know, I do not do well with flying.
We made it safely to LAX, and got our luggage quickly. We were in Ventura by 12:45am zulu, making it 2:45 in Chi-town. Long day.
Thursday: Got up fairly early, because day 1 of the Cali Trip is wine-tasting day! I’m not a big wine-drinker, but I enjoyed going to the different wineries to taste the wines. I’ve decided there is a very simple system for determining whether or not I like wines: I say “Like it” if I didn’t want to vomit, and “Didn’t like it” if I did want to vomit. Thankfully, I enjoyed most of the wines we tried today. We went to four vinyards, and did three tastings. We also went to a brewery to do a beer sampler flight (they were realllllllly good). I learned that I don’t like hanging out with people who are obsessed with wine (like the people that we saw at the wineries) but that I do like wine more than I thought.
The weather here in California is gorgeous. I totally get why people want to live here.
I also took some pictures today. I’m trying really hard to keep a photo record of this trip, and I put them on my flickr page. (See the Cali Trip set) The more I play with my camera, the more I’m impressed with the pics it takes. For a point-and-shoot, it does a pretty nice job. As you can see, I’ve been working on the macro setting, and looking at lighting.
Tomorrow is Hollywood. We’re going to hit the streets and look for stars. Or at least Lindsay Lohan (skank).
So that’s what I’ve been doing in the last eight days. Now I’m sleepy.
Jun 04
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Unfortunately Serious, Random, All about me |
Friends, I’ve had a lot of time to sit lately. Instead of eating, my usual favorite sitting activity, I’ve been thinking. Since my ankle is NOT cooperating, and still refuses to allow me to walk sans crutches, I am stuck in places that require thinking on my part.
So I’ve been thinking. (Unusual, isn’t it…)
TK’s things he’s done thought about recently:
School:
It’s the end of the year. I’ve spent a good portion of the last few weeks getting my students ready to leave me and second grade behind. This is going to sound incredibly lame, but it’s my ebjournal, so deal with it. I feel like when the kids leave my room, their time of innocence at school is rapidly coming to an end. Next year, they’re in third grade, and they begin the harsh transition into letter grades, reading to learn (which we’re doing in our class, but ever so gently) instead of learning to read, and standardized testing that gets all teachers more uptight than anyone should be. They get to experience all sorts of fun new learning, and somewhere down the road they will remember all of three things I taught them; the rainforest, the Washington D.C. monuments, and maybe “Don’t panic.” So the end of the year tends to be a little depressing for me. In August, I’ll be psyched for my new group of students, but for now, June is bittersweet.
On Friday, as I was thinking about all of this, I was suprised and delighted to receive a letter from one of my former students. She was in my class last year, but moved in the middle of the year. It was a sort of vindication, that yes, I am making a difference in some students’ lives, even if they don’t realize it at the time. (And really, how could they, with most of the focus of their thinking centered around cooties vaccinations, Ice Age 2, and birthday parties?) Tomorrow night is my first Poetry Night, and we are nowhere near ready, but one parent told me on Friday that the kids are excited, and that her daughter has been practicing her poems at home. I didn’t even tell them to do that! Awesome.
Family:
We’ve been having family issues lately. Not end of the world issues, just things that kick around in my head, and I feel like I need to think about it. However, this is not the forum for it. (Hi, family!) But I’ve been thinking about all of our different families, and how we fit into them.
Television:
There is a lot of good television and movies out there. TLEMK and I are at the point of the year that we get to watch a season of a show, because all the regular shows are done for the summer. For instance, back at my birthday time, Stuck gave me the season of Firefly. After watching Serenity, it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However, I’m miffed because there was only one season of it. HBO finally put Deadwood season two OnDemand, so we caught up on that last weekend in anticipation of season three, which starts June 11th. Though it’s by far the filthiest show I’ve ever watched, it’s one of the most fascinating and well-written shows out there. Finally, we’ve been watching Band of Brothers, the HBO docudrama that was made a few years ago on the first paratroopers of WWII. I read the book about 4 or 5 years ago, and I didn’t remember that much from it. The series has been excellent, and makes me glad I’ve never had to go to war. (See, Zigzags? I can be cultured, too!)
However, all of these had relatively short lives. Firefly has ONE season, because it was on Fox. HBO has already announced that Deadwood is done after season three, because they need the director on Rome. Obviously, Band of Brothers was short (well, actually, about 10 hours for a documentary). The point is, the smart television I like gets cancelled. Thankfully, Veronica Mars will be back next year for a third season, only after serious efforts to keep it on the CW. The CW, you ask? The merged network of UPN, and the WB. The people that are bringing 7th Heaven,(for it’s billionth season!) even though they finished the series on the WB, and instead cancelled Everwood. I fear for the future of television.
Misc.
I’ve been thinking about baseball, grad school, and moving, pretty much in that order. My fantasy team sucks, but I’m holding on to the fact that they might be second half players. Grad school picks up three days a week (5 hours a day, plus commute) starting June 12th. And we’re moving, hopefully in mid-July. TLEMK has started packing, and I feel terrible that I can’t help her. IF I get my boot soon, that should make things get back to the normal balanced team that we are usually. For now, she’s the best for doing all the stuff I can’t.
Coming up this week:
Mon.-Poetry Night
Tues.– Half-day, pack up the classroom, finally get my castboot/camwalker?
Wed.- Last day of school
Thurs.– MRI, Sox game
Fri.– Flecktones!
Sat.– Wedding
Sun.– Old friends?
Mon.– Grad school starts. Yikes.
So that’s the tip of what I’ve been thinking about. Lots of wheels churning. Very irregular and unusual. Kinda scary!
Better go back to eating.
(Edit: What are YOU thinking about? Check out the new poll!)
May 29
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, All about me |
Hello gentle 7.2857142857 readers. You would think with all this time off of my feet that I would have extra time to charm you with my wittcisms and crafty turns of phrases. Not so. If nothing, I feel like my time at school is busier, and my time at home has been more brief.
Since I last checked in, a few things have happened, and a few things have not happpend. I finished my last full week of school with the students, and decided that we should have a Poetry Night. This night will entail the students practicing, and reciting poems that we have done this year in class. Each student is working in pairs or groups, and are responsible for participating in three different recitations of poems. Most of the poems are silly and funny. The students are still working out their voice and fluency (which is the whole point), and developing motions for their poem. They love working on the motions. They’re still working on the voice. Currently I have 25/26 students signed up to come– which leaves just one more family to convince! WOOOOT.
Grad school is up and running again. This latest course is on leadership and professional development. It’s a really good class, but only lasts for three sessions. The professor is used to four sessions, so she’s crammed all the work into three. At the end of the year, when I’m trying to do progress reports and clean my room out. So that’s been busy. We start 3x a week on Monday, June 12. Can’t wait.
Since I’ve been back to school, I’ve visited the teachers’ lounge exactly three times. This is a good thing, because it means I’m avoiding snacks. Why haven’t I gone to the teachers’ lounge?
Because I’m still on the &^%$#@! crutches.
Went to the doctor a week ago Friday, he said “Wow, it’s still swollen. Come back in a week.” Not wanting to miss more school, I asked him if he had weekend hours. He told me that Saturdays were open by invitation only. Having secured said invitation, I was feeling good about myself because I wasn’t going to miss more school for the doctor.
Mistake.
Why? Because apparently the doctor thought I would be off the crutches by then, and that I would be hobbling around. He, was wrong. Yes, the ankle is better, but I still can’t walk on it. The best I’m doing right now is standing on it, with partial weight on it.
When I got to the doctor on Saturday (two days ago) he was surprised at how swollen it still was, and how I couldn’t walk on it yet. And then he told me something I should have realized a week ago. “You need to go to the orthopedic specialist. You’re going to need rehab and physical therapy. Wow, I didn’t realize it was that bad!”
He gave me the referral for the orthopedics. Being Saturday, I took a shot in the dark that they *might* be open. Nope. I also tried to call the place that did my X-rays, thinking they might be open. Nope.
Of course they’re closed on Memorial Day (today) so the earliest I can even call them to schedule is tomorrow, and unless Serendipidity intervenes, I’m going to have to miss school sometime this week so the orthopedics guys can say to me, “Wow, you really messed up your ankle. You’re going to need a boot. And probably rehab.” Thanks guys, you’re swell. I hope that they can give me the boot ASAP, because I’m tired of being on MF crutches.
So by trying to avoid missing school, I end up at least four days behind getting in to see the specialist, and getting off the &^%$#@! crutches, and will probably have to miss part of at least one day of school, when we only have four full days left.
Also? I have to have my room cleaned up and ready for the summer school teacher to move in by Friday. School is done Wednesday, Friday I have to be ready. It usually takes me a week to clean up. This year, I have a day. Really looking forward to this.
So it’s busy around here, and I’m stuck in second gear. Good times.
More updates to follow in a more timely manner. In the meantime, vote on the new poll!
May 16
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
Check out Siberia Minn’s Article on teachers today. Thanks for the props. I’ll be at $75K in about… 15 more years. I do have to say that there were more than a few Friday mornings of my first few years of teaching where we had more “quiet time” than usual, especially after closing the White Horse the night before. However, having made it past the first five year mark, I think I’ll make it to ten, where I’ve heard that another 50% drop out of teaching, leaving only 25% of an original graduating class left.
However, I’m feeling quite appreciated, as last week was Teacher Appreciation Week. This year, instead of the basket of goodies for each individual teacher, the PTA refurbished our kitchen with new utensils, and a mini-convection oven. The kids did something nice for us everyday, including bringing in flowers, and last Thursday, bringing in our favorite candy (which I said was Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups). I now have approximately 5 lbs. of peanut-buttery goodness residing in my freezer, and just about every kind of Cup ever produced, including white chocolate, carmel, and extra crunchy peanut butter cups. The PTA also provided breakfast for us on Thursday, and I’m still full. Parents can seriously cook at this school.
As far as out-of-pocket expenses go, I’m usually at about $600 a year, $250 of which I used to be able to claim on my federal taxes, but that’s been taken away for the 2006 year and beyond.
In the future (nice and vague…) expect a 5,000 word essay on the state of education and my limited views. Until then, go thank a teacher. You’ll be surprised how many of them remember you fondly.
May 01
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
(warning: Stuck: It’s long.)
You may have noticed a gathering taking place in Chicago. Planned for months, demonstrations, exhibits of free speech, and camaraderie for the fellow human took center stage here in downtown Chicago.
The immigrant workers’ march?
No, the International Reading Association Annual World Convention.
The 51st Annual Convention, to be exact. You see, gentle readers, I am a lucky dog. This year I am participating on our district’s literacy framework committee, a group of overzealous teachers who are interested in the future of how reading is going to be taught in the district. Adoption is still three academic years; this group is focusing solely on the philosophy of what should be taught. Because of this, I heard about the IRA annual convention early, and asked my principal if I could go. She said yes. So here I am, between sessions, relating to you the innerworkings of these fancy conventions.
I started out my day at McCormick Place, or as we in Chicago like to call it- “McCormick Place—Hey, we still have conventions! Ignore our hotel and convention taxes, and come here! To McCormick Place!” I was greeted by a throng of humanity— at least 5,000 people, 85-90% of them angry women. Why were they angry? The line. Most of us had pre-registered—we just needed to pick up our ultra-spiffy lanyard to mark us to the pickpockets as a rube/out of towner/lost tourist. Lord, the line. It wound around most of the exhibit hall— horror stories of teachers waiting in line for two hours, just so they could be stamped and allowed in the door. Thankfully, I overheard one of the only people directing human traffic say, “You don’t need your lanyard to go into the general session,” which was the only reason I would have stood in line. This was the first of my good fortune of the day.
The next piece of good fortune came when I walked in the huge exhibit room where the opening address was taking place. Ten people after me, they closed the door—it was full. Who are the first people I see? Three administrators from the district, and they have an extra seat in the second row! Of course, since I’m friendly (I’m not always snarky—you should see me at school…) they offered me the extra seat. I made it in time for both the IRA president (who said teachers rock) and Jonathon Kozol (who also said teachers rock, and made me feel bad for teaching in suburbia). I ducked out of Kozol early, and found the line (yes, another one) for the shuttle bus. On the way, I ran into another teacher in my district. She’s only here for the day, so she was VERY angry about the lines. As I’m standing in the bus line, I hear a voice call out my name. I turn around and see a teacher I used to work with in Champaign! Crazy, considering all the people. She joins me on the bus, and we chitchat about our changes in life. I get to the Palmer House, where my next seminar is, and find the pre-registration line, with all of four people in it. I pick up my lanyard/homing device, and head into a symposia on responding critically to literature. Seven presenters in under three hours. It was a whirlwind. Another boon granted upon me by the teacher gods- the meeting room had wireless, so I was able to look up the websites the presenters gave in real time, a good use of technology. Unfortunately, my laptop died after two hours, and I was unable to reconnect to the web because the user/pw I used to get on expired (or the Palmer House figured out I was “using” their wireless connection). So here I am, writing to you, because Past Me thought ahead to plan both sessions in the same room. I should have brought a book. Instead, I wrote one for you today.
My next session is entitled: Designing Reading Lessons for Diverse Learners. I hope it doesn’t suck. More updates soon!
Mar 05
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Chomping on Books |
For my birthday, Mom and Jerry got me a book I requested off of my Amazon wishlist. (They also got me a kick-booty article of clothing that will make its debut this fall.) Entitled Teacher Man, it is a memoir of one English teacher’s struggle to edumacate the masses, from the poorest of the poor, to New York’s elite. Covering nearly 30 years of teaching in the public school, Frank McCourt pulls you into his classroom by discussing the fears we all have as teachers. Did I mention the fella won a Pulitzer Prize for writing Angela’s Ashes? Though many of the struggles McCourt faced as a teacher are not the same challenges I have had, his questions, his self-doubt, and his demeanor all struck deep chords in me. I’m not sure it was an excellent book, but I did enjoy it. It was difficult for me to understand all of his situations, with me being an elementary teacher in a much different area and era, but I think a lot of his anecdotes are universal. I am especially recommending this book to Mrs. Zigzag, (Mrs. PhiBetaKappa Peterson…); I think she’ll enjoy it.(You can even borrow my copy!) For the rest of you looking to read something a little different, it’s a quick read. Pick it up, read it, and then go hug a teacher.
Feb 28
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
The second grade show comes every year at the end of February, and every year I promise myself I won’t get too attached. But it’s these kinds of productions that make me proud and happy to be in my profession.
Daaaaaammmnnn those little cherubs for sucking me in. This year, the second grade proudly offered “Bugz.” I’m not exactly sure what the show was about, because the kids were so freakin’ adorable.
This is not a walk-on stage, sing three songs, bow, and walk off. Friends, this is a full-on, only slightly-off Broadway production involving costume changes, full lights, and yes, jazz hands, jazz legs, and jazz tentacles. This that the last three weeks have involved extra rehearsals where the music teacher steals my children for 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Suddenly, the last two weeks of February have passed, and I don’t remember the last time I taught social studies. (Just kidding, I never teach social studies. Wait, I mean I always teach social studies, as in I almost have a minor in it.)
The “story” revolved around all the insects working on getting to the picnic, making puns, and ignoring the stink bug. Eventually, of course, they accept the stink bug for who he is, blah, blah, blah, all learn a lesson, and get to eat lots of food. The highlights included:
1)Glitter. Dear God, the glitter. The butterfly costumes were made out of cheap plastic picnic table covers, and then doused with Elmer’s glue. Here’s a Martha tip for all y’all: GLUE DOESN’T STICK TO CHEAP PLASTIC PICNIC TABLE COVERS. But when you don’t check to see if the glue sticks, you can’t possibly know that. When the butterflies and ladybugs put their costumes on (IN MY CLASSROOM) the glitter did mot make it to the stage. It stayed on my floor, where I am still finding pieces, a week later.
2) The fireflies brought flashlights, and during their song, they walked around the audience, singing. Me heart done melted.
3) The ladybug tune, in which the ladybugs teach everyone manners, and the entire crew sings a squared-out version of “She’s a Lady”, complete with shimmies and girl-like moves for everyone.
4) Yes, the songs were cheesy, but dear Lord, when the butterflies took off their second layer of costume (white garbage bags) during their “Things Change” number and unfurled their wings, well, golly gosh, I’m not ashamed to admit there was a lot of dust in my eyes.
I would post pictures, but that’s illegal without permission. This show kicked last year’s butt, and the kids worked hard and did a terrific job. Being a big proponent of multiple intelligence theory, the musical allowed students who don’t always shine academically a chance to demonstrate that their are other ways to be involved and contribute to developing our community of learning (Gag if you must, but I believe in that crap.)
Next up, a discussion of subtraction with regrouping.
Feb 24
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Entertainment Tonight |
Enjoy this pic… we were rocking out tonight!
Also, here’s the postcard that was referenced here :
Good times.
Feb 22
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
A quick story:
In my classroom, we are a community. We work together, have fun together, and learn together. As a communtiy, we all have jobs. My job is to help students learn, to give them band-aids, and to be surly at them when they don’t realize how smart they really are. The students’ jobs are to work hard, ask questions, and do their best. To foster the sense of community, instead of me passing out papers, sharpening pencils, sorting papers, etc., the students get to have jobs in the classroom. We have have approximately 18 jobs in the room, including 2 alternates for when students are absent or out of the room. Howver, since I couldn’t think up any more jobs (”Uh… you’re in charge of turning off the lights…”) there are around 8 students during any given time that do not have any jobs. We say in the classroom that they are on vacation, and the running joke is that they should send postcards, and relax. Every once in a while, a student tells me that they’re enjoying their vacation, and I’ve even had students that make fake post cards at home and bring in to share. It’s all in good fun, all in the name of building community.
At the end of the day today. I go to my mailbox in the office and I see a polar bear postcard sitting with the rest of my teacher crud. I turn in over, and yes, it’s a real postcard. That got sent in the mail at the beginning of the week. It read “Dear Mr. K. I am having a lot of fun on my vacation. I can’t wait to get my next job. From,
‘Bob’.”
Seriously? The kid sent me a real postcard! Made my day, made my week, might’ve even made my month, because it shows that at least ONE student is buying into the community idea, and enjoying themselves. I can’t wait to share it with the rest of the class tomorrow. I’m still chuckling over it.
I heart teaching.
Feb 01
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, All about me |
I’m here, mostly coporeal. After being sick this weekend, having two big projects in my grad class, trying to be a good teacher, and OH YEAH, my stupid thesis to work on, it’s a miracle that I’m ambulatory. Things slowed down just a piece tonight, so I thought I’d get you caught up on the wonderful world of blech that has been the last week or so.
It’s cold and flu season in my classroom. Let’s kick things off! Friday morning, minding my own business in reading groups, desperately clinging to the idea that I’m accomplishing things, my subconscious hears the unfortunately-too-familiar splash (yet it fails to register with my brain, because I can’t be distracted where Nate the Great is concerned), and the accompanying “Mr. Kaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy…” and then more urgently “MR. K!!!!” I look up to see one of my young ladies holding her hand over her mouth staring at me.
“Do you have a nose bleed? Do you need a tissue?”
And then everything clicked.
Oh Lord, we got a puker!
“Go! Go! Go! To the bathroom! NOW!”
I look over to the girl’s table, and (WARNING, gross details coming! You’ve been warned!) I see a nice combination of what looks like cottage cheese swimming in melted red Jello, all over one of my books. Thankfully, nothing got on the carpet, lest I have to deal with the DC-10. I quickly let my Blood Borne Pathogen training take over (snark), grabbed my latex gloves, and started the Clean-Up Procedure, leaving my poor reading group left to discuss the merits of Nate the Great’s fascination with pancakes. (Seriously, I was going for the obscure Dennis Miller reference there, and if you got it, YOU are laughing like no one’s watching right now. Damn, I did it again.)
So I cleaned it up and didn’t think much else of it. Went and checked on the girl, sent her home, and went back to business as usual.
And then I woke up Saturday morning. Someday, I’ll go into the battle of “To Puke or Not to Puke,” but I’ve been gross enough for today. Waves of nausea started within the hour, and choosing to work out? Bad idea jeans. I came back to the apartment, and got ready to go work on my case study. Despite the roiling in my stomach, I chose the “Not to Puke” route and that made all the difference.
Saturday was not the most fun I’ve ever had. At least the Illini won, and I got to go to my nephew’s birthday party.
Hint for all you iron-men and women. I don’t care how tough you think you are, if you’re nauseous, and running a fever, DON’T go out for sushi. It’s just not a good time. I learned that the hard way Saturday night. Special props to the Zigzags for putting up with me on Saturday night. Oh, and the Pepto is still in your truck.
In other news, my new class website is almost up and running, and should be rolled out soon. Instead of Dreamweaver, we’re now using RapidWeaver, which is very nice for people who don’t want to take the time to develop all the plugins. Too bad it’s Mac only… it’s a great little piece of software.
Super Bowl this weekend: I’m taking the Steelers to win and cover. We’re on a Bus with no brakes! (beep, beep.)
Miss you, Internet. Hopefully I’ll talk to you soon!
Jan 26
2006
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Random, Chomping on Books |
Kenny and I started having conversation #72– good poems. Stop snickering, I’m a man, I like poems. MANLY poems. Here are the two we’re discussing:
For Once, Then, Something
Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs
Always wrong to the light, so never seeing
Deeper down in the well than where the water
Gives me back in a shining surface picture
My myself in the summer heaven, godlike
Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.
Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb,
I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture,
Through the picture, a something white, uncertain,
Something more of the depths-and then I lost it.
Water came to rebuke the too clear water.
One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple
Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom,
Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness?
Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.
~Robert Frost
And…
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,
If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!
< ~Rudyard Kipling
And just for fun, here are two “grown-up” poems that I’ve done with my kids… we used the visualizing strategy with them, and the kids did a nice job with making mental images:
The Dream Keeper
Bring me your dreams, you dreamers
Bring me all of your heart melodies
That I may wrap them in a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers off the world.
~Langston Hughes
And…
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it’s queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Robert Frost
Good stuff, one and all. Hope you enjoyed this fake, long post. I know I did!
Dec 22
2005
Tony| Category: General, School Daze |
In continuing with my famous “Blah” segment, here are somethings that some female teachers should learn, when dealing with male teachers in your building.
1. I am not trying to hit on you, no matter how attractive you may be. I am simply being friendly. Contrary to When Harry Met Sally, boys and girls can be friends. And since it’s hard to make friends when you’re the only one who understands the complexities of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, just believe that I am simply reaching out, and interested in how the other 95% lives.
2. Please do not stereotype me as “the male”, and extrapolate your husband’s/S.O’s poor quirks on me. Just because they don’t cook, doesn’t me I don’t. It just means you should have gotten to know him better. (oooh, Suh NAP!)
3. Conversely, just because I’m “unusual”, “rare”, “handsome”, because I do things your husband/S.O doesn’t do, does not give you the right to use me as a weapon against them. “Well, HE cooks dinner and reads poetry to me” is only going to get ME in trouble at the next happy hour/teacher gathering. Besides, there are plenty of things I don’t do, like clean out the litter box.
4. Just because I compliment you on your sweater does not mean I’m trying to hit on you. Still. It just means that I have a good sense of fashion that has been beaten into me by my lovely! and wonderful! wife. And also, I’m just trying to be nice.
5. Do NOT involve me with your gossip about who is slighting who. I cannot afford to pick sides, and I would like to remain as positive as possible. I would much rather judge you on your ability to teach, instead of how freakin’ popular you think you are in the teacher’s lounge.
6. Stop being fake. Pretending to be interested in my life gets you nowhere.
7. Stop treating me like a pet, son, used car buyer, husband, or plaything. I’m none. I’m a teacher, and though I’ve only been there for a little while does not give you the right to put your bias on me. Instead, try this NEW idea; get to know me. Ask me about my teaching philosophy. Understand that I really want what’s best for students, and that I really mean it when I say I will miss them. I’m vested. Deal with it.
8. I’m not messy because I’m male. I’m messy because I’m me. There are plenty of messy female teachers, so back off.
That’s all for now. More to come as my venting/annoyance continues.
Dec 19
2005
Tony| Category: General, School Daze, Unfortunately Serious |
So, when we left off, I was about to start spewing complaints about my teaching and learning environment, particularly in the area of my co-workers and fellow grad students. (See this post to catch up.)
Off we go… presented to you in pseudo-outline form…
1) Being a Male Teacher in a Female Teacher School.
a) This is a challenge on so, so, so, so, SO many levels. As you may or may not know, I am the only male classroom teacher in my school, with the other XY representative in the school being our brand-new, baby-faced PE teacher. (A quick note about our PE teacher– he’s awesome at what he does, and the staff and students love him, myself included. Sadly, this reduces me to #2 male. I don’t know how I feel about this.) This means that most of the chatter revolves around complaining about their husbands, ex-husbands, or hottie, but lazy, (and) uncommitted boyfriends. Even if I ever had a complaint about TLEMK (Love you, baby!) I would not be able to voice it for fear of all womanhood turning their Fury-like rage upon me as a single voice.
b) Things run so hot and cold around here. From my liason to the other side (TLEMK), I’ve learned that apparently there’s a pecking order that exists with large groups of women. Zigzag, if you’re getting bored, think Aes Sedai. Cliques exist, from intermediate teachers, to specialist teachers, to young, unmarried teachers, to first grade teachers, and they ALL have an opinion about everyone else. They may not let you know it at first, but body language, and snide asides (which I’m finally, after what, a year and a half? picking up on.) exist after almost every meeting or interaction. According to my principal, staff climate is much better now than it was when she got here, but I secretly suspect that it’s just better hidden, or that she’s ignorning the powerful snide grenades that are launched behind closed doors. I realize that I have been guilty of it too, but I’m working on changing it. It’s so easy to get sucked into the negativity that you may not even realize it’s happening. And then, we when do “holiday” plays (Christmas, through and through) everyone is one big, fake-happy family. One day everyone is friendly, the next I could actually be a part of the wall. Truthfully, I’m sick of it. Or maybe it reminds me of other parts of my life too much.
2) On Being the Only Male in our Graduate School Cohort:
a) This is tricky. I’m the only guy there, and there’s only seven of us total, plus the professor. I feel like I bring a lot of it on myself because I rarely shut up. So I like to discuss things that we’re being lectured on. I like to share my knowledge. I SWEAR I AM NOT TRYING TO SHOW OFF. (I’m Fat Hermione, remember?) But. I’m sure it comes off like that. Rowdy R (fellow cohort member) and I have discussed this; we really are interested in what we’re doing, so we want to talk about it. And since it’s rare that all seven of us do our assigned reading, and I do it 90% of the time, I get to talk more than some other people in our group. Especially in our tech classes, because I love discussing technology and it’s applications into the classroom, and how it affects us in the real world. You know, what I do with my friends. It doesn’t fly well all the time in class. (So maybe this means that I need to develop some code switching in my head– school and friends are separate personalities…)
But then there are things that are out of my control, and even though they shouldn’t, really piss me off. To wit:
Last week in our group, we were finishing up an in-class assignment, and I was still working. My newest professor was talking about sharing a room (she’s a high school reading specialist) and how high school teachers never have things on their walls. And she found out she had to share the room with a *gasp* male social studies teacher. (because they would never have anything good on their walls!) She made it sound like a bad thing, and when she caught me looking at her after that comment, she quickly backtracked and said something like “I didn’t mean sharing it with a male teacher would be bad, they just tend to (stereotyical male stuff here) …” To which I responded, “Did he have any posters on his walls?” She then of course, said, “Well, yeah a few…”
Uh-huh. What makes me mad about that exchange is that if I hadn’t been sitting right there, and made a point to look over at the conversation, she would not have backtracked and tried to CYA.
b) The professor learns my name first. It can’t be helped. One of these things is not like the other, and it’s ME. And it’s noticeable when in week 7 of your 9-week course the professor calls a person’s name out to hand back an essay, and gives it to the WRONG WOMAN. Really? Seven people, can’t learn their names? Criminy. This also means that I get called on, and sniped on. Do I defend myself? Do I learn how to take a joke? (I promise I’m trying!) Or do I just rant about it into the blogonethersphere?
3) My defense mechanisms.
I make jokes. A lot. People usually laugh (seven out of ten of my jokes are funny. Eat that, Albert Pujols.) and so I feel like I’m bonding. It’s my attempt to establish myself as part of the collective. However, when combined with passionate discussions on education, it means you hear my voice a lot. Unfortunately, the more I talk, the more isolated I feel because there are teachers out there that are comfortable with what they’re doing, and don’t want to learn anything new. So, quit stirring the pot, Mr. Man.
4) I like teaching. I chose it as a profession, and there are some days when I feel as if I was called to it. There are plenty of other things I could be doing, but this one feels right. So when I speak glowingly of my students, why do I have to get looks of disdain from teachers who would rather be somewhere else? It’s not my fault that I actually see these students as a treasure, and want to talk about them, and not just a way to get another paycheck and have summers off. I’ve become better at being a professional, and not taking the students’ quirks so personally, but when I say that I want to wait to open their Christmas presents until Christmas morning, because I actually want to think about my students, I shouldn’t have to get looks of incredulity from my fellow coworkers. I love teaching. Get used to it. I’ll complain sometimes, but I’ll give out the joy of it too. If that’s not cool, fine.
*****
TLEMK tells me that I need to decide: do I want to be popular, or be interested in what I’m doing, to the degree which I need to engage and try to convince others that a shifting paradigm in educdation is NOT A BAD thing. At this point, one cannot co-exist with another. Either I keep my mouth shut, and people probably like me more for not being so freakin’ involved all the time, or I choose to voice my opinions, and feel better for trying to make people in my school/cohort be more flexible to learning. I am by NO MEANS saying that my thoughts are the right ones, or that I know the best way to educate children, but I don’t think I should be socially penalized for having a voice, (and hearing dead silence after I speak.)
I know I’m not alone in this, because I have a few teacher friends that are like me, and have had to sacrifice camaraderie for being professionals. (Rowdy? Mrs. Frank the Tank? Are you listening?) And I do have a couple people that I’ll hang out with for a happy hour, and feel like I might belong with at school. But what does it say when there is not ONE person I completely trust at my school, after a year and a half of working with them everyday during the school year? It’s not a good thing. At all.
So WTF am I supposed to do? Change who I am? Decide to grin and bear it, even though my sensitive metro-sexual inside feels slighted? Or should I just keep ranting here, and turn off my readership? I hate having to censor myself, and I don’t think I should have to, especially when it means I focusing on improving myself as a teacher. Or maybe I should just shut up and enjoy working with children… who are the Hallmark reason why I’m doing all of this. Especially when they give me hugs and tell me that they will miss me over Winter Break…
It’s not easy being green; new teacher, male, professional jealousy. (Whichever metaphor you want to use color symbolism for today.)
It’s not easy being green.
