Lying and Cheating

Yes, today was my day. In my honors class I had two homework papers that were strikingly similar, especially considering the first question was kind of easy...how many days in 9 years. Both papers had 5,600. One boy insisted he had done it on a calculator, but still couldn't explain his answer. Then I noticed the girl next to him had the same answers, too, but she had copied them sloppily - the 5,600 was 56,000. Her explanation was even more convoluted, and she couldn't recreate the math. In fact, it was kind of fun to watch her try to come up with her answer, but be unable to justify why she would add 2,800 to a number, or to multiply by 2 (well, it was even, and it was the easiest). Calls to parents were unsupportive (how do you know she cheated? How do you know she is lying? I just wanted to say "Ma'am, I am a parent and a teacher. The coincidences are too great and you child's story keeps changing"). Finally one boy admitted copying from the other. The girl stuck to her lies. Then the copier implicated one of the sweetest, quietest girls in the class, saying the boy he copied from had actually copied from her. I thought it unlikely, as she sits quite far away from these three, and the two students immediately next to them had not done their homework.

But, when I checked the quiet girl's homework, yes it had the same answers. She started crying which, surprisingly, got care and sympathy from the rest of the class, and some anger, again surprisingly, not toward me but toward the cheaters. I kept all 4 in my room at lunch and talked with them all. The quiet girl had actually mis-copied a problem, changing years to minutes, and showed her work. Finally the other boy confessed to copying.

Meanwhile in a different class, I caught a boy suspiciously writing with his book open to the answer pages in the back of the book. What a coincidence, it was the section for the homework. And he had just written 10 and 11....the homework was problems 10-20. More lying, then anger at being accused - a common tactic.

Finally, the finale, a girl from another section tore two projects off my bulletin board, and crumpled them. Witnessed by two of her teachers, but she stood in front of me and told multiple stories that didn't add up. *sigh*

On a brighter note, had a wonderful dinner for wife's birthday.

Maybe, Maybe Not

Got up to watch news at 5:20, and all schools were closed EXCEPT Memphis City, Shelby County and Memphis Catholic. Go figure. Get dressed, walk dogs through a rather heavy snowfall (for Memphis)...snow sticking on the ground and it looks like it would drop about 2 inches per hour at the rate it was going.

Back inside...by 6:20, still no closings, so I head out. Drive slowly, no sudden accelerations or turns. Parking lot is empty. Get inside, sign in, start putting up the days work and somebody shouts schools are closed. Yep. About 10 minutes before 7 they made the decision. School opens at 7:15. So I got to hang around a bit, answer phones to tell people "yes, schools are closed today" then drive home and go back out to get my oldest who was on the way to school in the carpool when the announcement came.

By noon it was getting colder. Little of the snow has melted, roads are clear but wet. Now it is below freezing (hence icicles) and will get colder as time goes on. A good day to hang inside and make baked goods.

Waiting Is

Well, the Monday phone call didn't happen. Which kind of sucked, but gave me a chance to shoot off an email with a couple new ideas and a link to a website I had created for the project, to be filled in later with actual information. It was a hit, described in the reply as "incredible."

And today the phone call took place as scheduled. Hopefully there will be an answer by the end of the week...the vibe I got was that the spot is mine, just that they have to go through the formal process, and talk to my principal. Look for news soon!

Kids are kids. Have one whose parent is now under arrest for allowing truancy - the girl has attended one day of school in January. And missed maybe 3 out of 5 days most weeks before that. Others who want to argue about the new IDs and being required to wear them in school. One whose mother admitted she was going to get me fired if her daughter was telling the truth that I wouldn't let my class watch the inauguration because I was white and voted for McCain (her assumption about the voting)...and yes, the girl lied. But parents want to believe the worst from us, especially if they are racist themselves. They can't imagine anybody NOT being the way they are, which is natural to them.

Right now it is misty rain, after a day of solid off and on rain. The good news for me is that it should drop the the 20s overnight, and precipitation may continue. I know a lot of people are hoping for a day off. I suppose I could use one, too. But they come back to bite you in the ass in May when we have to make them up.

Week at a Glance

Nothing much after that last post. Wednesday we were required to administer yet another formative assessment to "predict" scores on the TCAP, so we can then teach to the test. Naturally few of the kids finished the 50 question test in a 50 minute period, so it carried over to Thursday.

Thursday, though, I was at a mandated in-service. Our school will host an advanced math "camp" for 6th graders, and our principal urged all the math teachers to apply to teach. Even though we haven't been informed of our status, we were required to attend an all day training. Found out after the fact the school (well, the billing secretary) didn't line up a sub. But the kids mostly finished their tests.

My Thursday evening phone interview didn't happen. Found out later the other party crashed out with a migraine. Re-scheduled for Monday.

Friday was just a day to get through. Some was fun, administration is getting stricter on uniform policy - mainly the picture IDs that were promised from the beginning of school. Finally they have been issued and suspensions will be handed out for failing to wear them. Friday night I did not win a 32" LCD TV, but had a nice bar-dinner out.

Strange Day

Inauguration Day. I figured the school and district would be true to their word...put on the TV for the event, but before and after, work as normal. Nope. Kids expected to have a "free" day. We didn't switch classes, and lunch had to be adjusted because it normally would have encompassed the entire swearing in.

Then every live feed we could get on the computers was jammed. Not blocked, but just overloaded to uselessness. CommunicstCast didn't help us with setting up a cable feed to all classrooms. Finally I went through PBS and found a good live stream. Audio was clear and steady, but picture froze now and again. Kids were unruly - they sort of understood the historical significance (duh), but didn't care about much else, including speeches. Loved Aretha, loved the quartet, the poem, and Pres. Obama's speech. Damn it looked cold. And here, we got enough snow to coat the ground, even though weather predictors said no accumulation.

For some reason I checked my phone before leaving and there was a phone message, but not the one I was hoping for. This one was from a radio station informing me I had entered a contest (likely) and that I was a qualifier for the grand prize. Called back, and I am one of ten qualifiers, and they want me at a live remote from a bar to do elimination to figure out who gets the big screen TV. Friday. I will let you all know how it works out.

And on the summer project - got an encouraging email, and will have a phone "interview" on Thursday. I would like to think I have this in the bag, but I have read my share of glad-handing replies saying how wonderful my credentials are. I just wish I knew how many people were in the applicant pool.

Kids!

You know, when you tell your children not to download anything onto the computer, they listen, then they think they know better. The oldest, at some point, fell victim to one of the popups that looks like a Windows popup that says viruses have been detected. Which then downloads a "virus protection" to your computer - which is actually malware and infects you badly. But she didn't say anything.

By the time the computer was almost completely disabled, she asked me to take a look. The nasty bit of programming not only hijacks any searches for anti-virus software, but it blocks task manager and registry editing, so you can't root it out. The best I could do is install, via key storage, a self contained cleaner. Which got all the stuff it let in, but didn't get the main problem.

So, my long weekend was an ongoing battle with Russian programmers, via proxy. Finally I just gave up and reformatted the computer. It would have been quicker, but again, oldest forgot to let me know the CD drive is sketchy, and they had been using the external drive. Had I known, I could have been done much earlier, but the computer wasn't reading the boot disk.

Now we have a clean computer, with internet, MS Office, and brand spanking new passwords so the kids will have to ask permission to be logged on. And I have a fleeting sense of satisfaction that I could do this. It helps that I am a packrat, and have disks to computer we don't own anymore - so I had the XP reinstall disk, as well as the Office and ISP software.

Oh, and as icing on my potential upcoming interview, I created a student friendly web site for the research project. Hopefully it will put me over the top.

Could it be MORE frustrating?

The morning at the lab was exactly that...all morning. 8am to nearly noon. I am now 'officially' part of the study, and will be back in a month. The blood draws are annual, I think, so not sure what the next one holds.

Since my plans for the day were, in my mind, going to be finished by lunch I was sort of off schedule. Made a quick exchange at the bookstore on the way home, had lunch, then off to the bank with the wife. Things went well there, and hopefully will positively impact our short-term finances.

Final task seemed to be the easiest. Renew my expired passport. Stopped at the Walgreens (drugstore) where my bro-in-law works. Got the photo made by perhaps the slowest person I have ever seen. Took more than 20 minutes...at one point I was sure the guy had dozed off standing in front of the photo printer computer screen. Now we are kind of behind to get youngest at school. To the Post Office, where naturally the line is six deep. But the two clerks went nice and fast. My checks were already filled out, form printed from the computer, expired passport, pictures...all ready. Then the clerk tells me the pictures are not sharp enough - goes in the back to the scanner to confirm. Yep.

So, back to Walgreens. But first, call ahead in case b-in-law has arrived for work. Get the same guy who did the pictures on the phone, ask for my relative. Hold on....music, then as we are pulling into the parking lot, ringing. Which continues, and continues. We go in and ask for him by name (he is a manager) and the nice lady tells us he is in training and won't be in until after 5. Wife nearly bursts a heart valve...but the nice lady takes it in stride, goes and makes a new picture and tells the manager on duty about the bad photo and the lapse in telling us on the phone that our person was not available. By now school has let out, so I get dropped off back at the post office...behind 4 people all getting passports!!! Wife goes and gets youngest, by the time they return to post office I am now at the counter.

Oh, and fun at home. Our Maine Coon cat has had a cold and needed babying. Wet food (stopped up nose, so can't smell the food well enough to want to eat), wants to cuddle. Well, he is healed. Wife found him in the bathtub, which we keep partly filled to prevent him from pulling out the drain and to prevent other cats from peeing in it. He was chest deep trying to claw the plug out. Smart boy - he thinks he is more than a cat sometimes.

Great Day!

I am not sure how or why, but Wednesday was an incredible teaching day. My mood was up and was reinforced by the classes being familiar with the topic (triangles). In the past I have had students struggle with the six different types (3 classifications by sides, 3 by angles), but it all seemed to click for them this time around. And as they got it, I could give them more, since their fear of the material being too hard evaporated. That cycle of success is hard to get going, but once it kicks in it is great.

I had one student, who I had last year, who blurted out while I was teaching (not loudly enough for anyone but me) "When you are smiling it is like you light up teaching". I took her aside after class and really thanked her, because it was such a wonderful thing to hear. And it will carry me through times when I question what I am doing. Another class, this one honors where they think they know it all, I had one of my top students come to me at the end of class and ask how I knew a triangle's angles added to 180. Without a protractor, I showed her by having her cut out a triangle, then color the angles. We then trimmed them off, and lined them up to make a straight line - 180. Her eyes lit up because I had showed her something she had never thought about. Similar things happened in just about every class. And once they see how easy it can be, they do the homework, and they become eager for the next day.

No, I don't think it will last, but for now it has left me with a nice glow.

Tomorrow, fun fun fun. 8am appointment with the UT Medical Lab. I signed up last spring for a study on adult children of parents with Type 2 diabetes. I missed the cutoff by a few points, and now they have relaxed the requirements (I would venture they didn't get enough candidates), so I get to repeat the process...fasting, blood drawing, drinking sugary beverage, blood drawing. You ladies have gone through it for gestational diabetes testing. Hey, on the bright side, it is a day off, and then a long weekend.

Cold and Colder

Yesterday I went back on the bike, which was better than I expected. Part is due to the tune up it got before the holidays, and part probably is me wanting to be back (and also not wanting to be back...it wasn't easy). My lungs need some conditioning. Today, though was worse. Inbound pre-dawn was a balmy 40. Coming home, 20mph headwinds and about 35, so I wore full gear - do-rag under the helmet, windbreaker, gloves, sunglasses. Felt good to get home, though.

School is progressing a little better. Not due to the break, so much, but little tidbits of advice from colleagues and maybe even a little more planning. Plus this chapter we are working on is plane geometry, which is fun for me, and easy to do lots of hands on stuff with the kids. An added bonus, they get it pretty well, so the quiz from last week was a strong grade. Got the stupid-ass short notice bulletin board up, which only bugs me a little bit since the other board on our hall went up yesterday afternoon, and I saw another one going up today at lunch. No kudos to me for meeting the unreasonable deadline.

And, 7 days after I first heard about my big summer opportunity, it is looking better. Got a series of "interview" questions in an email...many of which I already answered in a sort of "first date" email to get his interest. Pretty much guaranteed a phone interview...decision will be made by the end of February. Keep your fingers crossed. I won't say much more...but if and when the decision is made I will put up links and such.

Table Story

We have been searching for a while for a table to go in the living room. Something small, square (although round would do) that can seat 4, and allow us to play games, work puzzles, etc. and not have to move it from the dining table. The search has taken us to consignment, thrift and antique stores with some near misses. Well, at the local supermarket, wife found a suitable table. We went over this morning and after an extensive search the manager regrettably informed us the floor model was the only one left. As I type they are dismantling it so we can fit it and the four chairs into our two cars!

But the fun-nest part was exiting. Our oldest daughter, who is well past the age for this, begged me for a quarter for the junk machines on the way out. I happened to have one, so I handed it over. On the way out, I happened to look at the bank of machines that dispense stickers, temporary tattoos, small plastic items that get lodged in the dog's colon or your foot in the middle of a night walk. On the end was a machine that said "Santos". Inside were those little plastic bubble containers with, of all things, SAINTS. Yes, all in Spanish, but think about it. Saints in a vending machine outside a supermarket, in a different language. We had to get one, and I think we got Maria Immaculada. I have quarters for when we go back. The pope is in there, along with Guadalupe, Judas and about six others. They will go nicely with my Buddy Christ (for heaven's sake watch Dogma if you haven't) and the stormtroopers on my computer desk.

Upon returning home, our dog Purl had taken the bait. She is a chewer...either out of hunger or nervousness that we left her alone with nobody to supervise. She is a mix of Australian Shepherd and Border Collie. Lately she ate a heel of banana bread supposedly out of reach on the back counter. So last night I left a pancake out, deliberately, near the edge of the counter. I dosed it liberally with Dave's Insanity Hot Sauce. This stuff is serious business. I put a dab on my tongue no larger than one of these letters and it had some serious heat. It didn't last, but while it did, I knew it. Well, pancake was gone and the dog looked a little more than guilty. It might take a few more attempts to get the message across.

Chaos can be fun

Spelling Bee. Not enough room for all students to attend, and most think it is something exciting, or at least something that will remove them from class. We get a nice memo saying if we take students, they stay for the whole event, so as not to disrupt. I figure, no problem, not taking students, so the quiz is a "go". Today they announce no changing of classes until it ends....2 hours of the beginning of the day shot.

Not completely, though, because my homeroom like to play games. One game is the number guessing game. Like 20 questions, but we shoot for beating our record, which is 8 questions to guess a number between 1 and 100. They are getting much better, but there is always one or two who don't pay attention to what has been asked and get heckled by the others. In between I broke out the multiplying fractions cards. Each has an "I have" statement and a "Who has" question. After a bit, all the kids had scratch paper out and were multiplying fractions and whole numbers....Tons of practice for them, easy for me, and they even said it was fun!

The end of the day class remains an issue...the period is always too short, the kids are a handful and will sacrifice themselves to disrupt the class. Still, they took the quiz and handed in their projects, which went up without a hitch. One boy, not even at our school a week, did the most amazing thing. He drew a very well done Spider-Man, shaded in....but the areas with the angles he labeled, he circled and left white. Just amazing. There were some others that were also excellent, but that one took the cake.

Amazingly Full Day

On Tuesday somebody decided we should put new stuff up on all the bulletin boards. So, somebody put together a schedule, and my name came up as first...Had to come up with a design and have it all mounted by the end of day Friday, since Monday was the arbitrary start date. I am not wired like everybody else, with a "screw that I will do it when I get to it" switch. I thought about it yesterday, and it kept me awake when I should have fallen asleep. But today I gave the kids the project. I made it easy enough that they can complete it by tomorrow. Bulletin board was already papered and bordered, and I got the lettering done this afternoon. Student work and a rubric (including State Performance Indicators) will go up tomorrow. It is good to be depended upon, but the extra works is not so nice.

Fun times with a mouthy student, too. She is always talking, and when corrected, snaps at teachers, especially me. She blames me for picking on her and claims other teachers don't have problems with her. So I gathered them and let her hear how troublesome she is. Sadly, she knows she has a talking problem, but "can't" do anything about so why bother. She also doesn't want to be corrected, which for her is not her problem. In the end I think we will turn her around, but for now she is pretty defiant.

Then, after carpool, right back to school to run the clock/scoreboard for the basketball games. Both games went very long, so I didn't get home until very late. Fans these days are pretty rough and abusive, and our boys coach got ejected, then fined when he said something to the ref on the way to the locker room. $250 fine. With less than 5 seconds to go in the game. With his team up by 8 points. And here we are trying to teach kids to control their tempers and use self control.

Not the best day

The day actually started well before dawn. Blinding headache kept me awake for quite a while, wondering if I could get back to sleep. Terribly uncomfortable, and at that hour of the night/morning I am always emotionally vulnerable, so all sorts of dark thoughts and doubts creep in.

School was school. We keep getting new students from all sorts of places, and not losing an equivalent number, especially those we would like to see disappear. But, despite my tiredness and nausea I put on a pretty cheerful face and performed a good show on angles. Until just before lunch, when the Asst. Principal stopped by to inform us of the death of our youngest, newest teacher.

Sudden, unexpected. No word on what happened. Some of the kids are pretty torn up, not because they liked her, but because they gave her a hard time. I became a new teacher as an adult, after taking a lot of crap from a lot of people, and still during that whole time I wondered why or if I could keep doing it. Word is that she had a bit of a dependency on painkillers following a car accident. She was out during the last couple of months, "in the hospital." I really don't want to speculate.

Back to my headache, I think maybe it was due to diet Coke. I am trying to cut back, maybe completely. Some of my pains might be related to the chemicals in the artificial sweeteners (hello, conspiracy theory on line 2), and water is better anyhow.

Rain Rain Rain

Third day in a row...heavy at times. What fun. Using the Y is fun, though, since they installed state-of-the-art equipment in December. Lots of lights, countdowns and options, treadmills and recumbent bikes (not incumbent), and some weird gazelle-like machines that might be fun to try. Turns out 25 minutes of treadmill burns about 1/3 of the calories of biking. Still, sweaty.

More and more and more paperwork coming down the pike. Bulletin boards bi-weekly (every other week), mandatory weekly team meetings with minutes kept and filed. Another wave of projects with most of the paperwork falling on - guess who - homeroom teachers. Oh, and over objections of everybody with a brain, the project exhibition is scheduled for the same week as TCAP. Superior thinking!

Sorry about being so mysterious yesterday. I am really excited about this, and therefore don't want to talk about it until it is more concrete, so that I don't have a bunch of people asking later on what ever happened with that thing. On the other hand, if it does pan out, you will hear much more than you might want.

Back in the Saddle

The first day back was not quite as bad as I expected, but was by no means wonderful. I had a healthy stockpile of patience which got me through, but if anything the kids have slid back after 2 weeks away. Which is to be expected in academic areas, but not so much in social and behavioral areas.

Having to hit the gym now on days I don't bicycle, which has been most of the time. Heavy rains today, following showers yesterday, and I think more of the same tomorrow. When it is not cold and raining it is in the 60s. So, those confused daffodils in the front bed think it is true spring (which here in Memphis means February) and are sprouting already.

In the vein of things to look forward to, an opportunity dropped in my lap today that seems custom-made/heaven sent for me. I am looking into it, and have to find and submit an application. If it pans out it will keep me grinning through the end of the school year, for sure. Maybe even longer.

Another New Year

Holidays are never the best time for me, and the beginning of the new year is the end, but the dread doesn't end there. I do best when I have things to look forward to. Sometimes minor things, like a favorite TV show (which hasn't been happening much lately) can pull me through a day- give me something pleasant to anticipate. Major things, like vacations, days off, or events can keep me going through weeks or even months like a 12-stepper taking things one day at a time. The next waystation is at least a couple of months away.

This part of the year, though, has so very little to look forward to. The huge anticipation of many for the holidays, which for me is a precarious balance of 2 weeks off with the holidays themselves, is over, and it is back to routine, a routine that has been shaken ever since Thanksgiving and needs to be knit back together. Just waking up at 5:20 instead of around 8:00 is going to be a bothersome chore for the first week. Standing for most of the day will take its toll on my feet.

Switching gears, on the entertainment front there are a few small things to look forward to. Lately we have been NetFlixing both Torchwood (finished first season - has promise) and Supernatural (about to start getting second season - excellent), and those are fine diversions. Lost will start again at some point in January I think. Movie-wise, my top anticipated movie is in limbo (Watchmen), so there is no joy there. Perhaps it will release on time in March, perhaps not.

Books have been a good diversion lately. Neal Stephenson always writes thought provoking novels, and Anathem didn't disappoint. Good characters, a skewed version of our reality with his usual connection to a deeper course of study (The Diamond Age was a primer on computer programming, Cryptonomicon dealt with math and codebreaking, the impressively massive Baroque Cycle with the birth of the monetary system - Anathem is philosophy driven). Really enjoyed it, and it continues to pinball around in my head. Just finished the book I will be recommending to one and all The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. A pretty amazing debut novel, with the sequel/second installment in April, I think. This one is right up there with A Game of Thrones (keep writing, Mr. Martin...we need a new book) as far as a book that presents a well rounded fantastical world with exellent characters behaving humanly.

Goals for 2009 -

well, health is always the one people cite. I could say I want to lose weight, become more fit, etc. but that is a constant.

I will attempt to post here 300 out of the 365 days in 2009.

Stay focused and not backslide. If I can make small progress and maintain that, then all is good.