Pumpkin Head?

After getting a couple days rest and five, yes, FIVE papers written for my classes, two lesson plans written for my student teaching, and seven 32 gallon garbage cans of leaves raked up, I have returned.  Ladies and gentleman...let's blog!!

Three things that will help in the classroom:

1)  A 20 minute movie called "Sticks and Stones".  It is a very cheaply done, pitifully acted movie that really does a great job of addressing name calling in the classroom and how to deal with it before it explodes into physical harm or worse.  It uses sock puppets for its characters and had a real life person as the principal.  Somehow the movie turns children against the term "pumpkin head".  Again the point was well made in the movie, but the question remains...what do you call a child who dresses up like a jack-o-lantern for Halloween...and he has a pumpkin on his head???  The movie gets 4 stars from me, although it was like watching John Denver on the Muppets!!

2)  A Weebly.  http://www.weebly.com/ allows you to have your own web page for FREE, as long as you use their domain names.  This is a great way to gather information from many sources and put it all in one place for you, the parents of your students, the board members of your district, and even the students themselves to see what you are up to 24 hours a day seven days a week.......wait a second. 

3)  JOBS!!!  Assign your students jobs.  If you have 30 students like most of us do, then you can have Sanitary Engineer 1, Sanitary Engineer 2........all the way to Sanitary Engineer 29.  Then one Foreman who just watches the others work.  Reserve the last 5 minutes of each day for their jobs!  You will have the cleanest room in the school, and you will have learned the valuable skill of delegation.  Your Welcome!

Three Things that will move you one notch higher in your students eyes:

4)  Dancing with the Stars!!  Can you believe people are still watching this?  I don't, but they are.  21 million Americans watch per week, and about 30% of those are suspected to be under the favored 18-49 age group.  That's our students people.  You better get your DWTS knowledge on.  Bristol Palin is on this year, and her mom just set a TLC record for ratings for her new show!  Although that could mean about 200 people watched.  Plus I hear Bristol is in the finals.  Hmmm, let me check...nope, the Mariners are not in the World Series!
 http://www.komonews.com/news/entertainment/108224434.html?ref=guiltypleasures

5)  If you hadn't heard, that little cute kid Harry Potter begins his run to the HUGE finale on Friday the 19th of November when the Deathly Hollows open in theatres.  Alright, now you know.  I will never write about Mr. Potter again....or will I?  I predict 61 Million on the first day.

6)  Basketball Statistics!!!  I used the (+/-) stat to help teach the kids about how to work with negative numbers and they couldn't get enough of it.  The box score that I brought in was missing by the end of 2nd period...then it turned up the next morning when my master teacher brought it to me saying "Your stats were the talk of the town yesterday.  They were confiscated after the boys were passing it around and not paying attention in their other classes".  When asked if the students could figure out how the statistic was calculated, the teacher responded "Yeah, and they couldn't stop talking about the other stats too."  Yup, Your Welcome!

Three things that you can do to get that "I'm alive" feeling:

7)  Ride your bicycle down a dark road covered in wet leaves during a wind storm.  Find a hill that sits on about a 25 - 30 degree slope, make sure there are no street lights so that the ride is completely dark.  The feeling is exhilarating with just those parameters, but add the wet leaves that leave you with no ability to brake and then gusts of wind topping 40mph that take you from 25mph to 10 in the blink of an eye...WHILE lifting your front wheel off the ground.  My heart was racing by the time I reached the bottom of the hill, which was about 3 seconds later. 

8)  Riding your bike when it is 32° outside.  Even when you are fully covered, you lose total feeling of your appendages when you ride downhill.  Then while traveling uphill you have to stop to remove layers before you get too warm...then going back down hill starts the first layer of ice forming...then back up hill...then back down.  When you finish your ride you are ready for a nice warm shower...and an ice pick!

Extra 8)  FYI, if you hold down the "alt" key and type in 0176 on the 10key pad Windows will automaticaly put in the "degree" symbol°...just like that!

9)  Finishing a project!  Doesn't matter what it is, but when you reach a goal it is one of the best feelings a human can experience (minus of course Prom night....Wedding night....and most Tuesdays).  Just today I finished three projects for school that have taken three weeks to complete, and I celebrate by sitting down to write this blog and prepare for the final four projects of the quarter.  Go find yourselves a project people.  Heck, it is almost midnight, the thermometer says it is 29° outside...I think it is time for project "midnight bike ride".  

Shout out to Felix Hernandez for winning the 2010 American League Cy Young award!!  This is huge and incredibly rare for a Mariner player.  In fact it is the first time a pitcher has won this award with 13 wins or less since 1981 when Fernando Venezuela pull off the feat.  I truly wish Mr. Dave Niehaus was around two more weeks to be able to see this.  It would have made him so proud!  Congrats Felix!!

Funny for the day:

Cheerio