Reminder of why I teach

Last night was our school's Honors Banquet. It's a nice night where students are invited with their parents to attend a meal at the school followed by an awards ceremony. Only students who have earned distinguished honor roll each marking period or other teacher-nominated awards are invited. While it is not inclusive and I'm sure some would object, having a night with those students who make teaching easier (and, honestly, more fun) is very gratifying - especially as the year, and nerves, near the end. We had some great students this year and it's easy to overlook how much fun we've had when the daily grind and small stuff seems to come to a head this time of year. Last night was a refresher that I need at least once a year to remind me why I teach.

Earlier this week, we had a soldier on leave from Iraq come speak to our kids about his experiences. One student asked a great question. She asked when the war was going to be over. That wasn't the great question, but it led into one. The soldier responded that he didn't know. She then asked what it would mean to win the war. That was such a great question, and I'm not even sure she knew how good of a question it was.

Well, we're off to Hershey Park with the 8th grade tomorrow. The weather looks good and there's a new ride that has a 97 degree drop. More than straight down, this ride actually comes back on itself. I'm excited. I may have to go rogue, though. My fellow teachers are taking about taking it easy. This is my only chance, usually, to ride roller coasters, and I plan to use all the time I can to do so.

Sci Fi Iron Chef

This is the second time I've seen this. I'm flipping through channels and stop on SciFi (which I don't get to watch nearly as much as I'd like). Twice now I've seen the Chairman from American Iron Chef as an actor? Is he actually the nephew of the Japanese Chairman? Or is he just an actor? Curiouser and curiouser.

Circuit City Update

I understand that Circuit City may not be with us much longer (as far as the rumors go that I've been hearing), but that is no excuse for this camera thing. Although, perhaps, it partly explains the problem. I know that some people really put form before function (I am not one of them, for the most part), but let me summarize the response I got from Circuit City Customer Support when I emailed them with my question concerning the price of the red camera. Basically, the red camera is more popular, so supply and demand puts its price at $100 more than the other colors. I don't care how popular this camera is - a $100 price difference over color is ridiculous. To top it off, there was no indication in the email that they thought there was anything strange with the price difference. Luckily we have an insider at another store that was able to get us a deal - not on a red one. I have to say, this new camera is pretty spiffy. If the clearness of the LCD display is any indication of the picture quality, the pictures are going to be amazing. Already, the flash is so much less harsh and red-eye is much reduced.

Stanley Cup finals start tomorrow. I hope the games are not Versus exclusive. I'd like to see the Red Wings play, not just read about it.

Circuit City

Ok, I think that customer service is conspiring against me. We were looking to buy a camera and found a good deal at Circuit City, or so we thought. The camera came in black, silver, gold, and red. My wife wanted the red, but for some reason, the red camera cost $100 more! It was not one of the red products where money went to help with AIDS in Africa. I called customer service to find out if it were a typo, but I got somebody who could not answer my question. And I mean he REALLY could not answer my question. All he could manage was that the red camera was being promoted differently. Seriously though, a $100 difference in promotion over color? Suffice to say, I did not buy it from Circuit City.

On another note, I got to meet the parent from the situation in my last post today. She was actually upset with me because her son got a detention for kicking another student after I saw him. It was a completely unrelated incident, and she wanted to say that he was so distraught over having to apologize that he had to kick someone. I have one word to describe this epidemic: enabling.

Wings are up 3-2 and can close out the series tonight! Go Red Wings!

I'm Sorry Your Child Is A...

Apparently I offended a student by making him apologize in a way that wasn't completely meaningless. If parents want us to take over their role at school, they have to give us the latitude to do what we need to do. But when a parent complains because we actually hold a student accountable for something they've done, it becomes very difficult to do much of anything. We need parents and students to realize that we are all working together toward a common goal: education. Teachers are not out to get students, nor are we acting on power trips. When did education become such an adversarial endeavor?

End rant.

On a brighter note, the Red Wings are 3-0 and one win away from the Stanley Cup finals! I just wish that Versus was offered by my cable company without paying for digital. That also means no Tour watching for me this summer.

Anyone have thoughts on the Canon XT vs. XTi? We need a new camera and want to go SLR. We just need to figure out what is best for us.

10100

Tomorrow marks 20 school days left. I put my countdown on the board in binary numbers and offer extra credit for telling me what the number is going to be tomorrow. I can tell the end is near. Tempers are shorter, and the small stuff really gets under your skin. I'm looking forward to getting up at 6:00 am because my son won't sleep any longer, not because I have to get dressed and teach. This will be the first summer in a long time that I haven't moved. Since 1996, I have lived in 11 different residences including two house purchases. That is ridiculous and I hope the trend is ending.

My clover is really starting to fill in and I think it's going to work out quite well. My grass is also growing pretty well and is not as dead as I first believed.

Red Wings/Stars series starts tomorrow. I think the Wings are picking up steam and hopefully it will be the Stanley Cup next!

Golden Compass

The Golden Compass finally came out on DVD, so I could see it. I really liked the books and from the previews thought the visual style of the movie was perfect. The previews didn't lie there. I think the visual style of the movie was perfect. I was also excited to support the movie given all the criticism it was receiving from religious groups. Unfortunately, the movie suffered a little bit from trying to compress the entire book into two hours as well as adding in some more explanation that came in some of the later two books. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie. The armored bears were awesome and all of the characters were pretty good. I hope the movie was successful enough to warrant its sequels as the story gets really good in the second and especially third books. If you haven't seen it, I suggest seeing it and then reading the books.

Game four of the Red Wings/Avs series. The wings are up 3-0 and the could close it out tonight.

Funny school story for the day. One student who does pretty much nothing turned in an assignment. It was basically blank with a few token responses and a completely wrong graph. However, it did have an interesting sentence asking if it was true that a certain student had sex with another certain student in sixth grade. Random and inappropriate. Of course this student had no idea how that got on the paper.

Tomorrow's Friday.