Tears a'plenty

I was bombarded with three separate cases of tears today. On the best of days, I usually don't deal well with tears in my classroom and, compassionately, ask if the person would like to go out in the hall (or stay in the hall) for a bit until he/she feels ready to return to the room. It's not that tears actually bother me, rather they don't bother me to the point that I don't want to seem callous and just push on through them without acknowledging them - which is what I'd rather do. This seems a better alternative.

Case 1: We have a group of Marines come in and give demonstrations with gear and MRE's (it ties in with endothermic and exothermic reactions being covered in science). One student came in and was overwhelmed by emotions seeing the soldiers there. We'll call this student Chris (identity and gender anonymous). I took Chris out in the hall, but Chris was able to return and enjoy the presentation. I was not the source of the tears.

Case 2: I kept a student at the beginning of lunch. We'll call this student Pat. Pat has not been the best of students and has been doing very poorly from apparent lack of effort. I guess I stuck in the conversation long enough, trying to get a response that had a semblance of authenticity, when, much to my dismay, the crying began. Pat is not the student that I would suspect of turning on fake tears to get out of a tough discussion. If that was the case, Pat really sold it with actual tears and bloodshot eyes. I guess I was a bit of the cause this time.

Case 3: Report cards came out last week and it would be an understatement to say that grades were less than stellar. This year and marking period in particular seem to come as a surprise to 8th graders who have never had to put in any time outside of class before and it takes many the rest of the year to adjust. At least they do before hitting high school. This student, we'll call Sam (short for Samson or Samantha?) did very well the first marking period, but went quite a bit down the second. Sam came asking what Sam could do (Sam did not actually refer to Sam's self in the third person. Sam is not obnoxious) to bring up Sam's grade. I may have exaggerated a bit because there may not have been actual tears, but Sam was on the verge. I hope Sam does better this marking period.

Three cases of tears in one day. I'm not sure if this compares to my friend in grad school that made a parent cry (you know who you are and we'll see if you read this post), but it was quite a day.

The Humdinger is approaching and I'm thinking of shooting for 63 minutes. That would be about 9-minute miles. Last year I did 11-minute miles and that was tough. I think I'll be in better shape and better prepared for the tough course this year.

Owner of a broken heart

Well, the Vikings did it to me again. They did it to themselves too. The fact that they had 5 turnovers and still got the game to overtime says how much better they were playing, aside from the turnovers that is. I am not happy about the outcome of this game and I am not looking forward to the ribbing I'll get from my students tomorrow. It's not looking like I'm going to get much solace from the Red Wings this season either. There were at least two plays that ended in turnovers that would have given the Vikes the lead heading into the end of the game. I wonder who our QB will be next season.

My daughter's first video game

Well, we got a Wii. I was resistant and apparently could have had one much sooner, but my wife thought I didn't want one. My biggest concern has been that I wouldn't get a PS3. But after a New Year's Eve of Guitar Hero II, my wife actually suggested the Wii. Considering she was actually interested in playing, I said OK to the Wii and away we went. Today a Diego game we ordered for my daughter came and she was into it. It's a little more sophisticated than the Atari 2600 I started out with (Kangaroo was the first game), but she's having fun. It even has an option for someone else to have a helping controller. I still want a PS3 but, this is a step in the right direction and it's fun too.

I've been running better since school started and have upped my basic runs from 3 to 4 miles. Classes started up at the university again today and my running routes are no longer quite so solitary. The Humdinger is about 1.5 months away and I want to finish closer to 60 minutes. The overall goal, though, is to beat my former student again. She wasn't that far behind me last year and has a full season of actual cross country training under her now, so it might be more of a challenge. No walks this year!

Started up volleyball for another session last night and it felt good. I couldn't bump to save my life, but everything else felt really good. I didn't even feel any soreness until about half an hour ago. The core is a wee might weak.

Can't stop without mentioning the Vikings. Sunday's game against Dallas was awesome. They dominated the Cowboys. It was fun to watch. I doubt this game against the Saints will be as lopsided, but if they get enough pressure on Brees, it could be a lot of fun.