Lessons learned

Sorry about my delay in blogging. I think I'm actually suffering from a case of having too much to write about. I have so many thoughts floating around in my head, both serious and not-so-serious that I just haven't been able to focus. It takes a lot to run one of these blog things. ;)

Well, I've finally focused enough on one topic now. It is kind of a no brainer too. Year One of teaching is complete. Okay, so not really, officially until this Thursday, but we were all students. This last week is kinda fluff. I got my major stuff out of the way or will early this week (grades are due on Tuesday- since when are grades due BEFORE school gets out?).

So what have I learned? That I have a long way to go in order to be the teacher I want to be. At times this year I felt like I may be the worst teacher in the world. Part of this is because I do have a lot to learn. I need to be more descriptive in some directions, I need to hone lesson plans for when subs come in, I think I could go on and on with what I need to fix. In fact, a full 300 page novel couldn't probably fit all that I need to work on. That is great though...you need to learn and practice to improve. Now I know what needs to be fixed and can devote myself to that. It probably won't all get done though in Year Two. Which kind of bugs me. I'm not a perfectionist, but I am one who wants things to go exactly as I vision them. I worried myself sick this year over some lessons that were actually good but just didn't go like I thought they should. I almost had a nervous breakdown about being in charge of "Community Service Day" because I didn't think things would turn out. Guess what though? It did. Just like Homecoming came together, just like Job Shadow day came together. So that might be lesson number one: Have confidence in yourself and don't expect things to go EXACTLY as you planned...it will still turn out okay if you did the prep work.

Lesson number two would be that moving on is tough. When I add it all up; pay, workload, future of school, location...I see that my move to East Marshall is exactly what the doctor ordered. I think I will be very happy there. Problem is I will be leaving behind some great co-workers at Lineville that I got along with great. I will also be leaving behind some fun students. Nobody there can blame me for leaving, but it isn't easy saying goodbye- especially to people who became so close and treated me so well even though I was only there a year (actually nine months). Good thing about the age we live in now, those people are a keyboard away. I can email, call, even head on down there for different events.

Lesson three: teaching really is a pretty cool profession. It is nice to hear the graduates today tell me "good luck at East Marshall, we'll miss you" or having students run up wanting you to go on a ride at Adventureland with them. It is fun when a student comes into school with a news item they want to tell you because the year long pounding of current events is starting to get through. Or when we were at Adventureland some juniors of mine referenced something we had done in class as part of their conversation that I happened to overhear. It is the little things that count in teaching.

Have a good summer teachers and goodbye Lineville-Clio.

Protest Music

I didn't think I would be blogging so soon, but a lot of stuff is in my mind. I could probably write about three different topics tonight. I was going to let some other ones simmer in my head for awhile and then out of nowhere this entirely new topic hit me. As many of you know I waste (though I don't really consider it wasting) a lot of my time at HawkeyeReport.com. I read about recruits, the excitement over the upcoming season, etc. But right now there is no major sport being played at Iowa. The Baseball team is doing better than usual, but until those games are televised the interest just isn't there for Hawkeye fans everywhere. So in this off-season, I spend a lot of my time at the OFF TOPIC board. This is where music, movies, some odd/gross discussions, and politics are discussed.

Over the years (yes, I have been a HawkeyeReport roamer since it originated as SuperHawkeye, then HawkeyeNation, now its current status on rivals.com network) a lot of discussion has come up about how music in general has gone down the drain. In particular, a lot of board members feel that Protest Music has gone directly down the tube. The days of Bob Dylan seem to be gone they say. Well...Protest music seems to be back. Charlie Daniels has quit his fiddle contest against the devil and now strums out pro-Bush/Republican tunes, Toby Keith unleashes Pro-Military/America tunes, and now Blue Eyes (who?!?) has joined the fray.

Blue Eyes' (or just lead singer Connor in this situation) message is obviously anti-Bush and receives pretty good crowd reaction to my surprise. People know that me and Bush don't always see eye-to-eye, but I was offended at one point of this song when Blue Eyes discusses the conversation between God and Pres. Bush about the poverty-stricken in this country. They lyrics go (and I'm paraphrasing here) "He says, no they're lazy George I say we don't, I saw we give them more liquor stores and some coke." If you reading this believe in the same God I do, I hate the notion that my God would think that about his own creation.

Here is the interesting part though, I know that he was saying that not as a jab at God (I hope), but at Bush. Right now I'm reading "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it." The book is focusing on how Religion and those values have been "hijacked" by the right. Example: Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, speaking at a huge Church Rally about (of all things) blocking filibusters on judicial nominees. What that has to do with a group of church-goers is a beyond me, or just a great tie-in by the Republicans. Anyways...In "God's Politics" I totally agree with the fact that if Religion is going to be used in government, let's not forget the poor and "vulnerable." Matthew 25:35-40 states "for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'"

To conclude...Protest music is back and heard and brings up good questions. Second, when using our moral values in guiding decisions politically, let us not pick and choose what values we want to stand by. Those who have far lesser than us are not to be forgotten either when it comes to policy.

Check out the Leno tape here: http://www.prefixmag.com/Bright_Eyes_(Leno)(05.02.05)_(high).php

Deep Thoughts

This may be my most random right, so buckle your seat belt and let's see where we go. First, about the title...Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey may be one of the funniest things ever. I ALWAYS crack up at the one: I can picture a world without hate, a peaceful world; and I can see us attacking that world cause they would never expect it."

So the school year is rapidly coming to an end. Only 17 days left for everyone (8 for the seniors). Let me tell you one thing though. The end of the year is NOT EASY. In fact, Mr. Townsley and I were discussing how student teaching should stretch into May or some special May term class should be offered to talk about all the stuff that needs to be done at the end of the year. Chapters need to either be squeezed in or cut out, last minute activities, banquets, etc. need to fit into the schedule, and then comes the end of the year reports that teachers must fill out. Ours came in the mailboxes at school today. I have a ton of questions about what needs to be filled out, etc.

Speaking of school, a junior student of mine informed me of his blog. He is a strong Libertarian (but I never get to hear his views on a lot of Government stuff because I only have him for U.S. History). When he showed me his blog though, he scrolled down to a section that he wrote on HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee). HUAC is infamous for their "hunting" down of "commies" during the late 40s/early 50s. We had just covered this in class. Kinda cool he commented on it after we researched it for a day and did a brief simulation.

I hate laundry by the way. Tonight was laundry night and I swear when I move to Marshalltown/LeGrand I am most definately getting an apartment that has some sort of laundry machines available. I can't stand dragging my clothes to the car, going to the crappy laundromat, and then spending near an hour and a half just sitting there. I usually bring a book along (I've even brought my laptop to do some work) but a laundromat, believe it or not, is not a good reading or work environment.

While at the laundromat today I was flipping through a Reader's Digest. This particular issue has an article about new science/technology that may help uncover new information about the assisination of JFK. My thoughts on this: What would we ever do if we found out it was a huge conspiracy? A lot of people involved are probably already dead. But the main thing is that it seems like we keep digging and digging, just hoping that we will uncover a conspiracy. What will happen once we've found it. There will be no excitement left over the whole deal. Kinda like when the Red Sox won the World Series. There fans were like "what are we supposed to do now?"

More thoughts later this week (I promise, I know I've been a bad "blogger" lately)