It's Pat!

Let the blogging begin! School ended today at EM, so I now have a bit more time to blog. Tonight I dedicate this blog to everyone's favorite Pat.

Much like Saturday Night Live's version of Pat, I'm not sure exactly what our honoree tonight is either...just old or certifiably insane. If you haven't caught on yet, I'm talking about Pat Robertson. One time Presidential candidate, Christian Coalition advocate, and 700 Club host. In no way am I going to bash religion tonight, just Pat.

Mr. Robertson has a very fine record of entertaining quotes as I will show later, but let's start why this came to mind. Twice in the last week and a half or so, Robertson has made national news because of the following claims:
1. God told him that a tsunami would hit the Northwest United States.
- While I believe in God, I do acknowledge power of prayer, God hasn't
spoken to anyone in quite a long time, unless you want to count David
Koresch and the Branch Dividians. Because of the recent past of God
talking with someone, I'm a little leery of these situations. Even if
God wanted to forewarn us, why not tell someone that can do something
about it? Instead He tells Pat Robertson? Interesting. On the scale
of craziness (1 being low, 10 being high) I gotta to with an 8 or a 9.

2. Just this week, Pat claimed that he can leg press 2000 pounds:
- Excuse me? I did I read that right? 2000 pounds? So 80 year old Pat
Robertson can leg press Barbaro? He can leg press a Toyota? I've got
nothing else to say, except maybe the decimal is in the wrong place...
Scale of craziness: 20.00, representing two things, this is off the
charts crazy AND what he was actually leg pressing.

Another classic from this school year was when Pat suggested we assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. While I don't agree with Chavez politically and having him out of power may prevent future headaches, you don't publicly call for the head of a foreign leader who has never attacked us or anything.

I have done an extensive search for some more of Pat's Greatest Hits (Volume 1) and found these gems. My comments are outside of the quotes.

"Just like Nazi Germany did to the Jews, the liberal media is now doing to the evangelical Christians." - Murdering 6 million of them?

"Lord give us righteous judges...Take control Lord! We ask for additional vacancies on the Supreme Court." - Nothing like wanting John Paul Stevens to die so Pat can choose another Justice...oh wait. He doesn't select them?

To all those with alternative lifestlyes after 9/11: "You helped this happen!" - Osama has been working with the gays?

Okay...that's enough for tonight. There have also been threats to Dover and Orlando for leading ungodly lifestyles. So before we tip our caps to Pat and turn in for the night, let me just show what I think would be a good letter to Pat from the typical Christian.

Dear Pat,
You're not helping

Signed,
Normal Christians

Thoughts in the Shade of Sunburn

Sorry for the delay in blogging. I sometimes run into a "blogger-block," where I do have time to blog, but I'm struggling with a good and enlightening topic. But I sit here tonight, sunburned by my first real nice full day outdoors, with some reflections.

School ends Wednesday here at East Marshall (okay, actually for us teachers it ends on Thursday, but I don't count in-service days- to be honest they typically turn into half goof-off days). Last year I blogged about some thoughts on leaving Lineville-Clio and what some things were that I could work on. Now my first year at East Marshall has ended. I am staying here this year...I enjoyed it here (not to say I didn't enjoy L-C) and I've liked a lot of things that I've done here and I have a lot of opportunities here. There are also still plenty of things I need to work on. The teaching profession is one though where even after year 26, I will probably be saying "geez, I wasn't very organized this year or I didn't handle that one situation the way I should have." I started a couple things this year (writing a government related children's book to read to elementary students, "bill trackers," WWI memorial projects, and plenty of other things) but I still need to work on facilitating classroom discussion better. I need to adjust even more than I thought I had to in the change of classroom size- making sure all are on task, etc. The biggest thing I want to work on is organization. Sometimes I feel like when a student comes in asking for a missed assignment because they were sick, that I'm running around looking through stacks of papers- checked and unchecked. I know all teachers have this problem, but I would like to really improve myself in this area. Next year may be worse and better all at once. My schedule will be HECTIC with Grad classes next year, plus coaching. On the other hand, I will have an educational aide. This will be a senior who is interested in the social studies area and gets credit through the Guidance office for doing this "job"- checking, organizing, entering grades, and even writing tests. We'll see how it all plays out. Overall though it was a successful year. My Principal praised my job performance and more importantly, I have completed my mentoring program...so I'm officially licensed!

The big reflection on this year is though is one of the reasons I LOVE teaching. I know that I may be on this blog or IM'ing or calling a friend and talking about frustrations, but I really do love my job. I had another reason why today. The reason I'm sunburnt is because I went to the Iowa Boys and Girls Co-Ed State Track Meet today in Des Moines. I don't coach track, just went to watch and hung out with the coaches, their families, and some parents. Now I was going to go anyways because my co-workers are good company and always willing to let a single guy tag along with them and because I love sports. I also of course like to support the kids and had promised a couple I would watch if their event made the finals (today). We also have some good athletes and a solid girl's team this year. After our girls ran their last race (the boys had been done earlier) I figured it was time to leave. I needed to stop and do a couple things in Des Moines so I headed to my car. On the way back I spotted one of our girls coming out of the main building, hospitality for the athletes. She actually spotted me first, yelled out "G!" (when your last name is Grandgenett you let the kids slide on proper names), excitedly ran over with a smiling face and shook my hand as I complimented her performance. Now she is always a pretty friendly person and an excellent student, but you could tell that she was extra happy that I had come to watch. I enjoy these moments because of the connections you make with the students, but also because it shows I care and that they care that I care. I found this out during my student teaching in Clarksville. I went to a basketball game and the next day at school I had like about 15-20 new "fans." Students love to see that you care. I love going to support the kids and I love being able to interact with them in another way than just the classroom. I had another example of that tonight when I went to some graduation parties and had a chance to talk to our outgoing seniors about the meet and future plans, etc.

Now that I've typed long enough, just thought I would share some thoughts on the joys of education. Good Luck to the Graduating Seniors!