Kernel of Excitement

Happy Teacher
I live a day at a time.
Each day I look for a kernel of excitement.
In the morning I say, "What is my exciting thing for today?"
Then, I do the day.
Don't ask me about tomorrow.
--Barbara Jordan, American Congresswoman and educator

Quotations on Teachers

The [person] who can make hard things easy is an educator.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

15 Reasons to Love Education

1. Knowing you make a difference.
2. Creating a better tomorrow.
3. Workign with children.
4. Helping learning happen.
5. Memorable moments.
6. Being in great company.
7. Using your mind, heart, and soul every day.
8. Rewards that money can't buy.
9. Seeing a student's face light up.
10. A sense of accomplishment.
11. Shaping lives, dreams, and futures.
12. Each day can be an adventure.
13. Feeling proud of being a role model.
14. Summer vacation.
15. Recognizing that your job is important even on "bad" days.

(from "Attitude is Everything" Positive Gift Books)

This I Believe

Norman Corwin

In my Advanced Placement class, we have been reading and analyzing essays that come from the NPR "This I Believe" series. I intend to have them write their own belief statements. Here is an example of an essay we studied.

Good Can Be as Communicable as Evil by Norman Corwin

Years ago, while watching a baseball game on television, I saw Orel Hershiser, pitching for the Dodgers, throw a fastball that hit a batter. The camera was on a close-up of Hershiser, and I could read his lips as he mouthed, "I'm sorry." The batter, taking first base, nodded to the pitcher in a friendly way and the game went on.

Just two words, and I felt good about Hershiser and the batter and the game all at once. It was only a common courtesy but it made an impression striking enough for me to remember after many summers.

The blood relatives of common courtesy are kindness, sympathy and consideration. And the reward for exercising them is to feel good about having done so. When a motorist at an intersection signals to another who’s waiting to join the flow of traffic, "Go ahead, it’s OK, move in," and the recipient of the favor smiles and makes a gesture of appreciation, the giver enjoys a glow of pleasure. It’s a very little thing, but it represents something quite big. Ultimately it’s related to compassion, a quality in very short supply lately, and getting scarcer.

But look, let's not kid ourselves. It would be foolish to hope that kindness, consideration and compassion will right wrongs, and heal wounds, and keep the peace and set the new century on a course to recover from inherited ills. That would be asking a lot from even a heaven-sent methodology, and heaven is not in that business.

It comes down to the value of examples, which can be either positive or negative, and it works like this: Because of the principle that a calm sea and prosperous voyage do not make news but a shipwreck does, most circulated news is bad news. The badness of it is publicized, and the negative publicity attracts more of the same through repetition and imitation.

But good can be as communicable as evil, and that is where kindness and compassion come into play. So long as conscionable and caring people are around, so long as they are not muted or exiled, so long as they remain alert in thought and action, there is a chance for contagions of the right stuff, whereby democracy becomes no longer a choice of lesser evils, whereby the right to vote is not betrayed by staying away from the polls, whereby the freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, and dissent are never forsaken.

But why linger? Why wait to begin planting seeds, however long they take to germinate? It took us 200-plus years to get into the straits we now occupy, and it may take us as long again to get out, but there must be a beginning.

copyright National Public Radio and Atlantic Public Media

Got Any Flames?

Frank and Ernest on Blogging

Well, that's one view. Here's another:

Great Minds Discuss Ideas.
Good Minds Discuss Events.
Small Minds Discuss People.

(Think about that the next time you're looking at the supermarket magazine rack!)

Happy (?) Day Light Savings Monday

Grand Avenue


Hope you all are coping with having to get up an hour earlier (which is basicly what Day Light "Savings" is all about). Only one week till Spring Break!

School Violence

How Can We Have Safe Schools?

Here is an article that appeared in The Oklahoman about violence at New John Marshall and the community's response. What's your take on this?

Task force to address discipline issues at city district's new John Marshall

Red and Rover

Limericks

When Students Insult

Even Shakespeare Insulted

How do you respond when a student tries to insult you? I been insulted by students calling me "four eyes" or asking me when my baby is due. Usually, I try to joke back, but sometimes what students say is inappropriate such as when they try to get on the subject of sex. I have known of some teachers who have been very hurt by what students will say. One teacher, somewhat elderly, got very hurt when students asked her if she had to use a diaper to get through the day.

How do you handle insults? Are there any subject, off topic with you? Do you try to joke back with them? What are there responses that are not appropriate or at least, counter-productive?

Verbivore

Another web page I would highly recommend is the Verbivore page of Richard Lederer.

Here is one of his stories on teachers:

"Some of my favorite stories about teachers are positively heavenly:

St. Peter hears a knocking at the Gates of Heaven and calls out, "Who's there?"
"It is I," a voice responds.
"Oh no, not another English teacher," sighs St. Peter.
St. Peter welcomes the teacher into heaven and says he will show her to where she will spend eternity.

The first neighborhood is lovely. People stroll park lawns, socialize, and play golf on a beautiful course. Everyone is having a great time. The teacher asks if this is where she will live, but St. Peter says it's just for doctors. The teacher rolls her eyes and sighs.

They walk on, and the teacher sees another neighborhood that is just as beautiful -- exquisite mansions, gorgeous grounds and lavish facilities. Again she inquires if this is where she will live, but St. Peter says it's for lawyers.

On through the clouds they walk and soon come to a third neighborhood. It too is lovely, with shining mansions, parks, pools and the like. St. Peter tells the teacher this will be her new home in Heaven. The teacher is thrilled, but she notices that no one is around, and all the mansions seem to be empty. She asks St. Peter where everyone is. Didn't many teachers make it to Heaven?

St. Peter announces that yes, there are lots of teachers in Heaven, and they won't return until the next day. They are all in Hell attending an in-service training session."

Richard Lederer's Verbivore

Another Frank and Earnest Pun Cartoon

Frank and Earnest

National Pun Day

On my own, I have declared next Sunday, National Pun Day because that date answers the questiion, "What date of the year do soldiers hate the most." (You'll figure it out.)

I love good puns. Here's one of my favorites:

Veteran Pillsbury spokesman Pop N. Fresh died Wednesday of a severe yeast infection. He was 71.

He was buried Friday in one of the biggest funerals in years. Dozens of celebrities turned out including Mrs. Butterworth, the California Raisins, Hungry Jack, Betty Crocker, and the Hostess Twinkies.

The graveside was piled high with flours, as longtime friend Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy, describing Fresh as a man who "never knew he was kneaded".

Fresh rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a smart cookie, and wasted much of his dough on half-baked schemes.

Still, even as a crusty old man, he was a roll model to millions. Fresh is survived by his second wife. They had two children, and one in the oven.

The funeral was at for 20 minutes at 350

Okay, that's my contribution to National Pun Day. Do you have a favorite pun? Send it to me and I'll post it!