I’ve shared this with my coworkers by email, with most of my social networks, and with friends and family. Just in case I missed anyone who works with children or just wants to know more about teaching read, here’s the latest.
It’s synthesis. It’s all about putting thoughts together. Check it out.
The story you are about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect – aw, heck, the names have been changed. That’s all.
Actual email from Chuck on the morning of a small election (primary for State Supreme Court Justice):
That could be a country song title, I believe. “Slow cookin’, just slow cookin’ my life away.” Work with it, folks, and when you win your Grammy, make sure you tell the world that you got the idea from Daisy at Compost Happens.
But anyway, back to business. I may have set a new record last week: four days out of seven, I used a crock pot. Monday: brunch casserole for supper. This dish of eggs, milk, herbs, and whatever strikes my fancy simmered all day on a low heat. When I got home after school, it was almost done. I cooked up maple sausages on the side, and we were ready to eat.
Tuesday: butternut squash. Or did I make that on Sunday? It was a rather large squash I’d bought at a September farm market. I skinned and chopped a little more than half of it, added a little broth and butter, and let it cook all day on low. Yum. It was a little heavy on the liquid, so I drained it through a colander before mashing it all. Delicious.
Wednesday: I had a staff meeting after school, so I knew I wouldn’t have much time to cook. Out came the big crock, and in went the chili. Amigo added noodles and stirred the mix late in the afternoon for a good Wisconsin chili mac, and it was ready when I walked in after my meeting.
Then Saturday rolled around. Chuck was out of town, so I made something Amigo and I like that Chuck can’t stand: lamb stew. I had a container in the freezer, so I dumped it into a small crock on low. Amigo and I had it with leftover rice. It was very good, I must say, and very low maintenance.
This week promises to be busy, but not quite as busy as last week was. The crocks might stay in the cupboard. Then again, maybe they won’t.
No, don’t answer that. In fact, don’t you dare even think “What else could go wrong?!”
It started with the Kwik Trip. I usually stop by the neighborhood Kwik Trip convenience store for coffee on Fridays. Today, they were out of hazelnut, my preferred flavor. I took Kona blend instead. I should have stopped right there and gone home.
But no, I kept plugging away. I headed to work, Kona blend in hand. I made it to my cubicle without incident and turned on my computer. That’s when this happened.
Oh, dear. This looks serious.
When my computer finally came on, I emailed these two pictures to Helpdesk. She promised help right away. The techie (an intern, it turned out) came up within minutes. He rebooted the computer to watch the show, and guess what — nothing happened.
So after my morning classes, I walked away to get my attendance from the printer, and when I came back, the computer had shut down. On its own, it had quit. Neither monitor was on. I turned it back on, and the light show began. I took video this time. The blue-green phase lasted almost 3 minutes. I gave up and called Helpdesk.
I reached the voice mail. I left a message with my name and location, yada yada yada, and then wandered off to have my own lunch (sushi — we’d ordered out).
My chopsticks broke. I got a sliver from one of them. And I didn’t get a fortune cookie, either. That’s what happens, I guess, when I order Japanese sushi from the Chinese restaurant. I should have given up then.
But no. I still had one more class to teach and a number of phone calls on my to-do list. I moved to an unoccupied cubicle, logged into my classroom, and finished the afternoon. After that, the principal told me IT had been back, replaced a cord, and left. I refrained from jumping up and down and cheering, and turned on the computer. One. More. Time.
Then this came up.
AAAAARGH!!!
Eventually, the reboot finished, and all appeared to be well. I made a few phone calls, cleared my email inboxes, wiped down the entire desk with cleaning wipes, and turned everything off.
Monday, if they’re out of my coffee at the Kwik Trip, I might just turn around and go home.
Amigo, my favorite news junkie, announced the news: Supreme Court Antonin Scalia found dead at age 79, most likely of natural causes.
My first reaction: wow.
My second reaction: I hope President Obama makes a nomination quickly, because today’s Congress and Senate will fight him tooth and nail. The approval process may linger until Obama’s successor is elected and inaugurated.
Social Media and traditional outlets were going wild with both the news and the reactions. Here’s a taste.
“I am stunned by the loss of Justice Scalia…And while I frequently disagreed with Justice Scalia’s views, our country will remember him as one of the most powerful and consequential voices of his generation.” – Russ Feingold, candidate for Senate in Wisconsin
Control of the nation’s top court now hangs in the balance. –Huffington Post
Next, unfortunately, came several headlines and links exclaiming “GOP vows to block any Obama nominee!”
Make no mistake, people. President Obama is the type of person who probably put a plan in place early in his tenure in case the opportunity arose to nominate a new justice. This is the type of appointment that can have an impact long after he leaves office. A good-for-life appointment to the Supreme Court has the potential to last years beyond any legislation passed in the past 7 years – including the Affordable Care Act.
Unfortunately, President Obama’s opponents likely had a plan in place, too. Their plan is consistent in its predictability: opposition. If Obama says green, they say red. If he points up, they point down. If the President leans left, they pull to the right and pull hard.
This philosophy of obstruction reminds me of students with an ODD diagnosis – Oppositional Defiant Disorder. A young person with ODD is much like today’s ultra-conservatives. Rather than setting up their own possibilities for success, they prepare to block anything set up by another. Teaching kids with ODD is difficult because the students are all too predictable; if the teacher says out, they will say in. If the work is to be done in pen, they’ll do it in pencil, just because they can.If the teacher says “Sit down” the students might stand up, kick a chair over, or even take off running through the halls – anything but cooperate.
One philosophy we teachers learn is that it’s not important to have the last word; it’s more important to have the lasting word. Rather than push a child to the point of total refusal, we state the necessary behavior and then back off, monitoring the child while not going head to head. This gives the student the chance to save face while still complying with the teacher’s request.
In this script, President Obama is the teacher. Certain individuals (fill in the blank here, folks, you know you can) play the parts of ODD students in the drama. No matter what (or whom) he suggests, they will squeal loudly in opposition just because they can. Meanwhile, the President will work quietly and calmly behind the scenes, building rapport and gathering the votes necessary to approve the nominee. When all is said and done and the new justice is seated on the Supreme Court, President Obama will have had the lasting word – a nominee to last a lifetime.
We tried to cut our subscription to weekends only. on a typical workday, I don’t read the newspaper until after school, and by then, it’s way outdated. I’ve probably run across all the major headlines on Facebook during my lunch break.
The local paper didn’t offer a weekend subscription. The closest we could get was a Friday-Saturday-Sunday. We gave in got the three day subscription.
Then the local paper changed its subscription structure again. They extended the “weekend” to include Thursdays – no extra charge. This must be for the advertisers’ benefit. Thursdays are stuffed with flyers, and I can’t think of any other reason to add Thursday to a “weekend”.
Add to this the fact that our carrier is not the most reliable. If he were on a basketball team, he’d miss all the free throws. If he played football, he’d be constantly out of bounds. The morning paper arrives, but doesn’t always make it up onto the porch. This weekend, I finally found Thursday’s paper – on Sunday. Sunday’s paper was on the sidewalk at the foot of the steps. When I walked down to get it, I saw Thursday’s issue – tucked in behind a pile of snow, backed up against the porch steps at an angle that completely hid it from view until I came down to the sidewalk. I had to balance precariously at the edge of the snow to reach it.
So here it is, Sunday. I’ve finished the Sunday paper, and now I’m going to read Thursday’s. Maybe I’ll find something new and informative. Maybe not. Maybe the comics page will be the only page that’s actually “new”.
Readers, family, friends – do you get a daily paper? Why or why not? I’m curious.
I’m on the national blog again, doing what I do. This post shares yet another key to comprehension: finding the most important information. Any reference to a local Trivia contest is purely coincidental. Not.
The Roman Numeral for 50 is L; but 50 looks better in logos and ads.
Photos of Superb Owls are all over the Internet.
Commercials can be better than the game.
The NE Patriots are still the team we love to hate; similar to the New York Yankees.
It’s more fun to watch the Super Bowl without Tom Brady.
50 years of MVPs makes a long list.
Remember when I said this?
Hillary has all the traits I value in a leader. She’s intelligent, strong, experienced, knowledgeable, and the list could go on and on. Hillary Clinton would be an excellent president of the United States.
The trouble is this: Hillary may not be the best candidate.
She has baggage. Lots of baggage. Benghazi. Email-gate. Her age and gender (damn, I wish those didn’t matter). Her outspokenness.
It seems the outspokenness, her willingness to speak up loud and clear, is hitting Hillary hard right now. It’s not just a speaking thing, either. It’s most definitely related to gender.
Hillary spoke at a rally in New Hampshire a few days ago. One attendee reflected on the experience by saying “She was AMAZING! The crowd loved her. There were no problems with her “style.” She was fired up–like male candidates whose tone we do not police.”
And therein lies the conflict. Men who speak up with enthusiasm and speak loudly enough to be heard over a crowd don’t gather critics and pundits analyzing their tone, pitch, or volume. But Hillary Clinton, one of the strongest women I can name, takes flak for “shouting” and sounding “shrill”.
Frankly, people, I know many women who can speak loudly and clearly and bring a noisy and excited crowd to attention within seconds. These women are teachers. They know how to make their voices carry without shouting, how to make eye contact with as many as 30 people very quickly, and then how to make the crowd or classroom stay on the edge of their seats waiting for more.
Hillary would fit in very well in the world of teaching. As I’ve said, she is intelligent, strong, experienced, knowledgeable, and more. And now, I’m adding “outspoken” to the list of positives. She knows what she’s talking about, and she knows how to say it. That’s not complicated; it’s a skill.
I was working on postcards at the Democrats’ office during the 2012 campaign when a woman came in from a Republican event. She was very upset – not by the opposing party, but by one of our own. A volunteer with our party had gone to the event for the opposition. Instead of simply listening and gathering information, she acted out. She spit on a Romney supporter, who then scratched her in retaliation. The woman who had been there kept repeating, “Is this what we’ve come to? Is this really what we’ve come to?” Her faith in human nature was on the downswing at that moment.
Within a day, the “spitter” was kicked off the campaign staff, and the coordinator had made it clear that this was not behavior that would be tolerated. All of us were to keep to the high road. My faith in human nature was restored.
This happened four years ago. Today’s headlines are so full of ups and downs that my confidence jumps like a jackrabbit.
Flint, Michigan sickens its population with lead in their public water system: down. State officials and high-level locals are outed as having known about the problem and both ignored it and lied about it while they themselves drank bottled water. Down, down, down.
Plumbers travel to Flint to install water filters in people’s homes – free of charge. Up.
My alderman posts an update for her constituents informing us of the process our city uses for water treatment. She gives enough detail that we can feel safe drinking the water. Up.
I find out that Good Ole’ Boy Next Door Peyton Manning not only acts in Papa John’s commercials, he supports the same far-right wing candidates with his own donations. Manning also owns a Papa John’s franchise where the pizza is overpriced and the staff is underpaid. This is a downer – a big downer. I might just have to cheer for Cam Newton and his Panthers.
A new potential pandemic virus rears its ugly head in Brazil, the host country for upcoming 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Why should this Zika virus be a downturn for my faith in human nature? This virus is passed on by mosquitoes, and current strategies include spraying many gallons of pesticides throughout the cities where the presence of the virus has been confirmed. Problem? Think DDT, people. Does anyone know the effects of these pesticides? We thought DDT was safe, too…until…just ask the neighborhood bald eagle.
Our wacky governor signs into law a bill allowing concealed carry of – switchblades. Yep, switchblades. This only a matter of days after he signed a law authorizing a new color for hunting; blaze pink. What the –?
And so it goes – good news, bad news, better news, worse news, and news that makes me think the world is spiraling down the toilet. Maybe, just maybe, I should get offline and get something else done. Maybe I’ll clean the bathroom.