September 22, 2011
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Kickin' it Old Skool
1 Ah, good ol' Back-to-School Night. With an almost minimum day yesterday, I flew out of the school at 1:30 in the afternoon, following my plan to go home, watch lousy documentaries, nap, and return to the school by six p.m.
2 Not bad, not bad at all. I used to do that sort of thing every single day when I was the activities' mahster.
3 The extra sleep was awesome. Hulu was particularly helpful, spitting out a lot of low-budget docs.
4 I'm a documentary nerd, always have been.
5 I like finding out about how poorly we eat, how lazy we are, how the Fed makes fake money, and how the fabulousy rich are fabulously rich because they have utterly no scruples, and whatever else they want us to think.
6 Been there.
7 After a while I just smile and fall into a saintly sleep. My body becomes an enormous block of lead and gravity. My mind feels comfort and fills swiftly with daisies, green fields and cumulus clouds.
8 Within that slumber, I hear crisp sounds. A bluebird flutters by, followed by the sound of a movie projector clicking in my right ear and then humming on the crown of my head. A new Hulu documentary travels through my headphones, filling my head with all sorts of nonsense that my mind doesn't care to channel. It's a perfect recipe for sleep.
9 After a glorious fashion, I awaken as one of the ear buds dangles off my right lobe while my left eye slowly opens. The dog gives a high-pitched "BARK!" and raises my slumbering arm with her nose. She starts wagging her tale, and I reluctantly get up. It is a copy/paste of the middle of the night before.
10 Only this was yesterday afternoon. I had the house darkened down and cool, and smiled again. I had a perfectly luscious nap, and still had time to sit down, tap out the outline of today's DN, loved the time, and the sleep.
11 I still had to shower, get dressed, pop over to the school, set up my room, and practice my presentation a few times. Fortunately, by the time you've done this a billion times, it becomes a show you've performed many times prior.
12 Once the evening began, I went full blast for almost two hours. As expected, parents asked about their students' grades, not realizing that I probably wouldn't be opening that can of worms, not at BTSN. Fortunately this year I posted everything, kept it up-to-date, so any and all info is already out there anyway.
13 Still, it's a different form of teaching. It is pure energy, everything you spend the day doing, only in a ridiculously short period of time. I have to guess that blood pressure goes off the charts each year I do this, but I also get pretty energized at the end of the evening.
14 I always love when parents come in, because it shows me that they love and care enough about their kids that they will work all day, or raise kids all day, and STILL find time to get themselves down to the school on an annoyingly hot day.
15 I particularly looked forward to last evening because I have so many awesome students this year. When students are mannerly and thoughtful, there is usually a direct correlation. Apple. Tree. Good people.
16 The funny part of it is, I actually wrote most of today's DN before I left for the school. I had such a delightful nap, took my time, prepared entirely for the evening, and decided to embrace it as a nice evening. I knew I wouldn't get home 'til around 9:30 p.m., which makes for a long day, but not like the teacher who complained yesterday morning that we would be "camping out" until the middle of the evening.
17 Well, if you hang out in your classroom all afternoon, then yeah. I had planned for the evening as far back as August. I had my students make magazines so the parents would have something fun to look at while I yammered about standards, expectations, and dreams for the school year.
18 I also managed to get some magazine racks up. The guy who runs the library told me that he had no use for them, and that I could have them. They looked really cool. I set them up in the middle of the room and slid a bunch of the students' magazines on the rack. My room looked a lot like a library with all original material in it. The kids went all out on their magz, so the whole place looked clean, organized, and awesome.
19 So fun night, overall, but getting home at 9:30 was WAY past my bed time.
20 Benjamin Franklin was right.
21 Early to bed, early to rise makes a man want to stay in bed anyway.
22 Good ol' Benjamin. I always thought it would be cool to be the picture boy on the hundred-dollar bill.
23 AnywayZ, today's DN was brought to you by an awesome cat nap yesterday, followed by a dog's breath alarm, some prettying up, and a fun night.
24 There is a younger generation that has lots of brilliant minds, and that also brings all of us a brightness and hope that I see most every day. Pretty refreshing, considering all the dreaded news we keep getting on the wire nearly every day.
25 We've a pretty bright generation coming up. That was evident all evening, and it lit up all of us.
26 Yes sir folks, there's hope. And it almost springs eternal.
27 So on that, I'll bid you a fond farewell for the day.
28 Enjoy your day; there's a lots of nice things to be enjoyed.
29 There has to be, despite all. Good to see good kids doing good things.
30 So look up in the sky and smile today. Sometimes life's good.
31 Have a great one.
32 Peace.
~H~
Meet Nigel. He brings me luck. Last year
he had an accident. He's okay now. He got a
Hello Kitty! Band-Aid.
