May 9, 2013
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WARRIORS!!! NOT BACKING DOWN!!!
The Daily News1 I loved the headline in today’s Merc regarding the Warriors: Not Backing down.
2 And they’re comin’ home!
3 Anybody looking?
4 Awesome game. Klay Thompson steps it up.
5 If you have tix to the next home game, you’d better bring sunglasses.
6 Good times.
7 Moving on, Part One: I have to move fast here because I slept through the night.
8 Amazing what a playoff win can do for slumber.
9 And we’re talking a bona-fide insomniac over here, complete with old movies, Crystal Light, and Nutella for midnight snacks.
10 Slept like a little lamb.
11 Wonderful.
12 Moving on, Part Two: I told my students that I’ll be teaching Julius Caesar into next week, and one kid asked, “What’s he like?”
13 Just kidding.
14 That stuff happens, but that one didn’t. I just wanted to get in a few more column inches before I have to bounce.
15 I’m giving a bubble test today.
16 That’s around six thousand of those things we have given, and I also have to give another next week.
17 That and furlough days literally stole my best practices, which I usually save for the end of the year.
18 Never mind taking a day to return books (BEFORE finals!) and handing back papers.
19 Next Friday is our last day before finals.
20 I had at least four wonderful lessons that have been replaced by bubble tests.
21 Oh.
22 Some of you might not know what bubble tests are.
23 They are those tests that you used to take that you needed a Number 2 pencil to take. STOP. DO NOT GO ON TO THE NEXT PART OF THE TEST. Remember those?
24 Most of those were either district or state tests.
25 In my early days, I remember older teachers who would look to the stars and cry out that they would NEVER teach to the test.
26 I understood why, even in my early days.
27 A part of me felt that it held us accountable for teaching what we are supposed to be teaching. I get that. Public funds and all.
28 But if the students are constantly being prodded and tested, they are going to get exhausted.
29 And just teaching them something doesn’t assure mastery.
30 We have to follow up, and constantly remind them of what we have taught earlier.
31 That process gets constantly interrupted every time a new test is thrown their way, especially when it is almost a pop bubble test.
32 There is also an inherent danger anytime the state threatens to take over the minds.
33 That’s what scares me.
34 That becomes no longer education.
35 It becomes totalitarianism.
36 Fear not.
37 I let my students know about The Man.
38 I taught my JFK unit again this year. It was a lot of fun blowing the dust off those old books.
39 The new books are LYING about all of that. I’m not lying here. They are, and it is out of control.
40 “It happened years ago. Why is it relevant now?” ask the young ones.
41
42 Julius Caesar happened years ago. People plot an act of terrorism: the assassination of Caesar.
43 How do they first approach each other with the notion?
44 How do they get someone else manipulated into joining the conspiracy?
45 That’s not relevant?
46 Anybody looking?
47 I’ll probably get carted away today for twice using the word “terrorism” in this piece.
48 Scary times, man.
49 Moving on, Part the Thoid: Heck, they might even take me away for deliberately misspelling the word “third.’
50 It tries men’s souls.
51 I’m not really sked.
52 Anybody looking?
53 This stuff is too stupid usually for anyone to take it seriously.
54 What are ya kiddin’ me? Anyone who takes me seriously is a moron. Or not.
55 I gottago.
56 I just wanted to give you another day in the life. This is how teachers view the world. You’re getting it live, each day.
57 Have a GREAT day, and fly low. I mean that. Take care.
58 See you again.
59 Peace.
~H~
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