Isaac has now been alive 13 months and I wanted to recap his adventures this month.
The summer began which meant we were starting our time with our pool passes. Isaac loves the water and he runs around in it and even when he falls in over his head you just pick him up real fast and then he is ready to go again after spitting the water out.
We also recently discovered the Grayslake Park District Splash Park, and Isaac loves this place too. It is just an adventure land with water toys he can run around in. He has been “bumping into” girls there also and saying, “Hi.” He is a gonna be a heart breaker I fear. (I love the one on the left!)
Much like the pool and the park. Isaac loves bath and is still quite exciting to get to splash around. I think really it is just that he likes violence and destruction much like Continue Reading…
So, here we go again with another group making a mountain out of a mole hill with President Obama. Thus begins part three of my stop picking on the Obama’s series.
During an interview with CNBC, as many people know, Obama swatted and subsequently killed a fly that had been buzzing around him during an interview in the White House. The President displayed lightning quick reflexes in his strike at the fly and was congratulated by those around him. He did something that most Americans would do and wasn’t concerned about it. Here is the interview:
Well, someone was bound to be upset by the behind the scenes footage posted on the CNBC web-site. When question about the incident, as you might of guess the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) were indeed dissapointed. They felt that Obama should have humanely trapped this fly and then released it somewhere. Here is the statement from their blog: Continue Reading…
I feel like everytime I watch The Daily Show I come to the realization that everyone should watch this show in order to see the ridiculousness that exists in the world. He does such a nice job of pointing out the obvious contradictions of the worlds figures. (Of course, it helps to have a staff of people who must just watch C-Span, CNN, Fox News, etc… all day and tag and categorize everything that is said or done.) I feel bad basically just blogging about what Jon Stewart says, but they say that imitation is the must sincere form of flattery, so I guess that is what this is. I want to spread the word of the more hilarious stories he does.
So, on the June 18th episode of The Daily Show, Stewart reports to us how the house republicans are trying to compare what is happening in Iran to their own “oppression” in the house and they are both using Twitter to speak out. Here is one example of the ridiculousness:
I guess I see the point he is trying to make, but sometimes we need to put issues in perspective. The people in Iran are using Twitter because they have no other outlet to the world since the Iranian government has shut down their access. The members of Congress can get on the news whenever they want. I don’t think that Mr. Hoekstra was trying to trivialize the situation in Iran, but it seems like he could choose his tweets more carefully.
But, it’s not just politicians! After a great post on The Nation regarding the use of social networking to report in Iran, this was the response of one reader: Continue Reading…
Issac loves to take this water toy frisbee and put it in my mouth and then I flap it around and he gets a kick out of this. He also likes sticking oher things in my mouth too. He likes to feed me food and pit fridge magnets in my mouth. Here is the video:
Isaac used a fork today. I don’t know that it was the first time, but it was adorable. Gina had to put the food on the fork, but he got it into his mouth.
American Idol has been over for a few weeks now and I invested a lot of time in that show this season but I was a disappointed with the finale. I have no problem with Kris winning, he is a talented artist and will do a great job. The actual finale, for me, was a low point in the American Idol franchise. There were some good performances, but Idol was trying very hard to recapture the magic they had a few year’s ago when Clay Aiken came out on stage to surprise the geeky wanne be kid. That was the best finale ever.
In this season’s finale, they brought back bikini girl to sing since she was a funny auditioner, which was fine I guess. (Kind of tasteless but she is the one that came to auditions in a bikini.) Then things went downhill from there. (Although it did bring a rather funny point when she walks out with a clearly new boob job and Ryan said, “Well I’d ask you what’s new…”)
First of all Kara felt the need to try and upstage bikini girl in a singing contest like she did during the auditions. This was a huge mistake. Kara Dioguardi is a judge on the show. She does not need to lower herself and prove herself as a better singer than bikini girl. This very act dropped my respect for her a lot. It just shows how petty, ego-centric, and immature Kara is that she felt the need to show up this obviously less competent performer.
So, on top of that, Kara flashes the crowd in a bikini under the guise of “charity.” I don’t even know how to fully express my disgust with this action, but what was the point? Is Kara so insecure with herself that she needs to show off her body to make a point? I am really surprised that Idol sunk to this level and if I had been watching the show with Isaac I would have been pissed! This is supposed to be a family and now there are TWO people in bikinis on stage. Kara needed to be the bigger person.
I of course will still watch Idol next season, and I will give Kara another chance because I am a forgiving person. But if Idol doesn’t pull itself our of the gutter I may need to change my Tuesday night viewing.
The end of the school year is a hard time for me. Each year I meet a new group of students and get to form relationships with them. One of my co-workers has been preaching for a couple years about how the key to successful teaching is forming relationships. With this in mind, I have made an even more concerted effort this school year and I think it worked well. I open myself to my students in a lot of way that other teachers do not. I talk to them about non-school things during class (which is pretty common), I friend with them on Facebook if they request, and I allow them to text me. (Mind you I have only ever kind of given my number to my bowlers, but the number seems to get around.)
A lot of teachers would be uncomfortable with some of these avenues, but for me I truly believe that it has made my teaching more effective, (Research would seem to agree, Link 1, Link 2.) and it is the only way I know how to be. Many times I would see something on Facebook that I could discuss with the students during class the next day to build those connections, or a student would see something I posted about myself or Isaac and then we could use that to build a connection in class. I try to tell myself each year that I am not going to get as close to the students, but I can’t do it. I love teaching and I love it because of the students I get to meet. They change me for the better and hopefully the opposite is true. When the days are tough and I need a break from teaching, the kids are what get me up in the morning and keep me going. If I didn’t have a strong relationship with the students, I wouldn’t enjoy my job nearly as much. I wouldn’t know how to teach any other way.
On Scrubs Dr. Cox says he teaches through fear, but I can’t do that. I have too much fun being a goof with kids and interacting with them. Each day I am not sure what is going to happen in class, but it usually results in us laughing and having a good time. I’ve always believed that I can get more out of the students if they like me and want to work in class for me, if not for physics. Some people yell to manage their classes, but I like to use my relationship with the kids to manage the classroom.
Anyway, the point is that I formed some pretty strong relationships my students this year. I wouldn’t say it was with every student, but on the whole I felt closer to my students this year than any year in the past. One of my big fears in teaching had been that as I got older, I’m 29 now, I would start to lose touch with the students. I have actually found now that the opposite is true. This year I have found that more students have talked to me in an advice type sense than any other year. So, while my relationship with students is different than it was when I started teaching, I find that I am enjoying the new role I am in.
So, now the end of the year comes and I have to say good-bye to these wonderful young people. I do not know why this is so hard for me each year. Part of my says I only see these kids for 44 minutes a day for 180 days this shouldn’t be this hard. But, even knowing that, I feel a void when they leave. The truth of the matter is I see a lot of these kids more than that. Some come in for help, some come by to hang out, and some I just see other times. I love how things go for the first 9 months of the year, but the last week or so is just really depressing. I often refer to it as Post-Prom Depression. It is a rough week because the kids are stressed out and cranky because they are going through a bunch of emotions with high school ending and their teachers piling on projects. I have to battle with them to stay on task because they have senioritis yet I have to be the responsible one. At the same time I just want to hang out with them because they are going to be gone soon. This really makes closure tough to come by.
I try to do somethings to get closure. I give them a little speech with a couple of simple pieces of advice. Then I teach them how to tie a neck-tie. This year I started a new tradition by doing something that my high school calculus teacher Mrs. Courtney O’Berry did that was very memorable for me: I read them Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. This was received well and I liked it.
Anyway, I am not really sure what I wanted out of this post. Mostly I just felt like I needed to get some thoughts off of my mind. I love teaching and interacting with students and I would never conduct myself in any other way than fully committed to building relationships with students. This year in particular I have grown particularly close to two students and they have helped me grow as a teacher and as a parent. They may never know they affect they have had on me just like I will never know the effect I have had on many students. I recently read a quote, The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit. I don’t really like quoting other people, but this really sums up what I believe in a very elegant statement. I guess the hardest part is never knowing if the things I do on a daily basis have a positive lasting impact.
I don’t post nearly often enough about Isaac and his growth, but today was quite exciting. Kind out of nowhere Isaac decided to stand up from the ground with no help. He sort creates a triangle with his body and then uses hands to get a point that he is bending over and then stands up. We were out in the yard planting some grass and I could see a look in his eyes that said he wanted to stand up alone. But, he didn’t do it. Then we came inside and several hours later after Gina got home he did it very unexpectedly. I grabbed the camcorder then and he was being goofy for a while and then he did again (well almost and then fell) and then he did it for real (he technically used the box of wipes, but he didn’t need to.) Lastly, right after I turned off the camera he walked into the side of the couch and fell down. It was very funny but not taped.
The first video is him being goofy and trying (and failing) to stand up.
