Thursday, January 26, 2006
New innovation in Mathematics education.
I am about to create a Mathematics suppository. When you see my students come walking out of the building a bit funny, you'll know that we just learned all the basic math facts. I swear, there doesn't seem to be any other way, some days.
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Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
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Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
Thursday, January 19, 2006
It's new! Not available in any stores!
It's Emo Elmo!
Pull his string and hear him say classic emo phrases like:
"Life is pain."
"I wish the world would just end."
"Even breathing takes too much effort."
"I wish Depeche Mode would play near here."
Comes with his very own dark and bitter coffee, unfiltered European blend cigarettes, purple hair dye, and re-usable razor blades.
Smoky darkened cafe with expensive crap food, art canvas, and morbid poetry journal sold seperately.
Available only from PossumCowboy Toys.
--
Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
Pull his string and hear him say classic emo phrases like:
"Life is pain."
"I wish the world would just end."
"Even breathing takes too much effort."
"I wish Depeche Mode would play near here."
Comes with his very own dark and bitter coffee, unfiltered European blend cigarettes, purple hair dye, and re-usable razor blades.
Smoky darkened cafe with expensive crap food, art canvas, and morbid poetry journal sold seperately.
Available only from PossumCowboy Toys.
--
Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
Sometimes, you just don't have to look very far to find the bizzare.
My dad, unannounced, dropped by the exhouse of the exwife to deliver a birthday present for my oldest daughter. We (neither I nor the exwife) have spoken to him in nearly a year and a half. They were working on homework and then there was this knock on the door and there he was. He stayed for about ten minutes, and left. Didn't ask about me while he was there, though.
I'm so tired of all this. It's crap. And it leaves me feeling of low self-worth, when I've worked really hard to create a damned decent person of myself. Accepting that someone simply will never be who you wish they would be still leaves an empty feeling. Knowing that I have a father and wishing for a dad is just saddening. I feel a sense of loss for something that I don't feel I ever had a chance to have with the man that he never chose to be.
I called my brother today, just out of the blue, because my mom said she didn't want us to grow apart too much because blood and family and blah blah blah. He'd taken some medication for a migraine and was pretty much knocked out. We talked for about five minutes, during which he neglected to tell me that his wife is expecting their fifth child (mom told me the other day). I'm sort of getting a forgotten vibe from him, too.
I did talk to my sister, but she called as I was pulling in to the place I was going to have lunch during a work day, so we didn't really have time to chat, and she sounded all businesslike anyway.
When I got home from work, kittiecath had created the most fabulous meal you can imagine. Pork chops baked in cream of mushroom soup with potatoes and omiGAWD it was sooo good. We ate, and watched the SNL Best of Chris Farley DVD, then got ice cream and watched an episode of Firefly, and then snuggled. Naked. And my cat watched. And all that stuff up there sort of didn't matter anymore.
I'm so tired of all this. It's crap. And it leaves me feeling of low self-worth, when I've worked really hard to create a damned decent person of myself. Accepting that someone simply will never be who you wish they would be still leaves an empty feeling. Knowing that I have a father and wishing for a dad is just saddening. I feel a sense of loss for something that I don't feel I ever had a chance to have with the man that he never chose to be.
I called my brother today, just out of the blue, because my mom said she didn't want us to grow apart too much because blood and family and blah blah blah. He'd taken some medication for a migraine and was pretty much knocked out. We talked for about five minutes, during which he neglected to tell me that his wife is expecting their fifth child (mom told me the other day). I'm sort of getting a forgotten vibe from him, too.
I did talk to my sister, but she called as I was pulling in to the place I was going to have lunch during a work day, so we didn't really have time to chat, and she sounded all businesslike anyway.
When I got home from work, kittiecath had created the most fabulous meal you can imagine. Pork chops baked in cream of mushroom soup with potatoes and omiGAWD it was sooo good. We ate, and watched the SNL Best of Chris Farley DVD, then got ice cream and watched an episode of Firefly, and then snuggled. Naked. And my cat watched. And all that stuff up there sort of didn't matter anymore.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Just wanted to share.
Friday, January 13, 2006
notes from the 4627 at 7 meeting this morning
"Honesty without compassion is cruelty."
This came from Sister Anne, a retired nun who was back in town to visit. She's been in recovery for a really long time.
--
Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
This came from Sister Anne, a retired nun who was back in town to visit. She's been in recovery for a really long time.
--
Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Sometimes, you forget to be grateful for the brains that you have.
I just got done teaching my afternoon groups. Two groups of 4th graders from the same class. The concepts that I'm trying to get across to them are not that difficult. The steps of the procedures are very simple, formulaic, and straightforward. And you know what? They still stumble. They still need what we call "guided practice" after several weeks of the same thing. This isn't good, and it's very frustrating from my end. It can't be any treat from their end, either.
I sometimes jokingly say to other teachers that we do need people to make french fries, as well as perform intra-cranial surgery and spacecraft design, but the truth is that I really want these kids to have more options than that. The only way to have options is to have knowledge and skills, and trying to explain that sometimes just doesn't seem to be working. I think I'd have better luck teaching a slug to ice skate, or a mouse to calibrate thrust ratios on an afterburning engine.
So, tomorrow, we'll do it again, and again and again, and I hope that you'll take a minute and really appreciate that brain that you were given, because some people are always going to struggle, no matter how hard the teacher tries. There isn't anyone at fault; it just is.
--
Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
I sometimes jokingly say to other teachers that we do need people to make french fries, as well as perform intra-cranial surgery and spacecraft design, but the truth is that I really want these kids to have more options than that. The only way to have options is to have knowledge and skills, and trying to explain that sometimes just doesn't seem to be working. I think I'd have better luck teaching a slug to ice skate, or a mouse to calibrate thrust ratios on an afterburning engine.
So, tomorrow, we'll do it again, and again and again, and I hope that you'll take a minute and really appreciate that brain that you were given, because some people are always going to struggle, no matter how hard the teacher tries. There isn't anyone at fault; it just is.
--
Is it really truth that we seek, or just a sweet enough lie to settle our minds so we can sleep at night?
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Gentlemen! I give you...
