August joy
11 years ago
17 February 2006
If you can make it there...
Thanks to NPR for having an item about this site on Morning Edition (Bob Edwards, I miss you!). My new favorite blog is Overheard in New York. Each of these snippets of actual conversation brings me back to the city that never sleeps - and it is so typically New York, it's wonderful. Peruse, enjoy, some of them are not really suitable for work, but they're all wonderful.
15 February 2006
Panda-monium!
In case you hadn't heard, DC is in the midst of panda-mania. Tai Shan was born this summer to great excitment (make sure you check out the slide show of photos). I'll admit I was one of those very excited people - not out of any particular panda love, but because baby animals are cute (although the baby porcupine (who was quite adorable, but not cuddly) born last week got considerably less press than Tai Shan). On Sunday, Tai Shan got to his enjoy his very first snow. After a reluctant beginning, he apparently enjoyed frolicking in the snow with his mom. All at once now: "Awwwwwwwwwwwww..."
14 February 2006
Amateur meteorologist
Whenever there is snow in the forecast, most teachers become amateur meteorologists. We avidly watch the Weather Channel, or the local news, whichever is the preference, and make all kinds of proclamations that most of us are completely and totally unqualified to make.
"Oh, the snow will pass off to the west - we won't get much precipitation at all."
"It'll sock us in, we won't be in school for days. Better stock up on bread, toilet paper and milk."
One thing I have noticed: every school has a Weather Guy. Or at least, in my vast experience of two schools, they each have had the "Weather Guy". The Weather Guy is the one who makes weather his hobby. He talks about it with extensive background knowledge - he may even be a science teacher. He is the guy that people go to when there is the threat of impending snowy weather (because frankly, much as we love our jobs, teachers are often even more excited about snow days than students are), and he will hold forth on the subject.
The Weather Guy at my previous school was a really nice guy. He taught science, and actually taught something called "Geosystems", which actually teaches weather systems. I figure this actually qualifies him to make pronouncements about the weather. He was also a very calming presence, and always had a smile on his face when I went to the coffee club in the mornings, and as far as I know, despite the sometimes raucous nature of the morning coffee club, he never had a bad word to say about anyone, even people he didn't like. He loved students, and loved teaching. This was a Weather Guy you could go to with confidence. And he was frequently more correct than the official weathermen that the local networks hire.
The Weather Guy at this school is a social studies teacher, and he's also a nice guy, but I'm just not sure why he's the Weather Guy here. He is actually a self-appointed Weather Guy, whereas the Weather Guy at my previous school had Weather Guy-ness thrust upon him. The WG here is on some kind of e-mail list that sends him weather alerts from the National Weather Service - so we will open our e-mail in the mornings, and there in our inboxes will be an e-mail from WG saying "Fog alert for the county" or "strong wind alert" or something like that. For every single weather event WG has sent us some kind of alert or warning. Even weather events that were non-events. What's that all about?
My question is this: What is it that compels someone to become a WG? Is it truly an obsession with wind patterns and pressure change and precipitation? Is it a need to be desired as a source of knowledge? Is it a sense of self-importance? I am currently under the impression that with the WG at this school he just wants to help - he likes being able to inform people of the world around him, which is only natural - he's a teacher. We like to tell people stuff. We like to share interesting pieces of information, it's what we do. (In fact, at a social gathering last night, I brought out the teacher mode, much to my horror. I began to give a mini-lecture on the design of Washington, DC. Something in which I am not even remotely qualified, except that I think I read a book somewhere once. I watched, horrified, as I took up "teacher stance" and used "teacher voice" and began blathering away about L'Enfant and the diagonal streets. They may never ask me to come back. I did have the good sense to apologize, but the damage may already be done. Nobody likes a know-it-all, and teachers are the worst...and best!) Hey, is there such a thing as too long for a parenthesis? I may have pushed the boundaries on that one.
So with Weather Guy, I suppose one will never really know what drives one to become a WG, but suffice it to say that as long as there will be snow days, there will always be Weather Guys, and teachers who remain glued to the tv or the internet, watching the progress of a storm eagerly.
By the way, I heard this on the Weather Channel on Saturday while I was watching for the storm: "Today, periods of wet rain." Um, what? Is there another kind of rain I need to worry about? Is there dry rain? Should I worry about that? Will it damage my car's tires?
Enough babbling, I have lessons to plan.
"Oh, the snow will pass off to the west - we won't get much precipitation at all."
"It'll sock us in, we won't be in school for days. Better stock up on bread, toilet paper and milk."
One thing I have noticed: every school has a Weather Guy. Or at least, in my vast experience of two schools, they each have had the "Weather Guy". The Weather Guy is the one who makes weather his hobby. He talks about it with extensive background knowledge - he may even be a science teacher. He is the guy that people go to when there is the threat of impending snowy weather (because frankly, much as we love our jobs, teachers are often even more excited about snow days than students are), and he will hold forth on the subject.
The Weather Guy at my previous school was a really nice guy. He taught science, and actually taught something called "Geosystems", which actually teaches weather systems. I figure this actually qualifies him to make pronouncements about the weather. He was also a very calming presence, and always had a smile on his face when I went to the coffee club in the mornings, and as far as I know, despite the sometimes raucous nature of the morning coffee club, he never had a bad word to say about anyone, even people he didn't like. He loved students, and loved teaching. This was a Weather Guy you could go to with confidence. And he was frequently more correct than the official weathermen that the local networks hire.
The Weather Guy at this school is a social studies teacher, and he's also a nice guy, but I'm just not sure why he's the Weather Guy here. He is actually a self-appointed Weather Guy, whereas the Weather Guy at my previous school had Weather Guy-ness thrust upon him. The WG here is on some kind of e-mail list that sends him weather alerts from the National Weather Service - so we will open our e-mail in the mornings, and there in our inboxes will be an e-mail from WG saying "Fog alert for the county" or "strong wind alert" or something like that. For every single weather event WG has sent us some kind of alert or warning. Even weather events that were non-events. What's that all about?
My question is this: What is it that compels someone to become a WG? Is it truly an obsession with wind patterns and pressure change and precipitation? Is it a need to be desired as a source of knowledge? Is it a sense of self-importance? I am currently under the impression that with the WG at this school he just wants to help - he likes being able to inform people of the world around him, which is only natural - he's a teacher. We like to tell people stuff. We like to share interesting pieces of information, it's what we do. (In fact, at a social gathering last night, I brought out the teacher mode, much to my horror. I began to give a mini-lecture on the design of Washington, DC. Something in which I am not even remotely qualified, except that I think I read a book somewhere once. I watched, horrified, as I took up "teacher stance" and used "teacher voice" and began blathering away about L'Enfant and the diagonal streets. They may never ask me to come back. I did have the good sense to apologize, but the damage may already be done. Nobody likes a know-it-all, and teachers are the worst...and best!) Hey, is there such a thing as too long for a parenthesis? I may have pushed the boundaries on that one.
So with Weather Guy, I suppose one will never really know what drives one to become a WG, but suffice it to say that as long as there will be snow days, there will always be Weather Guys, and teachers who remain glued to the tv or the internet, watching the progress of a storm eagerly.
By the way, I heard this on the Weather Channel on Saturday while I was watching for the storm: "Today, periods of wet rain." Um, what? Is there another kind of rain I need to worry about? Is there dry rain? Should I worry about that? Will it damage my car's tires?
Enough babbling, I have lessons to plan.
10 February 2006
I love it when a good plan comes together!
One of the cool things about starting a school from the ground up (ha ha! Literally! Whee I'm punchy today), is that you can make all sorts of wonderful grand statements about how you WANT it to be.
It is this last one that I would like to address today. (Hmm, that was very speech-y. I don't mean it to sound that way, but since I've gone that direction, perhaps it's best to stay the course, what what?)
I truly believe that I am actually an English teacher in disguise. This drives my history students crazy. I love history, and I love teaching it, but I also think that I would love teaching English as well. It is as important to me that my students have good content knowledge when they leave my classroom as it is that they can express themselves through writing in a clear, concise and eloquent manner. They hate that. "But Ms. H, this isn't English class!!" is a popular complaint in my classroom. The idea of teaming with the English department to teach a humanities, or civilization course, as we're calling it (we will not be offering English 10 and World History 2 next year, it will be World Civilization 2), was a very exciting prospect for me, and frankly it was one of the (many) reasons that I decided to come to this school. We're not quite at the "Humanities" place yet, but we're definitely getting there.
This week I started teaching "The New Imperialism", and we started talking about "The White Man's Burden", a poem by Rudyard Kipling about one of the causes of Imperialism. And this is what I heard from many, many of my students in each class throughout the day. "Oh! We were talking about this in English!" Now seriously, how cool is that?!!?!?!?!?!!! Yay for the English teachers in our school! This, my little friends, is exactly what the whole civ program is all about - using English class to support content in history and using history class to support reading in English. I was so excited - SO excited!! - to hear the students make that connection. I think I may have scared the kids a little bit, but that's ok, they already think I'm completely nuts, so it's all good.
- "I want this to be the kind of place where all students are respectful to each other and to their teachers."
- "I want this to be the kind of place where academics take precedence, but we acknowledge that high school is also about a total curriculum, not just math, science and English."
- "Let's make English and Social Studies a partnership, so students are learning humanities, not just English and Social Studies in a vacuum."
It is this last one that I would like to address today. (Hmm, that was very speech-y. I don't mean it to sound that way, but since I've gone that direction, perhaps it's best to stay the course, what what?)
I truly believe that I am actually an English teacher in disguise. This drives my history students crazy. I love history, and I love teaching it, but I also think that I would love teaching English as well. It is as important to me that my students have good content knowledge when they leave my classroom as it is that they can express themselves through writing in a clear, concise and eloquent manner. They hate that. "But Ms. H, this isn't English class!!" is a popular complaint in my classroom. The idea of teaming with the English department to teach a humanities, or civilization course, as we're calling it (we will not be offering English 10 and World History 2 next year, it will be World Civilization 2), was a very exciting prospect for me, and frankly it was one of the (many) reasons that I decided to come to this school. We're not quite at the "Humanities" place yet, but we're definitely getting there.
This week I started teaching "The New Imperialism", and we started talking about "The White Man's Burden", a poem by Rudyard Kipling about one of the causes of Imperialism. And this is what I heard from many, many of my students in each class throughout the day. "Oh! We were talking about this in English!" Now seriously, how cool is that?!!?!?!?!?!!! Yay for the English teachers in our school! This, my little friends, is exactly what the whole civ program is all about - using English class to support content in history and using history class to support reading in English. I was so excited - SO excited!! - to hear the students make that connection. I think I may have scared the kids a little bit, but that's ok, they already think I'm completely nuts, so it's all good.
03 February 2006
Boggles the mind...
A) the fact that someone took the time to do this
B) that there are so many interesting connections
C) that while they list Mahler, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, they have neglected Bartok and Prokoviev, and a host of other 20th century composers.
D) My aunt and uncle live near the Run-DMC stop. I'm sure they'd be thrilled beyond belief to know this.
However, that's not going to change the fact that it's WAY cool, and it's SO going up on my wall in my classroom.
You can read the full article by going here.
Yes, I am procrastinating, by the way. I have whiled away my planning period by not doing much of anything. But it's a Friday. And it's raining. And I was here until 5:30 last night. Did I mention that it's raining?
B) that there are so many interesting connections
C) that while they list Mahler, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, they have neglected Bartok and Prokoviev, and a host of other 20th century composers.
D) My aunt and uncle live near the Run-DMC stop. I'm sure they'd be thrilled beyond belief to know this.
However, that's not going to change the fact that it's WAY cool, and it's SO going up on my wall in my classroom.
You can read the full article by going here.
Yes, I am procrastinating, by the way. I have whiled away my planning period by not doing much of anything. But it's a Friday. And it's raining. And I was here until 5:30 last night. Did I mention that it's raining?
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