Snails for Dinner!

Have I mentioned that my wife is sooo creative! I came home today and was informed that we were having 'snails' for dinner. At first I thought we were breaking the bank and having escargot - so much for Dave Ramsey. Actually dinner was merely shaped like snails. Yeah - she's fun like that.

By the way, the snails were actually tender - Mmmm ... Tastes like chicken!

Julia is One Year Old

Julia is 1 year old today! Our little girl is growing up! Cheryl is busy getting the house ready for the big event this weekend but today was the actual event. It is amazing how fast the year has gone by. Cheryl pointed out something today that was very true - at this age birthdays are really as much for the parents to celebrate and remember the year as anything. Julia doesn't know any difference in the day, but WE have had a blast remembering all the things that came with our daughters birth. I hope that she enjoys it anyway!

Hand-Me-Down Toys

The other day I was going through my things. I was in a junk box that has followed me since high school. As I rummaged about looking for something I ran across a couple of toy cars that I had played with as a kid. One was a Porsche and the other a slick, futuristic thing that turned into a robot! Isaac was close at hand and I realized the ultimate purpose for keeping those cars. I called him over and told him that I had something for him. His eyes got big and I think the little motors turned over once again.

Isaac immediately knew what to do with the Porsche. It came to life and was back to top speed as if it hadn't been over 25 years since it had last seen the open roads. I had to explain the robot transformation to him, but he was content just to have another car to race around.

If you know me, you know I'm quite the pack-rat, especially when it comes to sentimental things. But, these cars don't need to be keep-sakes they need to run the open roads of Isaac's mind. They'll risk again the inherent dangers of being a toy in active duty, but hey, that's what they were born to do!

Who Says You Can't Find Good Help

I love it when my kiddos want to help! The other day, we had to replace some safety locks on the cabinets in the kids' bathroom and help was more than abundant! Isaac really wants to use my drill but the darn thing is just about to big for him to even hold yet. Julia couldn't stand not being in the action so she climbed right in there, too.


I have some pretty awesome memories with my dad from times when he let me help. We changed a lot of oil together - even a waterpump once on one of his old trucks. Few things made me feel more important than those times.

Isaac has now started joining me under the car for oil changes and around the house for odd jobs. I have to be honest; the jobs go a bit slower. But, the look on his face when he tells Mama "I was under the car" or "I drilled with Papa's Drill!".... I wouldn't trade it for anything!

Blog Dump: Thoughts on Teaching

The following are posts from another blog I kept for a very brief period on teaching. Enjoy!

Gambling for Tuition, WHAT?

Call for Entries for Absolute Poker's Free 'Win Your Tuition' Texas Hold'em Tournament Ends October 6: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Gambling for tuition?! What's next, Boxing for free health care? This Yahoo article left my jaw lowered for sure, but my spirits as well. The gambling business has never been much of a wholesome element in society, but this new ploy is downright horrible.

I have to say up front that I have moral problems with gambling to begin with. But, putting those to the side for the moment, there is another even more troubling issue: this is a crystal clear illustration of the blind pursuit of gain at all costs that pervades our society.

To be fair, my initial analogy is a bit off at face value. I compared this competition to a boxing match where people could win free health care. The point was that those people would be endangering their health in the process. Someone could rightly argue, "Wait, this tournament is free. Therefore, it would not be a risk to their tuition money." I would concede that the tournament isn't taking these students' money personally, but gambling in general will. This is not a moral contention - strictly economic. It's at this point where I'd take issue with this promotional stunt.

Ostensibly, college is supposed to be educating productive members of society - hopefully, members that are able make sound decisions and become self-sustaining in the economy. But gambling is antithetical to this. Gambling for all but a very few is a financial drain with no return beyond the entertainment value. If this were it's only harm it would be little more than the moral issue I mentioned above. But, for many, gambling is a serious factor in their finances and tends to cripple an individuals ability to be productive. The gambling industry is a monster than consumes its prey and is only sustainable by the injection of fresh victims each year. It's like a russion roulette club - your going to run out of members without adding new ones! Gambling establishment pit our psychology against us by engineering machines to dole out the precise amount of winnings to keep people coming back. They know they'll win in the end.

For this industry to begin to court the college crowd is despicable, but when college students come running it is indicative of a deeper problem - we've bought the 'money for nothing' lie that gambling is predicated on. College students: remember 'A fool and his money are soon parted' and nothing is ever free!

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Incentive to Fail

I love the word "incentive." As a teacher I get to hear it often. Not so much from the official channels broadcasting out of Washington and Austin, but more locally. I get to hear it most around testing time. We're going to give the students an "incentive" to study, to work harder, to try to do their best, to eat the morning of and sleep the night before. And, the incentives are great! We've done drawings for things like CD players and movie tickects among those who would attend tutorials. We've offered free breakfast for all. We've even taken to giving final exam exemptions to students that do well on the standardized tests. It's a great time to be a student!

One thing is missing though. Where's my incentive. I've handed out tickets, ballots, and prizes, but I've never been incentivized myself. I don't really need a new CD player, but the point is that we're forgetting about the people who matter most to improving learning and grades - the teacher in the room.

What is my incentive? Our motivational posters and coffee cup slogans all seem to think that our incentive is the incredible opportunity to "touch a life" or "expand a mind." I'm all for that. I do really get some serious job satisfaction when a kid has an epiphany that I was a catalyst to. But if we're going have to be motivated by shear altruism and these lofty motives, then everyone else should do their part. No more beefy salaries to keep that Superintendent in the district. No more super stipends to retain the coach who has won so many games. They need to get down in the trenches with the rest of us and endure the meager salaries because the satisfaction of helping a student is all we need. There really are incentives here, but not ones that we would be too excited about.

Take my annual evaluation for instance. I've been in the highest category most of my years of teaching. I should expect a bonus, maybe? How about a few days off? Nope, I get nothing that any other teacher of any ability level doesn't get. So, the incentive here is this: be mediocre; do just enough to get by and go home.

Or take the extracurricular activities that I sponsor. I spend countless hours outside of the normal school day and on weekends enriching the opportunities available to students at our school. I'll grant you that I do get a stipend. But when you compare hours to reward I'm getting far less than even minimum wage. The incentive: do the minimum and leave; don't get involved unless your willing to give up your own time to do so.

There's many more examples but the sum of them is this: the current systems promotes excellence in anything but teaching. We'll pay administrators and feed children, but we aren't ready to invest in the people who will have the greatest impact on our students.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Not so Immature, After All

Teaching is tough. Teaching teachers is no different, and the similarities are stunning between how teachers behave and how students behave. I've had the opportunity in the last week to start teaching a course consisting of two one-hour sessions to my colleagues. The training has been "required" by our administration and that brings out a certain level of ill will toward the course. Now, this course is not something that they "already know" - this is on building a webpage for their classes.

The similarities jumped out at me right out of the gate; it was hard to get started because of all the talking ... even when I began to teach! The nerve! Then, during a series of instructions, there where those that would race ahead and inevitably skip a critical step - so impatient.

I soon began to realize something. It was not so much something about the teachers as about my students. I'm guilty of lamenting these qualities in my students and ascribing it to "immaturity," but these adults were far from immature. Most of them were good friends and had no ill intent, either. I began to realize that many of their behaviors were not functions of immaturity. Just like my teaching friends, my students are all on different paths and at different points - not so immature, after all. I hope that I can give them the same respect I do my colleagues!