Choosing the most annoying question high schoolers ask is a tough call. Because honestly I think it would drive anyone insane to realize they have so much responsibility over other people’s bladders, I am asked up to 10 times an hour if someone can go to the bathroom. I mean I control when 76 people urinate, that is power.
Urination aside, the most frustrating question students ask is, “When will I ever use this?” (or some variation of that idea).
When will you use it? When will you use it? I don’t know, when do you think it might be important to know what the government can and can’t do? One of my favorite math teachers had a student ask her last week when would he ever need to use parallel lines. She answered him (with a straight face), “When you are painting the white lines in parking lots. ” He didn’t understand, in fact his buddy had to draw him a diagram before he could laugh at the joke.
However, questions relating to specific content aren’t actually the most irritating. The most irritating question came last week as my students were complaining about the fact that I required them to read the whole paragraph in order to figure out the context of the vocab terms. One student asked, “When, if I am not going to college and don’t get an office job, when will I EVER need to read a WHOLE paragraph?” I was flabbergasted. A whole paragraph? When won’t you need to read a whole paragraph? If nothing else you will need to read your eviction notice when you are kicked out for breaking parts of the lease that you didn’t read. I guess whole paragraphs are just one more causality from the whole 6,473 texts per month situation.
so as a high school teacher I am constantly coming face to face with how today’s teenagers view the world around them. I am repeatedly knocked off my feet. sometimes I’m overwhelmed with the potential and creativity in my students and sometimes I’m shocked at the stupidity and ignorance. and often I’m sad, even heart-broken, and then infuriated at the way they process things, at their view of the world. this article, which talks about teenagers viewing abuse as the victim’s fault, is one of those shocking things. how can we expect more from them if this is what they expect of the world?
I realize that I haven’t written a single word on here about my new job. So for those of you who missed it: I moved out of Mississippi and life-guarded in Birmingham for a few weeks before accepting a job offer in Cleveland, TN as a high school history and sociology teacher. There are many reasons for my lack of posting about the new job, the main one being that time for actual reflective thought seems to be a commodity lacking in my current life routine. I wake up every morning and normally do 30 minutes to 90 minutes of school work before leaving the house, then drive the 30 minutes to work, stay incredibly busy all day there, stay for 30 to 60 minutes after work trying to get ahead, drive 30 minutes home, then feel the need to pass out or be social. The truth is I love my new job. I could not imagine a smoother transition for a first time teacher, especially mid-year. My school is in soo many ways a dream environment when compared to other public schools. I have fantastic collegues, who I enjoy being around and look foward to building relationships with. The admistration seems to have a good balance between big ideas and practical demands. And no my kids are not all angels, but if that was the case where would the challenge be?
Actually the true challenge is not so much in figuring out how I’m going to handle the classroom as much as figuring out where I am going to be getting my advice from. All through school people warned me that you should never listen to gossip in the teacher’s lounge, and that each teacher really has to figure out their rhythm on their own. And while there is some definite truth to that, and I have already noted the teachers that I sure don’t want to take advice from, there are also some amazing teachers doing crazy amazing things in classrooms right beside me all day. It seems wasteful not to learn from them. So my on-going project is collecting these ideas and attitudes, then synthesising them into actual helpful concrete things for my classroom.
I would love to be a hot tea snob (I pretty much am an ice tea snob). But a) I couldn’t find anywhere in Oxford that sells loose teas and i haven’t devoted time to this in chattanooga yet; and b) it is pretty easy not to be. My most recent obession is the chai tea concentrate, that is sold in boxes. Anyhow it’s my new favorite b/c in 2 minutes I can have an amazing cup of spicy creamy goodness ready to go. I also have been enjoying some spice tea that my sister gave me for Christmas.
I decided I had a few links I want to share this morning, which happens every now and then, so I’m going to title such posts as “randlings” because they are a mix of random news as well as my own ramblings about the stories.
up first, the fire in Sarah Palin’s home church. First off, and I’m not sure this is even needed, but - Come on people. Setting fires to churches you disagree with? This is not acceptable in the US in the 21st century, it’s a sad enough story that it was acceptable for so much of the 20th century. – Now the reason I’m not sure that commentary is needed is because there is no proof yet that it was arson, all we know is the fact that much of America doesn’t like one of the members of the church. There was a crafts group meeting at the time, aren’t most fires started by electric appliances (think hot glue gun, warming plate for the snacks) left unattended? So I’m not sure we need to be throwing around the term arson yet, let’s wait on the investigation.
and finally, the Auburn head coach situation. After being heartbroken by Tommy’s forced departure, I knew I was going to be unhappy about or unsettled by whoever took the the job, but seriously? yeah this guy may have been a great defensive coordinator, and he may have potential, and maybe we should all take a cue from Shug Jordan’s son and say, “Everybody deserves a chance,” but SERIOUSLY? He was 5-19 the past two seasons, at least Tommy won 5 this season. And I’m not gonna buy the whole, “Well, could anybody really have done much at Iowa State?” line of thinking, because if you can’t make it happen there how are you going to make it happen against Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Florida, and the wild cards of Ole Miss and South Carolina (let’s be honest they have a decent Ball Coach)? I don’t neccessarily agree with the line of thinking that we needed to find someone cut from the same cloth as Saban or god forbid that other Bama coach (you know, the one who is the answer to every bama coaching trivia question), but I’m not sure that hiring from the direct opposite end of the spectrum is the answer. Now I’m sure by next football season I’ll be ready to get behind Chizik, but for now I’ve got a beef to pick with Jay Jacobs.
I for one was flabbergasted by the announcement that Polaroid will no longer be making instant film. And somewhat shocked that I missed this announcement in February (I’m just 11 months behind the news). Just think about how this will change your life. I really can only come up with a few things, but still I’m gonna miss the mystery of waiting a minute to see the pictures. The truth is that Polaroid can’t make much money on the instant film, but now those silly collages that computers make with digital photos won’t make much sense.
Remember to take time to go vote. Even if you are not crazy about the options, there are plenty of things to make a choice on, so do a little research and cast a vote! It’s the most important thing you can do for our country!
I love statistics. I love polling data, I love comparing polling data. I love demographics. And I love the website Fivethirtyeight. As you probably guessed, the name comes from the electoral college, so it stole my heart from the beginning. Fivethirtyeight takes all of the polls collected each day (CNN, Gallup, AP, etc.) and funnels them into one place. They weight the data based on the poll’s historical track record, sample size, and date to create averages for the simulations. Then, they run the simulation thousands of times, accounting for all the possible various outcomes of each state in relation to other states. So the result is a set of predictions based not just on one poll taken yesterday, but on multiple polls accounting for every states’ various responses. And there are graphs and and tables and charts there to explain the whole process, it is really beautiful. It’s like crack for people who love politics but hate the dog and pony show.
