Emu Email Episode XLVII: Lessons Learned from a "Summer Off"

All,

In just a few days, I will come into contact with over 300 students in my room. I usually only teach about 120, but apparently when you work on your Master's, they trust you with more. My numbers are actually inflated due to the fact that I will be teaching about 225 Middle School kids that come into my class every three days. It will be an interesting year; a wild year; a stressful year; a year of learning by both students and me; and a fulfilling year as it will be finally a career change and a chance to put my 3 years of Master's education to work. But before all the learning starts, I wanted to reflect back on 10 lessons that I learned this summer with my kids by my side every step of the way....

1. "Find a way to smile everyday" And as Mom would say, smile at someone who needs it. I think Jimmy Valvano said to laugh everyday, either way, do one of these. And yes, this email will also be a recap and use weblinks, so here is your first one: Valvano's ESPY speech...a great watch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePXlkqkFH6s

2. "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff". Okay, I stole this one, but its a good one. Our Supt. talked about this on our first staff day saying that when he talked with President Clinton, the President told him about his 1 Billion Year old Moon Rock that sat on his desk in the oval office. When leaders would argue, he would remind them that we are "all just passing through" and this rock was here long before and will be here long after and we should just settle the argument because it was petty in the grand scheme of time and other things. So...remember...don't sweat it!

3. "You don't have to win to see the positive" This doesn't mean just sports, but as a Celtics and Royals fan, I saw positives in each this past season. Sure the Celtics won it all and that's great, but my Royals are in last and gave up 10 Runs in the first inning to the Yanks today. But, they have improved from last year and even during this year. So did the Celtics, alot! Shawn Johnson has 3 silver medals....and she smiles even more! I will find positives in my students this year, even my worst ones.

4. "Never give up and don't listen to those that are against your dream". Jack tells me every week that he will be a doctor someday and he will fix people. I hope he follows his "dream". However, if his dream is to be an artist and sell his paintings on the street, I will support that dream too. I always encourage my students to follow their dream regardless of what others think. Again, as a Royals fan, I have enjoyed the story of 26-year old rookie Mike Aviles. Read his interview and count how many times people went against him or almost convinced him he couldn't play in the majors. And yet, he has a chance to win the Rookie of the Year Award or the Batting title....or both! http://royalsblog.kansascity.com/?q=taxonomy/term/1

5. "Remember how good we all have it sometimes". As a counselor, I had my first meeting where we discussed the incoming students and what 'issues' they may have. This was not the typical asthma, diabetes, ADHD talk we get from the nurse. I know I am going to deal with 6th graders who have been abused, who have witnessed attempted suicides by family members, who are into drugs and alcohol, and some who simply hate all others. Sure, I have always dealt with these type of students before, but I never consciously knew what they are going through. I am so much more thankful for my life and the life of my family and I feel so much sadness for the problems of these young people. But knowing these problems, hopefully I can help the students even more.

6. "But, sometimes those who appear to have less, might have more." Our opening speaker reminded us of how quickly many countries have caught up and passed the U.S. in their educational process. Our argument is always "Yeah, but we have food or democracy or freedom or something better". So? Why not have better education too? India and China have a rivalry and it is not with us, its with each other. Each country has over 1 Billion residents and they graduate more people from college each year than the U.S. even has ENROLLED IN COLLEGE! But, they ask more of their students. Don't believe me? Try this website, but make sure to read the background first. The movie is huge in education and the tests are fun...but scary!http://www.2mminutes.com/third-world-challenge.html

7. "Given certain circumstances, the World can pull together to fight true evil". I am not talking terrorism or the evil axis, I am talking worse problems: hunger, poverty....global warming??? Yes, global warming and the earth's slow destruction is a problem, but China resorted to drastic measures to clean up their air before the Olympics. And it took $3 and $4 gas, but the U.S. is fully engrossed in the the Green Revolution. Jack noticed today that the lights in the freezers at Walmart turned on as you walked by. It's little things like this that make a difference and we can all do little things to make a difference. If we do, the world will see a big difference. By the way, I "googled" 'Green' and look what I got. I think this says that the environment is the focus of the world now. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Green%22

8. "Life is always changing, never take anything for granted". I say this after a scary 30-60 seconds today of losing Jack in Walmart. I told him to step forward as I checked out and moments later he was gone and when I noticed, my adrenaline went through the roof. About a million thoughts went through my head and I was never so happy to see a Walmart worker holding Jack's hand walking towards me. He said he "only cried a bit", and yes I nearly "cried a bit too.". And yes, that is about the only time in my life that I will be happy to see Jack holding the hand of a Walmart worker, but it was a good sight. Now I know how Mom felt when I wandered off in the Chicago Zoo. But at least I got to ride in a cool zoo car then!

9. "Disasters bring out the best in people". Whether it be the big disasters that hit Iowa: Floods, Parkersburg tornado, or the Little Sioux Scout Ranch tornado; or the small disasters: our basement almost flooding about 4 times, the good stories are easy to find. Countless amazing fundraisers have been held for all the Iowa victims and the towns are all vowing to rebuild bigger and better. And the individual stories of survival are truly inspiring. And Reagan and I keep thinking back to the 42 minutes of bailing water to save our basement on the Sunday morning of our first open house and how it took the two of us working to perfection or else our basement would have been underwater. We had our stressful days and nights, but we had so many laughs along the way. I think it was actually kind of fun working as a team to "fight the evil water". Amazing survival stories from Parkersburg:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080527/NEWS/805270370/-1/mischeds&theme=DEADLY_IOWA_TORNADO

10. "Pray" After a weekend that saw both candidates appear together for the first time since the election process began, I think of how prayer can be important. See, the candidates met with Rick Warren, a pastor of a "super church" and best-selling author. He did what no one else has been able to do: basically hold a debate without negatives, mudslinging, or focus on the War and the Economy. He simply interviewed each candidate and got inside their head and soul and what they thought about Spirituality and what guides them to make decisions. We used prayer almost nightly to attempt to help those affected by storms, to keep our basement dry, to keep our kids safe, to end Wars in the world, and to sell our house. Quite a random list and many of those prayers have yet to be fulfilled (including our house selling), but we are confident that the best plan is happening for us. Although we would love to be in a new house by now, at least our current house isdry. Prayer is important and helps me to keep my life in balance. I know I will rely on it constantly over my next 5 months of stress with my teaching, my learning, and my client caseload that I have to carry for my class. (cnn article about Warren event)http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/17/forum/index.html

Wow...what a summer and what a chance to finally write regularly. I am sure I wrote more regularly than all of you read, but I hope something I wrote this summer hit you, either in a funny way or in a thoughtful way. I wish you the best this fall and winter and hopefully you will hear from me again. Take care...

Love&Prayers,

Ben

Emu Email Episode XLVI: State Fair....Iowa Style

All,
I am taking a break from school work as I started school today. Before the administrators get worked up that I am wasting contract time, I am not on contract, at least not with the school. This is my own personal contract to get myself into school shape. That means waking at 6:00 and getting to school by 6:45 and working until 4:00 just like a regular day. Also, a good chance to get work done without the kids. However, with teachers coming in and out and my new room right by the door to the teacher's lot, they are almost just as distracting. I am sure my Adult ADHD doesn't help much either. Regardless, I officially start Thursday and the students next Wednesday. This means next Monday's Emu will be my last for a little while. I might do little quick ones here and there (yes...it is possible for me to write short emails/blogs), but it will be pretty sporadic. Before I got back to work, I did attend Day 1 of the Iowa State Fair with our family on special "free admission before 8:30 Day". My observations....

*I have found a new way to play Bingo at the State Fair, and no its not Cow Chip Bingo! Next year, I am making Bingo cards that don't have numbers, but have things you can observe. It will have spaces that can be used at any State Fair: person eating corn dog, cow pooping, tractor for sale, etc. But I would like to put some special Iowa State Fair observations on there too: "Mullet-Dad with 3 kids all with mohawks", parents using child-leash (seriously...how are those things legal??!), butt crack from adult, butt-crack covered by thong from 13-year old or less (actually....I could see this everday at our middle school!), person with less than 16 teeth (actually would be the free space on most cards). Everyone would get a ketchup packet and put a drop on each space that they can successfully point out without getting noticed doing so. If you get noticed, you are disqualified and likely beaten up as the people displaying the above observed features are usually likely to attack....yes even the 13-year old girl and the mowawk kids...sometimes they are the worst! Either way, its another fun thing to do each year at the Fair!

*Fair Food: As long as I have my pork chop on a stick, I am fine. However, it was so crowded this year on Day One (stupid free admission!), that the line was too long to get one of these. I settled for a corndog. We also decided try one of the Fair's famous inventions: Sugary unhealthy food deep-fried in heart-attack inducing oil. Yes...we did the "Fried Oreos". Tough decision as we could have had the Fried Snickers, Fried Twinkie, or Fried heart of man in front of us that just died (it was too expensive). And sadly, the Fried Oreos were pretty good. Nearby police thought I was committing sucide when I was chugging pills from my pill bottle, but when I showed them it was Lipitor, they let me go. Then word got out and next thing I know I was crushing the pills and selling the Lipitor dust as a condiment at my own stand for $50 a pill.

*Birth of live animals: If you do visit the Fair, make your way to the Air-conditioned building in the NE corner. This is the baby animal experience, a great hands-on experience for kids and adults. If you time it just right, you could see a baby calf be born with a veterinarian's help, or possible baby pigs, baby goats, or baby chickens being born as well. The baby chickens actually just hatch and are pretty easy to time since they have a zillion eggs hatching all day, but it is amazing to watch any of these events. A little disappointed that the vets didn't pull the calf out with a log chain like my Grandpa did, but now makes the birth of our own children make more sense. Never did understand why hospitals didn't have long chains, but since we will someday have more kids, I will stop there. Anyway...go see this part of the fair, its the best. And make sure to watch the "city kids" watch the live births or videos of live births playing on all the TV screens. Its like a car wreck, they don't want to watch, but they can't turn away. Fun stuff!


After all of this, I have realized why you do the State Fair every year....for the kids and the experience. Jack got a Cyclone hat, several fresh cookies, a corndog, and stickers. He got to see and hold several small animals and pet the furs of the dead ones (I still think that is a little morbid, but thank you Conservation Board). Abby got to see and shout at every living animal she saw and pet a horse which made her speechless. She, too, ate a corndog and danced to the hill billy music in the background as we ate under a shade tree. We covered about 40 acres of Fairgrounds in just 4 hours and the kids took it all in. It has been a good summer and the Fair was a great way to bring it to and end. I just wish Jack would quit asking me if he could have a mohawk and telling me that I could have a mullet if I could grow more hair....

Love&Prayers,
Ben


Things to ponder this week:

1. Olympics...if you haven't watched them yet, you need to. West Des Moines own Shawn Johnson had a great first night and if you get to read anything about her, she is what the Olympics and sports needs. She is a 4.0 student that was not "forced" into her sport. She is friendly and modest and has a smile that is contagious. I hope she wins for her, her family, her school and city, and her country.

2.Also, when talking about the Olympics with sports fans online, many mentioned that they wished politics (China's human rights policies, Georgia vs. Russia, Iraq's inclusion, candidates views, Dahfur, etc) stayed out of the Olympics. I fought the other side of the coin. Olympics have always been about bringing the world together every 4 years away from their wars and countries, but have also been about bringing the world's issues to the forefront for at least a couple weeks. We need to be talking about these issues and if sports gives us a comfortable way to start that conversation then so be it. When they wouldn't take that, I told them look the history of the Olympics...it is always about politics whether people like it or not: Munich, Russia, boycotts, terrorism, China, the Cold War, etc. I could go on forever on this topic, but I will enjoy the Olympics for their intended purpose right now....

3. And on a lighter note, this video will forever be remembered as the highlight of the Fair. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it from beginning to end. It was on CNN, news stations around the country, and now Youtube. While you watch, focus on a couple things: remember that this is all live TV, listen to the other 2 newscasters reactions and words (and laughing), and look at how tight this guys pants are by the end of the video... I think he had to be in some pain or at least very fearful for his future!

http://www.kcci.com/video/17135694/index.html

Emu Email Episode XLV: The Unwritten Rules

All,


This week saw a lot of relaxation for me. I didn't really do much but hang out with the kids, get a full workday at the school, watch our dream home go off the market, and hold a "beer tasting" at our house. You will have to read all the way to the bottom to find out what the winning beers were in this very scientific testing of 13 beers! I also found a website where you can watch live sports on your computer, so I have also been enjoying watching the Royals in their recent hot streak. Yesterday was even more fun as they beat the White Sox by getting 19 hits for the 2nd straight day and scored 14 runs. The best part (or worst if you don't like this sort of thing) was the brawl that occurred when the Royals batter got beaned by the pitcher. The pitcher threw 2 straight pitches up and in and then hit him on the 3rd. The Royals young ace pitcher later hit a White Sox batter and got ejected too. The bad blood between these two teams is now worse and willlikely only increase before their next meeting in 10 days. So what does this have to do with my title this week? Well, the Royals pitcher had to hit one of the Sox because it is an unwritten rule of baseball: "If you feel you were hit intentionally, then you must hit one of their batters. Don't aim for the head, go for the side.". Greinke hit the guy in the hip with a straight fastball. The White Sox manager was angry after the game saying a Royal batter broke an unwritten rule by bunting when the Royals were up 6-0. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But when KC almost blew a 6 run lead in the last couple innings the day before and the batter hasn't hit for a week, I don't think it was on purpose. Now, as I write rules for my high schoolers and even the 6th and 7th graders that I am going to attempt to teach this year, I am contemplating some of life's "unwritten" rules that I have come across....
(video of brawl: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=280803107 )



1. "Never ask a teacher what its like to have their summer's off". A guy actually did this several beers into poker night with 5 of us teachers. I have never heard our group get so quiet. Even worse, 3 of the guys were head coaches, 2 who had practice or games virtually every day of the summer. Its like asking a "stay-at-home" parent if they ever plan to "work again". It may not be work as the working world knows it, but a stay-at-home parent works year round and a teacher works during the summer, some actually even hold real jobs!! Weird!! As for me, I have changed my overhead notes into powerpoints, downloaded educational videos off the Internet and copied them to DVDs, moved my classroom to a different room, updated binders for all my classes, made a 80-slide powerpoint to use for 2 of my classes, made a school blog and 6 school websites for my classes, and now started my lesson plans and paperwork for the upcoming school year. Oh yeah, and this wasmy first summer "off" to take care of the kids, which has been a ton of fun. But no...we don't have summers off!



2. "Every guy has a turn when buying pitchers of beer". Four guys out for some beers and one guy says "how about a pitcher" and all agree. When the beer comes, that guy pays for it immediately. When the pitcher is gone, one of the three guys left volunteers. This continues until all 4 buy one. This is actually why guys get drunk...this rule forces 4 guys to drink 4 pitchers. What if one guy has to leave? Very easy unwritten amendment to this rule. That guy, after taking barbs for being a wuss and leaving, leaves a $10 bill to cover the next pitcher and tip. Simple. I have only seen one guy not buy a pitcher when it was his turn and he is no longer teaching at our school. I also jokingly "bought" the 5th pitcher at a bar in Council Bluffs where the 5th pitcher is free....not cool. Now, for you women, you have your own confusing rules and tend to pay at the end and have to all get out your calcuators to calculate down to the penny who owes what. After 4pitchers, the group of women look like drunk accountants. Besides, if four women drink four pitchers of beer without any guys noticing and offering to pay for any of the drinks, you should probably have another...you deserve it! But make sure you all chip in $2.37!





3. "If the temperature gets above 95 degrees in Iowa, all TV News must start with the 'weather' and the weather person must make some cheesy joke and then say...but it could get even hotter tomorrow!". I don't have much to say about this rule except that it is freakin' hot here today and I am not allowed to have contact with the forecasters anymore due to a restraining order stemming from 3 straight massive rain storms they "didn't see coming". Well, our basement saw it coming you overpaid idiots, so why couldn't you? That black cloud headed our way? Yeah, you might want to check that out. Oh, and no clouds in August...uh...it will get hot, its not news. It's Iowa, it happens.





4. "If you are first at a stoplight and going to go straight, stay out of the right lane". Not a biggie, but a pet peeve of mine. I know its not always possible, but if you are going straight, stay out of the right lane. I hate waiting to turn right behind a car that is going straight. When I do it accidentally, I do try to pull forward as much as possible so that cars can get by to turn. Don't pull forward too far or else you will get T-boned and then everyone gets angry!Okay, four unwritten rules is probably enough for a hot Monday. Only 1 or 2 more Monday Emus/blogs from me, then it is off to what will be my hardest and longest semester of teaching/graduate schooling ever. I hope to get a couple Emus/blogs out during that time, but we will see how it goes. Stay cool and dry and enjoy what's left of the summer!





Love&Prayers,


Ben





Things to ponder/leave you with this week:





1. Six couples were at our beer tasting and we tasted 3 oz. samples of 13 beers through a blind taste-test with the focus being on dark or less common beers. In the end, we had 2 clear champions. First place was a beer called "Newcastle Brown Ale". This had a dark look to it, but tasted very smooth and even those who didn't like dark beers liked this one. Second place went to my #1 beer: "Boulevard Wheat". This beer is a little darker than your typical Bud/Miller Light and tastes great with a lemon slice. Both can typically be found at a liquor store or Hyvee.





2. Are the actors in the Dark Knight cursed? Heath Ledger died before the movie was finalized. Christian Bale (Batman) dealt with a strange assault charge on his own family. And now as I write, Morgan Freeman flipped his car several times and is listed as "serious condition". The news is just breaking now, but weird news for the key actors in the movie.





3. I will leave you with an intersting money saving concept started by some local Des Moines guys. Look at the site and read about how they got their start and what magazines have talked about them and where their clients are located. Interesting...http://www.smartypig.com/