Everyone likes to feel like they did well. We like it when we do something well and we need someone to tell us we did well. If someone else doesn’t say it, you’re just giving yourself a pep talk.<< MORE >>

I hit my first burn out period this last week. I was tired of the kids because I have had some exceptional behavior issues to deal with (e.g. the troublesome few causing problems for the compliant many.) I had a kid get up, tell me to F myself and walk out of class this week. << MORE >>

Because I live in America, the conversation about the judge beating his daughter will probably devolve into two sides picking whether or not her father (who is a Texas judge) should be prosecuted. Are the statute of limitations in effect or can a criminal trial proceed. The conversation will become very dull.<< MORE >>

You’ve got detention. I’m not going. Then you’ve got two detentions. I’m not going. Then you’ve got Saturday school. I’m not going to that either. Then you’re suspended. Good. << MORE >>

I put the results from my students' quarterly benchmark reading test scores into a spreadsheet (the template is attached if you'd like to use it.) Benchmark Test Grade Book I was ambivalent about the results before I created the workbook. I was really just staring at numbers and getting bogged down. Some of my students did as well as I thought they could and some really under performed.<< MORE >>

Because there seems to be nostalgia, by some folks, for how good things were before President Obama and the Democrats took over government in 2009; I am going to start a project of reposting news and commentary (posted here over the years) about W's regime and the glory that was America before President Obama took office. I will do my best to minimally edit reposted content in order to keep the "in-the-moment" feel to each post.<< MORE >>

This post is inspired and indebted to those folks out on the street protesting as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Keep up the peaceful protest. It is hard work and I support you!<< MORE >>

Wouldn’t it be a kick in the pants if Buddy Roemer could secure the Republican nomination to run against Barack Obama? << MORE >>

The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery. It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.<< MORE >>

Is Jormungard really a serpent encircling the Earth with his tail in his mouth waiting to release and bring on our impending doom? << MORE >>

The new season of Saturday Night Live started last week and, oh my god, this skit was hilarious! Although I thought the shot at Natalie from Facts of Life was just mean.<< MORE >>

We should defund the federal government and beef up our state governments. State governments are more adaptable to our immediate needs. Georgia’s constitution has been changed ten times. Florida has had at least 6 constitutions. Michigan’s had four.<< MORE >>

The good news is that most of my classes have moved beyond the basics of walking to the room or into the room, so we’re finally getting some actual work done. They take their first benchmark test (which is 60% of their grade) in two weeks. I’m racing trying to figure out how I’m going to fit all of the standards they’re being tested on in that timeframe.<< MORE >>

One kid asked me to just take a detention for not doing his homework and I said that was fine, but I still was expecting the paper on Monday. If not, then it would be detention again. I told those students that I have a phone with a repeat function and if they don’t turn in this paper it will recur on my phone everyday until December 23rd. Everyday I will ask them when my reminder pops up. Do you have my paper explaining why you are here?<< MORE >>

Sex is one of those things we don’t really talk much about. Sex is, generally, heavier on the doing side rather than explaining. For this reason, analyzing pornography could be a way to understand how some people are adept at speaking during sex while many seem incapable of uttering a meaningful mouthful merged in the act.<< MORE >>

Retention notices will go out to parents tomorrow. If you’re failing a class then you might be looking at repeating the 8th grade. That’s the way it should be in a sense. If a kid doesn’t put any effort into their work, they shouldn’t be promoted to receiving a high school diploma. If the diploma is to mean anything then people should have to work a bit to get it.<< MORE >>

I woke up at 3:30 in the morning, tossing and turning. I went for a 4 mile bike ride at 4:30. Then, I left the keys to my classroom (with my thumb drive containing my lesson presentation for the day) in my office at home and almost drove off without it. That would’ve sucked! On top of it, I still drove off without getting a cup of coffee.<< MORE >>

Armageddon happens!<< MORE >>

My challenging class started to waste my time by having several of them goofing around and laughing as soon as they entered my classroom. Oh I got something for that! I went global thermonuclear on them. << MORE >>

I can’t bear to think of myself as the tyrant-king, because that schtick went out of style in the 70’s, with the movie Arthur. You just can’t brandish a monocle in public anymore, chomping on an expensive, smelly cigar sending smoky, blue plumes cascading into tight, enclosed, public spaces. << MORE >>