Outhouse?

As our old-school gallon guzzling toilets need repair, I have been replacing them with low flush toilets. The latest toilet to be replaced is destined for the transfer station so I stuck it on the side of the house to make it easy to load into the van on my next run to the town "dump".

Later that same day, Sebastien went outside to enjoy the nice weather and was looking for a place to sit and enjoy his snack. I old him that I had just put a nice "chair" over on the side of the house that he could use. He looked and just rolled his eyes and went to sit on the steps. Wonder what the neighbors are thinking ("We heard he was from Alabama, but really...").

Hmmm.... Looking for a spot to read the Sunday paper this afternoon...

Canned Goods, Breakfast, and Imports

Isabelle: "Why can't we get any more of the fish-with-beans for the shi-fan?"

Irene: "The Chinese store doesn't seem to carry it anymore"

Me: "Is that the can that you buy that doesn't have any english on it at all?"

Irene: "No, it does have some english on it - it says "Not for sale outside of China"

Me: "Oh, and the store doesn't carry it anymore - huh..."

Hot Peppers-N-Anchovies

We were having pizza night and I was adding some anchovies to one of my slices.  The kids were fascinated/disgusted by this when I remembered we had a jar of hot peppers in the fridge.  Suddenly, I was back in Squirrel Hill, eating at that cheap pizzeria with PK where all we would ever order was hot peppers and anchovies.  Those were good times.  I told the kids about that and they asked "why did you always order that?"

I thought on it and said "Contrariness - none of our other friends liked either of those toppings so we never got to eat them on pizza unless we ordered it for ourselves so we ordered just those toppings as a statement to the world."

Don't be intimidated

Often, I will mock my own (lack of) drawing abilities by telling my students "Don't worry  - I will not expect you to be able to draw such a nice picture as I did on the test.  I understand that you all can not have the same artistic sensibilities as I!"

The other day, after making the joke for fourth or fifth time in the same class, I then interjected some of the metacognitive stuff that goes through my head when I have these moments and I admitted to the class "You know, I get a special thrill when I say these crazy things and I can identify that one student who has a doubt and is asking him- or her-self "I wonder if he actually thinks he is good at drawing?"  That moment of confusion gives me great joy.

By the way - that's a picture of  car demonstrating conservation of angular momentum as you take off from a stop.  

Lawnmowing, Studying, and Testing

A couple of years ago, I bought a push mower. I mean an old-fashioned reel mower that has no power other than that which you give it.  I love that thing even though it doesn't really do a good job (or is it me that is not doing a good job?).  Recently I had to consult the owner's manual to fix something and I wound up re-reading the "suggestions for best results" section.  Now I KNOW I read that section carefully when I first bought it (I had never even used a reel mower before then), and I even REMEMBER reading it.  However, rereading after actually using and struggling with the mower for a couple of seasons, the suggestions had a different meaning and deeper significance to me.  I was in a position to appreciate and understand what they were getting at!

As it is final exam season at school, my mind first went to studying and the undervalued experience of rereading stuff you think you already know.  As a student, I used to focus on the stuff I felt like I didn't understand at all when studying for a test.  However, it is now clear to me that reviewing and rereading (at least the chapter summaries) the stuff you think you do understand can take your understanding to the next level.  It is a different cognitive experience to read something with a pre-existing understanding than it is to read about something for the first time!

Finally, my thoughts turn to the utility of final exams themselves.  Recently I have been asked why do I give final exams at all?  Trumping all the other reasons I have, I'm thinking the forced revisiting of topics you think you understand can be the potentially most enlightening moment of the course...

Graduation Day

CL takes a selfie with me on WHS graduation day:

Climate of Fear or Sketchy Dad?

I'm lucky enough to live within walking distance of the high school where I teach and the elementary school where my kids are students.

Usually my wife meets them after school and walks them home, but sometimes it's my turn.  One day, as I was walking from the high school to the elementary school, a friend slowed down in his car and offered me a lift. I hopped in and he dropped me off across the street from the elementary school.  Since I had my school issued laptop and the wifi signal is the same district-wide, I took my laptop out in front of the school in order to do some work.  I'm now 10 minutes early and progress reports need to be sent out, so I perch my laptop on the corner of the building and start working.

After a few minutes, the school secretary appears next to me and says, "Excuse me, can I help you?".  I look up, totally confused, as there are at least a dozen parents now standing around waiting for the dismissal in order to get their kid.  So, I say, somewhat uncertainly, "Uhh, I'm here to pick up my daughter?"
"And what's her name?"
"Isabelle.." (for the record, I know for a fact there are at least a dozen Isabelles of some flavor in that building)
At this point the secretary is close enough to see my district-issued laptop and ID badge.  She gets a bit embarrassed and stops asking questions.  I lean in close and whisper, conspiratorially:
"Do I look suspicious?:
Super-flustered, she goes back inside.
A minute later she pops out a side door and talks to me from the side of the building where the gaggle of moms hanging out near the front door can't see her.
"Um, I'm so sorry about that - it was the fact that you were dropped off by a car that then drove away.  Usually parents either drive or walk and are not dropped off..."
We laugh and I go back to work.

But...
....why didn't one of the parents come up and talk to me directly?
Why were they so worried anyway?
Why didn't they mind their own business?

Climate of fear.

Parents worry about their kids all the time.  Worry about what we feed them, about the air they breath, the fabrics they wear, the words they hear.  Everything in life is a potential mis-step that could ruin their lives.  Every random element in the world is probably going to kill them or mess them up.  People call the cops when they see kids playing in a park unsupervised.  We're scared to let our kids walk home by themselves at ages we did the trek by ourselves back in the day not because we're worried about what will happen to them -  we're worried that other adults might turn us in for being "negligent parents" or seeing "abandoned kids.

Or, maybe, I just look sketchy and should dress nicer...