Sueing and Sewing

We are reading out way through the Little House books at the Riddy household and today I had a little trouble with this line "...we setted by the fire and did some sewing and crocheting."

Now I know what crocheting is, but I said crotcheting instead.  Irene looks up with a "Are you kidding?" look and I (realizing my mistake) respond "What, you think they can't sit around and complain while sewing away their afternoon in the middle of the prarie?" 

According to Chongers:

"Mark, get sick - GO!"

Loveys and Ether

I have always been a little creeped out by the attachment my kids have to their loveys.  Sebastien has taken to sometimes wearing it over his face and he inhales it deeply as if partaking of some illicit drug. 

It turns out, he is self-medicating!  The infant sense of smell is very strong and they draw comfort from the familiar scents trapped in the loveys.  Isabelle. at five, is just imitating her younger brother though for this picture.   I think she now keeps her lovey around more as a psychological crutch (as opposed to an olfactory one).

The thing is, I keep remembering those pictures of ether-users in the 1800's who drew comfort from inhaling ether from a soaked towel placed on their face (or used it to pass out for surgery).

Now, am I right to be creeped out or what?

Moyers, Zinn, and the Plutocracy

This chart shows something that has been bothering me for years:

How can one person be worth 800 other workers at the same company?  Just doesn't seem possible.  Another way of looking at it is to imagine what minimum wage would be if it had tracked CEO pay:

Which brings me to a really great lecture given at BU recently (thanks for bringing it to my attention, CES).  Bill Moyers is delivering the first annual Howard Zinn memorial lecture.  The speech starts 7 minutes in:

http://www.bu.edu/buniverse/view/?v=20ZaW9PO

Princesses vs. Fairies

I was talking to my students today about the Halloween plans: "Well, Sebastien is going to be Lightning McQueen and Isabelle is going to be Tinkerbell"  Then one kid says "Who's Chongers going to be?" I give him the Look and say "Chongers IS Sebastien!"

I mean, c'mon - it's one thing not to understand me when I talk about physics, but you have to go and not get my kids' nicknames straight?

I then launch into an unprompted speech on how fairies are better than princesses.  "Fairies have skills and jobs.   The Princesses just sit around in pretty dresses waiting to marry rich Princes.  Which role model do you want for your little girl?"

Feeling pretty smug, I then notice a girl in the front row slump down and mutter under her breath, "Thanks, you just ruined my life..."

My First Prezi

When I'm teaching, I sometimes wish I could show the students how the information is organized and interconnected in my mind.  Obviously, this would not be a good thing even if it were possible - but I have the desire nonetheless.

Just the other day, a fellow science teacher (thanks, KW!) showed me how 'prezis' work and I thought to myself, hmmm... this could bring me one step closer.   Here's my first attempt at a representation of projectile motion that comes close to presenting how I picture the information in my head.  Well, it doesn't really come close but I am using it to test the software out.

Projectile Motion on Prezi

Degrees of Separation

Recently I got my one degree of separation with the governer down to zero.  (used to be one degree because Deval Patrick's former high school physics teacher is a professional acquaintance). 

This gets my degrees of separation with President down to one since he is a friend of the governor.
(Irene and I were attending a fundraiser at the MFA when the governor made a surprise visit).

As my sphere of influence grows, I will use my power to influence the future of public education to be:

"All Physics, All the Time, K-12"

(insert evil laughter here)