June 21, 2010
Heading Out West
This trip just keeps getting better. This August, I am heading out the Los Angeles to see my first home Dodgers game. I’ve always wanted to go to Chavez Ravine and have some Dodger Dogs and garlic fries under the palm trees. I feel almost ashamed that I haven’t been there yet – it’s the third oldest stadium left in baseball and they’re my team. I hope I get to have breakfast with Vin Scully. We’re watching the Padres play the Bums, which should be fun because both teams are pretty good right now.
This takes the place of my previously scheduled baseball trip to Toronto, which was thwarted by the G20 summit taking place that week. Yep, my tickets were moved from Toronto to Philadelphia – ugh. But, I think I have a better trip now. Dodgers and probably something like seeing some celebrity houses or the big ole Hollywood sign. Maybe I can eat at a Del Taco or a Jack in the Box.
After a couple of nights in LA hitting da clubs (insert techno music here), we are driving through the desert to Las Vegas and spending three nights gambling. We had reservations to stay at New York, New York, which would be nice. In the past, we have stayed at the MGM Grand and the Luxor. They are all in about the same location, with comparable prices. But this week, Kristin found a deal for us to stay at the Bellagio! Double nice! In Vegas, there are two types of casinos: the Bellagio and not-the-Bellagio. We have a 600 square foot room in a casino in which we can’t afford to gamble! Oh yeah! When will we ever stay there again? Well, maybe every time if my plan of parlaying about $1,000 into $100,000 goes perfectly. I’ll keep you posted.
To get ready, last night I saw the end of Casino. I hope one day my brother and I can be beaten with baseball bats and buried together in a corn field.
Posted by ed at 19:28 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)
May 18, 2010
Bomb Threat
Today we had a bomb threat called into school. It didn’t amount to anything, although I guess if it did, you would have heard about it on the news. Someone called and said there was a bomb in the school, and we immediately evacuated. I hope they can catch the person that did this. I don’t know what the penalty is if found guilty of something like this, but I hope it’s something awful.
When I heard the threat, my first thought was “yeah right,” but you have to take these things seriously. I guess it’s better to evacuate as many times as necessary rather than to stay in and be wrong. When we got out to the football field, a steady rain was coming down. Luckily, there were about 4 umbrellas out there for the six hundred students, so we had that going for us. About 45 minutes to an hour later, they let us come back in.
I know this isn’t the biggest thing, but this was during my planning period. Not having kids, I really need my part of the day when I am away from the precious little people that inhabit my classroom. If they had waited 5 minutes longer to call in the threat, I would have been at planning. But we all danced out in the rain and gave ourselves ridiculous hair styles and had a chance to hang out with our friends and catch colds.
I guess it could have been worse. Tomorrow starts the End of Grade tests. I don’t want to think about what happens if some clown calls something else in tomorrow. And there’s a part of me that believes that if we got one call, there’s a good chance we’ll get another, unless the person is a moron and called from their home phone or personal cell phone. Here’s hoping they did exactly that.
Posted by ed at 01:34 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
May 16, 2010
Testing Time is Here!
Twenty days of school to go.
This week is the End of Grade tests, the week that decides if the students have learned and if the teachers have taught. What that means for me is that the regular school year is over. After these tests on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the year is basically over. We'll do some things in class for the remainder of this week, but school is done.
We'll get the results back on Thursday evening or Friday morning and learn which kids passed and which kids didn't. At that point, we restructure our days to include a reteaching class for the kids that didn't pass their reading or math tests, and a enrichment class for those that did. Then we reteach or enrich for a few days, have field day, retest, and go home.
I kind of think the kids that pass get herded into rooms where nothing of real value gets done. Of course, I hope the kids I am reteaching get something valuable out of these classes, but who knows? I don't think I am going to teach a kid to read in 8 days of classes. I guess it's good to try – maybe a couple of extra days in class could help a few students.
I am of the opinion that every kid that passes should immediately start their summer vacation. School is done at that point, and, providing that they are passing all of their classes, they should be released into the wild so we can worry about the kids that didn't pass. If we did this, there would be more of an incentive to pass, since passing the test doesn't really decide if you go to the next grade or not. It would also allow teachers to have three weeks to teach much smaller classes to students that could use the extra time and attention.
Posted by ed at 22:31 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0)
May 09, 2010
Me Talking
I may be slightly tipsy when I write this. I think I like the lack of defenses when I write. IN fact, I choose to use no spell check for this. Let’s se what happens…
I just watched M. Night Shaymaylan’s Unbreakable for like the 8th time, That is an awesome movie. You know what I hate – bullies. I hate the way in critic’s eyes, there is only one good M. Night movie. There are other good movies – no, not The Village or The Happening, but I liked Signs and his signature pice, The Sixth Senbse.
I love/hate that scene in Unbrekable when that guy just breaks into that house and is, lewt’s say bad. Thee’s a big part of , me that identifies with the guy that stands up to bullires. Thet’s the way I want to go out, defenidngf a defensless person/family. That’s a good movie. It’s not Sixgth Sense, biut it’s awresome. I love the simplicity of the movie – he takes out a big villain with a rear naked choke hold. That could be done by anybody, including mne. I canb very easily identify with a guy that takes on a bad dude and defeats him by something I can (hypotheiccally do).
But then again, I kind of like Samual L jackson’s character.. If I canb’t save the world, it would bew cool. To destroy it. Anyway, this is a grewat movie. I’m feeling a little like this is a chapet from Flowers for Algernon, and maybe it is., biut it’s authrentic. It’s a little bit like the romantics – it’s a real world look at something, albeit through slightly influenced eyes.
Anyway, this many be a bad idea, bit it’s worth trying. Tiem to go. Later,
Posted by ed at 03:35 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)
State Of Fear