My Birthday Day

Yesterday, at my birthday dinner with the family my mom asked me what I was doing for my birthday. I told her, "Working, and then working." I expected it to be a mostly normal day since I had to be at school. Instead it turned out to be a really great day. My students are great anyway, but they were really sweet today. My NHS and AP students made me a large banner that they all signed. It took them all day to gather the signatures. It is hanging on the wall by my desk. In the middle of my Cell Membrane lecture in my AP class, the whole class passed the word and broke out into the birthday song. One of my students made me a card with really sweet note in it that is now on my "When I wonder why I became a teacher wall, this is why I do it" wall. It was really quite touching. Then Maggie, my friend and colleague, refused to let me spend my birthday grading papers into all hours of the night, and took me to Chili's for dinner. Now I am going to hang out at home and read, something I have been looking forward to all day. Yep, it has been a pretty good day.

"P" Stands for Pain

A few weeks before school got out I ordered a set of workout DVDs from an infomercial. Not being prone to buying things "as seen on tv" it was a new thing for me. However, it was not an impulse purchase. I had spoken with several friends and acquaintances and the program came highly recommended, so I took the chance and forked out $120 for the P90X system. It has been only 2 weeks since I started the routine and I am addicted. It is awesome! I actually enjoy working out. Of course, it is incredibly intense. The first day, I worked out so hard that even my eyelids hurt. Seriously, there was great pain involved. Now, I am little more carefully about over doing it. I still look forward to that daily workout, and it is so effective that 5 days in I was already tightening my belt. I'm telling you, it has been fabulous.

The Reason We Do What We Do

I had a real-deal perfect teacher moment on Friday, and it came at a perfect time. You see, I teach 6 (10th grade Biology) classes but on an alternating schedule. I teach 3 90-min classes a day, and teach them every-other day. Anyway, this semester my A-day classes have emerged as my teacher's nightmare day, when I want to shoot myself in the foot just so I can get away from kids for a days. I am serious, even giving a simple (and silent) test requires such tremendous effort that all I want to do at the end of the day is sleep for 3 days. As you can imagine this has made the semester very difficult, especially when I have over 180 kids between the classes. With the mercury closure and the state testing I have had more "Oh what I have done" days than "This is why I do this" days. Well, finally I had a "this is why I do this" day. This past Friday, I had wrapped a really tough week, and was at the the end of my largest class (34 students, maximum room capacity) and was trying to calm down a very stressed out student. She was having a panic attack about the debate she was supposed to do on a controversial genetics issue (DNA Evidence in Court Cases). She was having trouble finding research to back her opposing view (which I had assigned her). After, I gave her some research ideas and calmed her down I was feeling a little stressed. I sat down at my lab bench to finish grading the debates I had just watched when one of my students approached me and handed me this note;

"Ok, I'm not trying to kiss up and I know I haven't been the best student. I just wanted to to thank you for all your hard work. I know that you try hard and I just thought that you might need some recognition, even if it's not a lot it's all I got. lol.

Well, that's all folks,
You know who"

It's like I told the new English teacher on my Learning Community Team, "There's always one student that we reach. Sometimes we'll never know that we did any good, but we have to remember that there is always one that will look back and be grateful for what we did. Even when things are terrible we have to remember that there's always one, and that one makes it worth it." I know it sounds very sappy, but she needed something to hold onto after a really rough day. In the end, though, it is true. One student's appreciation makes it easier to bear the insulting graffiti that covers the desks and that student that yells, "Just shut up" when you try to give instruction. If 179 of my 180 students never gave a second thought about everything I tried to do for them, it is still worth it because I know that this one student does.

My 6-Day Weekend

So the question has been posed, "What did you do with your time off?" So in an effort to let you see that I am, in fact, a productive person let me start at the beginning.

After I arrived at the "Emergency" faculty meeting at 7:30 Friday morning, I spent an hour listening to my colleagues panicking and coming down with the symptoms of heavy metal poisoning. Of course, none them actually had it, but the mind does play dirty little tricks on us. I then had lunch with Mom, and took a 3 hour nap. About 9:00 that night I had a fit of motivation and proceeded to do a complete (and long over due) overhaul of my apartment. It is only 300 sq ft so it only took 4 hours to do the front half (the bathroom and closet are this weekend's project). I was in bed by one and up 7:00 to hike the hieroglyphics trail in the Superstition Mountains with the mid-singles group in Scottsdale. There was, of course church on Sunday, followed by the Renaissance Fair on Monday and the Zoo on Tuesday. Needless to say, I now need a vacation from my "vacation".

AIMS (high graduation test) is in full swing now, and there isn't a teacher on campus who isn't feeling the pressure. Spring break can't come soon enough.

Mercurious Situation

It has became a common perception that a phone call, any phone call, that occurs before normal people are up and about is never expected to be good. It is because of these tragic circumstances that anytime my phone rings before dawn my heart skips a beat or two before the phone rings twice. Such was the situation last Friday at 6:00 am as I was preparing to leave my apartment and venture forth to teach the apathetic youth of our day. (I should add that 6:00 is an hour later than I usually leave for work, so I was feeling well rested.) Despite the perceived futility of my efforts I was in good spirits. My lessons for the rest of the week were completed and copied and I was counting on a solid hour before school to grade quizzes and update my online grade book. Just I put on my jacket to brave the 55 degree weather my phone rang. Considering that a friend had died of colon cancer in December, my former Stake President had died of a heart attack in January and another (very good) friend had just under gone his second surgery for brain cancer in 3 weeks, I was expecting the worse. It turns out the worst was bad only in as much as we, Americans, have chosen to become extreme alarmists in the face of not so gigantic problems. The problem was simple; a student at the high school had obtained several ounces of mercury from an unknown source and had been playing with it in several locations around the school. It was not discovered until the student had contaminated half his neighborhood with the mercury.

The school was closed for the next 6 days while the EPA inspected and decontaminated the entire school. Affected classrooms were completely stripped of their entire contents, hundreds of students were brought in so they could be checked for exposure, their clothing and belongings confiscated. If someone was found to be exposed, the EPA went to their home and searched there. When the school was finally opened every student was sent through checkpoints before they were allowed on campus to ensure that they had been cleared to enter campus. It took almost an hour to get the students on campus and into their classes that morning. We managed to get 2, almost, complete school days this week leaving us only one more before the state high stakes test that will determine whether or not we keep running our school or the state takes over. Not an ideal week.

Oh and did I mention that all this started on the very day that the National Accreditation team was on campus for our scheduled re-accreditation evaluation (every school has to go through ti every 5 years). Yeah, it has been an interesting month at the old job site.

Summer S-Wii-tness

I know I have been remiss in my blogging duties, but can you blame me? I mean why blog when I have this sweet new toy to play with. When I am not catching up on my reading I have been spending time trying out new games I've been renting from my local Blockbuster. Aside from that I spent the Holiday weekend camping with the family. Dad and I attempted to do some fishing, but the nieces (McKenna and Sophie) kept getting bored. And Dad was having a hard time converting the bait-caster he bought to fish in the ocean to lake fishing. Since I had the only reel that was working properly Dad was forced into this compromise.

I can't tell for sure, but the little fishing rod has either, Dora or Disney Princesses on it. Only a true Grandpa would be caught using little girl fishing equipment. Now that he has it, be prepared for some Grandpa-Granddaughter fishing dates. And some Daddy-Daughter fishing since he gave me that rod and reel I am using in the background. The reel belonged to Great-Grandpa Smith. It still works great, so it is up to me to keep it that way.



One morning, during our camping trip, we woke up to see a herd of horses wandering through the forest atop the Mogollon Rim. There was no sign of human herders among them so they may be wild, though we can't be sure. Either way, I never pictured horses wandering free in the forest. The little girls loved seeing them, especially the foal. It was a welcome change from the chorus of coyotes that kept Oliver on edge the night before.

2008 Getting to Know You

It happened, again. Mom sent me this, so here is the updates since the last time.

1. What is your occupation? High School Biology Teacher

2. What color are your socks right now? Not wearing socks

3. What are you listening to right now? Funniest animal videos

4. What was the last thing that you ate ? A turkey pesto ciabatta from Mimi's Cafe. It was a half day today so my dept went to lunch.

5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes

6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Blue

7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Michelle, my sister

8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Definitely

9. How old are you today? 26

10. Favorite drink? IBC Rootbeer

11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Baseball, go D'Backs!

12. Have you ever colored your hair? Yep, but not in several years

13. Pets? A rambunctious terrier named Oliver.

14. Favorite food? Chocolate

15. Last movie you watched? Parts of Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring while playing a card game with friends

16. Favorite Day of the Year? Right now, I am thinking the last day of school

17. What do you do to vent anger? Call someone

18. What was your favorite toy as a child? I recall having a glow worm.

19. What is your favorite, fall or spring?Fall. Perfect temps.

20. Hugs or kisses? Depends on who they're from.

21. Cherry or Blueberry? Cherry

22. Do you want your friends to email you? Yes

23. Who is most likely to respond? Kim

24. Who is least likely to respond? Sarah, but she's so busy with school that I don't mind.

25. Living arrangements? Just me and Oliver, though I miss having roommates sometimes

26. When was the last time you cried? I think it might have been the day I finally graduated from college.

27. What is on the floor of your closet? Oliver

28. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? I don't know, blog readers, you tell me.

29. Who is the friend you have had the shortest that you are sending this to? I don't know, blog readers, you tell me.

30. Favorite smell? Fresh baked bread

31. What inspires you? Music, books, friends.

32. What are you afraid of? Spiders and falling from great heights.

33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheesy, spicy hamburgers

34. Favorite car? I'm a fan of the Mini Cooper

36. Number of keys on your key ring? 14, but half of those are for the high school

37. How many years at your current job? 3.5 Months

38. Favorite day of the week? Saturday, the only day I get to sleep in

39. How many states have you lived in ? 3

40. How many countries have you been to? including the US? 3.