I Would Like to be a Hobbit, Please!

Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, I had 2 days without much to do, therefore I decided to bake some of my famous chocolate chip cookies and watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy for the umpteenth time. I have come to the conclusion that I would like to be a hobbit. Is that possible?? At 5'2", I would be a rather tall hobbit (as they average 3'6"), but none the less, I would like to be one. Why? (you might ask)  

It's simple. Hobbits are an amazing people. "Tolkien depicted Hobbits as fond of an unadventurous, bucolic and simple life of farming, eating, and socializing, although capable of defending their homes courageously if the need arises. They would enjoy six meals a day, if they could get them. They were often described as enjoying simple food, though this seems to be of an Oxfordshire style, such as cake, bread, meat, potatoes, and tea." (Wikipedia) Come on - six meals a day of cake, bread, meat, potatoes, and tea!  Right there is reason enough to be a hobbit. Their average life span is 100 years. They're incredibly loyal and caring to their friends and occasionally get to hang out with wizards, elves, dwarfs, and kings. Their hobbit holes are very comfortable and cozy living spaces. I mean other than the hairy feet, hobbits are an ideal race of beings. So would it be possible to be a hobbit? Please say "yes" - pppplllleeeaaaassseeee!!!

And yes, I am looking forward to the upcoming Hobbit trilogy, especially as it is starring three favorite British actors: Martin Freemen (of Sherlock and The Office fame) as Bilbo Baggins, Richard Armitage (of North and South fame) as Thorin Oakenshield and Benedict Cumberbatch (of Sherlock fame) as Smaug!  Not forgetting, of course, Sir Ian McKellan who will be reprising his role as Galdalf. It should be a fantastic series!

In case you're curious about the cookies, here's a photo of them cooling down. Yes, they are yummy. Fortunately for my rear end, my colleagues at school will benefit from my boredom!

Greatest Fears?

I frequently challenge my students with daily journals which are supposed to make them think beyond the surface.  Last week, one of my daily journal prompts was "What is your biggest fear and how often do you think about it?" I was pairing this prompt with a lesson on Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" which is all about fearing the wrath of God and going to hell. Yeah, okay, whatever, Edwards.

One of my students turned the question back at me and I honestly could not answer the question. I believe I have suffered through and survived my greatest fears: cancer, major depressive episode, rejection, loneliness, failure, jumping out of a plane at 14,000 feet (although that one wasn't a fear of mine), job loss, and worse of all -- an 8-year Bush presidency. <shudder> What's left to be afraid of?  Okay, a Romney presidency is a pretty frightening thought but other than that... 

I did a little research and found a list of some of the top fears. The strangest fear on the list is fear of long words, which the scientific word for that is: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. It's true! That's a legitimate fear. Why would they create such a lengthy scientific word for a fear of long words? Hmmmm. Here are the top 10 fears: 

1. flying - nope
2. public speaking - nope
3. heights - nope
4. dark - nope
5. intimacy - nope
6. death, dying - nope
7. failure - been there, done that
8. rejection - been there, done that
9. spiders - no, unless they're the humongous spiders; like the Goliath birdeater
10. commitment - nope

So where does that leave me?  I've been thinking long and hard over this question and I would say that I suppose it's the fear of being stricken with Alzheimer's and I think about it occasionally but not regularly.  Otherwise, I honestly don't think I have any other great fear. I hate snakes and clowns, but I don't exactly 'fear' them. How about you?  What's your greatest fear and how often do you think about it?

Okay, this spider freaks me out! 

Career Change: Teaching Idioms and Memoirs!

I thought I would share a couple of lesson which worked really, really well this past week:  Idioms and Memoirs!  

First up: Idioms.  Because 99% of my students are either ELLs or FLEPs, their grasp of the English language is far from perfect.  Idioms are something that many of my students just don't understand.  After all, why would someone from the Dominican Republic, Senegal, or India be able to comprehend "barking up the wrong tree" or "piece of cake".  Well, my fellow teachers, I give you two words: Idioms Pictionary!  I did this lesson with my Freshman honors class and it worked well.  I started by explaining what idioms are and giving them the definition.  Next, I broke the class into two teams (as it's a class of 7, this is manageable). In this case, I did boys versus girls. Next, I had them play Idioms Pictionary on the whiteboard, in which one person from each team had to draw the literal translation of the idiom while their team tried to guess the idiom. I did this exercise before giving them the list, just to see how well they knew them.  Sad to say, the boys kicked the girls' butts.  Then I had them review a list of common American idioms.  Then in pairs, they read An Idiomatic Story and tried to figure out the meaning of the 10 idioms. Finally, we wrapped it up with an idioms exit slip and another round of Idioms Pictionary. I also gave them an idioms crossword puzzle for homework. All in all, it was a fun class and my students learned a bunch of new idioms. I'm going to try this lesson again this upcoming week with my senior classes, which will not be nearly as manageable because of the class sizes, but it's worth a try.

Next: Memoirs. I was at a loss as to what to do with my Freshman writing class one day and then it hit me: 6-Word Memoirs.  When I was working at my last corporate job in NYC, we did an evening of 6-Word Memoirs and it was a ton of fun.  For those that don't know the background, Hemingway was challenged once to write a 6 word story.  He wrote:  "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn."  One of the few stories that Hemingway wrote that I actually like.  What Smith Magazine did was take it to a personal level and created the 6-Word Memoir site. The trick is to try to write your memoir in 6 words. I've posted quite a few of my own to the website.  Here's the lesson that I did with my Freshman: I asked them if they knew what a memoir was (no, they didn't), so I gave them the definition and explained memoirs. Then I told them that they would be writing their memoirs today but there was a catch, they could only use 6 words.  They all freaked -- saying that it could not be done.  I next showed them a couple of videos released by Smith Mag:  6 Word Memoirs and 6 Word Memoirs by Teens.  I also had a couple of copies of the 6 Word Memoirs for Teens book (I Can't Keep My Own Secrets) for them to get inspiration.  As an exercise, I first broke them up into teams in which they had to create "memoirs" about the high school.  Each team created 4 school-based memoirs, with most being about the limitations of wearing uniforms. They then set to work writing their individual memoirs.  By the end of class, each student had to write 5 different memoirs and the one that they liked best would be posted to the SmithTeens website.  Another stellar  lesson.  (I don't have many being a 1st year teacher, but I was pretty proud of these two lessons.)

Messages to the Haves and the Have Nots...

Speaking on behalf of the 'Have Nots': We've all been there. We have friends or loved ones who seem to 'have it all': the great career, the amazing significant other, a loving family, a bevy of supportive friends, money to spare, the great house, the nice car, yada, yada, yada. And because we love these people, we are happy for them.  But we also know that deep down we are envious of the 'Haves' in this world. (I'm not talking about the rich and shameless, because they're ridiculous. Just those who are in our intimate circles.) Even though we do recognize the 'Haves' are the minority, we cannot help but wonder why they got it all and we got (seemingly) so little.  Therefore, I'd like to give some advice to these two divergent groups:

To the Haves: please remember that you are one of the lucky few who are fortunate to have gotten everything that most people can only dream of having. I know many of you recognize that you have a very fortunate life, but some of you (surprisingly) are unaware that you are incredibly blessed. Please try to remember that fact. Although, I would say please try to limit the amount of time you spend hawking how great your life is.  Those of us who don't 'have it all' find it incredibly disheartening.  Know that the 'Have Nots' are happy for you, but we don't really like constantly hearing how your life is fantastic. Nor do the 'Have Nots' want to hear how your life is crappy.  It's not!  :-)

To the Have Nots (or as I call them - my compadres): We know that life is inherently unfair! But we can at least know that minimally there is one thing in our lives that we have for which we can be grateful.  Figure out what it is (or they are... you just might have a couple) and focus on how fantastic that one item is. I give similar advice to you. Don't constantly complain about how your life is not as you want it to be. Very few people 'have it all'. 

For example, I am grateful to now be in a career that I love and for the handful of friends that I have.  I recognize that I will never have the rest, but I will content myself with these two elements. Oh, I'm also grateful for Oreo Double Stuf cookies!  Nom, nom, nom!

Career Change: Dealing with Differentiated Instruction

Over the past couple of months, I've briefly touched on the subject of differentiated instruction within my classes. But as the school year continues, this issue keeps coming up over and over again.  I'm having a serious problem dealing with differentiated instruction. Now do not get me wrong. Of course, I believe that everyone who needs and/or wants to be educated has that right. That is not the problem. The problem is: As a dedicated teacher, how do you make sure that you are serving the needs of all students when your classes are at completely different levels?  I will use my Period 7 class as an example: 

My Period 7 class, a senior class, is hands down the most difficult class for me for a multitude of reasons. That particular class has: 27 students (way too many), 24 of which are FLEPs (Formerly Limited English Proficient), 3 ELLs (English Language Learners), 2 Special Eds, and a partridge in a pear tree. It also has an inordinate number of students with behavior issues. Additionally, the students read at disparate grade levels: i.e., 5th, 8th, 10th, 12th, and collegiate.  So can someone PLEASE tell me how do you teach a class like this??  If I do text that is on grade level, 75% are lost and then behavioral issues creep in.  If I do something below grade level, then 25% are bored and then behavioral issues creep in. None of them can apparently go 2 minutes without talking, which is incredibly disrespectful. The cell phone usage runs rampant despite being a posted school and class rule.  Whenever I'm scheduled to teach this class, I dread it.  And again the interesting thing is that I genuinely adore 99% of the students in this classroom. I'm sure every teacher can appreciate my frustrations. I honestly don't know what to do anymore in that classroom. Anything I try doesn't work.  And I still have 8 months to go.

By the way, these issues are not exclusive to this particular class (although this is the worse). My other classes are in the very similar circumstances. I know that there isn't any magic bullet to fix this issue, but I honestly just don't see how I can make any of my classes productive. 

(Don't forget to check out My First Year of Teaching photo site.)

I Laugh So Hard, I Cried!

While trolling around the internet, I stumbled upon one of the funniest -- if not THE funniest -- website ever!  If you have never heard of David Thorne (Australian humorist, satirist, Internet personality, and New York Times best-selling author) or his blog, 27b/6, then you are in for a fantastic surprise.  If you aren't laughing your... erm... head off within 30 seconds of reading any of his postings, I will be sorely disappointed! At the very least, you absolutely MUST read Justin's Floodlights, Missing Mindy, and Overdue Account.  I howled with laughter!

Another one of his postings is genius: Magic 8 Ball Wednesday, in which he writes the following: "I sent an email to a friend recently, asking several different questions, and he replied with the single answer 'Yes, probably.' It was obvious that he had either not bothered reading the email or could not be bothered answering my questions. The next day when he emailed me, I replied using the Mattel® Magic 8 Ball™ to generate the random answers."  Thorne then posts the email exchange between the two of them. This is the most brilliant idea ever! Of course, when you are best-selling author, you don't really have to worry about losing your job over practical jokes like this one, but in theory, I would love to try answering emails with Magic 8 balls!  After all, I do keep one on my desk at school!

If you need a really good laugh (and really who doesn't), check out his website. I promise it's well worth the visit!

[Updated at 8:55pm] A friend passed along Thorne's posting, Permission Slip and I needed to add it because it is another MUST read posting. It's especially relevant for anyone with children! Enjoy!!!

An iTunes Self Challenge!

[Updated 10/22, 5:16 am] As I was recharging my iTouch today, I happened to glance down and noticed that I have over 6700 songs (a little more than 17 days worth of music) in my iTunes database. By comparison to some music whores, it's a paltry amount. But I calculated that I (perhaps) listen to approximately 5% of the database - if that!  Some of the music I've gotten bored with, some have unpleasant memories of people from my past, and some I've just forgotten about. Of course, I shouldn't punish perfectly fine music because of a few heartbreaking memories of a 'friend' who lied, manipulated, and weaseled their way through our 'friendship'. Ahem, but I digress.

Therefore, I've decided to challenge myself to listen to every song in my database - regardless of my feelings toward that music (boredom, past association, etc.)!  Now, I suspect that this challenge will take a considerable amount of time to complete.  If 6700+ songs is just over 17 days of 24 hours a day listening, with my limited schedule, I suspect it will take me approximately 4 months to complete this task - give or take a day. This challenge is definitely going to test my fortitude.

My plan is to go straight down the list from ABBA to ZZ Top and everything in between! I'm not sure I'll be able to complete this task but I'm going to do my best!  Wish me luck!!  (Anyone want to join in on this challenge??)

Send a Letter Back in Time...

Tonight, I was on the hunt for some journal topics to use with my students next week and came across a really interesting one:

"If you could send a letter back in time, what would you tell your teenage self?"

What a fun writing assignment. I (obviously) cannot use this prompt with my students as they are teenagers, but I thought I could answer it myself. Here's my letter:

To My Younger Self,

A few words of wisdom for you to consider over the next 30 years. Do not drop out of college early. You will beat yourself up over that for many, many years. Before moving to NYC, be sure you have saved money ... a lot of money ... and have cleared your debt because it's really, really, really expensive to live there and you will be unbelievably poor for many, many years. That job you are offered February 2008, do NOT take it. It will be ruinous of you. Eat healthier, exercise more, and laugh at the foolish. Oh, and that haircut that you are considering when you are 32 will be an unmitigated disaster! Don't do it - otherwise there will be several ridiculous photos of you hanging around!

From the older and wiser you

I thought it would be difficult to compose a brief letter that encompasses 30 years of advice I'd have to give myself, but it turns out it was fairly easy. I discovered that I don't have many regrets about the past 30 years. I suppose that's a good thing.  Living with regrets is an awful way to spend your life! What advice would you give your teenage self?

Yup!

You Are Granted Three Wishes...

...What do you wish for?  My senior classes are currently studying The Arabian Nights: Tales from One Thousand and One Nights and we've been reading the story and watching the Disney film of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.  As a journal entry, I asked my students "If a magic genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?"  They listed items that one would expect of teenagers - money, a date with Kim Kardashian, fame, a big house, a date with Kim Kardashian. <smh>  I don't get the Kim Kardashian part.  They decided to turn it around and asked me what I would wish for.  I couldn't immediately answer. I had to give it some thought...

Hmmm. I always think that perhaps these 'wishes' might have consequences attached to them.  For instances, if you wish for $1,000,000, a family member dies and you get an insurance settlement for that amount. Okay, I know I've read the short story, The Monkey's Paw, way too often, which has that specific plot line. While coming up with my three wishes, I tried to think of consequence free wishes.  I'm also going with the wish rules that the genie gave in the Disney movie: (i) can't wish for more wishes, (ii) can't wish for love, (iii) can't wish anyone dead (which I would never do anyway) and (iv) can't bring anyone back from the dead.

I thought long and hard about this all day and most of the wishes I thought of seemed to have consequences attached. Here's what I finally came up with. Let me know if you see any consequences from these wishes.

The first wish would have to be: world peace.  I know that's very Miss America/Pollyannaish but seriously, that would be the best wish for everyone. How amazing would it be if we never had to send another son or daughter off to die in a war? The second would be: everyone should have to abide by 'if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all'. My original thought was that everyone needed to be honest, but then if everyone were always brutally honest then people would get their feelings hurt, therefore I amended it.  Granted there would be a lot of people walking around mute all the time, but is that necessarily a bad thing? The final one would probably be to eradicate cancer. After going through cancer treatment and successfully beating the disease, I know first hand about how horrendous it is to deal with and the world would definitely be a better place without cancer in it.

What would you wish for?

Does Everyone Have a Doppelgänger?

I've always wondered about this question.  They say that everyone has an exact replica out there.  Why I'm bringing this up is because tonight I went to my grad school class in which we had a guest presenter who I swear is an exact carbon copy of an old friend of mine.  It freaked me out for the entire 3 hours of the class.  Really, it is one of the weirdest experiences ever.  

So I'm wondering ... is there another me out there??  Although while growing up, a friend's father swore that Linda Blair and I were twins - which I never saw.  I mean Linda Blair is gorgeous and I'm... well... not!  Maybe there's a slight resemblance when Linda is vomiting up pea soup in The Exorcist.  :-)

I always doubted on the doppelgänger theory, but now I'm not so sure.  Maybe everyone does have a twin out there!  If only I could find her and have her do all the things I don't want to do.

Career Change: Weekends! Ugh!

I never thought I'd actually say this, but I think I'm starting to loathe weekends!  You might be thinking: "Wwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaat?" I've never experienced this phenomenon before either but I'm serious.  Your next question is probably "Why?" so I'll tell you! My weekends suck! I'll use this past weekend as an example:

I'm contractually obligated to be at school until 3:17pm M-F.  On Friday, my plan was to get out by 3:30 at the very latest.  Ummmm... well, that turned out to be more like 4:30!  Then I got home, ate dinner and spent the next 4 hours grading approximately 40 tests and began reviewing some student essays (I had 35 to read over the weekend).  Saturday I was up by 5am, worked out for a couple of hours and then spent the next 12 hours lesson planning.  After a quick dinner break, it was onto essay grading.  After about 2 hours of essay reading/grading, I said "enough" and went to bed.  Sunday, I was up by 6am, and after hitting the grocery store, it was back to reading and grading my students' essays.  I did that until almost noon, when I had to leave to go to my 2nd job of tutoring a local student on his upcoming ACT.  After I few hours of tutoring, I headed to the Newburyport library to find a few art books that I need for one of my classes this week. Finally, I returned home to finish the last few essays that needed grading, created a couple of quizzes and a PowerPoint presentation on Anne Bradsteet and all my work was finally finished (at 7pm). To sum up, I basically worked approximately 30 of 38 waking hours this weekend, so yeah, I think that deserves some repugnance! 

The above account represents a typical weekend for me ever since starting my new career in August. Yes, I still love my job. Teaching is still the most amazing job (other than performing) that I've ever had, but I will say I can completely understand why new teacher's burn out quickly and contemplate the wisdom of their career choice.  I have no life outside of work and grad school and that sucks!  The only people that I socialize with are my local Starbucks baristas because if I don't get my weekend Starbucks fix, I will have to hurt someone.  :-)  I do wish that I had someone who could occasionally take me away from everything for a hour or so, but that is just a pipe dream!

In case you're curious, I did get through my worse week of the year (mostly unscathed), but this year was particularly horrendous on a personal and professional level.  It was especially bad professionally, as all my students were particularly out of control this week. Some of the lowlights of the week were: a belligerent student walked out of my classroom (not an entirely unpleasant experience), none of my honor's students did their reading homework and left me with zero plans for that class, a male student cyberbullyed/sexually harassed two female students (the offender was suspended), the repeated use of a particularly offensive word which was banned from my classroom, a bevy of detentions handed out, an afternoon of "professional development" which was completely useless and an annoying waste of time, and a ridiculous evening conversation with the Executive Director of Teach for America in which I had to explain why I loathe TFA and had given them a 1 (out of 7) on the most recent survey.  Oh, and don't forget last week was a short week because of the holiday on Monday. <sigh> I could go on and on about the things that went wrong this past week. I was so looking forward to the week ending, but only to have a weekend of a nearly insurmountable pile of work! I know this will get better (it has to), but I also know it's not going to get better for a very long time.  Okay, I'm done venting.  Tiime for some Downton Abbey!  Thank goodness I can get lost in that lovely world for the next hour.

I'm Begging - No More Political Ads!

A political cartoon from 1801, which
depicts Thomas Jefferson joining forces
with Satan to take down the government.

Is there anyone who is still on the fence about who they're voting for in less than a month??  Anyone? If no one is wavering, then politicians please stop with the annoying, mudslinging ads.  If there are still people on the fence, you're probably not going to convince them with your ads anyway, so stop wasting everyone's time and patience.  

Political mudslinging in US politics dates as far back as 1800, when Thomas Jefferson was attacked by ministers who accused him of being an “infidel” and an “unbeliever." A Federalist cartoon depicted him as a drunken anarchist, and the president of Yale warned that if Jefferson came to power, “we may see our wives and daughters the victims of legal prostitution.” A Connecticut newspaper (now the Hartford Courant) warned that his election would mean “murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will openly be taught and practiced” — though the paper did apologize some years later (in 1993 to be exact).  Of course, President John Adams didn't get off easy either: James Callender, a journalist in league with Jefferson, told the country that Adams was a rageful, lying, warmongering fellow, a “repulsive pedant” and “gross hypocrite” who behaved neither like a man nor like a woman but instead possessed a “hideous hermaphroditical character.”  Ouch!  But nice alliteration! At least the mudslinging was intelligently creative.

One would think that in the 212 years since Jefferson and Adams faced off with each other that United States politics would have matured, but as we all know, it has not!  I can't believe that every election year we need to suffer through these ridiculous ads which tell us nothing truthful or honest about a politician and everything about how they can twist the facts to suit their own political desires. So, please. I'm begging all political parties and PACs, just stop!  I will say that at least in 1800 it was easier to get away from the political mudslinging - just don't read the newspaper. Unfortunately, in our modern times, we are bombarded on a near constant basis - thanks to television, radio, newspapers, magazines, internet, etc. Oh, well.  This too shall pass!

Tattoos: Yes. Piercings: No!

Next tattoo ideas

People may find it strange that I have such a strong negative opinion of piercings.  Yes, I do have tattoos and have written extensively about them.  I love my tattoos and don't regret them at all. My students also love my tattoos and have asked me about them, which I gladly share the stories behind each tattoo. It's important that they understand that you should choose a tattoo design that means something personal, not just the "I like the design" reason. 

It's interesting that I occasionally come across online articles on tattoos and aging.  Do you think that when I'm in my 70s or 80s my biggest issue will be about my aging tattoos? I have a feeling I'll be far more concerned on whether I can afford to retire and keep myself fed and in a home or perhaps medical issues. Certainly not my tattoos! 

So why does someone who has 6 tattoos and contemplating a 7th (see photos) have such issues with piercings? First, I do have my ears pierced so I'm not completely against piercings. It's the nose, lip, tongue, cheek, labret, genitalia, and nipple piercings which bother me. Facial piercings bug me the most for the following reason: when I talk to people, I like to look in their eyes because that's how you can see if they're being honest. But I find that when someone has a facial piercing, my eyes are immediately drawn to that area. Therefore, instead of looking in their eyes, I'm distracted and looking at their nose, lip, tongue, cheek, labret, etc.  It's actually why I don't mind eyebrow piercings for that specific reason. Nose piercings have an additional gross out factor for me due to the high rate of colds and sinus issues I have. Yuck! Nipple and genitalia piercings just sound painful, but as long as I don't get them, whatever. That's your choice.

Why am I bringing up this topic? Simple! I have a student who just got a new tongue piercing.  I'm not sure what parent allowed a 14-year old girl to get this piercing, but the major problem is that the piercing is infected.  Due to this medical problem, the student loss 3 days of school and is in massive amount of pain. For what? A tongue piercing! Ugh! Oh well, too each their own. So for me, tattoos yes.  Piercings, no!

Annual Worst Week...

I think we all have this issue - there's always one day or one week out of the year that we all dread ... for whatever reason: the anniversary of the death of a parent, the holidays, etc. For the third straight year, my worst week is (roughly) from October 6-13 and I suspect, it will be a hard week for the rest of my life due to a myriad of reasons. Each year, my wish for this week will be (i) to get through it with some sort of dignity by not doing something stupid, (ii) not gain 10 pounds in stressful eating, and (iii) not get arrested for slapping someone who richly deserves a good slap in the face. I'm kidding about that last point...sort of!

I'm part of the way through my worst week and so far so good. And even though my stress eating has increased, I haven't gained. I haven't lost either, but that's okay. And the cupcakes have been yummy! Thus far, my dignity is intact and I'm not in jail.  All good. A few more days and this week will be in the past and I'll have 51 weeks before I have to face it again.  My goal for the rest of this week is to stay focused on work and grad school and ignore the date. But I'm not sure this is the best way to get through this week is by ignoring it, eventually ignoring it won't work. Friends have suggested doing something for myself: shopping, massage, etc., but that all requires money that I can ill afford to spend. Yoga and meditation are not my thing at all. Crying is always an option, but I sort of feel like if I go down that road, I'll travel way too far and end up on a path that I can't get back from. Some people turn to alcohol, but I haven't had a drink in 2½ years and intend to keep it that way. That leaves the following stress relievers: go for a walk, a long hot bath, listening to music, reading, and/or working out. But I already do all these things in the natural course of my life, so they're not exactly distractions. Guess I'm at a loss on what else I can do to get through this week every year and remain stress free. Hmmm. Oh well, as Scarlett O'Hara says: "I'll think about that tomorrow." 5 more days and I'm in the clear.

[Update 10/8; 6:01pm]  Note to self: buying a 1 pound package of Oreo Double Stuf cookies and eating two-thirds of the package in half a day is probably not the way to go when stressed!  

"Elementary," My Dear Watson!

I don't review many television programs, because television is generally pretty awful these days - what with the inordinate amount of annoying reality tv programs. But I felt the need to write about my latest obsession - a new television show on CBS, Elementary.  If you haven't watched this show, you must!  First, because it stars the über-sexy and very British Johnny Lee Miller.  I first discovered Mr. Miller when I saw the 2009 BBC mini-series of Jane Austen's Emma, where he wonderfully portrayed Mr. Knightly - my second favorite Austen leading man (after Mr. Darcy, of course).  Second, it has solid writing and an amazing cast (Lucy Liu as Watson and Aidan Quinn as NYC Police Captain Gregson). Final reason, it's a really entertaining contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories (set in the United States instead of the UK). It's a win-win-win situation.  

In Elementary, Holmes (Miller) is "a former consultant to Scotland Yard, and an addict who travels to New York City to check into a rehabilitation center and stays on in Brooklyn with a newly-found sober companion Joan Watson" (Liu) and assists the NYC police department at the request of Captain Gregson (Quinn) on various crimes. Witty, funny, and well acted, this new series is a joy!  Check it out - Thursday nights at 10pm on CBS.

Of course, if you read the reviews on IMDB of the new series, you may think it's not worth the trouble of watching.  Mostly, the complaints seem to be around the reviewer's belief that Elementary not as good as the BBC's Sherlock, but I disagree. While I do like the BBC series, I think that Elementary is just as good.  Yes, they're both procedural crime shows and no, neither of the updated Sherlocks are not remotely close to Doyle's Sherlock, but who cares! Both are enjoyable shows.  Let's just leave it at that!  I admit that the CBS version of Sherlock is not the usual depiction of Holmes, but that's what I find so appealing.  It's a different interpretation of a well-loved character and one I find fascinating to watch. Tune in and judge for yourself.

Career Change: The No-Nonsense Nurturer!

I've always remembered this quote from Boys on the Side (1995):  "So, which one of them were you? The one who loved too much or the one who loved too little?" as spoken by Jane (Whoopi Goldberg). I've always been the one who cares too much and sometimes it comes back to bite me in the butt. With career changing to teaching, I knew this nurturing nature of mine might be an issue. It definitely was an issue with managing my classroom over the summer.  We're at the 6 week mark this school year and the honeymoon period is over. So naturally, I'm having behavior issues in my classes.  Actually, one of my students told me that I showed my "cool side way too soon".  Well, I suppose it's good to know that a student considers that a teacher has a cool side.  The past couple of weeks, my students have been nearly uncontrollable. There's an old teacher adage which says "Don't smile until Christmas" but that is just not my nature.

This week, I finally had to nip some of the more obnoxious behavior in the butt.  My students have a really nasty habit of saying a few words that I find to be particularly offensive.  I'm not talking about dropping f-bombs, which they occasionally do.  No, what I'm talking about is using racial or homophobic slurs.  They use the n-word in casual conversation like you and I would say "hi."  Let alone, the fact that some of them call each other the f-word (think homophobic insult).  Drives me crazy!  I finally had to drop the hammer on this behavior when I heard the n-word used 3 times in a matter of 2 minutes.  I told my students that they can never use those words in my classroom ever again and I had to have a 10 minute conversation on how these words are offensive.  Then one student, who is usually decently behaved, but must have been having an off day, used the n-word 2 more times.  Now, he wasn't being purposefully malicious.  He honestly doesn't even realize that he's saying this offensive word.  Consequently, he ended up in detention with me and has learned his lesson. 

When I was nipping this behavior, I had a student who said something equally disturbing to me.  He said that if he was hanging out with a friend who was gay, then people would automatically think that he was gay too and how he would be really ticked off about that.  Seriously?!  Okay, I keep having to remind myself that I'm dealing with immature juveniles.  Also, this district is 96% Hispanic and this anachronistic way of thinking is prevalent in the Hispanic community.  These kids are in for a rude awakening when they get out into the real world.  Again, makes me very sad and concerns me a lot! I have a lot of work to do over the next few months on getting my seniors ready for the real world. Not just academically but also socially. Next week, I have a professional speaker coming to talk to my senior classes about professionalism.  I hope at least some of them will listen and understand.

Brave or Cowardly - Which Would You Choose?

I assume most people would say that they would choose to be brave, but I wonder...  Friends and family have given me kudos for "being brave" in completely uprooting my life and making a huge drastic change in career, location, salary, etc.  I don't know about brave.  It may be folly, but I did what I had to do to be happy in this world.  So why would so many people choose otherwise?

I've been grappling with this query for a long time. There are so many people who are afraid to make changes in their life and just stick with the status quo.  Fine, that's a choice you can make, but then don't whine, bitch, and complain about it.  Either make a change or accept the life that you've chosen.  I have this discussion with my students a lot!  I'm tired of hearing complaints from people who just want some recognition for their misery.  Well, I'm sorry, my friends, but you have choices in this world.  If you want to stay in your miserable life, that's your choice. So either you don't really want out of your current situation because you think you can fix it, or you're a coward and don't want to commit to something else.  Then it should be said: if you think you can fix your life, then fix it!  But don't lie and tell people that you're stuck.  No one is stuck.  Either make a change or suck it up.  This means every aspect of life, whether it's politics, career, personal, etc.  I'm tired of people whining and complaining.  If I can do something about my life, so can you.  It doesn't really take bravery, just commitment. Once you have the commitment and stick to it, it can all fall into place.  I'm not saying it's easy, but I am saying you can do it!  

And if your commitment is to stay in your current miserable life, then stop lying to others about wanting to make the change, because quite frankly we all have problems and most of us are tired of hearing people complain and then doing nothing about it.

One last item, before I step down from my soapbox,  it's also time people stop blaming the rest of the world for their unhappiness or problems.  Take some ownership of your life!  I admit that I'm not a perfect person and I have my share of problems.  But they are my problems.  Time to stop railing at the world for your issues.  Yes, I can say that I was completely screwed over in my life by several people, but I allowed it happen!  Yes, they were terrible, awful people who did terrible, awful things.  But ultimately, it's all on me because I allowed them to take advantage of me and hurt me.  I take ownership of it.  Time for others to do the same.

Okay, I'm done now.  You can return to your lives.  Just don't come complaining to me if your life is not all that it's cracked up to be.  I don't want to hear it, unless you're looking to make a change.  Then I will be happy to help in any way I can!