Once in a lifetime weekend
On Saturday I saw King Lear with Ian McKellan in Brooklyn. I don't even know where to begin. They play is very sad and violent and lurches from moments of humor and hopefulness to despair and madness and disintegration. McKellan is amazing, and the whole cast was very good. We took my mother-in-law, who teaches AP English and is British, so she likes Shakespeare a lot.
We drove back to Philly Saturday night, and this morning did the MS bike ride for 30 miles with my younger daughter. Great weather, very exciting, a long way to ride. I'd done the 75 mile route the last couple of years, but in ways it was more satisfying doing a shorter distance with my kid. From there, I got dropped off at the Phillies game, which was so much fun it was almost unreal. An incredible crowd cheering a really likable team. Then straight from there to a neighborhood Sukkot party.
So what have your last 30 hours been like?
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Baseball
I haven't written much about baseball, but it promises to dominate this weekend. I love the fact that the Phillies could finish anywhere from 3rd in the Wild Card race to having the best record in the National League. I've never seen anything like it.
Here's a quote from an article on mlb.com
I haven't written much about baseball, but it promises to dominate this weekend. I love the fact that the Phillies could finish anywhere from 3rd in the Wild Card race to having the best record in the National League. I've never seen anything like it.
Here's a quote from an article on mlb.com
The National League West leaders -- by the slimmest of margins -- emerged as the big winners on Flip Friday, as Major League Baseball conducted a series of coin flips by telephone conference to determine sites for potential one-game playoffs to resolve ties at the end of regular-season play.
A total of 28 coin flips were required to account for all possible two-team ties -- for either division titles or the leagues' respective Wild Card races. Easily the most volatile league is the National, which thus hogged 25 of the 28 flips.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
I'm Riding in the MS150 Bike Tour This Weekend
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Back To School Night
Why is it called that? It's not just this school, lots of schools call it the same thing. I'm presuming it isn't called that because the teachers have to come back to school after the actual school day. At least in my house, back to school night is the night before school starts for the kids. So I guess the idea is that it's like parents coming back to school after all these years out in the real world. That's sort of sweet, so I guess that's the thing to call it.
This reminds me of a passage from one of the Winnie the Pooh books, where Pooh is asking Owl how to write a letter. Owl says, "Well, Pooh, the customary procedure in this case is as follows." Pooh replies, "What does Crustamoney Proseedcake mean?" Owl explains, "It means the Thing To Do." and Pooh says humbly, "As long as it means that, I don't mind."
Parents Night, as I'm wont to call it, is fun for me. It's a nice chance to meet people and reconnect, sometimes in unexpected ways, like finding out that one of my students went to preschool with my younger daughter and I served on the school's board with his mother for 2 years.
Why is it called that? It's not just this school, lots of schools call it the same thing. I'm presuming it isn't called that because the teachers have to come back to school after the actual school day. At least in my house, back to school night is the night before school starts for the kids. So I guess the idea is that it's like parents coming back to school after all these years out in the real world. That's sort of sweet, so I guess that's the thing to call it.
This reminds me of a passage from one of the Winnie the Pooh books, where Pooh is asking Owl how to write a letter. Owl says, "Well, Pooh, the customary procedure in this case is as follows." Pooh replies, "What does Crustamoney Proseedcake mean?" Owl explains, "It means the Thing To Do." and Pooh says humbly, "As long as it means that, I don't mind."
Parents Night, as I'm wont to call it, is fun for me. It's a nice chance to meet people and reconnect, sometimes in unexpected ways, like finding out that one of my students went to preschool with my younger daughter and I served on the school's board with his mother for 2 years.
Another Short School Week
I don't know about anybody else, but I'm totally disoriented by this schedule. I never have any idea what day of the week it is or what I'm supposed to be doing tomorrow. I can understand the attraction of the Jewish rituals, which I've never really done. It provides a rhythm and structure that I can imagine would be comforting.
To add to my general haziness, I gave tests in all of my classes today. This means that by the end of the day I'm both exhausted by the general stress of testing and bored to tears by not doing anything. Every time I try to start something during a test, something interrupts me. I think in the nearly 3 hours I was sitting there I completed one page of a lesson plan for one class, and graded 5 tests. Not what I'd consider a stellar output, but it's not like I can talk on the phone or curl up with a good book or nap or anything. I miss the give and take of class.
I don't know about anybody else, but I'm totally disoriented by this schedule. I never have any idea what day of the week it is or what I'm supposed to be doing tomorrow. I can understand the attraction of the Jewish rituals, which I've never really done. It provides a rhythm and structure that I can imagine would be comforting.
To add to my general haziness, I gave tests in all of my classes today. This means that by the end of the day I'm both exhausted by the general stress of testing and bored to tears by not doing anything. Every time I try to start something during a test, something interrupts me. I think in the nearly 3 hours I was sitting there I completed one page of a lesson plan for one class, and graded 5 tests. Not what I'd consider a stellar output, but it's not like I can talk on the phone or curl up with a good book or nap or anything. I miss the give and take of class.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Review
I'm giving tests in all of my classes on Tuesday, so Monday is review day. A review is a time to ask yourself, what is it exactly that we're doing? I find this a useful question to ask ones self as often as possible. It certainly was my guiding principle when I was managing a business project. Whenever things started to get crazy (and in advertising, things ALWAYS have the potential to get crazy) I always saw my job as boss being to stop everyone and say, "What is it that we're trying to accomplish?" This question has the almost magical effect of getting everybody thinking in the same direction. Or at least makes turf wars and nitpicking seem irrelevant.
So it seems sort of dangerous to ask that question in a math class, where the second most-asked question after, "Can I go to the bathroom?" is "What am I ever going to use this for?" But that's what makes asking it so necessary. If you can't gain a sense of perspective and meaning along with definitions and skills, why bother? I know that's asking a lot of a kid, but I feel obliged to at least ask. I'm not expecting an epiphany, but maybe a glimmer of insight.
So why learn the math? Because math is simpler than life, and math can be used to simulate all kinds of things that happen in life, except with answers. All we're doing now is creating a toolbox that can help us, well, sometime, for something. I can't really say what, because life is more complicated than math, and not only aren't there a lot of definite answers, it's also hard to know what questions to ask. The more tools you know how to use, the better the shot you have at asking and answering important questions, just like searching for meaning in a passage in history or English or Tanach can teach something about how to ask your own questions.
Well, that got heavy all of a sudden. I guess Yom Kippur will do that for a guy.
I'm giving tests in all of my classes on Tuesday, so Monday is review day. A review is a time to ask yourself, what is it exactly that we're doing? I find this a useful question to ask ones self as often as possible. It certainly was my guiding principle when I was managing a business project. Whenever things started to get crazy (and in advertising, things ALWAYS have the potential to get crazy) I always saw my job as boss being to stop everyone and say, "What is it that we're trying to accomplish?" This question has the almost magical effect of getting everybody thinking in the same direction. Or at least makes turf wars and nitpicking seem irrelevant.
So it seems sort of dangerous to ask that question in a math class, where the second most-asked question after, "Can I go to the bathroom?" is "What am I ever going to use this for?" But that's what makes asking it so necessary. If you can't gain a sense of perspective and meaning along with definitions and skills, why bother? I know that's asking a lot of a kid, but I feel obliged to at least ask. I'm not expecting an epiphany, but maybe a glimmer of insight.
So why learn the math? Because math is simpler than life, and math can be used to simulate all kinds of things that happen in life, except with answers. All we're doing now is creating a toolbox that can help us, well, sometime, for something. I can't really say what, because life is more complicated than math, and not only aren't there a lot of definite answers, it's also hard to know what questions to ask. The more tools you know how to use, the better the shot you have at asking and answering important questions, just like searching for meaning in a passage in history or English or Tanach can teach something about how to ask your own questions.
Well, that got heavy all of a sudden. I guess Yom Kippur will do that for a guy.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Screen Gems
I've been thinking about movies today for a couple of reasons. First of all, I'm working my way through the original Star Wars Trilogy, which is now called episodes 4, 5 and 6. If you didn't realize, these are the originals of the series and much much much better than episodes 1-3. The next couple of paragraphs might be enjoyable only to those who know these movies.
I actually saw the first Star Wars movie in 1977 in Salt Lake City. I was driving across the country with a couple of my college friends and it had just come out. You can't imagine what a huge deal it was. Everything gets so hyped these days that it's hard to separate the spectacular from the merely noisy, but this was the first big, special effects sci-fi movie of the digital age. Most of the stuff you see now was invented for that movie or is a direct descendant. The movie was just called Star Wars back then.
I'm in the middle of The Empire Strikes Back, considered by most to be the "best" of the 3. It's pretty dark, but it has lots of witty banter between Han Solo and Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker's Jedi training with Yoda. One of the things that I always liked about this series was the concept of "The Force," which is the cumulative power of all the living things in the universe. I've never been a believer in the "old man in the sky" version of God, and the Force is the thing that comes closest to what I do believe. That said, the pseudo-religious claptrap in some of the scenes is almost laughably awful in a campy kind of way. For example, after Yoda levitates the space ship up out of the swamp after Luke can't do it, Luke stairs slack-jawed and says, "I don't believe it." and Yoda says, "That is why you fail."
The other movie thing is that I had part of a line from a movie stuck in my head today, kind of the way you get a few lines from a song stuck in your head. The problem was that I couldn't place it. The line was "You've got an overdeveloped sense of (don't remember). It's going to get you in trouble some day." It took quite a bit of discussion before we remembered it was from The Princess Bride. The six-fingered man says it to Inigo Montoya right before the sword fight scene. The actual line is "You've got an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. It's going to get you into trouble some day." This is funny because you already think Inigo is dying, which of course isn't funny at all.
I've been thinking about movies today for a couple of reasons. First of all, I'm working my way through the original Star Wars Trilogy, which is now called episodes 4, 5 and 6. If you didn't realize, these are the originals of the series and much much much better than episodes 1-3. The next couple of paragraphs might be enjoyable only to those who know these movies.
I actually saw the first Star Wars movie in 1977 in Salt Lake City. I was driving across the country with a couple of my college friends and it had just come out. You can't imagine what a huge deal it was. Everything gets so hyped these days that it's hard to separate the spectacular from the merely noisy, but this was the first big, special effects sci-fi movie of the digital age. Most of the stuff you see now was invented for that movie or is a direct descendant. The movie was just called Star Wars back then.
I'm in the middle of The Empire Strikes Back, considered by most to be the "best" of the 3. It's pretty dark, but it has lots of witty banter between Han Solo and Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker's Jedi training with Yoda. One of the things that I always liked about this series was the concept of "The Force," which is the cumulative power of all the living things in the universe. I've never been a believer in the "old man in the sky" version of God, and the Force is the thing that comes closest to what I do believe. That said, the pseudo-religious claptrap in some of the scenes is almost laughably awful in a campy kind of way. For example, after Yoda levitates the space ship up out of the swamp after Luke can't do it, Luke stairs slack-jawed and says, "I don't believe it." and Yoda says, "That is why you fail."
The other movie thing is that I had part of a line from a movie stuck in my head today, kind of the way you get a few lines from a song stuck in your head. The problem was that I couldn't place it. The line was "You've got an overdeveloped sense of (don't remember). It's going to get you in trouble some day." It took quite a bit of discussion before we remembered it was from The Princess Bride. The six-fingered man says it to Inigo Montoya right before the sword fight scene. The actual line is "You've got an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. It's going to get you into trouble some day." This is funny because you already think Inigo is dying, which of course isn't funny at all.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Holiday Weekend
Didn't get around to writing much this weekend, but I did want to note a couple of things.
I don't know if any of you were at Beth Am, but on the morning of the first day the hagbah guy almost dropped the Torah, twice. Never seen that before. You really have to be right-handed to do that job on Rosh Hashana.
I'm riding in the MS 150 bike tour again this year, this time with my daughter Celia, who is now training up to 17 miles (we're doing 30 together).
While training by myself on Wednesday, I started along the Schuylkill bike path and as I passed Conshohocken, I saw a sign for the "Mid-County Trail." That sounded nice, so I detoured onto it and took a lovely ride through the woods for a half mile or so, with a nice stream alongside the path. Then the woods cleared on one side and the stream ran through a field. Finally, I saw some bright and festive colors through the trees. I came around the bend and saw...the Ikea parking lot. The trail continued past Ikea and the Metroplex, before ending, not at Barnes and Noble/Starbucks like it ought to, but at an underpass where the entire trail is suddenly surrounded by a 10 foot tall cyclone fence. I was a bit confused, but then I saw to one side a small yellow sign that said, "Trail Ends." This is what biking in the suburbs is all about.
Didn't get around to writing much this weekend, but I did want to note a couple of things.
I don't know if any of you were at Beth Am, but on the morning of the first day the hagbah guy almost dropped the Torah, twice. Never seen that before. You really have to be right-handed to do that job on Rosh Hashana.
I'm riding in the MS 150 bike tour again this year, this time with my daughter Celia, who is now training up to 17 miles (we're doing 30 together).
While training by myself on Wednesday, I started along the Schuylkill bike path and as I passed Conshohocken, I saw a sign for the "Mid-County Trail." That sounded nice, so I detoured onto it and took a lovely ride through the woods for a half mile or so, with a nice stream alongside the path. Then the woods cleared on one side and the stream ran through a field. Finally, I saw some bright and festive colors through the trees. I came around the bend and saw...the Ikea parking lot. The trail continued past Ikea and the Metroplex, before ending, not at Barnes and Noble/Starbucks like it ought to, but at an underpass where the entire trail is suddenly surrounded by a 10 foot tall cyclone fence. I was a bit confused, but then I saw to one side a small yellow sign that said, "Trail Ends." This is what biking in the suburbs is all about.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Happy New Year
I'll not go into the appropriateness of blogging on Rosh Hashanah now, but I grew up reform and it'll always be a one day holiday to me, even though I often go to shul on the 2nd day. Just one of those little contradictions that make life special.
Just in case someone's stumbled onto this blog hoping for advice, I'll dispense some from time to time. This will include an ongoing series on "How to harmlessly irritate your parents with almost no effort." Today's entry comes courtesy of one of my daughters.
When you come home from camp, put all of your batteries into one big zipper lock plastic bag. When your parents ask you "Are these used or new?" answer, "I don't know."
I'll not go into the appropriateness of blogging on Rosh Hashanah now, but I grew up reform and it'll always be a one day holiday to me, even though I often go to shul on the 2nd day. Just one of those little contradictions that make life special.
Just in case someone's stumbled onto this blog hoping for advice, I'll dispense some from time to time. This will include an ongoing series on "How to harmlessly irritate your parents with almost no effort." Today's entry comes courtesy of one of my daughters.
When you come home from camp, put all of your batteries into one big zipper lock plastic bag. When your parents ask you "Are these used or new?" answer, "I don't know."
Monday, September 10, 2007
Hot and sticky
No, I don't have any joke to go with that. It was pretty exciting, though, not knowing if the room you were walking into was 72 degrees and frigid or 91 degrees with air so thick you barely see through it. There's a kind of very large worm that lives at the bottom of the ocean, feeding off of the nutrients in the water flowing out of the vents that shoot hot water out from the center of the earth. The head of the worm lives at 160 degree water and its tail, which is a few feet away from the vents, is in 40 degree water. I'm not making this up, by the way. People (well, biologists anyway) marvel at its ability to thrive in such different physical states, and I marvel at our ability to get a day's work in together when the conditions are, let's say, not ideal.
I saw this today and wanted to share it. Stick with it for at least 2 minutes. I guess it's the same band that did "Technologic," a house favorite here.
Okay, gotta go read "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Poe so I can try to help my daughter do her English homework. I've read of few stories in this Poe unit, and I now don't hate Poe as much as I did when I read him in high school.
No, I don't have any joke to go with that. It was pretty exciting, though, not knowing if the room you were walking into was 72 degrees and frigid or 91 degrees with air so thick you barely see through it. There's a kind of very large worm that lives at the bottom of the ocean, feeding off of the nutrients in the water flowing out of the vents that shoot hot water out from the center of the earth. The head of the worm lives at 160 degree water and its tail, which is a few feet away from the vents, is in 40 degree water. I'm not making this up, by the way. People (well, biologists anyway) marvel at its ability to thrive in such different physical states, and I marvel at our ability to get a day's work in together when the conditions are, let's say, not ideal.
I saw this today and wanted to share it. Stick with it for at least 2 minutes. I guess it's the same band that did "Technologic," a house favorite here.
Okay, gotta go read "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Poe so I can try to help my daughter do her English homework. I've read of few stories in this Poe unit, and I now don't hate Poe as much as I did when I read him in high school.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
First couple of school days
School started for teachers on Tuesday, but the students returned on Thursday. It's always a little overwhelming at the beginning, remembering how to stand in front of a bunch of kids and talk about math for 40 minutes and get them to listen. It's fun once you get into it, but it always takes a bit to get in a rhythm, especially when there are only 10 school days in September (not that I'm complaining).
I'm teaching Algebra 3/Trigonometry, Honors Elementary Functions, and two sections of Algebra 1, Part 2. It's a nice, well-rounded schedule and I have one day when I'm finished at lunch time.
Before my wedding, somebody gave Ronnie and I a great piece of advice. They said, the whole experience is too overwhelming to retain, so try to pick a few special moments to focus on and remember. The start of school isn't quite that extreme, but here are a few things that stick with me.
School started for teachers on Tuesday, but the students returned on Thursday. It's always a little overwhelming at the beginning, remembering how to stand in front of a bunch of kids and talk about math for 40 minutes and get them to listen. It's fun once you get into it, but it always takes a bit to get in a rhythm, especially when there are only 10 school days in September (not that I'm complaining).
I'm teaching Algebra 3/Trigonometry, Honors Elementary Functions, and two sections of Algebra 1, Part 2. It's a nice, well-rounded schedule and I have one day when I'm finished at lunch time.
Before my wedding, somebody gave Ronnie and I a great piece of advice. They said, the whole experience is too overwhelming to retain, so try to pick a few special moments to focus on and remember. The start of school isn't quite that extreme, but here are a few things that stick with me.
- A group of 6th grade girls standing by the stairs, one of them says "And they're always saying 'You're so cute!' " and the others all laughing.
- Finding out that one of my former students posted a picture of me standing next to a yak in Tibet on his Facebook- my first time appearing on Facebook I believe. And yes it's a real picture and no, I don't really want to see the comments. I should say though that once I realized I was going to look like a tourist no matter what I did, I decided to go whole hog. I even bought a Beijing Olympics baseball cap.
- Could it be any hotter in Room 20? Room 21 was chilly by comparison.
- Students coming for homework help on the first day.
- Seeing the seniors, nearly all of whom I've taught and some of whom I'm working with for the 3rd time.
- Walking up Old Lancaster towards Montgomery I see them putting up a sign point the direction to the train station and the fire house. I think, who cares where the fire house is? I only care if the firemen know where it is. When you have a fire, do you start looking for a nearby firehouse? What they need is a sign that says Hymies to the left, Murrays and Starbucks to the right.
- Noticing how small and, well, cute the 6th graders are.
Monday, September 03, 2007
It's Time To Start
It's Monday evening of Labor Day weekend and we teachers toddle on back to school tomorrow. It's kind of cool how I'm so looking forward to the end of the school year and then find myself looking forward to the beginning as well. This is going to be an interesting year at HAFKA (the Hebrew Academy Formerly Known as Akiba). I like the sound of this. It even sounds Jewish. Of course, it's patently disrespectful and I'm sure that at some point someone will make me stop calling it that, but for the moment that's my name for the school.
I'll be blogging on general topics and some things specific to individual classes as the year goes on. I'll label the entries so you can search for whatever topics you're interested in. If you want to hear about my trip to China, feel free to scroll down and/or look in the archives. I just re-read it and it's actually pretty good (I think).
I welcome comments. This blog has a moderated comment section, so don't worry about inappropriate content.
Welcome back everyone!
It's Monday evening of Labor Day weekend and we teachers toddle on back to school tomorrow. It's kind of cool how I'm so looking forward to the end of the school year and then find myself looking forward to the beginning as well. This is going to be an interesting year at HAFKA (the Hebrew Academy Formerly Known as Akiba). I like the sound of this. It even sounds Jewish. Of course, it's patently disrespectful and I'm sure that at some point someone will make me stop calling it that, but for the moment that's my name for the school.
I'll be blogging on general topics and some things specific to individual classes as the year goes on. I'll label the entries so you can search for whatever topics you're interested in. If you want to hear about my trip to China, feel free to scroll down and/or look in the archives. I just re-read it and it's actually pretty good (I think).
I welcome comments. This blog has a moderated comment section, so don't worry about inappropriate content.
Welcome back everyone!
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