1. This week I held my first 'Classic Cinema Showcase' after-school meeting. The idea is to cultivate students' taste in cinema and fiction by showing them classic films and then explaining what makes them good. Our first film was Back to the Future, which they had all seen and liked, but when I started explaining … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: Back to the Future and Shikata ga nai
Teaching
Sunday Sundry: Short and Unfocused
1. A family crisis is currently occupying most of my attention, so this will have to be brief. Those who read this, please offer prayers on our behalf. 2. At the same time, the school year starts this week and I still have prepping to do, meaning I'm pretty much in survival mode. 3. The … Continue reading Sunday Sundry: Short and Unfocused
Friday Flotsam: First Year of Teaching Over and a Word on Audrey Hepburn
1. My old apartment is almost bare, and my new one is nearly looking like something livable. Furniture goes tomorrow. 2. My first year of full-time teaching is officially over! Some takeaways: 3. It took me a while to figure out what I could actually ask of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, and I'm still … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: First Year of Teaching Over and a Word on Audrey Hepburn
Sunday Flotsam: New Apartment and Classics
1. Last week I took possession of my new apartment and have been moving in piecemeal ever since. I won't be able to get most of the furniture until next week, unfortunately, but I have almost all of my books moved. In the meantime I live among chaos, my worldly goods vomited out upon the … Continue reading Sunday Flotsam: New Apartment and Classics
Saturday Flotsam: More Civil War, More Snow White, and ‘Wall Street’
1. I've fallen sick this week and ended up staying home yesterday. 2. Before that, however, I was telling my US history students about the Rebel Yell. They weren't quite getting it, so I tried to demonstrate (poorly, since I'm not Southern). I then had to admonish them, "Guys, don't do the Rebel Yell in … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: More Civil War, More Snow White, and ‘Wall Street’
Saturday Flotsam: Teaching History, Kansas Context, and a Paradox
1. My history book for sixth grade starts off its survey of the men of the Middle Ages with an account of the Norse gods, paralleling previous entries in the same series which started with the Greek gods to set the stage for famous Greeks and so on. The trouble is that, from what I've … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam: Teaching History, Kansas Context, and a Paradox
Sunday Flotsam: More Teaching and Some Fire Thoughts
1. From today's sermon: St. Augustine said that, "Peace is the tranquility of Order." That's a line to build a frame of life on! And, as you can tell by the fact that this is going up two days late (again), I lack order in my life. Something I need to work on. 2. Back … Continue reading Sunday Flotsam: More Teaching and Some Fire Thoughts
Friday Flotsam: Rand, Tucker, ‘The Crow’
1. Have a much-needed four-day weekend ahead of me. I'm starting to get more into the routine of teaching full-time, at least so that it's less like I'm building a railroad as the train is rolling over it and more like I'm building it as the train is within sight. 2. In my US History … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Rand, Tucker, ‘The Crow’
Friday Flotsam: Teaching, Napoleon, and Oz
1. Well, I made it through my first week of the new teaching job. It was overall easier than I expected; it felt like slipping back into a somewhat familiar routine, the same sense of just standing up and talking to the class. 2. That said, it did feel a bit like building a railroad … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Teaching, Napoleon, and Oz
Saturday Flotsam
1. I seem to be missing Friday Flotsams quite a bit lately. These are confusing times. 2. My first year of teaching has officially concluded in a chaotic rush of a 'center cleaning day'. It was truly a life-changing experience, and I've learned an enormous amount even in a single year. I feel that, at … Continue reading Saturday Flotsam
Serpent's Den 