Wing

I got this link the other day and you absolutely have to hear these samples! Your life will never be the same. The link is Wing Music

The Cat Theme Continues

It's been a quiet weekend with me collapsing from the week's grind. Thank goodness for the cats here. They make it all worthwhile in this end-of-the-school-year stressful period. Here is Luvey. She has been in a playful mood this week, chasing the guys around and pouncing on me occasionally.

Tommy's Rest Time

The cats all lined up at the door to greet me when I came home this afternoon except for Tommy who was too relaxed to get up. I had to go over to him to give him a 'hello' scratch, after which he went back to sleep.

Freddie Mercury

Freddie has really come a long ways in the past two years here. From completely feral to somewhat shy is quite an accomplishment. He even lets Karen pet him occasionally but Freddie is still a daddy's boy. He watches the other cats and when one of them comes up to be petted he trots along beside them and demands his share of petting. Here is a nice picture of him relaxing on the couch. When we first got him he spent most of his time under the bed.

Ghost Town

Today after the email genius described in the previous post 2/3 of the kids stayed home. I do want to congratulate our principal. He personally visited each classroom and made sure that he was seen in the courtyard much of the day. He also had a number of extra police officers patrolling the halls all day. Nothing unusual happened and I taught the kids who were here. All in all, not a bad day at school. The halls for once were almost empty between classes. I could get used to the uncrowded conditions but I'm sure that come Monday things will be back to our usual sardine-packed norm.

Student Threatens School

Two days after the college massacre one of our students at the high school was arrested for sending an email to a friend threatening to kill 100 of our students. It came out later that he had made similar threats in February but they were not reported. Police charged him with a 2nd degree felony and searched his house. They found a shotgun that he had access to. This kid has to be one of the biggest idiots I've ever heard of. I'm sure he knew that he would be arrested in the current climate of fear but I guess he wanted his 15 minutes of fame.

With this ass and others like him running around the school I've been thinking about the security we have. There are two resource officers at the school. That's it for protection! I have no way to adequately protect either myself or my students other than locking the door. I really wish that I and other teachers here who are proficient with firearms could keep a gun in the classroom. Even pepper spray or a taser would be better than nothing. We aren't allowed to have anything to defend our classes with. It's truly sad that it's even come to this but reality has to be faced. I have years of training with rifles and pistols and have more than enough experience to safely keep a firearm at school. I reload my own ammunition and regularly practice target shooting. My home guns include revolvers and semi-automatics in various calibers. Having a firearm in class could mean survival for me and my class if the worst case scenario ever came to pass.

How did they handle this incident? After arresting the kid, our principal sent a voicemail announcement to everyone at home saying that a student who made non-specific threats was arrested and there is no danger. I wouldn't be surprised if the student wasn't back at school within a week or two. Wake up, folks! There is a real danger of copycat nuts out there in high schools and colleges everywhere. A teacher such as myself may be the only one standing between our students and some psychopathic idiot who wants to kill as many kids as possible. We need the ability to do more to protect our kids than throw pencils at a killer.

Good news, bad news

The good news: a visitor from the state came through the room today. She said that my class seemed more involved with the lesson than any other teacher's class she had visited today.

The bad news: I'm tired, my allergies have kicked in, and my rosacea has flared back up, giving me a splotchy red appearance. I'm in emergency mode trying to beat down the redness.

A Little Nervous Now?

Well, the students who were recently coasting along doing no work are finally starting to wake up. Wednesday the interim reports go out and they are terrified that they are going to be grounded for life. So now it's "What can I do to raise my grades?". Well, how about doing something novel like studying and turning in work? It's really simple but some of them have dug an academic hole for themselves now and it will take more than one or two good grades to dig themselves out of it. Why do they do this to themselves? Oh well, I'll still be around to help them pick up the pieces and get their grades back up where they belong. Morning help, makeup labs and tests, all of it is being offered. It's what I get paid the big bucks for around here.

Perception is reality???????!!!!!!!!!

We had a faculty meeting this morning in which one of the slides displayed just the words "Perception Is Reality". Well folks, it's finally happened. I am afraid that education is starting to worry more about image than in teaching. I hope I am wrong about that.

I Feel Like I'm In A Horror Movie

It's the first day back teaching after Spring break and the kids all acted like zombies. I tried to review the nervous system with one class and finally gave up when they couldn't tell me what a brain is. We have a quiz on the nervous system tomorrow and their homework is to restart their brains and look over the material. These 'living dead' zombies had better snap out of it or they are going to have a rough way to go. We have 6 more weeks and I intend to make full use of the instructional time. You know what happens to the zombies in the movie!

Springing The Blues Festival

With a beautifully clear day we decided to run up to Jacksonville to catch a couple of acts this afternoon at the start of the largest free blues festival in Florida. This is one of our local favorites, Greg Baril. He is a fantastic player and singer with a similar style to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Here is Karen, the wife, relaxing at the festival

and here is yours truly.

Smart Cat?

Princess has been trying to make me think she can read but she gave herself away by reading the newspaper upside down!

Happy Monday!

With the beginning of a week of (mostly) rest, I went metal detecting at the beach this morning and found a whopping 41 cents! It was good exercise and relaxing anyway. Here is a photo I took this weekend of Princess at her regal best. Have a good week, guys!