So we went to the Big 12 championship between our beloved Texas Longhorns those Cornhuskers from Nebraska this weekend. Wow what a game! Not really, it was a really crappy game. Colt probably lost the Heisman trophy in one... make that 3 fell swoops. No scoring, field goals galore and then that finish. Man talk about having your fan base turn on you. If that clock would have actually run out like Nebraska thought it did, there would have been some serious dusting off of the old firemackbrown.com. Luckily for all those in the burnt orange, it turned out great. But, while we watched Hunter Lawrence setting up for the kick, I couldn't help but wonder: Why's everyone so worried?
Seriously folks. I mean you're Texas fans. Where did you learn this sense of dread? I mean Rose Bowl 1, Rose Bowl 2, countless close games... I remember the first time I ever saw Texas play in person. My wife, who wasn't my wife at the time, brought me and a friend down to see UT play Texas Tech in what would become one of the best games I've ever seen in my life. We sat down pretty close to Bevo and along with 85,000 (a number that seems small now) fans watched as the Horns pulled it out in a 43 to 40 barnburner. Call me an optimist, but from then on... I've just never been all that concerned.
Thanks, in part, for this goes to my wife. To say she's an optimist when it comes to Texas football would be quite the understatement. In truth she's almost a little delusional. I've heard her say things like: Isn't it going to be fun to watch us win this? But truth is, yeah it has been fun. Going to the Rose Bowl just a couple years after that first game was amazing. Then going back the next year and seeing us win one of the most exciting football games of all time was... well there aren't really words. Watching Colt McCoy go from someone you'd barely notice to the winningest QB in NCAA history. It's all been great fun. But one thing it hasn't been very often is disappointing. Obviously last year's Tech game was. Obviously not making it to the Championship game was a bummer but, let's look big picture here folks. In all, we have it REALLY good. I mean it could be worse... you could be a Bengals fan. Oh yeah... I am.
I think that's part of why I love Texas so much. All my life I wanted a team I could really believe in. I wanted to believe that the Bengals would win it all but Joe Montana was constantly crushing my dreams. Then the Bengals became the laughing stock of the NFL for decades. Presidents went in and out of office during the stretches that these guys failed to get a Monday Night Football appearance, not to mention playoffs. All we did was lose. I can remember games where they would fumble it in the first quarter and I'd just turn it off. Knowing what I knew about them my conditioned response, just like everyone else who invests themselves in that franchise, was "we're through". But at Texas, it's different. At Texas you can watch your Heisman hopeful play like a turd and still win. Or watch your team play like a turd and the Heisman hopeful does it by himself. Somehow "WE'RE TEXAS" just seems to inspire a whole bunch of confidence that something cool is about to happen... even in the midst of calamity.
So that's what I was thinking about when Nebraska scored the go ahead field goal with over a minute and half left to play. That's what I was thinking about as the kickoff rolled out of bounds giving us the ball on the 40. That's what I was thinking about when Shipley caught a big pass and then got horse collared. I was even thinking that something cool was about to happen when Colt rolled out in the final seconds of the game. I guess that's why rather than getting upset when it looked as if Nebraska had won, I just kinda scratched my head as if to say, "Hmmm that's odd." Just like when you go to open the refrigerator and the light's always on. If it wasn't, you'd think it a bit strange. And sure enough just like the light that always comes on, something cool happened. So with one second left on the clock I found myself saying out loud "Why yall so worried? Haven't you been watching these guys?" Hook Em
Here's to Colt not finishing behind the big boy named Suh in the Heisman race and to something cool happening in Pasadena... again.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
and the story continues...
Well the story had to pick back up somewhere right? I've recently realized just how much I missed this outlet. Life has taken some pretty crazy twists since I stopped writing at the end of the last school year. Twists that I wish I'd taken the time to put into words. Some of them I'm not entirely sure if I would have had the courage to post back then for fear that someone would read them. But really... It's time to call a spade a spade. For a little story that alot of you who know me personally have been wondering about, let's go back to that big closing of the school year last year and the summer that followed.
At the end of the year I was presented with an intriguing option. On top of already being given a coaching position both by the new Athletic Director and my Principal, I was told 'Take the PE test and you can be a PE/Coach." This created quite a dilemma for me as I never really saw myself as a PE teacher. But given the added load of coaching, I decided it was probably in my best interest. I took the test and passed it with ease. Soon after however, the bottom fell out.
So I get an email from my principal telling me that he and the AD would like to meet with me. I went in to talk and after I waited for 45 minutes beyond the meeting time, my principal brings me into his office and basically tells me that I was out for coaching and out for PE. Although he said he couldn't give me any reasons since it had been the AD's decision. I left the school aghast at what I had just been told. What reason could there possibly be? I'd done a hell of a job regrouping the band of misfits otherwise known as football offseason. I'd helped them actually become athletes. They respected me and I liked them. So I went strait to the AD to get some answers.
After talking to the AD for a couple hours I came away even more confused than before. His story was that it was my principal's input that swung me out of the coaching spot. Apparently the AD was told I'd been having problems in the classroom. His reasoning was that if I were having problems in the classroom, surely I couldn't ALSO handle coaching. He went on to tell me that he'd already been looking to fill the PE spot so I'd have to teach and coach. Given my principal's claim, he just couldn't comfortably put me in that teacher/coach spot. After hearing my spirited rebuttal, he told me that he would go talk to my principal and get to the bottom of it. With more information he'd call me the next day or two. About a week later I got a text message from the AD telling me that it was confirmed, I was an issue in the classroom. It went on to say that my position for both coaching and PE had been filled. He said he'd call the next day to talk about it further. That was May... I'm still waiting for his phone call.
Now it blew me away that not only was I not going to coach but I wasn't even going to teach PE. It just brought up so many questions. Why had my principal not told the AD right off the bat that I was an issue in the classroom if it were so true? If I was really such an issue, how? After all, my last observation had gone really well. My kids loved my class. Parents on the whole were always emailing to say how much they liked me. My tech quotient in class was much higher than many others. And IT WAS MY FIRST YEAR! Why was the principal not upfront about why he wanted me to teach PE? Why would the AD be so classless as to break it off with me over a text message? I mean seriously, that's middle schooler style folks. What in the world had I done to deserve being allowed to introduce myself to the kids as their coach for next year only to have it pulled out from underneath me? Kids, parents, and teachers all knew that I was a coach. Done deal... now these guys were asking me to come back and put my face in front of all that? I was going to have to face all the questions and guffaws. All the scorn and embarrassment... And why? It didn't have to go down like that.
Needless to say this garbage made me question my choice in workplace. It also made me question the very profession of teaching. As I considered everything that had happened both at the end of the year and during it, I began to wonder if teaching was really the right thing for me to be doing. I realized that teachers who have been in the game for a long time are either thick skinned brass knuckled tyrants or reclusive hide-aways. Think about it... if you know a teacher who's got 10 years or better in, I bet you'll find what I'm saying to be true. And, the older the teacher the truer it gets. This truth really made me wonder if it was time to hang it up and find another career. After only a year I had my eyes opened to a vision of the future and I didn't like what I saw.
I went to my principal who, now realizing how ridiculously he'd gone about things, would surely be remorseful and comforting about the whole thing right? Nope.... Didn't even say sorry. Moreover, when I said in no uncertain terms that this whole situation had hurt me so bad that I was considering finding not just another school, but a whole other career. His response: Well, you've gotta do what you've gotta do. Wow... Thanks for that.
So I did just that... what I had to do. I investigated alternative employment, sought advice from others, played the lottery a little and was a rats hair away from starting a limo business. Somewhere in the middle of it though I was struck by a thought: What in the Sam Hill am I thinking?! I mean after all, the only reason I had time to do all that stuff is because I WASN'T WORKING, IT WAS SUMMER! How quickly I'd forgotten that teaching IS better than other jobs because you get summer off! I mean we may be roped in there shoveling turds alot of days for about 10 months a year so what?! While all you other hosers are at your jobs in July wishing you could sleep in and go to the lake... I AM! So to hell with it. Embarrass me, make me feel like a idiot... do whatever... I'm staying (provided I don't get the axe), this thing's just too cool for me and my family to go down without a fight.
And it's with that attitude that I came back in to this year. Sure, I got handed a development plan and a provisional contract when I came back. Sure, now I'm one of the proud few who get their lesson plans read weekly by the VP. Sure, now I'm getting tattled on by other teachers for all matter of ridiculous stuff. Sure sure sure.... woog. But you know something folks? For one thing, all this scrutiny may have just made me a quite a bit better at what I do. And on tough days, when I'm home at 4:30 in the afternoon and a couple weeks away from a long Christmas break... the Grin portion of Grin and Bear it becomes a whoooole lot easier. Ya'll have a good one and thanks for caring enough to read.
Lastly, I couldn't leave you with my first update in months and not give you a little OverHeard:
Me: So I want you all to write about why you're thankful that we live in a country that has free speech and freedom of the press.
Kid: What's the press?
Me: News people... more or less
Kid: What's freedom of speech?
Me: You can criticize the government and say whatever you feel.
Kid: Wouldn't you get thrown in jail if you criticized the president?
Me: Nope, that's freedom of speech bud.
Kid: That's stupid though, I'm not thankful for that.
Me: woog
At the end of the year I was presented with an intriguing option. On top of already being given a coaching position both by the new Athletic Director and my Principal, I was told 'Take the PE test and you can be a PE/Coach." This created quite a dilemma for me as I never really saw myself as a PE teacher. But given the added load of coaching, I decided it was probably in my best interest. I took the test and passed it with ease. Soon after however, the bottom fell out.
So I get an email from my principal telling me that he and the AD would like to meet with me. I went in to talk and after I waited for 45 minutes beyond the meeting time, my principal brings me into his office and basically tells me that I was out for coaching and out for PE. Although he said he couldn't give me any reasons since it had been the AD's decision. I left the school aghast at what I had just been told. What reason could there possibly be? I'd done a hell of a job regrouping the band of misfits otherwise known as football offseason. I'd helped them actually become athletes. They respected me and I liked them. So I went strait to the AD to get some answers.
After talking to the AD for a couple hours I came away even more confused than before. His story was that it was my principal's input that swung me out of the coaching spot. Apparently the AD was told I'd been having problems in the classroom. His reasoning was that if I were having problems in the classroom, surely I couldn't ALSO handle coaching. He went on to tell me that he'd already been looking to fill the PE spot so I'd have to teach and coach. Given my principal's claim, he just couldn't comfortably put me in that teacher/coach spot. After hearing my spirited rebuttal, he told me that he would go talk to my principal and get to the bottom of it. With more information he'd call me the next day or two. About a week later I got a text message from the AD telling me that it was confirmed, I was an issue in the classroom. It went on to say that my position for both coaching and PE had been filled. He said he'd call the next day to talk about it further. That was May... I'm still waiting for his phone call.
Now it blew me away that not only was I not going to coach but I wasn't even going to teach PE. It just brought up so many questions. Why had my principal not told the AD right off the bat that I was an issue in the classroom if it were so true? If I was really such an issue, how? After all, my last observation had gone really well. My kids loved my class. Parents on the whole were always emailing to say how much they liked me. My tech quotient in class was much higher than many others. And IT WAS MY FIRST YEAR! Why was the principal not upfront about why he wanted me to teach PE? Why would the AD be so classless as to break it off with me over a text message? I mean seriously, that's middle schooler style folks. What in the world had I done to deserve being allowed to introduce myself to the kids as their coach for next year only to have it pulled out from underneath me? Kids, parents, and teachers all knew that I was a coach. Done deal... now these guys were asking me to come back and put my face in front of all that? I was going to have to face all the questions and guffaws. All the scorn and embarrassment... And why? It didn't have to go down like that.
Needless to say this garbage made me question my choice in workplace. It also made me question the very profession of teaching. As I considered everything that had happened both at the end of the year and during it, I began to wonder if teaching was really the right thing for me to be doing. I realized that teachers who have been in the game for a long time are either thick skinned brass knuckled tyrants or reclusive hide-aways. Think about it... if you know a teacher who's got 10 years or better in, I bet you'll find what I'm saying to be true. And, the older the teacher the truer it gets. This truth really made me wonder if it was time to hang it up and find another career. After only a year I had my eyes opened to a vision of the future and I didn't like what I saw.
I went to my principal who, now realizing how ridiculously he'd gone about things, would surely be remorseful and comforting about the whole thing right? Nope.... Didn't even say sorry. Moreover, when I said in no uncertain terms that this whole situation had hurt me so bad that I was considering finding not just another school, but a whole other career. His response: Well, you've gotta do what you've gotta do. Wow... Thanks for that.
So I did just that... what I had to do. I investigated alternative employment, sought advice from others, played the lottery a little and was a rats hair away from starting a limo business. Somewhere in the middle of it though I was struck by a thought: What in the Sam Hill am I thinking?! I mean after all, the only reason I had time to do all that stuff is because I WASN'T WORKING, IT WAS SUMMER! How quickly I'd forgotten that teaching IS better than other jobs because you get summer off! I mean we may be roped in there shoveling turds alot of days for about 10 months a year so what?! While all you other hosers are at your jobs in July wishing you could sleep in and go to the lake... I AM! So to hell with it. Embarrass me, make me feel like a idiot... do whatever... I'm staying (provided I don't get the axe), this thing's just too cool for me and my family to go down without a fight.
And it's with that attitude that I came back in to this year. Sure, I got handed a development plan and a provisional contract when I came back. Sure, now I'm one of the proud few who get their lesson plans read weekly by the VP. Sure, now I'm getting tattled on by other teachers for all matter of ridiculous stuff. Sure sure sure.... woog. But you know something folks? For one thing, all this scrutiny may have just made me a quite a bit better at what I do. And on tough days, when I'm home at 4:30 in the afternoon and a couple weeks away from a long Christmas break... the Grin portion of Grin and Bear it becomes a whoooole lot easier. Ya'll have a good one and thanks for caring enough to read.
Lastly, I couldn't leave you with my first update in months and not give you a little OverHeard:
Me: So I want you all to write about why you're thankful that we live in a country that has free speech and freedom of the press.
Kid: What's the press?
Me: News people... more or less
Kid: What's freedom of speech?
Me: You can criticize the government and say whatever you feel.
Kid: Wouldn't you get thrown in jail if you criticized the president?
Me: Nope, that's freedom of speech bud.
Kid: That's stupid though, I'm not thankful for that.
Me: woog
Thursday, May 28, 2009
It had to end sometime...
Well folks school is coming to a close. It's been a pretty crazy year and now here we are at the end. It's been a really bittersweet time for me. On the one hand, it's summer and that's great. No more grading or planning or anything work related. On the other hand it's a little depressing. My first year is over. I will never have another like it. My students that I have this year will stand out from all others for me because they were my first. And so it's with a little sadness that I started pulling stuff down off my walls and shelves over the past couple days. I'm also sad that I didn't write in this blog more. I just noticed that I only have 38 entries... 38 out of 188 days of school ain't too good. But oh well.
All this reflection and stuff got me thinking about back when I was in 7th grade. It was a really tough time for me. So tough that it makes the slight depression right now feel like a cake walk. What made it so bad then though wasn't feeling bad leaving school, it was having to go everyday.
Some of you know my story here but for those that don't I'll try to keep it short.
In about 1993 or so we moved from WV to TX. I went from a small town with mostly white people to a school where whites were the minority. I went from not knowing any culture besides my own to being tossed into an environment where almost no one was like me. I'll never forget having a locker by a guy named after the son of God and wondering why he put so much baby oil in his hair. I'll never forget eating my first fresh jalapeno or my first Frito pie. I'll never forget chasing down horny toads and tumbleweeds because they were like this foreign oddity to us. But as new and wild as all that was, it's tough to even describe how hard that year was. For the most part I think it was because I was so different. My attitude was foreign and my life experience was abnormal but truly it was my accent that garnered so much junior high style verbal pounding.
Anyone who talks to me now knows I have an accent. I like it because I feel like it's a trait that sets me apart from others and makes me unique. Unfortunately for me, being a new kid in a middle school isn't the time to be unique.... often times I really wished I could have just blended in.
Luckily, this "first" 7th grade year wasn't nearly as rough. Today I wanted to really put a good ending note on it all so I just got up and talked to the kids. I talked to them about my life story and how the fact that I'm in such a good place now happened largely due to luck. I explained that most people who squander years of college, thousands of dollars and multiple opportunities don't really get the chance to recover and have a really happy ending. I talked about my wife and how different her life was compared to mine. She was a top graduate in high school, had scholarships at UT where she was a business honors student. Now she gets to stay home with our baby and work from the home office and is doing well with it. I tried to convey that the differences between her life and mine could be traced all the way back to around the same time my students are living in now. In middle school my wife made alot of decisions and set goals for herself academically and professionally. She would spend her school years tenaciously pursuing those goals. Like her I also set goals. However instead of setting personal expectations with an eye toward college and career, I was much more in the here and now. My main purpose in life became earning respect and friendship from people around me.
I'm happy to say that at least on some level I managed to overcome the fact that I was a huge dork and talked like I'd just crawled out of a turnip sack. I'm glad to say that by the time I got to high school, I knew alot of people and had several friends that I was pretty close to. I had girlfriends, I got into yearbook alot and everybody knew who I was. This isn't to say I was like the prom king or anything... but I was the prom king's best friend! Anyway the point is that I accomplished what I had set out to do. Unfortunately I really had no plan beyond that. My wife on the other hand was just getting started when she finished high school.
The moral of this story is that you need to set goals for yourself and then go after them. If you manage to get them knocked out, be sure to set new ones. That's what I told the little budding teenagers on their last real day of school and that's what I'm telling you folks now. Don't get caught in the doldrums of life because you failed set the bar. Find something you want to learn, accomplish, see, do, find, overcome, etc. and go out there and grab it. Remember the rabbit and the snake from day 1? If you don't, go back and check that out. Be fierce bunnies out there kids... the world will be a better place for it.
Thanks for an awesomely fantastic year class of 2014. I love all you knuckleheads and I'm going to miss you more than you know.
Overheard @ WoRMS
Kid: Why do you have Miracle Grow in here?
Me: Well I do have several plants.
Kid: Why would you put that on plants?
Me: To help them grow....?
Kid: But isn't that stuff for your hair?
Me: Well.... at least you asked before you had to find out on your own... woog
All this reflection and stuff got me thinking about back when I was in 7th grade. It was a really tough time for me. So tough that it makes the slight depression right now feel like a cake walk. What made it so bad then though wasn't feeling bad leaving school, it was having to go everyday.
Some of you know my story here but for those that don't I'll try to keep it short.
In about 1993 or so we moved from WV to TX. I went from a small town with mostly white people to a school where whites were the minority. I went from not knowing any culture besides my own to being tossed into an environment where almost no one was like me. I'll never forget having a locker by a guy named after the son of God and wondering why he put so much baby oil in his hair. I'll never forget eating my first fresh jalapeno or my first Frito pie. I'll never forget chasing down horny toads and tumbleweeds because they were like this foreign oddity to us. But as new and wild as all that was, it's tough to even describe how hard that year was. For the most part I think it was because I was so different. My attitude was foreign and my life experience was abnormal but truly it was my accent that garnered so much junior high style verbal pounding.
Anyone who talks to me now knows I have an accent. I like it because I feel like it's a trait that sets me apart from others and makes me unique. Unfortunately for me, being a new kid in a middle school isn't the time to be unique.... often times I really wished I could have just blended in.
Luckily, this "first" 7th grade year wasn't nearly as rough. Today I wanted to really put a good ending note on it all so I just got up and talked to the kids. I talked to them about my life story and how the fact that I'm in such a good place now happened largely due to luck. I explained that most people who squander years of college, thousands of dollars and multiple opportunities don't really get the chance to recover and have a really happy ending. I talked about my wife and how different her life was compared to mine. She was a top graduate in high school, had scholarships at UT where she was a business honors student. Now she gets to stay home with our baby and work from the home office and is doing well with it. I tried to convey that the differences between her life and mine could be traced all the way back to around the same time my students are living in now. In middle school my wife made alot of decisions and set goals for herself academically and professionally. She would spend her school years tenaciously pursuing those goals. Like her I also set goals. However instead of setting personal expectations with an eye toward college and career, I was much more in the here and now. My main purpose in life became earning respect and friendship from people around me.
I'm happy to say that at least on some level I managed to overcome the fact that I was a huge dork and talked like I'd just crawled out of a turnip sack. I'm glad to say that by the time I got to high school, I knew alot of people and had several friends that I was pretty close to. I had girlfriends, I got into yearbook alot and everybody knew who I was. This isn't to say I was like the prom king or anything... but I was the prom king's best friend! Anyway the point is that I accomplished what I had set out to do. Unfortunately I really had no plan beyond that. My wife on the other hand was just getting started when she finished high school.
The moral of this story is that you need to set goals for yourself and then go after them. If you manage to get them knocked out, be sure to set new ones. That's what I told the little budding teenagers on their last real day of school and that's what I'm telling you folks now. Don't get caught in the doldrums of life because you failed set the bar. Find something you want to learn, accomplish, see, do, find, overcome, etc. and go out there and grab it. Remember the rabbit and the snake from day 1? If you don't, go back and check that out. Be fierce bunnies out there kids... the world will be a better place for it.
Thanks for an awesomely fantastic year class of 2014. I love all you knuckleheads and I'm going to miss you more than you know.
Overheard @ WoRMS
Kid: Why do you have Miracle Grow in here?
Me: Well I do have several plants.
Kid: Why would you put that on plants?
Me: To help them grow....?
Kid: But isn't that stuff for your hair?
Me: Well.... at least you asked before you had to find out on your own... woog
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Industry in the Classroom
If there was ever a day to just do a walk-through on my class, I'd have to say today was it. Recently we've been learning about the industrial revolution and today we were working on the assembly line. To begin the activity I liked to give a little shout out to my main man Henry Ford for inventing the assembly line. A process which is still used in factories around the world. Albeit streamlined with robots and stuff... we still use em. Not only that, but the manufacturing prowess that we had developed from the early 1900's until that scuffle with Hitler's boys gave us the upper hand in a hot contest. In the end it allowed the old US of A and her allies to send those krauts into obscurity. Now look what their known for - click here. ummmm yeah. So thanks Ford!
Also lets not forget the invention of the 5 day work week. Atta boy Henry!! There's lots of reasons to be a Ford fan besides the fact that they make sweet trucks. So keep it up you "Found On Road Dead" turds. If it weren't for Ford, you'd be working on Saturdays instead of suckin down Fruit Loops and watching Transformers. But I digress....
So we get started and the class is split into equal teams. These teams will be responsible for making cars from outlines on paper. There will be a person to cut tires out, a person to cut the car body out, a person to fold the body, a person to assemble with glue stick and a person to paint/inspect the cars. The team will also have a supervisor who's responsible for cleaning the area, motivating the team, assigning jobs and making sure work is moving along appropriately.
Once work begins, the cutters are working furiously to get the parts moving down the assembly line. People in the back are yelling for the parts to get to them so they can finish the car. Supervisors are lashing out at the team, goading them on toward success. All the while you've got me looming. I played the part of the factory. At the time in the early 1900's the factory was a living thing to be feared. It was loud, obnoxious, smelly, hot and on occasion would take your limbs. I played this part by implementing a little classroom torture.
First I opened the windows but shut the blinds. On a day like today, that just meant the room was going to be dark and hot. Then I got the factory sound going. Now at this stage alot of teachers would probably have some industrial sound track to play. In lieu of such a thing I decided to play multiple Youtube videos all at once on top of one another. To make matters worse I picked dastardly classics like Mmm Bop, The Macarena and William Hung singing Take me out to the ball game' . But even that wasn't enough. To really put the cherry on what would turn out to be a very annoying and overbearing soundtrack I chose to add in this atrocity which can't be truly appreciated until about minute 4... so fast forward, I guess.
With the overhead speaker blasting something like what I imagine hell sounding like and the students sweating and yelling at one another all while working at a feverish pace, the puzzle was nearly complete. But we do need to factor in the whole losing limbs thing.
As an aside here, I want to take another minute to remember Adrian Cane. He and I basically put the ideas for this thing together back when we were up at Round Rock. But when we were there we did it even bigger. We had steam engines in the room! It was great. I'm taking this aside now because this next little element was all his idea. RIP dude... haven't forgotten you. And as long as I teach the industrial revolution, I probably never will.
So to simulate losing a finger, I walked around the room with a roll of masking tape. At complete random I would chose someone to get 2-4 of their fingers taped together. Or if I really wanted to get them, I'd take their thumb. Let me tell you, a kid trying to use scissors with their off hand because their dominant one is all taped up.... pure comedy gold. At the end of the day the smarter students were all trying to unionize and go on strike for unfair treatment. And that's the cool part. That's where History Alive gets it. It isn't just about making kids jump around and be silly all in the name of a more exciting classroom. It's about getting them in a similar situation until they can make a connection with the people who actually experienced it. It isn't always easy with 13 year olds... but today I think I did.
Oh and by the way, on a day which would have been perfect to have a surprise walk-through... I got one. God is good.
Overheard @ WoRMS
Question imediately after I explained the above described activity.
Kid1: Mr. S, I was thinking about it and I think I figured out my parents anniversary is tomorrow and...
Kid2: (cutting off Kid1) So when I was at lunch I saw this Coke bottle sitting in the road and...
Me: (cutting off Kid2) Enough... woog.
Kid1: So when I was 7 I knew all the words to Stairway to Heaven.
Kid2: I'm not sure if I should think that's cool or scary.
Also lets not forget the invention of the 5 day work week. Atta boy Henry!! There's lots of reasons to be a Ford fan besides the fact that they make sweet trucks. So keep it up you "Found On Road Dead" turds. If it weren't for Ford, you'd be working on Saturdays instead of suckin down Fruit Loops and watching Transformers. But I digress....
So we get started and the class is split into equal teams. These teams will be responsible for making cars from outlines on paper. There will be a person to cut tires out, a person to cut the car body out, a person to fold the body, a person to assemble with glue stick and a person to paint/inspect the cars. The team will also have a supervisor who's responsible for cleaning the area, motivating the team, assigning jobs and making sure work is moving along appropriately.
Once work begins, the cutters are working furiously to get the parts moving down the assembly line. People in the back are yelling for the parts to get to them so they can finish the car. Supervisors are lashing out at the team, goading them on toward success. All the while you've got me looming. I played the part of the factory. At the time in the early 1900's the factory was a living thing to be feared. It was loud, obnoxious, smelly, hot and on occasion would take your limbs. I played this part by implementing a little classroom torture.
First I opened the windows but shut the blinds. On a day like today, that just meant the room was going to be dark and hot. Then I got the factory sound going. Now at this stage alot of teachers would probably have some industrial sound track to play. In lieu of such a thing I decided to play multiple Youtube videos all at once on top of one another. To make matters worse I picked dastardly classics like Mmm Bop, The Macarena and William Hung singing Take me out to the ball game' . But even that wasn't enough. To really put the cherry on what would turn out to be a very annoying and overbearing soundtrack I chose to add in this atrocity which can't be truly appreciated until about minute 4... so fast forward, I guess.
With the overhead speaker blasting something like what I imagine hell sounding like and the students sweating and yelling at one another all while working at a feverish pace, the puzzle was nearly complete. But we do need to factor in the whole losing limbs thing.
As an aside here, I want to take another minute to remember Adrian Cane. He and I basically put the ideas for this thing together back when we were up at Round Rock. But when we were there we did it even bigger. We had steam engines in the room! It was great. I'm taking this aside now because this next little element was all his idea. RIP dude... haven't forgotten you. And as long as I teach the industrial revolution, I probably never will.
So to simulate losing a finger, I walked around the room with a roll of masking tape. At complete random I would chose someone to get 2-4 of their fingers taped together. Or if I really wanted to get them, I'd take their thumb. Let me tell you, a kid trying to use scissors with their off hand because their dominant one is all taped up.... pure comedy gold. At the end of the day the smarter students were all trying to unionize and go on strike for unfair treatment. And that's the cool part. That's where History Alive gets it. It isn't just about making kids jump around and be silly all in the name of a more exciting classroom. It's about getting them in a similar situation until they can make a connection with the people who actually experienced it. It isn't always easy with 13 year olds... but today I think I did.
Oh and by the way, on a day which would have been perfect to have a surprise walk-through... I got one. God is good.
Overheard @ WoRMS
Question imediately after I explained the above described activity.
Kid1: Mr. S, I was thinking about it and I think I figured out my parents anniversary is tomorrow and...
Kid2: (cutting off Kid1) So when I was at lunch I saw this Coke bottle sitting in the road and...
Me: (cutting off Kid2) Enough... woog.
Kid1: So when I was 7 I knew all the words to Stairway to Heaven.
Kid2: I'm not sure if I should think that's cool or scary.
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