Magnificent Monday: Holding On So Far

Magnificent Mondays is supported by readers like you. And the graffiti in my classroom, because nothing says "I support you and value the information you're trying to teach me" like "squiggle, squiggle, block sign " graffiti.

Today was an interesting day. I forgot my lunch, coffee, breakfast, and lesson plans all in one go. So... that sucked. On the flip side, the student council was selling cupcakes during lunch today. I had 3 of them. They were delicious.

It becomes more and more apparent the kind of student body I am teaching as the year goes on. For example, I literally had a student incredibly excited about his D. Not his B, his D because a D means passing. Now, I'm all for practicality, however I like to think that if you are so involved with doing as little amount of work as necssary in order to pass that you get excited about a D, perhaps a re evaluation of how things are going is in order. Again though, I'm not working with the average student.

Today, we had a circle in my 6th period. It went sort of well in the same way that running through a pack of wolves while carrying a bag of meat might go well. Major props to my co-worker for helping to mediate the entire process. She was keen in pointing out after the fact that some of the students were being a bit malicious and that they have a tendancy to find a weakness and exploit as best they can. For example, letting them know I am a new teacher was percieved by some as a weakness and they jumped all over it. In retrospect, that may have been a bad idea and I did spend a majority of the time a bit quiet listening to others basically do their best to tear at me.

Unfortunately for my students, Mr. Kim does not know the meaning of fear. I think that tomorrow will be interesting for those that begin to realize that the harder they try, the less weakness I have. It'll be a good lesson for them though, and more importantly will maybe get them out of the "it's not at all my fault" phase and into the "well maybe I could pay attention and talk less a little more" phase.

Aside from that, I'm looking forward to having a great holiday! Cheers!

-Kenneth

Magnificent Monday: Kind of Fail

Via Wackyparadise.com

This one in particular isn't part of a series really, more just kind of here as a bit of an update. I guess in retrospect this part in italics, the part that is witty and humorous in some way, and that introduces the main post in some manner wasn't very necessary. So... I present to you the above image of a cat and a poptart doing the fusion dance from Dragonball Z to form Nyan Cat!

Okay, first off if you did not click the Nyan Cat link, please do so as it is the theme music for this post. Go ahead, I'll wait.

So... couple things. First, keeping this thing up and running was way easier when I was a student. I had, you know, breaks and time and motivation. Mostly that last thing. I'm not going to spout out some long rant about how tough life is and how I don't have time for this blog anymore because, honestly, I do have time. I'm just being lazy. So... maybe I'll stop that, maybe I won't. Record stands that I won't. Now, I'd like to take up my previous postings, and if memory serves correctly I had three postings a week. Also, if memory serves correctly, that was a bit too much for me to really keep up with. Plus, looking back on my history of posts, as spotty as it is, indicates that I did pretty well for a while with posting on Mondays and Wednesdays. And so, I shall do this, except that I will post on Mondays (can't really move Magnificent Monday around much) and will be moving Ken's Take to Thursdays.

Now, before I hear cries of foul and false hopes. I'd like to point out that I am actually scheduling time to do my blog posts. (I can do that now, what with a consistent schedule and all.) I've thought about simply moving on from this blog and starting fresh, but then I realized that such a move would result in the complete loss of 1. my reader base (as limited as it is) and 2. the clear amount of growth I've experienced over the years. This really has turned into my very own journal. One that won't get chewed up by the dog.

And so there you have it. My vow to get back on board with this whole blogging thing and stop being lazy because, hey, I've got a little girl on the way after all. 'Bout time I started setting a good example. ;) Cheers everyone, have a good week!

-Ken

PS: Here's hoping your Monday won't be needing a cake the next day.