Tuesday, February 17, 2015

it has been a while......

It's Mardi Gras....and cold outside. That's way I'm staying home this year. I've seen floats and I've collected a zillion beads over the years and I don't need anymore. To be able to get where we normally watch the parade from, you have to be in place about noon or earlier for a 5pm parade. It's just too long to stay/stand there or keep the car warm so I stayed home. My wife went just so she could spend time with our grand-daughter.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Wednesday....Several ideas

Last night was a very good sleep but  my brain kept on working - all night. It was thinking of things I need to blog about so what I did this morning was "start" several blogs with just the title and an idea line and saved them as drafts. That way I have them when there is a loss of ideas.

First up, I want to talk about teaching. Real teaching. Something you have a passion for. Something you really have a need to do. Something that makes you an award winning, highly effective teacher.

One, I really don't think you can be THAT person in your first year. In my case, you can't even be that person your first class of the day. Mentally you have to work class out, test things out, sound it out. I have even "taught" my lesson verbally in the car on the way to school and first hour still did not have the same level of intensity as second hour.

First hour was always good in my book, but second was better. Third was better but just a bit off, fourth, good but a bit off-er. Fifth and sixth hour was always good but by then the kids were ready for lunch or just came from lunch or were going to PE or just came from PE. Seventh and eighth were just another hour till things are over. So lets look at each hour.

First hour, always for some reason, my best or second best class of the day. I loved seeing them walk in. They always had smiles on their faces, never seemed to be in a bad mood. Maybe it was that they were just waking up or something but I always loved my first two classes of the day. Maybe in was really me. I was chipper, more energetic at that time of the morning. I have always been a morning person.

First hour's class always went really well. I always knew what I wanted to do, what I wanted to teach, the material, but that was always just ME. I liked my subject, my material. This was always good to teach but the material always came out a bit to much or not enough, took too long or came up too short. It was always a 'timing' issue. Never bad but I remember always getting to the end of the lesson with too much time on my hands or rush leaving out material just to get to the closing.

Second hour, was again always one of my best classes. I know why first and second were so good. More about that later. By this time I had worked out the kinks in my lesson, smoothed out the wrinkles and timed things out better. I knew just what to say, the stories I needed to tell, fillers I could tell or not tell. It just felt better this hour. I generally hit every mark, hit every item on the 'highly qualified' administrator's check list. This was 'rocking and rolling' at it's best. Hated to see this hour come to an end.

Third hour was generally the same thing. Most days we always hit the mark with them. Generally, ended right on time, covered the lesson near perfect. These students were always my third best class of the day. It went down hill from here.

The story of why these classes were better was what I taught. See, I'm not the BIG two - ELA and MATH. Oh, our scores count but not like ELA and MATH. My subject was always day four or five of the end-of-year tests. We were always that hour long little class stuck in there with the 'extended' classes of ELA and MATH. They got an hour and a half, I got HALF of what they got. I did it but always felt like a second-class subject. We were the 'Anti-Block' class

My 'planning' time always fell at third or fourth hour. So you see how 'important' I was.

By the next hour the kids were tired of a block and a half of either ELA or MATH. They were DONE with school so they felt. Bored out of their skulls. And they were super hard to teach by now. ELA and MATH should have never been that long. research says a middle school kids brain shuts down after 42 minutes. Other studies say students should change types of teaching styles and what they are and how they are learning every 15 minutes. I believe it. And a block is 90 minutes. No wonder they are restless after one block class.

If my next class was fourth, I just needed to give up so-to-speak. They were restless, bored, ready for lunch, ready to take a nap since they didn't go to bed till general 2-o-clock. It was a hard, hard, HARD, hour to teach. But the worst was yet to come.

Fifth and sixth hours. Generally these were held during 'lunchtime for somebody' - eighth graders, seventh graders, or the super noisy sixth graders. No matter who, these students were a tuff act to teach. They were now super antsy because they either did eat, skipped lunch, just came from lunch recess, came from PE, ready to go to PE, all the short classes like mine. But there was never any trying to teach them.

This is where I always had those BD, SpEd kids which I never minded, but they were tired too. And I had to teach them different than the other classes most days. I started in SpEd my first year but that's a different story for another blog.

Seventh and eighth hour were like two-peas-in-a-pod. They were hard to teach but eighth was even harder, Seventh was bad but generally I cold get through to them We  had some really good times together and I did manage to teach them some things. They were good students but I would have hated last hour with them. But I know science was thinking the same thing because she was going to send hers to me.

Eighth hour was just cruel no matter who got them last hour. The class was always cut shorter than the others due to end of the day announcements - some days longer than others. I would never get thru my lessons. This hour was the one I dreaded all day.

Lets just start over tomorrow and see how things go. Maybe it will go better. It NEVER did.

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over 500 people have been around here over the last couple of days AND no one has said "hi", "duh", "what".




Tuesday, February 10, 2015

What happened to Tuesday?

I know. I don't have a clue but it's done and gone now. It's 8PM before I even got on here. Sorry.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Another "new" week....

Monday is here again, just what I don't want or need right now. I just fired off an email to my insurance company asking why they did not cover any of my PT, only then to open a letter from them I got Saturday telling me that they did pay a large part of my claim. I don't mind paying part of the claim but the WHOLE amount was just too much.

It seems like my mornings every day are the same.
   1. Get up head to bathroom
   2. Go back to my scale, weight myself
   3. Get my pants, put them on
   4. Come to my desk and take my BP  and record it and my weight on an excel sheet on my computer
   5. The take my BS and record it
   6. Record the time of day this is all recorded
   7. Put my socks and shoes and brace on
   8. Take the dog out of his kennel and take him outside to do his business
   9. Come back inside give the dog his treat
   10. Then give cats theirs
   11. Feed all the animals
   12. Finally, sit down to check emails
   13. Eat some dry cereal
   14. Drink some Crystal Lite
   15. Read the online newspaper
   16. Check in on FB
   17. Check in on this blog
   18. Read a few other blogs
   19. Check in on several of my teacher sites
   20. Go back to bathroom
   21. Listen to my wife's alarm go off for the tenth time

Now I can begin my day , which is eerily like the day before and the day before that. When you are retired and on PT things begin to look very much the same every day. I don't care for it but "it is what it is."

The dog is now curled up on 'his' chaired fast asleep, generally all the cats are back asleep now. My wife is still sleeping and her alarm is ringing again for the 15th time.

And all this happens before 8:45 if not earlier.

What WILL happen later? My wife will finally get up fix breakfast for me and her about 11 to 11:30. She will work at some little job and forget what she said three days ago that she NEEDS to do. Later I will leave for PT and she will leave for orchestra which she teaches at, then community band which she plays with. I will call in an order to Dominos Pizza, go pick it up, come back, eat it, get ready for bed, she will get home about 8PM, I will watch the news at ten, head to bed...all while she stays up and piddles with her iPad or whatever she is working on.

Never once does she ever do that thing she NEEDS to do. She also gets MAD if I ever remind her of that thing she NEEDS to do. So I just don't ever say a thing, and later she will get mad because I didn't remind her and now she has to rush to get it done.

Just another Monday.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Weekend notes....

Saturday morning, and we'll see what today brings. Yesterday I just wanted to go somewhere. ANYWHERE, just get out of the house. We did really go anywhere, I texted my sister but she was babysitting her GD and so that didn't happen. I ended up going to bed EARLY, about 8PM. I did get a GOOD nights sleep. I got up about 7:00AM, checked my emails, read the newspaper online, did a very quick of FB, then came over here to see what's happening - which is nothing.

Life is just turning out to be one big bore.

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And like that, Saturday is gone. Now it is on to Sunday. Things done generally work out like you plan at 8AM. They always take different turn, twists, etc. I done know that we are going to church later - I think. After church we will come home for dinner - I think. And after that who knows where the bay will take us. Okay, you see what I know and don't know.

I finally found lots of middle school blog contacts. Now I hope that means lots of CONTACTS FOR MY BLOG. now it means I have to get serious with this blog.

We did go to church and did have a nice lunch here at the house. I have then spent my time surfing the internet for other middle school sites to add to my list. I am hoping that some back folks will stop by for a visit it I join their page. I am now on sever folks email list also.

Just started my Google+ website - MrE-Old Man and His Blog

It has been a wild afternoon, actually I am now getting hits to my email every hour for my blog. Maybe I did find out where all the middle schoolers "live". They are on Bloglovin'. Who knew?

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Friday, the end of another week...

Man o man. I cant believe it has been another week. How fast do these things seem to pass? Having PT three times a week and my wife having things to do three afternoons and nights a week, wow.

Just killed time placing an order from Amazon for PT items. I have been wanting to do several of the exercises but they won't schedule me for them - and I have done them before in my very first visit to PT at the hospital.

If they won't schedule me then I'll take matters into my own hands and order them.  One is an over-the-head pulley to help strengthen my left arm. I KNOW I need it, maybe they don't.

Several of my exercises at PT, they seem to be worried that someone is not watching over me to help to see how much, to tell me what...I know the drill. My brain still works well and if they say do it 20 times. I do it 20 times - or more. I just want to get better sooner and faster. Just tell me what to do and then get out the way.

This morning I have taken the dog outside to do his duty, then played on the computer, then....

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Wednesday night to Thursday morning

As I said, our grand daughter spent the night with us and as normal that meant she slept in the bed with us, She sleeps like the crossbar of the "H" and pushes me off the bed every time she comes over which is why I'm up and typing here at 3AM. I want to sleep but that's not happening.

Basically I sitting up at my computer just going thru the motions till I fall asleep sitting here. Goodniggggggggggggggg................

Wow...What a sleep - it's now 8:30. My wife just took my grand daughter off to school - late - but at least the off to school. I got dressed, took my BP and BS counts and got dressed for PT later then came back to this site.

Now I have to figure out what I am going to do the rest of the morning. I jumping from one webpage to another to another and cap-napping in between. I'm not really getting anything done.

I did come across another platform for blogging - WordPress. Kind of cool. But then again it does not work as well as here. Maybe no one reads this but then again I only write this because no one comments.

If I knew people were reading this I would get more serious and start using my journalism degree for something other than just a degree. It might force me to get more into this media and leave FB and Twitter along. I mean, I used to blog seriously everyday and had lots of readers when I was at Xanga but now, I have nothing to write for.

I don't even know if ANYONE even knows these Blogger accounts are even here. I have been surfing Blogger and it seems that everyone I come across last posted in 2010 or earlier.

PT took about two hours today.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Wednesday, and away we go

Today tends to be just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that, and tomorrow, AND the day after tomorrow. Today is and will be whatever it brings and I can't change it. I might want to but the days just look like one another and I have to learn to live with them all.

Would I want something different? Probability not, but I would like to win the PCH $5,000 a week contest...heck I would love just a $5,000 a month deal. Okay so that it just dreaming. Get over it. Move on to the next thing.

Go back to the way things were a year ago...heck two years a go....heck, lets go back five years ago. Hindsight is 50/50 but that is all history now and I guess I better make the best of it now. What I would do different. What have I seen and done with my life since then?

When I look back, my brain thinks back on my life since 1970 and all that I have done and not done in that time. Things that I would change, things that I would not change. what would I change in the last 40+ years?....Here we go with a list again....

1. I would have taken college more seriously. I don't know that I would have stayed in art field but I would have gotten through much faster that the 20+ years I did. But then, I would not have had my retail experience which would be a bummer.

2. I would have been more serious about my retail experience and the employees I hired. Been more in tune to what the retail world was telling me at the time. Been a little bit more serious about pricing, display, and advertising.

3. I would have been a little more serious about my sex life and been more receptive to my wife. She wanted more kids, I figured we had one of each and that was enough. It has ruined our sex life since then. I definably would have done that differently.

4. I would have stayed closer to my family, spent more time with my mom and dad over the years. I know I did but looking back now I could have spent more time instead of making excuses as to why I couldn't. They passed away a month apart two years ago. I miss them.

5. I would change my having to go to PT. It's not that I don't like PT because I do but I don't like having to go to PT three times a week every week. I can tell I am getting better but....well, you know.

What would I NOT change over the years?

1. My wife which I love to death, she has been there thru thick and thin, good times and bad. I don't know what I would do without her.

2.My two kids. Love 'em both but over the years I wanted to beat them and I wanted to hug 'em. It's funny how there are times you wish you could help them and times your are glad you didn't. I'm still wondering about them.

3. I wouldn't change anything about my softball team EXCEPT that I really want them back. I also want to get back to umpiring....I just out in the sun each spring.....


My wife left this afternoon to go teach at the Youth Orchestra and pick up my grand daughter who is spending the night with us tonight. It means we might be going out to eat tonight....maybe, I'll see what they have planned to do.

PT was intense today and it has now stretched to two hours + from what used to be one hour. They just keep adding more and more to my needs I guess.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Tuesday and no PT today....

It is exciting - sort of - to not have PT today. I have things I want to do. Things I plan to get do. The sun is shinning. Life is good - or as good as it is going to get. I hope to go sit with my sister tonight and catch up on all the lastest gossip.

What do you get when things are looking better. A kick in the butt because at 9 AM things look good and by 10AM things could mean you are at the hospital. I would rather just slide through and tell you later how things went.

Late yesterday I checked in at Xanga.com, my other blog from years ago, and found almost everyone of my followers gone The site was now charging an arm and a leg and another arm and...just say a LOT of money now to host our blogs. Guess they don't need me anymore or anyone else for that matter. They went from $12 to now $48 a year. Goodbye Xanga.

I have been busy post teaching material on https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Louisiana-History-Teacher and http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/LaTraveler It is just a small way of making a bit of change in retirement. No, I am not getting rich. I know there are elementary teachers who have made over a million dollars a year but I am THRILLED to have made a 1,000 a year. I am just a simple middle school teacher teaching a simple state level history course - nothing the average teacher from around the country could use.

As I said earlier  in this post, things could change and they did. I have not left the house today. It's cold outside and my wife had things to do so she left to go deliver those items. Then she went to work face painting tonight at kids night at CiCi's pizza. I left to eat a bowl of steamers green beans and potatoes. Not bad.

Right now it's about 38 outside and getting colder, light rain. When my wife gets home I will be ready for bed. tomorrow is more PT. But hey, I have done a few things around the house this evening and have a few more to go before bed.

Y'all have a good evening - even though no one reads this.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Sunday has come and gone, Monday is here to stay....

Should I make notes about what happened yesterday? The Pats won the Super Bowl. Big deal. We sat around all day in the house and ran to Wal-Mart during the first quarter. It rained a bit last night. That's about it.

Now....

I have been talking and thinking a lot about where I am and what I can and can not do anymore.

Let's do the can-not do list first.....

1. Can not walk normal without a cane. I sit and watch people walk by either at home. in the store and I wonder IF I am ever going to get back that way?
2. Coaching softball again. Can I ever get my team back? I really want to get outside ever year and coach my team that I have coached for 32 years - it would be nice.
3. Will I ever teach again? I miss teaching but I know that will never happen again. I have given away tons of my 'stuff' and I know someone else is doing what I have always loved.
4. Sex, done and gone. To many years down the drain, to many missed opportunities.
5. Kneeling done at church, genuflect  when I walk in.
6. Getting down on the floor to do things with my grand-daughter...  it seems like such a distance memory.
7. Walking the dog. Which I do but not good.
8. Walking around the block to see and visit with my sister.
9. Seeing my brother from time to time.
10. Traveling to see my cousin in Pensacola, and OK City.
11. Visiting with my wife's sister in Dallas.

What I can do still...
1. work on the computer. My brain still works, so that  is a good thing. Think about making these lists.
2. Still go to PT and work at getting better - even thought it seems like a million miles away right no. But as they say - "  one tiny step means you are moving forward." - and I guess I am but....
3. Watching TV. Not great but at least it is something.
4. Driving. I can drive myself. I'm slow getting into the car but I can drive and go most/some places.
5. Even though it seems strange, I do like going to Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, Hobby Lobby, Lowes - any place with a cart. I can use the cart as a 'walker"" which is cool. I want to go to the mall but waking with a cane is tiring to say the least.
6. Sleeping 9-11 hours a night is now easy.

It feels strange to be making a list, but in the long run it makes me feel a little better. I want more of the first list but my therapist say "don't rush". we will get you there. Yes but I want it now.

I have PT today, and hate going but love going. Does that make sense? I still have Walgreens and Wal-Mart to get to.

PT was tuff today, tiring in the gym part and relaxing in the pool part.

Saw this on another blog and stole it then make some changes and like it better now...“If we knew what we were doing, we would not be here would we?”  Love it now.

I love a yes/no, to do/can't do lists.

My wife is off to youth orchestra then community band. She should be home about 8:30 tonight - just before I head off to bed. Wish I had better news for you but this is what it is for now.

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I had a very successful blog on Xanga.com for a long time but that seemed to stop when I left there for here. May could go back?

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