Sunday, November 09, 2003
An Apology of Sorts
For those people who have actually been checking this blog over the past week, my sincere apologies. Sometimes real life has a tendency to get in the way of my recording it. I promise I will try to slam out a more detailed entry sometime during the course of the week. Until then, consider these vignettes.
1. My vice-principal, a very nice lady and all around competent administrator, is in the process of disappearing this weekend. She got transferred to another school but for some reason the rest of the school faculty has no idea it is happening and likely will not discover the truth until Monday. I only found out because I was there at the school to help her move out of her office.
2. One girl in my class threw a fully loaded backpack at another student. I pulled her aside and told her that normally that would be a suspension worthy offense but that because of her generally good behavior I would cut it down to a detention. A detention she then skipped, denied, and then protested never had existed. Of course she could not win this fight...I had called her house the day I assigned the detention and left a message (possibly with her) to remind her of the fact. But she fought it just the same.
3. After disciplining a disruptive student a week ago for yelling across the room, provoking other students, and spelling out profanity (as though that would make it more acceptable), I was informed by that student that I was a racist. I chose not to acknowledge the point, but it got harder to ignore the student as he started loudly quoting Martin Luther King.
4. Got results back from my first official observation from my administration. Hopefully this will be the subject of my next post because there are a lot of questions and thoughts I have had on the subject.
In other news:
-The Matrix Revolutions was good as was the Simpson's Halloween Special. (Jerry Lewis...an inspired casting choice!)
-Teacher training courses, in contrast, remain sadly disappointing as well as a worthwhile blog subject in their own right.
-Harry Turtledove continues to write all too addictive alternate history novels.
-Kangaroo tastes better than elk...and I can tell you from personal experience.
As you can see, a lot can happen in a few weeks. So keep your eyes open for more details...same InvisibleBen-time, same-InvisibleBen-channel.
For those people who have actually been checking this blog over the past week, my sincere apologies. Sometimes real life has a tendency to get in the way of my recording it. I promise I will try to slam out a more detailed entry sometime during the course of the week. Until then, consider these vignettes.
1. My vice-principal, a very nice lady and all around competent administrator, is in the process of disappearing this weekend. She got transferred to another school but for some reason the rest of the school faculty has no idea it is happening and likely will not discover the truth until Monday. I only found out because I was there at the school to help her move out of her office.
2. One girl in my class threw a fully loaded backpack at another student. I pulled her aside and told her that normally that would be a suspension worthy offense but that because of her generally good behavior I would cut it down to a detention. A detention she then skipped, denied, and then protested never had existed. Of course she could not win this fight...I had called her house the day I assigned the detention and left a message (possibly with her) to remind her of the fact. But she fought it just the same.
3. After disciplining a disruptive student a week ago for yelling across the room, provoking other students, and spelling out profanity (as though that would make it more acceptable), I was informed by that student that I was a racist. I chose not to acknowledge the point, but it got harder to ignore the student as he started loudly quoting Martin Luther King.
4. Got results back from my first official observation from my administration. Hopefully this will be the subject of my next post because there are a lot of questions and thoughts I have had on the subject.
In other news:
-The Matrix Revolutions was good as was the Simpson's Halloween Special. (Jerry Lewis...an inspired casting choice!)
-Teacher training courses, in contrast, remain sadly disappointing as well as a worthwhile blog subject in their own right.
-Harry Turtledove continues to write all too addictive alternate history novels.
-Kangaroo tastes better than elk...and I can tell you from personal experience.
As you can see, a lot can happen in a few weeks. So keep your eyes open for more details...same InvisibleBen-time, same-InvisibleBen-channel.
