Gateway to the West

Before we caught the Cardinals game (more on that later), we strolled on down to the Big Muddy and had a look at the Arch.  Some people think it's okay to fool around at national monuments.

That might explain why I love them so damned much.

Real Life Conversations with JT: Cardinals edition

The backstory:  The boy is a baseball fan and his favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals, an enthusiasm he inherited from his grandfather.  Every morning, he gives me the baseball report from the night before.  This morning he woke to the reminder that he would be seeing the Cardinals in person at Busch Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

JT:  Tomorrow we’ll be seeing the young phenom, 3-2 pitcher Shelby Miller!

Me:  Sir, you have a future at ESPN.

Internet, T and I have planned an awesome treat for the boy. It’s gonna be a hell of a weekend.

On Enthusiasm

Teaching Middle School after years of teaching older students has been an epiphany for me.  While it is new and the comparisons are fresh in my mind, I’m making note of some of the biggest distinctions between middle schoolers and older high schoolers.  These thoughts of mine are sometimes open-ended; I don’t have any big answers.  But I do have plenty to mentally chew upon and I intend to do so.  Today’s topic is the end of the school year.

When I began teaching 6th graders, I was charmed by their easy enthusiasm for learning.  It’s not that 11th and 12th graders aren’t enthusiastic, it’s that a teacher must earn it.  And some days, no matter how good the classroom culture is, teenagers are simply exhausted and overwhelmed.  A day like that can drag.  The end of the year is typically the most obvious example of this experience.  As the end of the school year approaches, 11th and 12th graders are school-weary.  This is especially true for 12th graders, for whom college acceptances have been received.  They really are checking out come the end of the year and it shows in class, no matter how terrific the kids are.  As a teacher, this is a challenge.

Contrast this with the 6th grade, where enthusiasm abounds.  At the start of the year, if I asked a question to get our lesson going, nearly every hand went up.  It’s the same in May, and I find their energy and boundless curiosity inspiring.  Today is our last quiz of the year and the students will begin to construct their final projects tomorrow.  They are excited about this and can’t wait to receive the assignment and get started.  That’s really the charm of middle schoolers ——— they expect that school, like much of the rest of life, should mostly be fun.  They are determined that it will be.  As I planned their final project, which places them in the position of organizing a time travel tour of history, I was aware of their mindset and kept thinking about how much fun they would find this assignment.

I think that high school can and should take a page from middle school and do more to nurse along the natural enthusiasm of kids.  Among other things, this would mean less high-pressure exams and more creative project-based writing assignments.  I know that the obvious objection is the usual canard about high school needing to prepare students for the pressure and reality of college entrance exams, college applications, and college itself.  But I think that is a poor excuse.  Learning happens most successfully at the intersection of interest and excitement.  Curiosity is a terrible thing to waste.

Mother’s Day

JT typically spends the weekend of Mother’s Day with his other mother, so we celebrated early.  As is my custom, I requested a trip to the garden shop for flowers.  T and JT were good sports as I walked the rows of flowers.  Two baskets of New Guinea impatiens, 3 geraniums, and a flat of pink begonias later, I headed home quite pleased with my floral collection.  There were charming cards and we had a lovely lunch.  And there is the lingering pleasure of flowers to make me smile.

Happy Mother's Day, y'all!

Math is Fun

At supper the other night, JT announced that math was his favorite class.  The announcement was confirmation of the progress that I have seen all year, but it was so very good to hear that JT himself understands this fact.

A few years ago, JT lost his confidence in math.  The decline wasn’t abrupt but it was painful to see and even harder to remedy.  We spent a few years simply holding the line, working to undo the damage to his math confidence.  The value of statistics in baseball, his enduring obsession in life, meant that math must be useful.  But it took quite some time for that realization to truly take hold in JT’s imagination.  This year, we’ve turned a corner and I know it because math class has gone from being the class he must endure each day to the class he enjoys the most.  

The reason is, of course, a teacher.  It’s a teacher with a wicked smart sense of humor who comes to class each day convinced that the first period class will get things done.  For Mr. S.,  they do rise to the challenge.  Homework is complete, questions are asked, and a daily work ethic has been established.  When the going gets hard, JT gathers up his practice problems and his math book and marches right into to Mr. S’s classroom, convinced that Mr. S. will work his magic.  He always does.

This week, JT reported to me that he wants to take Mr. S with him to the Upper School, where he would like Mr. S to teach, “a class on life.”  Fact is, Mr. S has been teaching that class on life all year long —— try your best, believe in yourself, ask for help.  Repeat every day.  When you do this, math is fun, as Mr. S has been telling us all long.

Cinco de Mayo

When I was in elementary school, the school marked Cinco de Mayo by having the local high school’s Mariachi dancers come to visit.  They wore colorful clothes and danced and sang Mexican songs.  The festivities would be topped off by taco day in the cafeteria.  Let me note for the record that tacos at Weldon Elementary School in Clovis were worth your time.  I remember the day as a celebration of Latino culture and the the diversity of my home state.

These days I live on the East Coast and Cinco de Mayo is more of a bar holiday than it is an actual celebration of cultural diversity.  But in my world, it still features tacos.   Mine are chicken tacos (I use a Diana Kennedy recipe)  and I add some homemade salsa and guacamole.  JT put 7 tacos into his hungry belly and announced that it’s a good thing to have a mama from California.

Indeed!

Real Life Conversations with JT: Inappropriate Lyrics edition

The backstory: Driving somewhere, JT consented to listen to my music.  A song he’s heard many times, The Commodores singing Brick House, attracted new attention and he turned to me to ask a question.

JT:  I feel like “brick house” has some sort of alternative meaning that I don’t know.

I explained the reference.  He was horrified, whether by the fact that I knew what a “brick house” was or by the sexism of the song, I can’t be sure.  I do know that the next time I turned on the car, he forwarded over that song.  The kid make me laugh.

Flower Friday

The cheerful daffodils of early spring have begun to fade, but they’ve been replaced by some beautiful tulips.  These bloomed along the line of hostas in my backyard.

Alongside them, the apple tree has some pretty, pink blooms of its own.

There are more pink tulips in the front yard.

May Day’s twilight was warm and lovely, casting the fresh, lush green plants in a pleasing light that is one of the very best things about Spring.

May 1st: Dogwood Report

The last few days seem to have confirmed that old adage that April showers bring May flowers.  In the last 24 hours, we had 5 inches of cold, heavy rain with resulting flooding nearly everywhere I turn.  Had I made a picture of the dogwood this morning, it would have been a sad and soggy display.  But as the day went on, it emerged as quite glorious, with a bright blue sky and warm sunshine, as if New Jersey had been scoured clean.  The state cleans up well and if the latter half of this day is any indication, May might very well be glorious.  The dogwood is slowly coming along.

There are small green leaves and a few of the flowers have emerged.  

This the slowest Spring I can recall in New Jersey, but with May at the doorstep I have to believe that warm days will follow.

That’s happy!

Lakeside Property

My regular 1st of the month post will resume shortly but this morning, after buckets and buckets of rain, I've got a picture of my backyard which confirms the virtues of a basement pump.  Once again, I am reminded that much of New Jersey lives right on the water table.  And in my case, these days I live below it.