Blackboard will want me to be a BbWorld VIP blogger because...

Disclaimer:  the post title will not be included in the BbWorld mandated 100 words or fewer count because, well, I reserve the prerogative to establish my own rules in my blog.

"…I sometimes take roll in the classroom with a megahorn.  Because I know a key to keeping middle school students on their toes is to fool them into believing I’m JUST.a.wee.bit loonier than them.  Blackboard will want me to blog at BbWorld because I can bring zip to the doo-da, while effectively and richly communicating with anyone who will listen just how vital a role public education plays in our culture. I’m passionate about painting a picture through words, particularly when related to placing students first.  Always." #BbWorld13 @Blackboard

I wrote this piece that was, amazingly enough, published in Newsweek's "My Turn" column:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/10/10/i-am-not-a-babysitter.html

A teacher will do just about anything to leave campus for a rare lunch away, at a table, seated in a chair, including riding in the hatch of an at-capacity vehicle:

Megahorn Maiden

 Real men marry teachers. 

"They will never, EVER forget this shower!"

I haven't stopped ranting exclaiming that statement since Andrea hosted a most magically magnificent spa bridal shower - a SPASHER!  For me.  Me, me, me, me, me, meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.  Honestly, I always thought I'd feel super awkward, selfish, and too "center of attention-ish" <in a negative way> to be the shower recipient but after this experience, well, I'll be transparent here again and admit - that treatment ain't half bad!  Even in the midst of semi-silence while I was in between gifts and many pairs of eyes were awaiting, I felt zero awkwardness.  Zilch.  Zip.  Nada.  Maybe I'm not as selfless as I thought.  Snort.

Now, onto the highlight of the shower:  the spa.  My friends are still raving about Andrea's creativity and generosity.  What gal doesn't love a spa day?  The massages, the pedicures, the manicures, the steam rooms, the saunas, the refreshing beverages...oh my!  It was, hands down, one of the single BEST and most enjoyable days of my life.  I am so fortunate to have friends and family that gathered around, "showering" me with fun and love.

Andrea, you knocked this out of the park, over the bay, along the street, and down the rabbit hole.  In line with several of my friends having asked, "Where can I find an Andrea," I'm incredibly blessed with a best friend connection that's spanned many years, many miles, an international date line, and more bottles of 'cham-pan-YA' than we care to tally. My cup runneth over. I'm just so, so, so spectacularly grateful and appreciative for her friendship.

Andrea also surprised me with my first "grown up" handbag, and here it is, pictured with one of the other top shower gifts of the day, compliments of Alexis, my precious, the megahorn***:

Speaking of top shower gifts and surprises, my Mudda blew me away with my first "grown up" camera that I never suspected I'd actually own.  I've thirsted for an SLR camera for years, YEARS I tell you, but I'm entirely too frugal to invest in one and I tossed it onto the wedding registry merely for kicks.  Photography class, here I come!

"They will never, EVER forget this shower!"

After the spasher, we enjoyed a long, late lunch at a nearby cafe.  Grace and Emileigh (my niece, 2.0) entertained themselves, while the adults dined and chatted, by taking many dozens of selfies and posed shots in the restaurant, in front of the restaurant, and near the restaurant.  The novice junior photographers would then reveal each photograph taken by trotting back to our table, touring the perimeter, while showing each pic, to each gal in our party.  Good stuff.

Photos of the day:  http://piangenti.shutterfly.com/pictures/139

***Alexis hijacked and coveted my precious megahorn so frequently immediately after I fired it up with batteries, that I was left with no choice but to purchase one for her as well.  I could falsely claim it as a selfless act on my part, but it was 100%, sheer self-preservation.

Two Bebettes, My Mudda, & Me, on the Bayou

Two nights were just enough to convince me that Caddo Lake, Tejas is officially a new stop on my get-a-way radar.  Mudda and I - with little human sidekicks - are scheduled to return this fall, in fact.  Texas boasts many lakes and appealing landscape features in pockets of our vast state, but Caddo Lake is the only au natural Texas lake as well as the most intriguing scenery <in my opinion> destination in the state under six flags.

As rich as the aesthetics are, the history woven through the area is equally impressive.  I learned more in an hour on The Graceful Ghost, a "replica of an 1800's era steamboat and is the last known wood-burning, steam powered, stern paddle-wheel touring vessel in the world," than I have in quite some time, probably since an entire semester of a high school or college history course.  A few highlights:  

• Lady Bird Johnson, perhaps my favorite historical First Lady, was born and raised near Caddo Lake
• I'm aware of a 2011 movie titled "Uncertain, TX" but I'm not CERTAIN if it contains any factual features
• The handcrafted lift enabling large volumes of luggage and travel gear to be transported easily from an upper level parking cliff to the lodging levels of http://www.gatorlodge.com/
• A clock in the lodge that chirps a varied bird tweet for each hour of the day and night
• A leave one/take one book library, complete with a "Knife Laws of the Fifty States" guide
• Weeks of obsessing over a child (or adult) being snagged by a gator, thereby prompting me to include a baseball bat of Char's in my lake luggage - which had the unfortunate result of a certain little boy repeatedly chanting "I wanna kill an alligator" several times each day, while brandishing the bat about
• I don't possess a firearm (which is probably fortunate for mankind) so my logic ran along the lines of if I could not bop said gator about the head in my many imagined attacks with the aforementioned bat, I could simply shove the bat into the awaiting gator's jaws

My adventure photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/piangenti/sets/72157633169505154/

Mudda's adventure photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/94351246@N05/sets/72157633163569419/

Side trivia:  Don Henley has a small house on the bayou but it's so nondescript that this photo was focused more on the waterfowl than the structure's corner.

General factoids:  Click here! But watch carefully for gators.

I'm on a shirt.

Just a mere few weeks from officialism!  This is the backside of our school's girls' soccer team shirt, for the current soccer season:

In other news, I can most optimistically hope that, like this article asserts, my students' worst fear should ever be boredom:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/17/school-security-newtown-gun-column/1979723/

Of course!  ---> @ristolable: A fun thing to do is walk up to a crowd of people, take off your shoe, put it up to your ear, say "Is this thing on?" and walk off laughing. <Genius, I would glee to meet that Twitter person one day.>

I experienced a flashback/grab-my-heart moment recently when accidentally catching a segment on 60 Minutes.  While working with Job Corps prior to entering public education, I had the privilege of working with one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.  I regret that I do not know what became of him and his journey, and I met the young man when he was extremely new to America - the term "Lost Boys of Sudan" had not yet even been popularly established for the group of around 20k child refugees from their war-torn African home.  The update story that 60 Minutes facilitated is linked below, if you're interested in learning more.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57577085-10391709/our-amazing-12-year-journey-with-the-lost-boys/

A Hybrid Teacher

Haven't heard of them?  They are all the rage in California and Vermont!  <not really, hoot>

This (click here) series of posts by educator contributors to a periodic and varying blog query, in this case, "Design Your Dream Teaching Job," or something along those lines, prompted me to shout, 'yes!'  Evolve, please, teaching organization systems, think outside the box, look at the private sector for inspiration ----- to incorporate fresh ideas not only to entice but equally, if not more important - RETAIN - talent in the profession.  

The women's movement in our nation is something that not a single one of us would 'take back,' but some studies indicate that's the time when we started bleeding  hemorrhaging talent from education, when women went from facing realistically three or four 'professional' job prospects to a much wider and - kicker - incredibly more lucrative menu of career options historically only attainable by their male counterparts.  

Since the women's movement, our education system has, er, changed.  So, nowadays, not only do talented potential educators become offered a dictionary length set of career options availed to them, they can earn more - lots more - money, have a 'normal' life August - June, and not possibly grapple daily with the most extreme of our system's challenges.  Read:  just watch Blackboard Wars on OWN if you want a taste of what I refer to as "extreme."

I didn't solve the income disparity problem with education in the above two paragraphs, but the idea of hybrid teaching could be an incredible enticement and/or retention feature for teacher talent.  Instead of teachers feeling the itch to leave the classroom after a mere 3-4 years (which, honestly, is like infancy stage in the classroom), give them more growth and learning opportunities, provide job-shares, let teachers officially wear more than one professional hat - and I don't mean implement that by asking teachers to attend yet more off-contract-time meetings.  We already do that, we already do tons of learning and "extras" on our own time, we already serve on endless committees.  

I may have missed it, but I didn't see a post in the linked article that specifically designed a hybrid job of combining teaching part of the day, and training new teachers part of the day.  I'm not talking coaching or professional development initiatives, but 100%, straight-up, shaken not stirred, on the job training for newbie teachers.  Our profession misses the mark on that, if not totally sucks lemons.  If you begin a new job in a factory, someone piggy backs (baby-sits) you for a few weeks, or more, literally walking you through each step of your responsibilities, while your productivity doesn't "count."  I'd say our education product is at least as important as learning how to put the right widget on the correct widget-receiver, so in my "dream" teaching job, I'd have a hybrid opportunity like that, to work half of the day alongside new teachers as we throw them to the lions, and yet still teach my own students the remaining half of the day.  

I have zero desire to leave the classroom.  I'm in my tenth year and can honestly say I'm still improving, and I LOVE that.  Some days are mentally and emotionally harrowing, but most days are unilaterally rewarding.  Additionally, you'll never convince me that in-the-classroom isn't where the real and most meaningful work in the field is performed, even most administrators toast to that.  So, am I ever bored?  Hell, no.  But, give our talent the opportunity to stretch their curious wings.  If we can't pay teachers what they truly 'earn,' let's start with giving those teachers who need some additional adventure the chances to stretch, play, or experience that slightly scary "new job" feeling again.  

Potpourri of Spring Break Zaniness

Yesterday evening we celebrated Charley's birthday at a restaurant named Whiskey Cake.  It's a cool little gem of an addition to suburban Dallas.  They have tons of herbs and vegetables growing right there on property, smack in the middle of a concrete strip shopping center.  They obtain their meats and fish from local sources, as well as their beer and alcohol.  Well, 'local' in Texas means the source could be three or four hundred miles away, but, it's still considered local in these parts.  

I'm preparing today to spend two nights at Texas's only natural lake with my Mom and niece - and possibly the ***insert organ music*** linebacker of her younger brother, my nephew.  Our lodging location is named Gator Lodge, and I'm dearly hoping the name is not prophetic.  It IS, however, a very swampy area (at the border of Louisiana) that alligators and other slithery reptiles call home.  Aye, ya, ya...  I've been obsessing about this for a few weeks.  It must be one of those paranoias that develops with age, from absolutely zero basis, logic, or rationale.  I'm thankful that we're not taking the dogs because I would be doubly worried, even more than I am now about myself or one of the kids happening upon one of those deadly beasts.  I've even gone so far to research methods suggested for outrunning a gator.   The verdict of which method - straight line route or zig-zag escape - is undetermined based on my research.  I'm crossing my fingers (of which I still possess all ten) that we won't be required to test out either method.

And, because everyone can use a little Peanut Butter Jelly Time:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CX7pPVaDUk&feature=player_embedded#

"This girl* is on fire..." (*those girls are)

Did your choir teacher(s) ever demonstrate their dedication to celebrating student achievement through donning sumo wrestler bathing suit regalia and then dance in front of hundreds of 12-14 year olds?  Yeah, I suspected not.  Take a look at the short but priceless video of two of my extraordinary colleagues, illustrating that if it's good for kids, we'll do it!  The choir program rocked it, once again, at UIL. ***there were no vocal chords or actual sumo wrestlers harmed in the making of this event**

Video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkNxiqVYVGU