Only as far as you can throw it

I’m not sure how the saying goes but there is some expression about only trusting something as far as you can throw it.  This surely applies to technology (as in things you plug in like computers and stuff not the broader sense like the wheel or the concept of an assembly line) and when you’re talking about something expensive or something that belongs to your employer throwing is pretty well excluded as an option. Based on this logic you really can’t trust technology at all. Unless you’re willing to chuck it somewhere.

If we don’t know it we’re bound to repeat it.

You don’t often get a chance to finish in front of 45 other top contenders in the state and end up feeling horrible about your accomplishments. It is a reasonable reaction when it was 45 of 49 and you missed making nationals by 2 places. 

The edge can round out some when you hear that you have been farther than anyone else in your school.  But that edge can be filed to a fine point when some classmates leapfrog your new top position as they climb to the top of their category securing a berth to the national championship and the top spot in the school.

It’s hard to console somebody in this position and hard to blame them too.  They need to know that time heals all wounds. But they don’t want to hear that. They know they did a great job. But they’re not ready to remember that.

They’ll get over it, they’ll figure it out, they’re smart kids. But they are kids.

History Repeats Itself, Again

Tomorrow dozens of junior history buffs will converge on Coffman Union to drop their knowledge of revolutionary historical events on panels of judges.  This will be the culmination of months of work, miles of transportation, and hours of mentoring and teaching.  

All I’ve done is drive, others did the real work. Should be a good time, again.

Tattoos – Terrible Idea or Self Expression

BTW this post is being written by request. To personally request a blog topic ask me in person or leave a comment.  As you may be able to tell from the last month or so of writing  I'm not feeling very smart or creative right now so any prompts for productivity are appreciated. I anticipated this happening but I don't have a sure fire way to break out of it.

I’m personally far too hairy to consider a tattoo. That’s not to say that I don’t have an opinion.  When I see a tattoo I wonder what the person was possibly thinking.  What does Yosemite Sam or Tweety Bird really say about who you are as a person?  There are certainly cool tattoos out there but I’m not sure how cool they’ll look 50 or 60 years from now. 

The majority of the old dude ink you see these days are old and weathered relics of military service.  I’m a fan of these tats because they remind me of how awesome old people are and that we are who we say we are but it’s easy for us and others to lose sight of that.  I’m not sure what archetypal images and remembrances of the past my grand kids will conjure as they bear witness to watery and disheveled bands of barbwire.

Somehow seeing an anchor and rope with some faded text on a sinewy forearm tells me the meaning was there before the ink was cast, and remains even as the image fails.  I wonder how modern applications compare and often assume the inked seek meaning to be infused in them with the impregnation of pigment in their skin.

Nurdle - An Odd Assortment of Homonyms

Turtle rhymes with nurdle but they aren’t the same, that is, unless the turtle is a toy, in which case it was. If the turtle had teeth it might daily encounter a nurdle if it knew what was good for it and if the nurdle was perpetrated by an English batsman he’d be said to have milked the bowler around.

At the Old Ball Game

Less than two weeks from opening day I need to start thinking about a line up and positioning strategies.  A-minor is an instructional league so a good balance of equal playing time and fielding a competitive team is essential.  As with any team we have a range of skills and experience.  As the season develops I have some data and experiential information to help shape a game plan but these early games can be the hardest to be good and to be fair.  I have systems in place to ensure equity in playing time but I don’t have a formula yet for being good.

An Oldie but a Goodie

I previously wrote about a peanut butter enhanced cheese burger.  I’m hoping that you have all tried one since that time or are planning to when then next burger crosses your plate.  In the mean time I’ll suggest other opportunities for improving food through the addition of peanut butter. 

A peanut butter and bacon sandwich is an excellent double dose of protein goodness.  It combines the magical power of bacon to turn any dish into a treat and layers on the smooth and comforting robustness of peanut butter.  As an aside I should also mention that I’m pretty sure that the presence of this dish helped me land the lovely lady who has eaten bacon by my side for the better part of the last few decades.

A generous dollop of peanut butter along with several shakes of Tabasco can turn an anemic microwave meal of pasta alfredo into a hearty, stick to your ribs, snack.  With a squeeze of lime and a handful of bean sprouts this snack could almost make a meal.

At The Old Ball Game by the numbers

Nine innings in the stands with my oldest, four $1 dogs between us (1 for him 3 form me) 2 dogs for friends, Twins lose by 1.  All in all a pretty great night!

I'll explain later - Required Writting

How will you apply reading instruction techniques when working with students?

41% of SPPS students are in a home with a language other than English.  I work in a setting where we serve a high percentage of second language students so this percentage rings very true to me and my students.  I will apply reading instruction techniques in several ways as I move forward.

Longitudinal study at University of Kansas, 6month old babies observed until they were 3 years old and found that to learn beginning phonics in 1^st grade students need a vocabulary of 10,000-12,000 words – The more kids interact the more they are prepared for success when learning to read.  As the research states it is important for these kids to just be engaged and experience language so that they can being to develop their own prior knowledge or “files” that they can access when decoding language.  I will provide as many experiential learning activities so that kids can begin to pair words with their meaning. For example a common word we teach is “force”.  When teaching the vocabulary I will also provide opportunities to actually feel and experience forces as well as see the way forces are generated and interact.

Kids who haven’t been primed for learning phonics by being played with and read to are not ready for phonics until 3^rd grade.  Because phonics is usually taught earlier than 3^rd grade these unprepared kids don’t learn the code of language.  When engaging kids in writing assignments many of my students are reluctant to express themselves for fear of being wrong in terms of spelling or content.  I will continue to encourage these kids to hear the words they are writing and also provide other avenues for expressing the content such as through pictures and play acting.  I will also facilitate the process by writing responses with the students.

The trend of kids not knowing words has a tendency to follow them throughout their educational career making it difficult for them to keep up and especially pass state Basic Standards Tests.  One of the big problems is that the kids just don’t have enough life experience and therefore vocabulary to understand the content they are faced with.  One of the ways I will help with vocabulary development is by pairing new vocabulary words with visual examples of the words.  We will also practice hearing the words and verbalizing them as well as pairing the words with logical kinesthetic actions.

8^th grade students scoring below 54% don’t just need a little help to pass they need a lot. Some of these kids may be reading at a 3^rd grade level so they need help from reading teachers in the areas of vocabulary, writing practice, learning strategies and the 100 most frequently used words. Working with these students toward passing the state test represents a significant investment.

Kids who failed in the mid range, 55-74 percent don’t need as much help and are best assisted by helping them access the things they are already good at or giving them a little boost in their life experience to draw from when decoding the written word. Teaching specific learning strategies along with vocabulary development including how words are assembled from component parts is a good approach to helping these students.

Even kids who pass the Basic Skills Test can still use help in improving their reading.  These kids may be working really hard to understand what they are reading and they can be taught strategies to help them become more efficient readers.  With all of the needs at the lower end this is an area that can be easily overlooked.  However scaffolding is not just for kids who need help but provides a structure for differentiating instruction which gives students at all reading levels opportunities to grow.

 It is important to teach and support reading strategies throughout the entire school because it provides students with continuous opportunities and resources for improving their reading.  Improvements in reading don’t happen quickly so it is important that everyone works toward the same goals of increasing literacy.

Al Greenfield Ph.D. suggests that meaningful reading extends beyond just being able to answers questions about the text correctly. When reading is meaningful there should be a synergy between meaning, visualization and structure of the text.

Michael Pressley from Notre Dame suggests that a great way to approach fiction and nonfiction is to first engage in the prior knowledge you already have about it. Based on this approach lesson formats would pretty much be flipped on its head by moving the actual reading back and beginning with a significant section of pre-reading activities.

There are many variables out of the control our control as teachers but there are some that we can control and that make a big difference. For example the type of lessons we create especially in how we structure the lesson regarding activation students’ prior knowledge and giving students opportunities to create new prior knowledge.

PB &… You Fill in the Blank

Tonight for me it was PB and cheeseburger. And not just cheese but hour long sautéed onions, jalapeño peppers, lettuce, and tomato on a toasted bun. The first one was delightful, the second brought on a pleasure and gluttony induced coma. It was a great night.

Possible Crossover Candidate

Instructions for building your own poor man’s noise canceling headphones:

Put in earplugs. Put on over ear headphones. Turn up the volume. Enjoy the isolation in any loud setting.

Productivity Hypothesis

A friend and I were talking about the state of productivity in our lives and society in general.  We agreed that we would be better served by doing about half as much in order to do what remains that much better.  But of course there are costs.  The density of our productivity is often budget driven where more productive units produce some kind of productivity revenue.  That revenue may be financial but not necessarily.  Often the productive revenue comes in the form of job advancement or pleasing a funder in order to maintain or advance further funding opportunities. But to what end. My friend and I both saw the inevitable reality of this productivity system spinning out of control. 

I wonder what it would be like if we volunteered to cut our budgets by 20% with the promise that we would only reduce productivity by 10%. I hypothesize that the quality of the remaining 90% would increase by 30% netting an overall increase in productivity value while reducing overall costs.

I’m not confident that this hypothesis will ever be tested because budget decisions are made at a level above my pay grade.

A Visual is Worth a Thousand Verbs

I wish I could claim the title as my own quipy turn on a familiar phrase but I heard it last night at dinner. Still, the words are true of images because they plainly express the reality that words work so hard to convey. That isn’t to say that the written or spoken word is dead or not worthy of attention. Rather it makes those textual moments of clarity and expressiveness all the more impressive. 

We are inundated with images, imagine how many words those are worth, but then we must also consider their value. Yet when reading what has been written well each word is worth it.

An Opportunity of a Lifetime

Tonight I attended the annual physics department banquet at Augsburg College.  I barely took any physics in college but I had the great fortune to attend and graduate from Augsburg and somehow I found myself, a biology education major, as an adopted resident of some physics functions.

It all started in a physics class for education majors taught by one of tonight’s presenters and one of my science mentors, Professor Ben Stottrup.  The class was intended to give non-science majors some exposure to the order and reason behind describing the physical world. In his first year in the department Professor Stottrup didn’t exactly know that and it was fun to see adjust the course as he learned his students.  I took the class because I had the prerequisite algebra to get in and, as much as I would have liked to, in the economy of my meandering college education I could not justify the two additional years I would have had to invest for a calculus based itinerary.

As a science major I didn’t have too much trouble navigating the coursework and Professor Stottrup saw in me a passion for science and a bit of work ethic and as a result I began working in his newly forming lipid biophysics lab. 

Over the next two years I learned a lot about how science and research works. For example sometimes in science you build a dark room out of foam board and bookshelves and sometimes you reach into literature far beyond your comfort level and training to pull everything you can out of it. Sometimes in science you carry jugs of nanopure water across two campuses back to the lab because you don’t have the equipment to make it yourself and when it comes to science you definitely learn more about how it actually works by actually doing it.

Meat

There is something about adding meat to a food that takes it to the next level.  What would split pea soup be without chunks of ham? Mushed up Peas.  Pizza is really good but meat makes it better.  Salad is good but chunks of chicken or steak make it better. Spaghetti is good but meatballs make it better. 

Hero or Hoard?

Imagine a scenario with an angry hoard of zombies and a hero with a chainsaw or shotgun fighting off the flesh eaters.  Which character do you identify most with?

Based on my survey of a few people today I am guessing with a moderate degree of confidence that you too see yourself as the hero.

A pretty smart high schooler presented the scenario to me this morning and he logically pointed out that, while we may identify more with the hero, the ultimate reality is that it is far more likely that we would all be in the hoard.  

Kids.

Can’t Miss Crossover Event

Reading note: The introduction in italics is to be read in a gravely dramatic voice like a TV anouncer.

Don’t miss the first ever Blogger cross over event.  Resolution meets Ghetto Stylin’, in the backyard.

My mom and a friend of hers have a blog named Ghetto Stylin’. You may pause at the title and wonder what in the world it is all about.  It is neither a hip hop fan page nor an homage to their favorite Elvis Presley folk rock gospel ballad.  Jeff Foxworthy would have likely chosen a different name but the blog is essentially about resourcefulness.

A few days ago my mom (who is also one of my most faithful readers – Thanks mom!) suggested that we do a crossover event.  A backyard DIY project my wife and I finished today seemed to fit their Ghetto Stylin’ definition and the crossover event was born.  

A little history: Over the last few years the metal post that receives the latch for our back gate has been rusting at the base.  After winter the integrity of the post took a turn for the worse and it became very unstable. I knew the post would have to be replaced but postponed the project as long as possible because I knew there wasn’t going to be an easy fix.  This particular post was anchored in the sidewalk which meant that the fate of the pole was also tied to the fate of the slab of concrete that creates the walk way between the house and the garage. Breaking up and replacing the sidewalk just to replace the pole was out of the question, so I knew that when it broke I’d have to ghetto style it.

Eventually the pole got so bad that it tipped over and broke off at the rusted base.  I triaged the situation by tossing the pole in a nearby garden (ghetto stylin’) and latched the gate on a nearby corner piece of the garages aluminum siding (ghetto stylin’).  The pole sat in the garden for about 8 days and significantly deprived a long narrow swath of phlox of its radiant photosynthetic catalyst, though I’m happy to report that after I leaned the pole against the garage the plants recovered pretty well.

The final fix for the pole came today in the form of a ¾” steel pipe, pipe insulation and the original fence post.  The original pole was still underground so I cleared out the inside diameter below the surface with a drill and a 1 ¹/₈” spade bit then drove the ¾” pipe (whose outside diameter is about 1”) about 2 feet below the surface. My wife then cut the pipe insulation to length and wrapped it around the ¾” pipe.  After a test fitting and a trip to my worm farming brother's garage to cut off the rusted end we slid the original fence post as a sleeve over the insulation.  I finished the project by pounding the post down a few times and called it good enough.

I questioned whether this was truly ghetto stylin’ because we actually went to Home Depot to buy the pipe and insulation.  After some consideration I think it does still fit the category because one of the tenets of the ghetto stylin’ lifestyle is that after putting something off for a while, then considering nontraditional methods of resourcefulness, if all else fails, throw some money at the problem.

Who Am I?

Degenerate gambler, part time actor, frequenter of flowing waters, lucky boy.

95 Cars

I had the great opportunity this evening to wait for a 95 car train to cross an intersection.  I pulled up to the crossing just as the lights and arms started to come down. My initial thoughts included a brief regret for not being 30 seconds earlier and slight annoyance for being stuck. I'm happy to say that those thoughts quickly passed and gave way to awe, memories and counting.

If you can get past the whole "sitting still when you have somewhere to go" thing it isn't hard to be impressed by a train.  Tonight's diesel powered behemoth carried 95 cars of shipping containers, unusually sized tanks and slightly perforated cars whose contents I can never quite discern. One of the commercials on the radio boasts the tons and tons of freight hauled per mile on a single gallon of fuel. I don't have any weight estimates for this train but those gallons where sure getting their work in tonight.

It is pretty unusual for me to get stopped by a train these days.  My usual routes don't require much interaction with crossings.  When I was a kid the opposite was true. We crossed the same tracks I stopped at tonight countless times. On the way to baseball games or to Nino's Pizza Plus after baseball games, those tracks were crossed regularly and we sat and waited almost as much as we crossed.

I'm not sure if I've ever actually counted the cars on a train from start to finish. It seems odd to think that, but I don't remember that as being part of our railroad routines.  Instead we'd just sit, or hope that the train wasn't slowing down and we'd definitely try to discern if it was. But tonight even when the brakes briefly squealed I just counted while the rhythmic metronome of wheel on rail washed over me as the lights flashed and I sat.

Safety First

Great safety meeting tonight for little league.  AEDs are pretty awesome.  So are doctors. They know a lot.

3 Ground Turkey Tacos

A good pivot is important. Think of the implications of the phrases, “your fate hinges on this decision” or “this is a pivotal moment”.  It is possible to create hinges in order to improve your chances of success.  As we have been developing our latest program at work certain pivot points emerge in the schedule that provide a bridge or hinge between activities or concepts.  A good pivot in basketball can mean the difference between creating space for a pass or shot or becoming trapped and turning the ball over. Tonight at baseball practice as we taught throwing mechanics I was reminded of the impact a good low body pivot can have on a the throw.

But the big moment that today hinged on was three ground turkey tacos. The tacos not only represented an important source of caloric sustenance before the next event but also a healthy ration of joy and spiritual sustenance.  When I walked in the door the tacos were waiting for me and I knew they couldn’t be for anyone else (it wasn’t that hard to tell because I’m the only one in the house who would eat tomatoes on a taco).  

Seeing those prepared shells of meat, vegetables and cheese reminded me of how much I have and how much I have to be grateful for and that knowledge created the perfect hinge to turn into whatever came next.

100 Day

On 100 day in school (the 100^th day of school) the little kids are often asked to bring in 100 of something.  Today is 100 day for this blog and I am not sure if I can think of 100 anything or even 10 of something.  It seems like thinking has been replaced by doing a ton of stuff in not too much time.  Sure these are the same demands that everyone goes through but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t stink to go through them. And so for 100 day all I have to say is said in 100 words.

Resurrection Sunday

Today is resurrection Sunday. We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the ultimate act of power over death and fulfillment of prophesy.  We’re pretty good at fulfilling prophesy too; turning away, denying Christ, worshiping idols.

Fortunately Easter doesn’t just mark Jesus’ resurrection but also the opening of the possibility for ours as well.  As I looked around today I saw a former criminal as a pillar of his community, a long time drug addict as a doting grandfather and a once angry wanderer as a man filled with joy and purpose.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Something Not Quite Right

Yesterday I, along with the other four people in my family, went to the Target minute clinic to get our sore throats checked out.  As it turns out we are all fine with no measureable illness. What was amazing about the trip to the retail doc was that it didn’t cost anything. My insurance has a co-pay of zero dollars for this type of visit.  Had we gone to an urgent care we would have paid $25 each.  Considering that the actual cost of the visit is significantly higher than $25 it still would have been a really good deal. 

Back at target today we were picking up some basket filling provisions and stopped in one of the pharmacy aisles.  As my wife looked for an out of stock box I couldn’t help notice a situation at the pharmacy counter.  The pharmacy tech was explaining the cost of several prescriptions to an elderly woman. It became clear that the woman was trying to figure out how she would pay for her prescriptions and the tech was patiently going over the options for buying some of the prescriptions now and some others later. 

My mind vacillated between sadness and wondering if there was anything I could do.  I remembered the rare cash in my wallet and considered offering it to offset the cost of the medicines but knew it wouldn’t be enough to cover even one of the prescriptions.  My indecisiveness determined my course of action and in the end I did nothing. Nothing, that is, except for seeing something that is reported all of the time but that I have never had any firsthand experience with. Nothing but recognizing that something wasn’t right and wondering: What would be?

One of the Better Smells

There are not many better smells than that of a camp fire.  Tonight I sat by a fire, cooked food, talked, looked at ducks, ate food and left smell great.  Even better, tonight when I got home and hugged my wife, who also sat by the fire, she smelled great too.  That’s one of the great thinks about sitting by the fire, it stays with you and reminds you of the warmth and fun you had minutes, hours or maybe even days before.  But it isn’t just the last fire that stays with you. 

The smell of smoke on your shirt can bring you back to family trips and late night conversations.  Tonight I’m remembering a trip last summer with friends and an amalgamation of gatherings in my backyard.  I’m remembering a birthday party at the lake when we sat out the first night and got rained out the second.  The smoke from tonight’s fire is now dispersed across the city and has perhaps even left the state but the smoke that remains on my shirt keeps the memories close at hand.

Back on My Mind

Now that baseball is back in season it is back on my mind too.  I was talking with some friends about hitting.  In some way hitting is very simple: See the ball hit the ball.  On the other hand hitting is very complicated:  Know the game situation and what to accomplish at the plate, interpret the signs from the base coach move into the box, establish a comfortable and balanced athletic position, weight slightly back, hands up, find the ball in the pitchers hand, pick up the seams, identify the spin, load, squash the bug, stride toward the pitcher (or not), throw your hands at the ball (the barrel with follow), firm front leg, open hips, follow through, stay balanced.

But you can’t tell that to a 9 year old, or a 32 year old for that matter. As a rule of thumb start from the ground up and much of the rest will follow.

Round Two Update

It was a really hard push, especially up the hills, but it did haul.

Round Two

Last Thursday I took my newly reassembled bike to work.  Aside from being a bit nippy the ride in went pretty well.  The previously mentioned tire repair stayed true and some brake issues I was slightly concerned about didn’t manifest in the slightest.  The ride home presented an issue that made for a less than pleasant ride. 

For a little background I’ll say that the old bike has seen better days.  It also seems that most of my attempts to restore the old girl have hastened the downgrade of her condition.  As a result I have resorted to some measures that have reduced the functionality of some systems in order to maintain some utility. 

In particular I locked down the rear derailer, eliminating the ability to shift, but also preventing irritatingly random slipping in the drive train.  The remedy worked pretty well, until it didn’t.  A few miles from my destination the chain moved itself to the big chain ring which means every pedal stroke supplied the lease possible amount of propulsion.  This was annoying, and made for a slow few miles.

The fix was a pretty good idea except that it still allowed for a failure.  The problem was that I wanted to keep the chain in a middle position on the cluster of cogs to give me good purchase with every pedal revolution but without too much effort. Tonight I took the fix one step further by taking all of the tension out of the rear derailer, eliminating the possibility of any movement from the smallest of gears.  It will make for some hard pushing but after a brief test run down the alley it is very clear that it is also going to really haul.

Baseball

We had little league tryouts this weekend.  As one of the coaches I will draft a team then we will spend about a month preparing for the season before we play about 11 games followed by the post season.  Needless to say, over the next few months there will be a lot of baseball.  Tonight I was talked with the other dad that will coach with me and one of the thoughts we shared is that we are really lucky.

Sure the season can get long and there will be nights that I don’t want to go to practice and there will be game plans I don’t want to write and there will be kids who play in the dirt when they are supposed to be getting ready for the next pitch.  Sure all of those will happen but there are some other things that will help me keep perspective during those rough times. 

We live in a time and a place where I and my kids can dedicate significant portions of our time to a game.  My kids don’t have to work to help support the family and after the game we’ll always have a home to return to and food to eat. 

Who am I

Chandeliers tilt as the giant lists. Funhouse floors not novel here.  Lights on, lights off, shovel coal, lights on, lights off.  Taken down by the medium it was meant to traverse.