Working with Music

If you have walked past my room while I am planning, you have probably noticed that I’m playing music. I have always loved music - a wide variety of genres and styles. 

When I was younger, I had an extensive collection of records. (Do you know what those are?) I had so many crates of 33rpm records that moving into and out of my dorm room at college was a chore - I had to make multiple trips up and down the stairs with the heavy crates. Records were very heavy.

Now, in the digital age, I have an extensive library of songs and albums. They are stored in the could and I can access them from all my devices. It helped that I worked at a radio station for a few years. Each night I would borrow a stack of CD’s. (Do you know what those are?) and rip them into my computer, then bring them back and borrow more.

I find listening to music helps me work - up to a point. When I really, really have to dig in and concentrate, I have to turn it off. For the most part, however, I’m happy to get my lessons planned, work copied, whiteboards updated, labs set-up and cleaned-up with music playing. 

In theory, I would love to allow you to listen to music while you work, but there are several things in the way.

First off, it’s against school rules. Just like wearing hats and hoodies in school, you are not allowed to listen to music while you work. Period.

Next, some of my students would spend more time looking for just the right song than they would spend actually doing their work. I have seen this happen with my own eyes. Clearly, this is not productive. 

Finally, some of your choices are, uhhhh, not appropriate for school. We can not condone you listing to profanity-laden, suggestive, or potentially violent songs in school. It’s just wrong. If the adults in your home let you listen to that, so be it. But, not in school on school devices. 

My suggestion, groove on your tunes while you’re doing homework…at home.

Heee’s Baaaack!

Well, here I am again, back in room 23 - the Science Lab. 

This marks the 8th year I’ve taught at Bartlett Community Partnership School. I taught in this room for my first five years, then, for reasons I still fail to comprehend, the administration moved me to room 22, around the corner. After two years, I’m back.

This is my 11th year writing this blog. If you scroll down far enough, you will discover I was writing this at two other schools I taught at before coming to the Bartlett. 

I write this blog for and to you, my students. 

This is my forum to write about my life as a teacher, a student and a person. Sometimes, I write to amuse. Sometimes, I write to inform. And, sometimes, I write to help my students put things into perspective.

I usually post to this blog on Sunday mornings - and no, not at 3:15 a.m. (the posting time is listed as Pacific Standard Time). I will post a link on google classroom, so you’ll get an email notification when there’s something new to read.

I hope you will find them interesting but you’ll all be the judge of that. Please read, share, comment, and talk to me about what I write.  

Post script: I’ll give a prize to the first person who can name the movie that is referenced (but not quoted) in the title of this post.

What I Did For My Summer Vacation

 I had a very busy summer. 

The first week after school ended, I went to school. Yes, I was the student and was learning how our new science curriculum works. It was interesting. I learned a lot, but I really just wanted to be done. 

I went to Italy for ten days, then to Paris for four more days in July. I did a lot of things - saw Mount Vesuvius and the city it destroyed - Pompeii, sailed down the Grand Canal in Venice, took goofy pictures at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, had an authentic Tuscan dinner at a vineyard, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower and roamed about Paris in the early morning hours as the city was waking up. 

In August, I went to a concert, saw a play, attended my nephew’s wedding and went to many dinners with many friends. 

It was a really good summer!!!!

What did you do? 

What were some of the highlights for you this past summer or another favorite time?

Talk to me, tell me about your summer vacation or a favorite time in your life!!!

The Positive Power of Habit

 I like doing things the same way each time I do them.

The experts say if you do something exactly the same way 21 times in a row it becomes a habit - something that you just do without thought. 

For example, when I go to the mall, I always park park outside JC Penney no matter what store I’m going to. I never have to think about “Oh, where did I leave my car?”  My mother would have benefitted from this strategy because she called the police to report her car stolen - twice. She had just forgotten where she parked it - twice. 

Over time, I have figured out what works for me and I just do things in that way all the time. 

You can put the power to habit to work for you too. Maybe you get in the habit of mentally checking to see if you have what you need for homework, before dashing out of school at the end of the day or maybe, plugging your computer in to charge at the same time each day. 

When I was a middle school student, some 1,000 years ago, I found I needed to do my homework either just before or just after dinner. Usually, I’d get home, have a snack, watch The Galloping Gourmet (Yeah, enjoy that bit of TV history), then play football with my friends and dive into homework just before or immediately after dinner. It was a habit that worked for me.

Figure out what works for you and do it exactly that way each time. Eventually, you’ll just automatically do it that way all the time. 

But, if you’re going to watch TV after school, choose a better show than I did…

This Didn't Go Well

 My plan going into the 2022-23 school year was to “fill my room with interesting objects, things that would ignite my student’s curiosity.” 

When the year started I had, what looked like a museum, in my room. 

I had scale models (Mercury & Gemini rockets, X-15 rocket plane, S’cool bus dragster), a newton’s cradle, magnetic field display tube, plasma light, samples of fossils, shells, rocks, a natural sponge, a giant conch shell (Thanks, Mom), and more. The whole set-up looked nice and I expected the 7th and 8th grade kids would be intrigued.

I was very clear that they should not touch the models - I even had little “Do not touch, please” signs in front of them. With the rest of the stuff, I encouraged you to touch, explore and ask questions.

Explore you did. 

The Newton’s cradle was destroyed - I mean they tend to tangle when used too aggressively, but there’s usually one kid with the patience and skill to untangle it - at least that was my experience last year. This year, the students tangled and broke many of the strings. 

The rockets were the next to fall, then the magnetic thing ended up being dropped so many times it ceased to be a magnet.

I don’t even know how anyone could punch a hole in the side of a plastic display case, but that’s what happened. 

It’s gone, all gone, destroyed. 

A classroom is a harsh environment - I know this. There are over 110 kids moving in and out of my room every day - they are large kids, prone to acting without thinking, not what you would call “careful.”  

But, this level of damage….seems extreme.

This doesn’t even take into account the two electric pencil sharpeners that were broken and the remote control device that was stolen off my table.

Will I do this again next year?  Will I try to make the science lab an interesting place?

Will I feel free to leave things on my table and expect to find them there when I need them?

I really do not know.

The Hidden Code in Room 22

There is a coded message in my classroom - hidden in plain sight. 

Yup, there has been a code in my classroom since we returned from winter break in January and no one has seen it in the months that it’s been there.

It’s literally right in FRONT OF YOUR FACE!

This is actually the second time I have done this, but the first in this room and the first time in this school. It’s not my original idea. I borrowed it from Tom Yawkey, former owner of the Red Sox and the fabled left field wall - the green monster, if you will. 

That’s as much of a hint as I’m going to give you.

I have actually mentioned the code in class at least twice, just to see what would happen. Each time, I saw a few heads swivel around and scan the room, but no one has found it yet. 

Can you find it and, if you do, can you crack it?

The Joy of Having a Library

One of my strongest memories of middle school is looking for books in our school library. When I finished my work, my teachers would often let me go to the library to find a book to read. 

I can distantly recall looking at the covers of books (Yes, I was judging the books by their covers) to find something interesting to read. I read a lot of books about World War II, planes, ships and science fiction.

I have always been a big reader and having access to books was important to me. It really shaped who I am today - even after all these years.

For a long time here in Lowell, we did not have school libraries. Yes, the room full of books was still there, but there was no librarian. There was no one to help find just the right book. There were no new books arriving. It was a library locked in space and time.

Now, we have a librarian who loves helping people and there are tons and tons of new books in our library. 

If you think about how much has changed in the five or six years since we had a functional library, you can begin to appreciate how having new books is critically important to a school. 

Once again, we have a living and breathing library and I’m so happy.

The First Time I Met An Astronaut

I was born in 1959, just as the space race was beginning. 

President Kennedy was elected in November 1960, in part, because of a perceived "missile gap" with the Soviet Union. Kennedy keyed part of his presidential campaign on the belief that the United States was losing the space race.

By the time Kennedy took the oath of office, the first seven astronauts had been selected and were training for the upcoming manned space flights of the Mercury program. For me, their names resonate with history:

Alan Shepard; Gus Grissom; John Glenn; Deke Slayton; Scott Carpenter; Gordon Cooper; and Wally Schirra.

They were all military test pilots. They flew the newest, fastest, most dangerous jets before anyone else. Volunteers. Each braver and more dashing than the others. They were the embodiment  of the "Right Stuff" before the term was coined. Life magazine and the TV networks lionized these men. And so did I.

In 1961, NASA successfully launched Shepard and Grissom into space. A few months later, Glenn orbited the Earth.

Later, they were joined by the second seven and more after that. Men like Ed White, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, Roger Chaffee, Gene Cernan, John Young and Buzz Aldrin. 

After the Mercury Program came Gemini and Apollo. 

In those days space flight wasn't routine. A space mission was a national event. The television networks covered it live and for hours on end. I enthusiastically watched every moment of mission coverage. I read everything I could get my young hands on. I became the space expert in my school and among my friends. 

These men were my heroes. Larger than life. Braver then brave. They felt the hottest jets higher and faster than anyone else during the day, and the hottest sports cars during the night. Testosterone dripped off these men like sweat on a hot August day.  

I was captivated. Hero worship doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I was nine years old when the astronauts of Apollo Eight read from Genesis as their spacecraft orbited the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968. I remember it for the awe-inspiring event it was. 

Seven months later, I was watching Neil Armstrong ease himself down the lunar lander's ladder onto the dusty surface of our nearest neighbor. 

Mission accomplished. And with that, the public turned its collective attention to other matters. Apollo continued but some missions were cancelled. The follow-on was the uninspiring Skylab program, then a long gap while the shuttles were built. 

The media and the public may have turned away from the space program but I never did. 

When I saw that an astronaut would be speaking at the Hanscom Air Show in 1991 or 1992, I made sure I was there. I brought my oldest boy but traffic was a mess and we had to park a mile away. 

By the time we found the right tent it was almost over. We walked into the back of the tent while the closing remarks were wafting over the crowd. 

We'd missed it. 

I was crushed. 

It must have shown on my face. We made eye contact. A single finger held aloft told me to wait as the crowd began to stand and disperse. 

And in a moment I was shaking hands with an honest-to-God, flight-tested, space-faring, red-blooded American astronaut. For all the Corvette driving, jet fighter flying, testosterone pumping images, the astronaut standing in front of me was a woman. 

And she was as nice as she was smart and brave. She'd seen me rush in just in time to catch the final words of her talk. She made sure to catch my eye and asked me to stay. I introduced her to my son and we made small talk for a minute before she had to go. 

I don't know her name. I've hunted around the internet, but I can't find any mention of who she was. But it doesn't matter. I had finally met a real, flown-in-space astronaut and she was great. 

Why I say What I Say...

 “Number Nine, Number Nine.”

I say this in a very specific way sometimes. I used to say it a lot more when I was a math teacher, but even teaching science, opportunities arise for me to repeat this from time to time. 

Why? 

It comes from a Beatles song written by John Lennon. 

The funny thing is, I absolutely hate this song. It’s rubbish. I think I’ve listened to all 8 minutes of it twice. It’s awful. But the Number Nine thing stuck with me.

“Sit Ubu, sit.”

I say this sometimes when I want a student to sit down. Sometimes I add "good, dog." It comes from the end of several TV sitcoms from the 1980’s, like Family Ties. It was the sign-off at the end of the shows done by a particular production company. There was a photograph of a dog - Ubu taken at the Louvre in Paris. You could probably google what and why, but like Number Nine, it has stuck in my brain. 

Do you have things like that stuck in your head? 

Tell me about them!

The Stack of Work on the Dining Room Table

Unless we are having guests, there is pretty much always a stack of student work on my dining room table. 

This is not my wife’s favorite thing. She likes the house to look nice whether people are coming over or not, and she does not consider a stack of papers a great look.

If I don’t do grading for a while, the pile grows day by day until it gets to a point where I HAVE to start grading it. Trust me, if I don’t get around to it, my wife will ask me “What’s up with all those papers on the table?”

This is something to be avoided.

I think teachers tend to make new school year resolutions in September in addition to the regular New Year’s resolutions. Mine is almost always “get the grading done quickly.” I think I’m doing better than I have in the past, but sometimes its a struggle.

So, when I say “There is a big pile of student work on my dining room table,” I’m not kidding.

Gravity Always Wins

If you lean back in your chair, at some point friction will fail, your chair will slip and gravity will pull you down to the floor. It will pull you down and pull you down fast!

If you lean over too far in your chair, gravity will drag you right off the seat and you will end up in a heap on the floor wondering what happened. 

If you only put part of your chair upside down on the table at the end of the day, it will slip and accelerate until it meets the floor. <Crash!>

Chromebooks, notebooks and textbooks do not levitate - if not placed securely on a table or desk, gravity will do its thing.

Of course, we all know this, yet somehow, someone or something crashes to the floor in the science lab each and every day. Water spills, pencils end up under tables, Do Nows litter the floor, and glue sticks regularly roll across the lab benches and land the floor.

I have read that when astronauts return to Earth from long stays on the International Space Station, they expect they can "float" things next to them as they did in space. But, that doesn't work so well on Earth. 

Gravity always wins.