The NBA Player I Went to School With

I have met some pretty interesting people over the years. One was a 6’ 7” tall guy named Sly Williams.

Sly was a first-round pick by the New York Knicks. He played in the NBA for 7 seasons, finishing out with a short stint for the Boston Celtics. He’s the only person I have known who played in the NBA.

I knew him before all that, when we were both in college. Just to be clear - we were not buddies, we did not hang out. We played ping pong, said hello when we passed in the halls, and shared beer and pizza once or twice at dorm parties. I actually spent more time with his little brother who would often hang out at the dorm during basketball season. 

Sly had promised to attend Providence College (PC) and play men’s basketball but, surprisingly, showed up at the University of Rhode Island (URI) on the first day of school in the Fall of 1979 and registered for classes. Naturally, the folks at PC were quite upset and the folks at URI were overjoyed. 

By-the-way, Sly parked his brand new, brown Cadillac right behind the dorm directly in front of the ‘No Parking Fire Lane’ sign. Odd that he was never ticketed or towed. And, how did a kid from the New Haven projects with 11 brothers and sisters even get a new Cadillac anyway? Things that make you go, “hmmmmmmm.”

Let’s face it, Sly’s college career was all about preparing for the pros. He never went to class, he was often late to practice. His coach suspended him multiple times for breaking team rules, but, somehow, he was able to play in each and every game for three seasons. 

At the end of his last basketball season, his junior year, Sly left campus. The next time we saw him was when he was drafted in the first round, 21st overall, by the New York Knicks. Sly wore number 33 and the Knicks were awful. They would stay awful until the next player to wear number 33 arrived - Hall-of-Famer Patrick Ewing. 

Sly’s career was nothing special. After four lackluster years, the Knicks traded him to the Atlanta Hawks and they were pretty bad, too. Finally, he ended up with the Boston Celtics in the Fall of 1985. Sly was beset with personal, injury and heath issues. The Celtics cut him about a month into the season. 

Too bad for Sly. That team went on to win the 1986 NBA championship and is largely regarded as one of the greatest basketball teams ever assembled - featuring five future hall of fame players. They were so good, that the subs - players 6 through 10 - could have been a playoff team in their own right. Sly could have been part of that, but he missed out. 

After basketball, Sly’s life spiraled out of control and he was, eventually, incarcerated for a string of violent crimes. 

I poked around on the internet and found part of a short documentary that was done about him, but I could only find the first of three parts.

Sly sits on two of my personal lists of interesting people I have known - a surprisingly long list of folks I have met who have gone to prison and a much shorter list of people I have met who played professional athletics.

To be sure, Sly has lived an interesting life, and I knew him just a little bit way back when.

The Science Shirts

You have probably noticed that, most often, I am wearing a science-themed t-shirt. It’s kind of become a signature thing for me and it started with a gift from a fellow science teacher at the school I taught at before coming to the Bartlett. 

It’s the green one I still wear occasionally that says “I’m Awesome - It’s Science.” Sometimes, we’d wear our matching shirts on the same day.

As of this writing, I have over 50 different science/engineering shirts. I have certain shirts I only wear for certain days (Like the Christa McAuliffe shirt I only wear on NASA’s Day of Remembrance), and some shirts I wear a lot (Like the “Equality is Not Rocket Science” shirt or the one that has a rocket ship made out of stacked up books). 

Last year, when were were studying the ecosystem at Mono Lake in California, I was standing in the cafeteria and overheard the following exchange between students:

“What does his shirt say?”  

“Mono Lake.“

“Of course it does. I love that he does this.”

An 8th grader once asked, “Do you have, like, regular clothes? I mean non-science shirts, like button up shirts?” I assured her I have the complete wardrobe from button-up shirts to suits and sports coats, dress shirts and ties, polo shirts and non-science t-shirts. I’m not really sure she believed me. 

I do this because it’s fun and it gives me another thing to talk about. I have answered countless questions about what my shirt says or means and it’s a fun way to talk about science. 

When I’m standing in the hallway when you arrive, I am often asked, “What are you wearing?” And then, as I strike a pose so my shirt can be seen, its my own little red-carpet moment, but, of course, with a lot less paparazzi.

The Worst Books I Have Ever Read

As you know, I’m an avid reader. I routinely read or listen to 20 to 40 books a year. I share my reading with you by hanging mini-posters outside the classroom and when I finish, I write a mini-mini-review on the poster: 

“This was great!”  

“Excellent!” 

“This was okay.”  

“Boring!”

I’ve read so many great books and a few real clunkers, as well. There are a couple that stand out as the worst books I have ever read:

• Years ago, I used to write book reviews for Air & Space Smithsonian magazine. They would send me a box of books and ask me to pick out a couple to read and review. They actually paid me to do this! One book they sent me was about a World War II fighter pilot I happened to know a LOT about. I had read every single book ever published about him. I had spoken and corresponded with people who knew him. I had done extensive research about him. 

I opened the new book and read the first chapter and it seemed… familiar… like I’d read it before. I turned to my library of books on this pilot and, sure enough, the writer had stolen entire paragraphs from a prior book on the man. I alerted my editor at Air & Space. He thanked me and notified the publisher about the writer’s plagiarism. 

• Someone I know wrote a book several years ago and, of course, I was excited to read it. You know that feeling when you read the first half page of a book and you think, “Ohhhhh, this is gonna be good?” I love that feeling. I love when the writer hooks you and draws you in right from the first few words. When I read the first partial page of this book, I turned to the last page to find out how long this was going to be. The first page was awful and things never got any better for the next 200 pages. Ugh.

So, there you have it. The worst books I have ever read. But, contrast that with the, literally, hundreds of excellent books and that’s a pretty good ratio.  

Welcome to the 2022-2023 School Year - A return to Normalcy

Welcome to or welcome back to my blog. I write this 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.

Friday the 13th, 2020 was the last day we had school before the pandemic smacked us in our collective faces. Everything starting changing after that and things will never again be what they once were. But, after a very difficult few years, I’m hopeful we can have a fantastic, productive and fun year doing science tougher - a return to normalcy. 

By the way, that phrase “A return to normalcy,” is from a US president many years ago. (There’s a tiny gift for the first ten people to name the President and the year.)

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 disagree with my thoughts and feelings.

The Water Bottles - An Update

 There’s an old saying “One man’s trash is another man's treasure.” Well, I can update that to “One teacher’s recycling is another teacher’s project materials.”

In about an hour, one of my colleagues from a school where I used to teach will arrive to pick up 8 large garbage bags full of (mostly) empty water bottles. I have not counted them, but I estimate there must be three to four hundred bottles in those bags. 

When I sent her the picture of them piled up at my entryway, she texted back “Heavens! How long did it take to collect all those?” 

I replied “In our middle school, this is about a week and a half’s worth of water bottles.”

She was stunned. In her school, each student has his or her own refillable water bottle.

That’s a better way to do things then wasting gallons and gallons of expensive bottled water.  ‘Nuff said.

So, what are they doing with these hundreds of bottles? They will be used for a 7th grade science project. Each student will set up two identical terrariums where they will plant grass seed. One of the terrariums will be the control and they will change one variable in the other bottle and see what happens. 

Since the twin terrariums will be identical controlled environments, they will be able to observe and measure the effect of changing one thing. 

This seems like a great idea for a project and it’s now something I have tucked back into my mind for potential future use. 

The Water Bottles - Ugh

 OMG those water bottles!

They are everywhere; on the floor, on desks, sitting on windowsills, under the tables, and in the lockers - so many water bottles in the lockers. It seems if there is a flat surface, there’s a water bottle on it. 

I am sooooooo tired of cleaning up, mostly full, water bottles in my classroom. I can’t take it any more. 

If there were a professional league for throwing water bottles across a classroom and landing them in the sink, I’d be an MVP. I am the Steph Curry of three-point shots with water bottles. 

Last week, as I tossed the bottles into the sink, I intentionally didn’t empty them or put them in the recycling bins. I just let them pile up. I filled the sink and then some!

I can not imagine how much our little school has spent on cases of water, but I’m sure it’s enough to buy a considerable number of new books.

Nobody wants sluggish, dehydrated students or students who drink so much water they’re in the restroom half the time. But, there has to be some middle ground. 

How about about dumping them out in the sink when you’re done and tossing the empties in a recycling bin?

How about carrying a reusable bottle and filling it up from time to time?

How about taking your water bottles with you?

How about finishing what you take?

Thoughts on Grading

 I think some students are surprised that I don’t grade every single piece of paper they turn in. I think sometimes they are disappointed when they have worked hard on something and I don’t grade it. I think they feel they have wasted their time and energy. 

Not true!

Sometimes the work is practice or review. Some assignments are for me to see how you are doing learning a new topic or set of vocabulary words, etc. I look over the work, get a sense of how people are doing, of who’s “getting it,” who’s having trouble and who’s flaking off instead of working. (There’s a term for these kinds of assignments - formative assessments.)

These insights are addressed in the following lessons. Sometimes I need to review content, sometimes I need to speak one-on-one to someone about their work habits, and sometimes I need to reteach a topic all over again. None of these are a waste of your time and energy, they help us all move forward together. 

The work I grade is usually after you’ve had time to read and digest something, or have had time to practice a new skill, or to close out a section in our curriculum. (These are called summative assessments.)

Learning is a process. When you learn something new - like how to play the ukulele, write new code or identify the roles of certain organisms in an ecosystem, you’re probably not very good at the start. Do you really want me to grade that work? No, you want a chance to practice, to deepen your understanding, and to improve before I start entering grades in my grade book.

If I don’t grade a particular assignment, its not because I am trying to waste your time. It’s just part of the process.