Song of the Day

If you’re not in my homeroom, you may have wondered about the list of songs and artists written on the whiteboard behind Teddy Bonesevelt. We do this thing called “Song of the Day.” I select five songs that have something in common - a theme. I play one song per day and the kids in my homeroom guess what the theme is - what the songs or artists all have in common.

Some recent themes were: 

• Songs by artists known primarily by one name - Cher, Adele, Rhianna & Elvis,
• Songs by artists from Massachusetts - Aerosmith, James Taylor, etc.

I have a good time coming up with the themes and songs and, yes, they kinda reflect my taste in music. If you were to stick your head in Ms. Macinnis’ room, you would notice she plays music

during homeroom. It’s nice, soft, jazzy music. I assume that’s what she likes. In my room you are going to hear a hard driving beat and screaming guitars. I just love me some screaming guitars!

I am open to suggestions for a theme and only have few guidelines. 

• There must be five songs,
• It has to be school appropriate,
• There must be a theme - something that links all five of the songs together,
• It can’t be obvious - You have to keep people wondering until day four or five.

If you have a suggestion for a theme, even if you need help coming up with the actual songs, let me know. Let’s all have fun with the music!

The Teachers Who Helped Me...

I can think of three teachers who were most influential in my education. People say we are the sum of our experiences and I believe that to be true. These teachers added experiences in different ways that influenced the person I have become. 

Mrs. Haller

My third grade teacher. We called her Ol’ Snappy Fingers. She could snap her fingers like thunder. It was incredibly loud to my young ears and she could do both hands at the same time or in rhythm. Snapping her fingers was an attention signal that we all learned meant, “Give be your attention RIGHT NOW!”

It was in the third grade that I fell in love with science. I can clearly recall two experiments we did in her class - we floated a pin on water and we made floating pepper scoot to the outside of a bowl by touching the water with soap. Pretty simple science but, if I can remember it after 55 years, it must have made a pretty big impression on me. (I’d be happy to help any of you do these experiments if you would like.)

Mr Hone

My sixth grade teacher. There are several things about Mr Hone that helped me grow and develop. First, he spoke to the class and to us individually as people. I mean he did not talk to us like we were kids. He didn’t talk down to us. He treated us as human beings with equal value. Even in the sixth grade, I noticed and appreciated this. 

Second, he recognized my innate curiosity and supported it. He would let me read or visit the library when my work was done. He encouraged me to spend time with our set of encyclopedias (They were our equivalent of the internet, but all printed out and in book form. All 27 volumes were stored on a rolling cart in our room).

Third, he let me do extra projects even if I wasn’t in a group that was doing projects. One project was to build a model house using small lengths of wood and glue. I was not in that group, I was doing extra grammar work in Mrs. Clark’s room - ugh. But, he recognized how interested I was and showed me how to build the frame of a building and gave me the supplies I needed. I built a model garage about 12 inches square, just for fun. I was very proud of my work, even if I didn’t get a grade out of it. 

By the way, I previously blogged about the last time I ever saw Mr. Hone.

Ms. Archambault

When I first met her, she was the advisor to the Astronomy Club in my high school. When I was a senior, she was my chemistry teacher. At the time, I knew she did not want to teach chemistry. She was an earth science teacher but the administration forced her to teach a section of chemistry. She didn’t go a great job. It was NOT my favorite class; in fact, I hated it.  

But, here’s what she did do well. She supported me in the Astronomy Club. She encouraged me and my friends to follow our passions and to push the envelope. We took very public risks and even when they didn’t turn out great, we learned so much about life from just trying. She supported my love of science when it was the most fragile. I recently found her on Facebook and thanked her for that. 

You might not be able to see who is helping you grow in different ways right now, but as you mature and gain perspective, you will look back and there will be certain people who stand out. Remember them, and pay it forward by helping someone else, even if it just means doing your job. 

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.