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.

End of the First Quarter

We have reached the end of the first quarter. We’re 25% done with the 2022-23 school year. From my perspective it went by fast!

The second quarter is a little different - It’s more cut-up. We have two-and-a-half days off for Thanksgiving, a week off after Christmas and grades will close by the middle of January. I think this quarter will seem to go past even faster.

In my science class, during the first quarter, I did not penalize students who missed assignments. I essentially rewarded you for engaging in the work without punishing you for missing things. Engaging in the work is a pretty basic expectation and I think the 7th and 8th grades have done a good job with that. 

Now, the expectation is that you will engage in the work, and do a good job. I will be doing more grading on the quality of the work, not just did you try or not. So, if you miss a day of school or do not finish something in class, you will need to catch up. Take it home to finish or do it after school in the homework club. 

Zeros will kill your grade so you must do everything in your power to avoid them. 

Buckle up, the second quarter has started. It’s gonna go fast and you need to do your best on each assignment. 

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.