Testing

I am posting this to see if I can access it from the Internet.

Welcome back.  I hope my post finds you well today.  I will finish my "Cask of Amontillado" plan below:

After Reading Response

I Do

I will show the students my reformulations of the story.  I can write a poem in two voices.  This story lends itself well to that reformulation since there are only two characters in the story.  Since I want them to write a crime scene investigation report, I would show them the one I wrote.  Having choices is always a good thing with students.

We Do

          Students will move into two or three groups.  They will become crime scene investigators.  As a class, we will imagine how we would go about solving the mystery of Fortunato’s disappearance.  We will list the kind of clues we might look for and who should be interviewed.  We will imagine what possible witnesses might say.

You Do

The students will create a reformulation of the story as a Voki, an Animoto, a poem, or a CSI report.  They will present their products the day after the assignment is due.

Evaluation

I will use the following rubric for the You Do reformulation.

____10  deadline met

____10 conventions

____30 character motivation is expressed

____30 text is present in reformulation

        Leslie had a good idea about the rubric.  If you add this up, you will find that the sum is eighty points.  Students who want to revise their assignments are allowed to do so.  They earn more points for that.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope the past three Reader Response lessons are helpful.  I am eager to apply these this year and write about the results.

See you next time.  Teach on...

Reading Response Theory: Before Reading Response in I do/We do/You do

           Welcome back.  I hope my blog finds you well.  I hope to post twice a week every week, so come and see me every Sunday and Wednesday.

           I would like to share part of an implementation plan that I wrote for the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.  I took a unit that I teach and re-planned it using Reading Response Theory.  I want to share my Before Reading activities.  The short story we will be reading is "The Cask of Amontillado" by Poe.

          Any reference I cite comes from one of the following sources:

Roessing, L. (2009).  The Write to Read. Thousand Oaks, CA.

               Corwin.

______ . Losing the Fear of Sharing Control: Starting a Reading

               Workshop.  Middle School Journal, January, 2007, 45.

______.  (2004). Toppling the Idol. English Journal,  94 (1), 42.

Spandel, V. (2005). The 9 Rights of Every Writer.  Portsmouth, NH:

               Heinemann.

Activities:  Before Reading

Focus lesson:  Motivation

Students will write in their reflection journals a response to the statement, “Describe a time when you were motivated to finish something you started.” 

The purpose for this reflection is to engage students interactively in their reading.  Roessing writes in The Write to Read (2009):

A reader response program allows teachers to see how students make meaning from what they read and whether they are truly engaged in what they are reading, and it allows teachers to help students read authentically. 

Authentic reading is interactive. (p.2)

            The reflection is designed to begin the process of making meaning as the students lay the groundwork for interacting with the text by connecting to it.  Using the I do/We do/You do strategy will show the students that their teacher is also making meanings and being engaged in the text assigned to them.  During the CSWP, many of the focus lessons were taught in this way.

I Do

During the CSWP, students demonstrated a Voki to review what happened in class the day before.  They created two avatars who discussed the day’s instruction and memorable events or quotations.  The Voki was engaging and hilarious.  I immediately recognized how effectively a Voki could be used to instruct students.

Since religion is the subtext of “The Cask of Amontillado,” I will use a Voki to introduce students to the Roman Catholic observance of Lent.  Montresor’s observance of Lent is a primary motivation for the method he uses to kill Fortunato since he wanted to murder his friend without being punished by God and man.

We Do

I will pass out copies of the story.  We will survey the story:  noting the art, vocabulary, and marginalia.  I will imitate Roessing’s (2009) strategy: “Write a response—anything you are thinking, feeling, predicting, or questioning” (p. 8).

You Do

Since I am required to include online instruction, I will assign the students to go to their Aplus lesson, read the Introduction about Poe’s life, and write their own anticipation response focusing on the two main genres Poe created and what in his life might have caused him to be a tormented person.  They will add their thoughts to their original response.  This will be a modification of Roessing’s anticipation response: #2a response on page 8.

I hope this has been helpful to anyone who wants to teach Poe.  Next time, I will post During Reading activities.  

Please come back.  Teach on...

After Vacation

             Welcome back.  I hope my post finds you well.  I just returned from vacation. I am excited to be posting again.

              Tomorrow, our teachers report for training to prepare for the new school year.  I am not eager to give up two weeks of my summer break, but I need the training and the money.  I work for a private company hired by the school system in the city where I live.   The company relies mainly on computer driven instruction with programs such as Nova Net and Aplus.  

 For teachers it is an exciting opportunity to learn what is happening in education software.  I learned Podio, Study Island, Reading Plus, Lexia, and there are others to learn as well.  Although the programs are still primitive, relying mainly on text and pictures, they are thorough as far as content goes.  

            There were problems and setbacks.  Eventually, the company had to return to teacher led instruction.  I am hoping that we will continue that.

          Truly, teachers are eager to learn new strategies.  As technology improves so that teachers can capture students’ attention and stoke their imaginations, the classroom can be transformed into an exciting and safe place for students to get in touch with their own creativity.  

             I learned so many strategies and so much technology during my class time at the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.  I will be implementing many aspects of what I learned with a view to modify my instruction so that it becomes more effective. 

My school is unique.  It is an alternative school.  Very few teachers know the kind of environment I find myself in every year.  For me, teaching is challenging and emotional.  I am faced often with students who relate to grownups with withering hostility and scorn.  

I like to say that I teach the brightest and best students in the school system.  Unfortunately, these brightest and best are not allowed to return to their home schools for various zero tolerance offenses such as violence, narcotics, and chronic disruption of the learning environment.  

Since traditional instruction does not work in my school, I am eager to apply what I learned at the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.   If these strategies work in my school, assuming that I am applying them well, then they should work anywhere.

My students could be ninth grade freshmen.  I really do not know what and who I will be teaching until either the first week of school or possibly next week  I could be teaching English, grades 9-12, or Social Studies, grades 9-12 in World History, U.S. History, Government and Civics, and Economics.  

Yes, the company requires that we write lesson plans for every prep.  Last year I had to write four lesson plans per day.  Imagine that, four preps and four lesson plans per day.

Some of my students will be incoming freshmen and others will have repeated ninth grade several times.  Their ages will range from thirteen to twenty years old.  Some will enroll on the first day.  Others will be added on any given week throughout the semester.  Last year, during the very week of school, a new students were enrolled. 

Indeed, I may never have the same number of students on any given day.  

Many of my students will be angry, frustrated, hungry, high, and militantly opposed to authority figures as well as learning in an academic setting.  Others will be cooperative, eager to earn their credits, and more often than not able to appreciate the rare opportunity for earning many credits quickly.

 It is crucial that my lessons engage students quickly and expeditiously.  I cannot expect lecture for any length of time over five minutes.  However, I anticipate that the strategies I learned while attending the CSWP should be highly effective. 

My purpose for existence in the company is that my students must pass the End of Course Test in 9^th grade.  That is the stated and expected purpose of everything I do.  

Students take a pretest.  If students score a 90 or above, they move on to the next lesson. If they score less than 90, they read the lesson content.  After the lesson, students take a practice test.  They must score a 90 or more on the practice test to move on to a mastery test.  If they score less than a 90 on the mastery test, students must reread the lesson.  Students who score a 90 or above are promoted to the next lesson.  An apple appears on their Aplus student progress chart. 

Needless to say, the expectation of the company is that students achieve passing test scores.  My job depends on my students passing their classes and passing the End of Court Test.  However, my hope is that reader response strategies will result in students passing the EOCT and acquiring high literacy skills.  

Next time, I will write about a lesson I modified that reflects reader response theory.  I hope so see you there...Teach on!

Gone Until Sunday

I am a counselor at a Passport Ministries camp this week.  I will resume the blog when I return.

Amontillado in Three Glasses

Welcome back.  I hope my post finds you well.  Let me share what I did this past year with “The Cask of Amontillado.”

Recently, I taught in an alternative school.  My students were not welcome in their home schools anymore since they violated a zero tolerance policy.  

A few among them wanted to graduate.  They were willing to complete their assignments throughout the year.  

A few among them wanted to graduate as well, but they played around until the last three weeks of the semester drew near, and then they decided they wanted to complete all the assignments they had refused throughout the semester.  Good luck with that!  

A few among them did not want to complete any assignments.  They tended to be absent a lot or when they did attend they did so to fulfill a court mandate, so they attended not to their responsibilities.  

My students were a tough audience.

All my students who attended my class loved "The Cask of Amontillado."  The story was very popular.  I heard students talking about it when they were among other students.  Indeed, a few tried to pick the door lock to my classroom so they could slip inside.

I used the story to teach the students how to take Cornell Notes.  I was very satisfied to receive completed assignments.  I posted the best on the Center wall. 

Using the I do/We do/You do strategy, I modeled how to take notes.  

Below is how my instruction proceeded:

Before Reading:  Discussion about Lent and how Montresor acted to avoid punishment by God and man. 

During Reading:  Cornell Notes

Part I:          Montresor lures Fortunato to his mansion

Part II:         Montresor lures Fortunato down the catacombs

Part III:        Montresor chains Fortunato to the wall

After Reading:  Short story assignment

My students were engaged.  They completed their assignments.  A few turned in a rough draft of a short story. 

Next time, I will evaluate this lesson according to the reader response theory I learned at the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  I hope to see you here next time.  If you have any suggestions, please share.  Teach on…

I do/We do/You do Reformulation Strategy: Gettysburg Address

     Welcome back.  I hope my post finds you safe and refreshed from yesterday's holiday.

      Today, I will walk through my Gettysburg Address reformulation.  This is what Leslie Roessing calls a focus lesson.  It is also called a mini-lesson.

I DO

In my reformulation, I underlined words or phrases that are in the Gettysburg Address.  My reformulation serves as a model. It shows creativity in action for the students to see.  It also shows that I was having fun.  Moreover, students learn how allusions work.  

Some of you will recognize the rhythm as being similar to "Casey at the Bat."  Indeed, I could segue into that poem later on and have students reformulate it back into prose.  That could be an additional assessment.

Below is my reformulation:

The outlook wasn't brilliant for Abraham Lincoln that day
After Edward Everett took two hours to prattle away
And so when finally Lincoln faced the crowd on that war field
A prickly silence fell revealing anguish unconcealed
But Lincoln spoke two minutes, too short to take a photo.
He said, "All men are created equal." The women thought, "Uh oh!"

He reminded that the civil war here that called for the occasion
Fitting and proper to dedicate here ground of great devotion
He said the living here cannot dedicate a field of sacrifice
Where brave men suffered here to pay here the final price.

Devotion measured out here so freely we here who suffer grief
For those brave men so dear who died, our hearts hold fast belief
That this nation, under God, whose government that day
Of the people, by the people, for the people...shall never go away.

I tell them how I wrote the poem.  I show them lines that I changed.  Some lines came quickly, some I had to puzzle over.  I show them how I worked meter out in one or two of the lines.  I might, depending on the class, explain how I count syllables and tried to match the beat counts and rhythm with "Casey at the Bat," and then ask where my rhythm shifted if no one mentions it.

WE DO

Next, I have students get into groups.  I pass out a copy of Rielle McConelly's poem below.  They underline the words and phrases that come from Lincoln's text.

Gettysburg: as a poem

eighty-seven years ago
America was made
to be a nation of freedom,
liberty,
equality
now in this war, we are shown
no nation with intentions so pure
can endure

in this field
we have dedicated a resting place
for the dead that had the hope
that America might endure

but in the bigger picture
we cannot truly dedicate
this ground
to the courageous soldiers
who died here
fighting for liberty, justice, freedom

for they have much more power than us
having fought bravely
they are the only ones
who can truly declare this ground blessed

the world won't remember what I said here
but no one will ever forget
everyone who died here fighting

now we must dedicate ourselves
to the task before us
to make sure these dead won't have died in vain
and this nation under God
will be rebirthed
to have freedom and liberty once more
by the government
by the people
for the dead will never truly die from our hearts.


You could use your own students' work here, of course, once you have gathered some.

YOU DO

Now, the students reformulate the text on their own.  It will be interesting and fun to see what the students create.

If you feel so inclined, write a reformulation now so you will have it should you decide to teach this speech.  Remember, it can be a play, a cartoon, or anything else.

Thanks for visiting.  I hope this is a strategy you can use or alter for your purposes.  I welcome any feedback or suggestions.

I will share another strategy or theory tomorrow.  I hope to see you here.  Teach on...












 

A Reformulation Rationale

 Welcome back, fellow educators.  I hope my blog finds you well.  Happy Independence Day.

     It is the time of year when we say, “Happy Birthday, America!”  And chant “USA!  USA!”  In our home, my step daughter, who I will from now on refer to as my daughter in my blog until the day I die, and my wife, who I will from now on refer to as “my wife,” will be spontaneously shouting, “America!” throughout the day.

         

          I am a Southern boy at heart so I think about a field in Pennsylvania and a river town in Mississippi on this day as much as I think about 1776.  The field, of course, is Gettysburg and the river town is Vicksburg.

I memorized the Gettysburg address a long time ago.  I taught it once for an American literature class.  The way I taught it was the traditional way:  assign it to read, discuss the difficult language, recite it if the students feel up to some showing off--at least as many lines as they would allow--and then pass out an assessment.

 The assessment largely consisted of the so-called QAR or Question Answer Relationships: 

Right there

Think and search

Author and me

On my own

They were terrific questions, and required class time to teach each one, but my students were not impressed.  I, however, felt I was being rigorous by using that format.

          In Leslie’s book The Write to Read she discusses the traditional attitude of reading pedagogy as being gladness that our darlings actually read the text.  They read the words, right?  They answer the questions we give them, right?  There’s a problem.

          All of us who teach reading know of students who answered the questions, got an A for the assignment, yet did not read the text.  In most cases, these students did not copy another student’s work. 

          Leslie modeled the Reader Response theory in the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.  Students respond to what they read.  They create their own meaning. 

It is, however, required that their response be valid:  “an interpretation (that) is not contradicted by an element of the text, and…nothing projected for which there is no verbal basis (page 2).”

The trick is to get our students to return to the text after they read it.  One good strategy for returning to the text is called a Reformulation.  A student returns to the text in order to put it into another form such as a play, a poem, a cartoon, a series of memos, etc.

Next, I will post a Reformulation of the Gettysburg Address as an I do, We do, You do strategy.  

Thanks for visiting.  I wish you all a most satisfying and meaningful Independence Day celebration.

Summer Break

   Welcome back, fellow educators.  I hope my blog finds you well.  I shall divert a little and write about summer break.

    I taught one summer school in the year 2000.  The money was good, but I swore I would never do it again.  

     Summer is the time to renew my Self, invigorate my Spirit, replan my lessons for the next school year, and take a lot of naps. It's also a wonderful time to spend with my wife and daughters for hours instead of a few minutes throughout the day.

     A colleague of mine called me this morning asking me why I was not teaching summer school with him and others among our staff who were there.  I told my friend that I was writing.  

     As soon as I said it, I regretted it.  My friend's long pause made me feel uncomfortable as if he expected me to say I was doing something important.  There is always the feeling that writing is tantamount to being lazy and idle.  My guilt was not well founded.

     I just attended the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.  That consumed two weeks of summer break like a whale gulping plankton.  No amount of money can replace what I learned.  Indeed, the school system will be getting a much more effective teacher because of it.

     I have this week to blog, to write my implementation plan for the Coastal Savannah Writing Project, and to squeeze in a few days of fun in order to celebrate the USA's birthday, (age 237 and still growing).

     The implementation plan is six pages due in two weeks.  I have to finish that this week because next week I will serve as a counselor at a church camp. That is five days gone in sixty seconds.

     Only three weeks of summer break will remain after camp.  I am hoping for a vacation (not from blogging) and hoping to attend a few books that have been screaming out my name since school let out.

     There will be planning.  There always is.  It's funny how many times I've heard people say that teachers do not deserve a whole lot of pay since they get a two month vacation, as if we do not work during all that short time that passes so quickly. 

     Tomorrow, I hope to share some strategies I learned at the Coastal Savannah Writing Conference.  I hope to see you here.  Teach on...

Coastal Savannah Writing Project Overview

     Welcome back.  Below is an overview of the Coastal Savannah Writing Project. 

     Our primary texts were The 9 Rights of Every Writer by Vicki Spandel and The Write to Read by Leslie Roessing.  

     Seventeen teachers attended with three presenters.  The teachers were students, so I will refer to them as such.

     Students were assigned two groups, a writing group and a book club, with different members in each group.  The presenters participated as if they were students.

     The theory:  Students who experience their teachers as writers will become better writers.

     We read our rough drafts in our writing groups.  We discussed the primary texts in our book clubs. 

     Each day consisted of free-writing prompts, writing group, book club, student and presenter presentations, and a final reflection. 

     Each student signed up for two presentations: to share a writing strategy that worked in the classroom and to present a review of what happened in class the day before.  On the first day, Leslie modeled a writing strategy; thereafter, students presented their strategies.  On the second day, Heidi modeled a review of the previous day; thereafter, students presented their daily reviews:  I do/We do/You do.

     I awaited with eager anticipation the daily reviews from the other students.  Many of the presentations were clever, funny, and engaging…as well as accurate.  The students introduced Voki, Animoto, and Extranormal. If an elephant had walked into the room during class, it would have been mentioned in the review.

     Each day began with free-writing.  This was a timed activity with students responding to a writing prompt.  It was the presenter’s responsibility to present writing prompts that were engaging.  It was the student’s responsibility to write and be willing to share.

     After the time was up, we rolled our chairs back into a large circle.  Students were asked to share.  Those who wanted to share did so.  By the end of the project, all students had shared at least once. 

     I marveled how students are the same whether they are in my classroom or whether they are teachers attending writing projects. The presenter says, “Will someone share with us?” A long, awkward pause ensues. I volunteered to share many times.  After a few days, however, I wondered if I should be silent so others might share or should I seize every opportunity because I need the practice.  I played it by ear.

The presenters could always count on three or four of us who were willing to share every day.

     Freewriting prompts could have been called “playwriting” prompts.  The purpose was for students to keep pens writing on the page as their minds conjured up whatever associations from the prompt popped into their imaginations.  Many prompts were playful so the writing was fun.

     In my personal life, I have always practiced in this way.  I called it Freeflowing.  Indeed, that is what I call it in my classroom except I always thought of freewriting as writing about whatever a writer wants. 

     For instance, I would meet a friend at a restaurant once a week for breakfast.  We chatted until we finished eating.  We drank coffee for another half hour or so, writing the whole time without talking. 

     I write quite freely when I am surrounded by the sound of customer chatter, the clinking of spoons in cups, and the occasional careful sipping of coffee too hot to gulp down. 

     When my friend and I were finished, we shared what we wrote.  We agreed that anything was acceptable, even drivel, since we knew that the best writing is often embedded in banal writing.  Before we left, we tipped the waitress twenty percent each. 

     At the Coastal Savannah Writing Project, I practiced freewriting inspired by Donna’s fun writing prompts. 

     Next time, I will share some writing prompts.  I hope to see you there.  Teach on…

Coastal Savannah Writing Project

Are you seeking a terrific way to spend your summer break?  

Here in Savannah, Georgia you can go to Tybee Island everyday or visit places in Savannah that you never visited before.  You might tour the squares to learn Savannah’s history.  You might tour Wormsloe or Fort Pulaski to glimpse Revolutionary War times.  There are museums and markers everywhere.

You can revisit some places too.  So much history, dining, and entertainment here cannot be fully appreciated with just one or two visits.  

All that is fun and wonderful, but if you are a teacher, there is professional development waiting for you here that is fun, engaging, rigorous, and transformative.

You can always carve two weeks out of your summer break and learn how to teach your students to love writing, to craft writing, and to become writers.  

You can sign up for the Coastal Savannah Writing Project and become a fellow.  Leslie Roessing (the “o” is silent), who is a published author in the field of writing instruction, leads the project.  Leslie, Donna, and Heidi modeled the "I do/We do/You Do" teaching method.  They demonstrated for us how to engage students in better reading comprehension through writing activities.

And such activities!

I learned technologies such as voki, animoto, and extranormal that can be used to communicate with students in an engaging way.  Our darlings may tune us out, but they cannot take their eyes and ears off of our avatars.

We practiced freewriting, double entry journals, reformulations, cartooning, and other strategies: several a day in fact, that can be implemented into instruction.  I will be writing about these strategies in the coming posts as the new school year approaches.

We were introduced to lots of resources: authors, web sites, and articles.

If you love writing, or you despise it--as some of my classmates dared to admit at the beginning--your instruction will be transformed.  If you are a writer, you will learn ways to expand your creativity and practice your craft.  

It has been the best two weeks of professional development I ever experienced.  I would not be writing this blog had I not attended the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.

For more information, go to the url below:

http://www.armstrong.edu/Education/coastal_savannah_writing_project/cswp_welcome

Often I am asked why I became a teacher.  When I am on interviews or having a casual conversation, people ask me about my career choice.  I give many reasons each time I answer that question.  One answer I give remains constant among the rest.

I love school.  

It is that simple.  I LOVE SCHOOL.  I love being in school.  I love thinking about school.  I love looking at all the neat books, posters, gadgets, and furniture in a classroom.  I love lectures, discussions, and seminars.  I love all that fine and noble learning that goes with school.  

There is not a subject in school that does not interest me.  If I had the time and money, I would get a degree in every academic subject.  Being among books and students elevates me.  Indeed, I have three degrees now.  That is not nearly enough.  Were I a thermometer, I would want more and more and more degrees.

I love the pep rallies, clubs, ball games, teacher collaboration, and meaningful professional development.  When the basketball coach at Tyner Academy in Chattanooga told me that he could not find enough teachers to sell tickets for the junior varsity games, I volunteered to work every game.  He was so grateful, but for me, it was what my grandmother would call a hoot and a holler. 

Educators and students are among the most interesting people I have ever known anywhere.  Just about everyone else becomes boring after an hour or so.

When I was in elementary school, I loved to hear Mr. Mayberry, the principal, tell Jack tales in the school auditorium.  He never told the same story twice.  When Mrs. Fowler read Where the Red Fern Grows, we begged her to read it to us again and again.

Junior High thrilled me.  Our football team went undefeated for the first time in school history.  The cafeteria staff served pizza for lunch, something I had never eaten before.  There were sock hops and science fairs.  I had seven different teachers each day. 

Mr. Clark, my eighth grade math teacher, was a preacher.  He stood tall and thin like Abraham Lincoln.  I placed fake vomit near his desk once and poured water over it so it would look real.  He seemed to know right away who did it.  He smiled all the way to the principal’s office with me in tow by the ear.

My senior year in high school was the best.  I was elected a Senior Superlative.   My classmates elected me as Most School Spirit.  I won the Lion’s Club scholarship.  It was obvious to everyone that I had more fun in high school, learned more in high school, than any other place in town. 

I played varsity football in high school.  I still dream of the wet grass sticking to my shins, gathering into green tufts among the laces on my cleats.  I hear pads popping, helmets hammering, gang tacklers grunting, and the band blasting our school fight song while cheerleaders are shouting, “Let’s go Lions!”

In dreams, I see Coach Weathers on the sidelines looking as imposing as Bear Bryant.  He barks plays into a running back’s ear.  Coach Cotter signals formations with deft hand movements.  Coach Bishop yells at a lineman who missed a block.  Coach Smith praises a running back who made a first down.  We had a great team that year and a lot of school pride.  I played on one of the best defenses in the state.  I believe we still have the record for the longest game and most overtimes in Hamilton County.

I still dream of my school.  Red Bank High School was an old red brick building with radiators that clanked and clunked in the winter.  The handles were hot and they hissed when Mrs. Wharton, my French teacher, or Mrs. Gault, my English teacher, turned them off because the room was too stuffy for breathing.  In late spring and early autumn, the air conditioners jutting out of the windows roared and rumbled so loudly the teachers unplugged them.  They pulled the lower windows open by their gray, metal handles, and they pushed the upper windows out with yardsticks. 

When I was in school, we did not suffer the torrid, insufferable heat wave of August.  School began in September, the Tuesday after Labor Day.  By the second week of school, all the windows were opened and those invigorating autumn breezes lifted stray sheets of notebook paper atop cream colored, laminated desktops. 

I played clarinet in my junior high band.   My love for classical music started in 7th grade.  In 9^th grade, I practiced over and over to play perfectly the plaintive adagio of Air for Strings in G by Bach.  Mr. Cassavant fussed when a note was tardy or early.  

Mr. Bell, my high school band director, taught us Sousa, Duke Ellington, and Chicago.  I learned to march, but never got to perform during football season.  However, I played alto clarinet in the All Region band.  I love just about every kind of music there is today because of band.  There is no greater learning than that.

My best friends were among the band members.  They were the coolest.  Although I was a jock, and some of my friends were jocks, the most laughter and fun I experienced came from the percussion, brass, and woodwind sections. 

So this blog is for school and everything there to be loved and summoned up forever in dreams.  This blog is for those who love learning, who learn until the day they die, and who transmit their love for learning to their own students.

You are my audience.  Peer, colleague, student, or former student:  we are on the same journey as seekers of discovery for the sake of being astonished.

Here’s hoping my blog helps us all continue to love learning while never leaving school.