The Mancrush Continues

Apparently, U2’s new album is already written. Not sure on the release date, but it will be good to hear from the boys again. I just wish Bono would return my calls.
The mancrush continues…

Expelled

I am really excited about Ben Stein’s upcoming (February) movie, Expelled. I’m planning to show the trailer to all three of my Ethics classes today, as we were just talking yesterday about humanism being the religion du jour of higher academia (with Darwinian evolution its off-limits-to-inspection gospel) .
The website is clever and the movie looks [...]

The Sorority

Made it back to the Lou from the Ham. Had to share this pic (taken by Kristen) of five special women in my life. Though not in the picture, I’m the minority in the sorority.

Live from Alabama

“I’m having breakfast in Birmingham
She’s in Tennessee”

- “Breakfast in Birmingham” by David Lee Murphy
In Alabama this weekend to be in the wedding of our friends, Tom and Christine. I caught the last flight out of St. Louis and, despite the standard hour delay, still made it in time for the last half of the rehearsal [...]

Saddest Word of the Week

“Ex-step-father”
Used as part of a tearful student’s after-class explanation of her pain in writing a two-page “defining moments” essay about her 15-year-old life.
Sigh.

Trust No One, Mr. Duchovny…

…except me to keep (kind of) the secret about the script to the second X-Files movie.
The truth is out there, and I’d sure like to get my hands on it somehow.

Chore by Four

The chore bug has infiltrated our home, and that’s a good thing. Megan has the girls on a fairly organized (but reasonable) routine of daily and weekly chores as dictated by their individualized “chore packs,” and it seems to be taking with all involved.
The other day, my five-year-old asked why Daddy doesn’t have a chore [...]

Take a Ride on The Educator

I realize most of my posts this August have had to do with my new teaching gig, but allow me just one more to serve as closure to what the last two weeks (and really the last four months) have been. I promise I’ll venture into different territories of new blog topics next week.
School officially [...]

Char’s Top Ten Teaching Tricks

My mother, Charlotte, just retired in May after 30+ years teaching high school English. As this will be her first August without having to prep for school, I thought I’d better ask for her top ten teaching suggestions before she forgot them all. Here’s what she emailed me:

Establish a seating chart at the beginning, but [...]

Welcome Home, Moore Family

This is my friend, Mitchell, who gets back into the States today after taking his pregnant wife, Lisa, and their three small children to Uganda for most of the summer to do mission work in Kampala.
As you can perhaps tell from the picture, Mitchell is a wild hair (yes, that’s magic marker all over his [...]

Show Me the Students

Just finished up two more (half) days of Westminster orientation this week, with two more (full) days next week before school starts on Wednesday. I confess I’m about “oriented” out considering last week’s conference, this week’s training, and the thought of next week’s final prep – bring on the students and let’s start sinking or [...]

The Miserables

We were planning to take the girls to see Les Miserables from The Muny’s free seats tonight, but decided we didn’t want to play the title role (i.e. “the miserables”) in the 100-degree heat.
It’s unfortunate, as I’ve never seen Les Mis. I know the music; I’ve even performed a song from the production in a [...]

When Lost Luggage Is the Least of Your Worries

We made it home last night from Chicago, but it wasn’t pretty. Let’s just say you never want to have to go home with luggage tags, but if that was the worst of it, we would have had a nice trip.
Megan has all the details here. I swear to you they’re true and that we’re [...]

Chicago Regrets (and a Few Takeaways)

I finally had a break last night from the conference (after two full 12-hour days) and spent the evening with Megan and the girls together for dinner and a couple hours at the Art Institute of Chicago (a few details here). It was a good time, and I was amazed how much more comfortable the [...]

Education Realization

Listening to several conversations today among those teaching English literature this fall, I heard major concerns as to the impact of past and future censorship (both generally, as well as in their individual schools) on what they can assign students to read and study in their classes.
Then it hit me: as a Bible teacher, I [...]

Mid-Afternoon Conference Funny

Real teacher names (and the classes they teach) posted on various classroom doors around here at The Catherine Cook School in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood:

Ms. Majors – Humanities
Ms. Handler – 1st Grade
Mrs. Due – Library

Okay, so I’m bored and finally have real-time access to wi-fi. Danger, Will Robinson, danger…

Quack

(If you’ve been following along, you know I’m in Chicago for the week. If you’re interested in reading and hearing about all the city has to offer, see Megan’s blog; to experience the thrill and delight of sitting in a chair all day long in a four-day education conference, read on.)
Yesterday was a little rough. [...]