Who's Your Daddy?

Fans of the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan, are no doubt familiar with his sidekick, Daddy. A rescued pit bull, Daddy became the lynchpin of Cesar's pack, and because of his even temperament, he often helped show the unbalanced dogs just how it ought it be by modeling the desired behavior and energy.

Heidi and Isabel spent the last couple of days with a dog named Lucky. "She can't do any tricks!" her owners assured them. "She's even afraid to pee in the dark!" They underestimated the power of the pack, however, (and of course, treats). It wasn't long before Lucky was sitting and shaking and downing and upping and yes, even peeing in the dark. That Heidi is pretty darn good with dogs.

"Isabel was a huge help!" Heidi told me when she was recounting the events of the weekend. "You should have seen how she guided Lucky just by doing the right thing."

I nodded. "You know what that makes her, right?"

Queen of the Dolphins

The name of my sixth grade team is the Dolphins. Upon entering my classroom and seeing all the dolphin swag, people often conclude that I am a big fan of those sea mammals , but the truth is, that while I like them fine, they're not really my favorite animals. Still, I've been immersed in things dolphin for the last ten years or so, and I guess a bit of affection for those friendly, intelligent critters has rubbed off on me, not to mention knowledge of them. I know a lot about dolphins. So I was a little taken aback the other night when a student's dad approached me at the open house. "So you're the Dolphin leader," he said. "I was trying to figure out what that might be."

I smiled. "Well, a team leader..." I started helpfully, but he interrupted me.

"Oh,I know what a team leader is," he told me, "but what do they call the leader of a dolphin pod?"

I was stumped. "Good one!" I said. "I'll have to look that up and add it to my resume."

Too bad there is no such title.

My Work May Be Done Here

I spent some time this evening catching up with the summer blog I set up for my former students in June. I've been struggling a bit trying to decide when I should cut it off, if ever. Their interest will naturally evolve to other writing pursuits, and so I wonder if I should just allow that arc to play out over time.

I'll have to change the name of the blog, of course. "Summer Bloggers" won't be accurate for much longer. But what title will? "Tracey's Former Students" sounds a little awkward, although "Dolphins Ten Eleven" is kind of dashing, especially with its fuzzy cinematic allusion and all. (And now I'm imagining George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts in my class.)

Anyway, I'll wrestle with this dilemma a few more days or even weeks. It seems cruel to cut the kids off before they have immersed themselves in their new seventh grade reality. Plus, I'll confess to some personal pleasure at having kept up with these folks over the last few months. It's been nice to know of their vacations, summer camps, triumphs and injuries all.

Just tonight, a guy posted the big news that his parents are expecting a baby in January. That event has rocked the world of their 12-year-old formerly only child, but as consolation they're letting him name the baby. (!) (I try not to judge.) So, he did what many others of his generation might-- he put out a call for suggestions on the blog, and let me tell you friends, he got a lot of replies. Heck, I was tempted to respond myself, and then I thought about it. A child may actually be named as a direct result of one of my class projects.

I think I've done enough.

I Detect a Trend...

I came home from our annual sixth grade open house all ready to write. It was a really positive night-- good energy and great kids had me looking forward to next Tuesday, the first day of school. Beyond that, though, I knew just what I wanted to write about: how the preservice week had been fraught with problems and all the attendant stress and negativity, but how all of that fell away, almost like magic, when the kids arrived. Yeah. I was going to write the heck out of that, but the more I thought on it, there was something about it that seemed almost too true, so I searched the archives and I found what I wrote just fifty weeks ago.

Eerily similar, right?

So that had me thinking. It's such a cliche to say that the stuff that happens outside the classroom is what unnecessarily complicates teaching, but anecdotally? Lookie here. Just because it's a cliche, doesn't mean it's not a valid concern. Perhaps the opposite is even true.

Confirmation

Here's a conversation Heidi had recently with our two-year-old neighbor, Chase:

Chase: I missed you, Heidi!

Heidi: "I missed you, too!"

Chase: "Did you say, I miss Chase?"

Heidi: "Why, yes, yes, I did."

Chase nods, satisfied.

Rules of the Game

I suppose it's a necessary evil, but signing up for things is so often a huge headache; somebody always feels shafted. It is considered the epitome of fairness and free choice, especially in the education world, but no matter the rules of play, people are dissatisfied with the days they have to do hall duty, the hours they get in the computer lab, the month they have to provide snacks, whatever.

First come first serve? Whoever got there first had inside information and whoever was last had an unavoidable conflict. Limit the days? So and so got his friend to sign up for him and that one over there booked the time and never showed! November? That's Thanksgiving! January? It'll probably snow.

What can you do?

Nine or ten years ago, my sister-in-law gave me the European Board Game of the Year (I know, right?) for my birthday. The complexity and critical thinking that Settlers of Catan requires made it perfect to play with my nephews. Before the game starts, players roll a die to see what order to place their two villages on the board. Here, both strategy and luck are involved, because whoever goes first only gets to put one village down, and they will go last in the next round.

Every school year at this time, the teachers on my team have to sign up for eleven hours of after school Homework Club, and taking a page from those hearty settlers of Catan, we do just as they must: half up front and the other half in reverse order. Getting the days you want requires strategy and luck, but nobody complains.

What Else Is There?

Over the summer, our school system implemented several technology upgrades. Such an ambitious project rarely goes online without a few hiccups, and this one was no exception. Last week at our team leaders' meeting we received the following update: The new system is up and running, except for problems with saving, printing, the electronic grade book, and other applications.

Today when the whole staff arrived for our first pre-service day of the week, the message was not much amended, except to add that there is mandatory technology training tomorrow.

Lookin' forward to it.