For Consideration...

I'm working on applying to Hamline University in St Paul, and below is my first draft of the essay I have to submit for my application for the Master of Arts in Teaching program. Any suggestions or corrections would be greatly appreciated.

When asking myself why I want to become a public school teacher, I have come to understand that it was less a decision and more a discovery. In my experiences through college and now into my current occupation, I have found that I have a natural knack with children. And not only do I have a knack, it turned out that I truly enjoy working with kids.

This self-discovery came about years ago when I volunteered to cover someone for the younger half of a summer music camp (5th through 8th grades). I was to just come in and teach saxophone and assist in large ensemble rehearsals. The kids surprised me when they were laughing at my jokes as I taught them things, and I surprised them and myself with my energy for the whole endeavor. Even more surprising was that they were actually wanting me to return the next summer.

After that experience, the spark had lit. I went out of my way to begin teaching music lessons at local schools and worked two more years of camp beyond that first time. The following years, I was a resident counselor, in charge of kids overnight in the dorms, as well as taught more classes. There were rave, though often odd, reviews of me by the students (it is quite amusing how 12 year olds express themselves sometimes).

Beyond my college education, which culminated in a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, unfortunately without a teaching credential, was growth in my personal life. I have gotten married and have a young son who has taught me more patience than I thought I had capacity for. Being the very strong-willed, spirited child that he is, has tempered me and shown me the joy of watching someone learn over a longer period of time than a few short summer weeks.

Since graduating and moving halfway across the country, I almost exclusively sought work in the educational field. My seemingly bottomless well of good luck landed me as a computer technician for an arts-oriented, public middle school. I work with 6th through 8th grade students daily, as well as have been able to teach after school music and technology classes on top of that. I greatly enjoy what I am doing now, and look ever more forward to having a classroom of my own. Integrating all that I know and have experienced already and adding in all the teaching techniques I will learn is an exciting prospect and challenge.

As for working toward a specifically public school teaching license, there has not been any consideration otherwise. I do not particularly care for the idea of non-public education, as I think it should be free and equal for all. But aside from that, I have always enjoyed working with other people and students from all walks of life. Having so many different perspectives and stories only lends itself to the enrichment of the room they are in, and I would be rather disappointed to teach in anything less.

My Family's Queen Mother...

A tribute to my Grandma Mary.

Sweet Silence...

I tell you, nothing is more serene than the sound of 30+ old CRT iMacs shutting down at once and the quiet that follows it.

My Son's Trials...

So this is a part of the conversation our family had at dinner tonight:

Mommy starts off the dialogue, "Austin, tell Daddy what happened at school today."
"Um, I don't know." Austin replied.
"Tell Daddy where you got an owie."
Austin then spoke honestly, "On my butt."
My curiosity piqued, "How did you get an owie on your butt?" I asked.
"From the toilet paper roller."
"Yeah, his teacher even said, 'I have no idea how it could have happened.'" my wife chimed in.

I could only look at her, then back at my son, all while my brain desperately attempted to figure out how this event transpired. It still hasn't succeeded.

Evil Spirits, Begone...

My life has been a festival of drug intake as of late. Last week, I was roughing it through a cold I contracted while being Austin's dad (ie, the boy coughed right in my face many a times, despite having been taught to cover his mouth). NyQuil was my friend and ally in the war on boogers. I thought I had it beat after taking an early afternoon off and resting. I even woke up, picked up Austin from school, and he and I cleared out a great deal of the garage.

But, soon as that was done, I was practically comatose again. Bless Michelle's heart, she let me just sleep away the hours. I thought it would help, alongside some decongestants. I was longing to breathe through my nose. I still am. No amount of anything seemed to get me through, and I tell you, I was one cranky bastard.

So after feeling the worst of it yesterday, and barely surviving through after school rehearsals, I took a different path. Last night, I took Austin with me to do a little shopping, namely to get some allergy medication in the desperate hope that it would work over my having to see a doctor.

I must say, I've never dealt with my boy being so good at a store before. He just sat in the cart and played with his helicopter and told me stories as I was going through my shopping list. He even was helpful and obedient when trying on new shoes and sandals for the summer. Seriously, especially considering the condition I was in, he was absolutely perfect. Much better than the previous trip out where he grabbed the can of shaving gel I put in his part of the cart (I'm not an idiot; I suffer from idiocy) and shot himself square in the eye. He had to have emptied at least a quarter of the can. It's funny in retrospect, but man... rough little go. Most annoying, though, was a random lady showed up to put in her two cents. I guess she had pulled the same foolish move herself recently, as she wasn't quite perceptive enough to notice Michelle taking care of the poor boy right there, either.

Finally last night I ingested some house-brand Claritin and nice Chamomile tea and went to bed. This morning I still woke up feeling like grim death, and even after an almost sinus-clearing, scalding hot shower, nearly called in. But then I went for the big guns: Excedrin. Nothing like painkillers doused with caffeine to kick it up a notch, Bam! It finally started to kick in as I got Austin up and out the door, dressing himself on the way (oh yeah. Once I teach him to tie his shoes, that's it. I'm done parenting. Anything else I do will just damage him). Now I'm floating along just fine, bottle of pills at the ready in my bag.

I'm not a particularly big fan of taking drugs, as I do think it's better for the body to learn to cope properly instead of using a crutch. But then again, what species wouldn't use whatever it had at its disposal to make it feel better. Of course, nature's bloody deceptive, as my dad can attest to birds eating berries that apparently taste good but essentially get them drunk enough to fly into windows and die.

Well, to sum up this completely derailed post, Midwestern allergens are apparently waging a successful conquest of my sinuses and I think I may have finally figured out a cocktail of pharmaceuticals that gets me by. We're still continuing on with another month's worth of testing, with the light at the end of the tunnel being school ending by the next lunar cycle. Ta~

Maypril Fool's Day!

Here's the latest greatness from my favorite fool, my uncle:



Ta~

Days Go By...

Last week absolutely stunk. Sometimes it is stunning how rough and rude people are with everyone and everything around them. And also so very destructive. We have been constantly replacing and trying to teach people how to properly use some of our equipment, but nothing sticks. Teachers won't reinforce what we teach, and kids are absolute morons. Well, not all of them, but the majority are. And you can tell.

Our composition lab has assigned seating, and whenever you have a good kid sitting at a station, there are no technical difficulties at all. Everything works, because they're not trying to walk around with their headphones plugged in or do something they want to do but don't know how to do with the computer audio system. Teachers don't tell them not to, mostly because they can't tell what the kids are doing, since they spend their time teaching instead of learning tech stuff (and understandably so).

So my whole week was spent fixing that junk, repairing printers, and running around constantly because it's the only week, until the end of the year, free of testing of any kind. Now we've started up over a month's worth of testing that will tie up 30-50% of all our computers. Oh, and some are just field tests. And the main big one is the test that we did in October. All of October. (sigh) I won't rant here.

I'd rather speak of my fun weekend. Part of what made my week hectic was me trying to fit in some good old fashioned practice time. On Saturday morning I filled in for a tenor sax player in a pro big band. It was just a couple of hours, and by the end my chops were aching a bit, but damn it felt good to play again. All I did was sightread jazz music for two hours straight. There wasn't any pressure, as I wasn't going to be at the gig; they just wanted a full band to rehearse with. I made lots of mistakes, but still not as many as I had originally thought I would make, and so much of my embouchure and technique came quickly back to me. I dug it.

When I got home, it was a bit after lunch time, so I watched some of the ballgame and relaxed with a beer and a burrito. Then it was outside to enjoy a lovely afternoon and rake up my lawn to attempt to bring it back to life. I'll tell you, nothing makes you feel more lame than getting worn out from raking. But it was nice to be out and having Austin run amok as I worked. I felt fatherly.

Eventually, our neighbors across the street came by, namely instigated by their little girl soliciting her being twelve and able to babysit now. She reminds me of my sister at about that age, which is cute but at the same time a little disconcerting. At last, Michelle was able to meet them and talk a bit. Two of the three neighbor kids offered to help rake, so I gladly accepted their services in exchange for some lemonade.

Sunday, poor Michelle was sick to her stomach, so I let her sleep most of the day away. I took Austin to the hardware store to gather up supplies to turn our lawn green again, and then he and I had lunch and returned to work outside. I got a little more of the lawn raked (good God my back was/is sore), then as soon as I got far enough, we were on to our mission: reseed the dead spot in the middle of my freakin' lawn. It's about four feet in diameter, and was a fire pit many moons ago and the previous owner, detailed maintenance man that I'm finding out he was, never decided to fix when a new pit was constructed elsewhere. Austin was pretty stoked to be able to water the patch with our new hose and his yellow 'telescope' (straight water nozzle.)

I feel almost accomplished this weekend. Almost. I did wind up wasting over five hours watching part of a Gilmore Girls marathon. Oh well. There's still a ton more to do, and I need to seed and fertilize the lawn before the world orbits much farther. Of course, I also need to properly water the whole lawn with the great sprinkler system I have, but first I need to be able to power on the most likely illegal well, and that will require a hundred feet or more of 220 extension cord. At least then I'll be watering my lawn with free well water rather than paying for city water.

Today after work I hope to get home and plant a little Green Ash sapling Michelle brought home from an environmental fair. And more raking, that way by the time the weekend rolls around, I can water and mow and seed and fertilize and be all set. Of course, weather could stop me, since we're due to have some thunderstorms this afternoon.

Toodles~

Like Cousins...

It seems that my goofy cat Tyrone has managed to follow directly in the footsteps of his cousin, Buster. This is an amazing thing, considering Buster lives way out in the California mountains.

Last night, just as it started to rain, my kitten brought in a little toy from the great outdoors. Well, he thought it was a toy. Michelle had just come home, and I had Austin in the tub, so I went out to the garage to bring Tyrone in for the night. As soon as I got into the garage, I hear this sad little squeaking/squealing, and a small brown creature being follow by a slightly larger straight black cat.

At first, I could not recognize the little thing Tyrone was chasing/playing with. It darted back under the car, and then under the couch we still have in the garage. Oh, speaking of which, if anyone in the Twin Cities area is looking for a perfectly good recliner couch, let me know and it's all yours.

Tyrone quickly followed it under the couch, and the little thing ran out to the back wall. It was a little baby rabbit. Slightly smaller than a gopher, and luckily completely unharmed. Where it came from, I have no idea. We just have lots more animals like that even in the suburbs here than I had growing up in Central California.

So I managed to eventually corner Tyrone and lock him down in the basement so I could retrieve the rabbit. It was still hiding back under the couch, and so I opened the back door to the garage, lifted part of the couch (it's incredibly heavy; stupid recliners) and it scurried out into the rainy night.

I tell you, though, it was a ridiculously cute little thing, and I'm glad Michelle never saw any more of Tyrone going after it. It's a little easier for her to handle making sure Austin doesn't drink the bath water than Tyrone torturing a baby bunny.

So yes, I feel Tyrone has finally lived up to his feline stature, which was long overdue. He got pretty freaked out by the wind and refused to go outside earlier that day. But at least like his cousin Buster, Tyrone knows how to properly hunt.

Toodles~