Spring has Sprung

Spring is here, at least for now, in NW PA. All the snow is gone, except for the piles left over from parking lot piles. The grass is already plotting against me...it's going to win this year. The cold days have given way to temps in the 60's to 70's, which is pretty good around here. The days have exceeded the 12 hour mark and are getting longer each passing day(hours of daylight, not the never-ending hours of work). My sporting clays winter league has officially ended. Even though I didn't get the chance to finish, I'm still happy with my performance. All the signs point toward summer. I've even had my students complain that my room was too hot! All the signs are there. Even so, my Barracuda still sits in the garage, awaiting several more big rains. It has never seen snow, except through the garage window, and has never experienced the rust inducing effects of salt, so it sits awaiting the rains which will wash the salt from the roads. Between the salt and the rubble on the roads, there isn't much room for a classic out there yet. Even so, I've seen several people out there, whether they don't understand or don't care I can't be sure.
Even my deer herd has diminished. The ones that remain are eating more than ever, but still looking pretty thin. I can clearly see ribs. I awake to a combination of bird songs and peepers, which isn't bad at all. Buds are coming out on some selected trees, which means it can't be far from being decent out. The only question that remains is how long before we are reminded that we live a bit too far north to get comfortable yet.
Opening day of trout season here is a big deal, coming in the middle of April. The number of bone-chilling, snowy starts to the season are countless. I avoid opening day, preferring to start several weeks later, after the bulk of the people have done their fishing for the year. There is just something about fishing shoulder to shoulder with others that ruins the spirit of the sport for me.
With the approach of warm weather comes the idea that school is nearly over and I need to solidify my summer employment. I work a second job throughout the year, but seek another during the summer months. I painted last year, just one person's camp, but it kept me busy. This year, I'm thinking that I'll get back into the oil business and work for a small independent producer. I went in once before on my own, lost two trucks, fired three people and just barely broke even. I learned a lot from that experience. I'd like to learn more. This time as an employee that will still be taking classes and will not have the potential losses hanging over my head. I'm looking at being on the leases and doing the grunt work which I haven't done for a while. Somehow, after a LONG year of school, this seems like a pretty good option. Heck, I dug out septics with a friend to earn money before(when the sites were too tight for back hoes), how could this possibly be worse than that? At least this time, with my experience, I have an idea of what I'm in for.
Maybe someday, I'll not have the need to work in the summers, but that doesn't appear too likely. I'll be a long time paying off my classes that I must take to keep teaching, taxes will continue to rise, the house will continue to need repairs gas will keep getting more expensive etc. It's a never ending battle I guess. So for now, I'll just look forward to summer, classes and dealing with "adults". I'm enjoying my class right now and have already implemented some of what I've learned. I look forward to new ideas in this class and the ones that will follow this summer. All is well. Sure there are negatives, but I don't see them right now. :)

A Total Wipe Out

Something really interesting happened today. Numerous teachers came to me to see what I know about the Public folder on our network(the only place that one teacher can share files on our network). It seems that just about all things were deleted by our "technology coordinator". No warning, no email, just a request to make sure that what we had there was needed. This came Friday afternoon....on Monday night, all was gone. I had a bunch of pictures there, which I had there so the yearbook team could use them(I take a ton of pictures in a normal school year). I always have a back up though. Unfortunately, many who team teach share their info here and don't back it up...their out of luck now. I'd hate to try to count the man hours that have been lost! It's too bad the coordinator is basically just a repairman, and not someone that advocates for the use of technology! How many opportunities are missed daily because of frustration and lack of access?

Good Stuff

The new class is giving me some much needed excitement. I' m putting new things to use already and designing things to help my students. I feels good to see what's out there, although sometimes it does make me feel like such a rube! The network at home and work has been shaky and pretty slow, but other than that little time consuming frustration, all it well on the research front. I'm putting in time searching, reading and digesting ideas. It's just too bad I haven't taken the time to do this more on my own, without needing to do it for a class!
In my school, we are approaching our exploratory. This is where the teachers all teach the kids some hobby or activity that is an alternative to hanging out on the streets/drugs etc. I've started taking my equipment in to teach my guitar exploratory, which always gets comments and interesting reactions from the kids. To think that a teacher plays guitar doesn't seem to normal to them. I guess that there will always be a stereotype! I'm proud to fall outside the norm and just continue to be me as best I can. Tomorrow another guitar goes in...the older ones don't take to traveling too well and take some time for the tuning to settle down so they go in a week or two early. It also gives me a chance to play a little before and after school. I'm a bit out of practice!

A Decent Day

As I look back at the events of today, I see that there are many things to gripe about. Today, we proctored long tests for the state, sat through a couple of hours of learning about special education titles and had no time for much of anything. At first thought, this was a horrible way to spend a day...then I start thinking about some of the other jobs I've done and all seems fine. Today was a decent day. I think I need to look at the positive side more often...been too negative lately. Time for a change. This should make the days go better and open up some new opportunities. Through the course of the after work afternoon, I have caught up in my class, found 3 pretty good web pages to use in my class...still need to find some more, but all in all not too bad from a progress standpoint. Keep pluggin' away!

Home Today....

Today, I am home working on my latest class in the UF series, trying to become a better teacher. I can do this today because I'm slightly wounded. I'm learning that I'm not as young as I used to be and not as durable. I have a leg that's swollen like a grotesque balloon, due to my leg's untimely contact with the knee of another during a basketball game. I guess the x-rays say I'm OK and will return to work on Monday.
I have created a second blog to keep the classwork separated from some of my usual ramblings and to try to organize my ever growing online bank of information. If you are interested in the idea of instructional computing and my ideas/quest for knowledge, check it out at http://hoppysinstructionalcomputing.blogspot.com/
I look forward to refining my blog and have seen some pretty impressive ones out there. I'm still a work in progress.
Thanks for keeping up with the posts :)