worthless post

Well, I've finally eaten enough snickerdoodles (homemade! ... by me ... not very good) to completely eradicate any good i did today at the gym. I'm not sure when it happened, but I don't love that after eating a few cookies I can suddenly feel a bulge develop off each side of my back that a fourth or fifth cookie will send spilling out over the elastic waistband of my pajama pants.

So now Rachel and I are vegging out and complaining (for the second night in a row) about the lameness of ice dancing. Rachel wants to demote it from the ranks of Olympic sports.

I also received a rather large box of pre-institute homework from TFA today. It's both a bit daunting and a bit exciting to start doing official TFA work, rather than my own unofficial "So You Think You Can Teach" reading list, but I think I'm going to make myself read at least the books I've already picked out from the library BEFORE starting in on TFA's box o' goodies.

Kozol and Ice Dancing

I'm only six chapters (or letters) into Kozol's "Letters to a Young Teacher" but already I have a feeling that he would agree with me when I say that Ice Dancing (the ugly cousin of figure skating) is HELLA lame. Any sport with a major skill component called a "swizzle" should be automatically disqualified from any kind of meaningful competition.

Also, while I'm on an Olympics-related rant, why the hey did Bob Costas decide to show the USA-Canada hockey game on MSNBC today? I guess they just really wanted me to be able to watch the local news. Anyway, I didn't bother to go out to watch it. Maybe some day we'll get basic cable and I won't have to go to a bar for every fringe sporting event.

(Currently some Russians are "ice-dancing" in outfits meant to evoke aboriginal cultures. Mostly they just look ridiculous, but it has apparently created no small amount of controversy.)

Back to Kozol for a moment -- It's beginning to become quite clear to me that TFA and the state-standards-driven teaching movement (think over-structured, fairly standardized teaching complete with mandatory posting of lesson objectives on the whiteboard) is in somewhat of direct opposition to the ideas and strategies that many big thinkers in education (including Kozol) extol. Of course, there are also many ideas that overlap (e.g. including and getting to know students' parents), but the tension is certainly there. Kozol has so far referred to "fast-tracking teacher programs" not exactly with disdain but with somewhat negative implications. This will definitely be something to keep an eye on, but thus far Kozol is recommending things that I can certainly get behind: visiting students' homes and being persistent in communication with students' parents; seeking out the advice of veteran teaching staff rather than becoming siloed with other young, like-minded teachers; allow creativity and actually important education to happen and to trump the mandatory pieces enforced by state standards ("skills" > "proficiencies").

Shaun White for Prez?

Speaking of Presidents Day (or week), I may have to start campaigning for Shaun White, one American who really seems to be able to get something done. Another great American (fictional though he may be) is Bill Pullman's POTUS from "Independence Day," with one of my favorite guilty-pleasure movie speeches. Maybe other than "Newsies" this may be the only time I've really liked Pullman (who ranks just behind Bill Paxton on my least favorite actors of all time list ... which I may have to actually compile some day).

Winter Olympics

Well there's nothing like leading a team meeting, doing file audits and watching the Olympics to put you in the mood for bed. After a slow start and much skepticism about whether I would ever get engaged int he Winter Olympics this year, I've become pretty into it. We watched the snowboard cross competition tonight (won by American Seth Wescott, above), which was awesome. Looking forward to the halfpipe events later on, too!

Disappointed about Evan Bayh deciding not to seek re-election this year, in what is really looking like it's going to be a dismal election year for Democrats in Congress. I'd get upset about it, but it's not as though they've been able to get a whole lot done with a super-majority. I do like Bayh, though, and think it is a shame when somebody like him quits out of frustration with the system (the purported reason).

In another depressing reminder that things don't seem to get better with time, check out the updated "We Are The World" (benefiting Haiti this time). The New York Times had a good article about it ... are these REALLY the best male vocalists we can dig up these days? Apparently the 80s really WEREN'T all that bad ... by comparison anyway.