Herding Cats and Moving Dogs

In my current teaching gig I feel at times I am herding cats when it comes to the students. Not all students, just the vocal minority. They have spent  from 3 to 12 years together perfecting their methods of annoying each other and the teacher. I've only been around 3 weeks and have two months to go. They are on the verge of being annoying. The strangest part of the equation is the decided lack of curiosity on their part. They would rather blurt out the same script that look at what is potentially new in their world. They could catalog a new experience or idea, but would rather contrive to get out of doing anything. In their defense many times when they are engaged they do produce some interesting things. But I digress.

While my herding of cats is a phrase about my efforts to keep the students moving in a good direction, Friday I added another title to my resume, dog catcher. Or more precisely dog wrangler. We had a wonderful looking, and friendly, bulldog show up to the buss loading zone at the farm. All this bulldog wanted to do was bite the bus's tired and run around the bus as it tried to back up to leave. As I shooed the dog away and the neighbor sprayed the dog with water we eventually got the buses on their way. The bulldog had tired himself out and he was eventually moved to his backyard.

The first comment I heard after the event was a student asking if I was applying to the city for a job as a dog catcher.

Rain Has Come, For a Bit at Least

We've had rain for three days in the last week. But not just rain. Thunder, lightening and downpours. 3 A.M. this morning reminded be of the downpour that shut down the  airport in Atlanta. Thankfully we were in the airport and not on the tarmac. A wall of water descended.

The water is good. And bad. The storms show how much we need to get fixed and set up for this winter of supposed El Nino. Roofing, rain gutters and water tanks are in our future.

P.S. We don't have a rain gauge at our house, though I am always interested in the volume of rain we receive. In the six hours yesterday from 3 A.M. to 9 A. M. it was reported  on the TV news that a town 20 miles to our south received .25 inches of rain. A town fifteen miles to our west got 1.25 inches in the same time period. People posted online pictures from around town of streets flooded and water up on front lawns. Hope some of te water was sent to sinking basins.

Odds and Ends With Some Bits and Pieces Thrown In

Yesterday was the town's fall festival. A fun time to celebrate our community. The car show is a block over and shows off the ingenuity of locals and the work they do on cars and motorcycles. A street legal flat-tracker Yamaha caught my eye. Often seen online but this was the first time seeing in person. I could ride it. There were a few others, but generally not many on the practical side.

The parade travels by our house and over time it has been nice to have a front row seat for the town going by either in the parade or afterwards as they go to the city park for the activities. Again this year we didn't make in to the park. Too many faces I remember, but not the names that go with them. It's embarrassing because I foolishly prided myself on remembering student names and now it is difficult. It also reminds me of the words of a new James Taylor song, Montana. "We got a few friends but not many neighbors, The trip into town takes us most of the day. And after, 'Hello', and 'It's sure nice to see you,' It seems there's nothin' to say." Just guess I'm in a new place.

I just finished about a week and a half of the new long term sub job at the Ag farm. It's nice to be at the farm and with the teachers there. They are good, and good people also. The students are many of the students I have had in the past, and students in general have many of the same fears and phobias as each other. The don't always realize that. The time also reminds me of what I miss about teaching, being with young people trying to help them, as well as why I got out of teaching, a system that has lost its direction and common sense. Many people speak of how high school graduates are not ready for the workplace. It is easy to see why when you observe the lowering of standards and not holding students accountable. It is not fair to send young people into the world to find out what is right and wrong and what is acceptable. That is what school is supposed to help them process. It isn't happening and these young people are failing without a safety net to catch them. Schools should be that net.

On a lighter note I survived another homecoming week. It seems like a whole lot of silliness at times, culminating is a parade. The last decade or so the float building as become milquetoast and more of a donut fueled brunch with a few hastily painted signs. There was a time when some real building took place and a few clubs created thoughtful and significant floats that took days to build. I would say some students learned some real building and design skills in the process. One student went on to help build his college's Rose Parade float. I've seen what the ag mechanic students turn out. Left to their own devices they could create something great.

Sorry, guess that ended up being not too light after all. This next item will. Sam and Natalie went out last night for some local entertainment; they went to a Bingo hall. Natalie won--a pig. A eight week old, 20 pound weaner pig. So what do two college students living in a one room apartment do with a pig? They will contract with the previous owner to raise the pig then they will sell it. Now that's a real lesson being learned compared to my previously mentioned 1st World worries.