Cold Number Two

Well, I managed, somehow, to get another cold. I thought it was only one per customer per season. The only difference I can tell between this cold and the one I got a few weeks ago is that this one seems to be mainly in my chest while the other was more in my sinuses.

Chest colds concern me more, particularly at my age, because of the danger of coming down with pneumonia. So I have been coughing liberally (how else would I cough?). And I've been watching for any signs in difficulty with breathing. So far so good, but I am thinking that I will take off another day from school just to be on the safe side.

There was a time when I toughed these things out, but I often made myself worse in doing so. There is also the danger of spreading my bugs to others. So I think erring on the side of caution works out best for all.

Thank the Lord for sick days in our contract.

Angela Monson and Gail Vines Sworn-In as School Board Members

Angela Monson takes the oath of office as the newly elected chair of the Oklahoma City Public School Board
Monday evening, former state senator Angela Monson was sworn in as the 3rd chairman for the Oklahoma City Public Schools, Board of Education in a ceremony at the school board auditorium before a large and enthusiastic crowd. Ms. Monson challenged those attending to "get involved" in the district. "This is just the beginning of our journey to create a school district that serves the needs of all our students," she told those present. Monson won her position in an election against incumbent school board chair, Kirk Humphries. She is the third person to hold the position of chairman since the office was created by a the Oklahoma legislature.
Gail Vines takes the oath of office for School Board District Two Representative
Also sworn in were Lynn Watson who is the newly elected representative for District One and Gail Vines who was unopposed in her bid for a second term in District Two.

Oklahoma County Judge Vicki Miles LaGrange administered the oath of office to all the officials.

My Valentine's Poem for My Wife

I wrote a poem for my Valentine's Day gift to my wife. It's not very good, but I had a lot of fun writing it, and she enjoyed getting it.

Like a compass needle always points northward.
So do I always bend towards you,
My Love, my own True North.

Though roads may bend right, then left
As I travel my way through many obligations
And obstacles, I find my paths bending to you.

You are my ever fixed point that guides
My paths, the center providing the calm
From the storms that rise, then fall,
My anchor through the ebbs and swells.

Republicans LIKE "Activist Judges"????

from The Daily Kos
If you wanted more evidence at the skin-deep adherence to it's so-called "core values", watch the Minnesota Republican Party suddenly decide it wants activist judges, rather than strict constructionists.

[Norm] Coleman lawyer James Langdon said that the Franken team "would have you sit in a vacuum, strictly interpreting a statute," without taking into account the facts that have come into the court and shown just how complicated this all is. He also said that the circumstances of this case were "creating penumbras" around the written law.

"Penumbras"? The Supreme Court found a right to privacy in Grisswold v. Connecticut by findind that...

specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras, formed by emanations from those guarantees that help give them life and substance

Of course, that sentence has been mocked and attacked by the Right (especially among the anti-abortion crowd) as judicial overreach. In fact, it's exhibit A in their attacks on "activist judges" who should instead strictly interpret the law, rather than create it. Yet here is a Republican leaning on that same language to try and get the court to rewrite state law. Call the Federalist Society, STAT!
full article from The Daily Kos

Angela Monson upsets Kirk Humphries in OKC School Board Race

new OKC School Board Chairman Angela Monson
Angela Monson, who only decided to get into the race for Oklahoma City School Board Chairman on the last day of the filing deadline, defeated incumbent chairman Kirk Humphries 57% to 43% on Tuesday. Monson was a former member of the Oklahoma House and Senate. Oklahoman News Article on the race
This win is satisfying on many levels. First, Angela is not a part of the corporate power structure that has rule the district for many years now. She is a friend of working families and their children. She is also willing to listen to the teachers who have direct contact with the kids.
Congratulations, Angela.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: This 'stop snitching' culture? As weak and cowardly as it gets

Leonard Pitts
African-Americans have never been a weak and cowardly people. Weak and cowardly people do not risk their lives running to freedom. Weak and cowardly people do not stand against government and guns, dogs and fire, demanding freedom. Weak and cowardly people do not produce Harriet Tubmans, Henry Johnsons, Rosa Parkses, Martin Luther Kings or Barack Obamas.

But this right here, this so-called "stop-snitching" culture? It's as weak and cowardly as it gets.

I have been using this editorial in my classes to do analytical reading and to spark some discussion on its topic. I think Leonard Pitts is one of the best writers on topics pertinent to African-Americans. One of his collumns generated a neo-Nazi demonstration in his neighborhood.
Leonard Pitts editorial

Professor Rob L. Staples

Dr. Rob L. Staples
I've been using "Facebook" as a means of making contact with people from my Long Ago and Far Away.

I was very pleased to make contact with Dr. Rob Staples who taught me in several religion and theology classes when I was a student at Southern Nazarenen University (then Bethany Nazarene College). Dr. Staples was always a very warm, open-minded person who didn't mind the fact that we "young pups" had a lot of questions about our "recieved theology" in those days when all institutions were being challenged by the young.

Though I chose not to go into the business of religion, I have never regretted the course of study I persued at SNU. I feel that having a grounding in theology has helped me to be a better teacher, a better citizen, and a better person.
As the philosopher George Berkeley once said,

"Whatever the world thinks, he who hath not much meditated upon God and the Summum Bonum (what's ultimately important), may possibly make a thriving earthworm, but will certainly make a sorry patriot and a sorry statesman."

George Berkeley
Besides, being able to quote scripture and theology when one is arguing social justice with conservatives is just so much fun!

Dr. Staples has a very good blog that can be accessed here.

Keith Olbermann's Special Commentary on Dick Cheney

"With damnable words you protect no American, you serve no American and you aid and abet those who would destroy this nation from within or without. "... Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

Amen, Keith, from your lips to God's ears.

The Grumpy Old Party is threatening our nation's economy

New Symbol of the GOP
There is a report that the Senate is getting ready to approve the Economic Stimulus package that we need to avoid Great Depression II. Let us pray this is so.

The GOP's worn out ideologues cling to their discredited ideas that by making our economic policies more favorable to the wealthy, somehow, someway, we will manage to avert disaster.

First, can't they see that a stimulus package that provides funds to rebuild our nation's decrepit and antiquated infrastructure is sorely needed on it's own right? Have they completely forgotten the collapsing bridges and breached levees, the slag heap landslides and crumbling highways all across our nation?

And then there is the latest unemployment figures that show over half a million Americans are losing their job, their hopes, each month.

Is their desire to deny Pres. Obama a "victory" so dulled their hearing that they cannot hear the cries of those in need?

The Republican Party has truly grown too old to function.

National Pun Day is March 4th!

Frank and Earnest by Thaves

National Pun Day is only a month away! Time to play with language and get punning!

Here is a pun from one of my favorite source for great puns!

Something I Wish Would Catch On

Candorville by Darrin Bell
I wish I could get my African-American students to sign-on to this.

Great Super Bowl

This Super Bowl lived up to the hype that surrounds it. The game was exciting. Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band provided an outstanding half-time show. We had a good party over at our place with a group of our best friends.

On top of that Obama's team won, or at least the team he was rooting for, and they did it in come from behind fashion.

Very satisfying evening.
Fortunately, our guests were nothing like Ernie here.

Super Pun

The New Adventures of Queen Victoria by Pab Sungenis
As I often say, I love a good pun, and this one is very, very good. I will be rooting for the Steelers, however. Their owner and their coach campaigned for Obama.

Getting Over the Cold

Well, it seems like I somehow managed to pick up my annual cold over the Ice Storm break. The only problem, other than the getting over it, that this presents is that Sunday we are having friends over for a Super Bowl party.

This morning I feel like I'm on the rebound, so I think we'll be able to pull it off okay.

The thing about Super Bowl parties is that the game is often the least important aspect of the entire event.

Back to Class

Back to school today. The ice held out as long as it could, but it couldn't stand up all that long to the Oklahoma weather.

We will have to make up 3 days which will mean, probably, that we will have one day in June.

Ice Day III, Oops!

Still Thawing
Maple in Winter
Looking out my back porch
Cat and I got up this morning and got around extra early to get to school on time and avoid any traffic problems. Around 4pm yesterday, we got an all call from the district announcing that classes would resume on Thursday.

When we got to Nortwest Classen where Cat teaches, no one was there. A call to her principal confirmed that, indeed, classes had been later cancelled by the district! Evidently, we didn't pick up the phone when the 2nd call came through.

Guess the sidestreets didn't thaw enough to make it safe for the buses to run. On the way home, I nearly slid into another car while trying to stop at a 4-way stop intersection.

Ice Day II

Our front year maple tree adorned with Oklahoma's state "flower," the Mistletoe.
Cars beginning to thaw.
We got another day off from school. As you can tell from the picture of our cars, the snow and ice are starting to melt, so it will be back in class tomorrow in all likelihood. The parents will be rejoicing!

I am glad that Rose State College decided to go ahead and call off all clases. That way I don't have to worry about driving on bad streets all the way to Midwest City. College, for some reason, doesn't do "snow day makeups," so a day off is a day off with no penalty.

Ice Day!

The view from my front poarch as the ice continues to fall.

No school today due to an ice storm that roare through the state. "Snow Days" really should be called "Ice Days" in Oklahoma since that's what we get here on the Southern Plains in the winter.

We likely will have no school tomorrow as the forecast calls for a "high" in the lower 20's. This would make this winter the third in a row where we have had multiple days of instruction lost to incliment weather.

Of course, we will make them up at the end of the year, but that means fewer days to prepare for the state "End of Instruction" (EOI) tests. With the number of days we seem to lose each term to the ice, I would not be surprised to see districts across the state "front load" the school calendar, starting school during the second or even first week of August in order to get in more school days prior to the EOI's.

Some are doing this already, and I'd like to see if they experience any more success because of the change. Our State Superintendent of Schools, Sandy Garrett, has advocated a longer school calendar. Perhaps we just need an earlier start.

Can Obama inspire my African-American students?

Will Obama spur my students to great achievement?
The online edition of Newsweek magazine asks if there will be An 'Obama Effect' on Blacks' Test Scores? By this they mean, "[w]ill he . . . goad black students to higher achievement, since he is living proof that working hard can pay off?"

I teach at a high school that is about 75%+ African-American. My initial and very anecdotal response is that, if such an effect will take place, it will not happen right away nor will it happen automatically. The habits they have which seem to be geared towards defeating my attempts to teach them seem too engrained for now. Mostly, I am talking about their habit to carry on sidebar conversations while I attempt to teach the lesson. Another habit they have is to constantly want to call attention to themselves by "showing off" their cleverness thereby avoiding doing work that challenges their comfort zones.

What Obama may do for them is to prepare the ground for their future achievement. They have witnessed a nation come together to elect a man whose life mirrors their own. They know, for example, that I, along with many other teachers of different races, worked for Obama's election. This has taken away some of the "Us v. Them" attitude that many have had, or at least used as a pretext, for lack of effort and achievement.

They are still teenagers, and as is true with teenagers throughout the ages, I am still "the enemy", the authority figure to requires them to conform to a certain standard of behavior, the judge of their efforts, the out-of-touch one who "doesn't understand what it's like to live in the modern world." None of that has changed.

But now, at least, I am a part of those who brought about something they wanted. We are united in one very important cause.

In one important sense, we are one.

Should I Go for National Board Teacher Certification?

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
I'm debating whether or not I will to become National Board Certified Teacher. It's a program would show that I meet high standards in my profession. It also means an extra $5000 a year from the state of Oklahoma.

I'd like to get involved in a course of study and reflection, but the program is very time-consuming, so I would have to drop or suspend some of my other responsiblities including my political ones.

So I don't know. I'm giving myself this next week to make a decision.