About Science is wrong. I love to turn student’s worlds upside-down with that statement. I’ll give you some examples:
- There is no such thing as suction, there is only the absence of air. Its called a vacuum. Many students are heavily vested in this particular misconception, especially since it is such a part of our vernacular. Basically, atmospheric pressure is very, very strong! Check out the Madgeberg Spheres as an example of just how hard it will resist. Think of vector arrows pushing in on the spheres from all directions.
- There is no such thing as cold, only the absence of heat. Its called the Kinetic Theory of Gases. Temperature is a measure of the kinetic energy of the molecules of an object, whether its a gas or not.
Yes, its late. Yes, I’m tired. I’ll continue this list in another post. Stay tuned and as always, thanks for reading.
It was a day like any other day (except for the fact that it was Monday, but seemed like a Thursday since tomorrow is Tuesday, but is really Friday). I made it through 1st and 2nd block easily, but then 3rd block rolled around. Not that I have anything against 3rd block. Really. I don’t. But it started off with a very nasty habit many of the students in that block have: being polite. Yes, they are polite to a fault. I’ll try to explain.
Students are tardy if the they enter the classroom after the tardy bell rings. Makes sense, right? At Putnam City, all of the doors are kept locked when shut, therefore, students cannot enter the classroom late, unless someone opens the door for them. And therein lies the problem with their politeness. I’ll continue to explain. I usually stand at the door and close it just as the tardy bell rings. I then proceed to get students going on the bellwork or whatever other task I have for them to start class. This means I am not at the door and cannot see who comes in late to class. There is a sign on my door, which says “For entry, knock politely” which students read “To sneak in, knock quietly”. This is what usually happens. Students knock quietly and my students, being the polite human beings they are, open the door and return to their seat. Usually before I can see who is coming in tardy.
So there you have it, my students are annoyingly polite! This put me in a other than pleasant mood since it happened once, I addressed it, and then it happened twice more! We then proceeded to submit papers to turnitin.com, which you don’t even want to hear about. Really. I’m not going to talk about it.
That was the “bad” part of my day. Not very bad, right? I didn’t think so either. I love my job. And therein lies the good part of my day. I went up to the teacher workroom to check my mail box and was greeted by a fluorescent pink sheet of paper there in the box. What was this pink paper? Glad you asked. It was the final ballot of the “teacher of the year” voting for our school. You might ask why that is significant. My colleagues have voted me through the first two rounds which means I’m on the final ballot “against” two other teachers. Knowing these two people, there’s no way I have a chance to be voted teacher of the year for Putnam City High School, but that’s okay. The other two teachers are the type of teachers who make an impact on students and they are both very deserving and after all, that’s what its all about anyway. Impacting students lives. I am just honored to be nominated. Thanks faculty, I appreciate your confidence.
Its off topic Sunday, so let’s talk about food. It’s the only think I like better than Physics.
Some of you know, some of you may not know: I hope to someday have a catering business and/or restaurant. I like to think I can do pulled pork pretty well. I have a small following of folks who tell me that my pork is pretty good. I also do a pretty good job of (real) chicken and sausage gumbo and I make a decent crawfish Étouffée. It’s all homemade from scratch, there’s no boxed stuff in our house when it comes to cajun food. Oh, by the way, I’m originally from Louisiana.
This weekend I decided I’d like to try adding another something to my menu, at least one that could be seasonal. That’s one thing about the South you should know, they deep fry everything! So, why not a turkey? Yes, a full sized turkey. Here’s how you prepare it:
- Thaw your turkey.
- Prepare a marinade known as “creole butter”, which contains butter and so many seasonings I don’t have room to list them all here.
- Inject your turkey with the marinade, using a very large hypodermic needle-type device.
- Let rest for at least 1 hour.
- Cook for about 45 minutes (14 lb. turkey) in a hot bath of peanut oil, which was previously heated to approximately 350° F.
- Remove from oil bath.
- Eat the most tasty, flavorful, moist, turkey you’ve ever eaten.
I cooked one tonight and it was delicious. I’ll definitely be cooking it with the spicy marinade when I do it from here on out. There’s no way I can take steps backwards from the tastiness we had tonight. The skin is delicious, but I only had two bites of it. Seriously.
We checked with a local cajun restaurant in town and they want $56 for a fried turkey. Yikes! I think I can do it quite a bit cheaper than that. I’m not trying to undercut them too much, because its a valuable product, but $56? Come on!
If you are interested in ordering, “JB’s BBQ” is officially taking orders. It’s tasty!
It seems those crazy scientists are ready to play with their toys again; I guess they are still interested in finding out just exactly how the Universe works. Of course you know I’m talking about the Large Hadron Collider. I’m following the success (hopefully) of this venture as they go, step by step, using twitter. If you tweet and would like to follow CERN, go here. I am getting live information as it happens; where the beam is located, what systems are running, etc. And its all LIVE! I love social media!
I’ll just be here, in my classroom, with students who are retaking tests, listening to music, and getting updates on the most expensive, most complicated machine known to man, learning how what causes the Universe to exist in the state in which it does. That is all.
Today I had the opportunity to use social media to conduct an interview in which I was studying social media. The specific media I was using was Skype. I think I am so fortunate to live in an era in which I have access to free video conferencing. I can call anyone in the United States using video and talk for free. Am I the only person in the world who thinks that has an endless number of possibilities in the classroom?
