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.
I will just say it: I am committing to writing a post each day. This probably isn’t the best month to make that commitment, at least by looking at the calendar, but its already out in the blogosphere. No taking it back. I won’t go back and edit this post to remove it. I am committed to each of you. I’m going to do my best to write something each day. It may just be an excerpt of something I am already writing, but I’m going to do something each day. I mean, National Blog Posting Month doesn’t come around every month, does it? Just between us, I think it does. I joined a ning today which is entitled NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and they do a theme every month. This month is: No Theme. Of course! Its a sign from the Blog gods! I am very good at writing about nothing. It just so happens that I tend to write about science, education, and science education; so a month with no theme is a good thing.
Just to recap, I am committing today to write something every single day for the month of November. Thanks, justjessa. Into what have I gotten myself?
I think its very appropriate this post is the 100th to make to my blog. So, without delay, let’s get to what I want to share: a day in the life of Bowie’s Physics classes.
Today was a crazy day. It started out like any other. I was able to remember that I had duty, so I went down there and “did my duty”, literally. First block went of without a hitch. We covered some homework and then proceeded to an activity I learned at an AP conference. Students stand one meter apart, stopwatches in hand, while another student (or myself) walks/runs/jogs past. Since they have all started their stopwatches at the same time, they stop their watch when I pass them. We use this data to make a graph of position vs. time. We interpolate and extrapolate. We find the slope of the line, which just happens to be the velocity. I show them how you can have a negative velocity. Literally, the activity is everything that is right about physics. Unless, of course, something goes wrong.
Like today, during second block. Things went horribly wrong. I changed things up a bit. Problem #1: we did the activity inside, normally we do this outside, like we did in 1st block. Problem #2: I was the person doing the walking/running/jogging, normally a student or two are the ones doing the running/walking/jogging (I’m no spring chicken anymore). Problem #3: I was wearing my most comfortable shoes, which also happen to be the worst shoes in which to run. Note to self: either wear your running shoes, or wear a helmet next time!
Trials 1-4: I walked, I jogged, I walked really slow, I walked backwards (negative velocity). Everything was fine. Trial 5: I decided to move at a variable velocity by starting at a walk, increasing to a run, then slowing back to a walk. And then it happened: I ran out of room when I got to the part where I should have been slowing to a walk. I put the brakes on and started to stumble. I had no more breaks, lost all control, and fell. My only thought was, “Hmmmm, there’s the greenhouse (made of metal and glass) right in front of me. I’m going to go straight through the glass. This is going to be really bad.” I went down and negatively accelerated my head in a very short amount of time, thereby splitting the back of my ear open. I immediately said a few words, which were hopefully not heard by my students, and got up to sit on the bench in front of the greenhouse. I realized later this was the same bench that just a second ago was in contact with my ribs. I put my hand to the side of my head and thought, “Okay, this isn’t that bad. But boy does this hurt!”
I looked up at my students and said, “Why don’t we just skip Trial 6?” I looked down at my hand, upon removing it from the side of my head and realized I might have a couple of small cuts there, since I noticed some blood, but not an enormous amount. No problem. “Could someone get me some tissue?” Strangely enough, only one or two students were actually moving. (I think they were stunned that I was that clumsy.) Tissue arrives.
We returned to the classroom, I got them started entering their data into the excel spreadsheet. Standard operating procedure for this activity. I walked over to the stunned look of my department head and asked would he mind keeping an eye on my class while I walked to the nurse to get a band-aid on these little cuts on my ear. Of course, that was after an abbreviated description of what had just transpired. I look in on my students and said, “I’ll be back in a little bit. Mr. Stark is across the hall if you need someone.”
I proceed to the nurse’s office, all the while noticing there is now a considerable amount of blood on my tissue. Concern begins to set in. I arrived, again to the stunned look of the school nurse. I explain. She says, “Let me see!” I remove my hand and she informs me that I have a “gaping hole back here”. I immediately go into shock. I begin to sweat. The color, all of the color, leaves my face. I don’t feel so well. I lay down. She recommends that I go to an after hours clinic. Then, upon further inspection and a pupil exam, she thinks I may need to go to the emergency room. I really begin to panic a bit. I show panic by the above listed symptoms. My symptoms increase, which does nothing to alleviate my panic (or my symptoms).
Michelle (my wonderful and amazing wife) decides to come take me when the word ER is mentioned. Initially, Jessica (my exceptional daughter) was going to drive me. We decide against that. I talk the nurse. It is worth mentioning that Michelle is on pain killers for some dental work which she had done yesterday. She may be over the legal limit as far as narcotics and driving goes. We’re not really sure and frankly don’t want to know.
By this point, I have talked the nurse out of calling an ambulance. She rolls me out to the student pick-up area in the wheelchair. My symptoms begin to resurface as they had subsided after laying down for a bit. I feel worse. I really begin to feel terrible. I tell my caretakers, the nurse and Teri Voss (an asst. principal) that, “I’m just going lay down here on the ground”. In front of the school. On the concrete. Is that weird? As I begin to get to the ground (on all fours) Michelle rounds the corner to pick me up. I’m sure her first thought upon seeing my condition, head wrapped bandage and all, was “Oh Lord! He’s practically dying. I’m just in time to say goodbye!”
To make a long story (somewhat) short, we get to the hospital. The doctor reassures me that I do not have a nasty head trauma and that I will be fine. I just need, oh about 15 stitches. Yes. From the top of my ear to the bottom, I am stitched. My ER experience was quite jovial, once I realized I wasn’t going to die or forget who Michelle is (at least not anytime soon). I twittered while there. I even twitpic’ed.
The doctor and nurses were very understanding and made my time almost enjoyable. It takes an amazing person to do their job. Next time you talk to a doctor or a nurse, thank them for me. After all, someone has to pick up the pieces after we are done doing dangerous science!
Update: Breaking Video!
I was able to get some video of my accident. Enjoy!
This summer has been the busiest so far, at least since I’ve been teaching. I used to tint windows, so summers were my busy season. Its been refreshing to have a few weeks off to relax by the pool, catch up on some yard work, that kind of stuff. This summer, I only had June to “goof off”. I did do some pretty heavy goofing off, too! However, once July came around, I started going to Stillwater to Oklahoma State to do some research in the physics department. Specifically, I worked in High Energy Physics. Wow. That is some abstract, cool, mind-blowing stuff. It was awesome! I also was invited to present at the Oklahoma Alternative Education Conference. That was really good. I enjoyed presenting, but more than that I got some really good information that will carry over into my classroom. I did do a little bit of technology training during June. It was only three days, but I ended up getting a Mac out of the deal, so that was a really good deal. I also got to look at some great pedagogy methods for technology integration during the training. Plus, I was able to share my passion in a one day class I taught called Wikis, Blogs, and Discussion Boards. Definitely worth the time I spent preparing for it. I got good responses from the other teachers, so I guess it was as good for them as it was for me!
I guess I’ll have to get used to this kind of stuff. I got so much out of my experiences I’m going to try to do some more of the same stuff next summer. The monetary compensation wasn’t half bad either!
Call it blessed, lucky, fortunate; it doesn’t matter what name you give it, its me. Over the last year I have been blessed with so much technology, I don’t know what to do with it all. Since January of 2008 I have received two laptops (1 PC and 1 Mac), a SmartBoard, a Cosmic Ray Detector, and basically anything else I ask for to outfit my classroom for student learning. I don’t know what I have done to deserve this. I’m not anything special in the classroom. I don’t “brown nose” to get what I want (do I?).
I know teachers who ask for this kind of equipment and never see half of what they ask for. I, on the other hand, don’t even have to ask for stuff and I keep getting it! What’s the deal? Just this week, my research mentor asked me if there was anything I would like to have for my classroom, physics related. She said they had some money left over from a grant and would like to buy some equipment for me. I thought to myself, “self, you’d better jump on this opportunity because this isn’t going to happen very often”. So I said Sure! I can find somethings I need. She encouraged me to ask for more than what I really wanted just in case the grant person decided it was too much to spend. I looked at some dynamics carts, motion detectors, and photogates (along with a few other things). I came up with about $1600 worth of stuff thinking “at least I can get the dynamics carts and track”. Wrong! They approved it all! Of course my first thought was “I should have asked for more!” Then I realized what an arse that made me and I got into a thankful frame of mind.
I have no idea why these good things happen to me; but I sure am happy about it. So, thanks for the physics equipment, thanks for the MacBook, thanks for the SmartBoard, thanks for mounting my SmartBoard on the wall. Why thank you? Because ultimately its your tax dollars that are paying for these things and I really appreciate them!
I think its very appropriate this post is the 100th to make to my blog. So, without delay, let’s get to what I want to share: a day in the life of Bowie’s Physics classes.
