The Parents

I'm visiting my parents in the southland.  Right now my mom and I are watching Game Night.  We saw this excellent film in the theater last summer, as you may recall. If you haven't seen it yet, you probably should, if you feel like it.

We've also watched a lot of news.  My parents have opposing political views.  Mom's with CNN down in the basement.  Dad's up in the living room with Fox.

Mom can't talk well any more, but she makes good use of her notebook.  We've had some great written conversations, many focused on the impeachment of DT.  She wants this guy gone and has even written that she could die in peace if DT could be impeached soon.

In contrast, Dad pretends that everything stated about DT is hyperbole and perhaps could be fake news?

So, that's how it goes down here in the Southland. We're not letting this rift rip this family apart.

We all side with Mom.

The Observation

My principal is coming in this afternoon to observe my teaching.  I'm teaching more about red tide.  Last year, My Principal (MP) sat in the back at a table with his computer.  While I was circling around in a "with it" fashion, an expectation on our evaluation checklist, one 3rdLander decided to work at the table next to MP.  I kept moving around, interacting and checking on comprehension and focus, challenging all learners at their individual levels, when I noticed the kid at the table with MP was whispering constantly to him.  I wandered over there and MP told me that the kid didn't like this assignment and didn't like a lot of the assignments in my class.  This was the same kid who told his parents I treated the 3rdLanders like they were "mindless slaves."  

So, everything turned out okay in the end, but I want to make sure no one sits at the same table as MP today while he's writing his opinions about my teaching.  I don't need extra help, Thirdlanders.  Let's just give MP space to write about my with-it-ness, or lack thereof, without the distractions of comments from the crowd.

The Reaming

I work a lot, but then sometimes things get in the way of me working a lot and my life goes to hell in a hand basket.  Ipso Facto.   Just for the sake of argument, let's say I have a birthday and I don't work on a particular weekend.  The next week is hideous.  Or, let's say I go to a book club meeting and discuss a classic book called Lathe of Heaven and I have a fun meal with great beverages and lots of laughing conversation late into the night. Because of literacy, the next day is going to be messed up, with unclear lesson plans thrown in with some fatigue.  Or, let's say I want to visit my parents and I want to take Friday off so I can hang out with them and watch movies.  I can't even tell you the repercussions of that move. Basically all hell is going to break loose.  Human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together.

But here's the thing, huddle up and listen up.  I'm not telling you anything you don't know here, but the bottom line is teachers need to celebrate their births, and they need to be literate and they need to connect with beloved octogenarian parents (88 and 89). So, knock it off, Job.  I'm sick of you falling apart every time I don't coddle you like a spoiled kindergartener. Get your freaking act together, Employment. I'm not telling you again.

The Maps

Alton Ziegler, the main character in Map Trap, loves maps.  He creates maps of people's brains, based on evidence he has for what seems to preoccupy their thoughts.  His map of his teacher's brain shows that she thinks quite a lot about her little brother as well as the Chicago Bears.

We used brain pictures to design our our own mental maps.


A big portion of my brain is labeled, "Thirdland."  I think about my job constantly.  Room 200 is always with me.  I also have sections labelled WRITING, WORRIES, and NATURE. I think about my family a lot, but I didn't add a section about family.  I figured everyone would have that on their maps and I want to move past expected topics.

I talked through my map with the Thirdlanders.  Then we looked up geography words in our social studies books and checked out some physical feature maps. I want this writing project to be from a cartographer's perspective, so we're going to integrate geographical terms into our descriptions. After looking over maps, I relabeled my map with The Writing Mountains, National Forest of Worries, Coastal Nature Preserve and Thirdland Urban Areas.   Many of the Thirdlanders had regions for Video Games on their maps.  They also had regions called LOVE, MY DOG, and FAMILY.  One Thirdlander said, "The biggest region of my brain is called My Brother.  I love him so much." Another said, "I'm not sure if my family or my dog should be a bigger area?"

kestrel 

These are kind of like the heart maps that many classrooms create during writing workshop, so I'm thinking of ways to shake it up a bit.  I want to publish pieces that tell about why we think about particular items and events so much.  Are there any down sides to having certain patterns of thinking?  I also want to look at connections and differences among all of us in Thirdland.

We're just getting started. I'll keep you posted.

The Release

Before

After

Last night we went to an event to celebrate the work of people in our town who take care of injured wildlife. I was stoked to go because during the event, three screech owls were to be released into the wild. I'm not sure I told you this yet, but just last week I opened my front door in the evening (to get the mail) and a screech owl was sitting on a branch in my front yard. I never see owls in the wild, so I was stoked, as I've mentioned. Seeing the owl in the yard was a massive mood elevator. Basically I'm all about the owls right now.

So last night, we're drinking wine at the event and getting excited about seeing the owls released into the wild. While we waited we got to see a kestrel and a barn owl. KR and Nancer were there as well. When the owls came out with their volunteer helpers, we took some pictures. Then we walked over near a pond to watch the first owl (O#1) get his first taste of freedom in quite some time. As we huddled together in anticipation, O#1 flew about six feet and then dropped to the ground. The volunteer picked O#1 up and released him again. This time O#1 flew right over the pond. We were all cheering. Suddenly, O#1 froze mid-air, came to a complete stop, and dropped down into the pond. We all stared toward O#1 in silent horror, while he flapped his wings in a kind of swimming motion. A heroic man in the crowd took his phone out of his pocket and started swimming across the pond, holding his phone above his head. Volunteer started screaming, "Sir! Sir! Get out of the pond! Don't touch the owl! You'll get hurt!"

But the guy was on a mission and he kept swimming. Finally, Volunteer jumped in the pond and started swimming toward the owl as well. She still had the protective glove on her arm, so Heroic Man slowed down and allowed Volunteer to reach the owl first and swim him to safety.

After that, the volunteers released O#2 and O#3, who flew up to a nearby tree. O#1 will be released later.

Good luck, O#1. You're probably a little embarrassed about the debacle of your release, but put it behind you. Big things await. Do your best and forget the rest.