I Love You Guys!

Thank you so much, Delaby family! I will never be able to make this up to you. You made me feel about three times taller tonight, and that's saying something.

The Kids Are Alright

It's probably because I've had a little more free time on my hands this year, but this year was the most I have followed the Little League World Series.

This was one of the most positive, enjoyable viewing experiences I've had. I love to watch baseball, and even so, this made me smile out loud so many times. It's so cool to watch players who take themselves seriously, but not so much that they overdo it. They have fun. They smile. They make faces, they fidget, and they don't hold back their emotions.

There were times it was heartbreaking, but that's part of sports. Only one half of the teams win any given game. But man, it was a treat getting to watch it a little more closely this year.

True American

John McCain was always fair.

I honestly think that's why he had trouble fitting in Washington's scene over the past couple decades. He stood up to his own supporters when they claimed things that weren't true, even when he was running for president. He was one of the last of a dying breed.

Even the fact that he was a war hero has gone out of the greater public appreciation in the last couple of years. That used to be one of the things we could count on being looked on with favor, but sadly, McCain had to watch that crumble too before he passed.

The world is already a lesser place for his absence.

A Short Course

Love this.

Gonna Walk Down To

How awesome and humbling this is!

This sign will be posted outside Woodbrook in the carpool lane. I want to publicly thank the Delabys for doing this. I love that I will be remembered this way, I have to admit.

Thanks so much, Louie, Gigi, Bird, and Rob! You guys are the best!

Bega

Happy Birthday to Bega!

Rafael is the last kid for me to wish a happy birthday. And here it is, happening on the last day of your summer break! I'm not whether it's a good thing that you didn't have to go to school today, or that it kind of stinks that you have to go to school the next day for the first time in ten weeks.

But I'm going to focus on the positive. Rafael "Bega" invented the Bega Dance, and he won his way right into the hearts of everyone in 5-1. He was definitely a positive force in the classroom, because he made everyone laugh. He's just that kind of guy.

I have to say that I'm a little jealous of Rafael's teachers this year.

Rafael, I hope you have a fantastic school year! You deserve it. And happy birthday while I'm at it.

The Dawn of the New

Hello, everyone! I hope you all have a great school year ahead. Start strong and then hold on. Your teachers are all lucky to have you.

Stay tuned, guys!

Up to Us

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

Come On, You Got This

Perfect Lines

“When we pass over into how a knight thinks, how a heroine behaves, and how an evildoer can regret or deny wrongdoing, we never come back quite the same; sometimes we're inspired, sometimes saddened, but we are always enriched. Through this exposure we learn both the commonality and the uniqueness of our own thoughts -- that we are individuals, but not alone.”

― Maryanne Wolf, Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

When I first read this book, which I would highly recommend, I was transfixed. Now I want to read it again. If you are at all interested in the science of reading, or if you just want to feel smarter, you need to read this!

 

We Were Pretty Great, Weren't We?

I apologize profusely for anyone who sees this. I had all of these pictures from Track and Field Day, and I guess I got so wrapped up in the end of the school year that I never posted them. What a nice reminder of the past school year's end, though.

As you get ready to start your new beginning next week, I hope you look back on where you came from and the lessons learned, everybody. I'd advise you to "never change", but I've been through middle school before, and I've known many students who have gone through it before too. I know it's not realistic. But one day, you'll be able to be your old self again, and it will be great.

You all have amazing adventures ahead.

Best of luck, and make good choices, people.

Stop It Before It Has a Chance

Please heed these words, kids. You cannot understand right now, but you have to do this.

Ivy League Hoosier

This story from my hometown newspaper, The Journal Review from Crawfordsville, caught my interest today.

Josh Weir, a graduate of Southmont High School, went to Ivy Tech right after high school. He graduated with an associate's degree. From there, he had planned to move on to IU's business school.

But at the request of his academic advisor, he needed to apply to a few schools other than IU.

Long story short, he's going to Harvard.

This is such a cool thing, because Crawfordsville is a mostly rural town. Among the three high schools of Montgomery County, Southmont is considered to be the rural-est of the rural. By the way, just to put things into perspective, the population of all three schools (Crawfordsville, North Montgomery, and Southmont) combined is still much less than half of that of Carmel High School alone.

Josh, I know there is no way you're going to see this, but I hope you have a great experience out in Cambridge MA. I hope you bring some good ol' country common sense to Boston, and that you will also bring a little culture back to the Hoosier State when you're back home. There is nothing like an awesome education.

Words and How We Use Them

Here's a fantastic article I saw the other day on LitHub. (click here)

I have always been kind of a grammar and usage snob. Being a teacher does that to you. That said, I have come to accept a more elastic approach to the English language. It makes me cringe to hear certain terms and abbreviations, but that's language.

Also, I have come to break free of certain hardwired rules such as not being allowed to end a sentence in a preposition.

Probably my biggest beef is with the current curriculum. They expect young people to know the difference between a transitive and an intransitive verb, a nominative case, subjunctive moods, and perfect participles. I think it's far more important to understand the basic proper uses of grammar and good writing than it is to know such terminology. Luckily, my colleagues agreed that this wasn't the best use of an 11-year-old's brain, and we taught the importance of understanding how to use words correctly than the jargon behind it.

Don't hassle yourself if you don't understand the difference between past perfect tense and regular old past tense. And don't ever correct someone in a social situation. That's for a teacher to do in the classroom only. Maybe in your own home too. (See that? I used in incomplete sentence!)

If someone tells you, "You sing really good," learn to take the compliment.

Who's Training Who Anyway?

Say what you will about guns, and I'm not about to say anything about them here on the Dojo, but the recent talk of ghost guns is pretty scary.

I have to say, though, that this is not a recent thing in my mind. This idea of 3D printed, unregistered guns first came into my mind four years ago when I had the honor of serving on a Global Scholars panel for my then-graduating student, Chris Hsu. Chris went to Park Tudor for high school, and his final project was to study the possible dangers of 3D printing, which is still in its infancy.

Part of Chris's presentation was a video which showed a guy in the audience of a politician. He had printed the parts to create a gun, assembled it, loaded it, and showed just how easily it could go wrong. 

Despite the fright brought on by such a reality, I am so proud to say, "I knew about that! I knew about it four years ago!"

By the way, pictured is Chris, four years ago, with his still-girlfriend, Sophia. Both of them were in my fifth grade class. He just graduated from Princeton, and she just graduated from Yale. I wish I could say that had anything to do with me, but they were pretty darn bright before they came into Area 51!

I hope you are staying on this thing, Chris! If not, I know that the world is still a better place as a result of what you're doing now.

(Click here to read the post I wrote on the day of his presentation. By the way, he was also a karate student. He got his black belt too.)