Hail of a Day

Never ending

Spiral Stair

New Step

Hail on the front steps

Hail of a day and a hell of a week. I was out in my shop when the hail came in yesterday. Lots of noise on the tin roof. Didn't accomplish much while I was out there either, as far as that goes.

Got quite a bit done this past week, however. Got the spiral staircase stood up, the steps aligned and the new balusters cut. Should be able to have those welded on in the next few days and then start bending the railing. Moved ten desks through the shop last week. I've also been working on my curriculum mapping. Had a pleasant chat with the boss about that. I went in to see him about a question I had and he had just received a phone call about a couple of knuckleheads in a class upstairs. I thought we could walk and talk while he went to investigate - should be a real easy one. That didn't work out at all. Apparently the interruption by the little hooligans pissed him off quite a bit. I'll try again today. Had a chat with one of the assistant principals the other day as well. He just passed the buck - should have seen that one coming. Also had a chat with the tech guy about my grading system on the computer. He gave me the order has to come from "on high" thing. So I'm still stuck in the middle on that one. Three tries, three no goes. I really like the ease with which things get done. Did put a couple of hours in on the old curriculum thing at home this weekend, though. Depending on how things go with the boss, I should have all that monkey business taken care of by Spring Break.

I'm flying to Virginia in about a week and a half for Jimmy's fight. I did a little packing this weekend. I'll only be home for a few days prior to leaving for Italy so I want to have everything pretty much ready to go by next weekend. The Golden Gloves starts the week we fly to Va. so we'll miss the first night of the fights. Not sure if we have anyone scheduled for that night or not. You only get about a weeks notice. Going to be busy, that's for sure.

Have a good week and remember not everything you read in the papers about education is the teacher's fault. We get lots of help.

Sophia & Moodle

Photos from here: Might want to wait until you get home to check out the website.

I'm trying to get my taxes and a couple of other things finished before I start my travels to Virginia and Italy. I've got a little bit of shopping to do yet and I have to do some curriculum mapping BS at school. That will be followed sometime soon by Moodle for my lesson plans. The school corporation wants everything we do on computer. I think they're worried that all the good teachers will drag up and the corporation will actually have to furnish curriculum for the new teachers. I'm sure whatever we post will be backed up somewhere so it will never go away unless the corporation wills it so.

I've had a couple of short training sessions on Moodle, and if you were so inclined you could spend a lot of time preparing something that the students, the administration and you could use. Don't really see that happening with me, however. Right now it's just another chore that needs to be done. However, it could be the avenue I follow if I decide to get real ambitious in video taping lessons and putting my lesson plans up for all to see. I'd be a little more inclined to do just that if I was given some time to perform these things. And if I could personalize my homepage with a picture of Sophia looking back at me, that might make things a little more pleasant, also. Or, maybe I'll just do the minimum on Moodle and copyright everything else. If they want it, they can buy it from me. If I have to do all the work on my own time, that should make it mine. Interesting thought, that. All the teacher's lessons copyrighted. I kind of like that idea. I think I might pursue that angle a little.

I added a link to the Traveling Pirate. Our former Union Prez's big adventure in Spain. Good stuff.

Plan B

Photo from here:

Retirement Plan "B".



The following was sent along by my colleague Kevin:

Superintendent Bennett:

In reference to the article below, “State Earns “A” on Advanced Placement Exams,” and in light of other factual data on the true performance of Indiana public schools, how can you and Governor Daniels, in good conscience, take the positions you hold on the performance of Indiana public schools?

In my 31 year career, I have taught or administrated in private/parochial schools in Detroit, Michigan and South Bend, in three nationally recognized high schools (SB St. Joseph’s HS, Penn High School, Valparaiso High School), and in three urban schools (Elkhart Memorial HS, East Chicago Central High School, and Highland High School). I earned abachelors’ degree in Economics from Kalamazoo College (a highly regarded liberal arts college in Michigan), a Masters Degree from the University of Notre Dame’s Graduate School of Business, and I am within weeks of defending my doctoral dissertation to earn a Ph.D. in Education Leadership from Western Michigan University. I was recognized as the IASP District 1 High School Principal of the Year in 2007. I am a graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s Principal’s Center. I tell you this not to brag about myself (because if you met me, you’d see that I am a humble man…my students and staff would confirm that perception, I believe) but to establish my credibility as a successful lifelong educator with a diverse background of experience who has invested heavily, both personally and professionally, in my chosen vocation not for selfish, financial gain (as our governor might lead the public to believe) but for the improvement of educational opportunity for the full spectrum of students.

I believe that my diverse experience affords me a unique perspective. I can make this statement with the wisdom and knowledge gained from my years of experience has afforded me: You cannot blame schools for the ills of society; nor can you expect schools to fix society’s ills. By privatizing public education, you will only exacerbate the division between the society’s educational haves and have-nots. You will succeed in totally decimating communities that are already left behind as wreckage churning in the wake of the exit of private industry and business, who abandoned ship when it no longer was profitable to operate in those settings (witness South Bend, Elkhart, and East Chicago). If you’ve taken the time to read Diane Ravitch’s latest book, you’ve been exposed to the counter-arguments to your position. How can for-profit educational ventures be expected to act any differently? As rational human beings, conventional economic theory will tell you that these business concerns will eventually make the same decisions. At that point, the public schools, which are the sole, remaining anchor of many of these communities, will surely stand as hollow and tragic ghosts of the past, just as the vacant steel mills and factories do in so many communities across this state. At that point, children and communities will truly be left behind. Vouchers will see to this.

Face the facts: Both the governor and you have obvious conflicts of interest tied up the privatization of public education. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, it is a widely-known fact. The tragedy of your agenda will play out long after you are gone. How you sleep at night, I do not know.

To quote a famous biblical figure, “You know not what you do.” In my opinion, you have betrayed the public trust.

I don’t expect that my comments will change your minds or agendas. I do, however, hope we still retain the liberty of holding and voicing our personal opinions and dissent without fear of reprisal. This is the climate you have created.

Sincerely,

Patrick D. Weil

Patrick D. Weil
Principal
Highland High School

As Mr. Weil has so eloquently stated, we're doing a pretty fair job educating the masses right now. Dismantling the system is not the solution. It'll be interesting to see what they have in store for us after this. I'm thinking insurance and pension plan are the real target. I see dark clouds forming on the horizon.

There's always Plan B, I guess.

Another Day In Paradise

In addition to my spouting venom at the politicians last week, I actually did a little something. I started on the spiral stair during Open Shop. I cut the hand rail and the balusters all off. I picked up some more 1/2" square for the replacements and I was going to get a piece of 3/16" x 1-1/2" for the handrail and the frame for the extra step but they don't stock it. I was going to head North and get a piece but I'm thinking I might just as well go with 1/4" x 1-1/2". It won't be that much harder to bend. As soon as I get the new step made and slid on, we'll stand it up and start fabricating. I need to pick up some anchors to fasten it to the floor before we start working on it first, however.

You can tell that spring is almost here because I fixed my first rim of the season. Big diameter rims and low profile tires just don't agree with potholes. I should have taken the photo before I ground the weld down. The rims are made of a good grade of aluminum and they always weld up real pretty. The only tricky part of the job is straightening them out. I put them on the anvil and beat them into submission using a couple of hammers and the anvil itself. Ear protection is a must because they really ring. This one went pretty quick - about 30 minutes start to finish.

The boss is a railroad buff and happened in while I was working on my lantern. Thought he'd do me a favor and let me fix one for him, as well. It was pretty rusty so I sandblasted and painted it for him. They're goin' to miss me when I'm gone.

The top photo is the Color Guard that was at the cemetery Friday to lay Marty to rest with military honors. Marty was the husband of my wife's sister. Due to the convoluted nature of that family, I never really got to know the man that well. Kind of a shame, that. Seemed like the kind of guy you would like to call your friend. He was in the Air Force, Navy and the Army Reserves. He served in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf Wars as a Corpsman and he was an extremely talented artist. By all accounts, he was a good husband, father and grandfather. All in all, a life well lived.

I've lost two out of three of the sister-in-law's husbands in the last month or so. Marty made it to almost 75 but Patrick was only 46. I'm almost exactly in the middle, age wise, for whatever that's worth. I'm hoping for another 25 years or so, at the least. I'm starting to feel the accumulation of the years but that's just the natural progression, I guess.

I've got the day off today for Washington's birthday as well as last Friday for the funeral service. I'm planning on working in the shop a little and doing a few odds and ends. We watched one of the grandsons Sat. night and Sun. morning. I didn't get much done but it was definitely time well spent. We went for a tractor ride and then hammered nails and drilled some holes on some scrap wood. We'll be watching the other one next weekend. Once again, won't get much done while he's here but that's OK. It's all about priorities and the grandsons trump most everything else.

Bitchin' Tank

Surly sent me this photo from here. Absolutely gorgeous craftsmanship. Enlarge the photo with a click and take a good look see. Appears to be a steel tank that has the insert braze welded together. Really impressive work. If they teach this at a charter school, I might revise my opinion of them a little bit.

I've used the bully pulpit here to rag on the idiot politicians about all I can stand for awhile, so I'm going to get back to posting about some of the things we're doing. I started in on the spiral staircase for the barn project the other night at Open Shop. I cut all of the old hand rail and balusters off since just about everyone of them was bent a little and I need to change the spacing on the rise of the steps. I took a couple of photos prior to the dismantling and will post some updates as we progress.

Enjoy the weekend. Spring's on the way and Italy beckons.

It'll Get Better - But It's Going To Be Awhile

Nothing Italian -

Just a Beautiful Photograph

Photo from here:



It looks like the State of Indiana is bound and determined to pass legislation for educational "reform". It's not going to be pretty and it's not going to be effective. It looks like a very thinly veiled attempt to break the unions by eliminating collective bargaining and protecting teachers from unfair evaluations. It's really a shame what they are planning to do and it will have extremely long range effects on the ability of good teachers to do the job for which they were hired to do. My buddy Kevin passed along a piece from the Washington Post that says it all much more eloquently than I can. I strongly urge you to read it. It will only take a couple of minutes.

Regardless of what happens, I'll be done in a couple of years and I won't have to deal with the silliness of it all. Unfortunately my grandchildren will, however. Fortunately they have parents that place a high value on education and skills training in high school. My son and several of his buddies all took machine shop in high school with one of the greatest teachers a young man could have. My son used his training as the jumping off point to earn his papers as a journeyman machinist and he has been very successful as a result. Likewise his buddies. Not all of them became machinists but have used the skills and the work ethic taught to them by Mr. Keyes to succeed in their own way as well.

So the sun will still rise in the East, set in the West and occasionally we'll be privileged to a beautiful shot of the moon like the one in the above photo. There will still be schools and there will still be teachers who give it their all every day for low pay. But some kid will stop them in the grocery store some day and thank them for keeping them in school or giving them a pair of mittens and that will make it all worthwhile.

Oxy-Acetylene, Sort Of

Pier Angeli

When I checked the stats a week or so back to see who, where and how many were checking out Shop Teacher Bob, I noticed quite a few hits were for oxy-acetylene posts. I just finished a weeks worth of oxy-acetylene cutting instruction with my beginning classes. This is always somewhat traumatic. I try

to instill in them a serious respect for the equipment and the potential for danger without scaring them into running like sissies every time the torch pops.

Part of the instruction process is a written and a performance quiz. For an "A" on the performance quiz, they have four minutes to turn on the tanks, light the torch, cut a piece of 1/4"x2" flat bar, then turn off the tanks and bleed everything down. One guy finally threw in the towel after 7-1/2 minutes without being able to light the torch at all. A couple of the guys in one class are pretty competitive with each other and after the grading wanted to try a little friendly show down. The one guy choked and the other guy did a 2:30. So like in the Cincinnati Kid - "You're good kid, real good, but as long as I'm around ....."- I took on the winner and posted a time of 59 seconds without breaking a sweat. 40 years of experience has to count for something.

Next year we're supposed to have a video production class of some kind going. I'm going to try and see about taping some of the instructional things I do. I'd like to write a "textbook" of sorts as well. Have short video clips or written instructions available for them for things like the torch. Just something short and sweet that hits the safety concerns and how to light the torch and make a cut. Have the same thing for setting up the MIG, TIG, Plasma, track torch, etc. There are commercial things available, of course, but I'm looking for something they could refer to at a later date or if a kid is absent, he could get the short version of what he missed. I put together some instructional booklets like this a few years ago but I could do a lot better with the advances in technology. Maybe put together a CD with most of the units on it and the kid could take it with him when he goes.

Wonder if she'd be interested in helping with the project?