It wasn't a Rock...

The B-52’s (You can check them out here) had a concert at the House of Blues here in Dallas last night.

And we were there baby!

The fact that Melissa not only listened to the B-52’s, but also owned at least one of their albums was one of the first things I liked about her. I’ve liked the B-52’s ever since I first heard Rock Lobster. Back then their music seemed so kooky and unusual that it was hard for me not to like them.

I liked the fact that their songs were written about the most bizarre things. This was the late 1970’s and early 1980’s and all the music I was used to hearing was either some sappy love story put to music, or it was some AC/DC type of band singing about being “Back in Black.”

Don’t get me wrong, I really like those songs too, but I couldn’t understand half the words, and the half I could understand didn’t make any sense. Not that that made all that much difference.

However, with the B-52’s I could understand the words…I didn’t have any idea how they came up with the words, but they were catchy and I enjoyed both listening and singing along.

That being said, the concert was great!

The House of Blues' theater is pretty small, with a mosh pit and seats in the balcony. We sat in the balcony and could see and hear everything. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that they didn’t play Quiche Lorranie, one of my favorites.

It was a lot of fun, well worth the money, and I’d go back to see them again in a heartbeat!



…it was a Rock Lobster!

SPAMALOT

I don’t think I had ever seen a musical on stage until the first year I got married. I had been to lots of plays, and had seen the movie versions of things like The Sound of Music, but as for experiencing a musical live and in person, I didn’t really understand the appeal.

However, shortly after our wedding my father-in-law gave us season tickets to the Dallas Summer Musicals…and I was hooked! There’s something about being in the audience as it is being performed that’s really cool.

A couple of years ago my father-in-law thought that the upcoming season look particularly good, and he decided to get season tickets for the four of us. We enjoyed the season so much that we’ve repeated our season tickets for the last three or four years. However, this is the first season that Spamalot has come to Dallas.

Spamalot is basically the Holy Grail put to music. The Playbill puts it this way:

Monty Python’s
SPAMALOT
A New Musical (lovingly) ripped off from the motion picture
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

I’m here to tell you that it is simply incredible! - My new favorite musical.

If you're even kind of a Python fan, then do whatever you must to go see it...It’s well worth your time and money.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU...

Wednesday, Macy and I went to the Star Wars exhibit (You can check it out here) at the Fort Worth Science and History museum. I, being somewhat of a Star Wars nut, was super excited. Macy, who was born a couple of decades after the original movie came out, doesn’t truly appreciate these films like I do. However, she tagged along promising to do her best to not get too bored.

I had a blast and Macy really enjoyed herself as well. There is also an IMAX film all about the history of special effects, and it was great. If you are any kind of a Star Wars fan I would highly recommend going to this exhibit. However, I read somewhere that Fort Worth is the only city in the Southwester United States that is going to host this exhibit, but that may or may not be true. The exhibit will only be in Fort Worth through the middle of September.

I snuck a camera in and managed to covertly snap a few photos…take a look at what we saw.



This is the actual landspeeder that
Luke Skywalker drove in the original
Star Wars movie. It was much smaller
than I had imagined.







A couple of the extremely detailed miniatures used in the filming.


One of the many Darth Vader costumes
from the original movie.



The inside of Darth Vader's helmet.


And of course, the most feared of all the
Jedi Lords, Hughbi-Wan-Kanoobi!



May the force be with you always.

It's a Snuba Miracle

When I told you about our cruise, I mentioned how much fun the snuba was on Roatan, but I didn’t say anything about the snuba miracle. Here’s how it goes.

We’re out about 200 yards from the shore enjoying a close-up look at the second largest reef system in the world…did I mention how much fun the whole snuba thing was?

Anyway, there were three people hooked to Gordon’s tanks and two hooked up to mine. We had been out for about an hour, I guess, and both of our tanks were running pretty low on air. I decided to go down deep one more time when water started seeping into my mask. It got up to just below my eyes and I headed for the surface. Just as broke the surface the salt water got in my eyes.

Popping the mask off and looking around I could tell that the seawater had washed out my left contact. I had only just barely started my cursing when I looked down at my mask and noticed my contact stuck right inside the space where my nose had been. I quickly grabbed it and proudly announced to the group that I found my missing contact.

“Great, can you put it back in?” Was the gleeful reply from Mark, our happy but somewhat shocked snuba guide.

However, as handy as he was, Mark hadn’t anticipated needing a mirror that day. So I sat there with my contact squeezed tightly between the thumb and index finger of my right hand.

Suddenly, out of nowhere another guide shows up in a yellow kayak and tells me to take the kayak back to shore. Somehow I manage to climb into this kayak, grab onto the paddle, and row myself back to shore all without losing my contact.

By the time I get to the shore there were several people from the snuba place standing there. One guy asks, “Are you the guy with the contact?” I nod and he says, “Don’t worry about the kayak, just go take care of you your eye.”

I get my backpack with my contact solution, rinse it off and pop it right back in.

It was a snuba miracle!



Oh yeah, my niece Reiley also got to pet a shark…I guess that’s kind of miraculous too.

Dukes of Hazard

So we go to see the musical Chicago last night here in Dallas. On the way, Melissa is telling me some of the actors playing the major roles. I think she mentioned that Tom Wopat would be playing Billy Flynn, but I didn’t recognize his name. Now, if she had said Luke Duke…well that would have been another story.

We go in and Macy is look trying to decide which Chicago shirt she wants to buy, when I notice this guy standing next to the souvenir booth. The first thing that catches my eye is that fact that he’s wearing a hat. Not a big deal, but you don’t see many ball cap type hats at the Dallas summer musicals.

That’s when I noticed how much he looks like Luke Duke from the show Dukes of Hazard. Same facial features, only older. I keep glancing over, trying to decide if it’s him and wondering why, if it is in fact him, he would be in Dallas, of all places.

I’m paying for a shirt when the guy taking my money points to the guy and says, “He was on the Dukes of Hazard.”

Melissa leans over and said, “That’s Tom Wopat! He’s playing Billy Flynn.”

I shake his hand and say, “You know, I ruined my 1974 Camaro trying jump it like the General Lee.”

He shook his head and just said, “Not my fault..not my fault.”

The musical was great, and Tom Wopat did a really good job.

Even without jumping an orange car over a bumbling sheriff.

Cruising

As celebration of my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary, the 13 members of the Atkinson clan set sail a week and a half ago for the Mexican side of the Caribbean. The ports we hit were Cozumel, Roatan and Progreso. We were also supposed to stop at Costa Maya, but choppy waters closed the dock that day, so we ended up going back and spending a second day in Cozumel, which ended up being a good thing.
The highlights of the trip for me were touring Chichen Itza, Snuba, the underground river in Xcaret, and of course smoking my first Cuban cigar.

Chichen Itza:
As for Chichen Itza, it was well worth the two-hour bus drive to and from the place. Dad, Gordon, my niece Reiley and I braved the bus and made this amazing journey. Walking around through these ruins that had been there for thousands of years was incredible. The precision these grand structures were built with would be difficult with today’s technology, so 1000 years ago these people were truly ahead of their time. We couldn’t go up the steps of El Castillo, the pyramid like building, but we were able to explore and climb around plenty of other places. I highly recommend going if you ever have the chance.

Me in front of "El Castillo" (the castle)

Snuba:
I’m not certified for scuba, and I always end up swallowing gallons of sea water when I snorkel, so snuba seemed like a perfect combination. Basically, you are connected, via a 20-foot hose with a dive regulator, to two scuba tanks that are floating on the surface above you. It’s very easy, very fun and you can stay underwater as long as you like. Whenever I snorkel I tend to breathe in short rapid breaths. Also, I can never seem to not think about my breathing, so I can’t really relax. With the snuba I was able breathe at a normal pace and forget about being under water. It was very cool.

Me and Macy underwater with a starfish

Xcaret:
Xcaret, which turned out to be a kind of tropical amusement park, was a place we were told would be a fun place to go. With the exception of the underground river, it wasn’t really worth the money.
The underground river is almost a mile long with these ancient Mayan sinkholes in the ceilings that provide light. As we were walking down to the entrance I noticed a sign that said the water’s average temperature is 62 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s only 30 degrees above freezing…and baby, that is some serious cold.

I walked down some step like rocks up to about my knees and I couldn’t go any farther. I turned around, kind of half sat down and jumped back with all my might. At first I couldn’t believe how cold it was, but the current was swift enough that there was no way I could have gone back even if I had wanted to.

Then good news is I was numb in about 30 seconds so the cold was no longer a factor. After that we just drifted underground through these ancient rock formations and had a blast escaping from the day’s 98-degree heat.

The whole family in the underground river.

Cuban Cigars:
On our second stop at Cozumel, Gordon and I went to a cigar shop that our ship had told us would have real Cuban cigars. Gordon got two and I got one for 15 bucks each. My dad bought two boxes of five cigars from some guy on a ferry we rode. The guy originally wanted $80 for one box, but ended up taking $100 for two, plus he threw in one extra cigar. So dad ended up spending about nine dollars apiece for each of his eleven cigars, although we had some serious doubts about the authenticity of his purchase.

Seems Gordon had done some research on Cuban cigars and found that you can tell a fake by the band. After comparing the bands, we’re pretty sure his are fakes. However, I had a chance to smoke both and while you could tell a difference between the two, they were both better than anything I’ve ever gotten in the states. Not that I smoke cigars all that often, so what do I know.

I really had a blast enjoying this kind of adventure with my family. Who knows when we’ll have a chance to do something like this again.

Maybe we'll go again in 50 more years…

What's a Teacher to do?

Sometimes we’re fighting an uphill battle.

Take a look here to see what I mean.

Ever so Sadly Yours,
Third Grade Mind

What's Happening

If you read my brother’s page, Real Live Preacher, which I assume anyone who reads my page does, then you know about our up coming cruise.

While I’ve heard the names of the places we’re going on more than one occasion, like my brother, I haven’t taken the effort necessary to commit them to memory.

For the most part I want to snorkel and catch some rays at a cool beach somewhere. I don’t really care where, so memorizing the names of the places really does me no good.

My goal is to take some notes, be they mental or actually on paper, and come back with some fun stuff to write about.

Unlike my brother, I’m not going to youth camp too, so I may get to write something before he does.

Who I'll Miss

Well, school’s finally over for the year. And it’s been a particularly tiring year. I think it was a combination of my principal retiring, one my grade level team members leaving, and the strange dichotomy that was my class that made this year noticeably more tiring than usual.

Any time a grade level teacher leaves, there is some uncertainty about the next school year. The grade level interviews and labors over not only who the new teacher will be, but also over all the changes that a new personality means. Maybe it’s a head injury thing, but I really hate change.

However, as odd as it may sound, I’m more at peace with the school having a new principal than I am with a new grade level person. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to miss Mrs. Kilduff, our former principal, more that I can say, but for some reason this is easier for me to get my brain around. You would think that it would be the other way around, but for some reason it’s not for me…who knows?

As for the kids, I’ll miss them, but I’ve had the whole year to think about them moving on, so it’s never the same…at least not until this year.

There’s a boy in my class, we’ll call him Pedro. Pedro is very smart. Pedro is very creative. Pedro has a great sense of humor. Pedro borders on gifted. Pedro is also a little lazy. Pedro is also a little impulsive.

Pedro sat up by me for most of the year, and it was a real love hate relationship. We had more than our fair share of fun times and we had more than our fair share of stern talks as well. I spent a good part of the year dreaming of the day that Pedro would be out of my class. It wasn’t until about a week or two before school was going to be out that I realized why I had such a hard time with Pedro.

You see, the things that describe Pedro, smart, creative, sense of humor, gifted, lazy and impulsive, are the exact same things my fourth grade teacher said about me.

Maybe I understood him better that any teacher he’d ever had. Maybe he understood me better than any student I’d ever had. Maybe, “You are your own worst student,” is really true.

I’m going to miss you Pedro, because you taught me a lot this year.


Pedro, have a great summer!

What did you say?

What I needed to say was…

“Boys, stop bouncing the basketballs.”

What I actually said was…

“Boys, keep your balls in your hands!”



I think you can imagine what happened next.

Block Party

Back in February, Moss Haven, the school where I teach, had its annual auction. Now this is no ordinary public school auction. I’ve been to my fair share of elementary school auctions, and I dare say none make this kind of money.

For starters, it’s held at night at a country club that’s not far from the school. Next, they have both live and silent auctions. Third, it’s parents only. They also hire a professional auctioneer. This guy is fantastic. He knows how to keep people bidding long after they’ve decided to quit. And last, but not least, alcohol is served. A fact that tends to loosen the purse strings on some of the bidders. Anyway, this year’s auction, an event that is actually raising money for next the next school year, cleared around 120,000 dollars.

I realize that many people have no idea how good that is, so allow me to put it in perspective. At my previous school, the last year I was there was a record-breaking auction year for the school. The PTA was absolutely giddy when they found that they had cleared almost $5000.

But this isn’t so much a story about the auction, as it is a story about one of the items that my wife and I purchased at the auction…an invitation to a block party.

There is an L-shaped cul-de-sac near the school that has about 10 –12 houses, most of which have children who either currently do, or recently have attended Moss Haven. Every year the people who live there close off the street and throw a huge party. There’s lots of food, lots of music and lots of people. These people know how to throw a party!

However, it’s by invitation only.

I think pretty much it goes like this: If you live on the street, you’re expected to be there and help with your share of the cost/work. If you live somewhere else, but are invited to attend, then you are also either asked or encouraged to help with both the financial and hard labor aspects of the party. However, if you purchased your invitation at the auction (which were going for 100 buck per couple) then you got to simply attend. They had 10 spots for sale in the silent auction, but ended up selling close to twice that many…with all the money going to Moss Haven.

Last night was the party and it was huge! The rain, which had been popping in and out all day long, stayed away. The nice temperature and the cool breeze made being outside until about 11:30 PM feel really nice.

Last night about 60 of my closest friends and I ate, drank and danced the night away.

I know what I’m buying at next years auction.

TAKS Happenings

As my students sat diligently working on their TAKS exam, I simply sat and spent time watching. I hadn’t been watching very long when I decided to make a list of the different things I saw and post it here.

The Things I saw during the TAKS Test

· Kids working hard
· Pencils being flown around the test paper like a rocket ship.
· A girl whose vacant stare and sheepish grin told me she was miles away having a great time.
· A boy picking his nose, looking around the room to make sure nobody was watching, and then wiping a huge chunk of something under his desk.
· A fairly lengthy finger puppet play…complete with one hand actually talking to the other.
· Frightened eyes
· Several blank stares
· Some quite sneaky attempts at what I can only assume was designed to be some kind of sign language between two girls. Both of whom instantly snapped to attention and got back to work the moment I cleared my throat.

And of course…
· A girl, who the nose picking boy didn’t see watching, looking like she might become violently ill.

Questions I need answered...

How do you tactfully tell a parent that you feel their child needs to be tested for special education?

How do you help a child after you’ve called CPS twice, without any real results?

What do you say to a boy who gleefully announces to the whole class that he eats his boogers, and then proceeds to demonstrate?

What do you say to this same boy’s parents when they ask you why he doesn’t have any friends?

How can a male teacher tell a girl in his class that she needs to start wearing a bra?

How do you help a child care about school if her father died this year and her mother has cancer?

How can you help an overweight child like herself?

Bar Mitzvah

Melissa, Macy and I had an unusual treat yesterday. We got to attend a bar mitzvah ceremony at Temple Emanu-El here in Dallas. Temple Emanu-El is a Reform Jewish community. I won’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of what that means, but suffice it to say, three gentiles felt both very welcomed and very comfortable being there.

This was Nick’s bar mitzvah. We got to know Nick and his family through a twisted web of circumstances. Nick is a friend of Macy’s that she met through the brother of her friend Casey. Casey’s parents have both worked with and been friends with Nick’s family for many years. A couple of years ago, after Casey’s family moved to our street, they started having semi-regular poker parties and it was at these parties that we first met Nick’s family.

Don’t ask me to think through that again!

Back to the bar mitzvah.

I wrote before about an interfaith worship service that Melissa and I attended at Temple Emanu-El here. It was at that service that I first encountered Rabbi David Stern. Rabbi Stern is truly an incredible person. (You can read about him here.) He is very personable, very friendly and very open-minded. Nothing like the picture of Rabbis that was painted in my mind by years of Southern Baptist Sunday school lessons.

What I was able to conclude was that this bar mitzvah was a special Shabbat Shalom service in which Nick, after much training, was able to help lead. Much of the service was in Hebrew, which I do not speak. However, using the prayer book, I was able to either follow along in English, or I could simply listen to and meditate on the Hebrew.

I don’t mind telling you that I found the whole service incredibly worshipful. Enough so, that I’m thinking about going back from time to time just to sit through a Shabbat Shalom service. I may even try to take Gordon next time he’s in Dallas.

Wouldn’t that be a kick!

Hugh-Go Boss

My father-in-law is the manager of two Ebby Haliday offices here in Dallas. One of his offices moved into a new office space just off McKinney Ave. in the Up-Town area of Dallas. The new office is gorgeous and has quickly become Ebby’s new signature office.

A couple of weeks ago they had a grand opening party, and being family, we scored an invitation. I wrote about my father-in-law and his “magnetic” personality here. However, what I possibly failed to mention was the fact that the man can throw a serious party.

All the “movers and shakers,” of Dallas, both young and old, were there…along with me. Now I’ve been known, on occasion to move, and when it gets cold I tend to shake, but baby, this wasn’t my normal crowd.

Melissa and I were excited to go, if for nothing else the people watching. We got a glass of wine, sat back and enjoyed the view. It was really a lot of fun.

We were on our way out the door when we noticed there was a small auction. You buy a ticket for ten bucks and you have the chance to win one of about 15 different things. The money all went to a Dallas area shelter of some sort, and the top item was a Hugo Boss suit. It was a good cause, so I bought two tickets.

We’re driving home when we get the call that I won the 800 dollar, Hugo Boss Suit!

The suit I ended getting is basic black with three-buttons. I picked it up last Saturday, and baby, it is sweeeeet! I’ve only owned a few suits in my life, but up until now the most I’ve paid for a suit has been about $300. My thinking was always, “How different can they be?” However, I must admit…I can feel a difference. Maybe it’s the thread count, maybe it’s the weight of the material, and maybe it’s just the way I feel when I have it on. Whatever the reason, I just can’t wait to wear it.

After much thinking and shopping I ended up getting a white, French cuff shirt, that I can wear with most any tie I have, and a light teal green shirt with a mostly green tie.

I wore it for the first time when I took my wife to the Turtle Creek Mansion for dinner and on our anniversary. We also spent the night there. If you ever have the chance to dine or stay there we both highly recommend it.

If I get a chance I’ll post a picture…we’ll see.

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!

I need some help…For an end of the year cheer, I’m rewriting the words of the Monkees TV show theme song.

“Hey, hey we’re the Monkees,
People say we monkey around…”

That one…

I realize that none of my students will have any idea what they’re singing, but it’s really more for the parents.

Anyway, what I would like to have is a copy of the music, (mp3 or whatever) with and without the words. That way I could let the class hear the real song, then give them the new words, but still be able to use the music to sing with.

We could do it A cappella, but having the music keeps us from singing it at double, or even triple the intended speed.

I’ve found the mp3 on the web, but I haven’t been able to find it without the words.

The link below is one site where you can download the mp3. If you, or anyone you know has the ability to somehow remove the voices from the song and send it back to me that would be great.

Just send it to: thirdgrademind@kinson.ws

A link is: http://www.mp3raid.com/search/mp3/monkees.html

Thanks, from my whole class…

TAKS Day

It’s here again…testing day. For the third and fifth graders it’s the first of three chances to pass the reading test. For my fourth graders it’s the writing test, but they only get one shot.

For the most part I’m not too worried. I’ve got a few really good writers who could pass this test in their sleep, (but let’s hope they don’t try that) a bunch of kids who can concentrate and do well, and a couple who need some extra prayers.

If you know any TAKS day prayers, say one for my class today.

Many uses for a pencil...

Sometimes in life you witness the most amazing things…and sometimes the bizarre images that are translated through your rods and cones both baffle and disgust you.

Case in point:

When I teach reading there are times when the whole class is doing stuff together, and there are times when I’m reading with a small group and the rest of the students are working independently on reading activities centered around a story or sometimes a couple of stories.

I’m at my half-moon reading table, reading with a group of five students when something causes my focus to shift and I catch a glimpse of Drako.

Drako is holding his pencil and is also quite engrossed in the reading activity he was working on, which is exactly what I like to see in a student. However, it wasn’t Drako’s work habits that caught my attention, it was his pencil.

On his pencil he had one of those colored erasers you buy and stick on the end. I glanced up just in time to watch the whole eraser vanish up his nose. That’s right, UP HIS NOSE!

It jammed up there, twisted two or three times and popped back out. Then it moved over and repeated the whole process, game, nasal-fixation ritual, or whatever you want to call it, and popped back out. After that it moved back to the original nostril and started over. I’d say he hit each side of his nose four to five times, but the whole thing only lasted about 15-20 seconds.

But baby, it felt like an eternity to me.

It was one of those things so startling and so gross that you want desperately to avert your eyes, but for some reason you body won’t let you turn away.

So I’m sitting there, thanking my lucky stars for a high gag reflex tolerance, when he pops the eraser right smack-dab in his mouth.



And you thought pencils were just for writing…shame on you!

What is it?

What is it that convinces a child that he’s safer out on the streets late at night than he would be at home?


Being a teacher I get to see some of the most amazing and wonderful sights. I see miracles every day. It’s mind-boggling to think that these young minds that I’m working with will someday be the adults who are running our world. However, being a teacher I am also forced to witness some of the most depressing and disheartening sights you could ever imagine.

It’s a dichotomy that embraces and warms my soul, while at the same time it rips my heart to tiny shreds and grinds its mangled pieces into the ground.

What is it that keeps me coming back? I love being a small stop on the journey of these young minds. Being allowed to watch these young lives evolve, become mature and take flight is an incredible gift. It’s a gift that I thank God for every day.

But it’s the child for whom school is the only safe place he has that keeps me coming back.

What's new in your school?

What’s new in Texas public schools you ask? Well, you might be surprised.

After all the promises our not so beloved governor made prior reelection, the one thing that has trickled down to the schools is some kind of no competition for school lunches act.

Yes, you read that right!

It seems that we teachers have been doing things that, in the minds of the idiots in Austin, directly compete with the sale of school lunches. Who cares if what we’re doing has any educational value, because that’s not what school’s all about! I mean sure, we want “No Child Left Behind,” but only if we can make a few bucks at the same time.

So here’s what’s taken the ax so far under this wonderful piece of legislation; Our traditional, parent prepared Thanksgiving feast, our end of the six weeks, good behavior pizza parties, the occasional sweet treat reward, (a Hershey Kiss or something similar) the end of school class picnic, parents bringing lunch to school for any child except their own, and basically anything that involves providing something consumable to the students.

You may be wondering how they could get away with this, but our state legislators are a sneaky bunch. It seems they disguised this “get rich quick scheme” as an attempt to try to keep our state’s children healthy. However, when you say you want our children to be eating nutritious meals and then have dozens of different kinds of chips, ice cream and snack cake treats on point of purchase displays right there in the school cafeteria, well that’s just not a push for healthy eating.

The state’s top nutrition experts decided years ago that schools can no longer sell candy to children, because a Snicker’s Bar, for example, has no nutritional value. However, since ice cream has milk, Little Debbie snack cakes have eggs and Nacho Cheese Doritos have corn they fall under the umbrella of what the state of Texas considers to be, healthy foods. Never mind the fact that Blue Bell, Little Debbie and Doritos have most of our states legislators in their back pockets, they contain, milk, eggs and corn…so as far as the state’s concerned, they’re better than freakin’ vitamins!

Combine that with the fact that there are no limits to the number of these items that a child is allowed to buy and you have a sharp contrast the whole idea of healthy eating. I have even seen school cafeteria workers encouraging children to purchase more than one snack item.

So what can we do about this? I don’t really know. Sadly, teachers’ voices are rarely, if ever, listened to in Austin, at least where matters of education are concerned. What I can do is start my own boycott. That’s right, a boycott! It seems to be all about money, and what I can do is not give them any more of mine.

I realize that mine is only one small family…

but change has to start somewhere.