Random Responses

Well, this is just to kill some time while I am working on writing about my goals in my teaching career and at the same time possibly introducing some new reading material to the few people who actually read this. Maybe you will be able to find something more entertaining from this. (There are a couple of links to other blogs, if you don't want your blog linked, let me know and I will remove it. However, you are probably the only people reading this anyway, so you shouldn't have to worry).

From the blog of a friend: We put things on this giant set of tubes because we want other people to read the things we put here. The premise of this quote (read the blog though) is that people want to be famous. In a response to this, I agreed, but to a lesser extent because of my educational background. As a teacher, I have been taught to believe (and strongly agree with) the principals of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I think fame is a component for some, but for most, it is to fulfil the need of acceptance and communication. This intrigues me and scares me at the same time.

A semi-related tangent to technology: I teach and coach at a local high school. I asked the girls (frosh) if they thought they could survive without technology. Their reactions were interesting. Most of them said they could do without TV; they don't watch it much (I disagree based on the conversations I have heard about Laguna Beach, amoung others). Having to live without computers or cell phones was not even fathomable to them. When I further added that we would have no cars or electricity, what would they do? Most of them agreed that they would kill themselves. I can understand that response since we are in Las Vegas. If I had no A/C, I would probably want to kill myself as well. I think that I was raised with enough common sense to figure things out and hold my own in a technologically absent world. Plus, I was raised in the sticks and I am one-quarter Iroqouis, so I have an advantage over most city folk.

Not that I am without fault: When I think back to when I was 14, TV was a big part of my life. Television similar to this video was what I lived for on Sunday afternoons. Among other things, I have viewed some of the commercials that were marketed towards me as a kid and I am not really too much different than these kids, their toys just have a lot more bells and whistles attatched to them. I joke with them that I am so old, that the only two toys my brother and I had were called "stick" and "rock". The game was simple: someone threw a rock at the head of the person with the stick and the other person had to hit it or get hit with the rock. Technology is probably a good thing...

One scary thing about technology is when people can find you. If you already haven't, Google your name. Try variations, including Mr. (insert last name). Also try searcing in images. I find that I have some links to some letters I wrote to the RGJ years ago. I also found some old interviews and sports statistics from various prep websites. I even have a pictures of me bribing the President. It was not a real bribe, nor was it the real President. It could bother me that a picture of me from 5 years ago along with these other things are still on the web. These all now become permanent records that anyone can find, so people need to be careful about what they write. The ony thing that bothers me is seeing that although it was starting to go, my hair was thicker than it is now.

The one scary thing that I found was that someone with my exact same name was arrested and convicted of possessing with intent to sell cocaine in Michigan. I always wonder what will happen if I get pulled over or since I am a teacher what would happen if there were ever a case of mistaken identity. It should also be interesting since I am flying to Ann Arbor to watch the Michigan Wolverines play the Iowa Hawkeyes in October and I know I will be drinking probably more than I should.

If this blog format looks somewhat familiar, yes I am stealing ideas. I do not have enough of a technological background to figure things out, yet. I can see something I like and hit the help button to figure how to roughly imitate and get the results that I want out of things, though.