puzzle-ing

Back in June, Finbar had to have an ambulatory EEG done, which means he had electrodes on his head & no showers for 3 days.

Which, in turn, meant a strict "no sweating" rule.

Which, in turn, meant  "stay-inside-funtime."

So we played way too many video games, watched a few movies, got on the floor to play "marble war," in which one tries to knock down the other's army men w/ just a marble. It's probably more fun than it sounds, & I can tell you all the rules if you're interested.

Anyway . . .

We bought a really cool box full o' puzzles, Disney-style & put a few of 'em together.

So, last night before we watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid, we decided to put together the 500-piece Buzz & Woody puzzle, the biggest of 'em all.

Look at these photos:

















You can't really get a good look here, but just believe me, they are pretty small pieces--500 for a puzzle that measures about 18" x 10."

Notice anything interesting?

How about here?

















Detail of Buzz:


Anyway . . . after about a 1/2-hour I realized that every durn piece is the exact same shape. I mean, there were minor variations, but the same size, the same "2-outies" north & south & "2 innies" east & west (or vice versa). Look back & the photos.

Guess what? This makes a puzzle pretty durn hard to do . . . except for the "edge" pieces & by color, there's no real way to tell 'em apart. You can't just say "I need a piece w/ 3 prongs" or whatever, cuz, I'll repeat, "they are all the same shape."

Frustration followed my realization. Then I simply saw it as a better challenge.

SCHOOL-TYPE TEACHABLE MOMENT ALERT!!!

I note that we makes these discoveries every day, that things that seemed pretty easy are actually difficult. Every once in a while, it goes the other way, but it seems things usually just get more & more challenging.

& we rise to the challenge.

We sit back, take a deep breath, & attack that durn puzzle with a new outlook. We take a look in the mirror & prepare ourselves to work a little harder if necessary.

The renowned author Michael Jordan once title a book I Can't Accept Not Trying.


One of my favorite fictional characters once said, "Do or do not. There is no 'try.'"

Heck, even Woody from the photo below says, "There's a snake in my boot!"

Well, maybe that last one doesn't fit, but the others do.

The 5 of us worked on it (don't tell Cedric, but honesty means I must say he did very little).

(& Aodhan put in only a few pieces.)

(& newly-7 Finbar was more into his Legos.)

(But they all hung around, & we had fun.)

So, Linda & I worked for a while, finished about 10 minutes later than we wanted to. We high-fived as a family, watched some Wimpy Kid, ate some birthday cake, had a good time.

(Yes, this is "old-people" family-time fun.)

LESSON: take the challenge. Make up new challenges when there are none. If you finish 10 minutes late, work harder the next time.

Yeah, life is all about adaptation, acceptance, & a few other words that begin with the letter "A," & this blog entry has taken on a life of its own, but I hope you got something from it.

Completion:



Be cool.

superfast jellyfish

Let me take this time & space to give a shout-out to the Cucamonga Cakery, the place at which dreams come true.

As you may have noticed, my kids simply rule. But, as part of this "ruling," they sometimes go way outside the proverbial "box" and cause Linda & me a few problems.

Case in point:  for his 4th birthday, Cedric decided he simply must have a "Plastic Beach Party."

(See, Gorillaz is his favorite band, taking over for KISS earlier this year).

Easier said than done.

One does not go to Party America or Michael's to get the Plastic Beach gear necessary for a full-on 4-year-old's party. We grabbed a few inflatable palm trees & "tiki" cups, but my man wanted Gorillaz gear.

Enter Cucamonga Cakery.

We were told that Ced's dream could come true, & we gave them carte blanche to create the ultimate Gorillaz cake.

& they succeeded. Evidence follows:

So, we ate the incredible cake, played the censored version of Gorillaz songs, & had one really fine heckuva time.

Much of which was made possible by . . .

Cucamonga Cakery Co.

9255 Baseline Road, Suite A
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

Anyway . . .

Today juniors did "Reading Pretty Closely Too," a look at the letters from Elizabeth & Alphonse, as well as The Creature's story. Good times there.

Sophomores read & responded to "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket," in which Tom Benecke's important paper flies out his 11th-story window, & chaos ensues.

But he learns a lesson in life, his identity-search complete.

For Monday: several of you will present books, & you received the page of advice today. The rest of you will present on the coming Mondays. For Tuesday, you will bring in SEVEN of the seventeen Seminar-prep answers.

As for sophomores . . . we will discuss the story & fill in a plot chart to begin our short-story unit.

Enjoy your weekend.

& be cool.

pneumonia, birthday, historian?

AC/DC, Iron Man 2

This started a summer of AC/DC, a band I had not spent much time with for a few years.  We bought this soundtrack because the kids liked the cover & it came with a ticket to the movie.

Film OK, album excellent.

[Includes "Shoot to Thrill," "Thunderstruck," "If You Want Blood," & the greatest of their great songs, "Let There Be Rock."]

As for the day's title . . . bad news: according to the doctor's reading of his chest x-ray, Cedric officially has pneumonia.

The good news: Finbar is 7, & he is quite excited to "be" a new number.

As for Aodhan, he's running for the office of "historian" in the Student Senate at Carnelian.

[& it's Kirk Herbstreit's birthday, too!!]

So, big day all around.

Juniors got the Socratic seminar prep sheet: remember that you will answer your choice of SEVEN questions for TUESDAY. Also, you finished up "Reading Pretty Closely," and many of you volunteered to present your "other" books Monday.

Sophomores got 3 books from the library, 2 of which stay home for now. The Literature and Language Arts textbook, in fact,  comes back with you to school the last week before finals to be returned to the library. You'll need the Vocabulary Workshop books in 2 weeks.

For tomorrow, make sure you bring pages 3-24 from the Holt Interactive Reader--these are the pages of "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket." Also, hold onto the "Reading Literature/Plot chart" handout.

The wheels are turning, things are moving, we teach, learn, and enjoy each day.

Be cool.

forward to Friday

Iron Maiden, The Final Frontier

Their best since  Seventh Son, seriously.

I got to school before 7, made my copies, & prepared to sit with the other sophomore English teachers in yet another workshop that would lead to something that maybe meant nothing, at least until anything else came along.

But, things actually happened.

We didn't just complain about what we can't do.

We got stuff done.

We came up with ideas that have the potential to make things better.

In the very near future, we will introduce a pretty cool system geared toward improving your education as well as our API.

Stay tuned . . .

& listen to some Maiden--you are guaranteed a history lesson along with your head-banging.

Up the Irons!!

& . . .

be cool

(by the way, Finbar turns 7 at 10:09 AM tomorrow)

I'd like to jest infinitely

This is what I think of when I think of "grunge."

Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger.

By somewhat popular demand, here are the books I referenced today. Also, I maintain a list at the teacherweb site.

Come on, let's talk & write about books.

Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead. I judged this one by its cover, & I was justified.

The View from the Seventh Layer, also by Brockmeier. Short stories. Very cool.

Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. The masterpiece. This one is absolutely brutal, brilliant.

NOTE: SOME MATERIAL MAY BE CONSIDERED OBJECTIONABLE BY SOME READERS.

Juniors: we discussed the idea of writing a "paper" about a "book," and several folks provided great ideas about character, theme, sources, and style. I really enjoyed this, as we considered ideas, style, and structure of essay writing. Have your novel with you tomorrow, as you will do small-group open-book close-reading exercises.

Sophomores: we talked about our favorite fictional characters, including Yoda, , Twister, Stimpy, Brian Griffin, Eric Cartman, and the fantastic Atticus Finch. Bring your writing shoes tomorrow as you will revise your timed essay from Friday. Also have the orange sheet I gave you today to remind you of possible errors. Everyone will re-write, as there were no perfect papers.

So, make them better.

& be cool.

a 2nd week begins, a 1st Monday

John 5, The Art of Malice

A really cool album title. It's a kind of "instrumental autobiography.''

If you haven't heard of John 5, by the way, he has played with Rob Halford, the DLR Band with David Lee Roth, Leah Andreone, and about a thousand others.

Oh, and he went from "John Lowery" to "John 5" when he joined Marilyn Manson.

Tremendously talented guy.

Also, Cedric says he's going to dress up like that for Halloween.

My kids rule.

As for class, we went over course outlines, and there is officially no excuse for a student not to know what is going on.

Juniors had some good discussion about Frankenstein's relevance in 2010, William the Catalyst, the "implausible" and the plausible within the narrative, and Sonya's horrible attempted thesis.

Sophomores got all their Outside Reading information. Capitalized for emphasis.

It was good.

Be cool.