My son, Jeff, graduated from Seneca in 1991, while I was teaching at Louisville Manual Magnet School, and he had also heard it all and was very much aware of the North Dakota thing. He later got to know one of my former students, Rob, and began hanging with Rob's group of close friends. North Dakota came up and Jeff remarked that their really is no North Dakota. A number of the group turns and said something like, “Not you , too.” Jeff replied, “where do you think Rob got that stuff? From my dad.”

Rob related to me a story of how he and his friend, another of my former Seneca pupils, Susan, got into a discussion of how to pronounce the capital city of South Dakota. They even went so far as to call the governor's office to ask. When the receptionist answered the phone they actually asked to talk to the governor to solve their disagreement. Amazingly, the receptionist informed them that the Governor was out of town but they could speak to the Lt. Governor if they liked. You must be kidding me. When else and where else other than 1990's South Dakota can that happen. They were thrilled and asked the Lt. Governor how to pronounce his capital city. “Peer,” he said. I don't who won the argument. They conversed with the Lt. Governor for a few minutes and finally said, “ we had a history teacher who claimed that North Dakota was a myth and did not exist. Without hesitating, the Lt. Governor of South Dakota replied, “ As far as I can tell, he is absolutely right.” does it get any better than that. Now I have over 800 Facebook friends, about half of which are former pupils of mine and the concept has gone, at least in a local sense, viral.

MY TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

It took a few years to develop my teaching philosophy and, to be honest, with all the education classes I took, with all the practice I had, and with the semester of student teaching I took, when I got my own classroom I still didn't have a clue as to what I was doing. I remember the first class I taught by myself. It was not an auspicious beginning. I was acting like the big tough dude and what I really was was the big scared dude. At least I was big. Those first classes, unfortunately, were my laboratory and the students occasionally suffered for it.

I had been told by the old timers, “Never smile until Easter.” So, being a brand new teacher, I really laid down the law with firm words and dire warnings about what would happen if my charges defied my will. I was really playing the tough guy. I was also told that I should engage my students in discussion and honor their ideas as if there were actually right. I worked very hard to get my student to speak and contribute to the non-existent discussions in class. But I noticed that when I came into room, everyone got really quiet and really still. After some weeks I finally got the kids to start talking. I asked why they had been so reticent to take part in discussing anything class. As it turns out my rule making and warning had been much more successful than I had anticipated. They told me they were afraid to breathe, let alone venture an opinion about anything. I also discovered that I had a much better rapport with all my students if I engaged them honestly and respectfully; even to the point of telling them that I may have been a little harsh in my initial disciplinary rantings. 

Another revelation was that they had no idea that it was my first year of teaching and how scared I was. I started teaching when I was 25, after having served time in the US Army. Some of that self assurance gained obviously was apparent. I was also married with a child, thus was not your typical “just out of college teacher. Those classes turned out to really great classes and they are wonderful memories for me.

Within a few years I had developed, often by trial and many errors, a message that worked for me. 1. “You will be expected” is a much better statement for their behavior than, “Thou shalt not” 2. You will be expected to take an active part in class and for those of you who are shy, you may take part by actively listening. You will be expected to respect others by listening when they are talking and respecting others opinions even it is wrong, in your opinion. One can disagree respectfully 3. I am a human being with a family, (one son, at the time) and I get hungry, so if you see me in the grocery store try not to feel awkward, because I have to buy food. 4. I have a very good sense of humor and and if you say something funny in the classroom, I will laugh. I will laugh even harder if the humor is appropriate to the subject matter at hand.

Andy, a very capable and quick thinking young man, made a very appropriate statement about our subject and it was even a clever shot at the teacher. I was telling about the Gilded Age of the late 19^th Century America that developed among the rich during the American Industrial Revolution . The very rich often lived a very showy, even ostentatious, lifestyle. Andy raised his hand and when recognized (Hey, I know you) said” Mr. McAdams, I think that if one uses the word ostentatious, he is ostentatious. I laughed, the class laughed and Andy beamed with pride. “Great point,” I said, you have an 'A' for the day. I really got to love that stuff.

I became a very popular teacher with the teens and I championed many of their causes, which occasionally got me in some hot water with the administration because some administrators had an “us against them” mind set. I wrote very few referrals and my students and I thrived together in mutual care and respect. In some cases we survived .

The question then becomes, “what approach should a teacher take as far as the subject matter is concerned. Clearly, that depends a lot on the subject matter and what is required to master the subject and on the nature of the class. For example, In algebra class it is essential to do a lot of memorization of equations. In Chemistry, one must know formulas, and in Geometry, theorems. In history it is not nearly as important to do a lot of memorization of exact quotes, exact dates, speeches and laws. Names of laws sometimes were important and a good understanding of cause and effect on everything is helpful, but my students could live a very fulfilling life even if they did not learn a lot of History. History, in the big scheme of things, is a minor life skill. English grammar, math and science are much more important for survival in our society. There are three basic life skills in History class I wanted my students to have at their disposal 1. A lust of learning that would carry over into all phases of life. 2. Critical thinking skills lessons to be learned from studying History that can help them learn even more in the future 3. An appreciation of who they are and why they are who they are. This is the reason History is important or, in case someone goes on a game show 4. Enough History facts ( a very slippery word) that will provide an overall foundation in the subject if they choose to go that way.

Thus, my biggest questions started with the words , “why, do you think that?, what is your opinion on? Do you thinks this was handled in the best manner and, followed up again by the that student frightening word. “why.” And the most dreaded of all, discuss the assets and liabilities of, and, the second hated phrase, give specific reasons for your conclusions.

This philosophy carried over into testing. Yes testing, which is often hated by students and teachers alike. Even though multiple choice items are frowned upon by certain folks in the field of formal education, I found them to be very useful in evaluating a student grasp of the subject matter. Poor test questions often evaluate trivial learning.  Typical multiple choice question often started like, “In what year did, who of the following said, who was the leading general at,” Well you get the picture I preferred stems like the following for multiple choice questions, “Which of the following statements best describes," “Which of the following factors led the leading general at Gettysburg to command Picket to charge the center of the Union forces."  These are a totally different kind of test items. One requires a basic knowledge of facts, the other requires the same plus analytical and critical thinking skills. Even thinking, concentration skills and observation skills can be tested with multiple choice items. For example, “Which of the following statements least describes Washington decision to put down the Whisky Rebellion?" Be careful of those negative concepts that require attentive reading.

My bottom line philosophy? I eventually figured out that I needed to go into each class period with the vow to respect each student as a thinking entity with feelings and pride until I am proven wrong. It worked for me but not necessarily for every teacher.

One of the things I had on my side was the awareness of personal humbleness and being armed with the knowledge that in every classroom, there were many people smarter than I and some that would make a lot more money than I did in my lifetime. that some would become famous, usually for good things they did.

I was a big tease and often had some sharp barbs for students and I always made it clear to them at the beginning of the year that I would probably tease you often this year and you are perfectly welcome and safe in doing so to me. For the most part, they took me up on that and it was great. They deserved my best shot at making their goals and life choices easier and part of that was to be able to engage with adults in respectful banter.

Summed up quickly, I wanted my students to love learning and I wanted to give them the skills to do so. Some classes were tougher than others to institute that love and those skills. Having students who are grouped together in homogenous classes, I.e. Advanced, Honors, Regular and Remedial, I found that some groups were harder to motivate than others. In my experience, the “better,” sometimes more popular teachers and occasionally those with an in with the administration, eventually get the higher rated classes even though the other classes are ones that need the more motivated and motivating educators. Those “lesser” classes are a bit more difficult to build that urge to learn and the desire to work hard enough to acquire the skills to learn. They often feel forgotten, with seems to tend to have a lack of hope for high achievements. It was inevitable that in the “regular” classes, when the lust for learning kicked in in a student, it was always a big thrill to me.

I actually have an advantage with the Non-advanced, honors program student because, 1- I was a very bad high school student and 2- I was willing to admit this to my students. They are able to see a person like themselves who, at least, in their eyes, achieved. I was often asked to give them a break on a grade because I had experienced bad grades. My answer to those request was, sorry, nobody gave me those breaks, but I think you can do well yourself and I am willing to help you improve.

It all comes down to the kids and whether a teacher can hit the right nerve or nerves. Sometime we can and sometimes we can't and sometimes that is very sad.

Vivian and I had brunch with a fellow teacher and two former students at Wild Eggs.  Fun time and great memories.  Good to see you Krishna, Kelli and Phyllis.  Krisna's friend, Brian, also joined us.

During my tenure as a softball coach at Manual, we played a team who really wasn't very good and there was never a chance that we were going to lose. I was coaching first base and their first base person obviously had never played at that level and her fundamentals needed work. I began giving her tips and showed her how to position herself for left and right handed players how to receive a throws from the infield and where to throw in certain situations.

During the game our catcher, Amy, was coming into score and the opposing pitcher, not knowing that Amy had crossed the plate, took the relay throw and turned and whipped the ball to the catcher and inadvertently hit Amy in the head, who, thankfully, was still wearing her helmet. Amy, as it turned out, was fine. After checking to see if Amy was OK, I started walking back to first base and noticed that the opposing pitcher was distraught and crying. The opposing coach and I went to the mound and determined that she was upset about the incident and wanted to quit. I assured her that Amy was fine and even had Amy tell her so. Amy said  , “oh, I am fine” and the pitcher composed herself and continued. Chuck had also done much of the same kind of thing.

A number of days later, Chuck and I, during our planning period, were called to the Principals office, usually a very bad sign. We walked down together trying to figure what we had done wrong. When we arrived he had us sit down and said that a parent had left a note to him on her way to work and he thought that he needed to read it to us and that we also needed to discuss the situation.  As he began reading we came to understand that this was a note from a mother of one of the players on the team we had played. We also determined that, in spite of the stern demeanor and tone of voice, that this was a letter of praise for the two of us stating that she had never seen such concern and sportsmanship in opposing coaches and that we were great role models for young women in sports and taught that there are more important things than winning and losing.  Joe, Our principal looked up, smiled and said "keep up the good work."  Some things are worth it.

Peter Ping Pong

You may remember that I was a sucker for a sad story when kids could not get a coach or sponsor for a sport or organization. I was approached one year by a group of students who wanted to start a Ping Pong club but our Principal had told them they needed a sponsor to use the gym after school. I jump at the chance because I fashioned myself and pretty fair ping pong player and would love to play and participate in this. We met a couple of time a week in the “Big" gym and it was a lot of fun. AS it turned out, I was pretty good, at least in this crowd. Word got around about the club and my playing ability and most of my kids would say, "I'm never going to play you in ping pong."  My head began to swell a bit and an aura of invincibility overcame me.

Please let me introduce you to Peter, who I will name, Peter Ping Pong. Peter was a very serious, high achieving and competitive second generation chinese immigrant who was even competitive in classroom discussions, and if I challenged him to do some silly thing like balancing a yard stick on his nose,(I could do it easily) he went home and worked at it until he could do it. He was, at the same time, quiet and introspective, respectful and polite. After a few weeks of ping pong, Peter stayed a few second after class and said to me, “ I hear you are a really good ping pong player.” Being me, instead of being humble, said, “Yeah, I guess I am pretty good.” In Peter's kindest way he said that he would love to play me sometime. We arranged a day after school and went down for the games. I got my special paddle that I brought from home and I noticed Peter taking a paddle out of a padded pouch. I thought that was pretty ostentatious. We began to warm up and get more serious and I noted that Peter handles himself rather well at the table. Finally near the end of the warm-up period, I had the opportunity to hit a monster slam to his backhand. He was standing 3 or 4 feet away from the table and caught the ball a foot or so off the floor and fired a more vicious backhand to my backhand and caught the tip of the corner. I never knew what hit me. We played two games and I believe the score were something like 21-4 and 21-5, I improved the second game. After two, I confided to Peter that I was sure that neither of us were probably enjoying the games. Peter in his most polite manner said, “Thank you, mister McAdams for taking your time with me. I'm pretty sure he was not mocking me, PRETTY sure.

RODNEY ROACH AND THE MEN'S “LOUNGE”

For many years the teacher's lounges at Seneca were separated lounges with women using one and men using the other. I either never knew or can't remember if that was by design or by evolution, but the rules were not strictly enforced and I spend some time in both. The Men's lounge, and I use the word lounge with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, was a room not much larger than a big closet. It was about 6 feet by twelve feet and back in the time when almost everyone smoked, it was often filled with ten to 15 men smoking cigarettes as quickly as possible because we would hurry down and smoke during class breaks. . As one gazed through the tobacco haze one could observe hot ashes of about an inch hanging from cigarettes. I will assure that, with the correct timing, combined with years of experience and practice, a relatively healthy person, usually a man, could go two or three hundred feet to the lounge in a busy hallway duck into the lounge, suck, enthusiastically on a cigarette, dash back to the classroom with seconds to spare. There were amazing happenings and tall tales going on in the lounge all the time and one thing a teacher tried not to do was to draw attention to themselves for anything positive or negative because that teacher would be in danger of receiving serious and embarrassing attention the following day. I shall relate some of those in the chapter “?????????????”

besides smoking in the “lounge there was a tiny bathroom with barely enough room for a toilet and basin and we often ate our lunches in the lounges and reveled in the “I can top that one” stories that were constantly present.

One day the Principal came in and made the observation that smoking on that room was dangerous because we might accidentally start a five. At this point, you need to know that the room had smoked stained concrete block walls and non-flammable, and usually un-repaired furniture. We pointed this out and he drew our attention to the intercom speaker that had been stuffed with those brown bathroom paper towels because the volume on the speakers rivaled that of a concert by “The Who.” It was located in the ceiling 14 feet above the floor. We all then tried to flip lit cigarettes up to the speaker but never succeeded. This was about the time that busing had been instituted in Louisville and the men were required to wear neckties and all teachers had to wear identifications tags.

The Principal directed us to stop smoking, and eating in the lounge. Within a few days there appeared on a small side table an enormous roach (about 15 inches long and 6 inches wide with large fierce looking teeth and fangs, with a cigarette in his mouth, wearing a tie and a tiny, nearly exact replica of the official name tag issued by the Board of Education. The name tag read Rodney Roach but the greatest of the characteristic of Rodney, was that his immense body was constructed, are you ready, with brown lunch bags. Rodney became a cherished Icon and remained in the lounge for a number of year before old age and decomposition final spelled his demise.

Everyone, meet Jill.  Jill was a great young lady and is a great person,  today.  During the school year when she was my student, Jill entered and won the Kentucky Junior Miss competition.  Because of this, Jill was able to compete on the national level against girls from other states.

When she arrived they gave her a roommate assignment.  Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to which state her roommate hailed?  You're right, she was a proud inhabitant of NORTH DAKOTA.  Jill, of course, related to her roommate my claims about the mythical North Dakota and it was discussed between them.   

When Jill returned to school on Monday, the first thing she told me was the fact of her North Dakota roommate.  Of course, I had to deny that it was true.  I'm sure I used a number of rationalizations such as, her roommate was a liar, Jill was a liar, Jill's roommate only thought that she lived in North Dakota, the whole weekend never happened and Jill dreamed it all, etc.  All done in good fun.  

Jill taught for some time in Texas before returning to the bluegrass.  Welcome back, Jill.

More on the No North Dakota theory
A number of years after he graduated, a former student, Rob, related a story to me

Rob said that he and his friend, another of my former Seneca pupils, Susan, got into a discussion of how to pronounce the capital city of South Dakota. They even went so far as to call the SD governor's office to ask. When the receptionist answered the phone they actually asked to talk to the governor to solve their disagreement. Amazingly, the receptionist informed them that the Governor was out of town but they could speak to the Lt. Governor if they liked. You must be kidding me. When else and where else other than 1990's South Dakota can that happen. They were thrilled and asked the Lt. Governor how to pronounce his capital city. “Peer,” he said. I don't who won the argument. They conversed with the Lt. Governor for a few minutes and finally said, “ we had a history teacher who claimed that North Dakota is a myth and does not exist. Without hesitating, the Lt Governor  replied, “ As far as I can tell, he is absolutely right.” does it get any better than that?  I have over 800 Facebook friends, about half of which are former pupils of mine and the concept has gone, at least in a local sense, viral.

Forty years ago, on this date, Louisville, Kentucky was struck by a very destructive F3 tornado that took a long path south of the downtown area.  It was after school and I was coaching girls track at that time.  I notice the sky getting very dark and foreboding and decided to stop track practice and send the girls home.  After making sure they had transportation I went back into the building just in time to hear the principal announce that there was a tornado in the area and for all people to abandon the building and go home.

If you are familiar with the structure of Seneca High School, you will know that the building is made up of  thick steel reinforced, concrete, exterior walls.  In other words, a bomb shelter.  Short of being in a cave, there are few places safer than in that building.  Bad call on that one Mr Principle.

I really wasn't any better.  I decided I needed to get home to take care my family.  I drove home to J-town scanning the skies along the way, which crossed the path that the tornado had taken.  There was no damage at that point and so I was unaware.  I came screeching into my driveway and my wife and two children were in the front yard.  I jumped out of the car and Vivian said, "Are you crazy, you could have been killed.  There's a tornado in the area."  So much for the conquering hero bit.  My heart goes out to the family who suffered the lose of property and worse, the lose of a family member or loved one.

In my first year of teaching, I was amazingly enthusiastic and naive.  I dressed very well and had gathered a large array of shirts, pants and ties for my job.  My mother-in-law gave a beautiful silk tie  of which I was very proud.

One very hot, September  day while teaching a study hall in the large cafeteria, the custodial staff brought in a couple of very large fans on  stands and turned them on.  Since it was pre-air conditioning,  the room was sweltering.  After a little time and young lady suggested that I change the direction of one of the fans to better cover the  students.  I thought that was a great idea and walked to the fan, grasped the pole supporting the fan to move it and because of the power of the fan , it sucked my tie into the fan and shredded it, I mean, really shredded it.

There I stood with a shredded tie in front of about 150 students who continued to laugh until the end of the class and for many days after.  Welcome to teaching, Charlie McAdams.

THE NON-EXISTENCE OF NORTH DAKOTA

Dave, the English teacher, put a bug in my mind one day by declaring that there could be an argument that North Dakota did not exist. After all, he surmised, did anyone know anyone from ND, had they seen a license place from there, had anyone ever been there, is there ever any news about ND? I found the thought amusing and mentioned it in one of my classes. my student immediately began to attack my ridiculous theory. I, of course, realizing how ridiculous the whole idea was, found it necessary to defend it at all cost.  

Overnight I developed a list of arguments that proved that there is no North Dakota.  Now and then one of my charges would hear about something about North Dakota on  tv or, for those who read, read an article about the state.   I found these  easy to dispel with arguments like the following: 1. Anyone can say they are from ND but that doesn't make it true. 2. I could put a sign in Louisville that said ND but that would not make ND a reality. 3. they only think they live in North Dakota. 

 Many day, in the first few minutes of class, my theory was attacked and I often had to come up with new arguments to defend it. Some were political, "It is only a communist plot to advance the ruse of the existence of this state. Students finally got into the realm of psychology and philosophy with questions like “why would anyone pretend that there was no ND?  Those answer came with a little bit more difficulty.

One student eventually realized that she was in an American History classroom and that there was a set of about ten maps that roll down showing important era maps. She dared me to show the class all of my maps.  That put the students into an information feeding frenzy.  For drama, I put them off for a few minutes until being compelled to show the maps.

The first few maps were no problem, they showed the colonies of England and some territories held by France and by Spain Or the North West Territories. The next three were my friends because for the first half or so of our history there literally was no North Dakota. One showed the geography of the areas as Unorganized territory. I really liked that one. The next two maps were troublesome. And the student anticipated a great victory in the battle of brains. I showed the next map and where North Dakota should have been was cover with a white sheet of paper that said Southern Canada in my handwriting. The class went into hysterics. That was really funny. On the last map the name of North Dakota had literally been erased and the substitute name Northern SOUTH Dakota appeared. The kids were loving this.  The following class already knew ask to see my maps  I never allowed these things to take long periods of each class and it set a really good mood for the day.  

Other stories will be coming on this theme.

TALK ABOUT YOUR POLITICALLY INCORRECT

My fellow teacher and friend, Dave, who taught english, had a very interesting student teacher (Paul) many years ago and one of the classes Dave and another teacher , Nancy, taught was called Literature of Social Criticism. Paul was a very enthusiastic, if somewhat naive, young fellow who liked everyone and certainly would not intentionally insult anybody. For This particular year, two of the books they were studying was Nigger by the famous black comedian and civil rights leader, Dick Gregory and Black like Me, by Dallas journalist, John Howard Griffin. One day Dave was a few books short and sent Paul to Nancy's class to get two of Gregory's books and one of Griffins. He burst into Nancy's room and enthusiastically said that mister ____________needs two Niggers and a Black Like me. (Paul was white) The room burst into laughter and when things had calmed down a young African-American male in the back of the room, stood and said, “Alright, alright, I'll go.” Needless to say (I'm going to say it anyway) that brought on a lot more laughter than the original statement by Paul.

THE STICK

One year I returned after the summer to find a 7 foot long aluminum stick with a small knob at one end that was used to close certain very high windows. After trying to find out where it belonged and getting no takers, I adopted it as my own. One student, Richard, offered to make it shorter and put a decorative knob on one end. I gave it to him to take home and a couple of days later he returned the much shorter stick with a decorated metal knob with my initials embossed on it. I was thrilled. Unfortunately I could not give him grade credit so I offered to pay him for his work but he refused. He said he did it because he respected my so much. I loved hearing stuff like that.  

The stick became locally famous and played the leading role in maybe the greatest story of all.  More stick  drama to come.

I tried very hard to make my extra credit fun.  Here are a few that I used

EXTRA CREDIT QUESTIONS

I tried to frame my extra credit question to allow my students, or at least a few of them, to answer the question correctly. I also tried to construct them so that they appeared more difficult than they actually were. I always reminded them that the questions were easier than they appeared.

1.  What is the longest English word that contains only one vowel? Answer : strengths. I usually placed the word on the test directly below a discussion question that went something like this. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the North and the South in the Civil War.
2.  What teacher at Seneca has coached the following sports; Girls track and field, girls cross country, football, girls basketball, boys and girls tennis, and quick recall (A buzzer Board, intra-school competition where student answer toss-up and bonus questions on educational subject matters ? The answer was Charlie McAdams. (me) the reason it seemed more difficult was that I did not include the sport I was coaching at the time, golf. Some of my kids contended it was unfair not to list golf. My reply, “there is no such thing as fair in extra credit.”
3.  What two verbs in the English language have the most definitions according to the Oxford Unabridged Dictionary? Answer: run and set, both have more than 120 definitions.
4.  What famous television personality graduated from Seneca in 1963? An: Diane Sawyer. Many got this one right.
When did the first Principal of Seneca die? This seems very esoteric and hard to answer but the answer was, he hadn't died. He since has died after living well into his 90's. Kenneth Farmer was his name
5.  What famous cartoonist came to Seneca and gave special permission to use the mascot, Lonesome Polecat? Al Capp who wrote the then very popular Lil' Abner strip. Lonesome was a small bootlegging Indian in the strip. The Mascot has since been changed to Red Hawks from Redskins because Redskins is conceived as a derogatory term. I agree.
6.  What was the first totally integrated high school in Louisville? An: Seneca High School. Seneca was opened in 1957 and one of the reasons was the Brown v. The Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas. In the ruling the US Supreme Court found that the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling in 1896 which allowed governments and businesses to keep races separate with the caveat that facilities must be of equal quality, was Unconstitutional and that public facilities must desegregate. With that in mind, Jefferson County School set up Seneca as an integrated school in hope that that would suffice. It didn't and forced busing was instituted in 1975 (?)
7.What is Louis Armstrong's actual first name? Answer, Louis. Trick question.

Speaking of extra credit, I began my career with making the extra credit question 5 or 10 points extra and I noticed that my pupils would cheat on this question more than on the actual test itself and I was giving out a lot of extra credit. I finally thought of a way to stop it. I starting making each ec question worth one point for every member of the class. If I had 30 in the class, the question was worth 30 point total, not per student. That way, if only one person gave the correct response that that person go 30 points but if two people got the correct answer, they each received 15, if three did that each got 10. You would not believe how protective the students became over those few points. It was one of my best moves and I was able to tell the student that it was perfectly okay to share the ec answer. They didn't.

Hello, my friends and welcome to my blog,
"LIFE IN THE CLASSROOM, A TEACHERS MEMOIR.

let me introduce myself.  I had 29 wonderful years as a teacher in the Jefferson County, Kentucky school system at the high school level.  I am married to the marvelous Vivian Stewart McAdams and will soon celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary.  We have two great sons, Brian and Jeff and two beautiful and charming grandchildren, Grace, born in 2006, and Davidson, born,  2009.

For many years I have told stories in amazing profusion about my life as a teacher and coach and they were always popular, at least until i had told the same person the same story two or three times.  I was telling some of the stories to a co-volunteer and mother of one of my former students and she enthusiastically encouraged me to write a book.  I had considered it in the past but this really got me excited, and since that time I have written about 60-70 pages.  I think that the product is quite good.

A few days ago, Vivian suggested that I produce them in the form of a blog and thus this blog was born.  Some of the entries will be the telling of occurrences that took place in the classroom, most are funny, some are hilarious, some are sad and some are serious.  Other entries will be about the job, my feelings on issues concerning education and occasionally rants, but I will try to be kind.

May I take this time to thank lots of people including member of my core and extended family, people I have worked with and most of all to my former pupils who have provided me with this amazing plethora of material with which to work.  My students were an incredible lot and I spent much of my days on the job with a smile on my face.  My relationship with my students was more open than most and we treated each other with great respect, that was truly a two way relationship.

I hope you will enjoy my writings and I think high school is something we all remember fondly or not fondly, but worth some reflection.

Enjoy