Write what you snow

So today is a snow day and I used my time wisely by expanding my Russian Empire in Empire: Total War.  I won’t even try to lie and say that I was doing it as research or in preparation for teaching about Russia later this week.  Honestly, I just wanted to see if I could do better than the Romanov family. While my country has undergone many revolutions they haven’t had the means to take me in front of a firing squad…  Course, that would be a great RTS (real time strategy) element if you mess up your own army or empire so much that they take you out and execute you. Ala Nicolai and Louis XVI.  Also a little historical placement would be nice.  Did I rule more like Frederick the Great or Ivan the Terrible?

I just completed my first resolution of not drinking Pepsi for a month (didn’t taste a drop of Pepsi, Coke or any caffeinated soda for the entire month of January).  Now my second resolution is to write on my new site every day for the whole month of February.

To accomplish this my entries will be a lot shorter then they normally are.  And because they are normally so long, they normally aren’t at all. IOW (is that a text abbreviation?  if not I’d like to propose it for “In Other Words”) I write so much when I write, that I rarely write.

For this first month I’m going to concentrate on documenting and posting many of my sermonettes that I’ve pawned off on my students over the years.  But before I can get into the many mini lessons I think now would be an appropriate time for background.

I’ve been a public school teacher for the Mansfield ISD (which serves south Arlington and Mansfield) in Texas for the past 10 years.  I split these 10 years into 7 years of 6th grade Social Studies and 3 years of Leadership (basically Character Ed) for 5th and 6th.  I’ve taught at Mary Orr, Della Icenhower and now Asa Low (all three intermediate schools).  Last year I had the joy of teaching both subjects to the same students.  This year is my first year teaching students social studies every day (previously I’d rotate students every other day or 6 weeks) and I love the depth I can get into but miss the character lessons.

Hesitation best describes why I haven’t written much about my teaching job and the stories, lessons and anecdotes that come out of it.  I’m still going to be very careful what I say and won’t use students name for privacy reasons.  So if you are a student and want me to mention your name just e-mail me or post a comment, otherwise if you read long enough you’ll recognize yourself and the lessons.  I’m excluding you for legal reasons not because I don’t remember you.

Don’t be too sad, my favorite fake students Joe Bob and Sallie Sue will show up… repeatedly.  For this first month I’m going to focus on writing what I know.  Yes, the entries will be brief.  Thanks for asking.