Oh Where oh Where did the Summer Go?
Alright, I know, I should be banned from LJ simply because I don't write in it anymore; however, I do read up on it at least once a week. Okay, now to the nit and gritty because I'm not even remotely tired and well Transformative Curriculum Leadership isn't ready to call my name yet tonight.
Let's see...school end really on an upbeat note: I did informal surveys with my students and I was really happy with the results especially to such questions as how great of a teacher is Mr. Drost; what was your favorite thing about class; what could I do to make it better, etc. What's even weirder is actually I suppose having kids come up to you and hug you and tell you they'll miss you especially when a) they're 12-13-14 and b) lawsuits are always right and left in Solon.
Okay, so after two days of downtime, I went to Quebec for a week with a ton of middle schoolers. It was one of the best trips of my life: the kids were so good--we had one minor problem and that was boys being boys, seriously; it was like Europe, just in North America. It was great to actually socialize with people who actually believe in you that are your colleauges. Paula Hardy, math teacher, is now seriously my new hero, and watching the cavs lose at a bar with a now, ex-Solonite, Emily Collins, is simply priceless. When I got back, one kids' parents got me a $150 gift certificate to Moxie's in Beachwood (yes Moxie's where the cheapest plate is >30.00); too cool. I can't bring myself to use it--it seems wrong for having a good time.
Alright two days later from there, and here we are at Camp Season '07 a.k.a. "Bob Golic's Fumble #2". The parents (a.k.a. Bob Golic--yes him from the Browns) were really bratty this year, but on the bright side, they wanted to use my camp for the training video that will be going Nationwide...check out www.campinvention.org for a close-up with me :) (soon to be posted). There's so many obnoxious stories involved with camp that I can't even remember them all -- all I know is that it caused me to "go over" on my cell phone bill for the month...more on that later. The good one of course is the mom calling the simple fighting a "Gang-related incident." Oh please.
Meanwhile, I took two courses to finish my master's; created a capstone project which my professor went gaga over, which is now going to be used for PD at school; started my Ph.D. in C&I + went head to head with KSU's rediculous ideas about how a) you can't take classes when you're going to graduate, but we can still bill you and the magic of oh, b) let's run your credit card six times and bill you for the semester that many times..oh yeah, we won't tell you we did, simply because we know you're leaving for Quebec in two days, and c) we'll give you a parking ticket for being inside our office trying to get your day pass in less than 3 minutes--"parking Nazi's," in the words of Dr. Brooks. I also went to battle with Fox Run for the return of our security deposit--does the phrase the check is in the mail, mean anything to anyone--let's just say that it involved in the Wlby police and a three hour trip to Wlby to get my damn check. It's now in the bank--I'm waiting to see if it goes through, but the BBB is on my side, and so are a few attorneys so I'm ready to pounce and sue for double if necessary as that's what Ohio's law indicates. I've got I believe money finally coming from Perry + my Solon reimbursement should be here sometime around the 20th--hopefully--which means that I can take the 3 classes in the fall (Residency I (Freaky, I know); Fundamentals of Curric with Dr. James Henderson, world-renown curriculum geru + Practitioner LEadership Academy with Dr. Rosie Gornik (yes, her from Perry)=an invite only class).
Alright, now one week later I went on a cruise with my dad, my sister, my dad's new girlfriend: let's just say that's the end of family vacations for me, I felt like I was 12 again (who knew I couldn't hold my own passport, especially after living abroad in my life for almost one year in total and that I don't know anything about anything (I mean who knew that red tag clearly meant board last--oh wait, isn't that what I said the bulletin said?)--see previous paragraph: points specifically to PhD line); our dinner mates were actually nicer to me than my father and his "i'll say 15 words the whole trip g/f" were, who btw is a special ed teacher and I seriously can't understand that one--Jen K. if you're reading this, you need to come back to OH and set a few school districts straight on what good special education teaching looks like. We continue, on the way home, I didn't blow up at him but I did say my piece? peace? (ah who knows--Robin?), my dad, but I was ticked simply because he played the "car-game" of arrange your own ride at the last minute, which ended up me getting home three hours much later than necessary and me irritated saying something to the effect of thanks for putting her [girlfriend] first instead of your own kids--but seriously, what's new there? We'll not talk about the amount of fumes that were put into the atmosphere by his 3-hour rhendevous in the Greater Cleveland Area by his driving "plan." Let's just go with the fact that I could have probably walked and gotten home faster. He hasn't talked to me since, which is fine, only to ask me for payment for the cell phone bill from the previous month in an e-mail--which in my opinion is a bunch of crock: he wouldn't give me a copy of the bill; only after begging for one, I got one (today as a matter of fact); now after I've gone over it with a fine tooth comb and talking to Verizon; it appears that at the MOST I owe $2.18 (including tax) for the new cell phone I got because they didn't calculate the tax correctly--however he's indicating it's much higher--now if we look at the bill and look at the phone number of who got the charges, let's all look at my sister (oh wait, we've been there done that); she also hiked up close to $1000 in internet charges on the ship, which I was asked to pay for--hah; like that was happening. Btw my sister moved out of my mom's house; moved in with some guy; has pissed literally everyone off in the family; moved back in last Tuesday; doesn't return phone calls; has been told by both my parents to clean up her act or no fall tuition payment in oh say approximately two weeks. Now on the cruise, I enjoyed Panama and Costa Rica (would have loved more time, but we all know how my father operates--right? Hmm...GWB might be a better dad in a lot of ways, minus his little war in Iraq.
Okay we continue; was to the final publication stage of an article I had written on Technology in the Classroom; was asked by them for an additional $250 and I laughed and said, no thanks. It's a bizarre thing--no one ever pays to be published; it's some new thing some journals have concocted--oh well. Speaking of publications, check out www.waitingforparadise.com -- Daniel Drost (my uncle's) #1 book just hit shelves at local libraries. I read it when it was in preproduction--it was good then; must be great now!
Okay one week after that Brittany and I went to TN; we listed to HP7 on CD because our books kind of got messed up--delivered on time, but to our leasing office which was closed--thus no book until after we got back. Did a lot of relaxing which was kind of nice. Got a ticket on the way down. I quote "50 in a 45" however, I will note that I was coming down a mountain and going into the speed zone so I was slowing down; I do speed however, so I probably deserved one at some time; the cop barely spoke; literally had the ticket written out before he came to my window; claimed I was going near 70 when he caught me--which as I was going down a hill from a 70 mph zone it's possible, but then why drop the ticket to 50 in a 45? Quota time of the month; he never asked for my insurance nor my registration; I called the courts about it, and they took 20 bucks off for that? Oh yeah, now that makes a lot of sense. My insurance doesn't go up, and there are no points on my license so I guess that's all that matters.
Saw HP5--was pretty good; I don't miss a lot of the parts that others are missing: they don't seem to me to be crucial to the understanding of the series; HP7 was disappointing in some ways--too much was predictable, but I loved the way how things flowed up from Book 1-7, showing JK's genius.
Alright one week later--I played Donkey Kong 64 last week for the most part--a much needed revival; I worked in my classroom (it's looking really good) and did a hell of a lot of errands. I'm anxious I think for school--not that I'm ready--meaning that I've realized how much curriculum work I really should do before we go back--damn.
I've seen a lot of good friends this summer: Brittany, Laura, John, Robin, etc. Emily and I sort of had a following out--I tried apologizing, but alas I have not heard anything. As I maintain, I simply was joking as the other person was, but apparantly it was taken offensively, and I'm still sorry for it. But as a philosopher once said, "your best friends are the ones who don't necessarily support what you're doing."
Let's see odds and ends: saw the Lion King last night--was better in New York I think, but it was still good. Had lunch with Kathy Feather--she's doing better I think--I can understand her better, but it was still kind of hard to see her all confined to a wheel chair; she was in good spirits though--she likes to swear now; so does Averil too; found out Debbie Rodriguez has a brain tumor too and Linda Rea has got something wrong with her--no doctor can figure it out yet--yikes. Something in the Hiram water? Clearly.
Overall, I would say that it's been a really good summer and yet at the same time, a busy one.
Let's see...school end really on an upbeat note: I did informal surveys with my students and I was really happy with the results especially to such questions as how great of a teacher is Mr. Drost; what was your favorite thing about class; what could I do to make it better, etc. What's even weirder is actually I suppose having kids come up to you and hug you and tell you they'll miss you especially when a) they're 12-13-14 and b) lawsuits are always right and left in Solon.
Okay, so after two days of downtime, I went to Quebec for a week with a ton of middle schoolers. It was one of the best trips of my life: the kids were so good--we had one minor problem and that was boys being boys, seriously; it was like Europe, just in North America. It was great to actually socialize with people who actually believe in you that are your colleauges. Paula Hardy, math teacher, is now seriously my new hero, and watching the cavs lose at a bar with a now, ex-Solonite, Emily Collins, is simply priceless. When I got back, one kids' parents got me a $150 gift certificate to Moxie's in Beachwood (yes Moxie's where the cheapest plate is >30.00); too cool. I can't bring myself to use it--it seems wrong for having a good time.
Alright two days later from there, and here we are at Camp Season '07 a.k.a. "Bob Golic's Fumble #2". The parents (a.k.a. Bob Golic--yes him from the Browns) were really bratty this year, but on the bright side, they wanted to use my camp for the training video that will be going Nationwide...check out www.campinvention.org for a close-up with me :) (soon to be posted). There's so many obnoxious stories involved with camp that I can't even remember them all -- all I know is that it caused me to "go over" on my cell phone bill for the month...more on that later. The good one of course is the mom calling the simple fighting a "Gang-related incident." Oh please.
Meanwhile, I took two courses to finish my master's; created a capstone project which my professor went gaga over, which is now going to be used for PD at school; started my Ph.D. in C&I + went head to head with KSU's rediculous ideas about how a) you can't take classes when you're going to graduate, but we can still bill you and the magic of oh, b) let's run your credit card six times and bill you for the semester that many times..oh yeah, we won't tell you we did, simply because we know you're leaving for Quebec in two days, and c) we'll give you a parking ticket for being inside our office trying to get your day pass in less than 3 minutes--"parking Nazi's," in the words of Dr. Brooks. I also went to battle with Fox Run for the return of our security deposit--does the phrase the check is in the mail, mean anything to anyone--let's just say that it involved in the Wlby police and a three hour trip to Wlby to get my damn check. It's now in the bank--I'm waiting to see if it goes through, but the BBB is on my side, and so are a few attorneys so I'm ready to pounce and sue for double if necessary as that's what Ohio's law indicates. I've got I believe money finally coming from Perry + my Solon reimbursement should be here sometime around the 20th--hopefully--which means that I can take the 3 classes in the fall (Residency I (Freaky, I know); Fundamentals of Curric with Dr. James Henderson, world-renown curriculum geru + Practitioner LEadership Academy with Dr. Rosie Gornik (yes, her from Perry)=an invite only class).
Alright, now one week later I went on a cruise with my dad, my sister, my dad's new girlfriend: let's just say that's the end of family vacations for me, I felt like I was 12 again (who knew I couldn't hold my own passport, especially after living abroad in my life for almost one year in total and that I don't know anything about anything (I mean who knew that red tag clearly meant board last--oh wait, isn't that what I said the bulletin said?)--see previous paragraph: points specifically to PhD line); our dinner mates were actually nicer to me than my father and his "i'll say 15 words the whole trip g/f" were, who btw is a special ed teacher and I seriously can't understand that one--Jen K. if you're reading this, you need to come back to OH and set a few school districts straight on what good special education teaching looks like. We continue, on the way home, I didn't blow up at him but I did say my piece? peace? (ah who knows--Robin?), my dad, but I was ticked simply because he played the "car-game" of arrange your own ride at the last minute, which ended up me getting home three hours much later than necessary and me irritated saying something to the effect of thanks for putting her [girlfriend] first instead of your own kids--but seriously, what's new there? We'll not talk about the amount of fumes that were put into the atmosphere by his 3-hour rhendevous in the Greater Cleveland Area by his driving "plan." Let's just go with the fact that I could have probably walked and gotten home faster. He hasn't talked to me since, which is fine, only to ask me for payment for the cell phone bill from the previous month in an e-mail--which in my opinion is a bunch of crock: he wouldn't give me a copy of the bill; only after begging for one, I got one (today as a matter of fact); now after I've gone over it with a fine tooth comb and talking to Verizon; it appears that at the MOST I owe $2.18 (including tax) for the new cell phone I got because they didn't calculate the tax correctly--however he's indicating it's much higher--now if we look at the bill and look at the phone number of who got the charges, let's all look at my sister (oh wait, we've been there done that); she also hiked up close to $1000 in internet charges on the ship, which I was asked to pay for--hah; like that was happening. Btw my sister moved out of my mom's house; moved in with some guy; has pissed literally everyone off in the family; moved back in last Tuesday; doesn't return phone calls; has been told by both my parents to clean up her act or no fall tuition payment in oh say approximately two weeks. Now on the cruise, I enjoyed Panama and Costa Rica (would have loved more time, but we all know how my father operates--right? Hmm...GWB might be a better dad in a lot of ways, minus his little war in Iraq.
Okay we continue; was to the final publication stage of an article I had written on Technology in the Classroom; was asked by them for an additional $250 and I laughed and said, no thanks. It's a bizarre thing--no one ever pays to be published; it's some new thing some journals have concocted--oh well. Speaking of publications, check out www.waitingforparadise.com -- Daniel Drost (my uncle's) #1 book just hit shelves at local libraries. I read it when it was in preproduction--it was good then; must be great now!
Okay one week after that Brittany and I went to TN; we listed to HP7 on CD because our books kind of got messed up--delivered on time, but to our leasing office which was closed--thus no book until after we got back. Did a lot of relaxing which was kind of nice. Got a ticket on the way down. I quote "50 in a 45" however, I will note that I was coming down a mountain and going into the speed zone so I was slowing down; I do speed however, so I probably deserved one at some time; the cop barely spoke; literally had the ticket written out before he came to my window; claimed I was going near 70 when he caught me--which as I was going down a hill from a 70 mph zone it's possible, but then why drop the ticket to 50 in a 45? Quota time of the month; he never asked for my insurance nor my registration; I called the courts about it, and they took 20 bucks off for that? Oh yeah, now that makes a lot of sense. My insurance doesn't go up, and there are no points on my license so I guess that's all that matters.
Saw HP5--was pretty good; I don't miss a lot of the parts that others are missing: they don't seem to me to be crucial to the understanding of the series; HP7 was disappointing in some ways--too much was predictable, but I loved the way how things flowed up from Book 1-7, showing JK's genius.
Alright one week later--I played Donkey Kong 64 last week for the most part--a much needed revival; I worked in my classroom (it's looking really good) and did a hell of a lot of errands. I'm anxious I think for school--not that I'm ready--meaning that I've realized how much curriculum work I really should do before we go back--damn.
I've seen a lot of good friends this summer: Brittany, Laura, John, Robin, etc. Emily and I sort of had a following out--I tried apologizing, but alas I have not heard anything. As I maintain, I simply was joking as the other person was, but apparantly it was taken offensively, and I'm still sorry for it. But as a philosopher once said, "your best friends are the ones who don't necessarily support what you're doing."
Let's see odds and ends: saw the Lion King last night--was better in New York I think, but it was still good. Had lunch with Kathy Feather--she's doing better I think--I can understand her better, but it was still kind of hard to see her all confined to a wheel chair; she was in good spirits though--she likes to swear now; so does Averil too; found out Debbie Rodriguez has a brain tumor too and Linda Rea has got something wrong with her--no doctor can figure it out yet--yikes. Something in the Hiram water? Clearly.
Overall, I would say that it's been a really good summer and yet at the same time, a busy one.