The Sweet Smell of Success or is that Cotton

This past Monday my middle school football team won its first football game of the season. We beat Riverside 22-18. We are now 1-4. We lost the first four games because of attitude. The boys finally realized in this win that if you want to win, you have to go and fight for it. I think this is a lesson that they can take outside of football. If you want something bad enough, you will sacrifice and do whatever it takes, legally of course, to accomplish your goal. The excitement in the boys face was priceless after the game. I received the Super Bowlesque cooler dumping. Luckily we cannot afford Gatorade, so I received a dumping of ice because they drank all of the water. One cube made it inside my shirt all the way down to my, well lets just say I was touching myself in inappropriate places in public to get it out. The boys then went and got the other cooler. I saw them approaching from the corner of my eye and noticed that cooler had ice and water, I quickly let them know that if they dumped that on Coach or I, that I was going to , just use your imagination on what I said to them. They put the cooler down. It was so great to see 28 kids excited and happy, what a great feeling.

Another great feeling is to ride by a cotton field with your windows down that is ready for the picking. Take a deep breath and bask in the sweet smell of cotton. The cotton lets of this sweet smell, reminiscent of Irish spring. How great it is to be in the Delta.

If I was the MTC program director for a day

Having first hand knowledge of what the corp was like five years ago I know what I will change. I will change the fact that last year I only received one and a half in classroom observations. The observations were helpful but they were not from one of my professors. The observations provided good feedback but there was not an opportunity to sit and discuss things that could have been done a different way, or new ideas, etc... This problem can be fixed any number of ways.

1. Have the Ole Miss professors perform at least two on site observations per semester for the first years and one on site observation per semester for the second years.

2. Contact MTC alumni who are still in the area and pay them a minimal fee (to buy refreshments) to form a support group that is content specific for 1st and 2nd year teachers to discuss teaching strategies, methods, assessments, provide guidance, etc... I believe this would foster a sense of community among MTC.

3. More time should be spent with the methods professors during that first summer so we could develop an idea of how we should be teaching instead of following whatever the second years tell you to do.

4. Find an Ole Miss alumni to buy everyone a yearlong subscription to Ed Week and their respected National journal for their subject matter. This way first years can gain new ideas and stay abreast about issues in education.

5. The Delta is full of Ole Miss alumni. Most of the lawyers and accountants graduated from Ole Miss. Get into contact with these people and have them hold a social for MTC, especially during the dreaded month of October, the longest month ever.

6. Recruit people who are not jerks.

7. Recruit people who realize that they are not the savior of the south.

I realize I got of topic but their is a lot that I would change in one day.

Magnum P.I. and the Three Stooges

This morning, before school, I heard some familiar voices on my hallway. I was expecting the voices to join me in my room so they could catch up on their typing lessons. Instead the voices walked by room and headed down the hallway to the Stooges Lair, otherwise known as the boys bathroom. This aroused a sense of suspension in me, me being Magnum P.I.. So I walked to my doorway and my suspicions were confirmed, the Three Stooges were up to no good. I walked down the hall as quiet as any professional P.I.. I stood in the doorway of the Stooges Lair and I heard the noise of no good, whispers and giggling. I walked in the bathroom and turned the corner slightly and saw the Three Stooges huddled in the middle of the floor, pointing at something, giggling and whispering. Ideas were soaring on what it could be, funny pictorial of a teacher, ugly elementary class day photo, or worst, a dirty magazine. I turned the corner, not making a noise, Curly saw me and backed away. Moe and Larry did not know I was there yet. I walked behind Moe and he felt my presence, turning around. I said, "What are you doing?" Then I saw it, the item that caused me to turn into Magnum P.I.. The boys found the school's yearbook from 1997 in the hallway, some boxes are being moved around, and decided to look through it to see how dumb people from the neighborhood looked when they were in middle school. I was so relieved it wasn't anything else. Then I was overcome with joy that my kids would sneak off to look at an old yearbook. I think I teach the best kids in the Delta.