Saturday, May 20, 2023

The Road

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a dark, disturbing and compelling vision of a dystopian future. It follows the journey of a father and young son as they navigate a post-apocalyptic America covered in ash. An unspecified cataclysmic event has rendered the country a cold and overcast hell-scape.

Dangers, both environmental and human, lurk at every turn as the pair battles hunger, hopelessness, and despair. Wheeling a shopping cart containing their meager possessions and dwindling stores of food, they use a tattered map to make their way south in search of warmth on a ravaged, rainy planet. 

This terrifying, bleak reality serves as a menacing backdrop to the tender moments between father and son who explore their feelings of compassion, determination, resignation, and grief.

Sunday, May 7, 2023

Inspire

I just finished reading Inspire: The Principles That Transform Student Behavior and Learning by Michael Linsin. Why am I reading a book about classroom management when I’m so close to retirement I can taste it, you ask? To drive away the work stress dreams I’ve been having, of course!

Somehow I ended up on Linsin’s Smart Classroom Management mailing list, and I’m glad I did. Each week I receive an email with a short newsletter on a topic relevant to managing student behavior. This week’s selection was:

How To Deal With Your Students' Sagging Pants 

Linsin’s theories validate all my frustrations about the lack of support for student disrespect at my school. I even shared an article with my principal, to no avail. Nonetheless, the straightforward message and easy to implement strategies prescribed by SCM help me maintain my sanity in the “world gone mad” atmosphere at BUES!

The SCM website includes an extensive library of past articles categorized for easy access:


This book is a nice review and summary of all the common sense concepts contained in the SCM philosophy.