Saturday, November 28, 2009

Burning Down the School


I got a call just after I got home last Friday night (11/20). It was Terri, a secretary at the high school with news that my room was "on fire." Yikes! The critters, etc. Well, I hurried back to school not sure what I might find but pretty sure that the fire would prove to be a minor issue (at least from a damage perspective).

Fortunately, I am not friends with any current Northwest students so I missed the blaze that I created on Facebook. I heard all about it on Monday and it sounded like fun. Not much factual information involved as students had perished in the inferno that had engulfed the entire blue wing!

Anyway, the reality was that a heat lamp had fallen into the cage with the bearded dragons and caused a log to smolder. It did produce a great deal of smoke but no real damage and the lizards seem to have been unaffected.

The negative upshot is, of course, that all things plugged in become immediately suspect as hazardous so I had to do a great deal of rearranging in my room to make the Fire Marshall happy.

Monday, the superintendent toured my room. I was nervous about his possible reaction to my indiscretion but was pleasantly surprised that his approach was all about how the district could help me to SAFELY provide the experiences that my classroom attempts to generate for my students.

I have never had a one-on-one conversation with Dr. Ziegler before so I don't know why I anticipated anything different (perhaps my previous experiences had a hand in making me nervous). Anyway, I was very happy with the way things turned out.

To make certain that my reputation continues to improve from this fiasco, I spent a couple of hours today (Saturday 11/28) cleaning a spot in the storage closet for all of my goodies.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Getting set for another run


As the challenge of balancing a late day class with the short days continues to play havoc with my running, I'm am counting the days now until I will begin the next 12 week Hal Higdon 1/2 marathon training program. I will be preparing for the Gasparilla race in Tampa, Florida. Allison has committed to run with me and that will be encouraging as well as motivating. I feel like I put myself out there by setting the new family 1/2 marathon record. I know I've got a target on my back now so I'll need to keep the effort up to maintain my spot on top.

This "just for fun" has an amazing ability to keep me working even when I don't feel like. I guess you've got to use what ever is available to get through.

Here are a couple of pics from my recent surprise birthday trip to Tampa. As always, Allison and David were the penultimate hosts. I went canoeing with Allison to see my first wild alligators. There were lots to see, as well as plenty of other critters on a beautiful fall day. The other pic is Allison and I as we are finishing our diving adventure in the big tank at Florida Aquarium. We snorkeled but there didn't seem to be much difference between that and scuba diving except that we couldn't go under water (not certified divers). You can see more pictures of both adventures here:

Tampa Aquarium 11_08_09



And here:
Tampa Trip