Bad Summer Habits Teachers Fall Into

(c)2016 Douglas W Davis

The Exhausted Educator's Summer Homework

During the school year my alarm wakes me up at 5:15 each school morning in order for me to be up, dressed, and ready to head off to school. Teachers at my school are required to be at the school no later than 7:15 most days, and 7:00 on the days we have morning duty.

To be completely honest, I hit the snooze bar a couple of times and don’t actually drag myself out of bed until 5:30, sometimes 5:35. My wife also has to get up at that time of the morning in order to complete her morning routine, which includes walking her dog around the neighborhood. She also has a much longer commute than I do.

My drive to work, now that the by-pass is completed, is about 10 to 12 minutes, if traffic is normal for that time of the morning. I usually have plenty of time to stop at the fast-food place closest to the school for a breakfast sandwich and a second cup of coffee. I drink the first on the way there.

But now it is summer. While I still have teaching related work to do, I have no set time by which I have to start. If I decide not to do any of it one day or another, I leave it for the next day, or the next. Procrastinating is a bad habit that comes very easily to this teacher in the early days of summer break.

Our alarm still goes off every morning at 5:15 because my wife still has to get up and go to work. For the first few days of summer I get up when she does because it is ingrained in me to be up then, too. By the third week of summer break I have broken this good habit and with each passing day find myself better able to ignore the alarm and stay asleep. First it will be an extra hour, then two, and this morning, GASP, I slept in until 8:30 in the morning. Sleeping late is another of the bad habits teachers can fall into over the summer.

During the school year I make an effort to get to bed between 10:00 and 10:30 at night. Doing so allows me about seven hours of sleep before the alarm goes off the next morning and means I’ll be awake and reasonably well rested for teaching the next day. By the third week of summer break I find myself staying up much later and the next thing I know I’m not quietly getting into bed next to my slumbering wife until past midnight. Staying up late is yet another bad habit teachers can fall into over the summer.

My staying up late is usually productive. At night after my wife goes to bed is when I do most of my work on my latest book-in-progress. If the writing is going well, I lose all track of time. I don’t see this as a bad habit at all.

Another thing teachers learn over the summer is that we aren’t missing a thing by not being able to watch daytime television. I took our car in for service the other morning and in the waiting room they had one of the morning talk shows on. As I watched I had to wonder who in the world tunes into this stuff every day. It was some of the most mind numbing, intelligence void, Pablum for the masses nonsense I’ve ever seen. The female co-host spent ten minutes talking about how much she liked touching the male co-host’s hair, all the while stroking the back of his head. I tuned it out as best I could and concentrated on writing a new scene for my next book on my laplet (a Lenovo Yoga 11” laptop that can double as a tablet). It goes with me nearly everywhere I go.

Summer break does allow me to do one special thing I enjoy that I cannot do during the school year, attend the weekly lunch meetings of my Lions Club. I will be joining them for lunch later today. And with that said, I need to go get ready.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

3 Death Cultist + 3 Bombs = 41 Dead and 239 Wounded The Horrifying Math of Terror

© Stringer/Reuters

View of the entrance of the Ataturk international airport.

Carnage was once again unleashed against innocent men, women, and children by the Daesh Death Cult (AKA ISIS) in Istanbul this week. Three men seduced by the Death Cult’s false promise of paradise blew themselves up at Istanbul’s main airport, the third busiest airport in Europe.

The death toll from this attack kept adding up. First reports indicated 10 dead. Shortly thereafter the number increased to 28. Then, as investigators flooded the scene and the wounded succumbed to their wounds it rose to 36. This morning in the news the number of dead from this cowardly attack against innocents had risen to 41. (Reuters, 6/29/2016)

The location and nature of this attack by the Daesh Death Cult is another link in the chain of evidence against any claim the DDC has on the religion of Islam. Most of the dead and wounded are Muslims, including most of the non-Turkish people killed in the blast. This vicious, mindless attack proves once again that the self-proclaimed Islamic State is neither Islamic nor is it a State. It is a hatemongering death cult led by a psychopath, manned by the world’s losers, disillusioned, and outcasts, whose purpose in existing is to spread death and fear among all the people of the world.

How do we begin to subtract from the numbers of mostly young men who flock to join the DDC’s ranks? How do we combat the mindset sending these young people willingly to their deaths believing the false promises of the Cult’s leaders that paradise awaits them just the other side of the blast?

In the short term, we can block the routes these young people, who have been seduced by the sick and twisted ideology of the Cult, use to travel to join. We can destroy the DDC on the ground in Syria and Iraq and anywhere else they gather. We can shut off their sources of outside funding, destroy their caches of hard currency, take back territory from their fighters, and bomb the facilities they use to generate revenue. All these things are being done.

Yet these measures were not enough to stop the Istanbul bombers. They didn't prevent a lone gunman from attacking a night club in Orlando and killing 49 innocent people. These measures did not stop the attacks in Paris or Brussels. None of the bombs dropped on DDC fighters in Syria or Iraq kept the San Bernardino killers from attacking.

Defeating the Daesh Death Cult on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq and elsewhere must be done, but it is not enough. In order to win this war against this particular opponent we must discredit and defeat the ideology it espouses. The world – all the world, not just the US and Europe – must begin a constant bombardment of propaganda designed to expose the truth about what the DDC is, how it operates, and the true nature of its leadership.

Make no mistake, Daesh is a Death Cult. It thrives on killing. Its leadership and its membership are addicted to torturing and killing and spreading fear and terror. And the message of hate will continue to multiply unless the world works together to divide and conquer its ideology. For the sake of our children, it is a fight we cannot afford to lose.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

These Should Be Their Wonder Years

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

Tonight I watched the first episode of the television show THE WONDER YEARS on Netflix. I remember occasionally watching the show then it was in its first run on network TV back in the day.

If you don’t remember the show, or never saw it, THE WONDER YEARS took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s in suburban America. Exactly where is never made clear. The first episode is set in the summer of 1968 when the main character, Kevin Arnold, played by Fred West, is twelve years old and about to enter Seventh Grade.

In 1968 I turned seven years old and was about to enter Second Grade, but many of the events depicted in the show are familiar to me, both the news of the times and the situations Kevin finds himself in.

One thing the show does an excellent job of is depicting the differences between the time period the show is set in and the times during which it aired. Even now I look back on both eras with nostalgia compared to what many of my own students have to live with today.

The pace then, in 1968, was slower. Us kids then were not as overscheduled and hovered over as kids are today. Our parents didn’t have to worry about us every second we were out of their sight. At least not us suburban kids. I know it wasn’t like that for kids everywhere.

I look at my students now, and sometimes my heart breaks for them. These are supposed to be their Wonder Years. By that I mean these should be the years filled with the wonder of learning, discovery, growing, and exploring. Sadly, for some of my students, these are years of wondering if they’ll have enough to eat, a place to sleep, if bullets will come flying through the window that night, if they’ll have a coat to wear when the weather turns cold.

Some of my students have it good. Mom and Dad are both around, and if they’re lucky, actually still married and living in the same house. For these kids there is sports, Scouts, church, vacations, cable television, a smart phone, a tablet, an X-Box, etcetera. They have so much and appreciate so little of it.

For some of my students, though, there is no Dad in their lives. He left as soon as he deposited his contribution to their conception and has never been around to provide for them or guide them through life. These students may have half-brothers and sisters with the same Mom, but with several different fathers. They probably also have half-brothers and sisters through their father they know nothing about.

It is these kids, who see no future beyond the ‘hood they’re growing up in and no way out of the life their mothers have chosen for them, who I wonder about the most. These are the kids who see no value in education, who become the discipline problems, the disruptions, the dropouts, because they have no hope for a future, no sense of wonder about what the world has to offer them if only they would strive to reach for it.

As a teacher, I try to instill that sense of hope and wonder in all my students, those with the advantages and those without – especially those without, because they are the children who need it from me the most. They aren’t going to get it anywhere else.

So, I watch old episodes of THE WONDER YEARS on Netflix, nostalgic for my own Wonder Years that, while they had their not-so-pleasant moments, were for the most part rather good years, and I hope for my students that these years will be better for them somehow for having had me as a teacher.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

Why Do Tea Party Republicans Hate Teachers?

courtesy of Pixabay: John Potter CC0 Public Domain

Maybe all Republicans don’t hate teachers. Some Republicans might even be married to teachers. I’ve known some Republicans who are or once were teachers. I used to be a Republican myself, many years ago.

But as I recently read of the Conservative Columnist George Will, who has quit the Party, this isn’t the Republican Party of the Ronald Reagan years. The Republican Party I remember cared about education, personal responsibility, and common sense approaches to problems. Today’s Republican leaders, and apparently voters, show no such inclination.

Here in my state, the state legislature, which is controlled by Tea Party Republicans, is about to pass a bill requiring criminal background checks (which process admittedly needed improvement here in this state, as history has shown) on all potential and current teachers. So far I don’t have a problem with that. They are also listing the crimes that would make someone ineligible to receive a teacher’s license and those that would cause someone to lose their teaching license. Those crimes include such things as homicide, prostitution, arson, or misconduct in public office. Certainly I’m sure no one has a problem with those crimes being included.

After a recent peaceful demonstration by teachers in our state capital, organized to bring attention to the pitiful way our current Governor and State Legislature have funded public education over the past several years, a new article was added to the bill making the crime just being present “at the scene of…disorderly conduct by an assemblage of three or more persons, following a command to disperse,” reason enough to deny someone a teaching license.

(Question: Will this make all the Democratic Congress members who sat-in recently ineligible to teach in our state’s public school system.)

This language was added specifically to address the 14 teachers, students, and parents taking part in the peaceful demonstration who, instead of letting themselves be chased away by the police, who were acting on orders from the Governor’s office, engaged in an impromptu sit in. These 14 teachers, students, and parents were seized, handcuffed, fingerprinted, booked, and jailed, all for wanting to talk to the Governor about why the state will not appropriate enough money for textbooks and toilet paper for our schools. The officers who arrested them, while performing their lawful duty in doing so, are said to have repeatedly apologized and expressed admiration and thanks to the teachers and others arrested for having the courage to stand up for our children, including one officer who described the protestors actions as being noble.

In many of our classrooms, there are no textbooks for the subject being taught and if there are books, there are not enough for each student to be issued one, and often not even enough for each student in the room to have one during classroom instruction. Many of the books being used are over a decade old and are held together with duct tape. The state’s answer to the schools - have the teachers spend their own money to make copies because, oh, yeah, we don’t want to pay for copy paper and toner either.

While the Governor’s office touts the increased amount of education spending there has been during his time in office the truth is, on a per-student basis, education spending in this state is nearly $1,000 per student less now than before the Great Recession, according to US Census Bureau figures. And the Governor’s office likes to point out the fact that teachers just got a big raise, but they leave out the fact that it was only the second raise in 8 years, the first having been several years before and amounting to ½ of 1% on average, not even enough to cover the increase in the health insurance premiums the state started passing on to teachers that used to be included as part of the teacher’s compensation. Also, in giving teachers this big raise, the state took away the annual longevity payment teachers used to get based on years of service, so for veteran teachers the amount of the raise was little more than what they lost when they lost their longevity. But the Governor’s office doesn’t like to mention that.

The Governor was too busy to meet with the teachers, parents, and students who marched. He offered to send two of his top aides to speak with the group but when they arrived at the Capitol Building it was locked. When the two top aides did condescend to come outside and meet the protestors later, after the protestors blocked the intersection in an effort to get the Governor’s attention, according to one of the aides they didn’t speak with the protestors because, “We usually prefer not to hold meetings in the intersection of a main road.”

I suppose the Governor may just have been too tired to meet with the teachers. It seems he was up late the night before schmoozing with the rich and powerful at a fundraiser for the presumptive Republican Presidential Candidate. Our Governor clearly has time for the wealthiest 1 % of the residents of our state, whose children assuredly do not attend public schools in this or any state, but he has no time to listen to the parents, teachers, and students who care enough about our public schools to march 23 miles through the summer heat to see him. It comes as no surprise that our Governor and Republican controlled legislature don’t want to acknowledge these folks. These are, after all, the same elected officials who just last year tried to make it a misdemeanor offense for teachers to demonstrate their commitment to public schools because, according to the Republicans in the State House, supporting public education is a political view they cannot tolerate.

While the Governor’s opponent was not associated with this march on the capitol, though the Governor’s re-election campaign manager tried his best to make the connection, the television footage of teachers, students, and parents being led away in handcuffs and loaded into police vans will certainly provide powerful images to use when pointing out the current state administration’s position on education.

Come November we will see if the people of this state really do care about their children’s schools.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

The UEFA Futbal Championship and Social Studies

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

Except for this past week while I was on vacation, I have been trying to watch as much of the UEFA Futbal (soccer to us Americans) Championship as I could. I have seen some great games and so far, my two favorite teams, Ireland and Germany, are still in the running to win it all.

Ireland is playing France – the nation hosting the Championship this year – this morning my time. It is in the afternoon where the game is being played. A new record was set in the first two minutes of the game when a French player plowed over an Irish player and Ireland was granted a Penalty Kick. The kick by the Irish player rebounded off the right post and went into the net, resulting in the earliest goal off of a Penalty Kick in the history of the UEFA Championship.

Two more games will be televised today and I will have both of them playing on the television while I work around the house on other things. I can see the television in the living room from my desk in the office so am able to write, do research, and catch up on the news of the day while keeping up with the game.

What has futbal to do with Social Studies? When it comes to events like the UEFA Championship, the Copa America Tournament, and the World Cup, futbal has everything to do with Social Studies. Such tournaments are a great way for students who are more interested in sports than studies to learn about countries from different parts of the world, learn a bit about those countries as the commentators are always providing tidbits about the culture and politics of those countries.

Students can learn about rivalries between nations in the same part of the world, why those rivalries exist, and some of the history behind them.

Social Studies teachers can use world maps or regional maps to identify where the countries playing in the tournament are, discuss why they are included in the tournament, and show which countries border one another.

Math teachers can use tournaments like these to teach the probability each team has of becoming tournament champion, how math is used to determine scoring differential, and show how some of the oft quoted statistics are determined and used.

Science teachers can discuss the climate and weather where the tournament takes place, compare and contrast that to the climate of the countries the teams are from. They can bring in physics as it pertains to Newton’s Laws and how they govern what happens to the ball when it is kicked, headed, or rebounds off the frame of the goal.

Language Arts teachers can have their students read and analyze stories about the games, stories about the teams and players, and write about their favorite teams or players.

Physical Education teachers probably have it best, as they can get the kids out on the field and have them practice futbal skills and play scrimmage games.

Art, Life Skills (what we old timers called Home Economics), and Music teachers can all find aspects of the gathering of these countries they can incorporate into their curriculum.

Futbal is a truly international game. When you understand the game, you understand why even a low or no scoring tie can be exciting. And there is so much to learn by following the tournament, and not just about the sport, but about the world.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

When One Member State of a Union of States Secedes, Can the Remaining States use Force to Make it Rejoin?

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

A year ago most people reading the title of this post would probably have thought it was a veiled reference to the misnomered United States Civil War. Civil War is a misnomer because there were not two rival factions fighting for control of the same nation. One faction was fighting to maintain the sovereignty of the individual states to govern themselves according to the US Constitution, and the other faction was fighting to prevent the first faction from gaining independence because nearly all the revenue needed to run the federal government at that time was collected on tariffs collected against equipment imported by the first faction or agricultural goods produced by the first faction.

At no time did the first faction seek control of the states in the second faction, nor did the first faction seek control of the union of states as a whole. Therefore, technically, it wasn’t a civil war (a civil war by definition is a war between two different factions within the same nation fighting for control of that nation).

Oh, and declaring they were also going to free the slaves held by the first faction worked much better at gaining recruits to fight in the war than declaring they were making war on the states of the first faction to protect the federal revenue.

Given all that, the title of this post actually has nothing to do with the 1861-1865 War Between the States fought here in North America. The question is a hypothetical one that came to mind once the results of the United Kingdom referendum on staying in the European Union or leaving the European Union were known. The United Kingdom, as most know by now, voted 52% to 48% to leave the European Union.

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

Certainly, the remaining nations in European Union have no plans to take up arms and invade the United Kingdom in the manner Lincoln raised a Great Army of the Republic and invaded Virginia. Hopefully, the days when first world nations solved disputes among themselves by clashes of arms are long behind us. Note: Russia has not left those days behind, but then, they are not really a first world nation; they are a third world nation with a first world military.

But there are other means the remaining nations in the European Union have of punishing Britain for its secession. France could stop exporting cheese and wine to Britain. Italy could cut off pasta and olive oil. Germany, and this would be awful for the Brits, could stop sending them decent beer and ale. The Netherlands could embargo tulip sales. No more sardines and herring from the Nordic countries. The Republic of Ireland could cut off the UK’s supply of Guinness.

These nations could also stop buying British, uh, there must be something the Brits make that other countries want…

Well, I’m sure someone will think of something.

The point is, would it be right for these other nations to take such drastic action against Britain in retaliation for its secession from their club of nations; of which it was a loosely affiliated member at best.

And now there are whispers of other nations thinking of making their own exit from the once vaunted European Union. Could the United Kingdom be the EU’s South Carolina, just the first of many? And who will be the European Union’s Lincoln to keep preserve the Union at all costs?

Oh what a great year this would be to be a Social Studies teacher. But how can a Math teacher work these momentous events into his lessons? Let me see.

Word Problem: If one nation votes to leave a Union by a 52% to 48% margin and 36 million people voted, how many Prime Ministers wind up resigning as a result?

Yes, I think I could make this work.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

Lightning – Thunder – and - Rain! Oh My!

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

For the second time on this camping trip we experienced a night of storms. The area was under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for a while and some parts of the area might have gotten it worse than we did. We got a bit of wind, some thunder and lightning, and a lot of rain.

Yesterday my missus and I took a lazy day and stayed here in the campsite. She went on a couple of long walks and took a trip to town for groceries. I stayed in camp and worked on my current book project. It seems to be coming along well.

Today is our last full day in camp. It is starting out as a blustery, overcast day and the forecast is for warm temperatures and more storms to arrive later in the day. Our plan for today is to do a some more sightseeing along one of the scenic drives looking for photo opportunities.

Earlier this morning I had a photo opportunity while letting my mini-Schnauzer have a run in the Bark Park. Across the street from the Bark Park is a hillside pasture and this morning the cows from the farm down the road were in that pasture grazing. I’ve seen them grazing on the hillside on the far side of the campground, but this morning was the closest I had been to them. One of the cows seemed to take an interest in what I was doing with my camera and posed for me long enough to allow me to take a couple of good photos of her looking at me.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

In other news of educational significance, I see the United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union. In the wake of the vote, Scotland and Northern Ireland are seeking independence referendums so they can exit the United Kingdom and return to the European Union. Rumors are now abounding saying France and the Netherlands may be next.

I’m sure things will be interesting across the pond over the next couple of years.  Including weather and travel in my math class will be a cinch. I wonder how I can work stories about what’s going on in Europe into my math lessons.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

Seventh Grade Mathematics, Again

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

Yesterday I received an email from my Principal announcing the teaching assignments for Seventh Grade. The email went out to all seven teachers who will be teaching Seventh Grade next year, at least as things stand now. We will be formed into a four teacher team and a three teacher team. I will be on the four teacher team.

My assignment for next year is Math. I chuckled when I read my Principal’s email and she’d written Mathematics. I can’t remember the last time any of us at my school used the word Mathematics to describe out Math classes.

This coming school year will be the sixth year in a row I’ve taught something different than I did the year before. Teaching Seventh Grade Math shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, but it will be fun and interesting because the curriculum has changed since I last taught it five years ago, and we have a new Math textbook to work with. The new book replaced the previous book that we’d used since the 2003-2004 school year. We were fortunate to get the new books, considering the State only budgets 65 cents per student per year for replacement text books. They don’t budget 65 cents per student per subject per year, they budget 65 cents per year per student for all subjects.

We didn’t acquire enough Math textbooks to be able to issue one to each student. We received one classroom set for each team. The students are given a web site they can visit to access an online copy of the book. No one gave us any advice about what to do for the students who don’t have an internet connection. Workbooks do accompany the new Math textbook, but our district didn’t buy any. Instead, each Math teacher was given a CD with the workbooks in pdf format and told to print out what was needed.

Of course, they limit the amount of paper each teacher receives each quarter so if the teacher needs more paper than his or her allotment they are expected to go down to the office supply store and buy it themselves. I’ve don’t just that often enough in the past.

Still, I’m looking forward to teaching Math again, now that I’ve had a couple years off from it. As soon as my wife and I get back from our vacation I am going to start preparing my lessons for next year.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

The Grandfather of All Mountains

 

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

Yesterday we visited Grandfather Mountain, a privately owned park here in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Grandfather Mountain is famous for its Mile High Swinging Bridge.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

The cross piece in the middle of the bridge, shown above, marks the point. The bridge was rebuilt in 1999 and no longer swings as much as it used to. Now when the wind blows across it, the bridge “sings,” playing notes much like the sound of a harmonica.

Our furry family members did cross the Mile High Swinging Bridge with us. Though my Schnauzer was not crazy about it, he crossed it bravely. Once on the other side, we did not continue on to the highest point as that would have required some treacherous hiking over slanted and broken rock. I have been to the peak before, so knew I was not missing out on the experience.

One of the many hiking trails on Grandfather Mountain begins there in the parking lot of the Swinging Bridge gift shop and museum.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

 The trail is labelled as being one for experienced hikers only. While I am an experienced hiker, with my hip as it is now I am no longer able to tackle a trail like this.

The hiking trails are off limits to dogs anyway, so I wouldn’t have tried it yesterday because I had my miniature Schnauzer with me.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

On the drive back down the mountain we found a beautifully scenic spot for our picnic. The photo above shows one of the vistas we had from the sight.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

Standing on the edge of the parking area was a majestic fir tree rising like a lone sentinel against the backdrop.

While enjoying our picnic lunch, we met another couple who lived in the area and they filled us in on several other places to visit we had never heard about. It turned out he was a retired special education teacher and she was currently working as a high school biology teacher. After we left and were once again on our way down the mountain, my wife commented on how teachers always seemed to find each other no matter where they went.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

As we left the picnic area we were serenaded by the splendid fellow in this last photo. I could hear him singing as we got closer to our truck and was lucky enough to spot him there in that bare branch. Even better, I was lucky enough to get several pictures of him as he sat watching us. Instead of flying away, the brave feathered crooner broke back into song as we got into our truck to leave.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and I was able to take many photographs of geological and natural wonders that abound on Grandfather Mountain, many of which I look forward to sharing with my students next school year.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

A Hidden Gem of the Blue Ridge Mountains

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

It is fitting that my 50^th article for this blog be about a 50-foot-tall gem hidden away in the Blue Ridge Mountains northwest corner just a stone’s throw from the Tennessee State Line. We learned about his gem at the Rest Stop Visitor’s Center where we enjoyed a picnic lunch the day we drove up here to the campground.

This particular gem is about an hour’s drive from the campground along some very twisting, turning, mountain roads. There are two routes from the campground to the small park where the gem is located. We took the “truck route” to get there, as it was the shortest, by two miles. We came back along the “scenic route.” It was very scenic, and full of hairpin turns and steep drop-offs. We came very quickly to understand why the scenic route was closed to tractor-trailers. They never would have been able to navigate some of the steep, hairpin turns.

The hidden gem I have been referring to is Elk Falls. Here the Elk River plunges 50 feet over a granite precipice into a large basin carved out by years of erosion before flowing on downstream over a series of rapids. The basin is large enough for swimming, and the rapids downstream are gentle enough for tubing.

Getting to the parking area, which is quite small, was an adventure in itself. The falls are several miles off the main highway down a narrow, curving mountain road. Just shy of the park, the blacktop ends and, though we probably didn’t have to, we were able to engage the four-wheel-drive.

The parking area, basically a gravel cul-de-sac right next to the Elk River, could accommodate about a dozen cars. While we were there I don’t think more than six cars were in the lot at any one time. A very short trail led from the parking area to the river where several flat rocks provided areas for sitting by the river and enjoying a picnic lunch. Seating was literally on the rocks, as no type of picnic areas were provided. Some rocks and ledges made for some gentle rapids and shallowness of the river allowed for some careful wading.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

A second trail led up and across a rise and then down to the top of the falls. The trail marker showed the trail had a difficulty level of “Easiest.” I was able to traverse it, bad hip and all, taking it slow and easy and with a lot of reliance on my hiking stick. The view from the top of the falls was beautiful in both directions, and the powerful sound of the water spilling over the ledge and plunging into the pool below was mesmerizing.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

The trail took a downward slant from there to the base of the falls. Thankfully, that National Park Service, the agency with responsibility for maintaining the area, has built a set of stairs covering most of the descent. A ridge of granite at the base of the climb down reaches out along the downstream side of the pool and affords visitors an up close view of the falls.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

While we were there, the only one we saw venture into the pool was one family’s Golden Retriever. We visited in the morning and, with the temperature in the low seventies, the swimming, tubing crowd hadn’t arrived yet. My wife and I stayed long enough to get several pictures and take in the 360-degree panorama, and to allow me to rest up for the hike back to the parking lot.

The hike from the parking lot to the base of the falls is only three-tenths of a mile in distance. It is the climbing up and down that I had to be careful of.

After arriving back in the parking area, we retrieved our picnic lunch from the truck and selected a spot on a nice flat rock where the dogs could cool their feet in the river while my wife and I enjoyed our lunch.

I have several pictures of the falls I’ll be able to share with my students next school year. Should I wind up teaching Sixth Grade Science, the photos will be perfect for showing the effects of erosion on the mountain.

Today we have another adventure planned. Come back to learn what we see and do today in tomorrow’s post.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

Life In These Here Hills

(C) 2016 Douglas W Davis

Your humble Exhausted Educator took yesterday off to enjoy Father’s Day, and enjoy it I did. From a camper cooked breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy prepared by my wonderful wife, throughout a rather lazy day of enjoying the beautiful weather here in the North Carolina mountains, to a delightful dinner of barbequed ribs, with fire pit cooked corn-on-the-cob and baked potatoes.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

My wife, who grew up on a farm and is used to fresh picked corn-on-the-cob, commented that the corn we ate last evening was “the best corn-on-the-cob” she’d “ever eaten” in her life. Since I was the chef who prepared the meal, I took that as quite a compliment.

(C)2016 Douglas W Davis

The weather here in the mountains yesterday was so wonderful we spent the whole day outside on the “patio.” I had a spot under the awning all set up with easy access to the beverage fridge and a view of the valley and mountain beyond. Though it was sunny, the awning afforded me enough shade to use my laplet (combination laptop and tablet). Throughout the day I wrote new material for my latest Work-In-Progress.

My digital SLR camera finally got to take some pictures yesterday on one of our walks up to the bark park to exercise the dogs. I’m hoping that a couple of the pictures will make the grade and be added to my Pixabay portfolio.

Last night after dinner, once the fire had gone out, we came inside to watch a movie. Being able to watch a DVD on an HDTV doesn’t sound like something one does when one is camping, but our travel trailer has a few nice amenities like that. We watched THE FIFTH ELEMENT starring Bruce Willis and Milla Javovich. When our boys were still living at home and going to school, this was our end of the school year movie to watch. Now my wife watches it with me.

I haven’t listened to, read, or watched the news today. It is not that I’m not interested; it is our intermittent internet connectivity here in the camp. Yesterday it was great. Today, not so much. It is one of those little inconveniences one must put up with when one is “roughing it.”

Today, we are heading out on an adventure to visit a scenic waterfall. Perhaps by the time we get back the winds will push the internet signal back this way.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

Lessons from the Road

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

My wife and I spent the morning driving some 260 miles from our home near the coast to this campground at which will be residing for the next 7 nights. Adding to the normal challenge of such a drive was the task of towing our travel trailer not only up the mountains of western North Carolina (Okay all you Colorado people, stop laughing) but through the cities of Raleigh, Durham, Burlington, and Greensboro.

Raleigh and Durham we mostly by-passed by taking a slightly unconventional route. But Burlington and Greensboro were a matter of being hyper-vigilant while keeping a level head as we rode through on the Interstate.

The best part of the drive came when we’d gotten west of Winston-Salem, left the Interstate, and followed an old familiar highway I remember from my youth from there to our destination. It was during that part of the trip that the challenge of pulling the camper up the increasingly steep and long grades arose. It was also during that part of the trip that we caught our first views of the Blue Ridge Mountains on this trip.

We’ve been to the North Carolina mountains several times in the twenty-one years since I brought my bride home. Every time it is something special. This is the second time it’s been only us and the dogs, though. Always before our sons had been with us. Now they are grown with lives of their own.

The lesson of the road, though, was not one I learned from my traffic travails today. It is one I imagined being able to teach my students about their state. The highway that carried us from the Interstate to our destination here in the North Carolina High Country runs diagonally from the south-eastern corner of the state where the Cape Fear River meets the Atlantic Ocean to the northwest corner of the state where Daniel Boone once looked west towards Tennessee and Kentucky.

What a great lesson it would be if I could take my students on a field trip from one corner of the state to another. We could start at the ocean, cross the coastal plains, rise into the piedmont and foothills, and wind up in the mountains. For some of my students it would be the first time they’d ventured beyond the confines of their home county. Certainly, for many, it would be the furthest they’d ever traveled from home. And it would show them that there are places and opportunities galore right here in their own state towards which they could set their sights.

Alas, such a field trip would be costly, time consuming, and nearly impossible to get approved. But the idea is a sound one, I believe. If I am not able to make it happen in The Real World, perhaps, I can take them on a virtual tour of their state. After all, isn’t that what the internet is for; to take us places we can’t ordinarily go.

I want to share all the wonderful sights, places, opportunities and people of our state with my students. This is the lesson of the road I learned today.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

Are We On the Brink of a New Cold War?

Or is Vladimir Putin itching for a hot one?

courtesy of Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

One of the subjects we covered in some depth this past year in 7^th Grade Social Studies as the Cold War, its causes, and its ultimate outcome. The students learned about the Iron Curtain, NATO, the Warsaw Pact, the Berlin Wall, and the proxy wars fought in Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan, among others.

We talked in detail about Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner!" speech, which quote, contrary to urban legend, does not mean I am a jelly donut. No one in Berlin calls a jelly donut a Berliner. President Kennedy used the exact right grammar and wording to express, in German, that he was an outsider who stood with the people of Berlin as if he was one of them.

The students watched video of the building of the Wall and came to understand that the Wall was built to trap people in East Berlin, not to keep people out.

We also watched Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall speech,” and discussed the circumstances leading up to the actual tearing down of the Wall on November 9, 1989. One of the student’s parents brought in a piece of the actual Berlin Wall that had been given to her by a friend who was at the Wall that night. It was quite a moment for my students to be able to hold that piece of history in their hands.

One of the more interesting insights to come out of those lessons was when my students asked me why the United States doesn’t have Presidents like Kennedy and Reagan any more. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to tell them.

If I am assigned to teach Social Studies again next school year, I will have the interesting task of challenging my students to decide if we are headed into a new Cold War with an increasingly belligerent Russia.

The rhetoric coming out of Moscow lately is frighteningly reminiscent of the rhetoric that once spewed forth from that historic city during the heyday of the now defunct Soviet Union. Could it be that Vladimir Putin, once a member of the feared and reviled KGB, is longing for a return to those days when a mere growl from the Russian bear sent the world scurrying to calm the ursine beast?

While refusing to acknowledge the criminality of his seizure of Crimea or his not-so-covert invasion of eastern Ukraine, Putin is making threats against NATO and the United States should they send naval vessels into the Black Sea, seek to militarily discourage Syria’s
Assad from committing any more war crimes against his own people, or conduct military exercises on their own sovereign land if Putin feels it is too close to Russia.

It appears Putin desires a return to the power and influence the Soviet Union once had. He uses the excuse that he is concerned with defending Mother Russia, but that is a red herring, as no one is interested in invading Mother Russia. The world is well aware that neither Napoleon in the 19^th Century nor Hitler in the 20^th Century were able to defeat Russia or the Soviet Union. No nation at this point in the 21^st Century would be foolish enough to try.

Perhaps Mr. Putin should take a lesson from history. In the last 100 years, the government of Russia/the Soviet Union has only been overthrown twice, both times from within. Considering the number of rich and powerful Russian Mafioso now controlling Russia’s economy, businessmen who would stand to lose a great deal should Russia get into a large scale war, Mr. Putin should probably spend more time watching his back than he does looking out for things to beat his drum over in the West.

It seems the Peace Dividend from the end of Cold War One is gone. The question now is how long will Cold War Two last? And will Cold War Two stay cold? For the sake of my children and my students, I dearly hope so.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator

Is Trump Ready to Dump Republicans?

Because they sure seem ready to dump him.

What a fascinating Current Events lesson could be written about today’s news concerning the presumptive Republican nominee for President. Due to his many faux pas, to put it mildly, member after member of the Republican leadership is spending more time reacting to Mr. Trump’s ill-considered remarks than they are concentrating on winning the White House and keeping control of Congress in the fall. Some Congressional Republicans are considering or actually have rescinded their endorsements of their party’s candidate.

Mr. Trump’s response is that the Republican leadership needs to sit down, shut up, and do as they are told, by him. Trump sees no reason why he should change his tone. The tone he is taking makes him a hit with his Trumpist base. As long as they keep cheering every word that Mr. Trump utters, the candidate will never feel a need to change what he says or how he says it. If the party leadership won’t support him, Mr. Trump says he will go it alone.

The current upheaval in the Republican Party would be a wonderful opportunity to look back over the Presidential elections of the last half of the Twentieth Century and have the students look for a similar situation in those past contest that could be compared and contrasted with the situation the Republicans currently find themselves in. Would the students even be able to find one?

While the students would be able to find many instances of a second place candidate launching in independent run for President when the major party did not nominate them – Ross Perot jumps immediately to mind, along with Ralph Nader and George Wallace – I believe they would be hard pressed to find a time when the party had a presumptive nominee whom the party backed away from.

I do not envy the Republican leadership’s position of having to see Mr. Trump receive and accept the nomination to run as their candidate for President all-the-while knowing they cannot honestly and earnestly support his candidacy. I would ask my students, after they have studied past races, if they had any suggestion for the Republicans. I imagine such a discussion would be lively and full of interesting and innovative ideas.

I have not received my teaching assignment for next school year yet, but if I could choose right now, I’d definitely choose Eighth Grade Social Studies. I cannot imagine a better time to be teaching about civics, the electoral process, and the Constitution than during this year’s Presidential General Election Campaign.

As always, I remain,

The Exhausted Educator