Sunday, January 18, 2015

I Have Plenty to Do, but I Chose to Blog

I am plodding my way through late work, trying to assure myself that these grades for the first semester are as accurate as they can be. At the same time I have the Packers-Seahawks game on, which draws my attention now and then. Upstairs, a mixture of seasoned ground beef, onions, and cabbage waits for dough to rise so I can craft bierocks. I need to mix the broiled chicken breasts and bacon I prepared this morning into pasta salad for our ELAFL team lunch tomorrow. In short, I have plenty of tasks before me right now. So, naturally, I went on a bike ride earlier, and I have chosen to close out buhlerdocs and open up Blogger for a little while. Makes sense.

This week, I worked on a film for when we begin our spring morning workouts. I love working on those videos. The thought went through my head that I could have done that for a living, maybe working my way up the ladder, squinting and sweating over thousands of hours of sports or news footage, perhaps fooling someone long enough to let me into an NFL Films office or ESPN studio. It could have happened. Or not.

I mentioned that to my Dad. The fact is, I could have done something else. I am fairly intelligent and enjoy putting myself into endeavors, working hard to complete a project or task, tapping into what creativity I can muster, calling forth the skills that great teachers and role models have managed to massage through my thick skull. I think I could have found a path that would have allowed me to make a fair living, probably much more money than I make now.  My Dad cleared things up though, as he has a tendency to do. "But you are doing what you want to be doing. What you love to do. What you are supposed to do."

Dad tends to be right when he says something. This time really is no different. Despite the fact that it seems as if every day I read another article about the gloom and doom that sits on the horizon for those of us in education, I am doing what I am meant to be doing.

Do you know what keeps so many teachers from going that direction? What allows people in the profession to keep rolling in each morning, often 30-45 minutes before "contract time" starts? What keeps them up late on a Wednesday so they can celebrate completing a set of papers that need to be graded or a test that needed to be written? It is so simple that many outside of education cannot understand it until they think of it in terms of their business. It is what we are supposed to be doing. It is what some people refer to as the "why" we must all identify and always keep in mind. Seeing a kid light up when she "gets it", watching a "Sweathog" cross the stage on a May Saturday, reading a letter or twitter message from a former student who found his way and his own passion, learning you made a connection with a student who needed to connect with someone, or getting a hug from a player who overcame setback after setback to win a championship gives a teacher the same reward that closing a deal for a Fortune 500 company, seeing a patient walk out of the hospital doors with loved ones, hearing a song you penned stream from the radio, or seeing a new model of automobile roll off the assembly line for the first time does for each of those professionals. Would it be nice to receive a little more in each check along with that reward? Sure. I would not turn it down. However, when you are doing what are supposed to do, what you have a passion for, and you can put food on the table doing it, you are wealthier than many people who cash comparatively large checks and hate their lives every day.  In addition to that, do you know what we, as educators, get to do each and every day in some way, large or small? We get to help young people discover their own "why". We have the opportunity to help them develop the tools to not only identify their "whys", but also to become successful in those endeavors. How neat is that? (In case you are unsure: it is pretty dang neat.)

Why do I like making those videos? It is because those players are my kids. Our kids. My why. It is just that simple.

Sure, I could do something else. But why?


Friday, January 2, 2015

Writer's Block, Football, Movies, and Music

I do not know what to write! There. Now the few of you that actually read this once in a while and have uttered those frustrated words in my direction can feel I am finally getting my just reward. I have writers' block, and I do not like that. It is not that I do not have any ideas; it is just that every idea seems to be a rehash of something I have already hashed before or is not really worth putting on paper, even the electronic kind.

In my classroom, when some youth, worn down with the grind of academic struggle, brow glistening with the sweat of intellectual exertion, lifts his or her eyes, bloodshot and brimming with tears of frustration, to me in desperation because the words will not work themselves free from the locked cage the imagination and mind, I usually nudge that fine young scribe gently toward creative greatness with such encouraging nuggets as "I cannot tell you what you think; you have to put it together" and the thoughts immediately begin to flow from pen to page, partly, I am sure due to my osmotic creative presence. (If you are bored and nerdy, diagram that sentence. I will hold you in amazing high esteem from today forward.) It is just as simple as that. Actually, when a student looks at me and hisses through clinched teeth how hard it is to write, I usually will sit down next to her and try to work toward some ember that simply needs a little creative oxygen and a bit of fuel to ignite. It is there for most kids, more of us as writers, but finding the proper tinder is not always obvious and simple as blowing on a bundle of sticks and straw.  Sometimes it takes some searching, a few extra swipes across the mental flint, and some sheltering from the factors that spit on the tend flames.  Sometimes, it does take a stern stroke, and the writer will hear the words "Write something. It might be something bad. If you have something, we can build on that." And that always works. Always.

Sometimes, I am in that same spot at my students. I do not know what to write! I cannot get started. Nothing sounds new, fresh, or worth developing. So, I write. I write something, even if it is bad. From there, maybe I can build.  And with that, I give you a string disjoined thoughts that fall out of my head and land on the keyboard.

1.  Every once in a while, it is good to go on a youtube adventure. Call it falling down the rabbithole or surfing or just killing time. Whatever title is fixed to it, it can be rewarding on some level. Not every time or in a deep, life-affirming or life altering way, but sometimes, and in ways that make life more interesting. I have found some very interesting spoken word pieces on some of those rambling jaunts. Some intriguing musical selections have made their way onto my playlists after I stumbled upon songs and artists I would never have discovered had I not allowed myself to float down those internet streams into darker, more dangerous waters. I discovered several groups who perform a harsher form of rock music than most of the music on my itunes (It's not screamo! It's hardcore!"), but I find myself listening to them more and more often, especially during workouts. However, some of it just freaks me out. I am a metalhead from way back, so that takes something.  I have also found some musicians that fall under the modern version more traditional umbrella, such as  Avery Watts, Danko Jones, or Redlight King, and I doubt I would have heard the offerings from these bands had it not been for insomnia, an internet connection, and suggestions lists down the right side of the youtube page.

2.  There are movies that demand that you stop and watch. Sometimes, I do not even know why I stop and watch. Napoleon Dynamite  is not a great film, and I have yet to find a reason to watch any part of the movie even once, let alone repeatedly. However, if the movie is on TV and I flip past that channel, the odds are I am going to watch part of it. I do not know why. He doesn't even have any skills. Gosh!

I find it nearly impossible to skim past The Departed or Gangs of New York, despite the fact that I own each of these films on DVD. These two are different from ND in the fact that they are both extremely good movies. However, I have seen each of them multiple times. However, if I see a filthy DiCaprio strolling the streets of the Five Points with Bill the Butcher, plotting the return of the Dead Rabbits, I am dropping the remote. If I hear Wahlberg spouting obscenities and Damon whispering about how good he is at lying, you have lost me for an hour or two.  The addiction is not limited by genre either. Full Metal Jacket, The Breakfast Club, High Plains Drifter, The Green Beret, Cool Hand Luke, Stalag 17. Any one of those films will stop me in my tracks.

3.  Football fans are fanatical. Most cannot discuss much of anything that is connected even remotely to "their" team without completely losing their minds. We see it at some points with professional teams, but usually it raises its ugly head when college ball comes into play.  It is annoying it many people, and it actually diminishes the enjoyment that should come from the game.  By all means, support your team, even if it is not really "your" team. If you educate yourself on the game beyond how great your team is and how much everyone else is terrible, you would probably enjoy the games more, and actually appreciate what the team you cheer for is actually doing.
By the way, this applies to college basketball fans as well. I did not want KU fans to feel left out of this discussion.

4.  With that in mind, can we now admit that the SEC is basically like the other power conferences in college football? They are a great football conference. They are not the SE Conference of the NFL. Some years they have an unbeatable team.  Some years they have several very good teams. Guess what? That can be said about the PAC-12, BIG 10, and BIG 12 year to year. And, apparently, the ACC is pretty stout too, evidenced by what Georgia Tech did to a top SEC team in their bowl. Top to bottom, those conferences are very comparable. To argue that each year the SEC must have the top team in the playoff, and probably two teams in the playoff, is just as ridiculous as saying the BIG 12 should have had two teams in the playoff this year.

5. On a football-related note, I do not like to listen to college football announcers.  I cannot tell you what sportscaster first said it, or what sport he was discussing, but I do remember hearing an old broadcaster speak on how the best quality a broadcaster can have is to let the game happen for the listeners or viewers, and simply fill in the blanks for them so they feel the game and can become a part of it. I wish more broadcasters could follow that mantra. So often it seems that today's college football broadcasters feel they have to be part of the game, as opposed to helping bring the game to those at home. In doing so, they talk continuously. In order to keep that constant noise going, they often overstate the obvious, or blather on with useless and often incorrect information. If an announcer wishes to break down the running game of Oregon or K-State, he really needs to become informed on those running schemes first. Otherwise, he sounds like an idiot.
Oh, and announcers should read #4 as well. Hate to tell you, but while the east and west coasts play some amazing football, the middle of the country, from Minnesota and Wisconsin to Texas and points in between can do some amazing things on the gridiron. Always have.

Well, I was able to get a few things down on paper. Maybe I will come back to one or two of them later and expand. Or maybe not. I wrote, and for now, that is something.

Even if it is something bad.