Bad Math

From: hercampus.com

At my first school, I generally would have one bad class and two good ones each semester.  One of the reasons I changed schools last year is to get better kids, but five weeks into my third semester at school #2 I have found the ratio to be two bad classes for every good one.

I'm not really liking that math.  I just turned 40, which means I would have to teach 20 more years to get full retirement.  I don't use the word "can't" much, but I know I can't teach that long.  I'm not sure I can last to the end of my National Board certification, which ends in 7 years.

And yes, it is the usual reasons: I'm burned out from working all the time for kids who are disrespectful.  I've had good jobs outside of teaching before, and if this economy ever turns around, I'll be taking hard look at them, even it comes with a pay cut.

End of an Era

From: illinoisstate.edu

From: wikipedia.org

Just finished watching the series finale of Breaking Bad.  I would like to say that I was watching this outstanding show from the beginning, but it was only due to a friend's urging that I started watching it prior to its last season.  It's great to see a show go out on top.

Another show that just ended was Burn Notice on USA Network.  I started watching it prior to its second season.  I liked it because it really reminded me of the A-Team: former government operatives use their training and skills to help the powerless.  Burn Notice started off as a procedural-like drama, where each episode could stand on its own, but in later years it turned into a serialized show.  It got hard to keep all of the spies and double-crossing that went on.

What do you do when a series is over?  I guess you have to clear its scheduling history out of the DVR, or reflect, or something.

At Bat is Awesome!

From: tech.co

Last Christmas, someone gave me $40 in iTunes gift card money.  I didn't know quite what to spend it on, but I figured it out once baseball rolled around--the At Bat app from MLB.

For a baseball fan that lives out of market, it is awesome!  I spent the whole season listening to the same radio play-by-play guy that I had tuned into while in middle school.  And then my daughter and I watched the highlights after each game was over.

The best part--my daughter is now an Orioles fan!

I'm 40

Turned 40 a few weeks ago.  I was all set to play this clip in class, but I gave myself a birthday present: a guest speaker.

I remember the money quote from this episode, but I had forgotten that Mike Gundy spent the entire press conference ignoring the assembled media horde to focus his wrath on one columnist--classic!

Making GIFs for Tumblr

I follow several sports teams and leagues on Tumblr just to see how they are using the site.  I've noticed that MLB and a lot of baseball teams like to use funny GIFs to catch attention.  I'm trying my hand at that myself this year.

There are several free video to GIF sites that I looked at.  At first, I was to export directly from my video editing software (Sony Vegas) to a GIF, but that didn't work.  Then I realized a lot of GIFs are made from videos that are already online, so I tried a YouTube to GIF creator, GIFSoup.  That seems to work much better.  The proof will be the increase (or lack thereof) of followers this year.  We'll see...

Is the Internet Broken?

From: zeebone.com

In the last week, I've seen three of the dumbest opinion pieces I've ever read.

1. It's OK for teachers to have sex with students.
2. There was nothing wrong with Miley Cyrus' VMA performance.
3. It's immoral to send your kids to private schools. 

Oy vey!