Keeping busy

It's a Monday afternoon as I write this; about four o'clock in the middle of the North American continent. I bet you're wondering, "Where's the clever title, blogger?"  Yes, I bet you are.

I went to bed early on Thursday night because I needed to get up early on Friday. A local Kansas City television station runs a weekly segment called "Cool Schools" where the reporter and cameraman broadcast a live feed of the students behaving as hooligans and conduct on air interviews with some of the movers and shakers of the student body. The broadcast began at five o'clock a.m.so, I needed to get on up and at 'em to join in on the fun. The previous night the high school held a "lock-in" or a "sleepover" or "shenanigans-fest", whatever you want to call it, for the students. The girls were kept segregated from the guys (a wise move; there's no need to look for ways to increase the student pregnancy rate). There were a few teachers that volunteered to stay with the students. I was not one of those teachers. Before I had children of my own I would have been there to "chaperone", or "bear witness", or "katy-bar the door", but now that I have three little ones and a little lady at home, I feel it is my place to be at home with them at night in the highly unlikely event that "something" might happen and I would be needed.

I rolled up on my bicycle at about a quarter to five on Friday morning, my bike all lit up like a landing strip. I figured I better get all visible and such as there would be some student drivers arriving at five a.m. for the beginning of the festivities, and might be tired and distracted. My students puzzled me with their reactions to this: "You rode your bike this morning?"

Well, yes. I'm not sure why they were surprised about this. Some of them have never seen me in a vehicle, but I guess since it was early in the morning, they thought maybe I'd not be up to it. But, I was, and I did.

I dove into the free all you can eat pancake breakfast with some colleagues and students both, where we cut up and looked forward to a day of whiners and complaining.

More to follow...