Intense, Insane, Interminable

Twice a year at our school we have an I³ Day or I -Cubed Day. At this point I really can't remember what the three I's stand for. It could stand for Initiating Intelligent Interaction or maybe Introducing Integrated Information. However, yesterday it felt like the three I's stood for Intense, Insane, Interminable.

Let me explain what I³ Day is. The entire campus teaches various skills and objectives, all centered upon one theme or literature selection. Each teacher is provided with a lesson and all supplies needed for the lesson. Homeroom teachers then teach this same lesson throughout the day as other classes rotate into their classroom. Yesterdays selection was "June 29, 1999". This is a story about a young girl who is doing an experiment for school using vegetable plants. Her experiment is to send plants aloft and see if there is any change in them. Weeks later gigantic vegetables start falling from the sky. Where have they come from? (Go to Blue Sunflower Associates and buy "June 29, 1999" find out.)

I teamed up with a fellow Kindergarten teacher and we both did a lesson on shopping for vegetables at the grocery store. The students were supposed to shop, pay for, and get the appropriate change for their selections. The only problem was we only had 30 minutes for each lesson and 17 - 25 students per rotation into the room. We occasionally modified the lesson and challenged the students to shop for vegetables and try to hit a target amount and not go over. The amount we chose was $3 - $5 depending upon the grade level. Some students did quite well, others broke the bank.

Don't get me wrong. The day is great. Teachers get to see a different set of kids every 30 minutes. (This way we all get to see what the other teachers have to deal with on a daily basis and they see what you deal with.) As a Kindergarten teacher I love it because I get to see my previous students and get to interact with them once again. I also get to see what wonderful students many of them have become.

Now the Intense, Insane, Interminable part. It doesn't really have anything to to do with the lessons, the story, the students, or anything like that. It has to do with the music that our Instructional Specialist chose to signify that it was time to rotate; which is what my head began to do after hearing the same music and chorus over and over and over and over. You get the idea. It was something about vegetables and every time I heard it began to feel like someone was taking a hot poker and sticking it in my head. It really was Intense, Insane, Interminable. Maybe Kathy will write in and tell me the name of the song so I can share it with all of you. After all, you need an I³ day also.

PS: A Google search for June 29, 1999 yielded many scholarly articles. However none are related to what we taught. Goodness knows that we could have done some great lessons on "Neurotoxic Lesions of Basolateral, But Not Central, Amygdala Interfere with Pavlovian Second-Order Conditioning and Reinforcer Devaluation Effects". © 2008 Barry T Horst


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My Summer Vacation, Sort Of

When I became a teacher people told me I became a teacher for three reasons; June, July, and August. I would laugh and reply that it wasn't true because school generally began in the middle of August and teachers had to report before then.

Well, the State of Texas in it's infinite wisdom decided last year that school should not start before the last week of August but schools still had to meet the required 180 days. I guess you can tell what that means for most schools now. Since they can't start until the end of August , most schools have to go into the month of June unless they have cut out some holidays through the year. Waco ISD's last day for students is June 3rd and for teachers it is June 4th.

When the new school year begins teachers will have to report on August 18 and students will report on August 25. Now I know that most of you will say that still gives me most of June and August off and all of July. Not true. You see our district offers summer training opportunities for all staff. While this training is not mandatory it is strongly encouraged. Several campuses will begin a new campus climate program called TRIBES. Also, the district has adopted a new Math program and my campus will phase in a new reading program. All of this requires training. So for my summer enjoyment today I scheduled 51 hours of training during the month of July.

So for all of those who think a teacher becomes a teacher because of June, July, and August; you can tell them I became a teacher because of 3 weeks in June, 2 weeks in August, and not much of July.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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The Restaurants On Memory Lane

Sometimes you start to reminisce at the strangest times. Well, now is it. Last night I was thinking about some of the hamburger places that my family would go to when I was much, much younger. Waco has had it's share of chain restaurants and local restaurants come and go. One hamburger place I remember that I think was a local establishment was The Chuck Wagon. The Chuck Wagon was a walk up establishment that I remember my family going to many times. It was located on Waco Drive in the vicinity of 7th or 8th Street s or thereabouts. The main thing I remember about the restaurant were the wagon wheels that adorned the outside. We would drive up and park. My dad would go to the window and order and then we would wait to hear our number called. When the number was called you knew that something good was coming. Years later the restaurant moved a few blocks down Waco Drive and then moved again to New Road and Waco Drive. It has been closed for many years now.

Another restaurant that has given me many memories is The Golden Point. They sold hamburgers and fries. I suppose they were similar to McDonald's. We would go there Sunday afternoons and get a bag of burgers and fries. I recall the burgers cost 15 cents. It was located on Valley Mills Drive and Sanger Avenue. At the time we would go to the Golden Point it was on the part of Valley Mills Drive that was beginning to narrow down to a couple of lanes heading out of town towards the lake. Now that same spot has seven lanes and seems like the middle of town. At the time I thought that this restaurant was the only one in the world. Nope! Here is a website that has some pictures of several Golden Point restaurants from across the states. They closed a long time ago and the building was later torn down a replaced by a convenience store.

When I was in high school there was a Sandy's Drive In just down the road from the school. At that time we had open campus for lunch and students could leave campus and go anywhere in town. Just be back in time for your next class. Since I couldn't drive my first year at Richfield I would either eat at school, walk to the McDonald's (A local shop, not the big chain), walk to the snack bar in the Clark's Discount Store, or go to Sandy's. At the time I thought it was great. Maybe that was because I was able to take a break from school. Check out Captain Ernies Showboat for a lot of great information about Sandy's.

When I have more time I will share more of my memories of growing up in Waco. For now, I think I'll go get a burger at Cupp's Drive In or The Health Camp on the Traffic Circle.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Let's Go Down The Road Again

Chris and I were running errands yesterday. As we were driving to and from we began discussing the various bond elections that area school districts had over the weekend. Waco ISD, where I work, passed a large bond election to build new schools and remodel aging facilities. This has been needed and will certainly be appreciated by all staff, students, parents, and community members. It is always nice to be proud of your local schools and your place of employment. Over the course of several years the district will build new schools, remodel some, and combine others in an effort to bring more cost efficiency to the district. I look forward to this time as an exciting time to be with the district.

Now back to the conversation I had with Chris. Chris asked about University High School and I told her that they would build a new University High at another location and then University Junior High would relocate to the old high school. I then stopped and corrected myself saying, "I guess it is University Middle School now. They don't call them junior highs anymore, they're all middle schools."

This prompted me to recall how the names of schools and other institutions change with time and our perceptions of the older names. For instance, "Grammar Schools". I'm sure they taught more than just grammar, yet they were called 'grammar school" and not math or social studies schools. Another term from long ago was having a "liberal education". Nowadays that would upset many conservatives because you would expect someone is being indoctrinated with a socially and politically liberal ideas. But years ago it simply meant getting a "well rounded" education.

Another good old fashioned name was "sanitarium" which denoted a health retreat or hospital. Nowadays I think of a sanitarium as being an "insane asylum". Of course the "insane asylum" was ubiquitous many years years ago. Now we have "psychiatric hospitals" or other less offensive terms.

Again, this is just another example of how I can start down the road to school and end up at the insane asylum.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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1953 Waco Tornado Remembered

Sunday was the 55th anniversary of the worst tornado in Texas history. It struck Waco, TX on the afternoon of May 11, 1953. There is always a lot of talk of the tornado this time of year here in Waco. My uncle, Woody Barron, worked for the newspaper here in Waco at the time. I remember the story he told me once about the tornado. I was a little guy at the time he told me this but I remember it like it was yesterday. He said that after the tornado his editor told him to go out and get some human interest stories. So he walked over to Austin Avenue, about a block away, and started walking down the street and surveying the rubble. He spoke with several people about their experience during the storm. He told me that he spoke to one fellow that was driving along Austin Avenue when the tornado picked his car up and carried it for about a block and set it down. The fellow said that while in the air he saw another man that the tornado picked up while walking along the street.

Uncle Woody told me that he didn't put much stock in the story until a short time later he was talking to another man about his experience. He told Uncle Woody that he was walking along Austin Avenue when, yep! He saw a man that was driving his car in the air along Austin Avenue. Uncle Woody said that car was the first fellow he spoke with.

Now I don't know if that is true or if Uncle Woody was just making the whole thing interesting for me but I have always thought that it was a great story and I have told it many times.The local NBC affiliate, KCEN-TV Channel 6, has a video of a never released film that was taken after the tornado and shows some of the devastation. Click on the 1953 Waco Tornado Film to view it. Also The CBS affiliate, KWTX-TV Channel 10, did a story about a musician that wrote a song about the tornado. Click on the Shane Howard - Waco Tornado link to view this story. You can also go to the City of Waco web-site and watch the 1953 Waco Tornado Video Series. It is a good watch for those that are interested.

My dad was working at Central Freight Lines on Mary Street at the time. Man that place was built like a fortress. He said he can remember that it got dark and the wind and rain was really blowing. Their building had small windows that were about 15 feet off the ground so they were not in any danger of flying glass. Also, the location of their building was at the extreme western edge of the damaged area. Our house at the time was far removed from the part of town that was hit since it centered on the downtown area. I was told that the Alico Building actually swayed during the tornado but survived while the R.T. Dennis Building and Chris' Cafe across the street were totally destroyed. Tornadoes can be very fickle.

If you would like to play with a tornado try the University of Wisconsin Interactive Twister. You will need to have Java installed to view it and play with it though. © 2008 Barry T Horst


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Picture Monday, May 12, 2008

Here a a few snaps from our trip to Sea World and the Dwyer Group 2008 Annual picnic.

The above pictures show us arriving at Sea World. Jess, Julie, and Chris (In the hat) are walking from the parking lot to the main entrance. All three have "08" on their backs. Next you see the main entrance. It is their 20th anniversary. Notice that yours truly is not in the picture. I am behind the camera. The bottom picture shows Aunt Julie with Jace in the Coral Reef exhibit.AAARGH!!!!

More problems with the blamed computer! I can't get any more pictures to load. I talked to Scott about it and he is going to check the motherboard.

Here we go again, getting the blog posted on a wing and a prayer.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


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