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June 2008 - Posts

so I'm writing a book


30 June 08 06:21 AM | jtspencer | 3 Comments   
I'm working on writing a book. It's surprisingly hard to say people, as if it's something I've been hiding for a long time. "Hey, there's something I've always kept hidden from you. I'm really a geek." I suppose it's a little like an intellectual coming-out. Read More...
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Is it wrong for a teacher to be boring?


28 June 08 08:59 PM | jtspencer | 4 Comments   
I walked into a language arts teacher's classroom and he vented about the lesson, "Kids just aren't at all engaged. It's just not motivating them." "What are you teaching?" I ask. "Well, it's folklore and lengend. We have to do the story of Paul Bunyan." Read More...

church dating


28 June 08 10:30 PM | John Spencer's Blog - A Billion Blogs of Solitude | 0 Comments   
My friend John calls it "beging a church jigalo," which I think has a catchier ring to it. The concept is this: finding a church is not at all like going shopping. Yet, people use the term,"church shopping," as if finding community is as simple as searching Read More...
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I do this every summer


20 June 08 10:07 PM | John Spencer's Blog - A Billion Blogs of Solitude | 0 Comments   
Every summer I read two authors who help me regain my sanity. It's a cleansing process, really. It helps me to realize that there is more to life than word walls and academic vocabulary and lesson plans inside of boxes. I read Donald Miller, because he Read More...
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what happens in Vegas . . .


19 June 08 05:07 AM | jtspencer | 0 Comments   
I wrote this while I was at a PLC Conference last week. They charged fourteen bucks for internet access (the equivalent of twenty-four tacos at Jack in the Box) so I waited until now to post it: In every era of American history, there is an archetypal Read More...

the upside of procrastination


14 June 08 10:24 AM | jtspencer | 2 Comments   
So, it's the end of week one for the summer vacation. I have all eight weeks planned out and subdivided within a bulleted list. The bullets have sub-bullets. After awhile, it begins to resemble a drive-by, with bullets strewn everywhere. I suppose "drive-by" Read More...

does money equal success?


12 June 08 10:22 PM | John Spencer's Blog - A Billion Blogs of Solitude | 0 Comments   
Right now, in Major League Baseball, some of the best teams have the lowest salaries. The D-backs rank first in their division and 23rd (out of 30) in salary. Meanwhile the Dodgers are 7th in salary and trail Arizona by four games (despite having a salary Read More...
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I changed my mind


06 June 08 06:47 AM | jtspencer | 4 Comments   
There's a secret game we play in the staff lounge called, "see how badass I really am." It's a place of machismo, where teachers boast about holding kids accountable and *** about angry parents. What happens is this: I say something like, "I can't believe Read More...

my end of the year re-think


06 June 08 05:49 AM | jtspencer | 1 Comments   
When I first began teaching, I would start planning things for the next year. It was a simple way to soften the blow of losing 140 students and all the emotional baggage that goes with it - the guilt that some students were still mostly just a name, the Read More...

it takes a village


01 June 08 08:57 PM | jtspencer | 2 Comments   
Johnny passes by in his cap and gown as a flood of memories pass. I recall snippets of hard conversations, small arguments, difficult basketball games and the late nights where I was editing his papers. I thought of that first moment when he was a fourth Read More...