MY LIFE AS SPINNER DUDE

Posted by admin at June 20th, 2009

Returned last night from 5 days of California’s Central Coast. 

The exceptional staff and the room upgrade from The Cliff’s Resort was sweet.  We had  our own jacuzzi (albeit a little small) but it was nice to have it there  waiting.  The fantastic views from the grounds as always were…hmmm… fantastic. 

California’s Central Coast is a gem in and of itself.  Miles of beautiful beaches for The Blur to explore and conquer…..easy gentle surf….and the best part…NOT CROWDED!  The morning walks were especially relaxing on the first day.  I would sit and breath in the fresh ocean air and release all that stuff from the previous school year.  Salt Air Therapy?  Absolutely.

Top it all off with great food at The Big Sky Cafe and The Black Sheep Squadron Cafe in SLO, Giovanni’s Fish and Chips in Morro Bay,  and Mo’s BBQ in Pismo Beach and you have yourself a winner! 

The Thursday Night Farmer’s Market in downtown SLO once again proved that pizza by the slice and chicken kabobs while enjoying a Dave Matthews wanna be Band can be a five star anniversary dinning experience.  I couldn’t think of any other way to celebrate.  Chuck and me….planted on the sidewalk in downtown SLO.  Romatical.

Our little junket also commemorated our one year of married, forced to divorce and again married life.  Who can plan the complete formal china set when the State of California won’t let you near the china cabinet?  Sigh…

Refreshed?  yes…   Relaxed?  check.    Mission Accomplished.   I’m ready for 200 more years with my love,  Chuck.

Posted by admin at June 13th, 2009

The end of a school year always has me in a nostalgic mood.  However, this year…not so much and I feel guilty about it.  I know, I know.  I can hear all of you saying, “Just accept it and move on Randy.  You get a new batch in August.”

This was a really hard year  for me.  I had a very rag tag group of  8 particular boys that just couldn’t get their proverbial “shit” together.  And yes, they are 10, 11 and 12 years old and yes, they are young and yes they are kids.  I will give each of you that.    And, of course, there were my stalwarts from 0708  that were a delight.  Too bad I couldn’t spend more time with them and the ones that wanted to learn.  Most of the year was spent in crisis management mode. 

But man, I have never met a group of kids that just weren’t into school.  They didn’t try.  They settled for just getting by (which, by the way, was a sentiment echoed by their parents).  And to top it all off, this group was very unenthusiastic and they made fun of the kids that were into the lessons.  School was nothing but a chore and all they wanted to do was to go out and play.    A good handul of the Elite 8 were retained from previous years.    That may have colored their impression of school.  I did do a good job of pulling a lot of things out of my bag of teaching “tricks” but it just didn’t help this year for some reason. 

OK, we are officially moving on now.  Randy is done.  20008-2009 has left the building.

For now, LD and The Blur of Fur and I are heading points north on Monday to our post-school hideaway.  CYA!

Posted by admin at June 4th, 2009

My how things have changed since last year. 

One class to deal with…

I’m staying in the same room….

Just gotta pack up and go….

Pismo here we come.

Posted by admin at May 27th, 2009

I’m still trying to sort out my feelings on what happened yesterday.  The CA Supreme Court upheld the ban on gay marriage in CA, but grandfathered in the 18, 000 marriages that were performed between May 17, 2008 and November 3, 2008.

I am just so angry right now and I don’t know what to do with myself.   The feelings and thoughts of my radical  ACT UP days are starting to bubble to the surface.

Posted by admin at May 12th, 2009

CST

The California Standards Test has been bustling along at my school.  We’ve been bubbling since last week and our last test session is tomorrow.  Whew!  I can’t wait. 

Although I receive a lot of grief from friends and especially family about it, I do need to agree that most of it is totally unnecessary because of the complexity and rigors of what it demands from students and teachers.  Like Jack’s mom in “Into The Woods”…..it’s too much.

Masters in Curriculum Integration

I am currently enrolled with Lesley University in a “Fine Arts Integration” program.  This is supposed to make me a guru on how to integrate visual and performing arts standards into the mundane curriculum.  A lot of writing, but it is kinda fun.

Posted by admin at May 3rd, 2009

Dear Wordpress Spinnerdude,

I have been cheating on you.  I freely admit that there is someone new in my life.  It is Facebook. 

I am so sorry for this revelation.  I think I will keep you on the side now instead of FB. 

We’ve had some good times WPSD. 

R

Posted by admin at March 30th, 2009

This year, I have had the great opportunity to judge winterguard shows in different parts of the country. 

Traveling on business  is an exhausting process.  In my younger days I thought it was an exhausting process.  So, my views of it haven’t changed.  The process is rather exciting but  the canned hotel rooms from city to city?  Sigh.

As an example, my room from a rather large chain hotel in LA County is exactly the same as in El Paso, TX.  The bed coverings, the furniture, the lamps, even the bathroom freebies are all the same.

My only complaint about the “rather large chain hotel owned by a prominent religious organization”?  Get new televisions!  Geez…the big black box that takes 2 mins to warm up and takes up all that space?  Flat screen kids….you’ve got the cash.  Time to upgrade.

Posted by admin at March 11th, 2009

It’s hard to believe that The Blur of Fur has been at The Casa for a year now,  but he has.     He has settled in nicely to our little routine here in NC SD.  Our little family is trundling along nicely.  There will be more roadtrips for him to hone his overlord skills,  more open stretches of Pismo Beach to explore and  more puppy licks to covet.  We can’t wait!

Posted by admin at March 8th, 2009

This organization, no matter what others may think, really does look out for the welfare of all those involved in the teaching profession. 

LD and I were, once again, at the CTA’s Equity and Human Rights Conference held in San Jose this weekend.  OK, all the free adult drinkies and snackies we could handle were gleefully consumed at the Friday night cocktail party.  Yippy for free drinkies!   

Upon prior exploration before the cocktails,  we discovered that the Fairmont Hotel is connected to San Jose State University.  It is a hip trendoid area of town with the San Jose Rep, an arthouse movie theater and onto San Jose State University within strolling distance of each destination.    We walked around SJSU and enjoyed the campus.  We landed in the library where they had two excpetional exhibits:  The Beethoven Exhibit and the John Steinbeck Exhibit.  I got to play some of the instruments that belonged to Beethoven and and see some of the manuscripts Steinbeck wrote.  I was thrilled. 

The conference was an alarming reminder of how education is going to suffer in our great state.  I am especially alarmed at all the cost cutting measures smaller districts have already taken.  I enjoyed all the workshops and got to hear perspectives on what it means to be Asian American, a multicultural pefromance group from Los Osos HS (SoCal), some horrible stories on how the INS ripping families apart in CA, and some Kinder teachers and their presentation on how to make your school a more caring place (character education).

Good friends S and P invited us to their home for a delicious pulled pork dinner and prior to that it was lunch with S and her kids.  How much fun is that? 

I hope LD enjoyed himself.  Judging from schhhhhhhhwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaag, I think we both had a great time.

Posted by admin at February 22nd, 2009

LD received an early birthday present today.  Yes, I broke down and got him a Wii.  I’m sure there will be more later, but in a word….THIS THING ROCKS ME TO THE FREE WORLD!!!