Quantcast

June 2008 - Posts

so I'm writing a book

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...
Filed under:

2008 06 30

John Spencer

3 Comments

Is it wrong for a teacher to be boring?

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...
Filed under:

,

,

,

2008 06 28

John Spencer

7 Comments

church dating

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...
Filed under:

,

2008 06 28

John Spencer's Blog - A Billion Blogs of Solitude

0 Comments

I do this every summer

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...
Filed under:

2008 06 20

John Spencer's Blog - A Billion Blogs of Solitude

8 Comments

what happens in Vegas . . .

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...
Filed under:

,

,

2008 06 19

John Spencer

8 Comments

the upside of procrastination

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...
Filed under:

,

2008 06 14

John Spencer

2 Comments

does money equal success?

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...
Filed under:

,

,

2008 06 12

John Spencer's Blog - A Billion Blogs of Solitude

0 Comments

I changed my mind

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...
Filed under:

,

2008 06 6

John Spencer

6 Comments

my end of the year re-think

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...
Filed under:

,

2008 06 6

John Spencer

8 Comments

it takes a village

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...
Filed under:

,

,

2008 06 1

John Spencer

2 Comments