My Life

I've been trying to write this post for some time, but the words just weren't coming out of my brain onto the page.  But once I saw this quote on my Facebook feed, I knew that's what I wanted to say. I was in class the other day and a student asked me "Do you enjoy reading your students?"  I didn't know what he was asking.  I had only heard the term "reading" in the context of understanding someone else.  But apparently the word is also used to mean finding someone's faults and accentuating them.  When I realized this, I felt bad. I understand why the student asked that, and I understand why he felt that way.  It isn't my goal.  My goal is to have fun and to joke around.  I do make jokes, and I think I'm being funny.  But apparently those jokes aren't taken the same way by my students.  Apparently they really hurt my students.  And that's something I feel bad about.  I didn't realize that I was doing that, and I didn't...

I'm a very trusting person.  I trust people when I first meet them.  I basically trust someone until they give me a reason not to trust them anymore.  So it hurts my feelings when my students cheat on my tests.  I feel betrayed. I gave a test today.  In one class I walked in to class and placed the tests on my desk, with the key on top of the stack.  I walked out of the room to get water from the drinking fountain.  When I returned, the key was missing.  Before I left the room, I remembered thinking to myself about whether to take the key with me.  I concluded that I should not.  I didn't expect that a student would take it in front of a class full of students, but also I thought it would be a good test of the class' honesty. When I got back to class and noticed the key missing, I informed the class that the key was missing.  At first they thought I was joking.  Then they realized that I was serious and that I wouldn't begi...

So, I've seen this story circulating around Facebook about Dan Cathy backpedaling for his involvement in the marriage equality debate.  I've seen him get lots of criticism for this action, and I wanted to share my feelings about that. First of all, I just want to say that I don't believe I'm defending him.  He personally believes that marriage should remain unequal--that only straight people should have their relationships legally recognized.  And I think that marriage should be equal.  So our views differ personally.  But I do want to address my concerns over some of the criticisms that he has received. The first is the criticism that he's just saying this because he realizes that he's losing money and so he feels financial pressure to relent.  First, I am skeptical because I haven't seen any data on how Chick Fil A sales have been doing over the last year or two.  The last I heard was that in 2012 sales were high , despite the fallout from his c...

Being an extrovert can be tiring.  It can be exhausting.  But I think it's a lot of fun.  I have often been unsure whether I'm an introvert or an extrovert.  I thought that I was an introvert because I'm shy and I thought that extroverts were the opposite of shy.  I'm scared to talk to new people.  I'm intimidated by being the first one to speak up.  The thought of walking up to another person that I don't know and saying hi often terrifies me (sometimes I'm more courageous than others). But I am an extrovert.  Why?  If I have such difficulty talking to people, how can I be an extrovert?  Because of how I feel.  When I meet someone for the first time, I feel a strong desire to befriend them.  I want them to like me.  I want to spend time with them.  I want to do fun things together.  I don't feel like "friend" is a title that needs to be earned over time.  To me, I feel a desire to be friends with people I...

This past Saturday, I attended a training meeting for a mentoring program called "Make it Click".  It's a fairly new program (a couple years old) for a local foster care agency.  Based on what I learned from the orientation/training, I am very impressed with the program.  I heard about the program because I was searching for foster programs in the area and I found that this agency ( Families First ) has many opportunities to volunteer.  I signed up on their online volunteer application and a couple weeks later heard from them.  I got a call about the Make It Click program.  It sounded interesting, so I said I was interested. There was a delay in the original training time because of the snow that shut the city down, but it was rescheduled to this last Saturday and I was able to meet the guy I had been talking to and learn more about the program. I admit I was surprised when I arrived at the meeting and I was the only man (aside from the man conducting t...