Saturday 10/25

When I left class yesterday, I went over to my mom's house (my mom is out of town this weekend) to take care of my grandma who is recovering from a stroke.  She asked what I learned in class.  This made me think about how I could explain to her in basic terms what I did all day.  First I said, "We don't learn things but we learn how to analyze information and ask the right questions."  She replied that for a class that went all day long I probably learned SOMETHING.  So later, as I was telling her the basics of looking through the report cards from the iirc website and discussing motivation of teachers, I told her one thing that I learned yesterday was that I would have to pay an hourly custodian for working different hours than s/he had been told to work.  She told me about her brother in law in Kansas City, MO who is a lead custodian at a school.  He told me grandma about one time when he stopped over at the school one night for something and the night custodian came running from across the street out of a tavern and back into the school.  The man had left work to go drinking and when he saw his boss unexpectedly he tried to cover by running back to the school.  Basically, this night custodian had been pulling this for a long time, getting paid for working when he'd actually be drinking.  In light of this, I guess I feel a little more lenient about paying the person who works on Saturday instead of on Friday as instructed, because at least the work gets done.  However, I still agree that it is correct to fire the person for insubordination because they didn't work the hours that they were told to work.  I also told my husband about Harley Davidson Smith because he is an administrator and at school he had told me a story about something that happened back in August with a kindergartner.  I won't share the story,  but I will just tell you the kid's name - Reverend Blue Jeans "Smith" (or whatever his last name was).  Why did the parents name him Reverend Blue Jeans?  Well, have you heard the song "Forever in Blue Jeans" by Neil Diamond?  The parents love that song, but always thought the lyrics were "Reverend Blue Jeans...." So if it isn't bad enough to name a kid after your favorite song, it has to be even worse to name the child the wrong title to the song!!  And the child doesn't answer to "Reverend," his given first name - he goes by his middle name, "Blue Jeans"  Can you imagine calling on this student in class?  "Who knows 2 +2?........Blue Jeans?  Yes, that's correct - 4!  Good job, Blue Jeans!"