Main » August 2005

August 26, 2005

Health benefits for a Tae Chi newbie

For the past three weeks I've been delving into the strange world of Tae Chi. I started with a beginner's DVD starring David Carradine. It was fascinating and a pretty good introduction to the discipline. After awhile I felt that I wanted to go deeper into the style so I bought a DVD on the 24 forms. The entertainment value was much less than the other DVD but it is a very thorough look at a full workout set. I have been alternating between the two DVDs and have enjoyed learning the ropes. After a workout I feel energized and de-stressed. It also does not bother the rosacea flushing. The only negative for me is that it is not aerobic so does not supply that aspect of my training. I still use the lateral stepper machine each day to raise my pulse. I've been gradually increasing the length of the stepper workout.

I would recommend the Carradine Tae Chi DVD for anyone interested in reducing stress and getting a mild workout and a good stretching session. This DVD is divided into several sections, including a 20 minute workout for the morning, a somewhat more brisk evening workout, a meditation session, an interview with Carradine, and some other odds and ends such as several of his songs (!). Purists in Tae Chi may frown at the commercial use of Carradine in the DVD but I think it adds interest for those of us who grew up watching him on TV. He's still in pretty good shape for his age. David's passion for the martial arts is obvious on this DVD.

Posted by at 06:16 PM | Comments (3)

August 19, 2005

Test Results

I went back to the GP after having blood drawn. The results are:
1) BP : 128/68
2) Pulse : 68
3) lost 7 pounds since last visit 3 weeks ago.
4) All bad lipid values are now in the low normal range!

This is great news for me. The extra heartbeats have only popped up a couple of times each day and they only last a few seconds now. My health is overall greatly improved. Stress at school is still a problem but otherwise I'm doing fine.

The rosacea is still pretty dormant. I'm on Vitorin for lipids, the beta blocker Toprol and a digitalis drug for the extra heartbeats. I've cut out all sweets and exercise daily with a Tae Chi warmup followed by a workout on the lateral slider machine. I haven't felt this good physically in years.

School today was very draining emotionally and physically. We are making musical videos about respiration and I've been helping on guitar. Boy, the things you do for the kids' education! My feet are swollen now and I'm so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. Time to hit the sack now. Tomorrow I'm planning on getting out and enjoying life here.

Posted by at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2005

The eSIS Saga May Continue

I got an email today from a fellow teacher in the teacher's union. She said that the county administration planned on getting new laptops for all of the teachers in January and then requiring them to use eSIS Gradebook. While getting a new computer would be nice, it doesn't address the flaws in the eSIS program. These guys are simply pouring more money down an educational black hole in order to justify this awful program. On a brighter note, I've been thanked by a number of teachers for exposing the eSIS system for the horrible mistake it is. A number of them said they would never use it for the same reasons I gave in my posts. If push comes to shove and they continue this travesty I will probably file a complaint through the union and fight them.

The rosacea flushing is doing ok. Today was very hot and I got a little pink but nothing too serious. I am going to exercise a little and then take a long bath to relax.

Posted by at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2005

Taking control of my life at work

I won!! We got an email this morning that tersely stated the county was not requiring the use of eSIS Gradebook this year so we can use whatever grading program we like. I'm not going to ask them why, if this is true, that our school was pushing so hard to implement this horrible program? I'm speculating that in the "image is everything" ideal they wanted to look gung ho for the upper echelon administrators. Yep, educational politics can be a fascinating thing to participate in. It does feel good to know that I still have a little bit of control over my life at school. The worst feeling a teacher can have is the feeling that their entire fate is controlled by administrators who have no concern for their welfare.

Meanwhile life goes on in the classroom. I lectured some today and we did a little pH lab. Tomorrow is a DNA extraction lab. The kids are excited and a little apprehensive about an "MTV style" video they will be making in a few days dealing with the topic of aerobic respiration. They make up respiration lyrics that go with a song, perform the music and singing, and dance. It's a different way of reinforcing a rather difficult and dry topic.

The rosacea is doing ok so far this week. I've been using moisturizer in the morning and soaking in an oatmeal bath in the evening. The Topral beta blocker seems to work at least as well as the clonidine did at controlling the flushing for me. The last of the laser bruising is slowly fading now. Later I will give my overall impressions of the value of this treatment for my type of rosacea.

I haven't had any noticeable extra heartbeats today. I ran through a tae chi routine this afternoon, followed by exercising on the lateral strider machine. My weight is holding steady since I cheated a little by eating too many sunflower seeds as a snack. I'll have to get back to the diet and lose some more weight soon. I've gone from 191 lbs to 184 lbs. My target is around 170 lbs along with toning up the body and getting rid of that spare tire around the middle.

Posted by at 07:47 PM | Comments (5)

August 13, 2005

eSIS Gradebook program

Hi all,

I may be called on the carpet next week by the administration. Two years ago we bought a web-based system for attendance and grades called eSIS. The attendance part of the system works ok but the Gradebook program has a number of flaws including the following: 1)You can't use it at home. 2) We were given almost no documentation for it and incomplete training. 3) the program is buggy and will occasionally drop grades and average incorrectly. As a result, most of the faculty have problems using it and have resorted to using other grading programs. At the beginning of the year we went told in an email that the administration "would like for us to use eSIS for grading". Uh-huh, sure. Most of us took that as a suggestion and ignored it, considering the above problems. Yesterday we got an email from the assistant principal telling us that she strongly suggested we attend training next week (by a self-styled 'expert' teacher!) on eSIS Gradebook since we are required to use it this year. Apparently the county, in their zeal to justify the $100,000 purchase of this piece of garbage, wants everyone to act like lemmings and help them make the program look good. Being sick and tired of having to jump through hoops just to make administrators look good after they foul up education through their own stupidity, I responded with a schoolwide email that pointed out the 'suggestion' to use eSIS Gradebook was suddenly a 'requirement'. I then stated that the poor implementation and lack of documentation or proper training of this program will mean almost certain failure. The assistant principal responded by erasing the administration's earlier 'suggestion' email so we could not later refer to this in discussions of eSIS. I really don't think it is too much to ask for complete written documentation of the program and training by experts from the company who sold it to us instead of training by teachers who have played with the program enough to get it to work (to some extent). The other teachers are too afraid of repercussions from the administration to give honest feedback about this horrible program. I fully expect to be raked over the coals next week about my transgression but frankly I just don't give a damn any more. I intend to be honest in my responses to everyone there and if they don't like hearing the truth, too bad. I am NOT going to allow them to give me an ulcer this year by forcing me to try to make the administration look good by using this unacceptable program. I used it for one term last year as an experiment and it was a complete nightmare. I spent hours trying to make it average properly and give me concise class printouts. The 'expert' teachers I asked for help knew little more than I did about solving the problems I encountered.

This is just one more example of the administration driving us crazy by asking us to knock ourselves out in an effort to salvage a pitiful situation they are responsible for. They don't consult us about our grading needs. Instead of caring about us as professionals they treat us like we are slave labor. My rosacea and heart problems are due to a great degree to the extreme stress they put us under needlessly. It is ridiculous and I am not taking it any more. I am standing up for my rights as a professional educator. They should be helping to make our jobs easier instead of mindlessly tormenting us this way. Their lack of competent planning and sweatshop mentality will not be rewarded by my acting like a lemming. It's too bad if they take exception to my request for complete program documentation and training. I will let the others here be lemmings. I refuse to cower any more.

Posted by at 06:14 PM | Comments (4)

August 12, 2005

TGIF!!

My 2nd period Biology honors class just finished their first test. The material, basic skills in science, was not especially challenging but the kids did extremely well on it. I hope they don't get too overconfident and bomb the next test.

There is still a tiny amount of bruising left from the laser treatment. It is not very noticeable now and the redness is much less than it was this time last year.

Heartwise, I'm still dieting and exercising. I've lost 6 pounds the past 2 weeks. Last weekend I bought a strider machine for those times when walking would not be practical. I've also been doing some beginner Tae Chi exercises. I really don't have the energy level for much more during the school year. Last night I fell asleep sitting up in my chair while watching the evening news. The extra heartbeats pop up around 3-4 times each day but they aren't around long enough to cause too much discomfort. As long as the medication is somewhat controlling them I am happy.

Posted by at 07:46 AM | Comments (2)

August 04, 2005

The final countdown

I'm sitting here in class taking a breather. The kids have been picking up schedules and books today but tomorrow is their first official day in school. The room looks pretty nice now. I cleaned all of the desks and tables. The triops tank has water in it now. I am planning on bringing some triops from my overcrowded home tank instead of growing them from eggs this time around.

The phone is still dead. Surprise!

My lesson plans are done and all is ready.

Posted by at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2005

Still chugging through preplanning

Hi all. Tuesday the A/C was back on! I overdid it some trying to clean the room and move stuff around. The heart started up its old trick of throwing out extra beats. I rested awhile and they went away.

Today I was in a workshop all day on how to use a new data gathering device we bought. It was a looooong day with moments of interest.

The facial bruising has mostly blended in now. There are still a few spots of bruising but I hope they will disaoppear with time. Other than that, the rosacea is pretty well in check.

The phone line in my office is dead. I wrote a request to have them fix it but I'm not holding my breath on it.

Stress is something I am going to try to minimize this year. It's difficult to break old habits but that's my main goal. The kids arrive Friday so I have to finish cleaning the room tomorrow morning. We have a faculty meeting at 1:30 PM so the afternoon will be shot.

Posted by at 09:16 PM | Comments (2)

August 01, 2005

1st day back in preplanning

It's been awhile for an update, so here is the latest news. 2 weeks ago I went up to Jacksonville where my dermatologist used a dye pulse laser on my cheeks, nose, and chin. The purpose was to zap some of the open surface capillaries so the redness would be reduced. The procedure stung quite a bit but since I didn't see myself I didn't know the extent of the laser bruising. Before I went in my wife Karen asked if I wanted to go to the mall afterwards. I said that would be great. When I came out she took one look and suggested we go directly home instead. When I saw myself in the car mirror I knew why she changed her mind. My face had dark purple dot bruises all over it to the point that I looked like a Halloween mask. Two weeks later and the bruising is mostly gone. The redness on the cheeks, nose, and chin is much diminished now. As soon as the last vestiges of the bruising is gone it should look pretty decent. I got a pretty good deal from him with a cost of $125. I've talked with others who have had this treatment and most paid $250 or more for it.

My first day of school began. We had the obligatory 'pump the sunshine up the skirts' speech. This was followed by a long spiel on the FCAT test and how we could use the results to individualize our students' education. In actuality it is one more step towards teaching the test to our little munchkins so the school will look great on the FCAT rankings. We have been an "A" school since the beginning and now we are trying to go from the top 10% of all Florida schools to the top 1%. Call me cynical but that appears to have been the direction we have been taking for the past 5 years. I feel it will ultimately prove detrimental to learning and to teaching creativity and initiative. Most of the experienced teachers will probably do what they have always done and simply teach.

One bit of good news is that I have been given 3 honors Biology classes the first term and 3 honors Anatomy classes for term 2. This was mainly because one of our teachers quit unexpectedly over the summer. We are now down to 3 science teachers who have been here from the start of the school. We have 5 new science teachers this year. It's still too early to tell how they will work out but they look like a promising group.

Now for some good/bad news. The good news is I get to keep my great classroom! Yea!!!!!! No portable class for me for at least one more year. The bad news is that our building had a lightning strike over the weekend and our hallway lost its air conditioning. I have already decided that I am not going to tolerate conditions like that any more so I went home early and worked there. I am not going to let the slowness of the staff in fixing problems like this to affect my health. I want to do an excellent job this year and I can't do that if I'm trying to work with fibrillation and facial flushing. They are going to have to get on the ball this year and stop dragging their feet when tackling school building and equipment problems. Oh, by the way, the materials orders we "had" to turn in before school ended in May are still sitting here at the school. It will now be several weeks before it goes through channels and we actually get our supplies. What else is new? The carnival begins once again.

Posted by at 07:20 PM | Comments (3)