Inside Four Walls: Copying answers from a test

Funny Friday story for everyone.

So I was giving my Geometry classes a test on Wednesday covering the first 5 chapters of the book for review for the Standards test next week. The first 41 questions were multiple choice and the last 18 were problems that you had to work out, but I only checked the answers.

I gave the test to my 5th period the day before (thanks block scheduling) and then gave it to my 6th period on Wednesday. So they are working and this one student I had from the year before turns in his test and then asks to go to the bathroom. I say sure. He is gone for about 10 minutes and comes back in, looking a little somber.

He comes up and says "I have a confession, the test I had had the short answer (last 18) questions worked out with the answers." I said let me see the test. He brings it over and you could see the markings and that someone tried to erase them. He told me that even though they tried to erase it he could still make out the answers.

Now I couldn't see the answers, but I didn't look hard. I just put the test down and said, "Ok, thanks for telling me. Do you want to go back and redo them?" Of course he said no. I said "Well they might be wrong you know." He says he is fine with the answers. I could tell he was shocked I didn't really do anything about it.

So as I am grading his test, I don't look at the names until the end, and I realize that I marked a bunch wrong on the last column (14 questions). I then count it up and he missed 12 of the 18 short answer. In fact, he missed the last 8 in a row.

The next day when I am giving back the scores I tell him, "You should have re-done the short answers because you missed almost all of them." His facial expression was classic. At first he didn't believe me, but then he saw it and was pissed.

I don't think I will have to worry about him copying anything off a test again. Great teachable moment.

Music Non Stop: 3rd album = peak of career?

What is it about 3rd albums? I have posed this question to other metal fans before and got some obvious answers;

• worked out all of the kinks
• matured as writers and musicians
• grew as artists

And I guess those make sense, but it's simply amazing at the classic albums that came out as their 3rd release. I am sure there are more, but these are some of my favorite 3rd albums.

Metallica - Master of Puppets
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Anthrax - Among the Living
Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings
Susperia - Unlimited
Into Eternity - Buried in Oblivion
Devildriver - The Last Kind Words
Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance
Killswitch Engage - End of Heartache
All That Remains - The Fall of Ideals

Just look at the first three on the list. Those are the "Big Four" minus Megadeth. Their 3rd album, So Far, So Good, So What, was a solid album but suffered big time due to all of the production money going to fuel Dave Mustaine's drug use.

Burnt Offerings is my favorite Iced Earth album. They don't like it now, saying it is too angry. Whatever that means.

Shadows Fall? Are you kidding me? Without that album, the whole metalcore genre might not have taken off. Sure, there was KsE's Alive or Just Breathing, but Art of Balance was the first "metalcore" band I saw on Mtv. KsE's End of Heartache is pretty much a re-hash of AoJB, but with a new vocalist. If AoJB is their Ride the Lightning, then this was their Master of Puppets.

Susperia & Devildriver are great modern thrash bands that put out excellent 3rd albums as well. I might argue that Superia's Cast in Stone is a little better due to it's diversity, but Unlimited is a solid modern thrash album.

And what can I say about Into Eternity? Or Buried in Oblivion? Heck I put it as a "must own" album. Up there with Rust in Peace, Slaughter of the Soul, Master of Puppets, and Alive or Just Breathing.

It may be a coincidence or not. But if you are looking at how good a band is or will be check out their 3rd album. Well, maybe not, Trivium's 3rd album, The Crusade, was a piece of sh!t.

Thoughts Without Words: Tutoring?

So I was on Math Teacher Mambo and read a post that caught my eye. Seems that she had a student who was late a lot and came in late and gave the overall impression that she didn't care much about the class. Then before a test the girl comes in and asks for help after school. You can read more about it here, but it got me thinking.

At what point do we as teachers just basically tel these kids you're on your own now? You have burned your bridges, made you bed now lay in it, or whatever saying you want to use. I feel that there is a sense of entitlement in this generation that they can do whatever they want and they will still get "bailed out". Responsibility seems to be optional now.

Anyway, back to tutoring. In our contract, there is nothing about tutoring or for that matter an end to our day. We have a start time, but no end time. Yet, last year I was asked to submit my hours to help kids after school. I had a hard time dealing with this. I give ample time in class for my students to start their work and ask questions one on one. However the parents and administrators want more. Should we have to give up our lunch or after school time to help kids out who don't try during class? I personally think we shouldn't. How are we teaching responsibility? Don't get me wrong, if a student asks for help in class and still doesn't get it, I have no problem meeting with them later.

And what about the whole concept of tutoring hours? When I went to school, I never went to tutoring or needed to...and some of my teachers still teach at the high school (I'm not that old). When did tutoring become expected and mandatory?

My wife summed it up great when she told me to tell the administrators that "I didn't go to school for 4 years to get a degree and another 3 to get my credential and masters to tutor. If I wanted to tutor, I could have got a job at Silvan."

I know this is kind of a bunch of random thoughts, but am I over-reacting? I am being insensitive? Or am I being practical?

The Last Laugh: Water Rationing = Broken Water-Mains

Since last summer or so in Los Angeles, there have been an increase of water-mains bursting around town. They caused unknown thousands if not millions of dollars in damage. Not only was their flood damage, but also sink holes like this one to the right.

Well it turns out the cause for all of the bursting pipes was...water rationing. Yes, all the water people were saving caused the old pipes to just burst under the pressure. An independent investigation concluded;

An independent report by a team of civil engineers says water rationing is to blame for the water main breaks across Los Angeles last summer because changing water pressure stressed old and corroded cast-iron pipes.

Ironic I would say.

The Sun Always Shines on T.V.: Spectacular Spider-Man over?

This is not a fun post. I am a big fan of The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon. I thought it was going to be a horrible show, but then it turned out to easily be Marvel's best cartoon to date. I praised it for it's great writing and sticking to classic story lines. All I was waiting for the green light on season 3. Well it looks like that isn't going to happen.

Today Marvel announced a new Spider-Man cartoon, Ultimate Spider-Man. This one will be based off of the comic set in the "Ultimate" universe. It follows Spidey in high school, which is exactly where Spectacular Spider-Man is set. So I was hoping if the voices and writers would come back it would be good. Like a continuation ala Justice League Unlimited. But then I read this;

"Ultimate Spider-Man will be a unique journey exploring our favorite web-slinger as he teams up with other fan favorite Marvel Super Heroes in never before seen stories with a new life filled with great challenges, new friends, intense action and character growth," said Eric S. Rollman, President of Marvel Animation.

Sounds like it could end up like Batman: Brave and the Bold. Ugh! This sucks. While no official word has ever come out, this seems like it for Marvel's best animated show ever.

Music Non Stop: Nevermore & As I Lay Dying new audio samples

I think by now everyone knows how excited I am for the new Nevermore. They released another teaser trailer featuring every song on the album.

Sounds pretty solid. I am loving the title track right now and really can't wait for this one.

If that wasn't good enough news, I read that 30 sec clips of the new As I Lay Dying album, The Powerless Rise, was online. I actually had a chance to listen to them before they were taken down. They have one song up on their site for the new album HERE.

They were both just 30 second clips of the songs, but they sound good. The As I Lay Dying tracks sounded just like their last album. I wasn't too worried they would change their sound, but now my expectation are high for this one again.

Inside Four Walls: RatemyTeachers.com

So maybe you have heard of this site or not, but it is a teacher's worst nightmare. Students having the ability to "rate" you, anonymously of course. I am sure there are some students that go on and try to be fair about it, but I am sure there are more that are "pissed off" at the teacher for some reason causing them to go on the site.

This is a little troubling because a teacher at our school was called into a counselor's office and he mentioned his low "rating" on ratemyteachers.com. He said that it seemed like students weren't comfortable with his style.

I would have gone off on the counselor, but it wasn't for me. Problems with this;

1. It's anonymous. Put your name up there and then we can talk and respond.
2. You can rate a teacher as many times as you want. So one student can go in and rate a teacher 50 times and make it seem like they are all from different students. I actually tried this on my own.
3. Let's say each person is a unique individual, they still only represent a small fraction of the students we teach. I have been teaching 7 years. Let's say I averaged 35 students a period (5 periods) over those 7 years that equals 1225 students roughly. I have a total of 36 ratings right now which is 2.9% of my total students taught. Small sample I would say.

The sad thing is that parents and now administrators are looking at sites like these to "evaluate" teachers. One more thing we have to put up with.

By the way, I thought I would share a rating about me;

"If you're someone who wants to actually learn, then don't get this guy. i mean he was cool, but he's a republican who very openly shared his throughts during the obama/mccain elections, and he also favors some people which i found annoying. but he's pretty chill, quite an easy class, but i'd rather have someone else. plus if you don't like metal music, this isn't your dude cause this man likes to blast that s**t in the early mornings.

"

I like how it opens with the "if you are someone who actually wants to learn, then don't get this guy." Cause you know I don't teach at all apparently. Oh well. Like I said if you want to get an eye opening experience and read what parents have read about you go look yourself up.

Tirades of Truth: Superman Returns

So Superman Returns was on the other night and I decided to review it. I will try to keep this review more focused than other ones.

Plot:
Well the main story is that Lex Luthor wants to create an island to live on out of a crystal found in the Fortress of Solitude. I know it's pretty weak, but is it any weaker than the first Superman where Lex bought desert land and then wanted to trigger a massive earthquake so the desert land would be beach front property? Allowing him to sell it off and make millions?

This movie came out after Batman Begins, so I think people were expecting a more "mature/dark" storyline. But for me it works. Lex Luthor is about greed and power. And this was another way he tried to do it.

The subplot involves Superman, Lois, and Lois' fiance. It doesn't work at all. I think the entire idea of a super-kid killed this movie. This movie was in effect a sequel to Superman II. So the idea was that Lois got pregnant by Superman during the second movie when they got a little crazy in the Fortress of Solitude. I don't know why they went this route. It was pretty easy to see that he was Superman's kid from the first second it was mentioned.

It's like Anakin and Jar-Jar in The Phantom Menace. If you take them out, it's a pretty good movie. Try watching it without the super-kid and you will be impressed at the improvement.

Cast:
Brandon Routh was made to play Superman. First off Christopher Reeve is Superman and the first still I saw of Routh, I thought it was a still from the first Superman movie. He does a good job of going from "mild mannered" Clark Kent to Superman. The first lines he has as Superman are funny too. After he saves the plane from crashing he tells everyone inside that flying is still the safest way to travel...classic.

They are rebooting the series again and I hear that Routh isn't going to be attached anymore. And that is a real shame. He did a great job with what he was given. He shouldn't be punished for a script like this one.

Kevin Spacey does a great job as Lex Luthor. Once again, I think people were expecting more. There are times that I feel like it is Gene Hackman up there. When he backs away when the crystal starts to destroy the basement...that's classic Lex. He is only looking out for himself.

He actually is a lot darker than Hackman's Luthor. He actually stabs Superman with a piece of Kryptonite to kill him. Hackman's Luthor put a Kryptonite necklace on him to kill it...which is more violent?

I guess I would compare it Nickolson's Joker and Ledger's Joker. They are both good, but one is just a little darker than the other.

Kate Bosworth is horrible as Lois Lane. I mean horrible. She looks like she should be on 90210 or some teen show. She is too young to be a believable reporter like Lane. Add on the fact, she is supposed to have a 5 year old son? When did she have the baby? When she was 15? She was a horrible choice. It was like DC didn't learn anything from the backlash of Katie Holmes being a DA in Batman Begins. In addition to that, she looks nothing like Kidder. This is supposed to take 5 years after Superman II and while Routh might pass off as being the same age, Bosworth looks just too young. If they wanted to go young, then start it as a new movie not a continuation.

She also comes off as annoying. When she starts asking questions on the plane, it was like shut up. Who cares only 1 network is covering the launch, what are you doing there then? She tries to be tough, but it comes off as annoying. Watching her get thrown around the plane was funny though.

The rest of the cast did a fairly nice job. The new Perry White was good, but not memorable. Actually, he gets screwed over by fans because he says the line "see if he (Superman) still stands for truth, justice, and all that other stuff." Now we all know he is supposed to say "the American way", but the studio didn't want Superman to be Americanized since we were seen as "the bad guys" in 2006.

Luthor's girlfriend, Kitty Kowalski, is great as a comical relief and does a great job. She is very reminiscent of Eve Teschmacher from the first film. She could have gotten some more screen time and it would have been ok with me.

Jimmy Olsen was ok. He was modeled after the old Jimmy and seemed a little out of place at times in this newer version.

Marlon Brando comes back from the dead as Jor-El. This just sort of cemented the fact that this was a sequel to Superman II. I can't really comment on his role because it was left overs from the original. Now it is a digital Marlon Brando and that is kind of cool to see.

Costume:
There is only one costume that matters and that is Superman's. Let's look at a side by side of the new and the old.There are a few things I like on the new suit. The cape is longer and I actually like the Superman 's' on the belt. But that's where it stops. Why is the suit darker? Is this the gritty Superman? The colors in the original suit were perfect. Why was there a need to change it? The red definitely reminds me of the "evil drunk" Superman in Superman III. Need to explain the "evil drunk" Superman? Maybe later.

The 'S' is so much smaller now, why? That's the best part of the costume. And what's up with the 3-D 'S'? I know they did it for effects, but it isn't needed at all.

I still like it though. The longer cape does it for me. If they had a bigger 'S' I might say it is better than the original.

Overall:
Good movie. It's a lot better than Superman III or Superman IV. If you go in expecting something like Batman Begins you aren't going to get it. If you go in with an open mind you are going to enjoy yourself. Skip the super-kid scenes and it's a lot better.

It could have used more action scenes, but the ones that were there were pretty good. The plane crashing was nicely done with some actual physics being used this time. And when that guy tries to shoot Superman in the eye...uncomfortable, but visually it was superb.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Rep. Hank Johnson

It appears that our elected officials aren't as bright as they used to be. Apparently, Rep. Hank Johnson (D - GA) thought that the island of Guam could "tip over" if too many U.S. troops landed on one side of it. From Snopes.com;

"My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize."

I got nothing on this one. His teachers have to be a little ashamed right now. You can read the whole transcript on Snopes and they have the video too.

What can Brown do for you?: You might be a good supervisor, when you...

UPS liked to move people around a lot, that's why we got a new building manager like twice a year. Chuck replaced Lou and had some different philosophies about the sort. Lou tried to fix the missorts, where as Chuck didn't care how the packages got out of the trailers as long as they were unloaded it was fine by him. Chuck didn't care about missorts, he felt it would be easier to move them on load side than moving them back to the sort aisle.

Due to this, Chuck actually liked my missort carts. So one day when our new division manager, Mike G., was in the building he decided to take him by my belt. Now Mike G. was of the philosophy that no package should ever just be sitting; a package should either be in a feeder, on a sort belt, or in a package car. So when Mike saw the packages on the different carts he did a double take.

I explained to him what each cart was for and when we moved them to the different centers. I told him that by doing this we could keep the belt on and not worry about missorts from the sort aisle. He just took it all in and then told me "You know might become a good supervisor when you stop blaming the sort aisle for your problems. Missorts aren't a problem in this building and you just use them as an excuse. I don't ever want to see these carts again."

I looked at him and just said ok. We finished the day and went down clean. The next day I went in to work already pissed by what he said. SO I decided to just let the day die by not moving one missort. I told my employees that we weren't going to touch one missort and let them pile up at the back of the belt. The employees in the back were worried because they knew they would be buried by break. I told them that I was told missorts weren't a problem, so we shouldn't have to worry about them. They knew where I was going with this and were 100% behind me. I told them the only way this would work is that if we made sure 0 of the packages at the end of the belt were ours.

Within an hour the back of the belt was a mess. Chuck and John (Shon's replacement) came up and were like "What is all of that?!?" I gave a sort of curious look and said "You know I'm not sure, they aren't ours but they can't be missorts because missorts aren't a problem in this building." They both knew what I was doing and sent a bunch of people over to start moving them.

Mike showed up saw the mess and looked at me. I just kind of gave this look and he walked away. Most of the building was pissed because their missorts came late, like they used to. Chuck really hated it because he didn't think missorts were a problem either and that the load side should just "put it away". Mike G. then started asking him how he was going to fix the missorts. This was probably the beginning of the bad relationship with me and Chuck.

Looking back I know it wasn't the most mature thing to do, but that was the problem there. You had to do something extreme like this to get your point across.

The next day, I was told to put the missort carts back up on my belt.