So great to read about the crazy antics of another former teacher – I did my 7 year tour of duty with middle school. Made my kids immigrate into my very own world (humanities lesson). I guess perhaps I’ll get to meet you at IVP too. Yay. And Go Bears!

Andre, good to hear from you man! I’ve been needing to spend some time over at EverySquareInch… Alas (or perhaps thank goodness) there is no video of me as Jonathan Edwards. Sometime I need to tell the story of the 31 Hell Cakes I received one year. Along with the cardboard hand of God sculpture which sits on my office window sill. I’ll post a picture and share as soon as we get this blog network setup for everyone. Things should slow down for me then.

Thanks for sharing…you don’t happen to have a video of you as Jonathan Edwards, do you? It would make great You Tube fodder.

I only got one piece of hate mail in a ten year career! And only one parent verbally accosted me for over an hour. All of the other abuse was significantly shorter in time duration.

On the other side of the things, I can’t count the number of students who I love and think of as “my kids.” I can’t count the number of times they email me out of the blue and hope that I’ll go back to teaching. I think the image of me still in the classroom gives them hope somehow–if nothing else than just that the experience they loved may also be loved by others. Although I also think they worry that my turning away from education is a kind of rejection of all those good memories we built together in the classroom.

But of course, I never turned away from education. I just got a different job.

Charity, odd almost always has unsettling depth for me.

For everyone, the long term effects of standing were actually never revealed to me. But my experience was that the first weeks were much harder than you might expect. My legs would swell. And my spine would twist–they had this huge machine that mapped our spine with a little roll ball. But towards the end of the study, I think I must have toned up my “standing muscles.” Things got quite a bit easier.

I always get myself in trouble when I mention all the weird names I get called. Somebody (there’s one in every crowd) always decides to start calling me one of them on purpose!

Several of your odd things had redeeming value (marriage, conversionj, learning to type). I guess I should have dug a little deeper on mine.

Regarding #3: (eccentric teaching styles, singing/marching)
(weeping) I’ve finally found my long lost brother–my twin, separated at birth!

You know, I had fun thinking back for those weird things I’ve done. That student’s story is even more amazing than I went into here. She was born on September 11, 1985. Which means she had brought a birthday cake to share with her friends in school that day. She had an uncle living in New York City. And another uncle living in Kabul, Afghanistan. And she was quietly Muslim.

By May she had become a symbol of hope and life for our entire community. It’s put her in an awkward position ultimately. No one makes a good symbol, but she is a good person. And I love her dearly.