Retirement

A vacation in Amsterdam when flights are cheap, streets and sites not overly crowded as the school year begins.  

Picture taken in Delft.  Bikes rule in the Netherlands 

Vacation Pics

Retirement is good.  We spent last weekend in Sarasota with another retired math teacher and her husband. 

Above are some photos of the beautiful wild life.

Heart--An Important Ingredient For Success

I spent Thanksgiving in heaven, in the ME Hotel in Cancun.  I call the place because anything and everything is done to make the guests happy.  Okay, they could have done a little better with the weather (a little more sun but no rain) but it did not rain so I guess they did fine.  No one got painful sunburns.  The property and the rooms were beautiful.  The food and the drinks were plentiful, never ending and really good.  But, lots of hotels can boast of the same things.  The thing that makes ME really special is the staff.  These wonderful people make everyone feel like a guest in a home rather than a customer in a resort.  Every request is filled promptly, some even before the words come out.  Always there is a smile.  Everyone, gardeners, maintenance staff, maids, waiters, concierge and management do everything humanly possible to make the stay a delight.

Jonathan, one of the managers told us the staff is hired because of heart.  Anyone can learn to fix a toilet or make a drink but heart is something a person must be born with.

AnHeart is something teachers are born with too.  Any college grad should be able to master the material taught in an elementary, middle or high school, but teaching is so much more than that.  When I look back at cards and letters I have received, when I run into former students and their parents, I know I made a difference in countless lives.  They might not remember a test score or the quadratic equation, but they will remember how they felt about themselves in my class and how they mastered material they didn't think they could learn.

Today's teachers don't have time for heart.  They are too worried about test scores and statistics. Heart is not a measurable statistic.  It has no place in the classroom today.

More pictures here, on Facebook.

Real Value, Not That The Bloombergs Of The World Would Notice



It was a day in the middle of a vacation week.  The teacher was sitting in the middle of a group of students, all who had given up their day off to get some extra help.  (I was there to do some per session work I am getting paid for.)

The teacher was taken aback to see me.  He didn't want anyone to know what he was doing.  He swore me to secrecy, as if his actions were criminal.  I will keep his secret and not share his identity or even the subject he teaches.  But, I have to share his actions.  Here is a person who cares.  Here is a person whose value is more than a some data on a sheet of paper.  Here is a teacher of real value.