Genetics and Teaching

The following will amuse my loyal readers...at my expense of course. From what I hear balding skips a generation, and by all accounts I tend to believe it. My grandfather is mostly bald and has been for quite a while. My father, on the other hand, has a beautiful head full of hair so thick your hand will get stuck in it. Anyway, for the past several years I've been slowly losing my battle with genetics as my hair becomes thinner and thinner.

Today I was reminded of this by one of my lovely students in the middle of a brief lecture on the finer points of various reading comprehension skills. The student raised her hand mid lecture, and I naturally thought it was a question about the topic of discussion. Instead, the student said the following when called on, "Mr. Styron...your hair is really thinning."

I thanked her for the comment and continued on with class. You've got to love 7th graders!

To Temple Lee...Thank You.

When I sent out my last blog requesting ideas to write about, I got the usual requests to write on topics relating to inside jokes between old friends, some serious educational thoughts to discuss, and one that I never expected. The father of one of my dear friends that passed away in 1998 sent me a request to write about his son and my old friend, Temple Lee. For the Lee family, I hope this finds you well.

I met Temple in the latter part of my 10th grade school year. We remained great friends until his untimely death. As the years have passed I've come to understand what a wonderful and unique person that Temple was. He had a tremendous passion for music, specifically The Rolling Stones and The Doors. As I said when I spoke at his funeral he had the greatest running out of bounds behind the head hook shot I've ever seen on the basketball court. Temple loved to laugh and I loved to make him laugh, because his laugh was infectious.

All of Temp's friends got a kick out of his willingness to say anything to anyone. In the years since I oftened joked with others who knew Temple that it's a wonder we were never beaten up because of the things he would say to people. One incident in particular still remains with me like it was yesterday. Often, when we were in high school we would spend our nights playing basketball with college students at the old 'hill' on 14 th St. On one night when about 8 of us were playing and there were not many college students around a guy that at the time looked like a giant to us walks up in the middle of our game and says to none of us in particular, "Hey guys, can I play with yall?". I don't think that any of us really wanted him to play because we were already having such a good time, but I don't think any of us knew what to say to him. In an attempt to break the awkward silence the guy said, "Come on guys...please". To which Temple says standing in the giant guys face, "Dude, who begs!?" When it happened we all feared for Temple's life, as well as our own. Later, we laughed the night away about the incident.

I could go on and write a lot more about what was so wonderful about my old friend Temple, but instead I would like to take this opportunity to write him a thank you note.

Dear Temple,

When you passed so unexpectedly, I realized at an early age just how fragile this life is. I began reevaluating my entire life shortly after your funeral, and I began to make many changes in my life that would lead me to where I am now...a happy person. Temple, I owe you so much for the good that has happened in my life since your passing. I gained an understanding of how this life is so fleeting and that it makes so much more sense to live every moment like it's your last.

I would have never removed myself from a toxic relationship that was bringing me down. If I had not done that I would have never began dating and eventually marrying my awesome wife of 10 years now. I would have never gotten all the courage I needed to return to school to pursue my dreams of teaching. I would have never gotten the courage to try so many of the things I have since your passing. There are not many days that pass that I don't remember the good times we had together. When I found out your dad was selling the old house, I drove by just for old times sake and almost broke down looking at the driveway and basketball goal where so many epic, but always fun, basketball battles took place.

Temple...my life is where it is now mainly because of you.

I thank you and I miss you terribly.

Calling All Followers...All 12 Followers...

I'm having a bit of writer's block at the moment, so I've decided to ask all of my 12 loyal followers to suggest writing topics. Any topic you suggest, I'll compose a wonderful blog about it. I look forward to hearing your topics!

Testing Doesn’t Mix with Spring Fever

This time last year I began suffering through a series of health issues mainly caused by the stress of how well or poorly my language arts students would do on the EOG (End of Grade) test. The stress typically kicks into gear upon return from spring break each April, and last until the EOG’s are finalized near the end of May. It is around this time I begin to constantly second guess what I’ve taught, and how well I’ve taught, throughout the school year. This year I have a particularly low achieving academic language arts class which has my nerves on edge even worse than last year.

All of this stress to students and teachers alike comes as a result of the No Child Left Behind law passed during W’s administration. I have yet to find a teacher that supports the aspects of that bill that have to do with the mandatory testing. This time of year also brings warmer weather and students anxious to get out of school for summer. In the teaching business we refer to the increase in student misbehaviors during this time of the year as ‘spring fever’. Unfortunately, the only cure for this fever is the last day of school. In addition, I have found that this is the time of year when bad things happen to good students. There are very few students that have the ability to resist the fever. Teachers are scrambling to provide students with any last minute testing preparations, while at the same time trying to keep their students under control long enough to be successful on the test.

Any suggestions from fellow educators, or anyone, for that matter on ways to relieve this end of year recipe for disaster, please let me know.

Essence of a Throat Punch

Understandably the use of corporal punishment has been done away with in the majority of public schools across our country, but in some rare instances I would love to see it made legal if only for one day out of each year. Hence...the following blog will describe the power of a well placed throat punch. There are several advantages to a throat punch landed with precision. The first being that unlike a strike to the face, a punch to the throat will always leave the victim incapacitated. Secondly, a direct punch to the throat has the immediate effect of stunning and often interrupting the victim's breathing patterns. Additionally, the well placed throat attack does the greatest thing of all which is to render the victim incapable of speaking for up to 20 minutes if done correctly.

In all seriousness there seems to have been a tremendous breakdown in discipline in the homes of so many of the students we are charged with teaching each day. Was I afraid of my teachers when I was in middle school? No. The thing I was afraid of was my teachers letting my father know that I had misbehaved. That was the worse, because I knew I would be dealt with instantly and severely. Today, that sense of parental fear and respect is absent in our students. It has gotten to the point with some students that I do not even call their parents anymore, because I've realized it is a complete waste of time.

There is nothing wrong with the education that public schools offer, and in most cases, there is nothing wrong with the teachers teaching. The problem I've noticed the most since I began teaching is the fact that our student's parents want us as teachers to be their child's parents. The catch is that parents want teachers to educate and be a parent to their child, but seemingly want it done without the use of nearly any type of discipline.

Thanks for reading my rant...and I promise you I would never actually hit a student...I don't think I would anyway. :)

Teach Fatboy Teach!

Ask any teacher about their job and most will say that if they did not absolutely love it there is no way on earth they could do it as a career. I do love teaching. I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do with my life by teaching as a career, but there is one huge downside I've begun to notice more as of late. The downside is my ever increasing waistline!!!!



When I began teaching full time 3 years ago I weighed221 lbs. As of this morning, and I can't believe I'm publishing this, I weighed 264 lbs. Oh.My. Goodness!!!! While weight gain is commonplace amongst teachers, for me to have gained 43 lbs. in roughly 3 years IS NOT GOOD. Why is gaining weight so common for those in the teaching profession? Honestly I don't know the overarching answer for all teachers, but speaking from personal experience I just simply haven't had time to eat properly. Lack of time, utter exhaustion, and recently grad. school has frequently equaled fast food, sweets, and sodas. Though I maintained my 4 day a week workout schedule over the past 3 years, my diet has gone from good to bad to horrendous. If not for my workout routine chances are likely that I would have had to have been airlifted out of my house by now.



The time has come for this fatboy to get himself back to my teaching starting weight. To begin my journey I'm going to ....aw hell I don't know, but if anyone has any serious suggestions please let me know.

Killing a Student

This blog is not about killing a student, but I knew the title would grab your attention. Hopefully you'll stick around long enough to read the rest. A good friend of mine commented today that he thinks my blog acts as therapy for me, and that he can't understand how I teach without killing someone. He was joking about the killing part of course...well I think he was anyway. Writing has always served as a form of therapy for me, and indeed part of my new blogging adventure does act as a rudimentary form of therapy. It also allows me to vent, share my opinions on current 'hot' topics in education, as well as share some stories ranging from the utterly ridiculous to the sadly sobering.

It was the latter part of his comment that really stood out in my mine, only because I've heard it so often from people over the years since I began teaching. When I decided to pursue my dream of teaching I instinctively knew that teaching in the middle school is where I would be most successful. When I would tell people I was going back to school to become a teacher, their eyes would light up with joy. The next question I was always asked is "what grade?". To this I would reply middle grades, and their lit up eyes would instantly grow dim as they looked at me as if I was an alien. It was a look that said "What the hell is wrong with you!?".

While anyone who teaches realizes fairly quickly that it is something you must truly love, perhaps even have a higher calling to do, or you would rapidly fall into mindboggling stress induced hysterics I believe that in order to teach at the middle school level effectively one's passion for teaching must be even greater than those that teach at the elementary or high school level. The reason is simple. On top of all the demands put on teachers today at any grade from K-12, middle school teachers have to teach the 'whole child'. The middle school student, typically beginning in late 6th grade to about the middle/end of 8th grade goes through a tremendous amount of changes physically, socially, emotionally, phychologically, cognitively...etc. So to hear people frequently suggest they would 'kill' a student if they had to teach at the middle school level is quite understandable, because as teachers of middle school students we are forced to be all things to all students while at the same time making sure they are educated. To borrow a famous motto from the U.S. Marines middle school teachers are the few, the proud, and the chosen.