Whatever Flips Your Waffle (192)
I’ve often wondered if there are people in Florida who wish they would’ve voted in the 2000 election. If you recall, Florida was the pivotal state when it came to George W. Bush eventually winning the presidency.
Hanging chads and other irregularities abounded, but that election, as well as the close one in 2004, showed why every vote is important.
One of my college roommates used to try to argue that his vote didn’t matter because of the electoral system. However, if enough people think that, it can make a difference.
In Florida that year, some tallies had Bush winning by as few as 100 total votes. Think about how many people you know who don’t vote and multiply that around the state.
Would our country have been a better place with Al Gore as president? I don’t know; the events of 9/11 would probably have still occurred, and it would be interesting to look into an alternate universe and see what Gore’s reaction would have been.
We’ve had a number of close elections in our own state, including Al Franken’s win a few years ago. Local elections can be very close too; I can recall a recount in Medford a number of years back where the mayoral race was determined by about five votes.
All this leads to my plea to please get out on November 6 and vote. It’s one of the great rights we have as a democratic society. However, don’t just go to vote; become informed before you do.
I’ve heard many people talk about just going in and randomly picking people. While it’s hard to know who all these judge candidates are, most of the other candidates and issues have a plethora of information to understand the various platforms.
Look over those and be educated. I’m not just talking about the junk crammed into our mailboxes in the past month, but search out unbiased sources that analyze the tendencies of these candidates and tell you how they have voted in the past and how they really feel about issues.
Understand the issues. My colleague, Jessica, wrote an article about the voter ID amendment a few weeks ago. Read that again and find other information to make an informed decision.
I don’t know how many people I’ve talked to about the marriage amendment who think that if they vote no, they will be legalizing same-sex marriage. That’s simply not so; it would just leave the possibility open. That’s an important difference to some people, so please be informed.
Spend a little time and take the election seriously. If a candidate you would have preferred in office loses by a few votes and you didn’t go to the polls, how will you feel? Please find the time on November 6 to vote and make your voice heard, even if it’s part of a louder voice rising from all voters. That’s one of the things that make our country work!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is capitulate, which means to give in or surrender, such as, “The candidate had prepared a concession speech in case the count showed he would lose and had to capitulate to his opponent.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
The Saturday after the Fourth of July, I walked into Walmart with my kids to pick up a few things. Imagine my surprise to find school supplies in a prominent display!
Really? Can the kids have most of summer before worrying about back to school?
This phenomenon is not just limited to school sales though. While shopping for Halloween costumes a couple weeks ago, Walmart and Target both had a Christmas aisle up already!
Wouldn’t it be nice to hurdle one holiday at a time? I’m sure that as you’re returning a gift you got for Christmas that doesn’t fit, you’ll see the changeover to Valentine’s Day in progress.
If I were running for office, part of my platform would involve this concept: one holiday/event at a time! Once Halloween is done, I don’t mind seeing things for Thanksgiving; after Thanksgiving Christmas material is acceptable.
In our house, we decorate for Christmas during the weekend following Thanksgiving. Having Christmas decorations up for more than a month in advance seems like overkill.
The same problem occurs with clothing stores. Having children who go through growth spurts can be frustrating.
When Jayna outgrows her swimsuit that fit in May by July or Anton needs a new winter jacket in February, do you suppose we can locate some? Chances are slim. In July, the fall fashions are on the rack, and in February, I’ll probably find the swimsuit that Jayna needed the past year!
The reason for this from the stores is they don’t want to be stuck with overstock. Will winter jackets for seven-year-olds really go out of style by the next year if you’ve got an extra case in back? Everything comes back around again eventually, but many stores lose potential sales from people like me who have growing children.
Here’s my idea: a store called In Season where the only items for sale are those for that particular season, with a smattering of things for the upcoming season. You will always find winter jackets until the snow melts. Swimsuits will be available until Labor Day. And there will be absolutely NO Christmas decorations until the day after Thanksgiving (which is when everyone goes shopping anyway)! If anyone wants to invest, I’m willing to listen!
One aside before this week’s column is done. As you read a couple weeks ago in this very paper, the churches in Ellendale and Geneva are running a food drive, with representatives from each church putting their hair color up for charity.
I’m representing St. Aidan’s and hope enough is given that I’ll have to have my hair colored on November 3. There will be containers in each church, but I’ll also have one in my classroom so if my students who don’t attend church in Ellendale or Geneva would like to take part and see their English teacher with something different from brown with flecks of gray, I’ll take any donations of food or cash. I’ll take donations at school until Nov. 1. Let’s fight hunger here at home!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is remonstrate, which means to speak in opposition of something, such as, “The political candidate planned to remonstrate every point his opponent made in the debate.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Psychology has long been an interest of mine. I took some classes in high school and college and found it fascinating to try and figure out what was going on in someone’s mind. As a teacher, it can be a critical skill.
Part of psychology can deal with childhood experiences and how they impact your life as an adult. There are certainly the traumatic moments that can scar a child and take years of counseling to overcome. I didn’t have any of those, but I had a repeated experience every year which caused me to despise MEA break.
First, let me clarify. I know it’s technically not MEA break anymore since the Minnesota Education Association changed its name to Education Minnesota.
I think any of us who grew up in an era where we had “MEA break” will always call it that. EM break just doesn’t have the same ring.
You would think I would look forward to this as one of my “many” paid vacations. (Please note the sarcasm in that statement.) However, I have those recurring childhood memories that have ruined MEA break forever.
Every year, my dad would take that entire week off work for “vacation.” This vacation consisted of spending Monday through Wednesday in some woods, owned by a family member, cutting down trees.
Once we were out of school on Wednesday, we spent the rest of the weekend with him out in the woods “making wood,” as we called it. We’d help Dad cut up the trees and stack logs in the truck and trailer and make repeated trips home to unload.
Some of these were big logs that Dad and I would then have to put on the woodsplitter to make more manageable. My immense strength was certainly useful in these situations, but my sisters wouldn’t even try if they didn’t have to.
It was usually cold enough to wear heavier jackets, which would be shed as soon as we started working hard. Or as soon as we slipped away and explored the woods and the river that ran through it. I even remember some snowfall, which really made it fun.
I’m not sure how many broken blades Dad had on the chainsaw or how many profanities he uttered over the years when the tree wouldn’t drop the right direction. I do know that I had to work hard for four days of my vacation, which turned out to be no vacation at all.
We don’t have a woodburning stove in our house, so my children escape this cruel torture from my childhood.
I do have appointments scheduled during MEA break, so we’ll stay busy, but nothing too strenuous. Still, I feel this involuntary shudder every year when I look at the school calendar and see MEA, er, EM break in October.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is sesquipedalianist, which is a person who uses long, unusual, sometimes obscure words in speech or writing, such as, “Mr. Domeier showed he was a true sesquipedalianist by using large words nobody had heard of in his column.” Thanks again to Tali Wayne for this word. Hey, wait, are you trying to tell me something? Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
The fact that I will turn 40 in less than one calendar year doesn’t bother me. Really, it doesn’t!
I’m only as old as I feel, and most days I feel like I’m closer to 30. However, the fact that I just helped celebrate my 20-year class reunion does make me feel old.
Twenty years out of high school? Wow, that’s longer than I was in school.
I graduated from Cathedral High School in New Ulm in 1992 with only 31 kids in my class. We were a pretty good group of kids when it came to cliques and avoiding too much pettiness.
Don’t get me wrong, we certainly had groups of people, but it wasn’t as if I couldn’t interact with the more popular group. When we all got together the other weekend, people quickly filtered back to their comfort levels.
This is probably normal; my dad tells me people do that at his class reunions yet, and he’s been out a tad bit longer than I have.
We were able to come together though and show solidarity in remembering the first classmate we lost. Jessica was a real leader in our class and very bright; it was a shame when she died of cancer last year, a real shock to our systems.
I hope we don’t have to worry about that again anytime soon, but a couple of my classmates put together a nice tribute to Jessica’s memory.
I was very excited leading up to this reunion; it had been 10 years since I’d seen many of my classmates. We even had someone fly in from Oregon for this one!
We toured our old school and realized how much had NOT changed! The desks, chairs, tables, and lockers were pretty much the same, which brought a level of comfort back to us.
Working in education, I’m used to seeing schools, but I’ve always thought of my high school as being a comfortable place, and the unchanging aspects we saw helped solidify some of my memories.
I encourage high school students to savor the memories you make. Try to get along with your classmates; you never know what fond memories someone might bring up 20 years from now!
I didn’t have to be close compadres with everyone, but I could count many people as friends, and that made interacting with so many people even more fun for my reunion. If you’re a senior this year, try to talk with some of your classmates you don’t know very well. You might find something in common that can last beyond high school!
I enjoyed high school a great deal. It was the best four years of my life…until college.
Those were the best years of my life…until moving to New Richland. Every step builds on the previous one, so laying down a solid foundation in high school only makes what happens after that much better.
And with that, I want to wish a happy anniversary to my wife Michelle. The fact that I grow happier every year 14 years into this journey is a testament to what a wonderful, loving spouse she is!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is wale, which is a ridge on cloth, such as, “The wales on his corduroy pants helped him feel like he was the height of fashion.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Anonymity might be a good thing if you’re a replacement referee in the NFL, but on most other occasions, it’s just a bother. I ran across an instance when I visited my school mailbox the other day.
I retrieved a small manila envelope from my receptacle and found an article inside a family magazine detailing the horrors of too much homework. There was no note with it so that I could thank whoever sent me this article how vital this is to my teaching. In fact, the most important parts of the article were underlined for me so I wouldn’t have to search for them.
As I mentioned in a previous article, I don’t mind some constructive criticism. I’ve listened to parents in the past and changed some things I do as a result. However, those were all parents who sent me a thought-provoking email, called me, or visited to discuss something in a logical way.
Not having the courage to back up your ideas with a name? Eh, that doesn’t fly. I know Jim occasionally gets letters at the paper without a name attached. While our country is great in that you can voice your opinion without repercussion, you also have to say who you are to get people to listen.
This is not the first anonymous note I’ve gotten over the years. Between teaching and coaching, I’ve had my share of people who don’t like the way I work. Some of them have visited with me about a problem. I realize my 5’ 10”, 175-pound frame can be physically intimidating, but those people managed without a scratch. So why not sign a name?
Here’s what I know about homework. I take every assignment I hand out very seriously. You won’t just find the same old busywork handed out in my room. Everything has meaning and relates to making my students better communicators. (I even pay attention to the state standards, though that’s an article for another time.) With input from other staff members, as well as parents, I have scaled back some on what I expect and have readjusted my due date expectations.
Many assignments I give are not due the next day. Things are spaced out so students can begin to learn organization skills. Just like in most of our jobs, we have a number of things due over a period of time, and we have to manage our time to get these items done as needed.
What amazes me is the amount of time students waste in class. With 5-10 minutes remaining in class, many are closing up shop. You can accomplish a lot in 5-10 minutes, and that’s 5-10 minutes you’d have later to do other things. Plus, the teacher is available to help with questions. Of course, then they won’t have a chance to complain about all the homework if they don’t have any.
As a kid, I used every moment in class that I had to get work done. I had sports and a job; I even wanted to watch some TV every now and then or hang out with my friends.
Do I give too much homework? Hey, I’m willing to look at the issue, but I’ll need a name if we’re going to have a quality discussion.
Word of the Week: Tali has given me a couple more words to use. These are all from the movie Love Happens, which automatically sounds like a movie I wouldn’t watch. This week’s word is quidnunc. Quidnunc means someone who is eager to know the latest news or gossip, as in, “The town quidnunc appeared at all the coffee shops to gather the latest gossip.”
Eleven years ago (plus a few days by the time you read this), my wife Michelle woke me up a little after midnight, claiming her water had broken. My response: “Are you sure?” When she said no, I rolled back over and told her to wake me when she was sure. It wasn’t long after that we were headed to the hospital to welcome our daughter Jayna.
This was not the most auspicious start to my parenting career, and it is like a second career, make no mistake. With all the intensity and excitement of seeing your firstborn child, that moment sticks in my mind. The other one was when we arrived home with our precious bundle of joy and realized just how big a task this parenting thing might be without all those doctors and nurses present to help.
Are any of us ready to be a parent when that time comes? Probably not, but I’d like to think Michelle and I were as prepared as we could be. We were ready to start a family, and Michelle had read about every piece of information that was published about being a parent. There was plenty of advice from grandparents and others who had been through this before.
But that first moment at home? That moment of serene calmness (the last one for many years)? Oh, oh. What do we do now?
Many of you remember that moment as well. It is similar to staring out across a vast desert or to the top of a mountain; there is a long journey ahead, but once your child leaves home to make his or her own journey, there will be a sense of true accomplishment.
There are many trials and tribulations: the first time the baby runs a fever, the first time the child falls down and gets cut (Ahh! Blood!), the first time the youngster intentionally does something wrong. Jayna rolled off the bed, tipped her high chair backwards, and has defied us on occasion. How did we handle it? How did we know what to do?
We didn’t necessarily know the right way to handle it. We just did the best we could and used common sense.
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about how similar I realized I was to my dad; I think we often parent the way we were parented. What other model do we have?
However, we take into account a generational change and change with the new generation. There were only three channels on TV when I grew up, so taking away the TV wasn’t as big a deal then as it is now. Spanking is no longer acceptable, though I don’t think it did me any long-lasting mental harm.
In the end, most parents do the best job they can and slowly begin to loosen those apron strings. When our kids make mistakes, we have to realize that is a good thing.
This is how they learn problem solving skills; we certainly weren’t perfect either! As Jayna gets closer to being a teenager (the age of mistakes), it’s important to keep remembering that!
Word of the Week: Thanks to Tali Wayne for this week’s word: poppysmic. Poppysmic means the noise produced by smacking the lips together, as in, “The poppysmic she made after putting on lipstick was annoying to her roommate.”
What’s really interesting about this word is that only one author has ever been known to use it: James Joyce in a stage direction in Ulysses. Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
As I start this column, my iTunes is playing “School’s Out,” the classic song that every student longs for in May. However, it has been applying to the students in Chicago recently, as the teachers union there went on strike last week.
I’ve taken a keen interest in these doings since I’m a negotiator for our local union, and I truly hope nothing like that ever happens here. As many people have been quoted, the refrain is the students are the ones who suffer. I always hope a sense of understanding of what is best for all involved pervades our contract talks at NRHEG.
What’s this strike all about? It’s certainly not about money, since the average teacher in Chicago makes around $70,000. Part of the problem lies in how the teachers will be evaluated, a task that the state of Minnesota faces in the next year. Part of our next contract will have to involve language regarding teacher evaluation.
I don’t mind being judged, but like the teachers in Chicago, I have problems with how the government wants to judge us. So much push has been placed on standardized tests that those have also become the focal point of teacher evaluations. In other words, a large portion of teacher evaluation could be made considering a one-day test for students who have no incentive to do well.
Considering that students take reading, language arts, and math tests every year from grades 3-8 under different acronyms (NWEA and MCA), and that many of these tests are taken multiple times during each year, some kids have taken 13 tests a year! Do you suppose students get burned out by testing? By junior high, if you don’t dangle a big enough carrot in front of them, there are a number who just don’t care. Would you have cared about a test that didn’t count in your grade or your ability to advance to the next grade?
Please come in and judge my performance in my classroom. But do it by measuring the progress of my students in more than just a one-day test. Look at their writing from the beginning of 7th grade to the end of 8th grade.
Take a look at their vocabulary tests that involve reading stories and answering questions much more difficult than the MCA tests since I don’t give them the option of making a lucky guess, but encourage deeper thinking skills.
And how do you judge a teacher in an area that doesn’t have a test? Should our phy ed teachers be judged on how many kids pass the Presidential Physical Fitness Test?
Is it the teacher’s fault if the students go home and sit in front of the TV eating chips? How about the kindergarten teacher who has a student who can’t count to 10 coming into school because the parents never worked on that or never read to the child, leading to an inability to recognize letters?
Please judge me. Come in and watch me work. Offer constructive criticism.
I’ve changed the way I teach over the years based on advice from my peers, and I’m a better teacher for it. I hope we can take that into account when we face language like the Chicago teachers have in their contentious contract talks.
Word of the Week: Another of my favorite words this week: impeccable. Impeccable means without flaw, as in, “Tim was impeccable in both his school work and his athletic endeavors.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
I had a completely different topic in mind for this week. Then my dad had a heart attack. Events like that tend to take your mind off other topics, and I find that writing about stressful times is very cathartic.
I always tell my students that they will become like their parents someday in some way. Much like I would have done at that age, they shake their heads vigorously and deny that possibility. I didn’t realize how like my dad I am until my late 20s.
Dad was playing with my daughter Jayna when she was very young. I mentioned to Mom that I didn’t remember him ever playing with us kids a lot.
She told me how many overtime hours Dad used to put in at the grocery store so Mom would be able to stay at home with us and not have to work. Once I realized that, it put a lot of things into perspective.
While Dad encouraged my sports enthusiasm, I don’t recall a lot of times playing catch when I was young. He put up a basketball hoop for me, but I don’t remember playing a lot of Horse. Now it made sense.
My dad became my hero that day. I also realized just how alike we are, which was something I had not even considered before.
Dad is known by seemingly most of the 13,000 people in New Ulm. He’s called Rondo by the girls he coaches in softball and the Old Sheepherder by the people who listen to his weekly radio show on KNUJ.
Dad volunteers a lot of time with different organizations and with his church. He’s been retired for a little over a year now, after 46 years of working in grocery, and he seems busier than ever.
He seems to relish in his notoriety, but doesn’t seek out fame in any way. It’s impossible to go anywhere with him and not run into somebody who recognizes him, and that’s not just in New Ulm.
That day, I recognized some of those traits in me. I also know there was some part of me, subconsciously, that was trying to be like my dad when I moved to New Richland.
There are certainly a lot of people that know who I am. My wife and kids say it’s hard to go anywhere with me, since I end up seeing someone I know and talking for a while.
I’m not as good a person as my dad, though. Sometimes, I really enjoy this small measure of fame; it’s nice to be recognized. But he gives me a standard to strive for, and I hope I have him around for a long time yet to set the example I need.
I wasn’t raised to show much emotion; I don’t know how much I’ve ever told my dad that I love him.
I regret every time I had a chance and didn’t say that. If your dad is still alive, please tell him that you love him and recognize just how much of him is in you. It’s an enlightening experience.
Dad is home now and well on his way to recovery!
Word of the Week: As I typed my first paragraph, I used a word that I’ve found myself using more and more in stressful situations: cathartic. Cathartic means tending to purge, as in, “Writing about my dad is very cathartic and helps me relieve some of my stress.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
The stereotypical assignment when students return from lollygagging through the summer is to write about what they did over the previous three months. Charlie Brown always had to do this and would ponder whether to write about yet another losing baseball season or his longing for the cute little red-headed girl.
However, I have never given my English students this assignment. Sure, they write about personal experiences, but I don’t feel a need to read about how much time they spent on Facebook or in front of a video console. But what do teachers do on their summer vacation?
My neighbor to the south often refers to how nice it must be as a teacher with these summer months off in addition to the periodic breaks throughout the school year. In reality, many teachers spend their summers involved in a lot of educational work.
Some teachers take classes to learn about new concepts in education or to expand their knowledge of an existing area. Others go to workshops to collaborate with other educators; it’s nice to leave the shell of our classrooms to interact with others in our field. Most teachers spend at least part of the summer working on curriculum.
A good teacher does not just roll over to the file cabinet and pull out the exact same thing from every other year. Times change, students change, and so must educators. Sure, I’ve taught Tom Sawyer every year I’ve been here and can’t foresee a time I wouldn’t teach Mark Twain’s classic, but I certainly don’t approach it the same way as I did when I began teaching.
This is how I spend parts of my summer vacation, between hauling my kids all over for activities. I often make notes in my files of ideas as I teach and changes to contemplate for the next year. The summer is a good time to reflect on those and figure out ways to improve. Again, the lesson plan might be a good idea, but it needs tweaks to make it better.
This past summer, I spent many hours between my laptop and my new iPad creating curriculum for our 1:1 initiative for our 8th-graders. This was a tremendous undertaking to look at how my materials would translate to this device. I created textbooks based on materials I used and tested out apps that will make my classroom much more tree friendly.
Do we have free time in the summer, perhaps more than many other jobs? Sure, but know that teachers spend more time thinking about the upcoming school year than you might think. We get time off from all of your kids, but after the summer with them, many of you can’t wait to send them back to us, and it should be easy to understand why we need that break: safety for all!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is vivacious. Vivacious means lively in conduct, as in, “The vivacious students flooded back, eager to begin the new school year.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to my newspaper column! Eh, that doesn’t have quite the same kick as when I have a microphone in front of my face. Let’s try again.
Hello! I’m Mark Domeier, and I’ll be filling this space for the foreseeable future, either until I run out of ideas or until you get sick of me rambling. I admit to being a little intimidated following in the “casual” footsteps of my predecessor, a column I always enjoyed reading.
What will I write about has been the most common question I’ve gotten. The title of this column says it all! It’s a saying a friend of mine in college used to utter. It never made much sense since you don’t really flip waffles, but I guess that’s the point.
Being a teacher, I’m sure I’ll wander into the world of education. Being a sports fan, I’m bound to write about that. But I’ll begin with a little about myself.
I was born and raised in New Ulm, Minnesota, and am very proud of my German heritage. In New Ulm, we believe in a few basics for a fulfilling life: baseball, brats and kraut, and polka music. I graduated from New Ulm Cathedral in 1992 and headed east to Winona State University to further my education.
After graduating from WSU in 1996 and interviewing all over the countryside, Rich Lorenz called and offered me a job here at NRHEG. I’ve been here ever since and will begin my 17th year of teaching junior high English next week.
I met my wife Michelle on a blind date my first year here. We were married in 1998 and have two wonderful children. Jayna is entering 5th grade, and Anton will be in 2nd grade. We also have our big fat cat, Chewbacca, and enjoy life in Ellendale.
You can find me involved in many extracurriculars as I officiate football and basketball and umpire baseball. I suppose I’m best known for being the crazy guy shouting into the microphone at Panther football and basketball games.
As I type all these things, I have tons of ideas flowing through my mind for future columns. I should probably write them down, but if you have something you are interested in hearing about, let me know, and I’m sure I can explore it in a future column, especially if it flips my waffle!
Word of the Week: As an English teacher, I need to continue educating, even here! I’ll give you a word every week to try and insert in your daily dialogue and expand your vocabulary. It’ll be fun, and you might learn a thing or two!
This week’s word is my absolute favorite word in the English language: defenestrate. To defenestrate is to throw someone or something out a window, as in, “My sister really annoyed me, so I defenestrated her from the first floor.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!