A trip to the snake doctor and much more

I would never have believed anyone if . . .

they told me I would be taking a snake to the doctor on a Friday afternoon in the heart of Jackson

they told me I would be driving the backroads of Mississippi to find Bubba’s so I could get crickets for our bearded dragon

they told me I would be going to school on a Saturday morning to plant flowers around our fountain and campus with VJ students and a generous church group

they told me two botany classes would rear tomato plants from seed and bug me each day in class to go check their plants and have one girl name hers

they told me I would launch water rockets with great excitement in yet another school

but these vignettes are more than true and a part of my life as the curator of Zoo 122 and greenhouse and teacher of physics, botany, zoology and introduction to biology.

To top it off, Michele Williams, an excellent botany student, brought a mural she designed and painted for Benita’s terrarium on Friday. Life is good.





The trip to the vet for Sister II proved to be more adventurous than necessary since I got sidetracked with directions, stopped by a train and had to be guided in but the receptionist who greeted me with a smile and was excited to hold Sister while I waited for instructions – everyone else there including the doctor were afraid of snakes – I am glad Dr. Vaughn will be in later and take care of our snake who has not eaten in the two months we have heard her despite all our best efforts. I left the two raw eggs and five frozen pinkies (mice) as instructed and will call Tuesday to check her progress. As I was there two folks left crying on cell phones since their pet did not make it. May Sister fare better.
The trip to Bubba’s was interesting including passing a farm café in the middle of nowhere. The lady at Bubba’s said to my long face – no crickets, the cold snap killed all of them. I dejectedly walked out and then remembered Benita will eat dead ones if you drop them in on her one at a time. So I went back in and asked if they had any dead ones. He opened the cricket box and said help yourself. Here I was when I needed to be posting grades scooping dead crickets into a box I got out of my trunk for a hungry bearded dragon on Highway 16 across the street from a burned out store. For the record, Benita ate nine of them.



In a few minutes I will head to school to plant pansies, snapdragons, hydrangeas and lorepetulums.
We had our first blooms on the tomatoes this week and I was the most excited of all!



Measuring tomato plants.



First bloom.

On Friday after having an excellent class on Wednesday for my formal observation, the class launched water rockets in the front yard of the school. We made homemade angle makers with protractors, rulers, string and keys. They were impressed with this piece of seat of the pants math. They used cell phones for stopwatches. After three very successful launches, we came back in and charted our results and made assignments for a lab report.



Physics class demo clinometers.



Launch video.

My very reluctant and challenged learners in Introduction to Biology conducted a very successful pH lab where some of them actually remembered to bring their materials – limes, lemons, oven cleaner vinegar, and mountain dew and actually prepared some very decent bar graphs to show their results.



Getting the pH just right.

All in all a very good week.

I finished the race!

After having three debilitating flair ups of intervertebral bulges on L2,3 and 5 and after considering surgery at one point, I survived a six week training schedule with a very bad fall in the rain on a slippery bridge and with two painful injuries on the left achilles and right ACL, and I FINISHED THE RACE. What made it even better was it was the fifth year of a benefit run for victims of Katrina that I had a small part in starting when I was pastor at the sponsoring church - Rosedale United Methodist. Thanks to Bobbie Nell Lewis and Susan Boyette for building and sustaining this annual event.

I also finished the race of another week at school. I was honored to get to present two workshops at the Mississippi Science Teachers Meeting in Jackson, MS. The first was More Tools for your DI toolbox, a presentation of three ideas - deBono's six thinking hats, drama "dance' with symbol prompts, and six word exercise -to improve critical thinking, class participation and creativity. A brief summary of an Earthwatch led into the differentiated instruction ideas. The second was the 1-2-3 of Caterpillars where results of his Earthwatch Expedition to Arizona and how caterpillars can be used to promote scientific interest and inquiry and an understanding of the natural selection and the effects of climate change were discussed. In the second I used some of my guru's caterpillar slides (Dr. Dave Wagner).

It all got a good start when a very kind manager of the restaurant helped me get set up for my workshop on Monday morning. I drove an hour in the rain to get to my workshop and parked illegally in the garage on P5 and my room was on the lobby level. LaKeisha greeted me with a smile and how may I help you. I told her my troubles about getting unloaded and parking illegally. She said, "just stand right here and I will get it taken care of." Moments later she had a bell cart and waiter to go the P5 and load and then unload every piece of my prompts and presentation materials to my room. I did not have to do a thing except unlock my trunk. As if that were not enough, she got me a plastic cup of water and sent the manager in to check on me. He asked if I needed anything and I said I could use a pencil sharpener for the 200 colored pencils I was going to use in the presentation He said let me sharpen them and I did not argue. I told the hospitality heroes at the Marriott that I was going to move in. I wrote a very positive letter to the hotel in thanks.

Further, I got to meet a former student who is now an excellent teacher, Quanetta Montgomery Love and her friend, Nichole Harris. I was so encouraged to see young teachers in the profession who have the passion and knowledge and love of learning and teaching to pass on to the next generation. I was very discouraged to hear yet again the woes of working with less than stellar or even adequate administrators. I think I am going to start another blog and small group of change agents to help make a more supportive environment at the schools where we teach. Anyone interested?

Science Club at Fall Fest - Just Barely

 

After a lot of arranging the newly organized VJ Science Club took its first field trip to the 31st Annual Fall Fest at the Mississippi State Truck Crops Station in Crystal Springs, Mississippi. My room was a frenzy of activity before we left. Destiny came in to get the rain measurements for the network, Mr. Lewis the sub was getting instructions for the day, students were coming in with their permissions slips, Mr. Hamblin introduced me to his lovely wife who I had invited to go with us, and on it went. It got time to go and I made sure everyone was on the list for announcements. We had one final drama – a football player wanted to go (along with two others) but he was told he could not play in the game that night if he went – he stayed. I gave everyone the speech about representing Velma Jackson High School and conducting themselves like ladies and gentlemen and about taking notes for the report they would send me by email. I then went around and made sure everyone had a homemade book and pencil and got to go to the sessions they wanted to attend as we started traveling. We got well on our way down the highway and it hit me out of the blue – I had left Mrs. Hamblin in her husband’s classroom. I felt horrible and told Ms. Washington, my colleague on the trip, that it was time for me to retire. I apologized to Mr. Hamblin later and felt very, very small.

In spite of that terrible goof, we had a very good day even though it was very cold. Students got to attend sessions on Nature Photography, Pond Management, Fun with Vegetables, Producing Your Own Flower Arrangement and many others. The highlight for me was learning about the four P’s of pond management and watching them seine the 2.5-acre pond and to see the twenty plus blue gill hatchlings and two intermediates. Also it was a great treat to see all the beautiful flowers with the scientific labels, to hear Norman Winter’s presentation on hot new plants and to see his 80 beautiful color slides, and to see friends from another group in my life. The homemade grist mill for corn was also very interesting - I bought a bag and got contact information so maybe we can make our own one day. I also got a tree supplier for persimmons, pomegranates and others to agree to meet me half way to save a delivery charge for our emerging VJ botanical gardens. I am looking forward to receiving the reports from the students. Many of them asked about planting a garden at school and having our own pond and, of course, when we would take our next trip.

The drama for the day was not over. I had promised the administrators that we would return before school let out for the day (since an earlier field trip this week was ten minutes late and the students had to be kept after school for about ten nervous minutes) and before the students loaded the buses. I kept my promise barely. We drove up just as kids were getting out of school to load the buses. I saw the principal looking at us with smoke coming out of his ears. I did get him to smile a bit later when I told him my nickname in college – Just Barely – not early, not late, right on time, Just Barely.
It may be awhile before we get to go again (next time I will make a point not to leave anyone behind).

Life Goes On

New life in the oasis.


Life goes on after the loss of the fish. Students and teachers alike are fascinated by their specimens in jars on the shelf below the new fish. The dead and the living show the cycle of life before their eyes.

There are lots of new developments as life goes on.

Out of the blue the janitors and central office maintenance folks showed up at my door and told me I had new desks. Life is good.



After thanking them I showed them around the greenhouse and oasis and learned one of them had an albino python and another is going to bring turnip seeds for the greenhouse after seeing the tomato plants doing so well.

Both botany classes transplanted their tomato plants after rearing them from seeds. For most of them this was a first and even high school kids (and senior citizen teachers) love to see things grow. We might have a harvest before Christmas. Now that we are getting proficient at this we will sell seedings in our first annual plant sell in the spring.



Dewanious puts on the finishing touches.



Ozihous waters



James and Montrell water while Mozetta and Mia look on.

The new fish are adjusting well except for the algae eaters – we have lost three so far - the fourth one seems to be doing well. We have also lost one bubble eye and his replacement seems to be adjusting. One black and orange oranda perished this week as well and is yet to be replaced.

My botany class had gotten our data sheets in order for all the classroom animals with mass, length and food intake (in zoology next semester they will take care of plants also). Soon we will establish an ongoing data base for all insects, plants and other specimens brought into the classroom – at this point we have been delivered a wolf spider, a newt, a millipede, a swallowtail chrysalis (we keep waiting and watching for the new butterfly along with the two walnut caterpillar chrysalis) and over 40 different leaves.



Can you see the six eyes of the wolf spider that Nyderrick brought?



Benita, the bearded dragon, weighs in with the help of Michelle and Afrika.

Another project that will begin soon is the babysitting of plants over the winter – we already have one from a lady in the cafeteria. For five dollars we will baby sit small plants and ten dollars for large ones.

Mojo the hamster is quite the showman in his exercise ball that Demarcus was kind enough to donate.



Darnell and Cubbie help Mojo out of her new ride and back home.





Debriana looks for Mojo.

Sister Isaac II, the ball python is yet to eat and slithers right past the new pinkies (thawed baby mice). The pet folks recommend letting him be without contact for several days and then dangling the room temperature pinkie with a tong. We will let you know his progress.

Benita has a new larger home (50 gallon terrarium with fresh carpet and homemade cover - me and Mr. Hamblin at work again) above the fish tank. The school ladder stays in our room so we can tend to her.



Benita kicks back in her new quarters.



Hardashi puts Benita back in her new home.

Now Velma Jackson is a part of the Community Collective Rain, Snow and Hail Network. The later two will probably not be observed but the rain guage which has been very active lately is checked and recorded on the internet daily (www.cocorahs.org). Our data can be checked out by going to site and clicking on Mississippi and then Madison County.



Finally the newly established science club has been given permission to travel to the annual Fall Festival at the Mississippi State Agricultural Field Station at Crystal Springs on Friday, October 16. (http://msucares.com/fallfest/events.html). Everyone is getting pumped about this, and we hope to learn a lot about greenhouse plants, pond management, composting and other topics as well as eat some good food and see some beautiful plants.

A Sad Day for Fish - A Good Day for Learning

It was a sad day for fish at Velma Jackson on Wednesday. I should have been tipped off by the water in my refrigerator. In order to be green I usually put water from the tap in my water bottle rather than buying more bottled water. I have done this every day at VJ since August 08. On Tuesday I drank the water and spit it out it tasted so bad - I thought someone had played a trick on me and put something in it or it was some liquid I had put in there for sampling. (It is a biology refrigerator - there are orange slices for the fish, cherry seeds chilling for six weeks before planting, frozen mice for the snake and my lean cuisine and water bottle) What I found out later was the "bad" water was from too much chlorine. Instead of just tossing it and drinking out of the other water bottle which was fine I should have investigated.

Before I tell why it was a sad day for fish, a little history will be helpful. When I started at VJ last year I was so excited about having a fish tank in my room and a greenhouse attached to my room. When I came to school to get things ready for school, the fish tank was disqusting, the water had evaporated below the recycling filters and was an ugly brown. Somehow three fish managed to survive without being fed all summer. One of the janitors and I spend the better part of two days cleaning the tank, putting in new filters and getting the
three fish settled (only one survived which I called survivor). During the course of the year I managed to beg for some money for more fish and for filters that needed to be changed every three weeks. My students adopted the fish quickly and took on their daily care of feeding and triweekly filter change. Later we got a syphon tube to clean out the water every month. There were lots of interesting dramas along the way including the time Ayonna brought 22 guppies to join our fish family. In a matter of moments there were only six left for the nine fish in the tank acted as if they were never fed. In a few days even the larger guppies were meals on fins for the cannibalistic fish. As you can see hours of care were given to get our fish group just right. As of Wednesday there three koi including a one eyed wonder that intrigued all who saw him, one oranda, two black moors, and one now very large algae eater.
When a got a little more money I bought a new oranda on September 5 and happily added her to the tank. On September 6 she was resting in peace in the stomachs of her carniverous mates. Lesson learned - those Koi will not tolerate any more goldfish, thank you.

On with the history. Over the past summer the janitors kept the fish tank in good order by feeding them, changing the filters and adding water as needed.
The students this year have taken on their caretaking role gladly along with Mo Jo, the hamster, Sister Isaac II, the bald python, and Benita who we now think is Benny, the bearded dragon, and the plants in the greenhouse. I was so impressed when some students came by my room while other students had gone to a fundraising basketball game that was a part of the homecoming actiivities - they wanted to see the animals and decided to take care of the siphoning the tank and refilling it. Like we had done many times before we siphoned the water, dumped it outside - one five gallon bucket at a time, and refilled the tank. Little did we know that we were adding toxic waters and sending them into certain death. I saw them turning upside down and swimming crazily and hitting the side of tank and laying on the bottom - it was awful and I was helpless. All those hours of love and care were floating on the top the next day.
I reported the bad water and found out students had been doing the same. The water inspector came out and found out water made the chlorine detection tablets turn bright red.

Another lesson learned - test the waters for chlorine. I am definitely a lifelong learner.

By Thursday, I managed to get some perspective. I scouted around for some perservative and specimen jars and saved five of them for further study and put the two duplicate species in the compost heap. This was a good lesson in the cycle of life and death and water purification.

Friday brought more challenges. I kept a colleague's class third block so she could see her sick uncle in the hospital. I showed them all the animals including the fish in specimen jars. I lastly came to Mojo. I have picked him up for the kids many times (mostly girls are attracted to him and want to hold him). These five guys wanted me to pick him up which I did - it takes some time to chase him down in his cage. I was holding him and talking to them and the next thing I knew I felt a sharp pain on my index finger - Mojo had lashed out at me with those cute little teeth and was holding on with gusto - I gently let him down into his home and went to the sink and washed and soaped my hand and put on some alcohol. Without knowing I had modeled for them my cardinal principal - love the animals or leave them alone. They wanted me to punish Mojo - it was clear I wasn't - he was just protecting his turf.

Finally I went outside to my oasis to have lunch and nurse my wounds and my losses - the beautiful pond I had worked on (see earlier blogs) was popped up in the air and all the water was in a mudhole underneath with the pump. Another day at VJ. While others were getting ready for the homecoming parade outside, I bailed a about 40 gallons of water out of the hole using the pump and as much ingenuity as I could muster. An hour and a half later the pond was all cleaned out and back in place with the fountain flowing again. Another lesson learned - turn off the pump at night if a storm or vandal redirect the fountain - all the water goes somewhere else and the pond tub is empty.

I am glad it is the weekend.

Another Day at VJ

This was the week when I got confirmation that for whatever reason I needed to be back at VJ. Students who failed my class last year still come by for support and encouragement. Students I do not even teach come by to see Zoo 122. Students I do teach seem at least moderately interested in learning. And to put all that in boldface, many of my colleagues are interested in our ongoing caterpillar research and in teaching and learning. Some of us get together socially. All in all as one colleague said I get up and look forward to coming to work – most days I can say that.

I keep all of this in perspective because many days involve a lot of unnecessary obstacles and I just say, “another day at VJ.” A good example was Friday. A substitute had been arranged for my classes so I could do a tutorial for the students who had not passed the biology test last year and would do a retake on Monday. I had asked for the only interactive classroom on campus so the students could do a variety of activities besides all lecture and paper and pencil practice. When I got into the room the computer and LCD projector were not hooked up and the interactive board no longer worked. I chased down the technician to hook up the computer, which he did. I then had to find and install some speakers, get the attendance officer to unlock the bookroom so I could borrow a ladder, climb up the ladder to adjust the LCD projector so it would show evenly on the board and not on the lower wall and floor, and chase down resource books, etc. When I was atop the ladder adjusting the LCD projector the principal came in to check on how things were going and, of course, I said just another day at VJ.

The story of the week though was Ms. Taylor almost running into my room first thing Monday morning. “Mr. Banks, we saw what I thought was a snake in the grass this weekend, but Debriana (her six year old) and her playmate insisted it was a caterpillar.” I realized it was probably the viper like caterpillar and showed her a picture from Dave Wagner’s book, and she exclaimed, “That is it except it was orange.” I asked her if she brought it and she said no. After two or three days of reminding her she said it had formed a chrysalis and asked if I still wanted it. I, of course, said yes. She was really disappointed that she did not get a photo of the fifth enstar caterpillar but there will be others I hope. I wanted to take her picture but she said I should take Debriana’s since she and her friend found it. She appears as the story of the week with the chrysalis that does its spontaneous “shaking” as a defense mechanism.

Or maybe the story of the week was getting recognized at the School Board meeting for being an Earthwatch participate. I asked my buddy, Mr. Hamblin, to go so I would not be by myself, and he graciously took time to meet me there. Dr. Robinson, our assistant principal was also there and made sure I felt welcome and at home and made sure the superintendent’s secretary took a picture of me with the superintendent. Here we are:




To top off the week here are a few photo ops of Mojo, the hamster, Sister Isaac II, Benita, kids measuring and graphing the growth of their tomato plants, etc.

Students come in to check out the one-eyed koi in the class aquarium.

Decarlos graphs.

Ozihous and Brian pretend to water.

Mia measuring.

Nicholas installs shelf unit.

Montrell and Benita.

Kenya tends to sister.

Sister II bracelet.

Dewanius zoos mojo.

Mojo mugs.

Mojo mugs again.

After Twenty Days Back to School

Early on I decided that I really needed a special place to retreat and to renew - my friend, DG, called it an oasis - I like that. After getting a student to dig the hole (previous blog) and getting the pond and pump in place and water gently running, I discovered a leak that drained the pond overnight. Intent on getting this oasis active I went and bought another pond. I should have talked to my teaching neighbor, Mr. Ollie Hamblin, one on the best teaching colleagues in my career. He is working on his National Board certification this year - I wish him well. Besides being a great math teacher he is an excellent mechanic and body man. He said the first pond could be repaired much like a rubberized plastic auto bumper. Here he is meticulously cutting and shaping the repair (then he sanded) and "welding" the hole with an old pot I salvaged from the greenhouse.




Next up is one of my botany/zoology students from last year, Dominique White, who comes to my class before school and during her office monitor time to help set up the greenhouse and take care of the classroom zoo. She was the first to greet our new snake, Sister Isaac II (last year's snake disappeared in February after we neglected to put the books on top of the cage and was found by complete surprise on the last day of school in May by Ms. Washington who hates snakes - SIster later died in the summer since no one's mom would let them bring her home and Mr. Day's(the janitor) water was not enough to overcome the heat). We have a better plan this year.





Sister II poses.

And this year we do not have to wait until December for Botany supplies, they are here. Students have planted tomatoes and are measuring their growth and watering.



Chris measures the cotyledon height to plot on his bar graph.



Destiny and Michelle tend to watering.

My physics class this year is getting off to a good start even though there are only five - but they are really trying. They are not used to the rigor, but they are showing they are up to the challenge. Here they are calculating the density of coat hangar wire using mass and volume by water displacement.



Shiquita tries to get it just right.



Kierra and Arshunti figure the best way to get displacement.



Jon and Alicia collaborate on mass. (we will get digital balances some day.)

And lastly, my staff development presentation on Tuesday this week about my Earthwatch trip was very well received.
Here are the pupas of our first two caterpillars.




The science department's differentiated instruction presentation with my technicolor lab coat, with folks modeling and using de Bono's six thinking hats for critical thinkings, with a drama "dance" with symbol cues, and finally with an exercise adapted from an NPR story using only six words to summarize our teaching careers went very well also. (Some posts will follow with some of the teacher's work along with a link to the original story.)