In the bleak midwinter

Just as the purple pansy pokes up from the snow in the planter by the greenhouse in the midst of the gray, dreary skies, I got great news via email last week. Yes, as the song goes in the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone, snow had fallen . . . That is pretty much how it goes many days at VJ. Everyone who cares about learning and kids knows all the unnecessary hard as iron obstacles to growth placed in our way by life circumstances and sometimes well meaning leaders. It is in this setting that good news came which makes it great news. I received the Toyota Tapestry grant to collect caterpillars all across Madison County, and my students will be leaders and mentors for other students in those other, oft mentioned, oft awarded schools.

Toyota Tapestry Grant

And as if that was not enough, I got a call on the intercom to see a parent first thing Thursday morning. I thought the worse and wondered who wanted to discuss what I had done to their poor child. I was wrong - in the bleak midwinter, I met an enthusiastic parent who brought her daughter's supplies for our Haiti relief effort. She was gone from school on a field trip and told her mother, "You make sure you get these to Mr. Banks." I was stunned. I had fussed at my classes not because they had not or could not bring anything to help our sisters and brothers to the south who are still living in tents. I had fussed at them because they said they would and did not. As if that were not enough the parent came to my room and got the full tour of the plants and animals and was as enthusiastic as I and said, "You make a list of everything you need and do not hold back, and we will make sure you get it next year through 4H and the PTA." An angel just showed up at my room in the bleak midwinter and hope continues. Further she helped fill out all the paperwork so that her daughter (pictured with the largest tomato on the right) could participate in the regional science fair and even enlisted her VJ graduate daughter to help.

Despite my best efforts to pack it in, I keep getting called back to the greatest opportunity (not the easiest or most lucrative) to help get kids excited about and keep learning for a lifetime about the wonders of this world. Yes, even in the bleak midwinter it is still teaching.

P.S. The telescope is ready for night viewing and a solar filter is ordered for day viewing.

Life after death

First row: Shiquita Watkins, Alicia Martinez, Kiera Draine, Arshunti Perry
Second row: Tevin Grayson, Mr. B., Alexander Pan (exchange student from Austria),
Jonathan Luckett
Full album
The cosmic forces have forgiven me, perhaps. Maybe Sister III's soul was not severed with body. Three events seem to confirm these hypotheses. Or to say it another way, three signs of light come forth after the sad snake situation.

First, I emailed the director of Rainwater Observatory at French Camp, Jim Hill, to see if he would come by and make a recommendation for a possible telescope location at our remote site. He graciously agreed and came by and looked over our grounds and gave a recommendation. Jim Hill is one of the most knowledgeable and gracious people I know about astronomy and life. He like I is all for convenience and the best location is about thirty meters from the greenhouse door. He gave a great compliment to my very introductory biology class(one of three where they put kids not ready to take Biology or the all important state test) that he was escorted into 20 minutes before the bell by the assistant principal, "Is this an AP Biology class?" I guess I will quit calling them boneheads.

In this ultra frugal business of education you never hesitate to ask. He had mentioned grants in his very informative free newsletter (check out www.rainwaterobservatory.org). I boldy asked if with his grants there was anyway he could get us a telescope. After a thoughtful pause, he said they had an eight inch Cassegrain that they were not using and we could use it.
Call it a gift, a loan or whatever - VJ is getting a telescope. As I told Dr. Robinson, the assistant principal, "we are going to have it going on out here." Our principal said we would have to get a picture of that and signed off on a PO for a solar filter and battery pack to get it up and running for both nighttime and daytime viewing. He also gave me permission to go pick it up on the afternoon of our next staff development day, February 15. Go, Mr. Mumford.

Second, one of my introductory biology students came in one day to class (to say she has issues would be great understatement) and was looking at one of the contest posters I have had on my wall since August. One caught her eye and I said why don't you do a research project. To my great surprise she was very interested. One thing led to another and she saved the application form to a jump drive during class, read a preliminary experiment from a Strive to Thrive Lab manual I had gotten a grant for and is planning a workshop for science club members and their parents to carry out her research. Pinch me - am I dreaming or awake?

Third, I finally summoned up enough courage to take some of our students to the Mississippi Mathematics and Science Competition at Mississippi College (in another lifetime and school, I took kids there for ten years and we did quite well). I wanted to go last year but there were just too many obstacles - personally and professionally. I have kicked myself all year for not giving my top physics student who had a 32 on the ACT and is a freshman at Harvard an opportunity to compete last year. I promised myself not to do that again. I kept my promise this year and seven of our students participated (two backed out at the last minute). Four participated in the team competition


VJ Team2010

that is still low tech with questions on an overhead projector and with answers wtitten on pieces of paper. Only the captain is able to raise his or her hand with the answer. Spotters determine who was first, second or third up. We left at 8:30 (thirty minutes late) but still got there in time to take the test and got back at 5:40 in the evening of a Friday - it is not an easy road. (I did get to share my MIC project with the bus driver who has three daughters, and she was interested). And the students watched both the team finals and the awards ceremony with interest. None of them made the stage, but I remind myself and them you have to start somewhere. My first year as cross country coach we only had three runners (five are needed for a team) for our first race. Three years later we won fourth in the state. The same was true for academic competitions in my career.



Blast to the past

Indeed life goes on and hope resides at VJ.

Careful Where You Cut

Putting this off does not change the reality. Sister III, our third snake, is dead. She did not die by neglect like the first who escaped and showed up the last day of school only to die over the summer due to overheating. She did not die by bacterial infection like the second one who never had a chance since she never ate while with us for less than two months and had to be taken to the vet. Sister III died under my supervision while we were searching for her.

Just when I thought we were going to be successful in our care of a snake things turned. Sister III loved to hide from the beginning. She did the same thing at Petsmart and kept her same behavior with us. She escaped once and we found her as documented in a previous blog. Then she went a week without eating. Then she found a way to get into her plastic tree and hide. I did the flour routine again and she came out one night, left a trail and there was flour around the hole where she went back in. Almost a week went by and she did not come back out – not even when I put a mouse by the hole and left it out overnight. I was afraid she had died or was sick inside the tree.

I had the bright idea to enlist two of my students who were in my class for Falcon Break – 45 minutes of remediation torture – while the rest of the students have break in the gym. We probed the tree with a wire and did not stir the snake. We decided to cut off some of the branches. Just as one of the branches fell Bobby said there she is. He spotted her in the hole. I crafted a hook with the wire and excitedly drew her out. The excitement ended when I saw her on the table with no head. Yes in our enthusiasm we had cut off her head. My good idea went bad. Be careful where you cut.

The only thing to do was make it a learning experience and teach the students how to mix a 9 to 1 water to formaldehyde solution and preserve her for observation and learning. The students later had all sorts of questions and we made the most of a bad situation.
Not my finest hour as a teacher. We will not have any more snakes for some time.

The cycle of life and death is quite a phenomenon and even tougher when it is accelerated by our hands. Fortunately cutting is not always lethal. I had an amaryllis bulb at the front display table that bloomed before Christmas. Over the break the blooms died. The kids were all concerned and asked why it died. I told them it was a part of the natural process. Flowers bloom, die, drop their seeds and the cycle continues. I cut the old stalks and now a new stalk is growing and will bloom. It will be a fitting memorial for Sister III.

TIde turning

Can you find the tracks?

I went to school today - Sunday afternoon - to feed the animals and water the plants. I had been there yesterday also. There was something more than routine feeding and watering going on. On Thursday one of my students did not put the top on the snake cage tightly enough and later that day, she was gone. Several students were concerned and looking the next day. Snake three gone. I made my peace with it and told the administrators and other staff that as long as you have students handling animals things like this will happen. Either you cannot have any and have a sterile, no hands on place or you can have them and deal with the occasional consequences.

It all sounded good but I am tired of dealing with so many consequences. Like I told my students I have to come to school most everyday even on the weekends to keep the plants and animals happy. Most of the time it keeps me happy too but when my stuff gets stolen and animals disappear and plants die due to stealth in the former case and mismanagement in the later I grow weary.

When the first snake went awol, I had read about putting flour around the room to see if there was a trail the next day. We never did that and were shocked, rather my colleaugue who hates snakes, was shocked when she showed up in some plant research cabinets (that have never been fixed by the district). This time I decided to try the flour. A student was thoughtful enough to get the flour from the cafeteria during class and then come by afterschool on a Friday afternoon to remind me to spread it.

When I came to school yesterday no tracks and no Sister III at the heating pad I sat out on the floor. Today the tide turned. I noticed two sets of tracks. I was not overly surprised when I saw Sister III under the cage piece of carpet and on the heating pad since she had left a trail. I was delighted. I know how excited the kids will be tomorrow and will not have to deal with yet another disappointment.

I could not get too excited too long. Just after I fed Benita (who snarfed down 14 super mealworms) and I had just put her back in the terrarium, I heard the classroom door from the greenhouse side open. When I turned I saw an officer who had pulled a gun on me. That was a first.

Thankfully, he holstered it quickly when he saw I was not a threat. He asked about the flour and (ID of course). I showed him the tracks in the flour, all the animals and the plants. He said he wished he had a class like this in high school. He also shared about his two pet guinea pigs and left. I am glad somebody is looking out for us.

Finally I got locks on the greenhouse Friday after trying since first getting there in August 08. Greasy, the locksmith, told me he had found a black widow spider in the lock with two prisoners. I wondered what happened to the 214 black widow spider babies from our pet last year that we rescued from the bottom of the school fountain. Greasy also told me about two burmese pythons he kept for six months for a cousin. When he returned them, she called a few days later in great distress. The female had given life birth to 178 babies! Maybe I need to get two snakes and they will be as prolific as the black widow spider or Greasy's python.


Greasy poses after fixing locks and sharing a love for animals.

Maybe the tide will keep turning as I complete the Tapestry grant for $10,000 for my Mississippi Investigates Caterpillars (MIC) project.

Benita is back, iphone not - still ready to bloom where planted

I remember when my kids were sick and then all of a sudden they would bounce back and be well again. It came after love and care sometime (and medicine) and sometime it just happened anyway. With Benita it was definitely the former. For a week I brought her home and fed her chicken broth baby food with a syringe as detailed in the previous post.

And then one day on a Tuesday, she perked her head up and did that little upward eye turn. Benita was back and my heart was glad for me and for the class. The day she first ate crickets on her own after me having force feed them to her for a week along with mealworms was a good day. First it was four or five and then more.

I took her to Franklin, TN for our family Christmas and one day she had 17 meal worms and another day 12 crickets. And did I mention she poops or should I say defecates regularly also. Welcome back, Benita.

To mix the bad with the good, I realized on the last day of school before Christmas that someone got an early Christmas from my coat pocket that was hanging on Mr. Bones to keep him warm. It was during break where at least 10 or so kids come in each day to let Mojo get his exercise in his ball, to give Benita some love and to hold the Sister III, the new corn snake. I had promised one of my students and one of my science club members who is not a student that I would let them feed the snake. I sent a student after them and they came in and I showed the procedure of warming the frozen mouse and moving Sister to the feeding cage, they took on the task enthusiastically and did very well and were amazed at how she ate. Just to prove me wrong after I said she always brings the head in first, she took the tail in first. As my biology teacher in college used to say, animals and plants do not read the textbooks. Indeed. It was while I was giving kids another oportunity they would not otherwise have someone yanked my iphone.

Oh well life goes on and I would really rather have my iphone and the other experiences but if I must choose I guess I will live with teaching where cameras and iphones and even my thumbdrive from my computer easily disappear. Maybe those who don't take will receive new understandings and become lifelong learners. Maybe it is so good to be a teacher with a greenhouse and animals and some kids who want to learn that I will just put my other stuff on the line each day along with my best efforts.


One more story that keeps me going. Last year I found this beautiful plant with purple leaves in a weed patch and transplanted it to the flower bed in the front of our apartment. When we moved to a house also provided by a generous Holmes Community College I transplanted what I now learned was a shamrock into a pot. It did not fare too well in our new house along with the schefelera. I moved both to the greenhouse. The schefelera thrived immediately, The shamrock died back to nothing. I kept it in the greenhouse anyway and watered it occasionally. To my great surprise it has come back with glorious pink flowers and green stamens. Life is good. I call it the resurrection plant. Maybe some kind of resurrection of new growth will happen in some of my students and other plants and animals like with Benita and that too will give me joy.

Caring for all of life as a way of life

I remember as a boy and as a young man in school how I had a growing admiration for Albert Sweitzer. At first it was just cool that he was a doctor helping others in some remote areas in Africa but as I grew in understanding and years I began to appreciate his reverence for all of life idea.

This past week I have been reminded of that again. After watching Benita, our bearded dragon, not eat for almost a week I finally called the vet. They said bring her in. So on a Monday afternoon I put Benita in a cardboard box with her favorite rock so she would feel at home. I thought I was going to drop her off and leave her like I had Sister Isaac II and let them take care of her. I was a very concerned that we might loose yet another animal and wondered how the students would take to yet another loss in the classroom. When I got to the vet I found out I was going to see the vet, Dr. Vaughan. I have waited with my own kids in waiting rooms and with some of my athletes over the years, but I have never been in the waiting room at the vet.

The receptionist came in at one point and said my name must be Job - since I was so patiently waiting. An hour and a half later I got led to a room just like at a people doctor and the chart was placed in the slot at the door. Benita slept through most of the experience. When Dr. Vaughan came in she was gentle and kind and examined Benita and saw immediately the problem. She was bloated and not able to pass the crickets she had eaten consequently she thought she was full and did not eat. She told me she would have to give her an enema to clean her out - imagine a bearded dragon enema! About fifteen minutes later when she brought her back she was limp as a rag and I wondered if she would make it. Dr. Vaughan showed how I would have to feed her with a syringe and how to draw up 2 cc of chicken baby food and the a few mm of warm water and mix and then inject it behind Benita's tongue. I took her home with me and fed her before bed and have done that now three times a day since last Tuesday and this is Sunday.

She has taught me a lot about patience and about how different reptiles are than we. When I called Dr. Vaughn on Tuesday after I thought we were going to loose Benita, she said if it took her a week not to eat and get weak and would take at least two to bring her around. She told me to get her some pediolyte and mix it half and half with water and that might help perk her up. I was off to Piggly Wiggly in Goodman to get Pediolyte for my baby on Tuesday night - of all things. You see I would do most anything not to have to reach into her cage and find her lifeless for that is just what I did not Tuesday and she looked all the world like she had stopped breathing and the student's kept asking if she was alive. I got one girl out of another class(she is not in my class this year but was last year and has really bonded to Benita) to help me feed her so we would get the experience and did the same with other students who are in my class.







She has come around a bit and now after force feeding a few intermittent crickets with the baby food and pediolyte. Today she has been weaned from the baby food and had three meal worms and three crickets - you have not lived until you force feed - gently mind you - a cricket and a meal worm to a bearded dragon.

On another note our new snake, a corn snake, ate on schedule last Friday. The kids were gathered around the cage in rapt attention as she slowly sniffed out the thawed pinkie and then circled it and then figured how to put the head in first and then eat.

Now we also have a first tomato ripening in the greenhouse and students are researching and planting plants of their choice. It is so satisfying to see their interest and care for the plants and for Benita and Sister III and the fish and on. I hope they are learning to care for all of life as a way of life - I sure am.

Denver did not disappoint

I got to Denver with the help of lots of folks - first the principal agreed to it as a reward for excellent biology scores last year, next the district released the funds, next I was given enough info to get my flight and POs together, and finally my friend, Rob, took me and Washington, my biology teacher colleague who first asked the principal for the trip, to the airport.

The best day was the second full day with beautiful weather and a free trip to the zoo and later that same day a trip to the botanical garden. I was unsure if I was going to do both in the same day and the very kind hostess at the restaurant in the hotel decided to make a drawing. She wrote three choices on three scrap pieces of paper - the art museum (her choice), the botanical garden (my inclinations) and to tell you the truth I cannot remember the third choice - maybe it was not go anywhere. I did the drawing and it was the botanical garden, Thanks, Helena from Eritrea, for helping make my choice easy and my stay richly rewarding. She also recommended that I go to the Catholic Charities where they used dried flowers to make bookmarks and other items for a fundraiser when she heard I was a botany teacher.

Here are the shots from the trip to the zoo via bus 20 and to the botanical garden via bus 10 (as with other pictures click on them to go to slideshow and other pictures) I was fortunate enough to have the same bus driver on each trip both ways and they helped me with entry and exit points. The second driver had been in Denver seventeen years and never been to the botanical garden. On bus 20 I met PeeWee, a remarkable dog that barked for help whenever his owner had seizures.

The Zoo (There a family was amazed when I told them a coati, the wife's favorite animal that is kin to the bear, was on my back porch on my Earthwatch trip at Cave Creek in Arizona).

Trip to the Denver Zoo

The Botanical Garden (Everything outside was on its way to winter dormancy but the greenhouse was spectacular. I met a student photographer there who will share his photos to use in my classes. Thanks, Randy Poe.

Trip to Denver Botanical Garden

I went to some great workshops as well.

NABT Workshops

The best was by the M&M - Mary Ann and Marianne from Illinois - on keeping focus, structure, regular reinforcement and interesting activities always on the ready for at-risk students. They have an awesome wiki page - go there and request an invitation to join - http://nabtdenver2009.wikispaces.com/.



I also got a $50.00 gift certificate from a cool vernier workshop where I got my EKG, detected the CO2 emission of pea seeds, and plotted the transpiration of water from a herbacious shrub using their probes and software. With 20 more dollars from our science fees I got LoggerPro3 with the help of Mike Collins. Thanks, Mike.

I also learned about raising and giving students a plant to take care of at home for the school year - one was a carnivous plant that I have wanted to grow for some time. The presenter has taught all over the world and now is in Oregon. Another was the African violet that I raised when in college.

And the icing on the cake was the trip to the Catholic Charities. Not only did I meet some very dedicated earth and people loving folks who work with homeless, I learned a lot about drying flowers, raising bees and composting. Did you know the first place bees attack is your mouth because they sense the CO2 - it is a defense against their main predator the bear whose most vulnerable area is his/her mouth. Thanks, Julie, for a ride back to 16th street so I did not have to walk eight blocks to catch the D train.

Trip to Earthlinks