Friday Night Lights Prove To Be Budget Busters

[This article was first published as Friday Night Lights Prove To Be Budget Busters on Technorati.]

To not like football, somehow seems un-American.

And if you hail from the great state of Texas, to say anything remotely negative about Friday night lights and high school football, well, that's akin to trying to yank the buckle off the belt in the South. (And if you don't know what that means, then maybe you need to dust off the Good Book.)

So before we go anything further, let me just say I do like football, and I'm even the proud owner of season tickets to my town's high school football games.

But while I may be a football fan, I am first an educator.  So I read with interest (and a touch of dismay) an article in The Dallas Morning News about how high school football revenue rarely generates a profit, and, in fact, sustains pretty hefty losses. 

Of the 31 schools the newspaper surveyed in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, only three schools generated revenue over a five year period. The rest lost between $132,000 to almost $11 million over those same five years. 

Of course, that kind of loss had to have been absorbed somewhere in all those school district budgets.

You know, the budgets that cut funding for classroom supplies. The budgets that cut teachers. The budgets that cut field trips. The budgets that cut electives. 

Yep, those budgets. 

What's even a little more disconcerting is I'm pretty sure Texas isn't standing alone on this one either.

5 Things We Wish We Didn't Have To Whine About

For those of you who care, my ankle now shows a wide blend of CMYK colors and  appears now only to be roughly twice the size of my other ankle. (You can read about the entire forlorn tale here.)

And since my right ankle still hurts like the dickens, I've had more than just a tad bit of trouble being my normal chipper, funny, quirky self.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you find all of that hard to believe.

Having a big, fat ugly boot hasn't helped my sunny disposition either--although it has given rise to certain fantasies involving kickboxing certain people through walls like a Ninja fighter.

But that probably wouldn't bode well for Ninja teacher or that whole flying under the radar thing. In fact, kickboxing certain people through walls like a Ninja fighter would probably put Ninja teacher smack dab on someone's radar.

And I'm thinking it's probably a radar we don't want to be on. No siree, Missy.

So since this ankle injury has relegated me to couch potato status, I've had time to think about things. And we all know how I feel about those darn tootin' things. And, of course, when I think about those darn tootin' things, I whine. And since this has more or less been a no-whining blog since its creation in 2007, perhaps now is a good time to come up with a list of  5 Things Teachers Wished They Didn't Have To Whine About.

How about a festive drum roll pah-leese…

5 Things Teachers Wished 

They Didn't Have To Whine About

No. 5… Printing out grade validation sheets even though grades from sea to shining sea are entered on computers and stored on servers and backed up onto other servers hidden somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Wasn't all this technology stuff suppose to save us time, money and trees?

No. 4… Being told from fields of amber waves of grain to those purple mountain majesties that we are using entirely too much copy paper printing out stuff. Hmmmm wonder if that has anything to do with No. 5?

No. 3… Assisting PBs (as in Powers That Be) with their new technology gizmos even though we don't have those gizmos, but would like to have those gizmos, and maybe have even requested those gizmos, but alas, there is no money for those gizmos for the lower case pb's (as in peons that be).  

No. 2… Having to embrace newfangled technology, software or trendy new educational panaceas that are suppose to save us time, but actually add time.

No. 1… Stories that claim that teachers are overpaid. I'm not exactly sure where these teachers work or what school districts employ them. And, I'm not sure exactly how many hours they log in. What I do know is that they obviously haven't taken a peak at my paycheck or yours either.

It's enough to make you want to kickbox certain people through walls like a Ninja fighter.

But then that probably would put Ninja teacher smack dab on that radar.

And that, my fellow lowercase pb's, would be a very, very bad thing indeed.

Is Anyone Really Out There?

It's officially Week 12 of the  "I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat" Weight Loss Challenge. My latest post appeared was first published as Week 12 Update–There Ain't No Cheese With This Whine on Technorati.

To read it, you can click on the article name or the scale above, or you can go over to my fitness blog and read it there.

The Smorgasbord Edition of the Education Buzz Life's A Carnival

Welcome to the Smorgasbord Edition of the Education Buzz--Life's a Carnival, an eclectic smattering of things buzzing about the EduSphere. 

Smorgasbord Edition?  Let me explain. I've spent the better part of the past week or so trying to recover from what I like to refer to as my "Mike Napoli World Series" incident. After seven days, the swelling in my ankle has abated somewhat, and I am now the proud of owner of one fashion-challenged black boot. So, I'm sure you can understand why I haven't felt particularly funny or clever or inspired. Thus, the need for a Smorgasbord Edition. I merely just tossed a bunch of interesting posts.

So here we go…

Darren from Right on the Left Coast writes about  a school district's police department and their questionable policies.

If you were wondering what our educational world will look like in 2030, John Holland over at The Future of Teaching has some ideas. 

David Webb over at Pinky's Page talks about peer mentoring programs. I found the Rover program particularly interesting.

John Hunter at the Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog has suggestions for encouraging curiosity in kids  while Cheryl Barnard has a list of what makes a great teacher.

Grace at Cost of College believes self control or willpower is a better predictor of success.

If you face a constant barrage of PA announcements at your school, then make sure you check out Mr. Teacher's ideas for curtailing classroom interruptions.

Old Andrew from Scenes From the Battleground has an interesting take on inspiration and whether it's good to be an "inspirational teacher."

Joanne Jacobs thinks we should try and find out what works for teachers.

Science guru Steve Spangler highlights Dr. Science Mom along with some great science experiments.

Jane Goodwin gives some good advice over at Scheiss Weekly by admonishing everyone to mind their own business.

And finally, if you haven't read my post yet about giving up on happy, you can do so here.

Well that's it for this edition for the Education Buzz. Join us here again on Wednesday, Nov. 23 for the next edition. Please submit your posts by Saturday, Nov. 19 by 5 p.m. CDT. Use this handy dandy form for your submissions.

If you would like to host a carnival, let me know by emailing me at mybellringers@gmail.com.  Also, don't forget to let me know if you find any broken links or problems with this edition of the Ed Buzz. 

As always…

“I’ve got this feeling that there’s something that I missed…”
–Snow Patrol

And, if I did, my apologies.

Updates & Upcoming Carnival

In case you were wondering why there isn't a new post this week,  I've been busy getting the Education Buzz–Life's a Carnival ready. The Carnival will appear here Wednesday, Nov. 9, so please make sure you check back here for that. 

For those of you who are keeping up with my "I'm-Frying-In-My-Own-Fat" Weight Loss Challenge, my latest post appeared on technorati as  Week 11–New Calorie Counting App on the Horizon on Technorati.

To read it, you can click on the article name or the scale above, or you can go over to my fitness blog and read it there.