Nelson Mandela, Superstar for the World

In light of what happened in the last week what does this remind you of?

This was the pattern one student had drawn to represent the color-coded pH scale from 0-14 that was part of their classwork for the day.

Some said a ladder, others a piano, others DNA untwisted and others a gridiron or football field. I pushed further and asked what the big event in the world was for the last week. Finally some remembered, “Nelson Mandela died or others that man from Africa died.”

Now what does it remind you, I asked. Some got it – “Prison bars!”

Yes, these are like the prison bars that held him for 27 years. Yes, 27 long years without his freedom. He was in there because he stood up the oppressive practice of apartheid.

I shared my own journey. In 1972 I was in then Rhodesia that also practiced apartheid.

I told my students that they could not find it on a map. It now has a freedom name, Zimbabwe. When I was there on a youth study travel seminar sponsored by the United Methodist Church Board of Global Ministries, I saw a site that is emblazoned in my brain forever. We were touring one of the cities there and passed the usual businesses much like any America city. We passed homes like many homes in the US. Then we pulled up into the black section of town. Right in the middle of town was a dirt road with mud stick homes for over 500 residents. At the end of the entrance road was one lone water tap on a metal pipe about three feet from the ground. It was the only source of water for the entire settlement. Sadly, tragically, there was no sanitation, no health care, and no education for these indigenous people.

I told my students that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for trying to overthrow a similar dehumanizing system in his country of South Africa. Some of his means were not peaceful. After 27 years in a small cell, Nelson Mandela was freed by President de Klerk, an Afrikaner (white).

Remarkably he did not try to plot to kill him or to beat him up; rather, he shook his hand. A short time later apartheid was abolished. A few years later Nelson Mandela was the new president of South Africa.

Nelson’s witness through his imprisonment and release and presidency shook the world and helped remove apartheid forever.

My wife remembers watching his release from prison with our young kids. I remember being only a few hundred miles from where the read and wrote letters for 27 years. Many of us have memories of his life. Now my students have some as well.

What will the world do without him? There is a mirror in my room to remind us. 

Everything I needed to know I learned in Kindergarten

(I can post no pictures of students until I get permission)

I spent the entire day with my daughter and her kindergarten class. The fact that I made it the full day must have shocked the principal who said I would be running out of there at 9:30 when I arrived at 8:20.

I had four different outfits I could wear and three different pair of shoes. I had my pink shoes and pink pullover for in the pink Monday. I had my amazing living color scientist lab coat. I would wear it when I did the alka rockets. Under my coat and tie and dress slacks I had my super B shirt and tights and my orange tennis shoes and flashing wand to surprise them with the super hero after lunch.
Instead of dazzling them, they dazzled me. I never got out of my first outfit.

I had several activities planned. All kinds of things with numbers - I spent an hour the night before punching circles in four different colors. I brought a leaf blower with which I could unroll a tissue roll over them. Then they would have to collect as many squares as was their class number. Then they would add numbers together and then decompose them. I had ooblek they could mix and squeeze in their hands. I had alka rockets they could cut out and construct. By the end of the day I only got to the alka rockets. They and Mary kept me busy doing other things.

I had my management plan. I had students pass out three stars (from my star maker hole punch). They were to keep them and others they earned until the end of the day. If they did not follow procedure a star would be taken. If two were taken they had to sit out that activity. If all stars were taken they would go to the principal's office. It was a great idea but the little hands could not keep up with the little stars.

In short very little I had planned worked or even got a chance to work. Some would see that as a dismal failure. Some would say her class was horrible and did not let the teacher(s) teach.  Au contraire.

In only one day I learned the names and personalities of twenty-one students. Yes they moved around a lot. Yes they were squirmy in their seats. Yes they were a little too talkative at times. Yes they did not hang on every word of hers or mine. Yes they did not follow every instruction the first time.

But they were basically very concerned about learning and trying to do what they needed to be successful. They did not hit each other. They did not throw things. They did not try to destroy property. All that was on the floor at the end of day was some paper and a few crayons - no blood.

During the day, they listened to a story from Ms. Banks; they wrote in their journals to the prompt I am thank you for ________. They worked in centers with four ipads (three that my mom, Pat Banks, gave in dad's memory and with her love, one from my brother, David Banks, and ipad covers from Dr. Scott Nelson in Cleveland, MS where Mary grew up). They worked on work puzzles and stories in all kinds of learning centers around the room.

I asked students to draw what they thought a rocket looked like.

And to top it off we launched alka rockets at the end of the day. They chanted pour, pour, pour as I put in the water, drop, drop, drop as I put in the half alka seltzer tablet, seal, seal, seal, as I snapped on the film canister lid, and count, count, count as they counted off the time to launch.


Mary will learn how to be an even more effective classroom teacher and classroom manager. Some of this she will learn from seasoned veterans. Most of this she will learn from her 21 (started with 24) students who need someone to show them they care about them as people and as learners. I will forever have those little faces and big hearts on my mind.

Thank you, Ms. Banks and class, for letting me spend a day in kindergarten.





 

Undercover Giants

This is my friend. She is one of the janitors at school and is one of the few people greet my Happy Mondays with a smile. When I miss a day for a professional development, she is the first to tell me that she missed me. She is one of the undercover giants in my life. Quietly and meekly she does her job with pride and no complaint and helps make my day with her glad to be her attitude. She told me that she listened outside my classroom and wished I was her teacher. 

                                                   Here are some other undercover giants.

These guys quickly volunteered to bring the fish tank (with 10 fish swimming around in it) to my classroom world. Methodically and carefully without loosing a drop of water they walked in synchronicity across the parking lot up a small rise through three sets of doors and placed it at its happy home.

Another giant who helped me organize my supply closet, offered prayers of caring during a very difficult school year last year, and replies to my day Happy Day with enthusiasm.

Gandalf the wizard lizard, named by my students after a nomination and vote process. He greets me each day and fits in well with my diverse classroom community.

Two students last year who drop by to help me find my desktop and who share a smile.

Two of the first students of 100 to finish the drawing and folding of a DNA polymer.

One of my undercover giants who quietly helps another student with their work after she finished first.

If your were on offense on the opposing team, these are the two outside linebackers you would face. I taught both of them and they recruited their teammates to help unload my truck from two MSTA presentations. This was after football practice at 5:00!

 And just yesterday this student came in my last block and gave a complete makeover to my desktop and drawers.

And this former student who brought her dad's van der graff last year brought it again this year (on three hours notice) so the new classes could enjoy.

Each day I wonder how I might also be an undercover giant for my students. They set the bar high.

The Rajun Cajuns Welcomed Me With Open Hearts and Minds

           

People that know me best say I have never met a stranger. Never was it more true than in the Cajun Prairie of Louisiana last week – Wednesday night to Saturday.

In an earlier post I was elated to get an invitation to come and be Super B to help motivate teachers. It was not until I was making the four-hour drive after school on Wednesday that I started being concerned. Would it really be possible for me a veteran of 25 years from eight different schools in two states to motivate the deeply rooted Cajuns?

I was even more unsettled when I met my host, Jackie, upon arrival. She immediately began to show me all the shelf space in her house dedicated to her mother and father and seven siblings. And each room had at least three to four paintings by her grandmother. Here I am a sojourner for a blink of time in every place I have been, and I have been asked to help them get over anxiety about the new evaluation instrument – Value Added Model (VAM).

When we left toward Morse Elementary where a three-hour professional development for three schools, Morse, Elliston and Mermentau Elementary would take place, I had all of my Super B clothes in disguise like Clark Kent. I had my accessories – orange boots and orange gloves and goggles packed in a bag that I stashed in the bathroom for a quick change. And as I looked to get my signature neon orange, strobe light wand, I suddenly realized we had left it back at the “bed and breakfast.”

I set my best MacGyver brain into gear. I asked the host assistant principal if there were any pvc pipe around and we looked and found two pieces that we connected. Then I asked for some orange duck tape. He found a very little and some black. I was set. After Jackie introduced me I was to exit to the bathroom and had five minutes to get ready to make my debut. She said she would summon a super hero to rescue the damsels in distress. Frantically I was taping my new magic wand. I put a little orange on top to look like fire and I taped all six feet on the pole in black. Just as I heard her summoning the super hero, I finished.

This is what I did.

It was hoot afterward as the teachers stood in line to get a picture with me to put in their classroom so they would always have a superhero at the ready.

I needed not to worry for I have never met a stranger nor a place where I could not shine a little light.

Afterwards, I got the native Jackie tour of the Cajun prairie to include:

·      the little houses around the graves

·      the diminished prairie from 2.4 million acres in the 1800s to only about 10,000 now

·      the wonderful eateries and other interesting places and relatives by blood and by roots

The little light I might have shown and the slight relief of the damsels in distress I might have offered were greatly outshone by the light and passion they rekindled in me.

There is nothing like being a teacher and lifelong sojourner and learner. I never know what I might learn next or whom I might meet or what place might yet inspire me.

            The red wolves or bisons or whooping cranes or prairie chickens may never return to the Cajun Prairie again but I hope I do.

Take Nothing for Granted

I am in a good place in my life now. As a colleague said, it is our time. That is those of us who get out of the box. One principal, like most others, did not know what to do with me. He gave me a great compliment in a faculty meeting when he said, "Mr. Banks does not just get out of the box, he blows the box up!"

Now I am like Farrugut, "Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!" Let us turn those classroom boxes into bridges to the larger world!

Here are two of my latest attempts to get out of the box of the classroom and into others and the larger community.

(Thanks to my good friend and colleague, Jackie Hanisee, for the namage)

Grant One to the Madison County Junior Auxiallary: PORTAL (Pushing our Reach Through Alka-Rocket Launch)

Grant Two to MAST (Mississippi Academy for Mathematics and Science): Take Me To Your Liter

Comments are welcome though use words not a shotgun. Thank you.

Pushing the Limits of STEM via Rocketry

This is a rough draft of a grant proposal I am working on for Vernier. Send comments.
 
S.T.R.E.A.M.(Science Technology Rhetoric Engineering Arts and Math)

Plan: Take one simple technology of a film canister and cardstock and cardboard and go through the steps of STREAM

Warm-up: Drama Circles (attachment)

Experiment: Design and launch an alka rocket to reach its maximum height.

Inquiry questions:

Before launch:

1. What makes  rockets soar?

2. How were rockets used from ancient times to the present?

3. What are some stories or books or movies about rockets?

4. What are some songs or paintings about rockets?

5. What are other ways historically and in the present where people have pushed the limits?

6. When have you pushed the limits in your life professionally or personally? What were the results?

After launch:
 
1. What is the best alka seltzer to water ratio to give the most pop (gas)?

2. What it the best design to get the most altitude?

3. What is the gas produced in the reaction?

4. What chemical elements are in alka seltzer?

5. What are the products and reactants in the canister?

Response:

Write a story, a song, draw picture, a lab design, a chemical equation, a mathematical expression that depicts the alka rocket launch. Present to the class.

Extensions: 

Design a two liter bottle rocket that will be launched vertically that will stay in the air a maximum amount of time.

Design a two liter bottle rocket with a aerosol can top on the rocket top that will be launched at an angle. A tennis ball will be placed on the aerosol can and a garbage can down range will be the target for the golf ball.

Thank you is not nearly enough

What is it about my students that make them do such good things for me? All I can say is thank you and that is not nearly enough.

When I started this year and gave my tough love speech, I did not know what it would lead to. I told them that I loved teaching and learning but I did not love kids being rude and disrespectful. I told them folks had taken advantage of my kindness during my first two years at Madison Central; therefore, I went to the doctor and told her to take out the kind part of my brain.

However, the truth is the surgery was unsuccessful. Admittedly, I give the kids a hard time and sometimes call them losers and thugs. I often take letters away from RESPECT when they are talking when I am talking or when someone else is talking. Each letter removed in a five-day period knocks off ten points from a class participation grade.

I jump on them when they walk into my room from another class and tease them unmercifully sometimes.

However, I think they know, as do my blood children that I do not mess with and aggravate folks about whom I do not care.

Maybe that is why Amena showed up to class this week with a big surprise. It was a plasma lamp. 

What she did not know was that one given to me several years ago by a special physics class was stolen. What she did not know was I absolutely love gifts small or large. Hers was huge to me. It was affirmation that I am doing what I need to be doing in the classroom. And you already should know - maybe not by chance - it was on Red, Yellow, Black and White Wednesday when I and others celebrate diversity.

Thank you, Amena. Thank you, students, for helping make me the teacher and person I need to be. Know get let’s get back to work.

Because I could not stop for death . . .

He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

 As we are much too busy, Emily reminds us that Death will kindly stop for us. This is what happened for me on Saturday.

First, I need to say that funerals can be life changing events for me. When I was at my aunt's funeral about eight years ago, I decided that I would not be in a pine box without first having the joys of a motorcycle (many of my family and friends think I am hastening the process). Getting my first motorcycle and the next three (all blue) have opened up new vistas and adventures for me that I will continue to treasure.

The most recent funeral for my good buddy's father-in-law, Dr. Bernard Patrick, was at St. Collum's Episcopal Church, a beautiful modern sanctuary with a majestic yet simple traditional service. One of the granddaughters gave a remembrance that had ever one in stitches. My buddy Rob continued that spirit and then went eloquently into the life and spirit of his lovely wife's dad. It seems strange to say I enjoyed a funeral but, nevertheless, I did. Dr. Patrick lived a full life and as the priest said, relationships live on forever. I feel like I know Dr. Patrick much better and will embrace that in my journey.

During the funeral service, I had another possible life-changing moment that involves service to others. However, I am going to let it gestate awhile before I share it publicly.

One of the granddaughers, who is attending Evergreen University in Olympia, Washington to record music, wrote a piece that is very poignant. I got to meet her when I asked permission to include it on my blog. She also shared with me the Library of Congress Storycorp project in which I hope to participate. I quote in for my students and colleagues and friends to ponder:

Here is what she wrote: It's weird when you watch your hero;s strength fade. When you see them as physically and mentally invincible and something so unexpected weakens them. Well I won't let that something win. His legend will live on. All of his accomplishments, talents, knowledge, wisdom, and over-told-witty jokes, will be carried throughout the generations in stories and memories. He really did live life to the fullest, that's one thing I strive to do everyday. I just started college; it's been rough. But one thing that has kept my head high is remembering our late night "deep" talks about our virtues. I love you, Grandfather,. I hope I can live up to your standard.
-Rachel (age 18)

Thank your heroes.

Super B Goes on the Road

When I signed up for MAST (Mississippi Academy for Science Teachers) at Jackson State, I did it for the stipend. To my very pleasant surprise I not only gained a whole new tool bag of pedagogical tools; I also made many new professional friends.

One of those is a very special person who is a grant writer par excellance, great presenter and who talks the most pleasant Cajun you will ever hear, Jackie Henisee.

I did not know the respect was so mutual until I got this letter:

MERMENTAU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

MELVYN SMITH, PRINCIPAL

405 Church Street

P.O. Box 250

Mermentau, Louisiana   70556

Phone: (337) 824-1943

Fax:     (337) 824-1958

9/24/2013

Dear Mr. John Banks,

            As one of the workshop leaders for Project MAST, I was impressed with not only the experience you have as an innovative teacher, but with your genuine passion for students and the quality of their learning. This year as the Curriculum Facilitator for Mermentau Elementary School, I am leading a school-wide focus on student engagement, particularly in the content area of Science and Social Studies.

            Would  you be interested in participating in the October 17 (Thursday) parish-wide inservice as a NBCT and instructor extraordinaire? I think Super B would make a great impression on the teachers and show them what is possible in the elementary classroom.

            Please contact me at the number on this letterhead, or send me an email at jhanisee@acadia.k12.la.us stating your intention to share your enthusiasm. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Jackie Hanisee

Curriculum Facilitator

Mermentau Elementary School

Acadia Parish

* * *

I am so excited to spread my passion for learning and life to my colleagues in the Cajun Prairie. 

Check after the 17th for my latest adventures.

Declaring W.A.R.

Books, physical activity and school have always been a big part of our family. I read to both of my kids every night in their early years and both of my kids played lots of sports. Her mother and I are teachers.

With that in mind I have started a Walk and Read club at my school. We are partnering with my daughter's kindergarten class. Also we are partnering with several schools locally.

The following is a letter I am sending to Michelle Obama:

Dear Ms. Obama

Greetings from Madison, Mississippi. I want to declare W.A.R. on obesity and illiteracy.

Please hear my strategy. It is inspired in part by your effective Let’s Move campaign.

First, I need your help for my daughter, Mary, a first year kindergarten teacher and her students, and for thousands of others across the country.

Mary, like countless other elementary school teachers, need at least a couple of other hands and minds in their classroom. I am trying to get iPads for her students and eventually for 1000s of others as did the Coachella Valley Unified School District and the McAllen Independent School District in California and Texas. (The Tennessean, September 5, 2013)

These iPads will help them read not only books but the world. They will give the teachers yet another way to broaden their learning community.

My plan is simple. A teacher will write a grant for a classroom set of iPads to a foundation, hopefully, started by you. This will not be a straight give-away program. Teachers who are interested will have to take the initiative to apply. W.A.R. will be well published through the media and the internet.

Once they are received the teacher’s students will be asked to walk so many miles a day. Initially this could be as little as a lap around the track or the school. A goal set of miles would be set for the class. Once this is goal is reached; each student would receive a book.

Then another goal of many more miles would be set. Once this goal is reached; the students would receive not only a book but also a video. This video would be from someone “famous” that they admire, such as you, reading that book to them.

Finally, another much larger goal would be set. Once this is reached; the students would receive another book and a visit. The visit would be from their hero who would read that book to the class.

To get this started, I have begun a W.A.R. club at my school to help my daughter’s class in Jackson, Tn and many other classes locally.

Will you help declare W.A.R. with us?

Sincerely,


John R. Banks     


Madison Central W.A.R. Club       

I wiped out a whole family . . .

It was the most beautiful of fall days this morning. All my flowers and tomatoes and grass and ferns were singing a happy tune after the very long, very needed soaking rain. I wanted to sit in my favorite spot in the oasis with the new teak table and rust umbrella.

But I could not. A large family of wasps had invaded my space and built their nest just above where my head usually perched. When we had a party of MAST (Mississippi Academy of Sciences) friends, Price pointed them out to me. I just let them be for over a week.

Then my needs took over. I wanted my space back. On this beautiful morning I became a killer. I wiped out an entire family of unsuspecting wasps with just a few sprays of chemicals. I did not want to be a killer but I let my needs dictate. I am still not sure I did the right thing.

Isn't all life special and if we diminish even annoying creatures like wasps don't we in some way diminish all?

Later in the morning a few brothers and sisters came to check on their once happy home.

Yes, I killed again.

Choices are not easy and need to be considered with creation and all others in mind. I still cannot bring myself to sit in my once favorite spot. Sadly, in time I will probably forget about all my wasp friends and move on.

Red, Yellow, Black and White Wednesday

Here are the first three of an avalanche that is forming at my school.

I invited one of my classes to join with me in a silent affirmation of diversity. Wear Red, Yellow, Black and/or White on Wednesday. Do not say anything. Just wear it. Eventually, people will get the point.

Hopefully, all those who follow this blog will join in wherever you are as well.

Hopefully, this celebration of diversity of color will also lead to diversity of ideas, of religion, of economics, of lifestyle and of nationality.

Hopefully, this avalanche will knock down the walls of stereotype and false hype that divide us.

Let it snow, let it snow.

Plans for Alka Rocket

This goes with post 5,4, 3, 2, 1 . . . Again 0-5 stabilizers can be added according to what the student team deems best.

Nicholas, one of my physics students, sketched this for me.

A Dream in Progress

 From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

 To the steps of the US Capitol, one long journey.

I remember the I Have a Dream speech when I was in the third grade. I remember it more from classes and news clips. It had a profound effect on me and on my life trying to affect change in my parents, my schools, my community, my country and even world as I traveled.

It seemed a good thing on the anniversary of the March on Washington to ask my students to write. This is the prompt I gave them: Today is the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington. Write what you have read or heard about it. Use SIK (sure I know), SOK (sort of know) and WTK (want to know) sentences.

Gerald was kind enough to type up some of the responses from their journal.

Five, Four, Three, Two, One . . .

Kids of all sizes love to see rockets of all sizes take off. 

Tiny 15 to 20 centimeter rockets with film canister fuel cells are no exception.

  

                     

http://jean-baptiste-faure.blogspot.com/2010/12/first-saturn-v-rocket-on-launch-pad-39a.html

 

                                                                   Winning Rocket

Here's one launch

And another

Groups were divided by ACT scores or grade point averages with one from each of four categories - very high, high, medium, low.

Each group was told:
1. Mass Matters.
2. Measure 10-15 mL of water in film canister.
3. Mass half an alka seltzer tablet.
4. Decide to use paper and/or cardstock for rocket.
5. Decide whether or not to have a nose cone.
6. Decide how many stablizers (fins) to have from 0-5.
7. Predict how high it will go in centimeters.
8. Predict how long it will take to blast off in seconds.
9. Mass the rocket empty.
10. Record all the results including the actual height and actual time.

These are the results.Alka Rocket Data Sheets for Six Classes

Rough Sketch Plans for Alka Rocket-  Make sure film canisters that snap on the inside are used (photography stores will donate them) or you will have a lot of duds.  

Have fun please send comments, pics, and questions. 

Check out teacherspayteachers,com for more ready to use ideas for your classroom. 

         

Out with the Old, in with the New

Last school year began and it was the most low key and lackluster of my career. There were lots of reasons for this which I will not go into here. The year did not begin to turn around until well after Christmas. But when it did . . .

I did even more hands- on experiments (links will be here later) and gained new momentum with classroom management which had never been my strong suit. I usually keep class interesting enough and crowd control took care of itself. Not with this group.

At the end of the year four students among several others showed me how far we had come.

The first was getting ready to go for the last time and other students were peeking in my classroom to see what was going on (not unusual). She blurted out (also not unusual), “You need to take Mr. Banks class! It is fun, but you are going to have to work.” That is one of the descriptions of my class for which I have always longed.

Another student surprised me the day after my return from my father’s funeral. I decided I wanted to honor my dad and to help students deal with the death of a loved one. My sister prepared a slide show of highlights of my dad’s life and ended with his prayer for meals that I had recorded on my last visit with him. (I also prepared a blog in his memory.) I asked the students to write a letter to someone special and give it to them. I did not read any of them I wanted them to say just what they wanted to say without reservation or evaluation. It was amazing how much time some to them spent. 

And then there was the football player. We wrestled all year long with his paying attention and with his not disrupting class. After much struggle it got better. How much was revealed on the last day of class. The lineman that out hulked me by several inches in all directions said, “Mr. B, I want a hug.”  In shock I gave him kind of a sissy hug – I really did not know what to do. He repeated, “Mr. B, I want a hug!” Then he proceeded to squeeze the blood out of me. I will be his biggest supporter when he plays on Sunday one day.

A third student prepared a video for his final physics project. I knew he was very intelligent and talented. This showed me just how much.

At the end of the writing time a student came up to me and handed me her letter.

Wow. I had no idea.

With these four send offs from last year and 22 full days of professional development this summer, I am ready for the students to bring it on. I have my A game. I hope they have theirs.

Opening Letter from School Website

Dear Readers,

No kidding. I am looking more forward to this school year than any in my career. Part of this renewed enthusiasm is due to 22 full  days of staff development this summer at Jackson State University, Ohio State University and Portland State University. Part is due to getting my groove back. Part is due to a new classroom management plan that will promote civility as we learn. (See my blog for more information www.everbrushstrokes.blogspot.com)

The good news is that I am still able to be a lifelong learner, and I also hope the same for my kids. My mission as a teacher and person is to share and to enjoy the wonders of this world.

This is the place to check for all classwork and homework assignments. Check the bullets on the side for Supplies, Procedures and Policies, Homework, and Classwork, and a biweekly Newsletter.

Parents feel free to contact me at any time via email: jbanks@madison-schools.com or by calling the school - 601-856-7121. Students can see me for help before or after school or at break and can only contact me through their school email in accordance with district policy.

Let us make this a great year.  I am looking forward to meeting and working with all my students and parents.

Sincerely,

John R. Banks

Re-entry

 (Warning. This entry is very personal. May it serve as an education about depression from an insider’s view. May it also serve as an explanatory piece for my almost two year absence from this blog. Read with discretion and heart or wait for the next piece about what I learned this summer.)

I am back with my full passion for sharing the wonders of this world. This is not a cavalier statement. It is an affirmation of coming out of the deep, dark pit of depression to the level ground of a new normal.

In the last several years there has been a steady, spiraling down of my bout with lifelong depression. I write this for educational purposes so that others might find benefit for themselves or for someone they love.

During one year I had an extended battle with pneumonia or chest pains that resulted in missing several, several days of school. This is very uncharacteristic of me. I have had several, several years of perfect attendance.

In another year, I was so lethargic and had such severe chest pains that I was put in the hospital overnight to evaluate my heart. I did have 75% blockage in one artery (90% requires surgery). Calcium blockers got rid of the pain but not the persistent lethargy. Again I missed several, several days of school.

During this last year, I finally reached the bottom of the deep pit of depression, and this was amidst dealing with what turned out to be my dad’s terminal illness (www.joeglennbanks.blogspot.com).  Many days it was all I could do just to show up; the stubborn persistence in the marrow of my bones got me through. No one seemed to be able to help including my very patient and caring wife. Again I missed more than several days of school.

However, despite all these depression drawbacks of fatigue and physical symptoms and too much sleep and not enough sleep, I am out of the pit and on level ground again. Part of this new normal is due to a change in life eating and exercise plan, and part due to a doctor directed regime of meds. I have taken meds off and on during my adult life and generally discounted their usefulness. No more. With dynamic combination, I am back on track and heading full speed ahead with my mission in life emblazoned on the horizon.

Now I am freer than ever to pursue my love for teaching and learning and for writing. Stay tuned for what I learned this summer in three very excellent workshops and how I plan to plant these newfound seeds in my classroom this fall.