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.

A long forgotten project shows life

My Biology students were supposed to send a photograph of their african violet cuttings every other Friday. I would remind them - some one nod their heads, others would say their plant had died and inquired about when I would get them a free replacement, others just stared.

Apparently this student listened and here is his plant doing well - almost three months later. Go figure. Just when you least expect it, an idea germinates and catches on.

Save the last dance for me . . .

Actually it was the first but I got to participate in the dancing with teachers program to help raise money for the show choir, Reveille. It was not without some drama. For one we did not practice for over a week and two of the dance team members came to me early one morning before school and asked if I could still do it. They said they could pull out if necessary. I told them I was in and we practiced every afternoon that week and on Sunday afternoon. However, after the Friday practice I came home in severe pain and wondered if my back troubles of several years ago had come back to plague me. Fortunately with pain patches and meds I overcame them and was ready for the show on Tuesday night which included catching my "partner" in the group dance at the end - ouch.

We did not win the student or the judges' vote, but it was a lot of fun and students and teachers are still telling me how entertaining and funny it was and how much they enjoyed it.

This is what was in the school paper:

Super B Arrives!

I had planned for this day for weeks. It started with a trip to my barber. She thoroughly sprayed my hair orange at her shop, Bob's, in Fondren.
My students helped finish taping the wand I had designed and drilled and hot glued strobe lights from the Halloween store.

An anonymous friend made my cape after my mom in Franklin, Tn shopped for a pattern and material.

Other students helped to tape the boots and gloves. Still others decorated my googles.

And here I am arriving just in time - one of the assistant principals who was directing traffic took a double take when he realized it was super b driving to work.

All in all it was worth it. Students are talking about a following with super b shirts from each of my classes  and other students as well. A young colleague wants to be the female super b and sidekick. And the fun continues. . .

And maybe even a wave of the strobe light wand can turn underachievers into highly motivated students and average students into superstars and . . .

Teacher Feature

Each morning students in the broadcast journalism class present a quality news broadcast complete with the word of the day used in a sentence, the character word put into application, this day in history, *several announcements and a weekly teacher feature.

Guess who made it on the Thursday before Homecoming?

MC hosts MIC!

The long awaited and long planned for day arrived, and much to my delight everything worked out.

There were lots of interesting dramas that took the stage from time to time along the way.

My arrangements for a bus for the nine visiting teams did not work out. An intense effort on my part with emails and phone calls over the weekend finally worked out. One team had parents bring their students, another team arrived via the school's driver's education car driven by the teacher (you will have to ask me about that one), another by a bus driven by a coach, and another missed the 9 to 9:30 orientation but met us at the Mississippi Natural Science Museum (more on that later).

A whole host of students rallied early in the morning to get everything laid out in the gymnasium. All the tables and chairs were in place thanks to a facilities request form filled out long ago and thanks to Mr. Harrison, the Assistant Principal in charge of those matters, following through in timely fashion. All registration forms were in, caterpillar and butterfly samples from Dr. Richard Brown at Mississippi State were laid out. My PowerPoint presentation was set up and the big screen from Central Office was in place (thanks to Ms. Mitchell, her Excellency, the principal). Part of the Powerpoint was a video prepared by one of my physics superstars, Melissa. When I previewed early in the morning when she brought it to me I have to admit my eyes got a little misty. Nametags were commandeered by Ms. Robinson, my colleague and chemistry mentor friend. And pictures were taken of each of the fourteen teams (five were from MC) as they entered and throughout the day by Katie, one of my physics students and annual staff person who I recruited. Most all of the people were approved for participating in the project (you will have to ask me about that one, too), and field trip approvals were gained via individual phone conversations (do not ask). Beat sheets and beat sticks, freezer bags and markers, and other collection items were ready to be picked up on the way to the collection site. And the two office angels, Ms. Olander and Ms. Laxer received the lunch while we were collecting to be enjoyed after the field trip (next time I will tell the vendor to bring cups and ice).


On the way to the Mississippi Natural Science Museum I got to visit with each of the teams. This included a team of three fifth graders from Madison Crossing

and my youngest team, three second graders from Madison Station.

These were the three cited in an earlier post that wrote persuasive essays to be selected for the project. I told them they would be famous since I was going to publish their work on my blog. The older students were awed and said they still had not been published. I also got to welcome back four teachers who participated in the project from last year - Ms. Howe, from Velma Jackson, Ms. Jenkins who helped me plan the day from Madison Middle (after being transferred from East Flora Middle that closed), Ms. Stroud from East Flora Elementary and Ms. Green from Northeast Madison Middle. Also I got volunteers for four planning teams for the project - the Public Relations team for dealing with all the paparazzi, the Wikipage team for maintaining the webpage, the Celebration team for planning the end of the year banquet, and the Project team to oversee and to catalog all the individual science projects and to enter all the project's caterpillars and host plants in the data base.

We arrived at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science on time and Mr. John Davis, whom] I had talked with a few weeks before greeted us at the bus. He had made all the arrangement with the Museum so that we could collect on their site, and, as arranged, he gave a brief opening talk and distributed sample vials for any caterpillars oviposited with wasp or fly eggs.

(Yes as Mr. Davis, a retired teacher from St. Andrews said it is a frightening existence being a caterpillar if the birds do not get them the mother wasps might).

After all that we got to do what we came for - collect caterpillars. I must say I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. You know you have seriously pricked the scientific curiosity of students when they move with determination and searching eyes through the woods in spite of high Mississippi humidity and heat and the state "bird," the mosquito trying to bite at every juncture.  Hannah collected the coolest caterpillar


A Southern Puss keyed out (identified) with the help of Mr. Hackman, an MC colleague and friend, and Mr. Davis pouring through the field guides. 

But at the end of the two-hour collection time, all teams had caterpillars and their host plants sealed in freezer bags and marked with their group number and date. We had fourteen teams of three students from seven different schools in our district that participated in the project. The teams collected 87 caterpillars with host plants. Each team took their caterpillars and host plants back to their individual classrooms to rear out to moths and butterflies.

It was a very good day for science.

Go to http://www.micproject.wikispaces.com/ for more details.

Ode to My Alma Mater

Thursday was college day at MC. Everything is a big to do at the biggest school in the state. This was no exception - all teachers and students were encouraged to wear clothes from their alma mater.

Anyone has to get early to out jag me so I put on a Lambuth alumni shirt and a Lambuth hat. And had someone take by picture by my Lambuth diploma hanging in my room right below my National Board recertification certificate.

When people asked about where Lambuth was I told them after 168 years it closed and did not open for the first time this fall. I was wearing dead man's clothes. I was wearing a memorial hat and shirt.

Much of what I learned about life I did not learn in kindergarten I learned at Lambuth. Habits of studying life and nature and people and society and politics and every nuance of interaction were developed at Lambuth. Mentors of living life intelligently and passionately led me to great thoughts and great books and great people and great deeds. People like Lois Lord who taught me more about the interaction of plants and animals than I thought possible and helped me discover my gifts for sharing the wonders of this world. People like Charles Mayo who introduced me to great literature - novels and poetry and short stories and dramas - and help me discover my own gifts for writing. People like Gene Davenport who introduced me to theological and Biblical study and helped me discover great truths about faith and life and diversity of opinion. People like Emily Lou Whitehead who introduced a young freshman to a world changing book, Raids on the Unspeakable, and taught me by example to teach an autistic child to read - one of the greatest joys of my life. People like her husband, Brady Whitehead, who taught me about indefatigable affability for everyone and about service to others.

Lambuth, you did well. And in the first week you presented me my wife at the freshman dance. And thirty five plus years later we do not dance so much but still cherish the great gifts Lambuth offered each of us.

Lambuth, you will me missed. You offered much of the same for our daughter who is a remarkable, accomplished, inspired graduate as well. In your own way you led my son to find his remarkable gifts as well.

Lambuth, I will always wear your clothes on college day and will always share the gifts for living life passionately and truthfully. Thank you.

Lambuth, through your graduates you will never die.

And more than that, after being a private United Methodist school for over a century and a half, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, you will be the only public four year school in Jackson and surrounding area with your new itineration: the University of Memphis Lambuth.

Live on Lambuth! Live on.