Rats 103 - Guest Blogger: Will Shakespeare Asks, "What's in a name?"

I like to think I'm pretty good with words but I really don't think I hold a candle to this guy. Please welcome William Shakespeare to Twist Of Liam as he adds his two pence. 

Sayeth Kitty:

Romeo Rat, Romeo Rat, wherefore art thou Romeo Rat?

Deny thy father genus species and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love understanding,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet Rat-hating Cat.

...

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague Rodent.
What's Montague Vermin? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo Rat would, were he not Romeo Rat call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo Rat, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

Later sayeth Rat:

By a name
I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,
Because it is an enemy to thee;
Had I it written, I would tear the word.

~~ W Shakespeare

So, there you have it. Shakespeare himself has been trying for ages to explain how rats simply got shortchanged in the PR department. You just can't say "Rat" and make it sound nice. "Rodent" and "vermin" don't sound much better, either. Have you ever tried to use either of these as a compliment? or a nickname for your spouse? 

What if we just started calling them something friendly and familiar... like"giggles"? Who wouldn't want a furry little giggle in their classroom???

{This is the third entry in this series. 

If you are curious or want to know what you missed, start here.}

Rats 102 - First Things First

Talk about rats and each time, without fail,
Somebody somewhere will mention the tail.
"It's so gross and disgusting," they all seem to say,
But let's try to see it a different way.

Their tail is so awesome, to do what it does,
Keeping their balance on wires up above.
It's brilliant and amazing, that long skinny tail,
It steadies them steady on the narrowest trail.

To see it in action is a fabulous sight,
with expert precision it shifts left and shifts right.
Just crossing a rope can be quite a big challenge,
But thanks to the tail, the rat keeps his balance.

Its a matter of needs and its needs are quite plain,
If it falls from above it will feel all sorts of pain.
Its comes down to a science called Rotational Inertia,
So stop worrying about it. The tail ain't gonna hurt ya.

"But, Liam, just look! It just isn't fair!
Why does that tail have to look naked and bare?"
A very good question and thanks for being so patient,
It's the simple little science of Thermoregulation.

When the rats getting too warm, the tail cools it down,
It helps it stay cozy the whole year round.
Blood vessels expand when it's getting too hot
That's Vasodilation. Is that cool or what?!

Vasoconstriction is the opposite way.
The tail keeps the heat from escaping away.
Blood vessels get smaller and trap in the heat.
It's a clever little trick that just can't be beat.

So next time someone tells you how gross their tails are,
You're armed with the knowledge to be a rat-star,
to stand on your soapbox and passionately wail,
"I KNOW WHAT IT'S FOR SO I LOVE THAT TAIL!"

~ Liam

To finish, here's a thought. As teachers, we urge our students to look beyond the flesh and to see others for who they really are...

Rats 101 - A Plea for Petdom

Hello, all you open minded people!
I can call you that because you've caught on that I am writing about rats and you are still reading. That's  a big step when you bring these furry little fellas into a conversation.

So you must be in one of three camps.

In Camp A, they're saying "yeah, I know, rats make great pets." They are following along, nodding their heads, and in total agreement.

Camp B says "alright, let's hear what you got but...it ain't gonna happen!"

Then there's Camp C. Camp C looks like this: Skin crawling. Heebie jeebies. Shuddering with disgust. Appalled by the fact that they are still reading this, Camp C juuust can't stop. They're the ones that watch Fear Factor through their fingers pretending to cover their eyes. You guys are funny.

I suppose, technically, there's a Camp D ... but they already left.

That's why I brought it up. I'm taking it upon myself to advocate for these remarkable rodents because not many will.

Because, you see, a teacher at my school, let's call him... Don :),  is talking about getting a pet and I've heard this conversation before. It goes like this:

"I'm going to get a class pet," says teacher.
"Ah, great! You should get a rat!" Say I.
"Ew! No! That's disgusting! Why would you say that? Yulchk!!"

To which, there is no real return.

But there are SO many good reasons to have a pet rat instead of other animals. Some reasons are simply positive attributes of Rattus rattus while others are the drawbacks of other animals.

So over the next few posts, I will be exploring and illustrating why a rat might just find his way into your classroom - invited even!

Afterwards, I will explore a few tips and bits of advice about keeping and caring for rats.

In the meantime, what camp are you in?

Do you see a place for a little rat in your learning space or is there a definite line that has been drawn between rodents and students? Let me know! It'll be like a survey!

Hope you stick around! You too, 'Don'.

<:3 )~~

No Dons were harmed in the making of this post. Great care was taken to ensure all Dons were treated with the utmost care and respect. For more information on how Dons were involved in this post, please, use your imagination.

Flipped Classroom Revisited

Back a ways, I said I was going to try this think called the Flipped Classroom. I got everything all plotted out and started recording and, presto, complete and utter failure. It left a bad taste in my mouth about the whole process and I ended up whimpering back to traditional teaching approaches.

Well, I'm back. I floated around Pinterest for a while (I'm sure NONE of you know what Pinterest is) and came across this one:

http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/

There's a really great graphic on it that just isn't loading onto my page so you will have to check it out.

So here we go again. I'm going to have a think about how I can make this work for my kids and then make another attempt. If you hear any whimpering, you can probably guess how it went...

All Clean (sort of)

I did it! It all started with a gentle nudge over Skype that I should shave the beard ("You need to trim back the beard, Bushman" is kinda how it sounded). I knew she was right and before you know it, one thing led to another and all sorts of changes occurred. The beard was shaved, a squirrel and two well-fed pigeons were rendered homeless, and even Twist of Liam ended up getting a spruce up as well! Not bad for a day and a half. By the way, if anyone is looking for a squirrel or well-fed pigeons, let me know.

The design was getting tired and, when I looked at all the fancy fonts and images you are all using from I-don't-know-where, I have to admit I felt just a weeeee bit jealous. Okay, a LOT jealous. So what's a guy to do? This is what a guy is to do:

1. Don't ask anyone for help. That is imperative. To do so would surely only make things go faster, smoother, and all-round better.
2. Fiddle delicately with swatches and fonts. Eenie, meenie, minie, not that one. (by the way, does anyone actually know how to spell minie?)
3. Tinker around with what vague idea comes to his mind. "Yep it will be green and lave a lime. Let's do it."
4. Pretend not to see what time it is and how long he has spent on that vague idea.
5. Close his eyes, cross his fingers, hope for the best, and brace for impact. Hit "save".

...6. Tell everyone about it because I did it! Err, I mean HE did it! Way to go Generic Male Example Guy!

So with the new design, I rethought  the description that was along the top and I think the rewrite is a lot more inline with what has been and will continuing to happen on this site. No, not the extended unexplained absences, silly. The general commentary and reflection, sprinkled with neat-o ideas for anyone who hasn't thought of it already.

I hope you like it. It's a bit less "in your face" and a bit more...je ne sais quoi. The words that come to my mind sound like I'm promoting a summer beverage.

Fresh, cool, clean, and inviting. Just pour yourself a glass, add vodka, and you have the perfect summer cocktail! Or enjoy it without the alcohol - totally your decision (but most of you ARE on holidays now... and the rest of us could probably use a drink...).



Hope you enjoy the new design and I didn't just lose all my readers!

BY THE WAY, A while back a gentleman commented on my site about the design. If he ever revisits this site, I hope he approves. 

MAC-ing the Most of It

So as I mentioned last time, I've been going through some changes. The whole "Engagement-Turned-Long-Distance-Relationship-Thing" has been an ordeal that I continue to work through and can only tell myself each day that I'm one day closer to being back together again. 199 days until I fly back to Canada and 21 hours of flight time - not that I'm counting.

More to the point though, another lifestyle change I've made was to switch to a Mac. Yay! I kind of look at it like learning styles - we all have our own preference for how to learn so it makes sense that we all have our own preferred way to work. I'm not making a judgement or wanting to start a debate about which is better but I will say that I've had mine for almost a month now and I might understand if Alanna got a little jealous. I pretty much love my Mac as much as a person can healthily love a piece of computer goodness.

So, if it's not to settle which is best, why am I telling you this? Well it's actually because I don't really know how to use it. Nay, I don't know how BEST to use it. I've got a lot of the basics sorted and I know Garage Band, iMovie, and Comic Life are great and but what I really want to know is this:

If you were setting up a new Macbook (Pro), what would be the programs you would MAKE SURE were installed?

P.S. If you use a PC, don't worry, I still love you.  :D

(It's so nice to be back!)

Did Ya Miss Me?

I know how you must all be feeling -  abandoned, betrayed, confused and disillusioned, and believe it or not, I didn't even TRY to alphabetise that!

No, I know what you must be thinking - he just up and left! No warning. No Terminator-esque "I'll be back". Just one minute he's blogging about his classroom and the next he has vanished.

Where did he go?

Well, I'll be honest, I didn't really go anywhere but life has taken a dramatic turn over the last few months.

First, I got engaged (Yay!). My beautiful fiancé, Alanna has agreed to be my wife and I feel fully, completely blessed to have her by my side. Which brings me to...

Secondly, she has flown home to Canada. To make a long and complicated and frustrating story short, we agreed that, professionally and financially, it made a lot more sense for her to go home and establish herself while I continued to finish the school year here, collecting my salary and maintaining a good rapport with the school, until December. Then I go home to be with her again.

For that to happen, the last while has been a whirlwind of packing, purging, selling, and donating. As she moved, I moved. My living conditions have been reduced from a two bedroom apartment to renting a room, from living with the woman I want to hold forever to living with a guy who...well...you get the point.

According to the calendar, it has been 29 days since she flew home. Leading up to it, I was confident that we would be able to real with it all and it would be over before we knew it. The moments leading up to her having to step through the "Passengers Only" barrier were impossibly emotional. 235 days without my Lanny. I proceeded to dissolve into a hysteric mess. I'm glad none of you saw me. It was pretty embarrassing. It hasn't felt like 29 days - more like 229. Too often, I've thought about packing up early but haven't. It isn't getting any easier, either. But I have to just keep plugging away.

So here I am, plugging away.

So this isn't a "check this out" post or a "this, you gotta try" post. It's a "sorry about the absence" kinda post, a "no hard feelings, right?" kinda post.

So, yeah. No hard feelings?

Liam