What I Have Learned in 2014

I stole this from a friend a few years ago, and it is part of my holiday traditions.  So here goes:

1. That the West Side of Lane Stadium is more interesting than the East Side.
2. That football fans will pay big $$ for season tickets and then not come to games.
3. Other fans will sit and watch the action on the big screen and not on the field.
4. Even if you never post anything, Twitter is a great way to keep up with what is going on in the world.
5. There are great advantages to teaching the same group of kids two years in a row.
6. I can take a day off and the world not come to an end.  (My workaholic friends will understand.)
7. Fantasy football is just a glorified, stat based, football pool, and something I do not have time for.
8. The College Football final four selection shows that in many things it is always going to be about your name and not what you have accomplished.  (Hear me Buckeye fans.)
9. That a kid who has to stay home from school to look after younger siblings is being cheated.  First by not being given the chance to get an education.   Second by having adult responsibilities put on them when they should be allowed to be kids.
10. In spite of all of our efforts there is tons of misinformation being spewed out as fact.  It becomes tiring trying to dispel the intentional and unintentional drivel that is spewed over the Internet.
11. No matter how hard I work to get kids motivated to learn, I do not have the ability to overcome the external factors of culture and poverty.
12. With $1.5 billion spent on the most recent Congressional elections, it is safe to say that  political speech belongs only to the very rich.  As an average citizen, without the $$$ to make my opinions heard, I am voiceless.
13. There is a certain joy that I get as a teacher in watching kids evolve from awkward 6th graders to poised 8th graders.
14. It is ironic that I live in a state that has prided itself on politics and government that does thing the right way, and will have its last Governor sentenced for taking favors from a guy of questionable ethics; and elected a Governor known for his political fundraising.
15. We are reaping the harvest of privileged and entitled generations. It is becoming hard to find people whose default reaction to every situation is not in your face anger.
16. As I get older, I care less about the opinions of others.  (As if I have ever much worried about such things.)
17. Good instruction has little, if anything, to do with the latest trends.
18. Whether my kids pass an end of the year assessment is less important to me than them understanding that history is about learning from the past so that we can prepare for the future.  Their understanding that nothing happens in a vacuum, and that when they can find the threads that connect past to present, they will better anticipate the future.