Goodbye August, Hello September...

As I write this at my kitchen table I am reminded by the calendar that September is almost upon us. Where has 2015 gone? It must be true that the older you get the faster the time seems to go. It is, as of this post, only 117 days until Christmas. I write this post a little differently than my others for this blog. It will become a hodge podge of observations and thoughts of mine.

I don't think I can ever think of September again without thinking of 9-11-2001. It is burned into my memories and my association of the month which also houses the beginning of fall, and my oldest brother's birthday. I won't wax poetically or reminence about that tragic day because I am planning on doing that in my next post. When I was younger, I refuse to say "when I was young..." because that is admitting to the world that I am not young. I am young, I may be chronologically old when compared with most of the people I work with and all of the students I have and had. However, even though my age will have a five as at least one of the digits for awhile, I don't choose to act that way. Actually, the aforementioned co-workers and students will agree with that statement. I am a Disney Addict (as another blog I write testifies to) and this is usually the time that I begin planning our family's pilgrimage to Walt Disney World during our Spring Break (usually in April) however, we are planning to go in November of 2016 next time so the official planning process won't begin until after the New Year. I won't explain the planning process in this post because this blog is not necessarily a Disney blog. Just understand that the magic number is 180 days (just like a school year except continuous)

I realized that I failed to finish my "when I was younger..." thought when I began my explanation of my chronological versus my psychological age. When I was younger September felt so far away from Christmas and I can see it still does for the children I care for everyday at work and home. However, for me when we reach September I know that Christmas is just around the corner, not in the materialization manner but in the feeling manner. One thing that has changed since my younger days is the ability to hear the sounds of Christmas. In the 1970's in order to listen to Christmas music in September or earlier you had to dust off the LP's or 45's and hope you had an understanding family. Today all I have to do is tune into my iPod or my Pandora stations and pop in my earbuds and I can hear "White Christmas" "Jingle Bells" and/or any of my other favortite seasonal songs without the scratches or skips of the old records. I can even watch holiday classics on my TV through my iTunes and Apple TV.

For those of you who are still with me I am going to share how I became not a Disney Addict but a Christmas addict as well. I am a firm believer that Christmas is the celebration of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. However, I also view Christmas as a connection to my inner child. My infamous Christmas countdown began as a project at daycare which I worked at one summer. In July it is not uncommon to see Christmas in July ads at stores well at the daycare we were doing a Christmas in July unit with the school-age children and I had them figure out how many days it was until the actual Christmas on December 25th. When we figured it out we began to keep track of it each day throughout the rest of the summer (we would use sidewalk chalk and write on the slats of the playground fence) I kept it up ever since and if you have seen my Facebook page you would already know this. Christmas music year round for me started in the late 1970s, for some reason I wanted to listen to the stereo and play Christmas records, I am not sure why. Since then I have always been accused of jumping the gun on the holiday tunes. I actually do have a rule in which I will not publically play (in my classroom or on my car stereo) Christmas music between January 2-March 1. March 1 is the 300 day mark for those of you who were wondering why March 1. However, any other day is fair game especially after September 16 which marks the 100 day until Christmas mark.

Enough about me here are some events that have made history for the dates August 31-September 6...


This Week in History
August 31:

1864

At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.

1997

Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a Paris car crash along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul while fleeing paparazzi.

September 1:

1894		By an act of Congress, Labor Day is declared a national holiday.

September 2: 

1666		The Great Fire of London, which devastates the city, begins.
1789		The Treasury Department, headed by Alexander Hamilton, is created in New York City.

September 3: 

1777		The American flag (stars & stripes), approved by Congress on June 14th, is carried into battle for the first time by a force under General William Maxwell.
1783		The Treaty of Paris is signed by Great Britain and the new United States, formally bringing the American Revolution to an end.
1838		Frederick Douglass escapes slavery disguised as a sailor. He would later write The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, his memoirs about slave life.

September 4: 

1479

After four years of war, Spain agrees to allow a Portuguese monopoly of trade along Africa’s west coast and Portugal acknowledges Spain’s rights in the Canary Islands.

1781

Los Angeles, first an Indian village Yangma, is founded by Spanish decree.

1820

Czar Alexander declares that Russian influence in North America extends as far south as Oregon and closes Alaskan waters to foreigners.

September 5:

1972		"Black September," a Palestinian terrorist group take 11 Israeli athletes hostage at the Olympic Games in Munich; by midnight all hostages and all but 3 terrorists are dead.
1975		President Gerald Ford evades an assassination attempt in Sacramento, California.

September 6: 

1522

One of the five ships that set out in Ferdinand Magellan’s trip around the world makes it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men that set out survived. Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.

1901

President William McKinley is shot while attending a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley dies eight days later, the third American president assassinated.

Have a wonderful week! The MAD GENIUS signing off...

They Are Here!

Last week was a week of work-days and today August 24, 2015 is the first day of class with students. After meetings and more meetings we are ready for the real thing. The school in which I am working is in the process of becoming a global school so the halls and outside  of the building looks like the UN gift shop has thrown up its excess inventory.

I cannot go into specifics of the students we have this year except to say they are delightful. I am going to work with them on Google Earth learning their address and other geographic details. Now for THIS WEEK IN HISTORY (August 24-30)

August 24, 79: Mount Vesuvius erupts and decimates the citizens of Pompeii
August 24, 1814: The British army sets ablaze the Executive Mansion which we refer to today as the White House.

August 25, 1944: The city of Paris, France is liberated from the control of the NAZIs by the Allies.
August 25, 2009: Senator Ted Kennedy dies

August 26, 1862: The Battle of 2nd Bull Run begins during the Civil War
August 26, 1920: The 19th Amendment is adopted which allows women the full right to vote.

August 27, 1908: Future President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) is born, ironically 100 years after the birth of Andrew Johnson who would become President very much the same way as LBJ did after the assassination of the sitting President.
August 27, 1941: In a bit of diplomacy the Japanese Prime Minister requests a meeting with President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt (FDR).

August 28, 1955: The Death of Emmett Till
August 28, 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. leads a March on Washington and delivers his famous I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

August 29, 1533: Conquistador Pizzaro executes the last Incan emperor.
August 29, 1968: Hubert Humphrey is nominated by the Democrats in Chicago, Illinois.
August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina slams into the Gulf Coast.

August 30, 30: Egyptian Queen Cleopatra commits suicide.
August 30, 1967: Thurgood Marshall confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice.

Ted Kennedy's gravesite

Until next time have a great time... Signing Off THE MAD GENIUS!

Opening Day

Sorry baseball fans, which I am one, this post will not have very much to do with the best sport ever. It is about the opening day of the 2015/2016 school year in the district I work in. I am entering my thirteenth year as an employee for the Newton-Conover City School District (NCCS). I am entering my first full year as a teacher aide after twelve years in a Social Studies classroom at Newton Conover Middle School. I am not going into why I am now an aide and not teaching, although as an aide I do a lot of actual teaching, except to say that it was fully my decision NOT the district's decision although they were very receptive to my wishes.

I sit here in the classroom which I will be working this year on a day very quiet and reserved compared to the following days in which most of the teachers will show up and meetings will commence. Students arrive in a week and during this time classrooms will transform into wonderful, inviting places for a wide variety of children to come and learn. Not only will they learn the basics (the three R's) they will also learn social skills, manners, and they will hopefully feel they come to a safe environment. Some of the students I will have the pleasure of working with haven't grow up like I did in a home in which I never doubted my parents love for me, I never wanted for food, shelter, and clothes.

One thing I used to do in my Social Studies classes was a Today in History bell-ringer. I would jot down one or more historical events that happened on that particular day and discuss and or as each year we had more technology at our disposal research the events and journal about them. So here it goes for the week of August 17.

August 17, 1786- Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee... is how the song goes for on this day Davy Crockett was born
August 17, 1812- Napolean Boneparte's army defeated the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk.
August 17, 1833- Canadian steamship the Royal William begins the first trans-Atlantic steamship crossing from Nova Scotia.
August 17, 1933- Lou Gherig plays in his 1,308th consecutive game, which breaks former Yankee's Everett Scott's record. (Gehrig would go and play in 2,130 consecutive games)
August 17, 1943- General George Patton and his 7th Army completes the Allied conquest of SIcily in World War II.
August 17, 1945- Indonesia declares their independence.
August 17, 1969- Woodstock Music Festival ends.

August 18, 1227- Genghis Khan dies...
August 18, 1590- Roanoke Colony was deserted beginning the Lost Colony mystery.
August 18, 1795- President George Washington signs the Jay Treaty with Great Britain in attempt to ease tensions with Great Britain.
August 18, 1920- Woman Suffrage Amendment is ratified.

August 19, 1909- First auto race at what is now the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on dirt track for five miles NOT 500.
August 19, 1934- Adolf Hitler becomes president of Germany...
August 19, 1946- William Jefferson Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas.

August 20, 1911- The first telegram to circumnavigate the globe was sent and took 16.5 minutes to complete.
August 20, 1920- Professional footbal was first organized in Canton, Ohio as the American Professional Football Conference (APFC) the forerunner to the National Football League (NFL).
August 20, 1940- Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico.

August 21, 1831- Nat Turner's slave rebellion began in Southhampton County, Virginia.
August 21, 1858- The first Lincoln-Douglass debate was held.
August 21, 1920- Christoper Robin Milne was born (yes that Christopher Robin of Winnie the Pooh fame)
August 21, 2004- Michael Phelps wins his 8th medal at an individual Olympics giving him the record for most medals won at an individual Olympics.

August 22, 1848- US Grant marries Julia Dent. One "theory" that has popped up was that Julia and Mary Todd Lincoln did not get along in social gatherings so Grant gracefully declined the President's invitation to join him at Ford's Theater that infamous night. If Grant was there the security would have been more tight because most people viewed that there was a bigger threat to Grant's well-being than there was Lincoln's. So, as they say the rest is history.
August 22, 1950- Althea Gibson becomes the first African-American on the US Tennis Tour.
August 22, 1989- Nolan Ryan registered his 5000th strikeout.

August 23, 1784- The State of Franklin decclares independence from North Carolina. Franklin would later become part of Tennessee.
August 23, 1814- As Washington DC was under attack by the British during the War of 1812, First Lady Dolley Madison attempts to save some of the Executive Mansion's (White House) treasures which would be set ablaze by the British. She escapes with some including a famous painting of George Washington.
August 23, 1939- In order to avoid a two front war Adolf Hitler signs a non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. Hitler would eventually break this pact which would lead to his eventual defeat in World War II.

These were just a few of the many events that occurred in the global history from these dates. Hope you enjoy the post. This is the Mad Genius! signing off.