Happy birthday, Rabbie...

The auld lad's still sounding wonderful a mere 210 years after his untimely demise.

I need a break between finishing Paradise Lost and starting Frankenstein, and I usually try to schedule that break to coincide with Robert Burns' birthday on 25 January. It's a good excuse to have a party that also has some cultural and educational merit: a Burns Supper.

Burns Suppers (or Burns Nights) vary in tone from quite elegant evenings with scholarly speeches and silver spoons to raucous events down the pub. The first year, I described the Burns Supper and had the students read "To a Mouse" and "Red, Red Rose." Last year, I brought in cakes and asked each student to read a Burns poem of his or her choice aloud.

This year, I decided that it would be good to have as fully-developed a "supper" as possible. No John Barleycorn and no haggis, but plenty of food and everything as student-driven as possible. So my students and I spent the last week planning the parties (one in each of the four sections of the course I teach), inviting other teachers and friends to join us, choosing and rehearsing poetry, and writing speeches and toasts.

I'm always slightly amazed by how much students can accomplish when they're given some clear directions and some flexibility in choices. Not only did they lay out some very impressive spreads (including two very authentic and delicious trifles!), they all did very well with their poetry readings -- even the students who read in Scots. (Although they did complain quite a bit that "this isn't English," to which I replied, "No, it isn't. The dictionary link is on your handout.") We had outside guests in all but one of the classes, and the students seemed to have a good time. Particularly in the class that discovered the poem entitled "Cock Up Your Beaver, Johnny," which is a completely innocuous poem about putting a feather in one's hat, but has the opportunity for all sorts of vulgar jokes in modern parlance.

As much fun as it all was, I think that next year I'm just going to do one big supper as an on-campus field trip. I'll pull all my classes out for the middle of the day, serve an authentic Scottish lunch, and augment the poetry by some Scottish dancers and pipers. Doing three parties in three periods on an accelerated schedule day was just too much running around.

On sportsmanship and high expectations

On Tuesday night, I ventured out in the torrential rain to attend the girls' and boys' basketball games that my students were playing against the archrival diocesan Catholic high school. Most sporting events between our school and this school are more or less cordial and generally well-attended.

I arrived midway through the girls' game due to traffic difficulties, and when I got there, we were leading by 22 points. As the game progressed, the lead shrank to 10 at times, then widened back to 14-16 points for most of the second half. The outcome was never really in any doubt.

Engrossed as I was in the game, I had hardly noticed the cheerleaders on the sidelines till an opposing player went to the line to take some free throw shots. The entire time that she was shooting, the cheerleaders were performing a "Miss It!" cheer. The first time they did it, I was nonplussed. But after the ninth, tenth, and nineteenth times they did it, repeating it with increased vigor every time an opposing player took foul shots in both the girls' and boys' games, I was dismayed. Even more disheartening was the fact that the opposing school's cheerleaders did not do such a cheer when our players went up for free throws.

As a school, we profess to value sportsmanlike conduct. There's a large banner in the gym that says "Sportsmanship is an expectation." I know that the cheerleaders were, at heart, just cheering on their friends and classmates, but I also know that there are many ways to cheer on one's team without tearing down the opponents. I also feel that we ought not have been shown up by our archrivals on our home court.

Even though we won both games by the scoreboard, we didn't walk away with the class and sportsmanship trophies.

Best one-liner of the day...

When discussing blood sugar levels and the necessity of a balanced diet:

"Yeah, I tasted my blood the other day...it tasted like Hawaiian Punch."