monkeygirl

I once had a student with learning disabilities and severe ADHD, according to his parents. They actually took him to Johns Hopkins for testing and treatment...but the parents rejected the treatments they gave him. They basically sedated him to where he was a zombie...he was less of a disruption, but wasn't achieving anything. Normally, the kid was wound so tight, I often wondered if he could ever calm down enough to sleep. He was definitely the most challenging student I ever had the privelige of teaching. He was difficult because as soon as he did what you asked him to, he felt no obligation to keep doing it or just stand still. For example if I told him to punch, he would punch and then spin around a few times in place. When I told him to focus, he would tell me that he was not in control of his own feet. With a lot of time, patience, and one-on-one instruction, he made a lot of progress. Although he did not advance as quickly as the other students (because he had difficulty memorizing kata and techniques, as well as performing them without adding his own "special flair"), he made remarkable steps in focus, and eventually regained control of his feet I have to be thankful for this kid. When he first came along, I was a new and inexperienced instructor. Outwardly I was patient as I took him aside and helped him in class, but inside I was pulling my hair out. As he started to show progress (and eventually moved in to the class I personally instructed), I realized that I had made progress, too. In trying anything and everything to get this kid to focus, I learned a lot about teaching, patience, and maturity. I've also seen less extreme cases where the students show a lot of improvement in their report cards.

My brother helped me make my own PC, using a mixture of spare parts he had (he's a compsci major, he has desk drawers full of random parts and software), and things we ordered out of a wholesale parts catalog. I have a really nice computer for under $400!! It suits my needs well, since I don't do a lot of gaming or watch DVDs or anything. Basically I can word process, use spreadsheets, photoshop, play my music (and the memory is big enough to store all of it), and play flash games from ... um... *cough*neopets*cough*. It all runs quickly and has never given me any problems. Plus it looks like an outdated piece of crap, so nobody wants to steal it from school And of course, if I become simultaneously ambitious and rich, there's lots of room to update.

I'll move this to the Instructor Central Forum

I heard something from some of the wrestlers that at the beginning of the season they had to fast for 24 hours so they could get their 'bottom weight', which is the class they would wrestle at all year...but apparently it's very difficult for them to keep that weight? Or something? I don't understand all of it. All I know is that they barely eat during the season. I've heard that "cutting weight" involves eating half a grape fruit and drinking 8 oz. of water...for the entire day. That's it! And then they run and work out during every chance they get, wearing as much clothing as possible...during breaks they sit around in a hot room wearing trash bags. Trash bags are illegal in most states (well, to wear them to lose weight for wrestling, not to buy...and it's a wrestling law not a state law...BAH I'm confuserating myself), but who's going to catch them? Furthermore, who would turn them in? I've never seen them do it myself, but I've heard a few admit to it. It's such a shame. As far as coaches go, they say they disapprove of it, but never take any action when they see it happening. That's pretty widespread if you ask me. The shame of it is that wrestling is such a great sport. We did "ground sparring" at my old dojo, and it was a heck of a lot of fun...less rules than real wrestling . Then I came to my high school last year and we have this big school competition where everyone competes in different sports. I joined the girl's wrestling, wrestled up a weight class, and pinned her in 15 seconds in the first round! Man that was fun I thought about wrestling during the school year, but I don't have that kind of endurance, our coach feels it's a "boy's sport" (even though he's obliged to let any girl who can hack it wrestle...one girl tried last year and he worked her 5x harder than anybody else until she quit), and I really don't need an eating disorder.

Be genuine and nice, but always remember: "familiarity breeds disrespect". Don't get too close with students and lose your authority. And of course, don't be so concerned with becoming their "friends" or being popular with them that you make sacrifices or let things "slide" to be "cool". Be yourself, be down to earth, and don't be a pushover. If I'm being short it's because it's 1:14a.m. I'm tired.

Okay, it seems I'm not the only one who enjoys discussing literature every now and then, so I thought I'd create this thread and get some nice, nerdy and bookish discussion going. I suppose we'll start out with one book/poem/something, discuss it for awhile, and when we've discussed it through we can move on to something else. Discuss interpretations, opinions, plot, whatever! For students, this can be a bit of homework help, to an extent...but don't expect this to be some kind of Cliffs Notes...think of it more as extra class time, but fun and relaxed. You don't have to be an English professor...heck I'm just a high school senior! Just be familiar with the work we're discussing at the moment, and join in. Alright, something to start with... has anyone read the play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen? Or have something better to discuss? I'm kind of reaching with that one. I'm better at joining discussion than starting it.

It's good that you enjoyed your first practice! Are you wrestling for high school, or what? Well, it is my sincere hope that you don't follow the nasty habit that most high school wrestlers do...seasonal anorexia. It's absolutely ridiculous! They do it to gain an "edge", but everybody does it, so there's no edge. If everyone would stop simultaneously, there would be healthy athletes with life-sized stomachs, but they're too stubborn for that I guess. Oh, and may I ask what "burpees" are? Don't think I've ever heard of those before. I'll move this to the Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts forum.

My brother listens to that stuff too...some of it is really cool though, especially the Megaman remixes. I've heard a really good Jackal remix...and of course, lounge style SMB themes are great As far as singer/songwriters, I've been really into Bread lately. They've got a really great sound, although that's kind of strange to say since they do a lot of different styles of music. They wrote all of their own stuff, which is always good. Neil Diamond is of course a favorite. Really feelgood music with great lyrics and melodies. Hot August Night is the ultimate Diamond album, hands down Coldplay, Jamiroquoi, Doris Day, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tom Jones, and Juanes are among some of my faves. I like a very wide spread of music, but I don't have a lot of time (when I'm in school) to just sit down and listen, until I come back to the dorm to study and go to sleep. By then I'm usually pretty tired, so I just end up listening to a lot of mellow, chill-out music.

Welcome back!

I'm not allowed to watch horror movies But seriously...I'm not. The closest I've ever come to seeing one is the Scary Movie series, or maybe Final Destination.

Heh...I got one What do you call a donkey with three legs and one eye who plays guitar and who can also play the piano who joined a religious sect based around Isaac Hayes??? A Winky Wonkey Honky Tonkey Plinky Plonkey Funky Monk-ey Donkey!!!

Just to go off-topic for a sec: that quote really highlights one of the most common misconceptions in poetry. In Frost's poem "The Road Less Traveled", most people assume that his final two lines "And I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference" are meant to say that being individual/nonconformist/etc. leads to great things. However, a closer examination of the poem leads one to see that the speaker is arguably sad that he took the less traveled road. Anyway, we learned about it last year in English, and ever since then I hear sirens go off in my head when I see it quoted. In that respect, your quote is brilliant, Pride&Poise. As have been many of the mottos in this thread! I leave you with this one, which is annoyingly true, albeit well-known: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" Although, considering that I'm posting this at 12:37am, you can see that I'm not really taking my own advice on this one. I should though. The world just seems to operate on an earlier schedule...might as well be awake for it.

Very funny! So funny that it's going to the Humor/Jokes forum

I'm going to move this to the Comparative Styles Forum, since it is indeed comparing the way two styles do things.

I'm going to move this to the Equipment Forum.

I'm going to move this to Martial Arts Entertainment.

I'll move this to the Humor/Jokes Forum.

I'll move this to the Martial Arts Entertainment Forum

The secret is to take care of things immediately, and not to leave them in a big pile to take care of later. e.g. make your bed as soon as you get out of it empty the trash as soon as it's full when you take off your clothes, put them directly in the hamper Each of these things takes a second at a time, which is a lot better than half an hour of cleaning time every weekend. Now if only I took my own advice... good luck!

Tell your wife that you win. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0046033/ Check out #5 and #28

Congratulations!

Well, I saw those ads about a year or two ago, so maybe they stopped advertising the product. I think the company may have gone bankrupt or something.

I always thought it looked stupid...then I sat down and watched an episode and got hooked. It's so dramatic and corny and some of the acting is terrible, yet I can't stop watching...

In last week's episode of the O.C., I think Cohen made a bit of a reference to Napoleon Dynamite... when he was standing up on his bed and crying "Eureka!" he did the Kip "yesss" with the hand movement (when he had gone bumper bowling and knocked down 9 pins). Um..yeah.

I'm moving this to Getting Started in the Martial Arts. Good luck!