This was sent to me by a college buddy who teaches high school history. He has a great suggestion for reducing stress. Though you might enjoy it. ...read from "How's everything going?" to "Argh" to my class. They're sitting here now quietly taking a test. I am sure I must be ADD - I can't stand it when it is so quiet in here. I want to run around the room screaming with a pair of scissors in my hand. In fact, that's just what I ended up doing during A block's test today. Followed that up B block with my high-strung Advanced Placement kids (the ones in the interview) with a Mr. Rogers dress alike class. Sent the following out to them last night: >Annie Coppock emails that her current stress level is at about a ten. I >suggested she do what I do when I get overly stressed - pretend I'm Mr. >Rogers. > >I invite any of you to join me tomorrow in class (our neighborhood) wearing >cardigan sweaters and slippers. > >Tha's right boys and girls... About half of them turned up a la Fred R including me. I even had Mr. Trolley with me. We read from the transcripts of Anne Hutchinson's trial which ended up getting a little bizarre. I wonder, at times, how they will remember things like that when they are oldsters like us. Someone else here recommended "Wooden Boats." Sounds like a good read. I enjoyed Tracy Kidder's "House" a million years ago and more recently a book "Catapult" (author escapes me at the moment - true story - premise was a couple of geeks like you and me got an NEA grant to build a catapult and fire it as some kind of form of performance art). Sounds as if "Wooden Boats" might be a good blend of the two. Hmmmm - instead of running around with scissors I just got another idea. I have this sleeve of disposable styrene plastic cup in my desk drawer for just such situations. I hide it under my arm while wearing a sweater or suit juacket and ask, innocently, "Is there anyone here who is good at cracking necks?" Then when they do me I crunch the cup - VERY convincing noise that shakes people up. If I REALLY want to get the most out of it I drop to the ground and pretend I'm having convulsions. (Thank you, Penn and Teller for that little trick... actually my Dad got it from them and HE passed it on to me - my hero!) I'll let you know how it goes... John
