Paul Prattles On

It is almost moving day!  And there is still so much to do!  And I am still recovering from hand surgery, which is why it's been a while since my last blog! Ok...enough with the exclamation points! (Sorry!) We have finally found a place for my son and his friend to move to that they can afford, and that accept their pets.  However, they can't move until July 28, which is a week after we move into the Dahlonega house, which is where they are currently living.  So we get to share space for a week!  I'm sure they are really looking forward to that! (More exclamation points!) I spent this morning setting up their electric, water, and renters insurance.  Eric will need to set up the internet service.  I still need to transfer the electric and water to my name, and also set up the TV service.  We are also still getting Miller registered at school (have his records arrived yet?), and getting my application finished so I can substitute for his band di...

In my 31 years of teaching, I have seen teacher evaluation programs come and go.  In my opinion, none have been effective.  The problem is, how do you evaluate teacher effectiveness without reducing the evaluation to a series of check boxes? My first year of teaching, 1986, the state of Georgia was just starting to use the TPAI, the Teacher Performance Assessment Instrument.  As a new teacher, I had to pass the TPAI before I got full pay.  I think I got something like 75-80% pay until I passed it.  I could attempt it up to 6 times, but had to wait 6 months between tries, which means I had 3 years to pass, or else my teaching license would be revoked.  I remember doing a practice one during my student teaching, but didn't fully understand the process.  Evidently, this was only for new teachers. In my opinion, it was a pretty good measure, but the execution was lacking.  The process was that I had to develop 10 consecutive days of lesson plans, ...

Someone posted on Facebook the other day that he was glad Mike Bobo was no longer at UGA, because he was a terrible Offensive Coordinator, especially in the realm of calling plays, his contention being that he was too predictable.  The discussion morphed into a criticism of Mark Richt, with calling anyone who backed him a RichBot.  The main point was that Richt was a failure because he only won 2 SEC Championships, and no National Championships. What disturbs me about these "discussions" is that they tend to turn personal.  One person even compared Richt to Joe Paterno, basically accusing him of being a child molester!  Needless to say, I stopped reading at that point.  It's amazing to me that people will claim to know what is in someone else's heart. Richt was often criticized for not having enough "fire" on the sideline, and was thought by many to just be happy with collecting a paycheck and not caring about championships.  This was because he rarely ...

I have to apologize for not even getting close to blogging every day.  We've just been super busy getting ready for the move.  We spent Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Dahlonega, and started with the replacement of the carpet in the living/dining areas.  This will be completed early next week (the guy doing it couldn't complete it in one day, and had other projects planned).  Wednesday was a day I spent here around the house doing a number of things that needed to get done (I think I blogged that day).  Thursday, I had a nerve conduction study done which- surprise, surprise- shows that I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS).  Now I get to go back to the surgeon who will tell me I have CTS, and we will then schedule my surgery.  All for the low co-pay of $45 for a 15 minute visit to tell me something I already know.  Jackie and I did go see Wonder Woman that evening! Friday, Jackie and I went through my wardrobe and decided what to keep and what to d...

I've been in GMEA since my first year of teaching, and have served in various capacities in several local districts, and I have been in districts 1,2,3,7,8,9 (when it included current districts 13 and 14),11, and 14 (when it was 13).  During that time, I have hosted District Honor Band/All-State tryouts, served as Vice-Chairman of a district, and, of course, judged numerous tryouts and solo/ensemble events. When I was in college, and initially heard about MENC and GMEA, I was philosophically opposed.  Why should I have to join an organization just to participate in their events?  Of course, as I left college, I saw the fallacy of my thinking and realized the reasons for this policy. However, I have a few "beefs" with GMEA over certain policies and procedures they have.  The first is easily solvable.  Many years ago, before email and the internet, it made sense to require LGPE or All-State registrations to be submitted months in advance, as everything was don...

Maybe hate is too strong a word.  Maybe one of these is better: abhor, despise, detest, loathe, disdain, disfavor, can't stand, object to, recoil from, or shudder at.  (Thank you Thesaurus.com!)  However, because I have done it so much, I often joke that I should start a moving company! I'm in the process of moving again, but it's a little different this time.  This SHOULD be my last move, but I've said that before.  Also, we are sort of taking our time with this move.  I'm stuck paying for the rental house in Hiram until the end of July, so we are moving a few boxes at a time.  Unfortunately, we are about to have the living/dining room carpet replaced, so we have had to rent a small storage unit until that's completed. The other "problem" facing us is that Eric and his friend Kevin are currently living in the house in Dahlonega.  That means we can't fully move in until they find a place and move out.  As we've discovered, there aren't ...

I'm the youngest of six children.  My two oldest brothers, John and Jack,  are 13 and 12 years older than me, my sister Lezah and brother Pete are 8 and 7 years older, and the closest in age, Phillip, is 2 1/2 years older.  Today, I want to talk about my brother Jack, who was second in line. Jack would have been 66 today, had he not been murdered back in 2002.  This is always a difficult day for me, but I want to share some of my memories of Jack, in no particular order. Since Jack was so much older than I was, we didn't have a lot in common.  Heck, he started college the year I started Kindergarten!  He always said that when he got rich he was going to buy me a Lamborghini.  He did buy me one, but it was just a model. Jack was the kind of guy who would give you anything, if you needed it, and if he had it to give to you.  When I was in college, he would give me $20 every time he saw me, which, unfortunately for me, wasn't often enough....

Now that the 6th District election is over, everyone I'm sure will be glad that we don't have to watch those campaign ads anymore.  They were getting a bit ridiculous, but I guess they must work, or they wouldn't keep airing them.  Personally, I have never decided who to vote for based on a TV ad.  The only advantage I see to political ads is name recognition, but if you didn't know who Ossoff or Handel were by now, I'm not sure anyone can help you. Speaking of political ads, I believe one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court was the one allowing unlimited donations (Citizens United) and allowing Super PACs.  This has transformed elections, and led to over $50 million being spent on this one election.  It is also leading to more half-truths and outright lies being spoken in these ads- who would you sue for libel? I wonder what the Braves will do when Freddie Freeman is available again?  Matt Adams has done a heck of a job replacing...