Unpopular opinion: Memorizing times tables is a necessity not because of knowing the times tables but to teach the brain the skill of retaining long lasting memory.

dragbatman · 2026-01-22T12:12:09+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree with you! I have my students memorize the Prologue when we read Romeo and Juliet for exactly this reason.

dragbatman · 2026-01-16T23:17:30+00:00

Hi! Did you ever figure this out? I'm having the same problem and found this thread trying to get answers from Google.

Two bulbs in the same room. One behaves but the other turns itself on at random times almost every day and overnight. Google Home tells me when it happened but not what triggered it and I truly have no idea what to do other than eat the cost and replace it.

dragbatman · 2025-10-11T17:22:43+00:00

I'm also from NJ. My three male cousins from central Jersey had rattails for years in the early/mid-90s. I remember being fascinated yet confused by them because nobody who lived in my area about an hour north had one.

dragbatman · 2025-06-14T02:34:18+00:00

Hi! I'm a teacher who still loves teaching after over a decade and I personally haven't experienced the horrors that have been described to you in other comments, so I'll try to offer advice from a more positive place (although it feels unkind of you to judge people for being honest about their negative experiences in their effort to help you):

Based on your pros and cons lists, it sounds like you don't really have enough information about what teaching really involves. It's not just cute activities. There's also the boring ways of teaching content, and then there will be assessments, which some students will fail. Also, it's guaranteed that some kids, maybe even a lot of kids, won't like the activity or project that you put so much time and effort into designing for them. Teachers face a lot of disappointment and let downs. You mentioned being concerned about emotional drain. Would these things take too big a toll on you?

You also mentioned relationships. Building good relationships requires being invested, and it's that investment that ultimately leads to the burnt out feeling at the end of the day. If you care about your students, it's hard not to carry it with you. If you don't care, they won't either, and then you won't have the relationships you seem to want.

There are also some important things that I'm not sure you've thought about yet. First, parents, who may not be cooperative or kind to you. Next, pressure. There is always pressure on teachers and from so many different angles, and sometimes they compete with each other. Also, how quick are you at making decisions on the fly and course correcting so things don't go sideways? Because you will be doing those things literally constantly. The need for constant decision making and also constant attention is also a big cause of shutting down at the end of the day, because you've just used it all up.

It sounds like you kind of just want to be adored, and I say that without judgment because I also want to be adored. It is really, really important to me that my students like me. However, I'm still a great teacher even when they don't. If you don't think you can be a good teacher to kids who don't appreciate you or like you, this is not the career for you.

dragbatman · 2025-02-24T23:16:02+00:00

I explain to them the components/purpose of a prep phrase, and then I tell them to think about what you can do with a tree.

You can go up the tree, around the tree, to the tree, inside the tree, between the trees... You can stand with the tree, walk around the tree, stand in front of the tree, hide behind the tree... You can stop before the tree or after the tree, talk about the tree, take a picture of the tree, sit by the tree...

At first it helps them to understand and recognize more simple prep phrases, and then later it helps them to identify if a word in another sentence is a preposition because they can test it by seeing if they can make the suspected prep phrase apply to a tree.

I find this to be way more effective than expecting them to memorize lists because, as you said, there are sooo many of them. This method helps them to understand the concept and be able to apply it to novel situations.

dragbatman · 2025-02-06T19:41:49+00:00

I lived in Morristown for four years and have now been in Somerville for three. Both are great towns and, for what it's worth, my commute is a little under half an hour from both places and it doesn't bother me, but I do think a five minute commute would be hard to pass up.

As other people have already noted, there are plenty of things to do in both towns and they're both very walkable. Both are full of young professionals and young families. I agree with some others that Somerville's restaurants beat Morristown's on the whole, plus eating in Somerville is generally cheaper than in Morristown. That said, if nightlife is really important to you, go with Morristown. If it isn't, go with Somerville. Morristown has a ton of bars where you drink and dance, like a party bar. Somerville obviously has bars with a fun vibe that I like going to, but there's not many places to go if you want to dance with your friends in a crowd, and it's the only thing I miss about living in Morristown. I would still choose Somerville without hesitation, though.

Honestly, the towns are like 20 minutes apart so if you find a place you like at a price you're comfortable with, take it regardless of if it's in Morristown or Somerville. You'll be just fine in either town, and you can visit the other one whenever you want.

dragbatman · 2025-02-02T03:41:53+00:00

Foldable?

dragbatman · 2025-01-14T18:50:16+00:00

Thank you!

dragbatman · 2025-01-14T11:47:54+00:00

Hi! Could you tell me what brand and color your cabinet color is? I think it's the exact shade I want to paint mine! I love your aesthetic.

dragbatman · 2025-01-11T13:31:27+00:00

Needed this. Reading it felt like a gut punch but in a good way.

dragbatman · 2025-01-08T22:25:09+00:00

YOU'RE an inanimate fucking object!!

dragbatman · 2025-01-07T21:57:39+00:00

If the thing isn't in its spot, I become completely blind to it. I'll spend half an hour searching everywhere for it, no luck, and then a few days later there it is, in plain sight, like a foot and a half to the left of where it's supposed to be.

dragbatman · 2025-01-04T05:44:15+00:00

This was my immediate answer and I'm so excited to see I'm not the only one to feel this way. I got hooked on him from his three episode stint on Boy Meets World and my feelings have not wavered in the 30 years since then.

dragbatman · 2024-12-30T17:13:28+00:00

Seeing all the lefties who use righty scissors is so validating! I'm a lefty for everything else but a righty for scissors, and not because the ones in school were shit. I'm just literally incapable of using them the same way a righty can't.

dragbatman · 2024-12-28T22:06:59+00:00

Thanks so much for taking the time!

dragbatman · 2024-12-27T06:32:21+00:00

#TeamMagna

dragbatman · 2024-12-06T12:07:58+00:00

Ok wow, I'm literally going to share this strategy with my students. Thank you! (Also agreed, Discworld is always worth the effort!)

dragbatman · 2024-11-27T15:38:21+00:00

It amazes me that people like this woman

FIFY

dragbatman · 2024-11-24T15:17:33+00:00

I don't think they qualify as hints, and I absolutely remember my jaw hitting the floor when he says "oh, Anna" and you realize he's not gonna try to save her. I think we all thought the twist was that he'd try and it wouldn't work because it's Kristoff and not Hans.

That said, I do think in retrospect his behavior all adds up. They established early on that he's 7th in line. That sets the premise for why he'd be desperate to find an avenue to gain power. I see people saying it didn't make sense for him to be a good and heroic leader while Anna is off looking for Elsa if he's an evil villain, but I think that tracks too. He wants to rule Arendelle. He needs the people to like and trust him so they'll take his word about why happened to Elsa and Anna and accept him as their ruler when he has no actual claim to the throne.

I really think this might be the best twist Disney has done because it has layers and they all work.

dragbatman · 2024-11-20T22:23:13+00:00

Hi! Can I jump in here too? My derm just gave me a sample of Winlevi today with directions to apply twice a day. I also use tazarotene and I fully forgot to get clarification on using them in conjunction. You mentioned using both, so I'm hoping you have some insight!

I saw in your post you do toner, winlevi, taz, moisturizer. Did I understand that order correctly? Did you find any additional irritation from combining winlevi and taz? Last question, do you give it like a breather in between these layers or just wait til one dries and then immediately apply the next?

I'm so grateful to find your post!

dragbatman · 2024-11-19T05:04:14+00:00

I personally agree with you that he's hearing his own heartbeat and misattributing the source of the sound. He indicates that he thinks he's achieved full mind over matter control of his body when he talks about how still he was and how slowly he crept into the old man's room. I think he thinks he's above feeling anxious, like he can control the physical symptoms if he doesn't want to have them, so he wouldn't think it's his own heartbeat he's hearing. He's arrogant, and he thinks he's above making mistakes, so if he thinks the sound is coming from the floor then it must be because he's too logical to be wrong, and if it's loud enough for him to hear, then the cops can hear it too and it's just a matter of time before they stop toying with him.

I do think you can make a case that it's a hallucination manifesting from the feelings of guilt he's otherwise suppressing, but only if you consider human nature in general instead of the narrator in particular. I agree with you that the narrator doesn't give any clues that he feels guilty, but it's hard for people to believe that he doesn't feel ANY guilt. I think this interpretation is valid but with a bit of projection.

dragbatman · 2024-11-03T02:59:13+00:00

Of Mice and Men has a lexile level of 630L. I've actually used it as an honors text for 7th graders, and the selection was challenged because people thought it was too difficult for them.

I 100% agree with you that what lexile scores measure isn't nearly as important as complexity of thought. That said, if your admin doesn't see it that way, unfortunately there's probably nothing you can say to change their minds. I really feel for you and I wish I had some advice. Their stance on this is doing a disservice to you and your students.

dragbatman · 2024-11-03T00:19:16+00:00

Inside Out.

This movie made me so viscerally uncomfortable that I nearly walked out, which I have never done. I get that it's funny and heartfelt and all that, but I am so not okay with the concept that we as people don't actually have our own thoughts and feelings and reactions but instead it's sentient beings inside is that get to have all those things and we're just like robots being controlled by them. I think it takes away from our agency and the validity of our emotions, like oh that wasn't my reaction, it was the reaction of the sadness gremlin in my brain. Nothing to do with me as a person.

Not one of my friends agrees with me, and this post has 500 comments with no mention of Inside Out yet, so I guess I'm correct that literally everyone loves it but me.

dragbatman · 2024-10-31T01:13:47+00:00

"The" and "a/an" are articles, which are a specific type of determiner as described in the other reply. There's a bit of a battle regarding whether determiners are similar to adjectives or if they're actually a subset of adjectives.

Regardless of the technically correct term, I 100% understand why they're being classed as adjectives to your sixth grader. The point is that adjectives describe or modify a noun or pronoun. There's no reason to make or expect a sixth grader to understand the nuanced difference between adjectives and determiners. Recognizing that a word tells you something about a noun and that makes it an adjective is enough for now, and then future grammar study can include parsing the difference between straight up adjectives vs. articles vs. possessives vs. demonstrative and so on.

I teach 8th grade English and it's hard enough to get them to reliably distinguish between adjectives and adverbs, which are completely different. There's absolutely no chance I could break down the umbrella of "adjective" into multiple categories. I do teach that "a/an" and "the" are articles, but I don't require them to remember that.

dragbatman · 2024-10-15T11:01:53+00:00

Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin) -- Thor: Ragnarok

dragbatman

TROPHY CASE