Miracle on Joliet Street

As you may know, my wife’s side of the family has a tradition of playing a trivia game centered on a Christmas movie each year during our gathering.  Since “Uncle Tim” is a teacher, he is in charge of preparing the questions.  In this, Uncle Tim has to watch the movies. This has elevated my estrogen levels to some extent.  Throughout the years, trivia questions have been presented on It’ A Wonderful Life, Jingle All the Way, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf, A Christmas Story and others. This year, the movie is Miracle on 34^th Street (1994 version). Why the winning team did not choose the original from the 40’s is beyond me. Some movies just should not be remade.  In this movie, a little girl, Susan,  is confronted with not being sure if Santa is real or just “a nice old man with whiskers.”  You know the story…Kris Kringle becomes the Macy’s Santa Claus after knocking the Thanksgiving Day parade drunken Santa out with his cane…creates a publicity stunt causing department store wars…works hard to convince the mother that he is the real deal…smacks someone else with his cane…goes to the mental ward…goes on trial for claiming to be Santa…wins the case…works all night and delivers presents to all the “good little boys and girls”…mysteriously disappears…manages to leave little Susan with the gift that she wanted.  End credits to follow. Susan just had to believe. 

Here’s my tie-in. There is a great deal of discussion around the state on the rigor of the “New” ISTEP.  No one can argue that this version of the state exam will be a challenge not only for our kids; but for the teachers who are preparing the kids.  That is why the test examples and video snippets are so important.  Take heed, dig deep and show the kids what WE are up against.  Make them work the technology so that they UNDERSTAND what to expect and are PREPARED to work the keypad correctly. Take nothing for granted.  Right after break, we will begin our “93.5 FM – Are You Dialed In?” theme through daily announcements, the making of student and staff videos, T-shirts, themed pencils and other ways to create the carrots for kids that the test itself does not provide.  Yes, there is a huge emotional side to this.  If you haven’t shown your students their goals for ISTEP, do so when we return.  Finally, we have to BELIEVE in our kids, BELIEVE in ourselves, BELIEVE in our preparation, and BELIEVE that we can reach the goals we have set.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The Browns play in the great state of North Carolina this Sunday vs. the Panthers.  At this point, we are playing for pride (i.e. – contract money) since we, once again, will not be in the playoffs.  We finish up on the 28^th against the Ratbirds at Baltimore.  A promising season down the drain – saw this movie before.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!