New Wiper Blades

When snow is forecast and my vehicle will be outside, I always leave the windshield wipers up.  Family tradition. This prevents the wiper blades from being destroyed when you scrape the snow and ice from your windshield.  Windshield wipers are important.  Without them, our necks would be in considerable pain from hanging our heads out of the window to see the road. Side note:  why do dogs hate it when you blow in their face, but the first thing they do in the car is to stick their head out the window?   Windshields get dirty fast.  A neighbor once told that in the summer, he never washed his car as he let a good rainstorm wash it away.  Not true.  You see, raindrops are hygroscopic, they are essentially bonded not only because of the elements contained in them, but by the dirt in the center of a raindrop.  Don’t believe me?  Check out your windshield after a summer rain.  Your windshield will be littered with dirt specks and spots – all courtesy of those raindrops. Dirty windshields are also caused by the winter elements, road salt, bug parts, and special  gifts from our feathered friends that fly above.  Anyway, it is vital that your keep your wiper blades fresh so that they do not simply smear dirt, salt, bug parts, and  bird droppings across your windshield and obscuring your view.  Just a safety tip from your non-mechanic professional.

In classrooms, students sometimes see the white board as one messy windshield. Teaching and learning isn’t always clean.  Sometimes it is downright messy.  The concepts you are presenting are blurry at best to some students.  The skills that you are trying to teach are as clear as mud to others.  Think of your teaching methods are a set of wiper blades. Maybe it is time to change them.  The concept is to make things clear for the students.  We can only do so if we are certain that our methodology is getting the job done.  So, check your wiper blades.  That would be in the form of informal assessments and formative assessments.  You have to actually use this data for self-inspection of YOUR teaching methods.   But the book says that it is time to move on.  The book isn’t being assessed; the kids are.  Moving on just muddies up the windshield even more. If your students are not getting it, if progress just isn’t being made, then the onus is on us to make it more clear.  You simply cannot move on if the educational windshield is dirty.   Only upon a good self-inspection we will be able to determine if what we are doing is working. Are the kids clearly getting it?  If not, it’s time to check your wiper blades.

The Browns host the Cincinnati Bengals on the shores of Lake Erie in Round II of “The Battle of Ohio”.  The last round was as pretty as my 7^th grade school picture. U-G-L-Y, we don’t have an alibi.