Rocco Maiolo's Ramblings and Musings

I've tweeted, I've FB statussed (not a verb, I know) and I've had lots of conversations about this. I'm going all digital maudlin, but once I get it out of my system, I'll be done. I'll move on. I promise. But for this post, I'm going to have to write about what it's like teaching for 25 years and saying good-bye to anywhere from 100 to (yesterday) 183 kids every year. Do the math. For me that's around 4000 students, many of whom I've taught at least once or twice not to mention being with some of them through extra-curricular activities and field trips. Imagine building a relationship with a number of these kids and then 4 or 5 years later, they walk across a stage, grab a diploma and off they go into the bright or dark or gray unknown. A few of them break away from their friends and family to thank you; and then you don't see most of them... ever again. And 25 years later, how many of them can you possibly remember? Yesterday

my new educational blog: givemeonemoretrack.blogspot.ca Inaugural Post -- Autumn Change

I'm not sure how it happened, but my son turned nineteen a couple of months ago. We just saw a home video where he was three. The sixteen years in between were a blur. If there's a choice of being hard or easy on myself, I tend to go the former. So when my son, Joey, wants to go see a hockey game with me or -- just yesterday, he invited me to the Virgil Stampede -- I'm kind of shocked. I think, he likes me and wants to hang out with me. Really? This is going to sound cliche, but the fact is if I had to do it over again, I'd be way more encouraging, way less nagging; every time he said, "Dad, do you want to play EA Sports NHL?" I'd have said yes. Every time he was down about something, I'd have been way more patient. I would've listened instead of trying to give solutions. Last year, my daughter got married. For some reason, all our kids were home in early June including our married daughter and brand new son-in-law. A few days before our son