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...

Today I was driving into work by myself and I had one of those thought over-dose moments. I have a friend who actually wakes up in the middle of the night with thought-overdrive. He can't get back to sleep, so he goes to a coffee shop or his office and journals. I like my sleep, so I'm not quite that radical. My speed is when a thought percolates long enough and it starts to take shape, it becomes a blog post. A charmed life. I know it's misquoted; it's from Macbeth of whose main character, Macbeth, it is said -- pejoratively -- that he has a charmed life. Ie. he thinks he's invincible because of certain equivocal prophecies given to him by three nasty witches. That's not the kind of charmed life I'm thinking of. Several times this week -- and on the drive into work -- the thought occurred to me that I'm a very happy (aka blessed) man. My wife and I are now empty nest; the house is quiet and it stays relatively mess-free. Although I miss our ki...

Check out my daughter's songs http://kaylamaiolo.tumblr.com/ Dad is very proud of her!

I was tooling around on the internet the other day and came across this (a warning from a large US fundamentalist Christian organization): "The book's [Harry Potter, The Sorcerer's Stone ] discussion guide ...implies that we can find out truths about bravery, loyalty and the power of love by reading imaginary fiction." Okay, this is so bizarre that I need to clarify that this group is criticizing the discussion guide for implying that readers can learn important ideas from "imaginary" fiction. Let's leave the phrase "Imaginary" fiction aside for a moment and ask really? about the rest of the statement. I can only guess that fiction is meant for what? Just entertainment or escapism? Or is all fiction -- imaginary fiction -- totally evil? It's mind-boggling. So what kind of fiction discussion guides are they okay with? Discussion guides that ask questions like, um, I dunno, "What colour hair does the main character have? And ...

No one is ever prepared to have his first daughter get married. a child and that child’s child unprepared unsolicited undone by water and blood a child and that child’s child taking a first step first bike first backpack boyfriend trip grad another grad unprepared unsolicited undone by time and memory a child and that child’s child giving her my arm giving her away with a smile a kiss and a photo unprepared unsolicited undone by loss and joy