The View from Buzby Beach

  Last Thursday, our Governor declared that schools, offices, and stores should drop their mask mandates and move to voluntary masking for those who still prefer to be protected and protect others. As a result, my principal, after polling the staff and parents, announced that beginning February 28, our school would become a mask optional facility. Interestingly enough, because of this change, we are having to update our procedure for how we handle class-wide and school-wide quarantines.  We have to do this because, though we haven't had a single case of COVID transmission traced to our school since we went back to in-person learning in August of 2020, we anticipate eliminating masks could possibly result in more than a few. What gets to me is the flawed logic behind eliminating the masks.  Anti-maskers claim students are being adversely affected by having to wear masks. Valid scientific studies show otherwise. National Geographic has an excellent article on th...

    What is Literary Necessititus you ask?  This is the phrase K and I use to explain some of the more ridiculous plot devices used in movies and TV shows to keep the story moving. We enjoy pointing out such far-fetched plot devices, especially in Hallmark mystery movies.  Why the Hallmark movies? Because the writers of those movies often have no clue as to how something would be handled in the real world and resort to bizarre happenstance to explain why what happened did happen where it happened and when it happened just when the right person was there to see it happen.  Hallmark isn't the only regular employer of Literary Necessititus. Most cop and detective shows, as well as medical shows, use it a lot.  You'll know you're seeing it in action when you find yourself thinking or saying, "That would never happen that way in real life."  Watch for it. Give yourself a pat on the back when you catch them at it.

  When my missus was expecting each of our sons, she went into a frenzy of house cleaning and rearranging both her and my mother explained as the Nesting Syndrome. According to them, and others I've broached the subject with, Nesting Syndrome is common among expectant mothers.  My missus and I are now well beyond having children. Yet, when one of our sons is coming for a visit, she slips into Nesting Mode and begins to clean the house from top to bottom, including steam cleaning the carpets to reduce the "dog" smell. It is important to note that both our boys grew up with dogs in the house and the dog smell probably smells like home to them.  Son 2 is coming home today so that we can celebrate his 26th Birthday. My missus has been in nesting mode since waking up this morning. Of course, she insists I do my part. My part is the yucky part and the boring part. The yucky part is cleaning the bathrooms. The boring part is dusting the living room. She takes care o...

  Two playful cats to represent Twos-day, so called because the short-hand for the date is 2/2/22. I started my students off with a fun handout to complete based on multiplying by 2. There were several activities on the handout and some required the students to think over very carefully how to represent multiplication by 2 to solve the activity. The students seemed to enjoy completing the puzzles. Today's math lesson on comparing fractions with unlike denominators wasn't as big a hit. We had been building up to it by studying equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions. Most recently, we compared fractions with like denominators. I assured the kids that they already possessed the knowledge they needed to accomplish today's objective because they understood how to calculate equivalent fractions and how to compare fractions with like denominators. All they needed to do was combine the two skills to complete the today's exercises. Most of them picked up on it right away...