Porqupine Gallery

The average porcupine is 18 inches tall and weighs 14 pounds. some porcupines have more than 40,000 skills. Porcupines grow all through life. so an old porcupine is generally the heaviest of all. Male and female porcupines resemble each other. Their sex cannot be told by casual examination, and how would you casually examine a porcupine anyway? When they are small, they are verytiny, they fit in the palm of your hand. Their quills are soft. They are easily handled. If his quill falls in your sleeve, don't pull it out, There is the Chronic Porcupine: Chronic Porcupine is a sticky situation, a difficult person that is bad and just gets worse. You find yourself dreading porcupine encounters. - But what do we do about it. We plan for it. and The Situational Porcupine: There is the situational porcupine. This is the person or situation which usually causes no problem, but now today, they lose their temper, or someone hurts your feelings. If it is a situational porcupine, you can deal with it.

There are five things you can do when you encounter a porcupine

1. CHANGE IT
2. ACCEPT IT AND LIVE WITH IT
3. GET TO KNOW IT
4. CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD IT
5. WALK AWAY AND FORGET IT

How do we know what sort of porcupine it is and how we are to deal with it? 2)ASK QUESTIONS. ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS AND REALLY LISTEN TO THE ANSWER.

Letters from Teachers:

The following letter comes from former teacher, Patty Donovan:

“A few years after I stopped teaching middle-school language arts to start raising our tribe, I received a letter from a former student. I had last seen her as an eighth-grader; now she was a junior in high school. Michelle was every teacher's dream -- bright, creative, self-motivated.Her letter began: "Dear Mrs. Donovan, I hope you're doing well. I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate all you taught us in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. The English drills have helped me become a better writer. I still remember all of the prepositions since we sang them to 'Dashing Through the Snow.'

How proud I was that someone would take the time to let me know I had taught her well and that the effort mattered. I continued reading:

"Not only were you a great teacher, but you were also a wonderful person. You cared about every student and always kept a sense of humor. You are still my favorite teacher! Love, Michelle."

Suitable for framing, I thought. What a lovely tribute to add to my now Dr. Seuss-filled days. Gloating, I was.

Then came the letter's closing line: "P.S. Could you please respond quickly? This is for a grade."

Patty Donovan is in her fourteenth year of writing a family living column for the Nashua, N.H. Herald, lives and writes in Dallas, Texas
Talk about knowing how to adjust to change.

Gordon Kirkland is a very distinguished writer who lectures all around the country:

I often give credit to my English teacher in my senior year of high school for my being a writer today. Every kid in North America deserves to have at least one Pat Cole step into their lives. She taught me a valuable lesson that changed my life and continues to change it even today.

It wasn't anything particularly earth shattering. It was simply that writers weren't all old dead people from England. School curriculums in the late 60's and early 70's were filled with the writings of people like Dickens, Dunne, Hardy and a lot of other dead people who had little if anything in common with those times. Pat introduced me to writers, many of whom were only a few years older that I was at the time, who had stories to tell and were finding ways to tell them. It was done outside of the school curriculum by taking me, and a few others who were interested to meet with writers like Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Farley Mowat, Dennis Lee and numerous others, when they would come through our city on their book tours.

Teachers have an opportunity to change their students, but only if they share anb enthusiasm for their work, their subject matter and their students. There aren't enough Pat Coles to go around.

Gordon Kirkland is a writer and columnist.

Teacher loves Charlie Brown

My best friend in high school looked at my schedule for the semester. "Oh, too bad, Suzy," she said sympathetically, "You've got Mrs. Hoyt for English Composition. Bummer! I heard she’s REALLY tough."

Mrs. Hoyt was the older, no-nonsense Composition teacher. She was known to be a hard grader. Word in the halls from upper classman was that she gave LOTS of homework and was a stickler for details. "Oh, that's o.k, I’m tough, too," I replied nonchalantly. . She was a tough grader and a no-nonsense teacher. The course was clearly lined out with expectations of the student accountability. Though I didn’t like it, even the teenager in me realized she was a very smart, well-organized teacher. I secretly enjoyed writing, so I listened, though I tried not to let it show. There was no way that I would come out of her class and announce to my friends, “Yah! I really enjoyed Mrs. Hoyt’s class today!” The assignment was an essay using either the inductive or deductive style of writing. She said any topic was acceptable, so I decided to test her. I wrote my essay on "Why Charlie Brown Should Be Admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame." I was sure I'd get it back and have to redo it, because the topic was silly. But it would be a joke on Mrs. Hoyt and it would be a great story to tell in the halls.

Two days later when the papers had been corrected, Mrs. Hoyt said sternly, "Many of you did not follow the directions. There was one composition, however, that was not only well written, but was also quite amusing. Let me read it to you."

It was my treatise on Charlie Brown! My jaw dropped slightly as she read it aloud. My jaw dropped to the floor when usually serious Mrs. Hoyt chuckled as she read it. "Very well done," she said as she handed me back the composition with a large "A" on it.

The joke had backfired in a most remarkable way. Instead of being chastised, I was being praised.
Now, thirty years later, I still write essays. Some people call my work "amusing and well written," and I know why.

It’s because a small part of me still writes so that Mrs. Hoyt would be proud.

Suzy Wurtz lives and writes in Gibbon, MN.
(Click here for her web site www.suzywurtz.com )

Trouble with Fractions

Jon Higley has been a teacher for 25 years. Jon observes that particular stressors have come from recent pressures like No Child Left Behind, where new strategies and expectations are added, but nothing is ever taken away off "the plate". The teachers he remembers were a Mrs. Wilson who went the extra mile to do her best to teach him how to work with fractions in sixth grade. While it was a real struggle for him to grasp some of the concepts then, it made an indelible impression on him that she really cared he understood how to convert them because she was so patient and persistent with me. Then, there was Mr. Farland he had in high school who taught Social Studies. It wasn’t so much his teaching, but his integrity as someone who was dedicated to doing the best job and maintaining a high standard of expectation from all of his classes. Years later, he went and found both of them to specifically let them know how much he appreciated their work as his teacher. It must have made enough of an impression that it got him into the profession after his military stint.

Jon Higley is a 8th grade middle-school science teacher...
He is also a member of the North American Eagle (http://www.landspeed.com), a land speed project team which is currently preparing to challenge the world record by going faster than the current record of 763 mph. The project's goal is to go 800 mph - that's on land mind you. He’s learned about fractions.

MEET LENORE CLEM: "The Heart Lady of Fox Island" who turns out basketfulls of soft, cuddly hearts at the rate of five an hour. She has distributed 80,000 of these hearts to hostpitals, hospice and other organizations around the world. The hearts can be shared but they can never be sold.

For information about Lenore's Hearts
call 253-582-4565

1. Start a Laughter Diary. Any small, handy notebook will do. Small enough to carry around. Think of your eyes as a camera. Take in events, put a funny twist on them and write them down. Do it daily.

2. Start a humor file. Any folder where you collect every humorous item that appeals to you. Be ruthless. Let nothing get away.

3. Add a photo album in which you make your own collection of cartoons, poems, etc, to leaf through in moments of deep stress.

4. Collect funny bumper stickers, signs, posters, novelties, toys, buttons, T-shirts and cartoons. If you don't know what to do with the T-shirts you could sew them together and make a funny quilt. I've seen it done. (Also, T-shirts make wonderful bucket seat covers for your sports car. Keeps seat cool and you can change for message of the day.)

5. Help to create Reverse Paranoia - people who suspect the world is out to get them good. Do spontaneous or unexpected good deeds for friends - or people who don't even know you.

6. Keep a mirror by the phone at home or work. Watch your face as you talk. Make faces if it seems appropriate. Collect telephone aerobics to do as you talk.

7. Have some secret, valve release, humor items that you can use to keep your cool under stress. Like a mirror in the bottom of a drawer where you can be talking on the phone, pull it out and make rude faces, and close it right up again.

8. Compose a "fight song" for company or home. Sing it with vigor when you wake up in the morning to get in the mood for the day.

9. Do Ho-Ho roebics. Every morning, stand in front of the mirror. Look at yourself and go "Ho, ho, ho!" for at least one minute. Do this daily 'til one morning you start laughing spontaneously.

10. Plan ahead for difficult moments every day. Think of specific humorous things you will do at obvious moments during the day to give yourself a lift. Like setting aside a special treat for just that moment, or having a blank cartoon you can write AWFUL captions on.

11. Keep a plastic page hung in the shower with a waterproof pen for doodling in secret.

12. Always carry bubble liquid around so you can "bubble up" in traffic, or other tense situations.

13. Begin to ask yourself, "What would happen if?" or "Would it be funny if she had said?" or "For a minute there, what I thought was going to happen was...".

14. If you have a choice between smiling or frowning, smile. If you can.

15. At work, post baby pictures of staff members with a prize for the person who correctly identifies the most "babies."

16. Put pictures or cartoons in mason jars and put lids on them. (You can put a scrap of fabric in the lid if you want to be fancy.) Stack them right down the middle of the table or on your desk. Change contents regularly. People won't be able to resist picking them up and playing with them, or talking about them.

17. Make someone in need of cheering - maybe yourself - a baloon bouquet. Tuck tiny notes or toys into balloons before you blow them up. Then, attach each balloon to a stick or dowel and arrange in a vase. They'll look cheerful, and anyone who needs a lift of spirit can break a balloon and enjoy.

18. Have a collection of stress release toys on hand, such as the Pop-eyed Martian, Celebrated Boxing Puppet, etc. Don't let the kids play with them. These are very important toys. Bring them out in moments of high stress and enjoy them. A source for these items is Archie MacPhee in Seattle. Catalog request line: 1-206-782-5737. Mail order line: 1-206-782-2344.

19. Re-write memos, annoying letters, or even your life story. How would Neil Simon do it? Groucho Marx? There really is a lot of humor we miss in our daily lives. Charlie Chaplain's wonderful sketch about eating his shoe was born of his family life with impoverished, alcoholic parents, when he often went hungry.

20. Keep a "Gifts of the Spirit Box." Essential if you're at home and don't get out much. Whenever you see something pleasant, or something good happens, take a minute to write it down and pop it into a pretty gift wrapped box. On a bad day, take a minute to pour a cup of tea and sit down and read just a few from it. This will refresh your spirits. If you're taking care of someone, share it with them.

21. Knock their socks off with a personalized fortune cookie. Make wonderful gifts with a collection of personalized encouraging words in a fortune cookie. Easy to make. Just pop the cookie in the oven at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, quickly pull out the commercial fortune and substitute your own. Work just one or two at a time. They cool and harden again quickly.

Stardust Follies

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