Several weeks ago, Greg Farr posted some anecdotes from his personal disciplinary files, situations where a sense of humor and a light slap on the wrist made for better discipline than a fit of apoplexy and a suspension would’ve. (Toldja I’d get to this, Greg.)

He concludes with the advice to kinda chill out, loosen up, enjoy the job, and watch as discipline becomes easier. In his own words:

I’m calling on all administrators to remind their teachers:

LIGHTEN UP!! IT’S OK TO HAVE FUN AT SCHOOL…IT’S OK TO LAUGH IN THE CLASSROOM!

To which I reply, yeah, but for most new teachers, it’s easier to shoulder press a Buick.

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Like it says. Awhile back I posted a deconstruction of your garden variety great teacher, which included among its parts “the pop culture scholar.” From his most recent LeaderTalk post, I can only assume that Greg has been obsessed by my post ever since he read it.

Summarized brusquely, he talks of iPod ownership as a way to stay relevant to his kids and concludes with a Scarlett O’Hara-esque cry that he will never go obsolete again.

I’m convinced there’s an RSS feed to inform every slice of a great teacher and on the off chance the tragically unhip teachers among us (oh no, not you) would like to bolster their pop cultural I.Q., here they are:

The iTunes Music Store Feeds: Including the top ten songs/abums purchased for the week.

Last.fm’s Music Feeds: Less flash-in-the-pan-y than the iTunes feeds. It’s what people are actually listening to, rather than what they’ve just bought.

Just toss those in and hold on tight.

[The author here almost posts his last.fm screen i.d. but, recalling his brief, regrettable, and totally chart-altering dance with Fall Out Boy earlier this year, thinks better of it.]

Hey! Anyone have a last.fm screen i.d. to share? I mean, I don’t, but I’m always curious (for example) if TMAO supplements his strict diet of obscure Floridian punk with a little power pop, or if Mr. C is getting in as much hyphy as a Yay Area teacher oughtta.

Shame.

This ratio runs through my head on an hourly basis. It rivals the first ratio in importance and, for me, is even harder to implement.

Nothing has kept me on the safer side of Mr. C’s Continuum to Burnout than that ratio there, which I try to keep as close to zero as possible.

The easiest way, of course, is never to become frustrated. But, psh, c’mon, right?

So here’s the general ethos you can pull from the ratio: if a student is intentionally trying piss me off, push my buttons, get me riled up, face steaming, temperature rising, she’s going to work really hard for that show.

Illustrative Anecdote #1:

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