April 12 - Is that a fat joke?

Episode watched: Screech sees the future.

You know how Lisa and sometimes even Jessie, frantically eat when they are nervous or have an issue? Like when they are trying to study for Mr. Testaverde's exam and Lisa is eating an extra large chocolate bar in the locker room? Seriously, the locker room? That's probably the most disgusting place in any high school. Our smells like a combination of B.O, urine, sweaty socks and Axe body spray. 

Well, I have these friends who remind me that there's a fat joke right around every corner.  I appreciate when they fill me in on accidentally receiving a size 14 dress, how they eat boxes of Cheezits for desert or when their waiter brings them the wrong appetizers, they eat them anyway and ask for their original order as well.  I support them in their endeavors, I just encourage them to find better places to indulge.  Just remember, greasy and fatty foods lead to pimples, acne and Bertha.

Lesson learned: When getting talked to by a teacher, respond when appropriate by asking "Is that a fat joke?" Silences them every time. 

March 26-April3

For you "Year of the Bayside Tiger" purists out there, you may want to stop reading right now, maybe cancel you subscription or file your complaint with management.  For the rest of you who just appreciate a bit of Saved By the Bell in your life, please continue on.  It has come to my attention that during this horridly busy time of the year it is nearly impossible and overly stressful for me to do this every single day.  After much thought and deliberation and consulting with my lawyers, I have decided that I will continue on with this, but at my leisure.  If I can make 7 connections a week...wonderful. If I can only make 2 a week...equally as wonderful.  This is supposed to be fun and you know that if Saved By the Bell stops being fun, then life stops being fun. I apologize to those who expect greatness, but sometimes "okayness" is just as...okay.

March 26
Episode watched: none
Annie did her best "Running Zack" impression today when she competed in the National 1/2 Marathon in Washington D.C. and knocked 6 minutes off of her best time. I'm not sure if she channeled her Native American forefathers (which she has none of like Zack) or if she channeled the power of our nation's forefathers, but she certainly kicked butt and got an "A" in my book. 

April 1
Alright, so my dad gave me a little scare tonight at dinner when he told me that he watched an interview on CNN with Zack's old best friend from the show who is now blind and a practicing lawyer as well.  Of course all us (well, really just me) assumed that it was Mikey from the Ms. Bliss era and I became very concerned. I did a bunch of research and came up empty with this whole blindness this for Mikey, mostly because his current job is as a hockey official for the WCHA (the same conference the DU Pioneers play in, which may explain some terrible calls this season).  After a little more digging I found that it was, in fact, Weasel from the New Class of Saved By the Bell shows that is now blind and a practicing lawyer...really an incredible story, check out the link below. 
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2008-06-16-voa44-66752892.html?CFID=28

April 2
Today is my birthday...woohoo as much as I'm excited about birthdays, but I did get numerous posts, texts or messages that brought up Saved By the Bell. I also appreciated my friends who said they tried to think of something from SBtB, but were unsuccessful. Even that simple shout out is awesome and I'm glad that it has a presence in people's lives a little bit more now than before.  My cousin sent me the text "See you in Belding's Office for the surprise party" and I even got a video from some friends which I have linked below...kind of funny.

I also decided to wear my Bayside Tigers shirt out and about today, got a "Go Zack Morris" in the bathroom...not sure how to feel about that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_TUFpYVSzc&feature=related

Lesson learned: Must make life easier in areas that you can control...also, don't trust your father with pop culture information.

March 21-March 25 A Wild Week

March 21
Episode watched: U2 Concert
We had one of those lacrosse games where we just kind of rolled over and played dead. No energy, no enthusiasm and seemingly no desire. Our locker room meeting afterwards was a little bit of a reality check and come to Jesus conversation. I'm thinking I need to get a Mr. Belding in there giving the pre-game speech as long as he doesn't hurt anyone's knee on the way to the field. When you've only got 12 kids on your team, you need everyone to remain as healthy as humanly possible.

March 22
Episode watched: Party in Malibu
I watched "Waiting for Superman" tonight, still not entirely sure how I feel about the movie and the message. Not sure if I agree with what needs to be done with teacher unions or if the public school system really is failing American kids. Definitely a must watch movie for all teachers, parents and people who care about education.  I think Bayside had it right: small class sizes, numerous course offerings, student enrichment projects and a local gathering place for students. Maybe Geoffrey Canada could consult with Aaron Spelling and Mr. Belding about educational visions.

March 23
Episode watched: Palm Springs Wedding Part 1

Jessie (Elizabeth Berkely) was on the radio today being interviewed about her relationship with the other cast members and if they still kept in touch. Her response was that they still very much keep in contact like good high school friends. They call and text and keep up with each others' lives.

March 24
Episode watched: Lisa's Fashion Show

It's been a rather wild week at work and I can't necessarily elaborate on my personal feelings towards the issue in a public forum (would be happy to in a private forum) but I have put the link below so you can fill yourself in on what's going on in my office.  The students are trying to fight for their rights and what is important to them. Jessie did they very same thing on senior ditch day and the gang fought against the oil company when it was destroying the pond behind their school.
Link: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17704242


March 25
Episode watched: College Years: Mike's DateI got called out by one of my students today about not keeping up with my blog, so here you go JRod, I'm keeping up with as best I can. I'm glad I've got my students to keep me in check. He also told me it's okay if I even just write a sentence, but I better keep it going.  This sort of bullying will only last as long as you're my student (so like May 27th right?) Cool.

 Lesson learned: My school has been in the news 4 times this school year, how about yours?

March 20

Episode watched: none

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that we've all had one of those Tom Cruise + Risky Business moments at some time in our life right? Singing and dancing across the hard wood floor in sunglasses and a business shirt...or at least we've thought about it.  Even Screech, Zack and Slater have one of these moments when Screech's mom is out of town. I'm going to let you all in on a little secret, I have honestly never done this. But I'm thinking about it, on a lazy Sunday like this, it's a possibility in the near future (like within the year) I might find myself "singing" and "dancing" across my hardwood floor. Yet I must put "singing" and "dancing" in quotation marks as my interpretation of singing and dancing is much like Rebecca Black's interpretation of singing.

Lesson learned: After Friday, comes Saturday and Sunday.

*If you don't understand the reference, look it up on Youtube.

March 19

Episode watched: None

Our friends have one of the most awesome babies/toddlers/kids ever. We spent the evening at his 2nd birthday party and he's a totally cool kid (besides the fact that he's going to grow up a staunch Florida Gator supporter), but ever since they had him I think I've put him on the top of my list of coolest kids ever. I just have to make sure he grows up playing lacrosse, not baseball. The funny part of the party is that Annie and I were severely outnumbered by married couples and little kids. We're used to it, but it reminds me of the parenting experiment that the gang has when they are "married" to each other and have kids. The thing I don't understand about that episode is how is Mr. Belding a teacher? That man wears far too many hats, I'm thinking he needs an assistant principal or two.

Lesson learned: Cookie cakes are delicious...always.

March 14-18

I'm thinking that during this busy time of year that these weekly blogs will be the norm or else this blog won't happen at all. Feeling the pressure for sure and hoping this makes it a whole year.

March 14
Episode watched: Zack Attack
The situation in Japan is very serious and very scary, but whenever they mention the 9.0 earthquake I am reminded of the earthquake episode in SBtB and that's when Zack and Tori deliver Mr. Belding's baby. It's amazing how many secret hallways and back parts of Bayside that we so rarely saw.

March 15
Episode watched: Jessie's stepbrother
During the episode when engineers strike oil at Bayside, they are in the process of building a new football field. These days a lot of high school are receiving new turf fields and some of them even have lights so games can be played later. It would have been nice to have one of those new fields at my school this evening when my lacrosse team decided that they wanted to take our game into quadruple overtime and nearly run out of daylight...in case you care, we lost.

March 16
Episode watched: The Love Machine
Have you ever noticed how much gambling, betting and wagering occurs throughout the years in SBtB? Whether it was Mr. Carosi offering a discount on his car to Zack if they won the volleyball tournament or Zack and Slater betting on girls, a heck of a lot of it happens for high school students. I say this as I sit with my 4 different brackets open trying to figure out how I will be successful for once during March Madness.

March 17
Episode watched: The Chess Match
As the most wonderful weekend of the year begins, March Madness, I am nostalgic of Zack Morris's very short, but very important basketball career. It's amazing that in that group of 6 high school students they had the basketball star, track star, football star, wrestling star, chess star and the leaders of the girl's swim team and cheerleaders. Now that's what I call involvement. I also call that a clique.

March 18
Episode watched: Greek Life
During one of my classes, one of my students referred to herself as "Vally" and she told me that she calls her best friend "Socks", but what I heard was "Sucks". So I told her that's funny "Vally Sucks" just like like in Saved By the Bell the rival school is known as Valley. She gave me the usual high school WTF face.

Lesson learned: Work productivity is severely impaired during March Madness.

March 9-March 13

Episodes watched: Running Zack and Glee Club

*Things have been too crazy to post everyday some I'm just going to summarize each day as briefly as possible.

March 9
An email I received today: "Zack reminds me of you...in that everything he owns in his damn closet in one color...GREEN. He was imagining Kelly today and she was standing in his closet saying 'wear this one Zack. I love how this color looks on you.' But she really doesn't have a choice because it's the only color he wears. This is also the episode where Belding tries to hangout with the guys b/c they are all fighting with their girls."

March 10
Heard on Mike and Mike this morning:
"Dwayne Wayde refuses to watch TV anymore because he is sick of hearing the media talk about how he cried. (cue in SBtB theme song) Why doesn't he just watch Saved By the Bell? Your older brother is on it Mike."

March 11
A couple wonderful friends of mine sent me a "Bayside Pride" shirt and I rocked the hell out of it today. It's awesome and ads to a nice rotation with the other Bayside shirt.

March 12
We notched our first victory today for the season, kind of feels like Screech when Lisa kisses him on the cheek during the Valentine's day episode. We're playing that underdog role for the season, we're skinny and quirky, but persistence is key and eventually we'll get what we want.

March 13
Remember when the gang worked at the Teen Line and people could call in for help? I'm thinking that a lot of Colorado Buffs basketball fans will be looking for a similar outlet for their emotions, being that the Buffs got completely dissed by the NCAA Tournament and left out of the 68 team bracket...that's a rough Sunday.

Lesson learned: Less time equals fewer words.