Chiggerticky

[This episode contains a story that some may find offensive.]
A seemingly benign eighth-grade boy strikes a blow against The Man and becomes a martyr in Chigger's memory.
MUSIC:
Intro:
"Yice Hole!"
by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro:
"Stickin' It to the Man!"
by CHIGGERTICKY
 

Chigger is sent on a mission from God to Indiana farmland, which at first seems like a trip into the Twilight Zone.
But blessings lurk therein!
MUSIC:
Intro:
"Yice Hole!"
by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro:
"Down at the Two-Pump Texaco"
by CHIGGERTICKY
 

In this episode Chigger explores the delicate matter of his recovery from college football fandom. Things don’t turn out quite as he expected.
MUSIC:
Intro - “Yice Hole” by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro - “The Hueytown Symphony Plays ‘Rocky Top’” -- composed by Felice and Boudleau Bryant, and then very poorly performed by CHIGGERTICKY
Play-by-Play Excerpt by the late, great John Ward, the Voice of the Tennessee Vols

You can teach a lesson, but you can’t control how students apply it. In fact, I get a kick out of watching  students take to heart a lesson that’s meant to bolster the status quo, and then turn it around to challenge the status quo.
To be clear, I don’t want students using their learning to destroy. I do, however, want them to push the boundaries, to think creatively about how old lessons can solve new problems
This episode of the Chiggerticky podcast briefly investigates three situations in which students learn lessons and apply them in ways their teachers didn’t anticipate. I like this kind of stuff because, frankly, civilization depends on new applications of old lessons. Call it creative problem solving.
C’mon wid it!
MUSIC:
Intro - “Yice Hole!”  by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro - “Shape Up or Flip Out” by CHIGGERTiCKY

A story of paying it forward with movies, the English language, and lots of love. 
This is episode number 10 of the Chiggerticky Podcast. If you’ve missed any, click on ANY of the links below to find the full set of 10. 
Chiggerticky on Apple Podcasts
Chiggerticky on Google Podcasts
Chiggerticky on Spotify
Chiggerticky on Podbean
Chiggerticky’s going to take a brief break for a couple of weeks in order to get his teaching legs back under him for the 2022-23 academic year.
But please stick around. He WILL return with more nutty stories. In the meantime, shoot him an email at chiggerticky@gmail.com; visit the website Chiggerticky.com; or harass him on social media by searching the word “Chiggerticky” on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Instagram.
C'mon wid it!
 
THIS EPISODE’S MUSIC
Intro - “Yice Hole” by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro - “Pike’s Funeral” by CHIGGERTICKY

Middle-school teachers are sometimes tempted to ask students, “What planet did you come from?”  The adolescent brain can, after all, seem alien to adults. 
In this week’s podcast we hear stories that dip into scientific reasons for the space-cadettery of adolescence, and how knowledge of this science can help teachers and parents hold onto composure when kids start acting like “absolute twits.”
MUSIC:
Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro: “Breaking out of Detention” by CHIGGERTICKY
Sources: 
The adolescent brain (Khan Academy):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fa8U6BkhNo&t=3s
Myelination and the brain (Khan Academy):
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/organ-systems/neuron-membrane-potentials/v/effects-of-axon-diameter-and-myelination
Myelination and synaptic pruning (Lumen Learning)
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-lifespandevelopment/chapter/brain-development-during-adolescence/
 

How easy it is to find fault in others, even as we’re genuinely oblivious that those same faults flash from ourselves like neon signs.
Today’s episode contains three little stories in which proud people are “hoisted by their own petards.” 
Incidentally, that phrase, which is now cliché, was first penned by Shakespeare in Hamlet. Its general meaning is “to be blown up by one’s own bomb.”  But . . . 
The French word for “fart” is pétarade, and therein lies the root of the word that has come to English as “petard.” 
So, in essence, to be hoisted by one’s own petard is to be launched by one’s own fart. And that’s kind of what we do when we criticize others for displaying faults that we ourselves display.
Don't forget to visit the website https://chiggerticky.com/ for more harebrained commentary.
MUSIC:
Intro - “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro - “Rickwood Field” by CHIGGERTICKY

He goes from preaching to meddling. Pivoting on this chart
Chiggerticky hypothesizes that major problems in public education root to the fact that students are not considered in a realistic way when educational policy is created.
You can find sources HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Agree? Disagree? Let Chiggerticky know by emailing him at chiggerticky@gmail.com or by posting on one of his social media accounts which can be found by searching the word “chiggerticky”
MUSIC:
Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY
Outro: “Ensley Highland” by CHIGGERTICKY

When bad fortune becomes good fortune. A tale of shoes and Latin.
MUSIC
Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY, with brief audio of Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee) in 1989 Nike commercial “It’s gotta be the shoes!” with Michael Jordan;
Outro: “I Died Using Latin” by CHIGGERTICKY, with brief audio of dialogue between Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) and Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) in the 1993 film Tombstone. 
This episode is dedicated with love to the memory of Miss Dorothy Hortenstine.
 

Teaching converts Chiggerticky from missionary to anthropologist. 
 
Here are two heroes cited in this episode:
MUSIC
Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY (with 5-second opening of “School Days” by Chuck Berry)
Outro: “The Loping Redneck” by CHIGGERTICKY