Chiggerticky

...about that time a white momma went to teach in a black school, and how it changed Chigger’s life late in the game. Thanks for listening. C’mon wid it!   MUSIC: Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY   Outro: “Step Aside, Please” by CHIGGERTICKY

Teacher Rule #18: “Never predict a student’s future.” Chigger goes back 53 years to a torrid day in tenth grade when his English teacher told a story on herself. Thanks for listening. C’mon wid it!   MUSIC: Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY   Outro: “Graymont Avenue” by CHIGGERTICKY including a seven-second snippet of “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” performed by THE TEMPTATIONS (Eddie Kendri...

“The only thing we have to fear is the LOSS of our fears.” Chigger ponders his own bastardization of FDR’s famous line. Thanks for listening. C’mon wid it!   MUSIC: Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY   Outro: “Strolling with the Phantom” by CHIGGERTICKY

Chigger finds heaven in a dive bar in the late 1970s. Thanks for listening. C’mon wid it!   MUSIC: Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY   Outro: “Air Devils Inn” by CHIGGERTICKY  

Chigger’s ancestry holds a true tale of murder and mystery from the early 2oth century, a story his grandmother tried to keep secret. But, as Shakespeare puts it in The Merchant of Venice, “...truth will come to light;  murder cannot be hid long …at the length    truth will out.“ * * * Thanks for listening. C’mon wid it!   MUSIC: Intro: “Yice Hole!” by CHIGGERTICKY   Outro: “Back of the Barn” by C...

[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 Tennes...

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 solv...

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...

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.” MU...

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 . . ....

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 ac...

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...

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 

Chiggerticky chronicles his unending struggle to shut up and listen.   OPENING VOICES:  Trigger warning  by Rick Dietrich;  “For the love of everything sacred….”  by Simon Thompson;  “Why don’t we listen to THEM?”  by Ernesto Sirolli  from his 17-minute TED Talk which  is well worth viewing.  I vibe with Sirolli. As he says in the talk,  Africa changed the course of his life for the better, as it...

A TRUE STORY OF RACE & RELIGION IN THE 1960s DEEP SOUTH   MUSIC  Intro: “Yice Hole!" by CHIGGERTICKY;  “Jesus Loves the Little Children” music by George F. Root, words by C. Herbert Woolston [public domain] “Praise Him, Praise Him! All Ye Little Children” words and music: Anonymous [public domain] Outro: “Jesus Loves the Little Children” performed (poorly) by CHIGGERTICKY FUN FACT: The melody to “...

About the time an Ape Man aimed the A-bomb at Chiggerticky.  MUSIC: Intro: “Yice Hole!”; Outro: “Mile-Long Midway.” ALL MUSIC BY CHIGGERTICKY.

There he was, a minister of the gospel, then the church sent him to Africa which led him out of the ministry!   This is a soft-opening preview of a podcast series that will begin on June 13, 2022.    MUSIC - Intro: "Yice Hole!"  Outro: "Five Points to Bessemer". ALL MUSIC BY CHIGGERTICKY.