soy el jefe

Semi-Annual Fitness Update

2011-11-13T19:41:00.001-06:00

Well, I guess it's about that time again to report on how we're doing on our fitness goals. I don't know if I ever reported on our goals, but we've come a long way since last January.

I started Crossfit in July of 2010, about a month and a half before our wedding. I probably weighed around 190, which is obvious if you look at some of our pictures.

I was pretty chunky in college, which is a sad fact that probably cost me a lot of dates -- not that I really care now (about the dates). The truth is, I did not know how to eat right. When me and Nathan would prepare hamburger helper or pasta roni, it never occured to me that there might be a better way. My meat intake was limited to visits to subway, and I think I mostly subsisted on carbohydrates.

Well, anyway, I came to Houston after college, and I just started eating even worse than in college, because I was making money and I guess I thought that's what single guys did. We eat out, we don't do dishes, we stay up late, I don't know, silly stuff like that. So I ate a lot of fast food, and even if I took my lunch to work, it was not healthy. That is where all of my money went my first year of teaching, probably. Unfortunately, I think it also caused me to be more stressed. I always wanted to pass out during class because my diet and exercise was horrible.

I remember one time in particular when Lisa and I were dating and I went down to the apartment gym to run on the treadmill. I could barely even run a mile, and I kept looking over at myself in the mirror, and I was just so wide. There is nothing good about that feeling.

I have cast out the first workout that I did at crossfit from my mind, because it was absolutely terrible. It was something like 5 rounds of a 400m run, 20 box jumps, 10 push ups, 20 air squats, or something similar to that. I just remember going on the run and doing some box jumps and when I was on my second round I just could not breathe. I thought I was going to die. They made me sign a liability form. It took me like three months to come back. They didn't think they'd ever see me again. It was pretty rough.

Well, fastforward to January, which is where I started this post in the first place, and I weighed 185. We started eating a diet called "The Zone", which is a really fantastic and balanced diet. It is based on the idea that you should eat carbs, fats, and proteins in harmony to reduce inflammation in your body. Did that for about 2 months and lost a good 15 pounds, but it requires a lot of weighing and measuring, and I was pretty burned out, so we started doing "Paleo". Paleo is a much simpler way to eat - it basically consists of meat, vegetables, good fats (olive oil, avocado, coconut oil, etc.), some fruits. Basically just eating really clean without the weighing and the measuring. That is the "diet" or lifestyle we still abide by for the most part.

In May, we did a Whole 30, which I probably mentioned sometime. That is a pretty sick 30 day cleansing where you eat nothing bad for 30 days. I'd recommend you check it out. It really changed our cravings and habits.

Well, I don't know when it happened, but I got down to 160, then dropped below 160 to about 157, which is where I am now, and I think that'd about where I should be. Still need to work off the last few pounds and work on building my muscle a little bit more, but I'm happy with the progress we've made in the last year.

Even if you don't have the time or money to go to a crossfit gym, or even to exercise, I still have to put in a plug for eating clean. The old way of eating processed foods and snacks all the time is not going to sustain our bodies in the long run. Lisa and I do not want to have cancer or diabetes or heart disease. We don't want our kids to either. My energy levels are pretty much stable, I don't fall almost asleep in class anymore, and I feel really good most of the time. Sure, we still have snacks now and again, but most of our diet is clean and that's what counts.

Of course none of this would be possible if it weren't for Lisa gently implying to me that I was a fatty back before we got married, and I guess I must've gently reciprocated, because she joined me in crossfitting and is the reason I eat so clean. She has also lost about 30 pounds. I'm very proud of her.

No pictures of me with my shirt off, because that would be pretty weird, but I'm doing pretty well! I look totally different from in high school or college. I'm not as "soft" as I once was, and I think that's a good thing!

May

With the new class in September

At the School Halloween party (I don't know why my belly looks funny, I think my sweater is just big)

Balloonar

2011-11-03T21:39:00.000-05:00

It's a mix of balloons and lunar (it was at the johnson space center). Just goes to show there are some cool things about Houston, especially in the perpetual summer (late October, November). It is cooling off a little bit, but we'll be in the 80s again soon.

not just random strangers, we went with friends!

I took all these pictures with hipstamatic, which turned out to be kind of a mistake, because a lot of the pictures were way bad. Some of them turned out pretty well though. We're really enjoying life here!

can you believe it's been six weeks?!

2011-09-28T18:16:00.001-05:00

This year is passing by quickly and it's hard to believe. On day one of school, I was like "these kids are going to drive me bazonkers!". Guess what? They have. They are totally crazy. At the same time, I think I might care about them more than my old class. I can't say I "like" them more, because they do drive me crazy sometimes, but I definitely care for them a lot more.

My class is so different from my class last year. Last year everyone was Hispanic. This year, I've got the following list of countries represented, growing day by day. I've got two from Iraq, one from Nepal, one from India, one and a half from Pakistan (the other half is from Azerbaijan), one from Somalia, three from Sudan, and the rest are a hodge-podge of Hispanics.

I've got 11 out of 23 reading on grade level. Maybe that statistic could be worse?

The issues I deal with in this class are also so different from my last class. In my last class, most students had two parents, or at least two parents in the picture, even if they visited them on the weekends. In this class, many of the kids only have one parent in the picture. One of my girls lost her Mom to cancer in 1st grade and lives with her Dad who smells of alcohol when I talk to him, and apparently yells a lot. One of my boys was with his mother when they found his father murdered in their home. One of my girls is extremely obese, and her mother weighs at least 300 pounds. Most of the homes have a lot of people living in them, so there's never much time for quiet. I have one student who apparently slept in the same bed as his mom until about 6 months ago (when she got a boyfriend) and acts like the biggest baby I've ever seen. Not just like "you're acting like a baby" type stuff, but major psychological issues. One of the kids from Sudan was probably starved as a child and I can hardly understand the poor kid when he talks (absolutely hilarious kid though).

Anyway, I could go on and talk about each of these kids. I probably will sometime. Teach for America has ended, but here I am, finally becoming a legit teacher, realizing what I need to do to teach these kids and what they need for success. It's tough, but I'm giving it my all, because these kids really need it. Not just a little bit like last year. These kids really need it.

farewell again, summer

2011-08-09T17:01:00.000-05:00

You might be surprised to find out that summer has quickly come and gone. I know that I was surprised to find this out the other day, and I've been mourning my loss ever since. This summer, out of some insecurity about the course of my life, I decided to take the GMAT. Now, for those who know me, you know that I have now mastered the main three standardized tests, the LSAT, the GRE, and now the GMAT. Indeed, I have semi-wasted three summers in studying for these tests, and have not even attended one credit of grad school!

This fall I am applying to graduate programs and we'll see what kinds of options we have. I will probably be applying for a few education programs, but mostly business programs. I like business and I think I am drawn toward it, especially if I am lucky enough to get a job where you don't just crunch numbers all day but actually get to work with people. That might require entrepreneurship. We'll see what happens. I guess I'll let you know in December or so.

As for summer ending, well, I knew this day would come. Summer school ended in a whirlwind. My superintendent resigned, then my principal resigned, then our secretary and other secretary moved to another school, then our 4th grade teacher resigned. I'm hoping to recognize someone when I show up tomorrow for training. Of course, with the promise of free food, I don't think it is particularly important if I know people or not.

I hope that maybe one of these summers I can spend working on a big project, such as a garden or farm, or restoring an automobile, with the mountains in the distance to gaze upon and a cool summer's breeze blowing my way. When I get tired of gardening, I'll go inside and sit down and punch away at my typewriter whatever it is that I've been thinking about. No internet, no tv, no smartphone, no noise from a street, no noise whatsoever except for the sounds of nature.

Well that, my friends, was not this summer. Lisa and I hardly even did anything cool except for our family reunion in Branson, which was fun, but short-lived I guess. Most of my days were spent studying. That's a good thing, after all, I needed to get a good score to be competitive this fall. But maybe there will be some summer that will be a bit more relaxing, or more peaceful, in years to come. A man has got to hope.

brink of disaster

2011-06-03T22:38:00.004-05:00

Lisa has been really into the whole hurricane / emergency preparedness thing since hurricane season is officially here and it's supposed to be an active season. We've gotten a pretty good start on 72 hour kits and food storage. Clearly we don't have a ton of room to store stuff. If you think of our apartment as 700 square feet (which it is), you'd be like, "Hey Jeff, how the heck do you store all that food storage in such a small space? But Lisa does not think in square feet because that only factors in 2 dimensional floor space. She definitely thinks in cubic measurements. Our roof is about 10 feet high, so I guess we're looking at 7,000 cubic feet in which to store our stuff. The closet and pantry are getting pretty close to brimming over, but the rest of the apartment is still in pretty good shape, for now.

So, what have we gotten so far? We started out with the church's "Food Storage Starter Kit", which gave us some 30 year oats and rice. Then we read the "How to Assemble a 72-hour Emergency Kit" pamphlet that the church makes and decided that we needed to get some backpacks. So we got backpacks for about 8 bucks each at Academy. Fortunately, even with the price restraints, we were able to avoid glittery school-girl backpacks. We bought ponchos (probably won't ever use this one). We bought some canned food - tuna, chicken, green beans, black beans. We bought a sewing kit. We bought a camping stove in case we're ever stuck in the house with no electricity. We bought one of those emergency blankets that no one outside of the wilderness survival merit badge has ever used. We even bought some bottled water that we are hiding behind the TV stand. Lisa could give a more detailed list I'm sure. We made some good progress.

My favorite purchase so far has to be the Mag Light. I've always dreamt of having one. When I was young, we used to always talk about how police used their Mag Lights to, I don't know, look tough and stuff. My childhood friend and iconic tough guy Stephen Zincke always had a Mag Light. I bet he still does. Mag Lights will never let you down, unlike every other flashlight you've bought. Other flashlights never work after a year or so. I'm really excited for a chance to use my new light. I'm almost hoping that something crazy happens at some point just so I can feel like a man hauling around my 10 pound flashlight, shining it in people's faces, and asking if everything is alright. Or, if I have to, using it to whack someone on the head if they're trying to steal my tuna.

I don't know if I believe so much in a 72 hour kit as a longer-term food storage supply, but it will be nice to have money and important documents in a central place, along with some food, just in case we do ever want to get out of here fast. I respect Lisa for her attempts to get us ready for disaster, even despite the money and space. Heaven knows I'm not very helpful at times with this project. I did hide the water behind the TV stand, but I am usually like the people who made fun of Noah for building an ark. It's nice to know that one part of our little family has their head on straight.

Gordon B. Hinckley:

“The best place to have some food set aside is within our homes. …

“We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week’s food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months. … I fear that so many feel that a long-term food supply is so far beyond their reach that they make no effort at all.

“Begin in a small way, … and gradually build toward a reasonable objective.”

another last day of school

2011-06-02T20:51:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day of my second year of teaching school. I am pretty tired of teaching, I shouldn't lie, and I am stuck in this difficult place trying to figure out if I'm burned out because it is because it's the end of the year or because I need to find a new career. Either way, Teach for America is a two year commitment, so I feel like now that my two years are up, I'm free to stay another year (or 20) or to move on. And that's a nice feeling.

The last two years have been a really good experience for me. I have progressed a lot as a person and improved a lot as a teacher. I have fallen head-over-heels for a bunch of 8 and 9 year old kids who always talk while I'm talking. I've achieved the work-life balance that I have sought throughout college and "singledom". I have made an impact in many lives. 21 lives to be exact.

I left the kids with journals and wrote a little message inside of each one. I put a picture me (their teacher) and the student so that they can remember what we looked like when we were young. I wrote my email address for them and told them to get in touch with me once they are old enough to email. I won't be in Houston by the time they have email addresses, I'm pretty sure of that. I told them that if they ever needed anything to let me know and I would help them.

Part of my dream in my life and the reason that I read a lot of books about investments and business and things like that is because I want to earn enough money to do good in my life. I would like to earn enough money that I can help these 21 kids (and others) overcome what is a very bad neighborhood in Houston and to help with college and other extracurricular things they would like to do, that they wouldn't have the chance to do otherwise. I know that I will need about a million dollars to really be able to impact a life financially, which might be a longshot, but it's a goal.

We start summer school on Monday and I am already wondering how I am going to go from teaching my same kids for two years into teaching a whole new group of kids. The one advantage I do have is that I've been through the curriculum already and know a lot of the strategies that they'll need to be successful on the TAKS test and to improve in their reading and math skills.

Speaking of TAKS, did I mention that we got some great results? In math we had 95% passing and 44% commended. In reading, we had 100% passing and 66% commended. Good enough for exemplary, though my heart does go out to the one child, Jacob, who didn't end up passing math (failed by one question). He will probably get placed in 4th grade but we haven't told him that yet to keep the suspense real for him.

I am sad to see the end of the year go. I am pretty sure that the kids haven't thought twice about it (especially because they're back in summer school on Monday), but for me it is certainly bittersweet. I have spent so many hours working and generating the best education that I could for these kids. Now, I have to say goodbye and pass on all of the hard work that I've done to other teachers. That's the bitter part. The sweet part is that I have two years of photos and memories that will never die. I have the smiles and laughs of the kids and the memory of the look in their eyes when something clicks and they say, "Oh! Now I get it!", and they actually do. That's the kind of thing that will never get old for me. So yeah, it's bittersweet. Hopefully I can learn to love my next set of kids in the same way that I have learned to love these.

You can tell we're really good at making silly faces.

That's them! That's my class.

Minus Matthew who was out due to an ankle injury.

Adios, class of 2020!

today is day 16

2011-05-16T18:00:00.002-05:00

We have been doing the whole 30. It is a cleansing type of paleo diet. It is the hardest food-related thing I've ever done. The hardest part for me is that we are not eating any sugar.

Since January we've both been eating really well and exercising about three times a week at our local Crossfit affiliate. It is changing our lives.

My weight has dropped a lot. Last year at my peak, would you believe it, I was at 195. January 1 I was at 185. Today I'm at around 163, although I haven't weighed in in a while. I'm about done with weight loss. Now I need to develop strength.

It has been a wonderful experience for Lisa and me. Lisa is looking fantastic. I'm glad we have each other to rag on the other one when we're eating too much fruit and stuff. I never could've made it through something like this alone. Which is, strangely enough, what most people tell me. Agreed, no one could do it alone. But find a partner and jump on the bandwagon! We feel great.

receding.....

2011-05-15T21:03:00.001-05:00

It has been a while since I've wanted to write anything but this morning in the shower I felt inclined so... here it goes.

When I was young and until freshman year in college, I had a pretty fair amount of hair. I don't think I could stick three fingers on my forehead. If I could, I didn't have any real indication that I was balding.

Now I can stick all five fingers on my head (though really just four comfortably). I'm not ashamed of this fact anymore. When I weighed 185 or 190, I was a little bit more ashamed of the fact that I was balding. Now that I weigh 160-165, I think to myself, skinny bald guys are usually good looking (sometimes at least).

Lisa cut my hair really short and I was kind of sad about how the cut turned out at first, but I've decided to just embrace my balding and go with the flow. The other day at work, I was picking my kids up from science and the science teacher pointed at my hairline and said, "Look kids, there's an example of a hereditary trait, a receding hairline". It kind of shocked me that she would say that, but it didn't anger me like it would have when I was bigger.

To bring this topic full circle, why did I think about this in the shower? Lisa bought me this fog-free mirror so I can shave in the shower. I've noticed lately that I still shampoo as if I had a full head of hair, even though I clearly don't. So, next time you see me, I guess you'll have to ask me how I keep the top of my forehead so soft and smooth...

the best day of their young lives

2011-04-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

Julia praising the snow gods

Snow Day, December 2009

As summer approaches, I just wanted to give this shout out to the one "snow day" that we've ever had in Houston. Yes, we did release extremely early that day. And no, there was no actual danger on the road.

This year we had a snow day, but it was actually an ice day. That day was nice because we actually got the whole day off. Hard to believe that it was briefly winter here. It was like 89 today, with humidity on top of that. Here comes summer!

Costa Rica

2011-03-23T21:47:00.000-05:00

Lisa and I recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica and Mexico for Spring Break. Yes, I do still have Spring Break, and yes, it is still completely awesome.

Costa Rica was a lot of fun. We left Houston to Mexico City on Saturday the 12th and had a long layover in Mexico City. It was about 5 or 6 hours. When we finally got to Costa Rica it was really late, hopped a taxi and went to the hotel. The next morning, we went pretty quickly to get a rental car. We drove around a 2005 Daihatsu Terios. It is a 4x4 but one of the worst cars I have ever driven or desire to drive again. We drove that thing all over Costa Rica. We started out with a 3 hour drive to Bijagua. That is a little town in the northern part of Costa Rica. It is situated right in between two volcanoes, in a mountainous area. We stayed in a small, quiet hotel called "Sueño Celeste". It is called such because of the rio celeste which is located nearby in the national park. The national park is up a crazy dirt road. Good thing we had a shock-less 4x4 with which to enjoy the ride. We met some friends at our hotel and went and spent a day in the jungle and at the river. Very blue tinted water.

a typical road

the rio celeste

jungle hiking

view of the volcano tenorio

this is an example of what i maneuvered

rio celeste waterfall

jungle hiking was cool

On Tuesday morning we left Bijagua and went to Monteverde. Our drive to Monteverde had some interesting wrong turns. One in particular where this man was waving at us to stop in this little town on the way there. I drove past him thinking "man, you don't know what you're doing". Then some old lady told us we were going the wrong way, and on the way back, that dude was in the street trying to sell us a map to Monteverde. Unfortunately we were pretty sure that there used to be a sign pointing us toward the right route, and we're positive that guy took it down. We didn't buy the map and made it Monteverde fine. There we did some "extremo" zip lining. Extremo is a canopy zip line tour that takes you from platform to platform about 20 times, plus a tarzan swing and "superman" flight at the end. It was pretty cool - took us right over the mountains and forests of the Monteverde area. The road out to Monteverde (and away from there) was a real pain in the butt, but we liked the city well enough. Lots of tourists. That town was kind of our first taste of tourists. We were surprised to see how busy the town was.

superman zip lining - amazing

preparing for superman - this is not me (or Lisa)

Monteverde at... rush hour?

Wednesday we started our drive down to Manual Antonio. We were pretty sure that we were lost at one point, after driving for like 20 minutes down this dirt road. We turned around and drove all the way back to Monteverde because we thought that we had missed a turn off. It turns out that we hadn't missed the turn off, and, after asking for directions, went back exactly that same road again. That was kind of a shame, since it set us back a pretty good amount of time. The scenery was beautiful, but this dirt road in particular was incredibly bumpy. Once we hit the pavement again, we were so relieved. A paved road never felt so good.

Manual Antonio and Quepos (nearby) were extremely busy with tourists and hustle bustle. We had some major issues at the hotel too. Our first room, which Lisa was extremely excited about, turned out to be anything but quiet, peaceful, and relaxing. It was stuck up in a corner just about the bar and next to the road. The shower was a drip and the toilet hardly flushed. We were pretty disappointed with the whole thing. We eventually were able to change rooms and went into a much quieter room, much better accomodations all in all. That night, as Lisa was showering, the knob came off the shower. The water came spilling out and we had to get the owner to come out and fix the problem. Once the problem was "fixed", the water pressure sucked so bad. We would not recommend that place.

Manual Antonio was pretty. We went to the national park in the town and saw the beaches there. They were beautiful. I don't have a ton of experience in beaches, but I really enjoyed the one we went to. The best part about the whole trip was seeing the animals. Tons of monkeys were there in Manual Antonio, jumping around in the trees. We also saw a sloth and a few iguanas. Costa Rica also has some great bird populations. Our first hotel, Sueno Celeste, had some of the coolest birds we had ever seen.

Manual Antonio NP - tight jungly beach

Hummingbirds! Everywhere!

We had a flat tire when we arrived in Manual Antonio. That was one of the parts of the trip I strangely enjoyed because we were both in good spirits about it and I got to finally use one of those ghetto old compression jacks, or whatever they're called. The kind where you have to spin the screw to make it go up. Some locals finally helped us out after trying unsuccessfully for a while to get the car to stay up on the jack. The best part is that they fixed our flat tire for a measely 4 dollars. That was awesome.

We also had some great food while we were in Manual Antonio. The problem that we ran into before Manual Antonio was that we ate a lot of "comida tipica", or as they call it to Americans, "typical food". If you have no idea what this means, try to keep it that way. After eating "comida tipica" for 3 days in a row, we were about to die. In Manual Antonio, we found some more expensive but more desirable cuisine. We ate some great pizza one night, and the next night tried a new place with some more American food. We were happy to fork out a little extra dough to finally eat well. I think that the Costa Rican water and comida tipica might be taking its toll on Lisa. She has had an upset stomach ever since we got back.

Consuming much needed pizza - chicken, pepperoni, basil. Heaven.

Leaving the country was a bit of a drag, because we felt like we kept getting ripped off on taxis. Went into San Jose on our last night and realized that there isn't much to see there. We had a sweet churro full of dulce de leche (which sent me back to heaven), but other than that, let us just inform you that there isn't a ton to see in downtown San Jose. Got in a taxi to return to our hotel closer to the airport, and got the run around from this taxi driver who was probably high on drugs the whole time. I was talking to him in Spanish and I have no idea what he kept saying or referring to.

Finally found our way back though, and enjoyed a true American treat - that's right, McDonalds. We were sitting down for a nice $25 dollar meal and said, you know what, forget it, let's go eat McDonalds. That was one of the best meals (and cheapest) that we enjoyed in Costa Rica. No free refills? Lame.

The departure tax of 26 bucks each was another drag. We knew it was coming, and if that was all that tourists had to pay, that would have been fine. It was not the only tourist fee. We felt like the whole country was kind of geared toward ripping tourists off. We paid like 7-8 times the amount to enter the national parks because we were tourists. We felt like people tried to intentionally deceive us to make money off of us. We were tired of seeing one line for citizens and one line for tourists. It gave me a greater appreciation for the US of A.

We spent a day in Mexico City on our flight back instead of enduring a 9 hour layover. We were expecting that upon arrival in Mexico City, we would be pushed into a van and made to be slaves or drug mules or something. Turns out, Mexico City is a very nice city. Huge, but welcoming. We found a lot of things there that you can't get in the states, like wonderful little cookies and wafers, things containing dulce de leche, and legit tacos. We stayed in a nice hotel in the historical downtown and took a tour that lasted most of the day to Teotihuacan and the Basilica of the Virgen de Guadaloupe. The latter was not really my thing, since we're not that into the virgin thing, but it was still interesting to see. Teotihuacan was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. We will probably return to Mexico City sooner than we had expected, if we get the chance. We had expected never, so in the next 10-15 years should do the trick.

Detail of one of the pyramids

Looking out to the Pyramid of the Moon

In front of the Pyramid of the Moon

From the Top of the Pyramid of the Sun

Climbing (Slowly) up the pyramid of the Sun

Arriving back in Houston, I realized how quickly the week had passed us by. We had a great time, but it was kind of unreal to know that a week had passed by and it didn't even feel like it. If there is one thing that I enjoyed about this trip, if I could just sum it up, it would probably be the quiet time. I really like spending quiet time where I can think or read and not be interrupted by anything other than Lisa. I thought about a lot of things on the trip. Hopefully you'll see some of those things come to fruition in my life over the next days, weeks, and months.

gettin back to the basics

2011-01-20T22:20:00.000-06:00

Lisa told me tonight that she wishes my blog were more of a lifestyle blog and less of a teacher blog. I think she's right. If you remember, back when I started this blog, it was all lifestyle and occasional rants about politics or relationships. Then, I think I was in the midst of insanity around Christmas time 2009 and I decided that I needed an outlet for writing about my life as a teacher. I didn't have any other life at Christmas 2009. I wasn't dating anyone and I spent most of my time at the school. I guess it's time to confess that my life has changed a lot since December 2009. Soon after I attempted to start writing about my classroom, Lisa and I rekindled and started dating. It was Martin Luther King weekend 2010 when Lisa first came to Houston to visit. We decided to give the relationship a shot and over the last year I have had a very pleasant distraction from the classroom.

I still love teaching more than ever. I'm kind of in a rut right now in the classroom but I'm doing 100 billion times better than I was last year at this time. I'm planning on teaching another year and then trying to get into a good graduate program for my masters of ed. Or maybe I'll strike it rich in penny stocks.

I guess I just feel a little less inclined to blog about my job right now. That's okay, isn't it? Everyone can breathe a big sigh of relief, I know you've been waiting for this day.

Besides I'll still let you know when funny stuff happens.

the rise and fall of the second year teacher

2011-01-20T19:18:00.000-06:00

There are some weird things going on inside my body. I don't think it's the runs.

In my first year of teaching, I was always tired, so tired, trying to eat cheap candy to keep myself awake (those were the days). This year I feel a LOT more energized. In part, this is because I'm dieting (like eating well for once) and I'm working out at crossfit 3 times a week. As a result, I hardly ever get tired at work. I'm down to like 178 or lower on my weight and loving that. I'm pretty proud of myself since I haven't weighed that much for a LONG time. So these are all great things you know. Good life changes.

At the same time, something feels so different about this year. I was talking to my principal about it and I realized that last year I took a lot of pictures of my kids (on my phone). This year, I have taken hardly any. Last year, we would go outside not just because it was recess time, but because they earned the incentive. This year, we don't really do small incentives. Last year I used to video tape their performances of plays and video tape other stuff we did as a class just for fun. I never do that stuff anymore.

I told my principal this and he said that it might be because I'm teaching third grade instead of second grade and maybe we just naturally have less fun in third grade. Possible. He also said I'm probably becoming more mature as a teacher. Definitely true. The kids are behaving themselves great, so I'm succeeding there. I love my job and the students in my class a TON, but I don't feel energized to do really fun learning activities - the kind where I want to take a picture. Maybe I'm scared to. I have energy to stay awake during class but no energy to make my lessons awesome. Instead, we settle for this model where Jorge (my co-teacher) or I introduce the material for the subject and then they go and do independent bookwork and we help small groups. Is this just a phase I'm going through? Is it how third grade should be? How do I get rid of this funk?

Anyway, I don't remember ever really enjoying a class where the teacher made us do bookwork all the time. Those are the ones I don't remember and do not want to remember. I've got to figure out something. Let me know if you have any ideas. You must remember some kind of good teacher you had back in the day. Maybe I just need some inspiration. Maybe I just need to wear a superman costume under my clothes every day. Or maybe not even under my clothes, maybe instead of my clothes.

my worst enemy, in my opinion

2011-01-03T16:33:00.001-06:00

Today something silly happened. I got a text from a fellow teacher that our classroom floors had been waxed. That means, you guessed it, that all of our stuff had been moved out into the hallway and then back in by the waxing crew. A few of us had to come in on our last day off and reorganize our stuff to be ready for class tomorrow. My things were pretty out of order, and it took me about two and a half hours to get most things back where I wanted them.

That wasn't the worst part though. The worst part was the dust. Why is it that dust accumulates SO quickly in my classroom? I could dust this place once a week and there would be heaps of dust everywhere. Do children carry dust with them when they come in? Is it my vaulted ceilings? Is that where all this dust comes from? It's nuts how much dust there is in this classroom.

Anyway, I was trying to eat a boiled egg earlier and I got dust all over it because I didn't realize there was still dust on my hands from moving stuff around. It was gross. (Then I washed it). I'm going back to school tomorrow. I love my job.

The kids from the school performing at the WinterFest show.

Christmas Gifts and the Stock Market

2010-12-11T19:00:00.006-06:00

I guess I've never actually bought Christmas gifts for a significant other, but this year I'm buying for Lisa and she is buying for me. We could've opted out of Christmas gifts and just saved the money, but we figured we have a little extra money, and we've been working a lot, so why not get each other some nice stuff and celebrate?

It used to be that I would just go to the store and pick up whatever I could find for between 10 and 15 dollars for my siblings, parents, and niece/nephews. Nothing horrible, but nothing too nice. Most of these things were just stashed away on some shelf or in some bin in the closet. Right, siblings? Ah yes.

This Christmas, we're being more thoughtful (this is Lisa's fault) and spending a little bit more money, and I'll tell ya what, I like it quite a bit more than the old method of going to Target to pick up whatever stuff I can find on the 24th. I guess the sacrifice on our side is a little bit more, but while we can afford it, it feels nice to give a little more.

WARNING: FOLLOWING IS GEEKY NERD STOCK TALK (I have to post this here because Lisa doesn't let me talk about nerdy stuff)

Speaking of Christmas money (this is kind of unrelated):

I have paid the unfortunate price of reading 'boring' investment books on Friday nights when I should've been out on dates. I hope that the coming year will be better for my own investments. Recently I made a trade in Zion's Bank (ZION). I have been eyeing the stock for a little while and thought that it would be good to get in at about $19.30. When I bought it, I told myself I was going to hold on to it for about 2 years, because I see that stock at about $35 in that timespan.

I couldn't hold on to it for 2 years, because I'm greedy or impatient (don't tell me about capital gains tax, it only gets me down). Since I bought the stock (at 19.27 on... Nov. 29th?) it shot up about 20%. I sold Friday at 23.33. I didn't make that full 20% because I had a covered call that helped me to sleep at night (gotta protect the downside), but I made a nice chunk of change.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that tidbit about investments. I'll try to be more patient next time. The money is actually staying in the investment account, but it's nice to know that the money could pay for Christmas, if we needed it. For the kids. One day, in the future.

Cool stuff

2010-12-10T18:52:00.000-06:00

These are all of the pictures I've taken since we've gotten married. Well maybe a few more, but probably nothing that would make any sense.

When we were in San Francisco for Thanksgiving, we went to the SF Auto Show, which I really liked. Some others in the car didn't want to go, but I think we were all happy that we did. When we got there, they were letting people test drive Land Rovers on this sweet off-road course they had set up outside the conference center downtown. We decided to go for the test drive. Really, that would've pretty well satisfied us, but we went inside the car show too. I figure it's the only time, perhaps ever, that I will drive a Land Rover. It was a nice car. If I were going on a Safari, I'd totally take one. I just don't understand why people in Hollywood have them. Nice to know, though, that Land Rover wants to keep the image of the rugged-luxury vehicle. After seeing these cars in action, I must say that they are pretty smooth rides. But seriously, why would you need one in Houston?

This is a concept Camaro. I thought it was pretty rad. Yeah, kids have known about this concept car ever since 1992 when animated Batman cartoons were on in the afternoons, but it was cool to see it in person. I think it would be pretty rad to drive one of these one day, especially when the US decides to remove highway speed limits.

This is a small view of our apartment that I took that contains my wife, Lisa (in case you didn't notice that on your own. I know she blends in.). There you can see our big screen TV and basically all of our valuable earthly possessions. I guess there are some other cool things in our apartment, and we should give a full tour at some point. You can see that we bought some pillows for the couches. The TAN theme drives Lisa kind of crazy, so we're trying to spice it up a bit. I think that if the walls weren't tan then we would be fine. My parents were nice enough to donate their old furniture to us. It's really comfortable. One day, we'll buy new couches of our own or maybe just move to a place where the walls aren't tan anymore. Lisa also bought some flowers, which I think add a little something special to the room.

We're both sick right now, so say a little prayer for us. I think it's the change in the weather. Yes, that's right, it's December 10th and I am just now talking about the change in the weather. Fallish-Winter is the best we've done so far down south here.

scholarship trust

2010-11-21T21:52:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking about this idea for a while now to start a scholarship trust that only students that "graduate" from my charter school will have access to, based on need and grades, etc. I think about these things to feel like I'm doing more than just the day to day.

I have a couple ideas about how we could fund the trust. My students are the oldest ones who would graduate from our school, and they won't be going to college until 2020. So, that gives us 9 or 10 years to really give this fund a good source of revenue. At first I was thinking about having an annual 5k. But then I thought, would people really come to the ghetto to run a 5k? And would people in the ghetto come to run a 5k?

I really shouldn't call it the ghetto. It's not that bad. I just wouldn't go walking there at night. Especially if you don't speak Spanish. Our community center really makes things a lot more aesthetically pleasing, but it's just a start.

Anyway, the reason I posted this was because I wanted to see if anyone had any insights on how to open a scholarship trust for a school, or how to fundraise, or how to organize a 5k. Let me know. I think it'd be pretty cool if we got a good scholarship fund going for these kids.

the garden

2010-11-05T22:36:00.000-05:00

On our honeymoon, the vegetable garden at Mar Vista Cottages was one of our favorite parts, even though it was not the best time for picking fruits and vegetables. Honestly, since we came just after labor day weekend, we assume that the people before us took most of the good stuff.

Still, the vegetable garden, the hen houses, and the flower garden were some of our favorite things about the place. It gave me a lot of ideas and inspiration about how a backyard garden should look, sometime down the road.

So here are some pictures of some cool things around Mar Vista, beginning with the picnic area.

an orchard + hen houses

flower garden

the vegetable garden area

Phil the rooster who watched over the garden

the thing i like most about this is the use of the cinder blocks. in most of the cinder block holes there were strawberries. i thought that was a pretty smart idea.

If you haven't been fully convinced to go to Mar Vista Cottages yet, let me just put in a plug. We really recommend it!

keeping everyone happy

2010-10-31T14:14:00.000-05:00

As a teacher, I have tried since day 1 to maintain peace with the parents of my classroom. I listen to them when they want to talk and I try to implement some of the criticisms that they give me of my work in the classroom. I'm doing my best, at least I think I am.

This week the drama among my parents from my classroom has been about the actions two students, Thomas and Timothy. Maybe I haven't talked much about Timothy in other blog posts, but this kid drives me pretty nuts at times. He's constantly misbehaving, but worst of all, he's a momma's boy, so everything that happens in class he goes home and tells his mommy. Then, his mom gets all up in a fuss because something happened, like some other kid "fighting" with him (that's the typical one I hear). Worst of all, in those situations, his mom told him to "defend himself", so now he gets into semi-real fights sometimes, and last week I had to send him to the office for aggressively punching Michelle.

Well, I guess I'll tell you what happened with Thomas and Timothy before I get distracted into any other story, because this is the one that really caused the drama.

Thomas and Timothy don't like each other, so they're starting to get mad at each other during recess. One day Thomas said, "I'm gonna kill you" or "I'm gonna shoot you with a gun" or something like that. In response, Timothy said, "Yeah, well I'm gonna throw you off the top of a building!" I didn't hear about any of this at the time until Timothy's mom told me the next day. What I heard from her was that Thomas was going to bring a gun to school and kill people (but of course Timothy did no wrong). She acted like it was a really big deal, but I didn't realize it would turn into what it turned into.

The next day, my principal started calling in different kids to hear the story. After school, I was stopped by a parent who told me that Timothy's mom had been trying to get a group of parents together to demand that Thomas and I were kicked out of the school (yes, that's right, she wanted the parents to form a group to get me kicked out of the school). This parent and other parents were supportive of me and told Timothy's mom that they didn't like her idea (they told her they think I'm a good teacher, thank goodness!). Seriously, what did I even do to influence the altercation in the first place? I was anxious all Thursday night.

I asked my principal about the whole situation and he said it was absolutely stupid, that he would listen to what the parent had to say and we would all just move on from it. On Friday, that's exactly what happened. The parent talked to my principal, and when she walked out, I fake-smiled at her, she fake-smiled at me, and I hope that's the end of this mess.

Still it makes me wonder. Why, after all I have done for her son, would she make an open attempt to get me fired from my job? For starters, does she not realize that her son would have no English ability if he had not been in my class? Really, lady? I care for her son, the actions he takes and the progress he makes in his life. A little appreciation would be nice. After all, I have 21 kids to look after in my class.

our honeymoon

2010-10-28T22:15:00.000-05:00

We didn't have long after we got married to go on a honeymoon as I was only off work for Friday - Wednesday. Still, we had a very nice trip up the California coast We wanted to show some pictures at least of where we went.

After the wedding, we stayed near Lisa's house and then went into San Francisco the next night to stay at the Mark Hopkins. Both hotels were extremely nice.

Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures until we arrived up at the Mar Vista Cottages near Gualala, CA. We loved the time we spent there. It was so peaceful and relaxing. You don't realize how nice life is without phones, the Internet, or work, until you're there. We loved every second. Let me show you some things we loved about that place.

the living room (note: furnaces are awesome)

such a nice little cottage.

Mondo Burgers in Mendocino. Definitely recommended!

this place was mega-organic. I'll show some pictures of the garden in a later post.

the beach was nice, but there were a lot of flies.

this is from a hike we went to on a day trip. it is supposed to look like a bowling alley. I see it. Do you?

Anyway, that's a start. I've got more pictures for later. Yawn! I'm off to bed.

back to business

2010-10-27T13:46:00.000-05:00

We have the internet at home now, so I know I should be blogging more. Yeah, yeah. One day.

Anyway I'm here at work and thought I should mention a few things that are going on as of late.

I've been doing crossfit since the end of July. Ryan inspired me to go. Marriage made me realize I needed to go. When I started I was feeling really fat. At the end of the last school year, I weighed just under 200 pounds. Usually I was around 195. Since I've been doing crossfit (at Crossfit West Houston), I've dropped weight - to about 184 on my last weigh in - but more than that I've just been toning up like mad. Last night I noticed that the pudge near my armpits is almost completely gone - men, you should know what I'm referring to. My pecs are almost pecs instead of manboobs. I'm feeling great and have a lot of energy compared to last year when I had to eat a piece of candy every three seconds to feel somewhat energized.

Marriage is going well. Lisa got a full time job at Rose and Associates and we paid off her student loan, so now the only thing we have to worry about is her Saturn which she kind of inherited and brought down to Texas. That thing is falling apart. It's a 2000 Saturn SL2, gold, and if you see it driving around Houston, the bumper may or may not be attached.

I can tell a major difference in my kids between this year and last year. They are a little bit less afraid of me, which means I have a better relationship with them but it also means that they are comfortable enough to talk when I'm talking. This has turned into a slight issue at times. The old "shhh" method doesn't work anymore. Just remember that, teachers. Shh isn't always enough.

Teach for America is driving me crazy enough this year that I don't even want to be a part of it (or tag it on my blog, but I will anyway). I know that I shouldn't go burning bridges, and maybe there is a turnaround coming, but it is mostly just a waste of my time in this second year. The other teachers in the school feel the same way. Last year it was way helpful. This year, for whatever reason, it is not as helpful. That's all I'll say about that so as to not hurt anyone's feelings.

Miracle child of the year: Joseph. You wouldn't believe it, but the little boy who had poop on his hands is now one of my best students. On his TAKS Reading prep test, he got an 81. Not bad for October, I'd say! Thank you ADD medication! You've saved a life!

Current dissappointment of the year: Jacob. I thought that at the end of the year last year, we had lit a fire under this kid and that he would come back strong and ready to learn. Unfortunately, he is very unmotivated at present. The only time he works is when I'm watching over his shoulder (it feels like). His score on the recent TAKS math benchmark? 38. Ouch. Ouch.

Anyway, I'm going to update more. That's all I have to say.

I got married

2010-10-07T18:15:00.000-05:00

My mom and others have told me, "Jeff, it's time for you to stop blogging so much about your kids and start to write about yourself a little bit."

There is some truth to that. I never meant for this blog to be exclusively about my kids in the classroom. It is time for me to break and put some pictures of my wedding. Maybe tomorrow will be honeymoon day or something.

All of the pictures I put on here are accessible through facebook, but if you want to see all of the proofs, feel free to visit our photographer's website. Here's the link. You do have to enter your email address but I don't think there's anything that actually gets sent to you because of it. Enjoy!

Lisa and I had a great wedding day. We got married in the Oakland temple. Here is a video about church temples. When we were first going to the temple, things were looking foggy and I was kind of disappointed about that, but when we came out, it was clear skies and sunshine. The high that day was like 80. Couldn't have been any better, really.

Here is a random assortment of pictures from the wedding and some pictures we took before. Okay, like I say, the website listed above is the best place to go to see quality pictures. We're still working on getting the official pictures, which is what everyone seems to say. Why it takes so long i do not know.

Anyway, this blog post is about getting married, so I'll end it by saying the following:

Ever since middle school or earlier, I have, like most, been looking for someone that would be the apple of my eye, someone who made me happy, and someone who would deal with my many issues. I always wanted someone who I could laugh with but also be serious with, someone who had a strong relationship with God and someone who wanted to be a better person each day.

I guess that like all marriages and relationships, we've already seen that we are two people who are very far from perfect, but we're trying to improve together. We know that if we keep working toward that goal, we'll make it through this life and the next becoming constantly better. It is our blessing if we are faithful to each other to be together forever.

I don't think I could've picked a better girl to be with for that amount of time.

my first birthday party

2010-09-20T13:39:00.000-05:00

When I was at Teach for America's Institute, a teacher told us that if we're ever given the opportunity to attend a child's birthday party, we should go. That opportunity, ladies and gentlemen, finally arrived.

Pam invited us over for her birthday party the other day, which was a true Mexican fiesta. Lisa and I went over to southwest Houston to celebrate with the family.

Driving through the neighborhood, I realized that the area is not as bad as I had expected, considering the horror stories I've heard about the neighborhoods by my school. Some of the houses were very well kept. Compared with the apartment complexes in the area, that was a surprise. The neighborhood is like the ones I remember from growing up in Garland, places where a lot of middle class white people lived until about the late 80s or early 90s - now there's a very high Hispanic concentration with just a few original holdouts.

The first thing we noticed when we pulled up was the bounce house. Bounce houses are really cool, but when we first arrived, this one had collapsed and was falling in on top of the kids. I guess the kids got inside before it was fully done inflating. I didn't get inside of it, even when it was fully inflated. There was probably as much hepatitis in there as a bowl of cheetos in the kindergarten bathroom.

Her Majesty and her mom came to the party. Right when we got inside, they told us all to sit down and they brought out pasta and salad. My dear wife Lisa did not understand many of the things that were said, but we had a nice chat with Her Majesty's mom and some of Pam's family members. Unfortunately, we had eaten before we arrived so we were stuffed to the gills. Tasty food, though, I'll tell you that.

They had a band there that I heard was made up of Pam's uncles. They were playing in the garage. We went outside and listened to some cumbia music with the locals and watched them dance. The band played their music loudly. Eventually, we joined in the dancing too (hard to resist). Lisa loved some of the grandma's dance moves, and I got taught some new moves from an intoxicated guest. I had to turn down beer from him 3 times. Very persistent man.

Most of the time we were at the party, Pam was screaming about how much money she got. She really did get a lot, about 200 dollars. I was happy for her, but it made our present look weak. We got her a fairy book and a notebook. I wished I had given her 10 bucks instead, but then when she came to class this morning, the book was on her desk. I felt redeemed.

I went inside to get some cake and Pam came inside to tell her mom that the police had come. Her mom said, "Already?". I thought it was funny that she didn't say, "Uh-oh" or "Why?". Clearly, she fully intended for them to come, just not so soon.

It got dark (and I was little on edge because of the neighborhood and the drinking), so we left before the pinata and took a slice of cake to go. Pam's dad thanked us for coming and told us we were family now. I thought that was neat, but I also think he was pretty toasted because he kept telling me stuff over and over again.

I'm not a teacher for the pay. It's nice to have a paycheck of course, but these experiences make my job and my life so much more worthwhile. And... it's nice to have a wife who will share these moments with me.

back to school, back to school

2010-08-26T16:47:00.000-05:00

Just as quickly as the school year ended, school has returned.

It is Thursday now, and I have somehow managed to wear myself out to the point where you start going kind of crazy. I woke up on Monday and Wednesday at 4:30 for crossfit, and last night I didn't get to bed until about 12:15, followed by a wake-up at 5:45. In college, this might have been acceptable, but not now. I have relied on protein to keep me going all day, and it has done it's job. Now I feel ready to pass out.

Last night was supposed to be a really nice night (it was Lisa's birthday) but it turned into much more of a challenge when we realized that Lisa's car needed more than just a gallon of gas. It was totally broken down and would not start up for us. Last night we thought it was the fuel pump but apparently it was actually some battery cables that were corroded. That was dissappointing because from stuff I've seen online it seems like a pretty easy fix. We still made the best of it and ate out at pappasito's cantina which had some excellent tex-mex. We also got our final recommends for our sealing which is coming up on September 4th. So we're all set for that.

I'm excited to catch up on my sleep, but also excited to have something to blog about. Even though I had a lot of fun this summer, I did not have very much access to the internet. I suppose that if I were more dedicated to blogging, I could have gone and found access to the internet, but most of the time when I blog I am here at school. So not only do I now have fresh material, but I also have the internet, which is extremely helpful.

I guess that without any further ado, I welcome you to year two of my experience in Teach for America.

a wonderful break

2010-08-10T13:29:00.000-05:00

I figured that at some point I'd just have to own up to the fact that I haven't written anything since June 17th and write something new. The time has come.

This summer has been pretty fantastic. Allow me to break it down for everyone.

July 2nd - Last day of summer school
July 23rd - GRE
July 13-19th - Trip to Utah for BWood's wedding
July 28-29th - Trip to Austin and Schlitterbahn
August 5-6th - Trip to Corpus Christi and Padre Island
August 7th - Skydiving
August 11th - Report back to school for inservice

This has been a good summer. The best part about it has been that Lisa has been around to do a lot of these things with me. Our trip to Utah really brought us together a lot. There were some car issues and some potential moments when I was sure that the trip would rip us apart before it put us together. Fortunately, the car issues were resolved and we were able to enjoy the quality time together, talking about the future and personal quarks, and stopping for dairy queen blizzards.

I did fine on the GRE. Math is clearly stronger than verbal, but if the results had been the opposite, I would have wondered what was wrong with me. I've always been better at math, and I like it because it is something you can learn and fully master, whereas you can only try to learn all of the vocabulary for the verbal section.

The other adventures of the summer were fun. Skydiving is the wildest thing I have ever experienced. Austin was nice and we enjoyed the hills. It was definitely good for a scene change, and it was nice to see my old friend Cameron and his wife. Schlitterbahn is cool. Unfortunately, with long lines for the rides, we got tired kind of quickly. Plus our sunblock got stolen. So we didn't last as long as we would have liked.

Finally, Corpus Christi was great. It was beautiful down there - especially compared to Galveston. The water was pretty clear to about 3 feet, and we enjoyed spending some time down there and playing in the waves and on the shore. Unfortunately, Lisa couldn't join me for that trip, but I still had a blast with my friend Matt and his family.

A lot has happened this summer. Much has changed. Ryan is moving to Washington DC. Matt got a job out there and is moving there soon as well. Lisa and I are almost married. Lots of great things are happening.

I was ready to see my kids go, but I am ready to see them again. NOTE: I am NOT ready to start teaching again. I wish I could just hang out with my kids for like a day or two. I'm not excited for "work", but I do miss the kids a lot. We ran into a parent the other day at the mall and I just sat and thought, gosh, I would really like to see that child again. I'm sure they've grown so much. I'm excited to see how they will grow in the coming year.

Unfortunately, it looks like I mostly just have pictures from BWood's wedding. Oh well, here's that for starters at least!

have you no shame?

2010-06-17T16:25:00.001-05:00

Today was another glorious day of summer school (summer cool).

Have I ever told you the people that are in my summer school class? They're the lower kids, generally speaking. They have problems in at least some category that might make them weak for TAKS next year. Here's the roster.

Jacob (side note - he had a 102 temperature today. he had chills and felt so hot. and before i figured it all out, i got mad at him for not working. poor kid.)
Joseph
Lizzy
Thomas
Her Majesty
Madonna
Martha
Maggie
Matthew
Rita
Michelle

Strange correlation with the letter M there. Who knew I was consigning all of these children to summer school just by making their first names start with an M?

Anyway, they're good kids, but they're the low kids. I've been trying to do things that are slightly more fun since summer school started, but boy it is tough when there is so much ground to cover.

For those of you still reading, here's a little gem from today. I was going around checking everyone's writing because I had to make sure their topics were narrow enough. I got to little Lizzy, who is just darling, and I started talking to her about when she was at the grocery store and how her mom bought her cheetos (genius!). While I was talking to her, literally 3 inches from her face, she STUCK HER FINGER UP HER NOSE.

WHAT THE HECK. GROSS.

i am a dinosaur (and you are an asteroid)

2010-06-16T16:37:00.001-05:00

I remember back in 7th grade when I would chat with my friends on AOL instant messenger and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

Social media sure has changed hasn't it?

When I was in high school I started a blog that no one knew about except for some of my friends from high school. I'm sure about 4 people ever went to it. It's still fun to go to the website and click the links to my old friends blogs. Namely Mary Beth, whose last post in November of 2003 was about a limp bizkit song. I love that.

I decided it was time to come out and share this blog with the world. It was titled "i am a dinosaur (and you are an asteroid)" The thing that I love about this blog is its simplicity - no pictures necessary, just rantings of a crazed high school kid with no job except for painting the house. Yes, I was at times a little... off-colored. I mean, I think I've always been a good kid, but I know I had very little maturity back then, comparatively. Apparently I also had a crush on Kelly Ripa? 7 years down the road, I must confess, she's starting to look a little aged.

Enter if you dare. Enjoy if you must. (I'd recommend just reading the selected quotes)

My favorite quotes:

"i had spaghettios for lunch which made me feel young again"

"made it home about 8:30, and then i started watching regis and kelly, which i freaking love, because i think kelly is one of the cutest people in the world, both physically and mentally, and regis is just funny. i want to marry kelly ripa, i mean, i won't, but a boy's gotta dream."

"well - it's morning time now, just got done watching a little price is right. one lady on there was really crazy and it appeared that she had to urinate really badly, pretty much. she lost though so it made me feel kind of good. "

"my feet are decaying. slowly and surely, and i don't know why. the skin has been peeling off of them for about a week now. father says i picked up some kind of fungus, but i just think i'm a leper. lepers = cool, athletes foot = ick."

"when you're unemployed like me you gotta mooch all you can. "

and I'll put this one in for my future spouse. Just for the record, I really liked San Francisco last time I was there.

"drove up the coast to san francisco. dang pretty scenery. san francisco smells like fish, to the point of vomiting. we went to fisherman's wharf, ate some fried shrimp, enjoyed, until later, when it made me nauseated. can i move on with the day so i don't have to think about that place? we tried to get tickets to go on alcatraz, but they were sold out till monday. freaks. who buys their tickets 5 days in advance!? obviously not us. :-( we saw the golden gate bridge, which was pretty, but the FREAKIN FOG didn't help much, as in lack of view. it was the same the next day, which made me wonder... does the fog ever go away? it went away on full house. we also saw china town. that was cool. okay enough of san fran (i give the town 3 of 5 stars). i cant leave out the fact that we bought pie from marie callenders, which is like tippins, and even the pie smelled like fish. PUKE PUKE PUKE. "

summer school is lame

2010-06-14T16:02:00.000-05:00

Summer, people, summer!! A time of freedom. A time of beauty. A time of trips.

Let's just back up for a moment. Three summers ago was the best summer of my life. It started with a trip to Havasupai. That was amazing. Thank you Travis Moss for inviting me. I still tell people to this day that I've been to Havasupai and they look at me in awe. And that's special.

That summer I also went to the Tetons with my brother.

I also went to Zions.

And Canada.

And up some mountain behind Slate Canyon.

And climbed Timpanogas.

And so on.

Since that summer, I have done a lot of fun stuff with my time off. I have accomplished a lot of great things. Do you want to know the number one worst way to spend summer? Summer school. At least last year during summer school, I was doing something new and learning a lot about how to teach. This year, I feel bad for these kids and pretty bad for myself for not finding ourselves on top of a mountain.

I am happy with the direction my life is going. I am getting married on September 4th to a really great girl. She is moving down here and will be here on Friday. That is really awesome, I know! I'm sure we're going to have some good times together this summer.

And yet, I have the summer school blues. Who wouldn't? Part of the joy of teaching and being a student is having the summer off. Let your brain rot out a little, it's good for it. It needs a little rest now and again. That's what I say.

What we are doing here is really ambitious. All of the kids who are returning next year are here at summer school (at least like 99%). Part of me thinks, "Man, we're going to have a really smart school", and the other half thinks, boy, I wish I were climbing a mountain. Clear, cool, crisp air. Mmm.

Just remember, if you want to be a teacher, don't sign up for summer school. That's my only advice. Teachers deserve summer just as much as students and maybe even more. At least for me, definitely even more.

Summer will come. July 2nd til August 9th. I can't wait. I'll have a really awesome tan this year.

a good quote for the first day of summer school

2010-06-09T16:55:00.000-05:00

I ran across this gem the other day while I was preparing for writing class (Summer School is on, baby!!):

"I hear voices from my students they have never heard from themselves. I find they are authorities on subjects they think ordinary... Teaching writing is a matter of faith, faith that my students have something to say and a language in which to say it." - Donald Murray

it would be okay if you gave us money

2010-06-06T00:21:00.001-05:00

I was once criticized for only writing about my classroom. Truth.

When my mind isn't totally blank, like this weekend here in Dallas, it's one of the main things I think about. You can probably tell just from reading this blog. Maybe summer time will fill me with new desires to write about other stuff. I like writing about other stuff. It's just that my teaching commitments this year have been very demanding. So the text will continue. (Yawn)

I submitted a project to Donors Choose in order to get the beginnings of a Spanish language library in my classroom. Donors Choose matches classrooms with people who want to help classrooms. Nothing has happened since I started my project in March, but we just listed our school as low income on Friday and today a man donated 75 dollars to my project! Thank you, random dude!

Anyway, I wanted to invite you all to donate, if desired. Even if you can't donate, you could always spread the word! There's only like 150 dollars left to go!

Here's the link!

LINK LINK LINK LINK

^ DONATE HERE ^ (they're all the same. multiple links given to add emphasis)

UPDATE:
Here's a randomly fun update. If you go to www.donorschoose.org and click on projects and sort them by poverty, my project is the top one. Maybe it will get shoved to the back of the pile as new submissions come in, maybe my kids are really poor, or maybe I know someone on the inside. Whatever the case, as of tonight, I am confident we'll get some new books.

three quotes from the last day of school

2010-06-05T12:58:00.000-05:00

When Mr. Ward tried having a serious talk with the kids about what is and isn't fair in the world,

Pam: "It's unfair that the people in Arizona hate Mexican people."

Mark: "It's unfair that we have to pay tolls to drive on the road."

And when Mr. Ward said it's time to go to the bathroom and to line up, Paul walked to the door, opened it, and signaled to me saying, "Ladies first."

Who teaches these kids, anyway?

the first year hath ended

2010-06-03T13:23:00.000-05:00

Has anyone else ever had this experience?

I just came to the end of my first year of teaching and all I can say is... "What?"

I think I learned a lot of things this year. As a matter of fact, I know I did, but I can't quite put my finger on them. So the only thing that I've determined is that school and life are times where you don't always necessarily have these daily experiences that are just huge and life-changing. Rather, life is just a collection of events and learning moments that can't always be summed up in a blog post, but can be expressed through the kind of life that you lead and the mindsets you embrace.

One thing I can say without a doubt is that I had/have 20 of God's children in my class. They have taught me how to be humble and how to be patient. They have taught me to forgive without holding grudges. They have taught me that even though not everyone is born into the same circumstances, we all deserve a chance to have a good life.

I totally understand why the Lord said in Matthew 18 (among other places) that we need to become like little children. Their hearts are so pure and full of love.

And I have come to love them a great deal, too. Maybe that's the most important thing to learn in the end, anyway.

sometimes you just need a gimme

2010-06-02T07:28:00.000-05:00

I found out yesterday that John will be returning after all. Instead of moving out of their cockroach infested apartment, they decided to just buy some bug spray (This is according to him). Whatever the case, I'm pretty ecstatic. As long as he's not getting attacked by too many cucarachas.

My life is basically a series of emotional swings. I'm sure next week he'll tell me he's leaving again.

speaking of cucarachas, how about that guy's guitar?

please don't leave the ghetto

2010-05-27T17:07:00.000-05:00

Maybe I don't talk about him enough, but I have a boy in my class who is an absolutely wonderful kid in every sense of the word. I have never had a behavior issue with him and he is extremely diligent in his work. He might take 2 hours to finish a reading test when everyone else is done in 30 minutes, but he gets a 100. And that means something, ya know? He has the work ethic of a college student but he is in second grade.

His name is John. And I found out today that John is not coming back to our school next year because he is moving to Katy.

It's probably better for him in the long run. He'll have access to more activities that suit him academically, he won't ever have gang influence (most likely) or the difficulties of living here in Southwest Houston.

At the same time, I think there is something remarkable about this experience that the kids have here at our school. They are growing up in this neighborhood where there isn't a lot of hope. Gang violence is all over the place and they are all high poverty and at risk for dropping out (according to the state). They were literally plucked out of this society where for middle school they'd attend Jane Long (bad) and for high school they would attend Lee (bad) or Sharpstown (bad). They are given the opportunity to attend a great elementary school here where teachers love them, focus on them, and support them. After our school, they can go to the YES Prep Gulfton campus where they are really guaranteed an excellent education and acceptance to a 4 year college. They are in this world that they were born into but through these charter schools they have the opportunity to choose something better for themselves, and we're here working our tails off to give it to them.

And then, one day, when they have graduated from their Harvards and their Yales, maybe they'll look back and say, "You know, I'm glad I grew up where I did and experienced what I experienced. I learned a lot from it."

Heck, maybe they could even go on to be a community organizer. Maybe even President!!!

Or they might drop out or get shot at 15. It wouldn't be the first time.

Whether John's situation is for better or for worse, it's not going to stop me from being sad to say goodbye to my number 1 all-around student.

rough day, huh?

2010-05-20T11:39:00.001-05:00

From the first day of class, Paul has been a really great broken-English speaker and a funny kid. There have been a few moments when I just look at him and I know he should be in trouble but I just start laughing. It's tough because he's so silly and I know that he doesn't really mean any harm. Paul used to have this big problem with hitting other kids. I think it was just an insecure phase when he realized that Matthew was taking his place as the biggest kid in the class. Lately he's just been his silly, fun old self again.

I guess the other thing I should say is that I don't really hear a lot of common English phrases from my kids because they're not really exposed to those things on a day to day basis like I was as a kid. I sometimes wonder if their English vocabularies are actually limited to "good", "fine", and "he hit me!".

This morning, I was dealing with a lot of behavior issues. The main one was that Thomas was playing the bathroom (you know the classic shooting hoops with the paper towels while the rest of the class was waiting on him). Well, I had a nice talking to with him out in the hallway about it, in which he told me, "I don't know what's wrong with me! At night when I go to sleep, the devil enters my head!". That was kind of a weird conversation.

Then after I was done dealing with that, his group in centers started having issues too, and I reprimanded them while Paul was at my desk taking a reading test. I put my hands on my head and just rubbed my face like I do sometimes when I'm frustrated. Then I hear Paul say, "Rough day, huh?".

And I laughed. :)

a time of great celebration and reflection

2010-05-19T12:11:00.000-05:00

My class reached their goals!

The semi-imposed goals that TFA gives are 1) class average of 80% mastery of 2nd grade math objectives and 2) class average of 1.5 years of reading growth in one school year.

Right now, we're sitting at a comfortable 83% in math and we just crossed the 1.5 year reading threshhold today. Of course, we're still doing a lot of testing, especially in reading, but hey, we made it! Hopefully they'll tear it up when next year comes.

The highest reader in my class is Blue. She is a strange girl. She's on level P currently, and when I gave her the level Q test, she failed. Then she started crying non-stop for about 20 minutes. I mean kids have been sad about not passing before but that's kind of excessive. Of course we're pretty used to it here. From her.

Lots of things have come to my mind about how to be a better teacher next year and how to manage my own personal life better. Maybe at this point I should just open it up for comments. Does anyone have any advice for the transition from first to second year? I certainly haven't figured it all out yet.

I will say the biggest kicker for me is probably exercise. I need to make it more of a daily priority. I've let myself go this year. And if that's just the way that teaching is going to be, then I might be bowing out before I hit my prime.

The other thing I am coming to realize in recent days is that I shouldn't just go home and go into a lifeless TV watching coma every night. I am tired, but I'm certainly not justified in doing that. Also, I don't think my future spouse would greatly appreciate a lifeless clump of man who doesn't exercise much.

All things are considerations, but I'm also up for teaching suggestions. Cheers!

a really bad headache, and then you die.

2010-05-13T11:30:00.000-05:00

In class we've been working on this President Project, where each one of the students gets a president and has to research them. I remembered doing this around this age and decided it would be good to get their feet wet in research and writing more academic papers.

Luke is researching Franklin D. Roosevelt. Did you know that FDR died from a brain hemorrhage? I knew he was afflicted with a number of things throughout his life, but I never knew he technically died of a hemorrhage. You learn these things when you're teaching 2nd grade.

Anyway Luke asked me what a hemorrhage was, and I said something like "Well, it's like you get a really, really bad headache that won't go away, and then you die."

A while after I'd told him that, Thomas decided to drop the F bomb (that was great) and so I had to go and deal with that in the hallway. I told the kids to sit patiently on the carpet, and that if they were totally quiet and in active listening position upon my return, we'd go to recess.

Well I heard yelling the whole time I was in the hallway. A lot of "SHHH!!!"s and "BE QUIET!!" yelling. You know how kids are. Well anyway, I walked back in and some students started complaining. Her Majesty was crying. It was just a big mess. In the midst of all the calling out and complaining, Luke says, "Yeah, I almost had a hemorrhage!"

I love this.

what i never believed to be possible

2010-05-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, especially if we are facebook friends, I got engaged a week and a half ago. Lisa is a fantastic girl and I'm majorly excited for us to get married.

People have asked me how I did it, and that makes me feel semi-uncomfortable, but what I will say is that the ring is really bling. Lisa is a deserving girl and hopefully I will be a good man to deserve such a woman.

Here are some pictures of the most eventful things from 2 weekends ago in San Francisco. Beautiful weekend in San Francisco, so ya know.

How I managed to get engaged this year with all the other stuff that's been going on is really beyond me. I'm just trying to stay alive here!

pennies for peace

2010-04-29T11:30:00.001-05:00

You probably didn't know, but another teacher here at the school, Ms. Oakman, and I, successfully pulled off a penny drive to raise money for Pennies for Peace and to help build schools for Greg Mortenson's projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan. If you recall, Mortenson wrote the book "Three Cups of Tea".

I heard Mortenson speak at a BYU forum a few weeks ago (great podcast by the way) and decided to find a way to help out. So we did this campaign. It was a little different than how they described it on the website, but it was great. My principal recommended that we do a Penny War (oh the oxymoron) where the pennies counted for positive money but the silver coins and bills counted as negative against you. So lots of kids ended up bringing pennies to help their class and other coinage and bills to attack others with. The winning class got a pizza party.

My class was in the lead the whole time I swear. Then just out of nowhere, I found out today that we lost. I'm only mildly sad because we earned tons of money for the organization, and it was a good experience. But I don't think I'll be able to handly Ms. Oakman's trash talking for the next year.

Here are the results. Pretty interesting.

1st Place: Ms. Oakman

Total: $117.13
Pennies: $76.23
Silver Coins (-): $27.90
Bills (-): $13.00
Ending Balance of Pennies: $35.33

2nd Place: Mr. Ward
Total: $175.05
Pennies: $102.30
Silver Coins (-): $55.75
Bills (-): $17.00
Ending Balance of Pennies: $29.55

3rd Place: Mrs. Boyer
Total: $86.94
Pennies: $57.34
Silver Coins (-): $25.60
Bills (-): $4.00
Ending Balance of Pennies: $27.74

4th Place: Mrs. Albin
Total: $66.08
Pennies: $40.53
Silver Coins (-): $17.55
Bills (-): $8.00
Ending Balance of Pennies: $14.98

5th Place: Mrs. Arias
Total: $161.48
Pennies: $81.78
Silver Coins (-): $60.70
Bills (-): $19.00
Ending Balance of Pennies: $2.08

Well we may have lost the battle. We haven't lost the war. And hopefully we'll help a lot of kids with this money earned.

a return to Jacob

2010-04-23T16:28:00.001-05:00

As if my man Jacob didn't already have enough problems with his stomach, now he has major issues with self-esteem. What should I do about this kid?

The other day, we were all sitting getting ready for reading time when Martha said, "Mr. Ward, Jacob said he hates girls!"

I thought, deep down, that this was kind of funny. But that's not the end of the story.

Jacob said, "Well it's true, I do hate girls!"

I kind of laughed, but he kept going.

"I hate girls, and I hate boys too! I hate everyone! I even hate myself!"

This was my red-alert moment of the day / week.

I asked if he was joking and why he would say that. We talked for a bit and then I called him over after reading time was over. I asked him why he said that he hated everyone and why he said he hated himself.

Jacob explained to me that he doesn't have any friends in the class, and even though he has some friends in the neighborhood, everyone in the class hates him so he hates them back.

I didn't believe this of course, so I called over Maggie, because this girl is a friend to all. I mean, I've never seen her be mean to anyone (okay, she did have an attitude for like 2 weeks once, but she's past it). She's just a really sweet soul.

So I asked Maggie if she was Jacob's friend. No, she said, because he misbehaves and always gets sent to the wall in our class and in science class. I tried to convince her to be Jacob's friend, but I don't think that was working.

So I picked the second most friendly person in the class (I believed), John. "Are you friends with Jacob?", I asked. Same reply, give or take a few things. He's always misbehaving, he's always playing, I don't like him. He's a bad kid.

Lastly, I decided to call Blue up. The reason I called Blue up is because one time I caught her making a list of friends in the class. The list had two columns, friends and enemies. I caught her putting people's names in the enemies column and so I told her that wasn't very nice to do, and the next time I saw the list everyones names were under the friends column. So I figured she was the perfect candidate.

I called her up and asked if she was friends with Jacob. She nodded her head with hesitation but with some degree of confidence. Yes, she is his friend! It was comforting to know. I don't think Jacob bought it, but it was nice to know that not everyone in the class completely denied me and him. Jacob is a really good kid. Slow in speech, math, and walking he might be, but he's a good kid.

Let me know if you have any advice on building friendships in a classroom.

Just as a final sidenote, I remember that one time in high school, a high school counselor asked me to take this one student under my wing who was really struggling to make friends. I totally blew off the assignment and decided I was too cool to hang out with that kid who needed help. Fantastic. The past is coming back to haunt me.

the after school blues

2010-04-23T16:17:00.000-05:00

I never get anything done after school, which is sad because I've been staying after school all year. Right now it is 4:12, and I am about to leave and go dress out for my first workout at the Crossfit West Houston gym. My bulky 193 pound frame will hopefully be replaced over time by a lean, tough, 180(ish) pound frame.

Anyway that wasn't my point. My point is that I never get anything done after school. My principal recently challenged me to start getting to school earlier (like 6:15 or 6:30 in the a.m.) so I could get things done in the morning. Yes, that does require me getting to bed early. On the plus side, I get so much more done in the morning when I'm not brain dead. And let's be honest, my social life isn't really tops these days anyway.

I think I'm writing this post as a simple "goodbye" to my time spent after school. I think that soon, after school will turn into my time, and before school will turn into the kids' time. It's so much more productive. Think about it.

free lunch

2010-04-20T18:24:00.001-05:00

Of all of the kids in my class, I think there is only one who gets reduced lunch. Everyone else gets free lunch. This is extremely different from how I remember lunch in elementary school.

I'm going to start the next paragraph with "When I was a kid" so as to age myself. But maybe I should say "When I was a kid growing up in middle class suburbia".

When I was a kid growing up in middle class suburbia, I remember paying 35 cents a pop for chocolate milk. So in high school, when students would get 2 chocolate milks, we knew they were either on the football team, or they were rollin in the dough on the way to having fat rolls. I always felt bad because from K-12 I almost always had a sack lunch. Of course, the sack lunches in 11th and 12th grades were replaced by not eating because I didn't want to look uncool with my sack lunch. Or maybe I did keep taking the sack lunch. I don't really remember, but it feels like I stopped. I was too cool for school.

But back to the kids. I stood watching the kids today as they got their free and reduced lunches and I couldn't help but notice their smiles. They were genuinely excited to eat this food (even though it looked kind of gross). They said thank you and called the lunch lady by name. I am constantly amazed by their humility.

I sometimes think about that old adage that Jesus said that 'many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first'. I teach a despised people in eyes of many. But their humility and the lessons that they are learning in their youth are going to really propel these kids to do wonderful things in the future. They are a truly special group of little people.

walking in line and other silly things

2010-03-25T11:17:00.000-05:00

As a teacher, I know that walking in line serves a purpose. So does sitting properly in your chair, talking in whisper voices, and not talking while we wait for kids after we use the bathroom.

Still, I have these moments where I'm just like, "Do I really care?". Does it really matter? I mean, is it really that big a deal that we need to get all intense? It's funny because other teachers at my school will sometimes be like "I am so ashamed of you guys for the way you walked in line" or "Have we forgotten how we behave when we enter the classroom?". When that happens, I put on this frowny face like "yeah, me too". But deep down I'm like, well, kids will be kids. Sometimes I've even lost it. I smile at them and they see right through my cover. My job sometimes feels like a staring contest. I'm just putting on this front in order to keep myself from giggling at misbehavior.

I think that other teachers really are serious when they make those faces and comments. They really do feel shame in their hearts. And even though I'm sure they're overemphasizing it like we all do in education, I still feel at times like saying, "Woah, calm down". Maybe they're just really good and really intense actors.

In the end, I know that there are certain things that kids need in order to give them structure in their lives. Walking in line and remembering procedures helps us out a lot as teachers and helps them out a lot for self-discipline. But still, fellow teachers, can't we chill out a little bit? When we look back at our childhoods, don't we wish it could've lasted just a tad longer?

center of the world

2010-03-11T17:07:00.001-06:00

This is not where my classroom actually is in the school, but I think it's great that she thinks that everything revolves around me.

note to self: steer clear of the "comen maestros" room.

spanish library

2010-03-11T11:21:00.000-06:00

Does anyone out there in teacher/creeper blogosphere know how I might get someone to donate a classroom library (or at least some books) in Spanish? My English library is fine, but we just need more Spanish books for these kids. They're testing next year in Spanish and they need more practice. We've got Reading A-Z which is helpful for guided reading but a library full of those books is pretty lame.

Please let me know if you've got any ideas.

spanish (random bucket bookend)

english

batty

2010-03-09T11:56:00.000-06:00

This one goes out to all of those other first year teachers who, while extremely tired, are also receiving renewed energy and a renewed vision of, well, spring break, and beyond.

We just finished our 4th six weeks. That means there are only 12 weeks left, and I think this week is actually one of those. I think it's the craziest thing. My kids are growing so much it's insane. The new thing in my class is working quietly. It's like it just happened overnight and now I'll pass out papers and everyone will immediately get to work on it silently. It has tempted me to just become a worksheet teacher but I know I'm better than that. If I were a worksheet teacher, I bet these kids would just eat that up (for a while).

We've started a poem of the day section of my class and I am kind of feeling like Garrison Keillor on the Writer's Almanac. Except that almost all of the poems come from Shel Silverstein and I don't think I've ever heard Garrison Keillor quote Shel Silverstein. We read the poems and they don't get them the first time they read them. We read them again and I help them to break it down and try to leave some room for discovering the meaning of it themselves.

I always find little gems that I really dig in his poems. Take this one for example.

BATTY
The baby bat
Screamed out in fright,
"Turn on the dark,
I'm afraid of the light."

When I first put that one up there, no one had any idea what was going on, including myself. But I knew there must be something in the poem beyond just rhyming words and we were going to find it. Of course, we did figure it out. When little kids are scared of the dark they say turn on the lights, I'm afraid of the dark. It was so simple. We loved it.

Poetry time is definitely a high point of the day right now. Considering the many low points that come along with being a teacher (like TELPAS writing samples), I'm really cherishing it.

sunday, 11:00

2010-03-07T23:06:00.000-06:00

I have no regrets about posting this at 11:00 pm on Sunday night. I just finished doing my lesson plans for the coming week and I'm feeling pretty good about how the week will go. I'm feeling more prepared than most weeks.

One more week until Spring Break. Yes!!!

Many of you know that I have been seeing about a girl named Lisa. Lisa and I have known each other for a long, long time. She's my best-girl-friend and my best girlfriend (the only one also). I'm very excited about this one. Sorry, Scarlett Johansson, you were just a little slow on making your move. I liked you for a while but I've found somebody new.

I'm going out to SLC, UT next Tuesday to visit that darling girl and see the mountains. I am so excited. Last time I went out there was for President's Day and when I came back I felt so refreshed for a good amount of time. There's something about that mountain air that really clears your mind.

There's something about Houston makes my mind feel cluttered!

We're gonna rock this week.

hearts on fire, strong desire

2010-03-04T17:47:00.000-06:00

This blog post is less about me having something to write, and more to remind myself and everyone out there that I am still alive. I am, however, a little more slow moving these days. I got a little sick sometime this week (I'm sure it was Mark, I'm sure it was). The Rocky 4 reference was just to remind me to keep working hard, even despite the challenges.

Overall things are going well and the kids are really moving into a new stage of focus and progress. Maybe that has something to do with me moving into a new stage as well. It just seems like we've been working harder and faster than we ever have before. The kids are behaving themselves well. We're not having ridiculous amounts of fun but we're also not very distracted. I think this is the time that people talk about when they say it finally clicks. Unfortunately, the click has only been going on for about 4 days. Still, I'm optimistic about how far we've come this year and how far we'll progress before the end of the year.

I really do have the best kids I could ask for. I think that it was a gift from above really, because with any other group of kids I probably would've ended up in some crazy house. But these kids are fantastic in so many ways.

A few examples:

Blue has taken on a new form as she has decided to not cry about the small stuff. She is transforming into someone positive and happy and only sometimes frustrated. She only cries when something kind of deserving happens, like other kids making fun of her. My favorite thing about her is how she always says "Yes!!" even when there's no reason to, like just now, when she came into the room, didn't say a word, got something out of her desk, and as she left she said "Yes!!" really softly.

Luke is such a genius, I think he might be the next Good Will Hunting. His mom told me today that after he goes to karate and he has his homework finished, he'll just sit and study multiplication independently. He's got that pretty well down so maybe it's time to move him into division and algebra.

Joseph is going through this lying phase, which is quite a bit better than the poopy hands phase. He lies about everything. Really, this is a classroom phenomenon. I don't know who ever taught these kids that lying was okay. The thing that redeems Joseph, even despite his lying tendencies, is that we always have these conversations in which he comes clean:

Mr. Ward: Joseph, did you take this dollar from my desk?
Joseph: No!
Mr. Ward: Are you sure?
Joseph: Yes!
Mr. Ward: Are you lying?
Joseph: No!
Mr. Ward: Well, Joseph, I actually saw you take it. Are you lying?
Joseph: Well, it's because... it's because Paul told me to!

Silly kids.

The other redeeming quality about Joseph is that he got these glasses and he has one of those old man string things that goes behind his head because if he doesn't use one of those he constantly loses them. He looks so geeky that I can't help but smile a little bit when I see them.

Yes my friends, life is good. Tiring, but good.

selective hearing

2010-02-22T11:15:00.000-06:00

Kids are crazy. I swear sometimes I have no idea how to teach them. I talk to them all day about stuff, butthe things they remember are so off the wall. Each day we cover Spanish reading, math, English reading, writing, and (sometimes) social studies. Yet, when they reach the end of the day and Ms. K asks them what they've learned, they respond with something like "Gandhi didn't wear a shirt because Indian people back then didn't wear shirts." I don't understand how their brains work and why they catch on to some things so easily and other things cannot penetrate.

If I ask my kids how many cups are in a pint, they implode, but if I casually ask them to all bring binders the next day to organize their papers, they're golden. I don't even send a note home or tell parents, but the binders just magically appear.

Go figure.

LP's my middle name

2010-02-10T17:22:00.000-06:00

Most of you, if you follow this blog at all, know that I absolutely hate lesson planning. I mean, I try to be prepared, I do, but at the end of the day, I am not the most prepared teacher ever. I am at times tired, grumpy, and sometimes I feel like I might be on the verge of a mental shutdown. Hopefully these feelings will change one day. In the meantime, I find myself with a lot of last minute renditions, printing out worksheets, and random idea creation. The upside to this method is that there is a lot of "room for creativity". The downsides are many, all of which need not be explained here. Just imagine.

Today, all the weeks of horrible lesson plans came to fruition when a teacher that does pull outs for me attempted to tear me apart and humiliate me, basically, in front of my principal. It was all about my lesson plans. "If there was a plan, you could just send that to me and I could teach off of it, but I have never seen a lesson plan." It was pretty harsh stuff, and I felt pretty bad for having allowed it to get to that point. I also felt like I could punch her.

My principal knows about my lesson plans and we have been in the works to "make sure I don't go through the same slump-time next year". He didn't say that but that's what I'd call it. For a long time I had a hard time with my principal, but now I think he has my full respect.

After he asked the other teacher to leave, we came up with a plan to fix the problem. He didn't get mad at me or tell me I'd lose my job, and he didn't lecture me about how bad it is for the kids in my class. He just asked when we could meet to work on my lesson plans.

Tomorrow night. As long as it takes.

It's moments like these that make me think maybe I could end up in education. I could be that principal.

my only memory from 2nd grade

2010-02-09T16:29:00.001-06:00

I don't have many memories from my 2nd grade experience. In fact, other than the fact that my teacher later turned out to be lesbian with the 5th grade teacher and a few crushes on girls, my memories are extremely vague. The only memory that I do have of 2nd grade is that Jarrod Smith and I used to stay after class to clean the room and then we would take (steal) candy from the candy jar. That went on until a teacher caught us one afternoon. It was seriously traumatic. That's why I remember it, I guess.

I've tried to think back as much as I can in order to gain some kind of insight on how I should treat these kids. Some people have told me not to build a relationship with the kids because it undermines my authority in the classroom. If they think you're their buddy, you're totally screwed as an authority figure. However, I cannot resist.

Based on my memories, I never had a teacher like myself. I never had a teacher who dedicated themselves to their job the way I do, who cared about their kids so much, or who had as much personality as I show these kids. Sure, there are moments when I just get fed up and lecture them, or yell loudly to get the class back in order. But then there are other moments when I show a lot of personality, like playing guitar for them or playing music for them - real music too, not just those wimpy barney and teacher songs. I sneak-teach them the basics of music, random themes from social studies, and I give them parties. I took them on a better field trip than I ever went on in any grade. I talk to them one on one, and I comfort them when they cry. I have them help me to stand up, and sometimes I let them take 1 minute naps while we're on the carpet. I think that the biggest sign that the kids trust me and that we have a good relationship is that sometimes they'll attack me and tackle me, and they'll let me play tag with them when we go outside. They're excited to see me in the mornings and the afternoons, and invite me to their competitions.

I think in many ways I'm not the perfect teacher. I'm still in my first year and I am really tired. My lesson plans stink sometimes. We're making great gains but I know we have a long ways to go. For all the things my principal has said, one has stuck with me. It's always at the bottom of the agenda during staff meeting.

"They may not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel."

Deep down, I kind of hope they remember both.

Come to think of it - I do have one more memory. I remember third grade, Mrs. Dennis's class. I have no idea what I learned in that class, but I do remember Mrs. Dennis treated us right. We had a huge class that year, which I'm sure was hard for her, but I could always tell that she loved us. At the end of the year, Ashley Compton said this line that has stuck with me all these years - and I have no idea why. We had an assembly to celebrate Mrs. Dennis's retirement and Ashley said, "Mrs. Dennis, I love you."

So maybe if I treat my kids right, in 17 years, my kids will say the same thing. Worth striving for, right?

just reform it already.

2010-02-03T18:23:00.002-06:00

I don't have appendicitus, thank goodness. But one of my kids does.

Jacob has gotten sick and it has really set off a storm of anger and protest in my mind.

He has been sick for a while now. He has appendicitus. He threw up today and has thrown up multiple times in class and otherwise, but his mom isn't going to come and get him every time he gets sick. I am glad she doesn't try, or he would've missed about 10 days so far this semester.

Jacob comes from a good family of legal immigrants. His father works as a waiter in a restaurant and I've had a number of conversations with he and his wife. She told me the other day (when Jacob was in the bathroom throwing up) that his appendicitus has to get much worse before they will be able to operate on him. How much worse, I wonder?

Jacob is already incredibly behind on his homework and his testing. Today he scored a 38% on his math test, the lowest of the class. This should not have been his grade, because even though he's low, I'd still put him in the 50-60% range. The kid is just exhausted and the sickness-exhaustion combination is not making it any easier for him to learn. And yet, the only way to get this operation is to wait until he's on the brink of a burst appendix.

I have followed this health care debate a lot, not as much as I should, but as much as I think I should to fulfill my duty as an American. I am really torn on the issue, as I think most people are. I do recognize the desire of some Americans to 'give' health care to all people regardless of their income because of who we are (or should be) as a country. I also understand the viewpoint that a long life and good health should be things that you kind of earn as a reward for having worked hard (aka being able to afford it).

I guess that in the end, I don't care how it gets worked out. I just want Jacob's appendix removed or for him to get the medical attention that he needs. I don't think that his parents should have to pay for it. They can't pay for it. I think that there are people who are well enough off in this country that taking money away from them will not ruin their lifestyles. It's times like these when the government has to step in and take care of this kind of stuff because no people earning 'more than 250k' a year have stepped up yet to pay for the operation.

I know that those on the right will probably criticize this stance. "It's their money," they'll say, "Let them keep their money that they earned."

Well, come step into my classroom for a month and you'll see how slowly it all really 'trickles down' to us here.

tired

2010-02-02T11:13:00.000-06:00

I'm really tired. I'm sleeping quite a bit (relatively), but I am still constantly battling the tired bug. It's a feeling of complete exhaustion. I try to do things during the day to give me renewed energy like dance for the kids or stand up or sing or yell or make funny faces. Still, this feeling just permeates my being.

My principal thinks that my metabolism is just extremely low because of a poor diet and a lack of exercise. I think he's probably right. Still, I never thought I would be this teacher who was just constantly exhausted.

On a happier note, though, a lot of scores are in and apparently a lot of the kids are really progressing in reading levels. I'm happy about that because of the challenge it has been to get a few kids off the lowest level (aa). We're seeing movement across the board and it is really encouraging to know that I'm not wasting away my life/health for nothing.

If anyone has any advice for a first year teacher who is really tired, though, I'd love to hear it.

we will go to the university

2010-01-29T17:20:00.000-06:00

Today we went as a class to Texas A&M. It was a fun trip. It was also extremely cold and windy (sorry kids).

Before we left, I had the kids write their thoughts about going to college. This was my favorite (though I haven't read all of them yet). Thank you, Martha.

At the college, we were fortunate enough to go to see a number of great sights, eat in the cafeteria and (my favorite) visit the football stadium.

Kyle Field is massive. I wish I had one that didn't have lots of kids' faces in it that I could show you. Just google it, okay? Huge.

This is the road on the bus ride home. The trip really gave me a better appreciation for Mid-South-Texas area. Really very nice area.

And most fortunately, there were no bathroom emergencies along the way.

dear mr. blueberry

2010-01-28T11:59:00.000-06:00

Today on the test for Dear Mr. Blueberry, there was a question that asked "Describe the relationship between 'Her Majesty' and her mom." We had discussed relationships between the characters and people in general, so a lot of people got this without a hitch. (Mother-Daughter)

I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but Her Majesty has darker skin than everyone else in the class. I mean, she definitely looks latin, but she's also got really dark skin. Keep that in mind.

Jacob called me over, who has been sick for a few days and clearly did not understand the question. He asked what the question meant.

Mr. Ward: Well, do you know what a relationship is?
Jacob: No.
Mr. Ward: It's like... it's like you and your dad. You have a 'Father-Son' relationship. You are the son, your dad is your father.
Jacob: Oh! Okay!
Mr. Ward: So what kind of relationship would you have with your brother?
Jacob: Um....
Mr. Ward: It would be a brother-brother relationship, because you're his brother and he's your brother!
Jacob: Oh! Okay!

A couple of minutes later I stopped by his desk again to see how it was coming.

Jacob: Does 'Her Majesty' mean her, like right there?
(Points at Her Majesty)
Mr. Ward: Yep, Her Majesty, right there.
(Jacob looks pensive)
Jacob: Oh! It's because they're both black!
(Mr. Ward walks away giggling)

i hope this feeling in my stomach won't make me absent tomorrow

2010-01-26T16:24:00.000-06:00

Today was another one of those days when our class was visited by a bug. The bug is called puking. It's not intention to only write about gross stuff on this blog but I guess it does happen a lot. Jacob came into school complaining how his stomach hurt. Rumor has it that he has appendicitus, but I really have no confirmation on that. All I know is that for the first half of the day, there was a lot of pukage. After he had thrown up about 5 times (they told me to keep him before that) in the garbage can, they finally decided to send him home. Poor kid. He was in good spirits, despite it all.

At our school, we don't have recess. It's not that my principal does not believe in recess, it's just that we don't really have a place to go. They had talked about building a playground outside where the parking lot is. They actually put up a fence and everything and they had plans to build it. Unfortunately, it never got built. Still, we use the cage to do stuff sometimes like play tag or soccer. Today was soccer day. Things are pretty dangerous outside. There are old broken bottles and lots of rocks (the kind made from breaking cement). There is trash, weeds, and I think today I saw a puddle of dried grease.

Everytime we go outside the kids have such a good time, and so do I. It is good to see them play as kids. Blue falls down every time we go outside. She actually didn't today, which is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the first three times we went outside, she fell down every single time. Then after she falls down, she cries, because that's just what she does.

I am worried in so many ways about Lizzy. Her ability to comprehend is so low. Maybe it's not even comprehension so much as critical thinking (like anything beyond the most basic of questions). I have seen great growth recently out of Maggie and Joseph, but Lizzy is just in a league of her own. I see little glimpses of knowledge, but I feel like most of it is guess work. Sometimes she cries when she doesn't know things. I try to help her understand that she's learning, but it's even hard for me to believe at times. I mean, she is learning, right?

who's going over my b----?

2010-01-20T11:38:00.001-06:00

Pardon my french in this post.

Working with English Language Learners has its perks and its challenges. Usually the really funny times are when they say something that sounds exactly like a bad word but they are actually trying to say something else. Conversely, if they are trying to say a bad word, it usually comes across as a normal word (sheet is especially popular). For a long time, my kids kept saying "daaaaaaaaamn". I have no idea why. I had to stop that.

Today Jacob had a funny one. They are working on the play for the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" or whatever that story is called. Jacob is playing the Troll. He walked over to me during the play practice and said "Mr. Ward, I memorized my lines." I was so proud of him, I asked him to show me. What he said sounded exactly like "Who's going over my BITCH!" and he put so much emphasis on the last word it sounded like he was passionately calling someone one. I quickly realized that he meant to say bridge, but the moment was too perfect. I had a good laugh about that one. We're still working on that 'r' sound here in 2nd grade. And all the other ones too.

what is this? a rash?

2010-01-19T16:38:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here after school and all of the sudden I feel a severe itchiness running up and down the right upper-half of my body. I have no idea why I am so itchy. All I know is that I gave a lot of high fives and handshakes as the kids left the room. Blasted enthusiasm. I know that they aren't washing their hands properly and yet I can't help but pump them up.

I would also like to think that maybe I am itchy just because I am growing a beard, but the itch is strong and it's coming on. Having a beard has been a new experience. It's not that thick or anything yet, but I feel like it's really starting to weigh down my face. Maybe I'm losing it.

This weekend Lisa came to visit and it was a pretty fantastic experience having her around. We've been friends for a long, long time. It's nice when (or if) you feel like you can completely be yourself around someone, and that is how I felt with Lisa this weekend. She left on a flight this morning at 6 am, so I woke up at like 4:15 to take her to the airport, and 12 hours later, I think I might die. I went to Subway for lunch and pretty much ODed on Dr. Pepper, and now I feel pretty sick. Waaay too much caffeine.

So now I have a super-itchy right upper body, a caffeine overdose, a desk full of papers, a crink in my neck, and absolute exhaustion. What day is it again?

a little victory

2010-01-14T11:25:00.001-06:00

Today, I was pretty disheartened as I walked around checking the kids' homework. I think that only 2 kids actually did their homework.

One of those kids happened to be little Lizzy (she really is quite small in stature, sweet little girl). At the time I didn't think much of the fact that she did all of her homework, I paid the fake two dollars which the kids get if they do their homework, and I moved on.

Lizzy goes off to pullouts with the science teacher, along with Maggie and Joseph, and when they came back, the science teacher told me that she did her extra pullout homework too. Which means that little Lizzy did my homework packet, the pullout homework packet, corrected her grammar packet, did a story map for me, and did her science homework.

I'm not trying to show that we run some kind of slave labor camp around here, because I don't think that we do and all of the homework was pretty easy, but I am really proud of Lizzy. She had even more homework than anyone else and she did it all. It's moments like this that make me think that she will succeed after all. Work, work, work, practice, practice, practice, that's the only way I know to succeed.

In other news, my dear friend of many years, Lisa, is coming to visit for the weekend. I couldn't be more excited. Many good times ahead in the coming days.

patience, a virtue

2010-01-12T16:58:00.000-06:00

I have recognized that no other attribute is so practiced in the classroom on a daily basis as that of patience. I never thought I would be that teacher who looked at a kid (Thomas) and actually thought, "Oh boy I would hit you if I could." Today, I became that teacher. I did not act on the urges because I will never hit a child and I know, deep down, that they are only kids. But, boy, I thought it.

Rumor has it that this is one of the hardest times of the year in terms of discipline, but I feel like my whole classroom 'structure' has fallen to the ground, been burnt, and then peed upon. Today the class was like a constant roller coaster. About 80% of the time, I was pretty much on edge, and I think the kids could tell.

What can I do to overcome this sudden rift in classroom management? We were doing such a good job for so long. We had our routine down and I felt like things were going really well. My kids really progressed from their humble beginnings and I was really proud of them. Now, I feel like we can't stay focused for more than 3 seconds. I am frustrated by the constant chatter and I think that some of the kids are frustrated by my actions in return - especially when I have to bust out the discipline.

The only recurring thought that I have is that this is only a reaction to me as a teacher. This goes back to the old Student Academic Model or something from Institute. If you're in TFA, you should know by heart that student achievement results from student actions which are a result of teacher actions which are a result of teacher knowledge, mindsets, and goals. So what I am trying to say is that I think it all comes back to me. I know that if I keep trying to be patient and if I do my best to change my instruction and become more engaging, things will turn around.

Unfortunately, those things are not easy at all for an extremely tired first-year teacher named Mr. Ward.

you are fat

2010-01-12T16:20:00.003-06:00

For all of the hectic times today and the commotion, I have to give it up to John for making me really laugh. We were standing and waiting to go to the bathroom when he looks at me and says, "Mr. Ward, you are fat. It's because you eat too much candy." My principal was there and he just smiled.

Sadly, I think that he's probably right :(

chance of success: 50%

2010-01-11T16:36:00.000-06:00

Today I showed my kids this video about a girl named Isabelle Redford from Kansas. She is a 7 year old girl who started making greeting cards and selling them in order to help orphans in Haiti. She drew the cards and ended up making about $10,000 dollars profit. She only need $5,000 to start an orphanage in Haiti where 5 or 6 kids live.

I asked the kids what we could do to help others and be more like Isabelle. John piped up and said, "We can take the real books that we are making for the library and sell them and make money to give to the poor, too." I wasn't lying when I said that John was caring. He's also pretty creative.

Well, I thought it was a noble enough idea. Here I am, awaiting the first finished book. I will warn you that my students are extremely talented and already putting a great deal of work into their books. I think that once the first book is taken and fancied up and published, it is going to take off like wildfire in my classroom. Just so you know, I don't mean "published" in the traditional sense. I just mean I will make pdfs and send them in to http://www.lulu.com/ to have them published. You can do it relatively cheap.

Then, I figure that if a book is good enough, maybe I'll put it up for sale for a small profit, which we can then put toward doing something to better the world. It's worth a shot, and I at least admire the class's willingness to try to find something they can do to make the world a better place.

Matthew

2010-01-11T12:03:00.002-06:00

Matthew is the new kid in class. As previously stated, he is about the size of a 7th grader. After some basic preliminary tests, I think that he is somewhere around upper-bottom of the class. In other words, he is probably about on average in math, but he is at a level aa in reading. Matthew is a gentle giant. He cries sometimes when I talk to him because I think he’s still getting used to the school and his whole new life in my class. I am not particularly concerned for him though because it seems like he’s a hard working boy who has just never had much formal instruction in English. He speaks it pretty well, but writing it is about the most difficult thing ever for him. In the end, I know he’ll go to the NFL. We’ve just got to start training him and have him hit the weight room twice a day.

Joseph

2010-01-11T12:02:00.003-06:00

Joseph is the lowest student on the power rankings. I feel bad that such a good kid has to be so low on the rankings. This is the kid that was made famous (infamous?) by the poop on the hands story. Joseph comes from a pretty good family, but has clearly had a hard time with education. His mom says that she tries to help him too, and I think she’s being truthful, but she says that he just doesn’t like to read and doesn’t want to read. I am trying to find some way, some how, to inspire his boy to read more and to really become passionate about it. I know that it’s the only way, because he is pretty good at math skills. He just has a hard time with word problems because he can’t read. I’ve got a lot of work to do with Joseph.

Jacob

2010-01-11T12:01:00.003-06:00

Jacob is such a nice kid. He really likes to help me out. He is usually one of the first ones in the classroom in the morning, ready to help me take down chairs and work. His parents really care about his progress too. Jacob actually stays after school and works on his English and math skills with me. I think that he’s going to make some headway this semester. Honestly, in English, I think that he can easily overcome levels aa, A, and B, but for some reason when he takes those tests, he botches them severely. Later, when we’re doing practices, he’s very high for an aa kid.

Lizzy

2010-01-11T12:01:00.001-06:00

Lizzy has a great little personality in Spanish. She loves to talk to me about her baby sister and other exciting things that are going on in her family. But! The girl straight up entered 2nd grade not knowing any English, I repeat, any English. She still doesn’t really understand what I am talking about. I kind of have to remind her every day to focus on learning English. See, she’s really kind of prissy and likes Barbies and dolls and cute things like that. She likes having best friends and being a socialite. She has to think about the long term! She has to get it together! She has to watch more cartoons in English! Come on Lizzy, please! You can do it!

Rita

2010-01-11T12:00:00.002-06:00

Oh Rita. Rita is one of my favorite students because she has such a fantastic little smile. It’s probably the dimples that does it for me. Unfortunately, Rita is also one of my lowest students across the board. She is also pretty out of shape, more so than Madonna. I guess she isn’t huge, and she isn’t particularly lazy, so I am excited for her prospects. She just struggles to remember, like most of my students. Like Michelle, Rita needs to stay for after school tutorials but her mom decided that she shouldn’t because she always got sick. I don’t know what made her sicker, after-school tutorials or the excessive amounts of fast-food going into the belly.

Maggie

2010-01-11T12:00:00.000-06:00

Maggie has been one of the biggest focuses of the year and so far, I think, I have seen great growth out of her. She is still reading on the lowest level, and math is a struggle for her, but I think that she is really progressing. She is a smart girl but I think that she just needs a little more attention than most of the other kids. She is from Guatemala and her Dad used to be a bread maker. Here, there isn’t really a market for bread making and so he works in the Toyota dealership detailing cars. Her family seems incredibly close, loving, and hard working. She is so shy and didn’t talk for about the first three weeks. Just recently though, she is starting to talk more, even in English, and I have seen little glimmers in her eyes that make me think there might just be hope for her yet.

Michelle

2010-01-11T11:58:00.004-06:00

Michelle just makes me sit around and wonder, “Can anything help you, if you don’t do your own work?”. She is an inherent cheater, and I’m trying to pull her out of it. She has a good mother who does house cleanings, but I don’t think that the rest of her family at home is really helping her. Apparently they do a lot of her homework for her. She is the lowest student in math. I think that I can help her, but I will have to do something like after-school tutorials to do it, and last time I tried, her mom never let her stay after. So that was a little bit annoying. You know, though, if there is one high point for Michelle, it’s her journal. She writes some very interesting journal entries about her family that lives in Mexico.

Madonna

2010-01-11T11:58:00.002-06:00

Madonna is one of the best readers in Spanish in the whole class. I think her family puts a lot of emphasis on that. Unfortunately, she has not had a lot of training in English and in math she struggles quite a bit as well. She’s a chubby little girl, and her mom calls her “mi gordita.” So cute. Madonna has a very nice mom who has helped me out in the classroom as well. I think that Madonna is a smart girl, but she really gets hung up on more complex stuff. She’ll make it with a little help.

Martha

2010-01-11T11:56:00.003-06:00

Martha is the other competitor for the most adorable girl in the class. She will probably grow up to be one of those girls who takes great care in the clothes that she wears and the make up that she has, but in the meantime, she is a sweet, quiet little girl. I love her family, too. Especially her little brother, who is in Kindergarten at the school. Could there be a more adorable little boy? I think not. Martha’s major roadblock is in English reading where she still sits at about level B. Her quiet nature is not helping her out, because when we practice she is shy to speak out loud and tell me how words should sound. Martha is the one who had bling on her teeth, and I can only hope that one day she’ll get some real bling on her teeth.

Thomas

2010-01-11T11:51:00.005-06:00

Thomas has been by far my biggest challenge in behavior in the year. He (unfortunately) reminds me a lot of myself. He is constantly seeking to be the funny man in the class and I have to keep a pretty tight leash on the kid. Last week, I told him that if he behaved well all day, I would give him a high five at the end of the day. He behaved well the whole day. So I’m thinking I need to give him more high fives. Deep down, I think that Thomas is very loving and kind, he just doesn’t get the attention he needs at home, and as a result, wants to be the center of attention in the classroom. It might be judgmental to say, but I believe, along with the 1st grade teacher who had him last year, that his mother does not really care for him very much. She was extremely anxious to leave him in after-school club and says that he behaves very poorly at home. Thomas is also the person who says his you's as joo, though that is improving.

Julia

2010-01-11T11:51:00.004-06:00

Julia is John’s cousin, and they are fantastic as a duo. Julia’s math scores are really getting better, and she is getting better at reading in English as well. Unfortunately, she started the year as this very confused little girl who was caught in between two languages. She is probably the most orally bilingual student that I have, but she could not read either language very well. It has been a major challenge to push her up to the level she needs to be on. Despite the academic challenges, she follows her cousin’s example as being one of the most caring children in the class. She participates well in the class and seems to have a really good head about her. Her father is the one that was deported. I later found out that Julia does indeed have legal status.

Her Majesty

2010-01-11T11:50:00.003-06:00

Her Majesty was a princess for Halloween and that is how she inherited this name. Her Majesty is, I believe, the most adorable girl in the class. She has a lot of personality for a 2nd grader. She has a lot of creative presence and a lot of raw musical ability. In math, she has some issues. Especially with counting coins. I think that will be the death of her. Sometimes she grabs my arm and won’t let go. I have started calling her “la loca” sometimes because of her antics. Her mom works nearby and it seems like Her Majesty has a very good home life with very loving parents. If this class were solely in Spanish, Her Majesty is about how I imagine a 2nd grader should be.

Mark

2010-01-11T11:49:00.003-06:00

Mark kind of marks the point in my opinion where we start moving into the mid-level kids. I don’t know what to say about Mark except that he loves sharks and he is kind of in the middle. He also has a part in his hair and is constantly sharing stories with me about his family. It is so interesting how after some thing that we all do, students will walk up to me and tell me about their lives, unprovoked. Mark is one of those kids. He had a Rocky-like bruise on his eye earlier in the year, which was pretty awesome. I actually really like Mark. I think he’s got a good future ahead of him. He just needs to learn how to follow directions sometimes.

Pam

2010-01-11T11:48:00.001-06:00

Pam is probably my most prolific writer, and honestly I think she is a bit of a prodigy. Of course, she does mostly just write about her family and stuff, but I think that in years to come she is really going to emerge as a great writer. It seems like she has a really good home life (despite the fact that her sister has 30+ tattoos!), and she always has funny stories to write about in her journal. She started out reading on level aa (the lowest) but really jumped up a great deal so that she is now on level E. I am constantly surprised by Pam and her scores on math assessments. She seemed to have come out of nowhere and is now really achieving very well in math and reading.

Paul

2010-01-11T11:47:00.001-06:00

Paul used to be the biggest kid in my class but was replaced at semester by Matthew. Matthew is a lot bigger than Paul, but we used to think that Paul was huge. Go figure. Paul is a good kid, and he gives me an inordinate number of hugs on some days. It’s nice when he is like “Oh Mr. Ward, you’re the best teacher ever!”, but it does get a little bit excessive now and again. Sometimes when he isn’t hugging me, Paul can be a bit of a punk to the other kids. Since he is so big, he will often knock down other kids or push them. That can create some temporary drama in the classroom. Academically, Paul is pretty smart. He is making progress in English and is relatively high in math. His mother bought me cologne for Christmas. Can’t go wrong.

Peter

2010-01-11T11:45:00.002-06:00

Peter is the smallest boy in my class and is, thus, often the victim of ridicule from the other kids. His father is a pretty good looking guy though, so I’m not too worried about him (I say that in the straightest way possible). He has a sweet part in his hair and has mostly oversized clothes. Peter has gotten a little bit of attitude as he has adjusted to the class. He is still very smart and works hard, but he also seems a little bit tired of his classmates and, at times, me. His father says that he says self-esteem problems.

Blue

2010-01-11T11:42:00.004-06:00

Blue is a girl. She is a crier. She cried about 3-4 times a day in my class during the first week back from the break. That was a little ridiculous. I don’t even really do things to make her cry (usually), she just cries because she didn’t get a good grade or because other kids are laughing at her. She is, like John, very self-critical and needs to work on not freaking out every time she doesn’t know something perfectly. Her father has been a huge help to me this year in making my homework packets. He doesn’t have to be into work until like 10, so a lot of mornings he will stick around and help me out.

John

2010-01-11T11:42:00.001-06:00

John has to be my favorite kid in the class. I mean, it’s hard to pick favorites in a class of 20 kids and maybe I should resist the urge. I believe that it is rare that you find such a mature and such a caring 2nd grader. He is a leader in the class and thinks of others often. John spends a great deal of time on his math tests, meticulously examining each question to make sure that he is reading the question correctly. In reading, he is much the same way. His mom says that he is very self-critical and wants to make sure he does everything exactly right. That could be dangerous, but I think that with some help, he will really excel in life.

Timothy

2010-01-11T11:40:00.002-06:00

Timothy really started the year really well, but has since decided to go off the deep end on behavior, and his scores are actually getting worse, especially in math. He also wants to go really fast through all of his work, but he doesn’t focus as well and as a result is missing easy questions. Generally speaking, though, he is doing pretty well. I mean, 2nd in the power rankings is really not bad. He has long hair – bowl cut style. His parents seem to be very concerned about him and came and talked to me when his grade went from like 97 to 94 in math. Seriously?

Luke

2010-01-11T11:37:00.000-06:00

Luke is a very smart kid. In the first few weeks, I had some issues with his behavior, but I think that he was just bored. Looking back, I was a little bored too. It is rare that he doesn’t get a 100 on his math test, and he’s quick with them too (not necessarily a good thing, but I was pretty quick too, and I turned out okay). Luke comes from a good family. I believe his Dad works as a janitor in another school, and he’s a great guy. Their family really stresses reading a lot, and so far it is paying off.

power rankings #1

2010-01-11T11:31:00.000-06:00

I know that some people might throw laws to the side when it comes to showing pictures from class and using their kids’ real names on the internet, but I don’t think it’s a good idea with all the child predators out there these days. I really like my job and losing it because I talked about some child is not my idea of a fun afternoon.

I know for sure that I will be with my kids for both 2nd and 3rd grades. That said, I would like to do what I meant to do a long time ago, which is, introduce my kids to the blogosphere. I feel bad that the blog will be mostly text, but we’ll try to compensate with some great stories. My boys are named after people in the Bible. My girls (except for Blue) are named after The Beatles’ songs. Don’t go reading into the names any more than that :)

This table shows what I would call the “power rankings” of my classroom. It takes their percentage of mastery in math coupled with their English reading level and makes power levels. Their Reading A-Z level is converted so that 12 is level K (the highest so far) and 0 is level aa (the lowest). As you can see, the current undisputed champion of the classroom is Luke, and the lowest student is Joseph. Even though I don’t currently know where Matthew (the new kid) sits in relation, I do know that he’s in the lowest group in English reading, and has a long way to go to catch up.

the new kid

2010-01-07T12:16:00.001-06:00

I'm working on a post which will introduce and show you scores of my kids. It's going to be great.

In the mean time, I should let you know that I have this new kid in class. He is huge. He looks like a 7th grader. Honestly, some 7th grade football coaches would probably happily accept him as an offensive lineman. It's nice to have someone in my class that is destined for the College Football Hall of Fame. First I guess he has to pass 2nd grade.

by the way

2009-12-30T12:39:00.000-06:00

Jordan's shirt in this picture is my favorite shirt ever. Every time I see it I can't help but laugh with great joy.

jordan's wedding

2009-12-29T22:22:00.000-06:00

Jordan Hochstrasser is a married man. As his longtime friend and former roommate, I can honestly say, I never thought it'd happen. I sure am happy that it did, though.

Last week, before Christmas, I made the trip up to Seattle to see Jordan's wedding.

It was a modestly nice day in Seattle, but it was cold and drizzly after the wedding and for the pictures.

I was happy to join the couple for one of their first pictures. I know it is a little bright, but don't hate, appreciate.

Brian Wood made the trip with me. That was pretty great. After the wedding, we got a rental car and went and explored the city. That was a pretty fantastic time. We went to Pike's market and took the ferry over to get to Poulsbo. I enjoyed Seattle and I think it's a pretty nice place. It's my second trip, and this time I was much more impressed with the town.

I have known Jordan since freshman year and I thought I would reflect on our friendship in pictures. So here's a few.

Good job Jordan, we're all very proud of you. Keep up the good work and raise a lot of little Jordans.

alan taylor

2009-12-29T01:30:00.000-06:00

Freshman year at BYU, I became good friends with Alan Taylor. Alan took his life a few years back (I believe it was fall of 2007). He was the first person to die that I was really close to (barring perhaps my grandma, kind of). I have since reflected on his passing again and again, saddened by the loss of a good friend and trying to understand why. I went through a phase when I didn't ever really think about the guy, but recently I have been reminded of his death and am seeking meaning once again and trying to remember the lessons I learned from his death.

He lived across the hall from me, and we talked a great deal. He was friends with a lot of different people outside of our hall, but inside our hall, I think I was his closest friend. We discussed our futures a lot, what we would major in, our impending missions, doctrines of the church, and of course, the latest and greatest freshman gossip. Alan was incredibly intelligent and loved classical music. He also had a wicked cool headphone set which I envied throughout the year.

I feel unfortunate that I don't have a video of him, like a final relic I could hold onto to remember his voice or some mannerisms. I also regret that I didn't take better advantage of our friendship, but I actually did a pretty good job of that freshman year.

Alan served his mission in Pocatello, Idaho, and when we were both back from our missions, we talked a few times on a phone and saw each other occasionally out at BYU. Our lives had taken pretty different turns, especially because he wasn't, you know, living across the hallway. His name did come up a few times, and I was always happy to see him, but I don't believe we actually did anything together.

When I was living at King Henry in the summer of 2007, I would often see Alan just walking around with his iPod, just listening to music I suppose. I would always pull up and talk to him, and we would have nice chats, though brief. It never even crossed my mind that maybe he was having a hard time in his life.

Unfortunately, he was having a hard time. His mom later said that around that time, Alan was diving into the depths of depression and they had been unable to make him believe that anyone loved him. Who knew? Certainly not me, I was having the time of my life at King Henry. In most respects, it really was a fantastic summer.

In October, I got a facebook message from Alan, asking if I would like to get lunch sometime. Fall 2007 was the most insane semester of my life. I ended up taking 19.5 credit hours and I really did work extremely hard, and things in my life were straight-up hectic. I can't completely blame myself for telling him that I'd have to take a rain check, but now I am so very sad that I did.

In late November, while I was sitting in my English class, I found out that Alan killed himself. I was shocked. I still am shocked, quite frankly. The memorial service was beautiful and we all had very fond memories of our times with Alan. My heart has always been troubled by his death, though.

What could I have done differently? The answers are so clear in hind-sight. I could have taken him up on that lunch, or called him up to see how he was, or stopped my car and given my long lost friend a hug. Maybe those things would not have made the difference, but at least my heart would feel a little more comforted.

The main conclusion that I have come to after this whole experience is that even if you can't change the outcome of some situations, we mustn't be immature about friendships. If you really care about someone, in your heart of hearts, you've got to show it. Sometimes that takes a little growing up and sometimes it just takes a little of your time, but I know that it is so worth the sacrifice. I was wrong back then in so many ways, and I hope that the rest of my life can be some kind of bittersweet apology.

why is there poop on your hands?

2009-12-08T16:20:00.004-06:00

this story is not even a joke.

I kept thinking that one of my students (male, for the record) smelled like sewage. I wasn't sure if it was him or just the area, but something smelled straight up bad. I thought about it right after lunch, but I brushed it off as probably just... ya know, a smell that happens in our room sometimes. Little kids smell, and even though I don't really appreciate poopy pants, I've always been happy that it is less common in second grade than in kindergarten.

During centers, one of the students came up to me and said, "Mr. Ward, while we were reading our book, something smelled. Really bad." I figured it was probably this boy, so I decided to investigate. People were crowded around his desk (I feel sorry for them in retrospect). I smelled the air above him and decided he was the culprit indeed. I sent him to the hall to have a chat with him.

Mr. Ward: Did something happen when you went to the bathroom? Anything out of the ordinary?
Boy: No, nothing.
Mr. Ward: Okay, because the thing is... I mean, I just think something different must have happened.
Boy: No, Mr. Ward, I don't know what you're talking about.
Mr. Ward: Um, the thing is, you smell really, really bad, and I was just wondering if maybe you'd had some problem. Can you not smell yourself?
Boy: No.
Mr. Ward: Okay, I guess you can go back inside then. (Mr. Ward is doubting himself)

[Boy passes by Mr. Ward, and Mr. Ward catches the scent again.]

Mr. Ward: Woah, woah. There's a smell here!

[Mr. Ward sniffs it out]

Mr. Ward: It's your hands! Smell your hands!

[Boy spouts off some weird excuse about drying off his hands]

Mr. Ward: Is that poop on your hands?

Yeah, I actually saw poop smeared on his hands. Fecal matter. Right there. I don't know all the details. I didn't ask. It was disgusting. I sent him off to triple wash his hands with a soap assistant. I don't even know what to do now, except for go and get some clorox wipes and try to decrease the amount of feces in my room. It shouldn't be too hard since I know the area of concentration.

i prayed it wouldn't end

2009-11-29T11:14:00.006-06:00

No matter how I look at it, Thanksgiving break has come and gone. Today I am heading back to Houston, and tomorrow morning I will be back in the classroom. It almost seems like this week didn't happen. I'm sure that's how most of us feel.

Seeing BYU beat Utah yesterday was a real dream come true. I was pretty positive we were going to lose. At first it looked like we might stomp them (as we should have), but it turned into more of a game than that. I'm glad we beat them in the end, because there was a lot of pride on the line as always, and we were a better team.

Recently, I went to Steven Irek's wedding. Steven and I have been friends since about first grade. Our friendship was especially strong back during middle school and high school, then he went off to Texas A&M and I wandered off to BYU and Uruguay. It was a nice experience to see him get married, to be a groomsman, and to see him take a big step in his life. Amazing how quickly almost everyone I used to know got married. When I was 21 (which was only 3 years ago, need I remind you) almost everyone I knew was still single. Things change quickly.

In honor of Steven's wedding, we went to see the NASCAR truck races in Dallas the weekend before. I never knew why people like NASCAR so much, but now I do. It is pretty much like watching track and field, with speed and sound increased like 100 times over.

Most of all it was nice to see some old friends at Steven's wedding like:

sam chan

kristen lark

zack pasi

and here i am with the man of the hour, Steven Irek.

Congratulations, Steven. May your marriage be strong and may you bear many kin.

BYU on the rise

2009-11-27T13:06:00.002-06:00

BYU, we will all be happy to know, had a very large number of applicants accepted last year to Teach for America. We were right on par with Columbia and USC. Way to go, guys!

grades are due

2009-11-20T17:05:00.003-06:00

Am I the only teacher who procrastinates grading all throughout the six weeks until that fateful day when you get the email that says "Grades are due this Friday"? Well I certainly do. This is the second time my grades are due, and unfortunately it is also the second time that I have procrastinated in doing my grades.

Last night I enlisted my buddy Jason in the effort to help me get my grades done. We were up until about 11:20 grading and then I laid down for a solid 6 hour night. I've been feeling pretty good today, and actually a little less tired than most days, but I know this high can only last so long.

Before we went to the apartment to start grading, I bought a 10 key (a keyboard with just the numbers), since Jason was doing the data entry and I feel bad for anyone who has to do data entry without one.

And even though I don't have any more purpose for my 10-key now that my grades are done, until next 6 weeks, I just feel like I need to use it right now in order to make it worth the money. So here's my dedication song to my newest purchase, the 10 key.

4543513187897894568451321548979/***/654513245878945321

34541351

541515--++--+/*/*/**/5464631312134345463152135415464575767879789876543210000000000000000000000000

2320231315151310000000000215156156132131

Time to put it away for a while, it appears.

quiero una sorpresa

2009-11-17T21:06:00.004-06:00

I have a little girl in my class and today was her birthday. I forgot, but we still made it a special day in a lot of ways. This girl is really, really shy. I don't think she opened her mouth for the first month, but she's warming up. In the morning I slipped her an extra dollar to use in the class store on Friday and then we sang to her and I kept reminding her that it was her special day. The science teacher gave her a book, and I thought the day was going well for her.

Then, in the middle of a transition in the afternoon, she walks up to me and out of the blue says, "Quiero una sorpresa" (I want a surprise). I was like, is this girl really asking me for a... a surprise? I mean, that's kind of against the rules of surprise. Plus, considering I had forgotten it was her birthday in the first place, I had no idea what to give the girl.

Next time it's your birthday, remember to ask the people most important for a surprise. It'll really catch them off guard.

She got a chocolate. I try to keep some in the room because you never know. I tried to make it feel like a surprise by slipping it into her pocket. She was grinning for an hour afterward.

why is this job so exhausting?

2009-11-09T17:57:00.003-06:00

Yes, I do work with little kids all day. But still, should I be this exhausted?

Last night, I was getting ready to go to bed at about 9:30. I was feeling good, just sitting on my balcony, watching the rain fall and humming a little song to myself. It was actually a song that I was thinking about writing down.

THEN

EXPLOSION. The transformer across the parking lot BLEW UP IN FRONT OF MY EYES. I thought I was going to die. It was so loud and caused by just a little drizzle. Seriously.

I went to bed and opened the windows but it was hot as all get up in my bedroom, so I couldn't fall asleep. I stayed awake until about 11, woke up at 6 am, and even though it was a pretty good day in the classroom, I am really feeling the exhaustion setting in right now at about 6 pm. And it's Monday, oh yes, it's Monday.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this job is that I am putting in everything I have, all of my heart, time, and energy, but I am yet to see any results. Of the 11 kids who started out on the lowest reading level (aa), NONE moved up the last time I tested them. Their goal is to move like 6 or 7 levels by the end of the year, and none moved. Is this a fruitless effort? Will it one day just click and I will see some amazing significant gains out of the blue? Or will I just drive my body and my mind into the dirt, hoping for that day?

I'm going to go get a haircut, exercise, and clear my mind of such difficult questions until tomorrow at 6 am.

Bling Blang

2009-11-07T19:43:00.005-06:00

One day one of my girls (who is adorable) came to school sporting the "bling on the teeth" look. Apparently it's the next big thing.

Do they do this in normal places too or is this just a ghetto-thing?

Cut me Mick!

2009-11-05T11:11:00.004-06:00

The last few months have been really hard. You can probably tell that just from looking at my blog and realizing that August, September, and October only have one blog post each. I am pretty sure I fell into a deep pit somewhere along the way and am just now emerging out of it - finally being able to see things clearly and put first things first.

Teaching school has been a great experience for me so far. I really enjoy teaching these kids and we have some good times. In English, 11 of my 19 kids are reading at Pre-K levels. I once thought it was a little better than that, but after some further diagnostics, I see that none of them are any level higher than that. That is rough stuff, but I know that they are smart kids (at least in Spanish) and that if we really push it hard, they'll be able to pull ahead in English.

In Math we have our issues. The boys are really good at math, but the girls really struggle. I hate to break it up on gender lines like that, but so it goes.

I do enjoy actual teaching, but I also really enjoy the experiences we have day to day. Like yesterday for example, I was told that this one kid wouldn't be able to come in because his eye was shut closed and they would have to cut it. Some fight with his brother involving the bathtub apparently. So I was like "Oh, cool, just like Rocky." (Cut me Mick. Cut me!) When he showed up today, sure enough, he definitely looked like Rocky. I took a picture of him so that he can always remember the day that he looked like the greatest fighter there ever was.

Tonight we're going to the Houston Children's Museum and all of the kids are majorly pumped about that. I've never been so hopefully I'll snap some good photos. I'm also working on some media consent forms for the parents so I can post pictures on my blog. They're just too darn adorable to not let you guys see them now and again. At the same time, I don't want to get sued.

Illegals

2009-11-04T12:08:00.004-06:00

I'm pretty sure that a good number of my students are illegal (as in, not born in this country). You can't be positive, but here's my quick count of probables: 8.

I used to hate illegal immigration (I still do hate the idea that people can cross), and I remember being very vocal about the issue during last year's campaign. That was Utah.

The other day, I was talking to one my girls, and I asked her if she lives with her mom and dad. She said that she just lives with her mom. Then she told me about how her dad was deported and now in Mexico. I asked what her mom does for work. She said her mom has a card that she uses to buy groceries. I asked her how her mom pays the rent. She said that sometimes her mom borrows money from people.

I met with her mom the next day (for a parent teacher conference) and her mom was telling about how her husband went out to do a job and got busted and deported. The woman then spent about 12,000 dollars on a lawyer who did nothing to help and kept their money. So now, their financial situation is pretty shaky (as if it wasn't before), they have no source of income (except for the government), and their family is separated.

Of course he shouldn't have been here in the first place, and I guess none of them should have been. But this story has led me to two conclusions:

1) There is no point in separating families through deportation. If you're going to deport one member of the family, deport them all. I would personally go for the "don't deport them if they haven't committed a crime" option.
2) I think that there is just as great a strain (if not greater) placed on the government when the breadwinner is deported as when the breadwinner stays and works illegaly.

I certainly don't support the continuation of illegal immigration, and I think the stream needs to stop. But is deportation of working illegals really the answer?

I have grown to love these children, whether they're illegal or not. And I would be traumatized if I were to lose one to a broken immigration system.

You vs. Joo

2009-10-01T22:15:00.005-05:00

One of the funniest things about working with Bilingual kids has to be their pronunciation of words. Today, one of my worst behavors, a smart kid whom we shall call Gregorio, was working on saying his sight words correctly. He came across the word "you", which is a particularly hard one because they all say their y's with a hard j sound. It always results in "yes" sounding like "jes" and "you" of course sounding like "joo". So today as Gregorio was sounding out this word I was like no repeat after me, "you" and he would repeat "joo". So I tried "yes" but kept getting "jes". Eventually I went to the letter "y" and made the "yuh" "yuh" sound. But all I got back was "juh" "juh". I was sure he was messing with me and I'm still not sure he wasn't. The whole time I kept thinking about this clip from the Simpsons, namely the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiiKwNOIZT4

oh the joys of teaching.

The Ward Talent Show

2009-09-06T11:41:00.003-05:00

I hope that Kate doesn't mind me posting our video from the ward talent show on my blog. I'm just so darn proud of how we did. There is always a lot of anxiety when it comes to performing in front of people, and I'm glad it turned out as well as it did. I think our next stop on our tour is playing in the street somewhere. That's our next gig, I guess you could almost say.

Please note the poor audio, video, and lack of microphone stands or amps. Such things happen at the church gym.

Joshua Radin - The Fear You Won't Fall.

some ideas for my room

2009-08-02T21:11:00.003-05:00

I feel like the 24th is still light years away, as if my kids will never come to the classrom. It's a strong possibility that they won't and that they are just a little piece of my imagination. The 24th is the first day of school in case you didn't know. That's when my slated 19 students will come to school. One of the things I have found out since last time I talked about school is that last year was a particularly bad year for my school. There were just a lot of issues including the fact that one classrom was just divided by a barrier down the middle. That sounds kind of pitsy.

So this year that won't be an issue. We have tons of technology, including a personal laptop, document reader, and smart boards. We have our very own state of the art brand new classrooms. I'm extremely excited about that. I'm concerned about the experiences that the parents mightve had last year being an impediment on our level of trust but I do think that once they see that I'm serious, they'll follow me. Everything is coming together and I'm excited to get started.

I want everyone to be able to track the progress in my classroom, but don't forget that I'm not allowed to post any pictures or personal information on my blog. So here's the plan:

At the beginning I am going to create a "correlating name list" for the kids in my classroom. That way you can track the progress of individual students along with me. The students will be matched with a name that is not theirs, and hopefully that will solve some issues.

Early on, I will take a day for each student (or two a day) and post some basic information about them, along with their starting assessments for writing (I'll scan that) and their math and reading levels. I'll do that periodically throughout the year as well as progress reports and scores.

By the end of the year, hopefully we'll be able to all see just how much they progressed. I also have the idea to publish some of this information and maybe some of my own writings, though I would probably be the only one who bought it :)

Okay, so... Those are a few ideas I have about this blog. I think it will be good.

Now let's talk about my classroom. I've been trying to come up with some ideas for a theme and so far I have approximately one. Here it goes. We always learn about how the brain is a muscle, and how we need to exercise it to make it stronger. I would talk about that a lot in the beginning and then introduce the fitness theme to the group. Everyone would get sweatbands and we would take jogging breaks. I got this idea while watching a p90x video. That guy is so intense but he just makes you think you can do it too. Maybe my classroom wouldn't be exactly like those videos but that's the idea - we are going to pump you up, mentally. I would always remind the kids that being smart is hard work - it requires focus and dedication. By the end of the year, our brains are going to be HUGE because we'll be working out so hard.

Another thing that I've been thinking a lot about is a byu forum speech about positive psychology. I tried to find the speech but I don't think it's online. Anyway, the main idea is that students who actually do things for others and are taught to be kind to others perform better in school. I've been thinking about ways to implement that.

The last thing I will probably put up that I have thought about is a banner that says "cambiaremos el mundo". Or "we will change the world." and, hopefully we will.

Forgive me if this entry is incoherent at times, I wrote it on my iPhone.

i think one day i'll be okay

2009-07-29T13:14:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, so I just moved into my new apartment and I am trying out the new life-strategy of not having the Internet at home. It has been really nice in a few ways. In particular, I have read a ton. I'm enjoying that. I'm writing small essays as well.

Unfortunately, so far, I don't really have any really efficient method to update this blog and post pictures and what not. I am currently using the complex's computer/internet, which is... weak to say the least. I think that once the school year starts things will be a little better because I'll have Internet access at school. I'm also going to (probably) buy an iPhone next month. We're still checking the finances on that one.

Whatever the case, I want everyone to know that I am alive and learning a lot of great things. I've got about two more weeks until I start teacher inservice, and then the kids come on August 24th. Then, I get the feeling that I will have a lot to talk about.

a message to mediocrity

2009-07-21T23:21:00.004-05:00

Lately I have been thinking a lot about why I am mediocre at so many things. It's not that I am sad about it. I mean, I am not on the PGA tour, but I can hit a golf ball. A lot of people cannot hit a golf ball, but some people watch me and think, "Boy, he's really bad." So I'm not sad about being mediocre at a lot of things, I think I'm just having a quarter-life-crisis, tired of being stuck in the middle.

Here is a semi-comprehensive list of all of the things I am average at:
Tennis
Racquetball
Golf
Basketball
Guitar
Vocals
Stock Picking
Finances in General
Twitter Use
Blogging
Football
Soccer
Swimming
Volleyball
General Spirituality
Film-making
Writing
Running
Weight Maintenance
Geography
Political Science / Political Thought
Research
Spanish
Skiing
and so far, Teaching.

I have decided that if I want to become truly proficient or exemplary in any one of these things, I need to dedicate myself to doing it some daily and I probably need to be coached or taught. I also need some personal accountability system. Unfortunately, that has not been one of my strong suits in my life.

When I am forced to practice something, I do practice it. I took guitar class and I dedicated myself to playing frequently. I enjoyed it, but I also had someone pushing me to practice. Since I have left the class, I still play on occasion, but my calluses on my fingers are wearing down quickly. I love the guitar, just like I love a lot of things on the list, but I find it hard to do something if no one is forcing me, or at least giving friendly pushes in the right direction. And so I guess my life will be make or break depending on my own personal desire, habit building, and consistency.

So I feel like I know the answer to this question, but I still figured I'd throw it out there for people to take a stab at:

How do I become ridiculously awesome at certain things in my life? And once I am awesome, how do I maintain that? Also, is there a way for a lazy, procrastinating man to accomplish this? Because that would be fantastic.