Two months

It's been two months since my last post!

I can't believe it...
Ok - I can.

Last two months recap:
School - still going great, kids are goofy on Wednesday's but I can deal with 1 goofy day a week.
Master's - still going, 1 and 1 half weeks left in class #1 out of 10.
Tennis - In 8 weeks I have probably played tennis 20 times - just a guess.
Meetings - too many.
Laptop - the root of my evil last night (Tuesday). Tonight: not so bad.
Wireless router - the root of my evil on Monday night - messed up Heroes.
Heroes - great; don't change a thing.
Rock N Roll - Against Me! is playing in Sac. next week!

Ok - I feel better.

Have a nice half birthday!

2+2=5

The first week and a half was long - not afterschool long - but school long. We have a 35 minute longer day than the past 8 years and I can feel it everyday.

Thankfully I have a nice class this year even though we had "death reading time" this morning. They were so sleepy - it was too quiet - even creepy.

This week's plan:

Today - long day - tennis at night
Tuesday - long day - soccer mtg. in morning, health care benefits after school
Wednesday - long day - BTSA after school
Thursday - long day - Tennis in Folsom at night
Friday - long day - maybe?

Radiohead played in San Francisco on Friday - I missed it - too expensive. A co-worker went - I'm so bummed.

In case you haven't heard (it was on CNN last week) - I shot a 79 in golf on August 17th. I rock.

Off to bed.

Have a nice 8=2+6

Here's some Radiohead:

It's Easy

Very soon it will not be.

Tomorrow - Lunch for BTSA 12-1pm

Thursday and Friday - Work in my classroom with Caty!

Saturday and Sunday - Get some first week of school stuff together.

Monday - ARCO Arena Baby! No, not the Kings. The first Twin Rivers rally! Woo hoo!
Tuesday - Long staff meeting in the morning and work in class in the afternoon.
Wednesday - First day of 180 with the new bunch of darlings.

September 2nd - my online Master's Program starts - more work, woo hoo!

Have a nice overcast day!

Weezer singing It's Easy

Sunshine

Yo,

Today is the only Sunday between my two weeks of school.
I washed the car and checked the sprinklers to stay cool.

Monday will be a long day for me.
School and tennis, we will see.

I miss my blog and I'm glad I'm back.
Now, if I could just pick up the rhyming slack.

Have a nice 714.

Listen/Watch some Sunshine.

Where have I been?

Since my last post on April 29th....

4-5 BTSA meetings
3-4 soccer outings
2 union meetings
4-5 tennis outings
away from my blog...

ONLY 21 days of school left - excellent. Next year has to be better. I'm not looking for a class full of angels, just an even number of boys and girls would be great. Right now I'm at 12 boys and 6 girls. I can't hide the boys in the classroom because there are too many.

Soccer has been a bust this year. I found that out first hand today as I played in the scrimmage at practice with them. They complain, whine, cry, and bitch about everything. We could have won the league easily - but we finished 3rd - again - for the 3rd year in a row.

I'm still busy but great to be back. When summer begins I'll change the blog around a little bit.

Have a nice triple digit day!

Tired

What's wrong with this world?

Soccer - the players don't care. I get nothing but aggravation from all involved. Sports are supposed to be fun.

School-people need to learn how to communicate.

I'm tired.

I'm one

Another not so hard week in my life...

A. Monday - no problems, union meeting was good/productive
B. Tuesday - ok, meeting with my people (new teachers) went well
C. Wednesday - out observing above mentioned teachers. They have really improved and sound/look more confident in their teaching delivery.
D. Thursday - still suck at tennis.
E. Friday - no soccer game with kids on field trip, went to see the 1st place team. That team lost, so we're in first place now no matter what Peter says.

Tomorrow looks good. Going to spend the day with Caty (no tennis, not because I suck, but because Greg is out of town). Maybe a trip to Best Buy for ipod. We'll see...

Teaching is still hard. Soccer is good, especially since we went to the once a week practices. I see less of them, which makes me like them more and hopefully we don't get burned out from too much futbol.

Have a nice opening day to the NBA playoffs.

Hard Sun

This has been one of the nicest weeks so far this year.

Why?
1. I got to see Eddie Vedder in concert on Monday in Berkeley. It was an amazing show from start to finish. He's an amazing performer.
2. It's parent-conference week - so the kids are good in class because they know I'll be speaking with their parents. The parents have been good listeners and have shown a lot of support this week. That's a good thing with the state test coming up in a few weeks.
3. Only 1 soccer practice and since I kicked off what's his name, my day has been much easier with no phone calls about what he did 'this time'.
4. My meeting with my new teachers (I guess they're not so new anymore) went well because they all have found a way to contribute to the group productively.
5. Soccer tomorrow against the other team at our school - should be a good game. We beat them last year, so I stopped worrying about beating them. Now it's just for fun.
6. Playing with Caty tonight was a blast. We colored, ran, made each other laugh, it was great!

Thanks for reading.

I'm looking to revamp the blog soon, look for some changes.

Only 5 more shopping days till my b-day on the 16th.

Have a nice information day. (get it 4-11!)

House of Cards

Survived another week in 3rd grade land...
Soccer was bittersweet as I kicked off a player, but we won our game 2-1...
Tennis was also bittersweet as I lost again, but the team won 5-2.

Tomorrow is a new day. Tennis in the morning against a good team that we have not played before. I'm looking forward to it, for sure. The Final Four games are on tomorrow afternoon, I'm excited for that. There is also a poker cash game tomorrow evening that I may attend to see if my good luck continues. Then Sunday is looking is good - we're going to get some ice cream in the afternoon.

Speaking of luck - I went on to the Ticketmaster page to see if any extra Eddie Vedder tickets were released and yes, I got one for Monday in Berkeley. Again, excited.

Have a nice semifinal day.

Another week

Here we go again:

Monday - school, lunch, more school, dentist at 4pm (yuck!)
Tuesday - meeting, school, another meeting - long day.
Wednesday - schoolish stuff, soccer practice, home...
Thursday - school, home (hopefully), tennis
Friday - meeting, school, soccer game, home

This week is less involved than last week. The soccer kids played a great game on Friday only to tie, again. We're still in second place because we haven't lost and everyone else has (except for the first place team). We must be happy about that.

Tennis team is going well - my play needs to pick up, though. I've won 1 match and lost 2 matches.

Let's see how this week goes.

Have a nice 31 day.

Four day week

In theory a four-day week should feel less cumbersome than a five-day week - not so fast.

With four days - there is less time to teach reading, math, spelling; there is less time to coach soccer, get ready for Friday's game, and when kids get in trouble, there is less time to get them out of trouble!

Good things about 4 days - there is one less work day. Saturday seems to come faster.

And for the third day of four days this week...

8:30ish - talk to soccer player who turned into monster before spring break.
9:23 - give math test on fractions, decimals, etc.
10:15-11:05 - my prep time (woo hoo!) to work on lesson for Friday - the boss is coming in (yikes)
3:30-4:00 - soccer scrimmage vs. other team at our school
4:00-4:30 - look for goalie in case monster is off the team
4:30-5:30 - get everything ready for math lesson for Fri.
5:30-6:15- dinner with fam.
6:30-.... - tennis vs. Natomas Racquet Club - go us!!
.....-bedtime - watch basketball highlights from NCAA
bedtime-Friday - get ready for Friday.

Have a nice four day week.

Where is my bracket?

Spring Break has been nice.

With only 3 more days of break I want to reflect on what has happened:
1. Last Saturday was Caty's party - it was great.
2. Last Sunday was golf - it was pretty great.
3. Not too much happened on Monday. Caty and I ran some errands and hit the park for some slides and swings.
4. Tuesday was dentist day - eeewww.
5. Wednesday was Caty's real birthday - we hit the Chuck E. Cheese for pizza and games. It was cool.
6. Thursday was a relaxing day watching basketball.
7. Today was nice - lots of basketball and we hit the park again.

Tomorrow looks good with tennis in the morning and some yard work in the afternoon. Easter Sunday is going to be busy as we are heading to the bay area and we'll be back Monday - lunchish.

Monday night is tennis - so is Thursday next week.

Next week looks tough.

Have a nice day before Easter.

I'm back baby!

I'm back baby!

With a day of unspectacular golf today with my father in law and two friends - I now feel much better.

Last Thursday was bad. School was horrible. My tennis playing and attitude was even worse. Then came Friday...

My students must have mentally checked out sometime earlier in the week because once Friday began they were fighting (not literally). I kicked one student out for the entire day because he was laughing during one of my many Friday lectures. Then our soccer team had a 5-2 lead and ended up tying 6-6 in one of the craziest games I've ever seen.

Saturday was a great day for Caty's birthday party. She had all her friends over and we had a fun time. She got lots of cool toys. Saturday was long - but well worth it for many reasons.

I see hardly anyone has voted in the poll - what else is new? Maybe a new poll with something more exciting - I don't know.

It's great to be back!

Have a nice Green day.

Exhausted

I'm exhausted.

Game plan for tomorrow:

9-3 Teach stuff, pass out tests, eat lunch, play some basketball, help out one of my soccer players finish a project, etc.

3-545 Hang out with Caty and then have dinner with the fam (family)

545 - 630 Drive to Fair Oaks

630-830 Tennis against the "other" Fair Oaks. I'll be ready -as long as the Saturday me doesn't show up tomorrow!

Soccer game Friday. Looks like I'm getting rid of my second player - another goalie. He spent the day in my room (he's a sixth grader) and was fine all day. As soon as practice started he changed into a fire-breathing monster so I sent him home. I expect to cut him from the team - it's a terrible thing to do - but it's for the best.

Have a nice sleep time.

Weird Fishes

Survived another one!

Having the new teachers come through today was interesting. My tornadoes were good most of the time, hopefully the new teachers got something out of it.

Board meeting - no big deal. Dr. Death (associate superintendent) got up to speak - I still don't like her very much.

Soccer practice tomorrow - I need to try out a new lineup to keep the players interested in soccer all season. I have better minded players this season, so I'm not too worried about it.

I hope you enjoyed your 311 day, I know I did.

Have a nice weird fishes day. (Radiohead song)

Amber (song)

The lineup for tomorrow:

8:15am - Meeting about Enrichment at our school.
9:00-11:45am - Me teaching a bunch of stuff.
12:30pm - new teachers coming into my room to watch me teach (woo hoo!)
5:00pm - Go to another school to get ready for a school board meeting.
6:30pm to whenever - School Board Meeting.

Yikes!

On a lighter note, I'm organizing a golf outing on Sunday for the guys. I'm looking for a fourth golfer, let me know.

Vote in the poll.

Have a nice 311 day. (You have to like the band to understand this!)

Green

Poker was terrible. I'm not as good as I used to be.

Today was nice, however, as we got many things done around the house:

-mowed the lawns (all 3.2)
-edged the lawns (see above)
-pulled plenty o-weeds
-checked the sprinklers - still sprinkling
-got gas for lawn mower and fixed a sprinkler
-went shopping with the fam (family)
-lost an hour of sleep (Daylight Savings is a rip-off)
-gained an hour of sunlight (woo hoo, more sun)

Ready to go back to the dungeon tomorrow. I have meetings/soccer all week long. Tennis is Thursday this week. But the best part is Caty's third birthday party on Saturday. I can't believe she's going to be 3. It's incredible. She can count to 14 and sing her ABC's. Wow

New Poll - Your favorite number 1-10. Just choose a number. Post a comment if you care to explain. My has always been the number 4, I wore it in soccer and baseball as a kid - I just like it.

Have a nice one (get it: one, favorite number poll).

Zero

Well I missed a day yesterday - sorry!

I fell asleep on the couch at 9:20 and didn't get up until after 11:30 or so. I was completely exhausted. Then I woke up this morning and played terrible tennis, but my partner played terrible also - so no worries!!

Soccer was fun yesterday - we won 6-0 against a team that has no where to practice and will play all their games on the road this season. Their school is being remodeled and they don't have a field at their temporary site. We have an excellent chance this year to win the championship - hopefully the players will stay out of trouble.

New poll coming tomorrow - I promise - along with some new links.

Have a nice full house (poker!).

In Treatment

Someone posted a comment with a link - thank you so much! Keep'em coming.

Our tennis team won tonight in our first Thursday night match. My doubles partner and I won in 3 sets. We got demolished in the first set 6-2, in like 20 minutes. Then we started playing and won the next two sets, 6-3, 6-3. Our team won all three matches tonight. It was a great time.

In Treatment is a great show on HBO. I don't know how the ratings look, but I love the show. The main character is a therapist. He has different patients on each night of the week (Mon.-Fri.) As the series continues he sees those same people the same night each week. On the Friday's he himself goes to a therapist. The show is simple - just a chair and a couch. The writing is superb and the acting/talking is solid. I really like the show.

Lost- who isn't?

Soccer game tomorrow - go Gold team!

Have a nice halftime.

Sludge Factory

Maybe....

-teaching should be more fun
-coaching soccer should not feel like babysitting
-the school board will get a clue
-spring break will get here fast

Maybe...

-somebody, anybody will leave a comment
-the new poll will break the record of 4 votes
-I'll play kick-ass tennis tomorrow night
-school will have to close early sometime this week or next

I don't know what happened, but this year is tough. My class has learned very little social nuances - like not throwing the ball as hard as possible at somebody in line - or when the teacher says no talking - he actually means no talking. I'm tired of these people.

Have a nice early evening.

Long Road to Ruin

Wow - today was long.

Presentation went great, no problems, no one got hurt, no crying (some complaining), and it's finally off my busy mind.

More school tomorrow. Shhh - don't tell anybody, we are going to do Science in the morning. If Dr. Death (associate superintendent) were to hear about it, we would all die. Science, for those of you playing along at home is: fun for kids, helps them like reading, math, and learning - and it's a break from the stupid stuff we do every morning.

The Into the Wild DVD came out today, I can't wait to watch it soon.

BIG NEWS - anyone can now make comments. You do not need a blogger or Google account - send an anonymous post and let me try to figure out who it is.

Have a nice partly cloudy day.

Now I get it!

45 minutes into my math lesson and my best math student says, "Now I get it!" Teaching is awesome. If he got it 45 min. into the lesson, I'm very worried that most of the others still have no idea how to find fractional parts of a group (1/4 of 12, etc). The unit fractions (a 1 in the numerator, top number) are easy because you just divide. The other ones, like 3/5 of 15, are a little more difficult. We'll review tomorrow, then try out mixed numbers - 3rd graders usually like mixed numbers for some reason.

BIG PRESENTATION tomorrow - I'm ready, I swear. I'm more of a facilitator than presenter. I just have to keep the teachers involved and moving along. I have a partner, she's going to do some of the work, also. I'll let her know about the work tomorrow afternoon. She teaches at a different school than I - so she's hard to reach.

Soccer practice went well. I have a new goalie, my previous goalie beat up some kid last week and has to miss part of this week's game. My previous, previous goalie got into BIG trouble and got booted from the team. Maybe I won't use a goalie?

Thanks for voting in the French Fries poll.

Have a nice recess.

Breaking Bad

Every Sunday night (check your local listings for time in your area) there is a show on AMC called "Breaking Bad." What an incredible, creative, and interesting show. The plot is a high school chemistry teacher discovers he has a late stage of lung cancer. Well, he's a teacher, so he has very little money to leave his family when he passes. Of course, he chooses to cook and then sell crystal meth to make some money for his family. He finds a former student, now junkie, to run this operation. Every week the show surprises me - no matter how gross or drug related. If AMC does not re-air some earlier episodes, pick up the DVD when they release it in the future.

If you are already watching this show, leave a comment or send me an email. I have yet to find anyone who really likes it outside my own living room.

Back at work tomorrow - woo hoo!

Have a nice brunch.

Black Hole Sun

"Hang my head,
Drown my fear,
Till you all just,
Disappear"

These words from our poll winner, Black Hole Sun - describe perfectly how I played tennis today against a really good player. I'll play better Thursday ( I hope).

Saw a movie tonight called Disturbia - it was ok.

Just a couple more days until my presentation on Tuesday - I'm so excited (yikes!).

Ok - vote in the new poll and check out the links to French Fries.

Have a optimistic March 2nd.

Salt or no salt?

Tornado season is hopefully coming to an end...mine in my class was better today.

Soccer was fun watching today - I saw a good game. My team plays next week at home and we should be ok. We may have the best team in the league, however, we had the best team last year and finished in 3rd place.

Tennis tomorrow morning against some old dudes in Roseville - I'll probably have to pull off a miracle to win.

There's a poker tourney next weekend - wish me luck.

I really like In N Out.

New poll should be up tomorrow, maybe something to do with hamburgers or french fries, yeah, a french fries poll...oooh, I like it. Thanks for all 3 of you voting in the poll for Black Hole Sun - did anybody use the links to check out the other songs? Maybe I'll set up links to french fry sites, are there french fry sites? I'll look - look for an answer.

Have a nice lunar day.

What's a bye?

The tornado swept through math today. WE will be doing that math lesson again tomorrow.

In other news, I didn't have anything after school - no meetings, soccer, meetings, anything. I drove home - walked into the room with the electric guitar and played "Iron Man" - it was awesome. I think I played most of the guitar solo. Tomorrow the soccer season starts, my team has a bye, which is good and bad. Good- no game, no trying to transport 24 players from point A to point B in 20 minutes, and no, "Please - put me in the game from the 13 kids on the sideline. Bad - I have to keep explaining what a "bye" is.

The weekend looks good. Tennis on Saturday, and some Daddy and daughter time on Sunday. I think we'll hit the park and the smoothie shop.

Don't forget to vote in the poll - thanks for the 3 votes (ok 2 votes, not counting mine).

Any comments?

Have a good dusk/dawn.

Equivalent Fractions

What am I doing?

Before MOnday I thought I had a lot to say about what was going on in my life, but now that may not be true. Sure I spend most of the day trying to keep chaos from winning in Room Twenty-Six- most days I win. I have a tornado in my class - she is the ultimate challenge - even the dude from the movie TWISTER would be impressed.

I played tennis tonight - I think I'm better at checkers.
I played tennis on Monday - I was good.
I coached soccer on Monday - lots of me talking about sportsmanship.
Tomorrow I teach Equivalent Fractions - I think tomorrow is going to hurt.
I have a HUGE presentation on Tuesday next week that I don't think I am ready for.
Next week is going to hurt...more on that later.

Ok - the poll sucks if you don't know what the songs are from Soundgarden. New poll tomorrow night if no one else (but me) votes in the poll. Also I said I would have a summary of my life - coming soon. Maybe some Soundgarden links???

Post a comment if you can.

Have a good late night snack - stay out of the fast lane tomorrow on Highway 80 between Raley/Marysvile Blvd. and Northgate during the hour of 7am. Thank you. Good Night.

First blog after the first blog

So I am now a veteran in blog land. I had an anti-climatic day at work - then had a meeting with my beginning teachers. Oh, by the way, I am a mentor (old and has cool tricks) teacher to 3 brand new ( and sometimes very funny in what they say) teachers. All three have the potential to kick some butt in the future... (they need cool tricks, like I have)

Tomorrow looks good...how about you?

Post a comment dude.

Have a good mid-morning/late afternoon....

First blog

Have you wanted to say something, but didn't know where? Welcome to my blog - lately I've been thinking about things and I needed somewhere to put them. I'll give a quick summary of my life in the next entry.

A good day/night/afternoon to you and yours....