District Football Champs!

Way to go Eagle Football!  31-7 win over Kingwood.
The Eagles finish the regular season 9-1 overall, 5-1 in district and will be the top seed in the Class 5A, Division II bi-district playoffs next week. They open against Chavez at 7 p.m. Thursday at North Shore.
See the Chronicle Game article here.

School Pride

Today it was really great to meet up with Egypt again from MissTeacha. She has been in town this week for an AP World History institute at Rice. Norma has been there all week as well for Economics AP. We had a chance to have dinner with her earlier in the week, but today she came up to Kingwood to see the house, our school and have some chinese food with us.

Aidan just loved being with her. She is so kind, nice and warm. He just really loved having her at the house.




We had a chance to drive down to the high school and it was open because of summer school, but all the kids had left. So we walked through it to show her the school. My classroom was open, so she had a chance to check it out.

I know the school is special. It's beautiful. But, you take it for granted when you work there and you see it every day. But, the look on Egypt's face and the "Wow," that kept coming out of her mouth reminded me... I need to remember how lucky I am to teach at this school. Both Norma and I have to count our blessings. We've taught in many different schools and AHS is by far the best.

So tonight I'm feeling fortunate. Fortunate to have had a chance to meet and spend some time with Egypt. Very fortunate to have this wonderful life that I have. I must have someone looking out for me!

Pictures from our very first year at the school:

AHS Open Nest

A brief video that shows some of our AHS pride/culture:

1_Introduction: AHS 2007-2008 Video Intro from Mr. Duez on Vimeo.

This is the introduction I used for the year end videos in my World History Classes.

2007-2008! It was great.

Our Alma Mater video that I created:

AHS Alma Mater 2007 from Mr. Duez on Vimeo.

Dancing at the Game

Friday night was the "Father-Daughter" dance for our school's dance team at half time of the football game. I was honored to dance with a former student of mine. Her Dad was unable to dance because he has MS.

Aidan had a great time at the game. Norma struggled some because her ankle was REALLY sore after working all week. But, she toughed it out and we went home and iced it down after half time. At that point the awesome Eagles were up 21-0 and later went on to win 40-0. Now the AHS Eagles are 2-0 for the first time in their three year history! Pretty exciting.

Half time went very well. My dance partner was great. She is quite the dancer. Afterwards her mom thanked me for dancing with her and I said, "Well, she made me look good, didn't she? She had to work PRETTY HARD to do that!" And I smiled. To make this white guy look good is pretty much an impossible task. But, she got the job done. It was a lot of fun to see the kids from school yelling my name and waving.

One of the teachers that I worked with said, "You looked pretty good for a guy that was just in an accident last week. Nice and loose." Well, the adrenaline was pumping a little. I never even tried to do 1/2 the moves that we practiced until last night because I didn't want to hurt my back any more than it is. But, once we got out there I was fine.

My dance partner's father has MS. So he couldn't dance with her. I felt a little guilty because he should be out there... but at the same time, I was proud to stand in for him. It is always amazing how something like this goes such a long way with the kids. They really enjoyed it.

Aidan had a ball. I waved up to him from the field and he waved back. It was cool to have him there watching. So I guess now I can say that my son saw me on a football field. Of course, this was NOTHING like what I used to do on a football field. It is actually much harder to face the stands and dance than it is to play a sport like football where you are just focused on your opponent. I never really paid much attention to the stands when I played.

Today I am a little sore and a little cranky. But, I am so glad to have had the chance to dance with her. It was a lot of fun.

Eagle Sweatshirt

A couple of my first period students brought in a gift for Aidan today. It is a really cute little red AHS Eagle sweatshirt. I said, "If you think you can BRIBE me by bring in gifts for my kid... your right!" :)

They will be really excited to see his picture on my wallpaper tomorrow on my computer.
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Jersey Day!

On Fridays this year at school the varsity football team has been passing out their jerseys to the kids and then the kids take it to a teacher of their choice. Norma teaches freshman and I teach sophomores and we don't have many kids that play varsity football in our classes. So we have never been given a jersey... until today!



This really made my day. It was awesome. I got the kicker's jersey. Tony is a great kid in my class and I was really proud to wear his jersey. It gave me a little steam in my stride on a Friday. :) Luckily Norma took the camera in today to take some pictures of her kids so we had it to take a couple of shots of us.
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Powder Puff in the Rain

Tonight was our first ever Girls Powder Puff Football game at AHS. It was pretty wild. It rained and things got pretty crazy. Neither defense could stop the offense from scoring since the defense couldn't keep their footing. My junior team lost by a touchdown. There was a lot of controversy over some penalties that were called and the girls were really upset and felt robbed.

I tried my best to explain to them that sometimes you win... sometimes you lose. It's just the way it goes. Both teams really played well. I was real proud of all of the girls. It was entertaining football for sure.

My favorite part of the night though was when Aidan got there with Norma at the beginning. He came running out to me on the field as we warmed up and smiled to me. I gave him a big hug and let him blow my whistle. He loves doing that. I told him that I had to go and give me a hug and a kiss. He did both and it really made me smile. Norma walked him around the field a few times, but then it started to rain hard so she took him home just before the game started.

I can not express how happy Aidan makes me. It is an amazing thing. He is absolutely the best. Even on a night that was disappointing and dreary in the rain, I am so happy because of my wonderful son.

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