Aidan Getting a Workout

World's Strongest 2 year old!

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Astros Rollin

I am really enjoying these 2007 Astros. They got off to a slow start, but they are now rolling. Swept the Reds tonight after being down 6-0. 8-6 win! Sweet.



Carlos Lee is the real deal! El Caballo (The Horse) rides again!

On to Milwaukee!
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Virginia Tech Tragedy

32 Shot Dead on Virginia Tech Campus
Witness survives by pretending to be dead

Today during 6th period when I was told about what had happened at Virginia Tech, I immediately got a headache. It was a real slamming one. Over the past week I have had nightmares about school shootings. They were brought on because I have been thinking so deeply about the essays I had to write for the Teacher of the Year competition in my district. My second essay focused on Columbine and what happened on that campus and how we are trying to avert that kind of disaster today through building strong relationships with students.
My Second Essay - School Violence as an Issue

Still I find myself tonight just scared to death that it could happen at any time on our campus. It would not be difficult to get guns onto our campus. I teach with my classroom door closed and locked. The only person allowed to answer the door is me. I joke about it sometimes when a student jumps up to open the door, "What are you doing? That could be a terrorist!" It's a half hearted attempt at comedy, but there is also truth in my comment. It is my first and most important job to secure the safety of my students at all costs. Nothing else is more important than returning kids home to their parents at the end of the day safe and sound.

The images of Virginia Tech today just haunt me. They scare me. But, they also challenge me to do whatever I can to keep my school and classroom a safe place. I wrote in my essay that I believe our Advisory program can be a strong force in keeping our school safe and building relationships with our students is the key to having a productive and safe environment. I am even more committed to my work on the Advisory Board for next year now.

Over the next few months of planning for the 2007-08 school year, I will be keeping Virginia Tech in my mind when planning for Advisory. It is the worst nightmare. But, in focusing on our most important job as educators, I believe it makes us stronger to deal with all the other smaller but potentially troubling tragedies that students go through each day. Having a strong advocate for the student is an important part of education today in a world where parents are more and more removed from their kids lives.
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#42 - 60 Years Later

A lot of discussion in the sports world and the world in general has focused on Jackie Robinson Day. It was 60 years ago today that Mr. Robinson broke the color barrier and changed baseball and America forever. But, many are saying we still have so much more to do for equal opportunities for blacks in baseball. I don't believe that I agree 100%. Sure I wish there were more African Americans in the game. But do young black players today see the barriers that were in front of Jackie? No way.

What kids today see is a game that doesn't interest them as much. Baseball is a pastoral game. African Americans don't seem to be as interested in the nation's past time. Instead, the hip hop culture of today appeals to them much more. Is that a real problem of integration? I think not.

Instead we should be proud of the entire country and how far we have come. Would Jackie Robinson be pleased that 8% of the game is comprised of African Americans today? Surely not. Would he be pleased that Barrack Obama is running for President? Of course. There are many great strides we have taken as a nation. Don't look down on Jackie's accomplishments because baseball is not 'black' enough. Rather look at society and see that opportunities for blacks are everywhere today.

Is there still more work to do? Certainly. I am so happy that the news media has focused on Jackie this weekend. And I will be very happy to spend 10-15 minutes tomorrow talking about one of my heroes - Jackie. He was a great, great man. And today his wife Rachel continues his great work.

It was totally cool that many teams wore #42 on EVERY jersey in the park on Sunday. It was totally uncool that my Astros were rained out in Philly and couldn't celebrate with the rest of baseball on this great day. You inspire me still Jackie...

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. -- Jackie Robinson

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A Blast From My Past!

Ever google yourself? I do from time to time. Mostly to determine what my students could find out about me if they searched. I want to be sure that I am not leaving an embarrassing trail of stupid comments on someone's blog... or anything worse. I came across this tonight and was very excited:

Under the Clouds in Kissimmee
LINK
added 03/18 by David D.

I had checked the spring schedules and considered driving south to see if I could at least catch some baseball on my final full day in Florida. Surely the Astros-Phillies game on Sunday would be rained out. The skies were already blackening on Saturday and the forecasters were happily calling for rain to douse the drought stricken Central Florida landscape. But, nothing compelling jumped off the Spring schedule at me and 80% chance of rain also means that there is a 20% chance that it won't rain, right?

Well, Sunday was cloudy, cold and dreary but there was no rain in Kissimmee. My wife and I took in the final game on our spring training trip's schedule and it was another win. The Astros beat the Phils 2-1 in a boring game that was highlighted by solid pitching and a Lance Berkman first-inning dinger deep over the right field fence. Kent Bottenfield pitched very well. As I watched Bottenfield toss his warmup pitches, 3 words came to mind: "Beer League Softball." Bottenfield is a big man. But, he hit his spots with a lively fastball and kept hitters (if that's what you want to call the Phillie lineup) off balance. The only blemish was a couple of hits in the second inning and a run scored by Phillie playboy Pat Burrell.

Scott Linebrink, Doug Brocail and Billy Wagner pitched an inning a piece to finish off the game. Wagner looked impressive and K'd one. He ended the game by getting Pat Burrell to bounce sharply to short.

There was a crowd of just below 3,000 at Osceola County Stadium and it was dreary and cold. There was a good solid Phillie contingent and they were their normal rude and rowdie selves. These pasty fans were booing the umpire and hissing at called third strikes. I could hardly call it "being in mid-season form" because there is no real form to being a Phillie fan. They were born to boo. In fact, when the doctor smacks a Phillie baby's behind as it is born the baby doesn't begin to cry; it says, "What'da'ya talkin' bout? Youze callin' that a strike ump? C'mon."

It was our first visit to the facility and it was easily the worst spot we visited during our trip. The hotdogs were crummy, the lemonade was actually water that maybe someone twisted a lemon into. The only good thing about the stadium that I could see was the playing surface. It looked to be in great shape. There are only a few seatback chairs that line the first few rows of the stadium. The rest is of the metal bleacher variety. On a scale of 5 grapefruits, it gets 1 and a ½.

I'm very surprised that the Astros have re-upped their deal with Kissimmee. But, it's a good spot geographically with plenty of teams to play in the area. Overall, our trip was a great one and we really had a super time. The traffic on 192 in Kissimmee was terrible. The hotel we stayed in was below average. But, the baseball was good and we totally enjoyed Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure on Saturday afternoon. It was a great day to be outdoors and anyone that's a roller coaster fan should ride the Incredible Hulk! Great coaster. Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Berkman each had a home run a piece in the three games we saw. And we also witnessed very solid pitching by Jose Lima, Wade Miller, and Bottenfield. And we saw Wagner pitch 2 innings and look like his old self. The positives far out weigh the negatives at this point of the spring.

Can't wait for opening day!

I wrote it when Norma and I went to spring training. I watched the games, jotted down some notes and then emailed them to the Astro's Daily website. Back then I had a website called: "Mission Control" that was one of the first Astros websites on the Internet. It was a fun pasttime (although Norma knows it took up WAY too much time) while I was teaching.

I had no idea that these archives were out there. Very cool. Brings back memories of some of my early Internet posting days. It's true what they say, "You leave a trail on the Internet and nothing ever really gets deleted!" How true!

Here's another posting from Kissimmee that year: View from Kissimmee

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Essays - DONE

Today I dropped off the essays and application for the Teacher of the Year contest with our district. I was so excited to finish and be done with them. But, I am also proud of the extra time I put in to make the essays meaningful. Hopefully they will represent our school well.

The essays are here if you want to check them out: Essay 1: Professional Biography & Essay 2: Education Issues and Trends

They were due on Monday, but I was finished and it was time to submit them and get them off my desk and out of my mind. The committee has a week with them to read and pick their top 3. Then they meet and will finalize a top 3 for the district and then bring those folks in and interview. If I get an interview, great. If not, I can sleep well knowing I gave it my best effort. It is kind of rough to think this is my one shot for the entire process. Like in the NFL, if you lose the conference championship game, there is always next year. But, with this Teacher of the Year stuff, I will be taking my name out of the hat now for the rest of my career. It is not right to deny one of our 200 faculty/staff the opportunity to win, if I already have. So I hope my one shot is a good one.

I was also interviewed via email by the local paper and they are going to put an article in there over the next couple of weeks. That was interesting. Had to send a picture and everything. What I realized is that I have very few photos of myself. And very few in professional attire. But, I guess I am always taking the pictures.

Next week is our state TAKS test or standardized testing. It will be a strange week for sure. Luckily the Social Studies test is on Friday and that will give me the week to help prep my students and remind them of the important things on the test.

This weekend we plan on just relaxing. I did not bring any work home to do. Lately we have been doing way too much work. Time for some relaxing and fun. Speaking of which, I am booting up the Xbox360 as I type!

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Aidan says, "Aidan!"

Aidan has really been making some amazing leaps in verbal ability this week.

* We had our first conversation on a real telephone. I was heading home from school after doing tutoring and called Norma. She said, "Hey, he wants to talk to you." So she put him on and the conversation was pretty lively. I asked what he was doing and Aidan said, "Coooo-Key." Then I asked him if he was doing good and he said, "Good." And then I said that I would see him soon and that I was coming home and he said, "Buyyyyye." I was just stunned. It was so neat. Usually he just yells at the phone and runs off.

* Aidan actually said his name yesterday. It was pretty cute. Norma was saying, "Aidan and Woody!" Woody from Toy Story is Aidan's favorite toy. So Aidan started repeating her and saying, "Wood-Aye-dan." It was super cute. Amazing how quickly he is growing up.

Every day at the end of the day I start getting anxious to go and pick him up from the sitters. And on days like today when I have to stay late for an after school meeting it is tough. But, it makes seeing him all that more special and exciting.


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Happy Easter 2007

Hope Everyone had a great Easter Weekend!

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Mills Branch Village Easter Egg Hunt 2007

Aidan got off to a slow start, but made up for it in the end. We went Easter Egg hunting this morning. It was pretty chilly - in the high 40s and low 50s. It sprinkled on us while we walked home. But, fun was had by all!





Easter Egg Hunt 2007 2 on Vimeo





Easter Egg Hunt 2007 3 on Vimeo





Easter Egg Hunt 2007 4 on Vimeo
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What I've Done - LP

I am very ready for May 15th and Linkin Park's new album... "Minutes to Midnight"

Think the video has anything to do with 'world events'? I heard the song the other morning on our local radio station... I liked it.. but I love the video!

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First Essay Just About in the Can

First essay for the Teacher of the Year competition is just about done...
You can read it here. This has been a terribly difficult process because of the space requirements of 1-inch margins, 12-inch font, and 2 pages. I probably am writing a 3 page essay and trying to squeeze all of that in to two is hard. But, I think it is probably as good as I can get it.

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Easter is Coming!

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