A Suite Deal

Norma and I are heading to the Astros game tonight. As a part of the "Teacher of the Year" stuff I have been invited to attend in an executive suite. I am very excited. We have never sat in an executive suite and it's the only place in the stadium that I have yet to visit.

Some details:Seating Capacity 14-110 (suite sizes vary)
2008 Price $150 per seat
$300 per seat on (6/13-6/15, 6/27-6/29)
Legends Suite
If luxury is your goal, our suites are the ticket. Beautifully appointed with a bar/buffet, socializing area and closed-circuit TVs, our suites offer privacy and comfort for personal and business entertainment. Luxury suite catering is available with an array of food and beverage packages with service attendants.

Suites offer the privacy and comfort for personal and business entertainment.

Amenities
All of our Minute Maid Park Executive Suites come equipped with the following amenities:

* Television monitors, telephones and in house stereo system.
* Theater style seating along with living room style atmosphere in majority of suites.
* Enclosed private climate controlled concourses with lounge areas.
* First class catering provided by ARAMARK catering services.
* Large floor plans and spacious interiors.
* Attentive Suite Staff.
* Club Level access.
* One Lot A Parking Pass included per suite.
* Sliding glass doors open to stadium chairs, which are conveniently designed to seat your guests in two rows.

We have a parking pass. And the tickets say, "Price: $150.00" Amazing! It should be fun. I'll write more when we get back and I might snap a few pictures. :)

Num... what? Spelling Bee Moment of the Year

This was great..

Asif Mandvi @ Hillary's Speech

This REALLY cracked me up.


Did you see how few people were actually there? Sad for her. It's all over tomorrow - her major concession speech is at high noon.

Aidan's Last Day of Daycare

We had a really great 3 years with Mimi. Aidan has become a wonderful young boy because of her guidance with him. This week was his last with her.

I am really going to miss going over there after work and playing with the kids. It was the thing that knocked the school day's woes off me. And seeing Aidan was happy and healthy made me relax.

Now we will be taking him to Kingwood's Kindercare in Town Center. We are very happy with the place. Perfect location. They will drive him to kindergarten and elementary school. That is essential because we have to be at work at 7am and he won't start elementary school until much later in the morning. And the price is right.

It is also on the way to work. So we'll be driving a LOT less. Which is awesome. Especially with gas prices the way they are. This will be a nice way to start the new school year. It is going to be a lot different at our school and it will be a lot different for him. We are all going through changes together.

But, I will miss Mimi and her house and her wonderful ways with Aidan. It was a perfect situation for us and we are so lucky to have had the time with her. I am going to put together a couple of pictures in a frame for her and drive them over for her later in the summer. One picture is her with all the kids after Aidan's first year with her. He is so little. And the second picture will be the one below. He has grown up so much!

Day of Days - D-Day

June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord (The Allied Invasion Name) and Operation Neptune (the Amphibious Assault on Northern German-occupied France).

The initial D in D-Day has had various meanings in the past, while more recently it has obtained the connotation of "Day" itself, thereby creating the phrase "Day-Day", or "Day of Days". (according to WikiPedia: D-Day

May we never forget the sacrifice of those brave men on that brave day - June 6, 1944.

Pens Come Up Short

The Red Wings pulled it out. Game Six, up by two goals with less than two minutes to play... it was over. And then it wasn't and it was in doubt. The Penguins scored a late goal to make it a one-goal game. Then they just missed the game tying goal at the end of regulation.

It was tough to watch them lose, but exciting none the less. This was a fun team. I hope they bring back Hossa next year so that they can make another run at the Cup. It will be fun to watch! He just about tied up the game with this tip in at the end...



Ohhh! Look at how close that puck is to going in! It was incredible. But, you have to give the Red Wings their due. Great team all-around. Reminded me of the old Soviet Union teams because they were just cold-blooded and professional. Did what they had to do and never panicked.

Can't wait to see what happens next year for Syd the Kid and the Pens.

Astros Pick - Jason Castro

The Astros selected a catcher in the first round today: Jason Castro, Catcher, Stanford U.

6'3" 215 lbs. Good bat from the left side and a very quality throwing arm. I am excited by this pick because it certainly is an area of weakness on the major league club. But, with any catchers, they take time to develop. College coaches call all the pitches, so a young catcher has to come in and learn to work with pitchers and call a good game. But, he went to Stanford... so dude is probably working pretty well between the ears!

According to the Stanford baseball website, it says that Castro's "Favorite Stanford Baseball Road Trip: Texas." So he'll get to see Texas again real soon. :)

Killing Education - But, not so softly

I came across an article suggested by this blogger today: MsGeorgeMsEnglishTeacher at Blogspot

Killing Me Softly: No Child Left Behind
The President’s education plan is hurting students and teachers
By Jordan Sonnenblick -- School Library Journal, 5/1/2008

Very interesting view of a teacher turned author who left education. He says because of No Child Left Behind and the damage it is doing.

I see it a little differently in our district. Our state - Texas - has locked funding for school districts at 2004 levels. So that means that a district like ours which is growing in leaps and bounds is in debt. We have a 25 million dollar deficit in our budget for next year. So that means major changes are coming. Staff and administrative reductions. Elimination of a planning period. And possibly the elimination of some extra-curricular activities - like freshman sports.

It is frustrating to see things the way they are. But, our crazy legislature in Texas meets once every TWO YEARS! So they are very, very slow to get anything done. And they are most Republican... which is probably a bigger problem. It is my belief that many in power simply want to see the current system fail, blame teachers, and redo the system with vouchers for kids to attend any school (public, private and religious). Sad. Because what happens is the kids are the ones that lose out in all of this.

Hopefully we can continue to put pressure on people in Texas and get some kinds of solutions soon.

What I have been waiting for... FINALLY Obama Does It!

Wow, no... Triple Wow!

FIFTY FIVE SAVES! Wow.
Pens 4 - Wings 3
Triple OT

AHS 2007-2008 A Look Back

This year I created a video for each one of my World History classes. I had 5 gigs of pictures and video from the year. So I divided the pictures up by periods and then created a 15-20 minute video for each class.

We watched them at the end of the year and enjoyed the look back. I have my World History Period videos password protected (if you are really interested in seeing them, email me and I will send you the password - I do not want it open to the public to view).

This was my "Introduction" video. It is pretty short but shows some 'school pride' kind of things. It was a great year.


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

First Graduation @ AHS

I brought home one of the mortar boards for Aidan. There were dozens that the kids didn't pick up off the floor at the end.

We did it. Our high school graduated our very first class - the class of 2008. It was an amazing day. I was very honored to read my 158 white house names of students as they crossed the stage. It was nerve wracking and crazy to be in Reliant Stadium in front of all of those people (the entire bottom of the seating bowl was filled - the stadium was divided in 1/2 for the ceremony).

I had a seat on the stage to see it all. What a special opportunity. Our school is divided into 4 small learning communities - blue, red, gold and white. And each community has 2 houses with 400 kids each. In each of those houses there is a principal and counselor team that take care of the 400 kids. Most all of the kids have their classes in their house. But, athletics, electives, etc are outside of the house. This creates a small school within a big school environment. I really like it and it gives the kids a lot more support.

So we graduated in our houses. I got to announce names for the White House. It was exciting to be up there in front of all of those people and help the kids experience their graduation day. It went by pretty quickly. The biggest problem that I had was when I announced a kid that I really love. I got a little choked up and hesitated some. Otherwise it went pretty well.

When there was one last name to announce (I went last - white is last alphawise), I said, "AND..." The place went wild. The power of that little word "and" - which signified that this would be the last senior to walk across the stage. After that a roar from the crowd and the kids went wild. Then I had the special chance to introduce two of the kids that wrote a song about their class and performed it on stage. I had never been a part of a song like that during a graduation before. It was really special.

On the way back on the bus all of the teachers had a real lift off our shoulders. It went well, it was over and we had graduated our first ever class at our school. It has been a wild year and we have a lot of changes coming for 08-09, but it was fun to cherish the experience and smile.

Last year we didn't have any seniors - so no graduation. So this was two years in the making. And it was well worth it!

The red robes looked sharp!