Video Games: The 360 returns

My Xbox 360 returned today from the shop. It actually isn't the one I sent to them, they replaced it. I knew they would. I don't actually mind. Mine had some other cosmetic problems, this new one is sparkling nice. Works like a charm.

Bought Madden 07 today. Only played one franchise game, so I have no idea if it is a keeper or not. But, I did like what I saw. It's last year's game, but with the kinks and bugs worked out. It looks like it has some nice depth to it with gameplay and the franchise mode. I will be playing some hours this weekend over Labor Day.

:) My 360 is back.

In school I have been being bombarded by nerdy kids wanting more information about the Video Game Club that I will probably be sponsoring. It's actually pretty funny. I can seem them walking towards me in the hall and you can tell it's a video game club kid. They are geeking out, "ahhh, Mr. D... ahhhh, I hear that you ahhhh, are going to sponsor the video game club AND ahhhh.... I was wondering..." It's funny.

Each thursday during advisory we are going to have the kids go to their club. It's totally not worked out yet though. It's in its early stages of development. At this point they have me down for two clubs - Video Games and Fantasy Sports (with Norma!). Who knows what will end up happening. They want a final list of clubs and sponsors next week.

Well, I am beat like a dog. Time for bed. I will blog more this weekend and I will post some pictures of Aidan. He is feeling a lot better, but not totally over his infection.

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Good News - Hybrids Paying for themselves. Bad News - Congress Takes $ Away

This really got me excited by the headline. But, after reading it I was depressed to think of how Congress is just holding back the adoption of these vehicles. How can they cut back the tax cuts on hybrids? What possible justification can they have?

CNN.com - Study: Hybrid cars will pay for themselves over time - Aug 22, 2006: "Buyers of the Saturn Vue Green Line from General Motors Corp., the Toyota Camry and the Civic Hybrid from Honda Motor Co. would break-even within six years, Edmunds.com said.

But federal tax credits for hybrid buyers are being phased out on the most popular models.

Under a provision of the tax code, buyers of a Toyota hybrid after Sept. 30 will only qualify for half of the tax credit for which they would have previously qualified.

Tax incentives will also be cut on other hybrids after auto makers sell 60,000 of the vehicles -- a sales threshold Toyota has reached.

The tax credit on Toyota and Lexus hybrids is scheduled to drop to 25 percent in April 2007 and then be eliminated in October 2007."

So I guess the bottom line is... if you want these cars to actually pay for themselves - you better get one quick! Congress should be ashamed of itself.

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny: Official Movie Site

I love Jack Black. I will love this movie. Tenacious D. Awesome. Jack Black and Kyle Glass are two crazy guys that started a band named "Tenacious D". It is hard to explain. So I will let Wikipedia do it:

Tenacious D (sometimes referred to as "The D") is an American rock band composed of musicians and actors Kyle Gass and Jack Black. Their style meshes rock with other musical styles such as folk metal, comedy rock and country rock. They are known for their upbeat classic rock style and vulgar comedy. The band first gained popularity in 1999 when they starred in a self-titled HBO television series, in which Black and Gass tried to establish themselves as "The D" and the "Greatest Band in the World." The series is occasionally aired on the Comedy Network.

If you really want to understand Tenacious D, just check out this video for their song "Tribute":

The D: "TRIBUTE"

Liam Lynch is producing it. He of the "United States of Whatever" Fame.

Should be "sweet." ...And by sweet, I mean "super sweet."

Sometimes you win, Sometimes you lose... Sometimes it rains

We have had a really tough weekend that extended into Monday. Aidan is sick. It is sad that he has to go through this, but such is life when he has to go to daycare. We love his sitter, she is wonderful. But, the kids and babies there just have so much illness. Aidan caught a pretty bad cold (hopefully that is all it is) and Friday, Saturday and Sunday were pretty awful.

He was feeling better later last night and had a good night sleep. His fever had broken and we sent him back to the sitter's today. He was in better spirits, but again tonight we had to take him for a drive to get him to fall asleep. He just can't lay down or drink a bottle because he is so stuffy. He also has refused to take his medicine. We are trying to sneak it into drinks, but he is refusing those as well.

Hopefully another good night's sleep can help him. I have been taking vitamins like an old Granny just trying to stay healthy and not get sick myself. Seems like everytime the baby is sick I get sick. I am crossing my fingers.

I also am dealing with the untimely death of my Xbox 360. Yes, just as Madden 07 is about to hit store shelves my box died. I got an error: E75 and the box would do nothing. It is a crappy error message with like 10 different languages on it. I called tech support at Microsoft and we stepped through everything. They said it is an "internal error" (i.e. it is a motherboard failure) and they would send me a box to ship it in. It'll cost me $130 bucks because it is "out of warranty." Pretty crappy. But, since I have invested all this money into the system already, I am pretty much stuck paying it or having a wasted box.

My emotions were pretty hot last night. I stopped just short of tears, I think I was just exhausted from a really crazy week and then that happened with my Xbox. As much as I love technology, sometimes it just is the most frustrating thing in the world. But there is nothing you can do about it. Things break. The good twist to this is that I had a light on my dash of my Honda Accord all week. It was for the vehicle exhaust system and I was driving it just praying that the light would disapear so that I would not have to take it into the shop. Last night I started it and was going to pull it out of the garage so that I could put the carseat into Norma's car. We had planned on taking the Accord into the shop and driving Norma's much smaller Saturn all week. After I started the car, BINGO. The light was gone. ...whew... that was a relief.

Win some and lose some I guess.
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Fantasy Football: Tenacious D

We had our draft today in our Fantasy Football League. Here is my team:

Tenacious D
QB - Carson Palmer, CIN
WR - Chris Chambers, MIA
WR - Andre Johnson, HOU
RB - Steven Jackson, STL
RB - Rudi Johnson, CIN
TE - Alge Crumpler, ATL
W/R - Dominic Rhodes, IND
BN - RB Thomas Jones, CHI
BN - QB Jake Plummer, DEN
BN - WR David Givens, TEN
BN - WR Matt Jones, JAX
BN - TE Ben Troupe, TEN
BN - WR Eric Moulds, HOU
K - David Akers, PHI
DEF - New England

I am pretty happy with the team, if my injuries pan out. I had the last pick in the first round #10. That sucked. I took Steven Jackson first and followed with Rudi Johnson. I have to have two pretty studly running backs. That's where you get points in Fantasy. Since I had such a low pick, I decided to wait and take a flier on Carson Palmer. He is coming off a huge knee injury, but for my money he is right up there with Manning when healthy. He was huge for me last year.

It was pretty cool to take David Givens. I have his sister in my World History class this year. Pretty neat. He went to Humble High and then Notre Dame. He spent his first few years with New England and then signed with the Titans this off season as their top receiver.

I play my wife in the first game of the season. Her team name is Aidan's Armadillas. My sister Aimee has won the league the past two seasons and beat me in the Super Bowl last year. Hopefully we'll have a really great league. Everyone in it is pretty cool. Most are family. My step Mom, sister, (son to be) brother-in-law and my brother-in-law from Norma's side. My uncle is in the league. It is neat to have a family connection when we are all so far away. Also, two of my very best friends from when I worked in technology are in the league.

Should be a fun football season!


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Education: What is a life as a teacher like?

A teacher is someone that...

is probably beat tired. Most people don't realize what spending the entire day on your feet is like in front of 30+ teenagers. I explain it like this: Imagine spending your entire day doing corporate presentations... to a tough audience! It is fun. It is wild. And it can wear you out. Tonight I am feeling it - DEEP inside me. Total exhaustion. Getting my new classroom up and running has been a chore. Living with the fact that our entire huge school is trying to get off the ground has been even more difficult. My first period class has 36 kids. I have 29 desks. One of kids snapped a leg off of desk #30. Great. Actually it wasn't in one of my classes, I have a teacher that floats in during 6th period. One of his little angels did it. >great<

A teacher is someone that...
buys things that a corporate employee NEVER would. How many corporate employees would go to Office Depot and purchase their own legal pads? None that I have ever seen. But, a teacher does this if he has to. I had to this week. I also had to buy and eraser for my white board. Oh yeah, and pens for that white board. A pencil sharpener. The list goes on. Sure I expect we'll be getting some supplies in... sometime. But, it is just a shame to start the year handicapped without these essential things.

A teacher is someone that...
gets the biggest smile when he sees a former student from last year and realizes how much they have grown and how mature they are. It has been just amazing to see my kids from a year ago. Man, they are just becoming great young people right in front of my eyes. Just cool to see.

A teacher is someone that...
needs to get some sleep, because 5:30am is coming soon!

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Education: First Day in the Books

Definitely a good first day. We had a few bumps in the road, like lunch period. It was a mad house with 700 students eating at once. Hopefully they will iron out the kinks in that tomorrow. My kids were great though.

One thing I am going to have to get my mind wrapped around quickly is how fast the period will go by. I am used to 90 minute classes. 1/2 of that - 48 min is going to fly. Today we had them shortened and it was murder to get through what I needed to do.

All in all though I really loved it. My feet are killing me, my throat is sore and I am beat tired. I'll wake up at 5am and do it all over again tomorrow with a smile on my face. :)

Tomorrow we tackle our 7 Habits of Heart and Mind. These are 7 things that the community want to see from an AHS graduate. It was an interesting process that the community went through to pick these 7 attributes out. They all met in meetings last winter and split out into groups. Then they brainstormed on ideas. People from all walks of the community - business leaders, parents, teachers, administrators and students. They came up with this:

1. The Habit of Authentic Learning: Students will be able to extend beyond transmission of isolated facts and skills to in-depth understanding and complex problem solving that is useful to students and society outside the classroom. They will learn to construct knowledge through disciplined inquiry and to produce discourse, products, and performances that have meaning beyond success in school.
2. The Habit of Imagination: Students will be disposed to evolve their own view of a matter, searching for both new and old patterns that serve well their own and others’ current and future purposes. Students will be able to break-down complex issues to make sense of them for analysis and discernment; they will learn to contribute to a thoughtful culture that is pervasive in all schoolwork.
3. The Habit of Fluent Communication: Students will gain the ability to be fluently expressive via multi-mediums, and understanding the duty to explain the necessary in ways that are clear and respectful both to those hearing or seeing and to the ideas being communicated. They will practice daily good listening, speaking, writing, and computer skills.
4. The Habit of Collaboration: Students will practice daily making appropriate provisions to accept and give assistance and to work well in groups to accomplish goals. They will understand and appreciate individuals’ differences as their varying talents benefit the groups’ efforts.
5. The Habit of Service to the Common Good: Students will demonstrate an awareness of the effects of one’s actions upon others and a desire to make the community a better place for all.
6. The Habit of Ethical Behavior: Students will demonstrate ethical behavior influenced by personal values and a set of guiding principles practiced daily.
7. The Habit of Appreciation: Students will learn to sense the wonder and proportion in worthy things and respond to these delights. They will celebrate their own abilities and individuality as well as others’ accomplishments and creativity. Finally, they will understand the importance of being thoughtful and thankful for one’s home, school, community, country, and planet.

It should be interesting tomorrow. We are going to take 1 Habit per period and teach it to the kids. I will probably spend about 1/2 of my 48 minutes on it. The other half I will spend on getting to know the kids better, and them getting to know me better. We have lessons for each of the 7 Habits, so we have some ammunition to actually accomplish some work with it.

Building a fresh new culture from ground zero is really something to behold and watch grow. My freshmen advisory is really cool. 16 kids, 11 girls! It is going to be neat to see them graduate in 4 years. I will have them every day of their high school career for 30 minutes.

Anyway, time for me to get some rest. I'll blog more on school later in this week.
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Education: The Adventure Begins @ the High School of the Future

The new Three R's: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. At our new school tomorrow, the "School of the future" will be put to test.

1. Rigor – making sure all students are given a challenging curriculum that prepares them for college or work; authentic learning and assessment allow students the opportunity to learn more, rather than just reproduce knowledge and memorize facts.

2. Relevance – making sure all students have authentic courses and projects that clearly relate to their lives and their goals; engaging students in the community through internships and service learning is an essential part of who we are.

3. Relationships – making sure all students have a number of adults in school who know them well, look out for them, and push them to achieve and learn; small learning communities, advisories, and classrooms where students have voice and ownership provide the structure for personalized learning and for building relationships. We are a learning community built on trust.

I can't wait to find out if this new setup is going to work. Smaller learning communities, the 3 R's and our 7 Habits of Heart and Mind are all awesome ideas. But, when it comes down to brass tacks, what matters is classroom instruction. I feel real confident about my ability there. I hope these other things just make my classroom teaching even better.

We won't sleep too much tonight. It is almost 10 now and I am WIDE awake. I worked out pretty hard tonight, too... but I don't think it is going to matter much. First day of school anxiety is tough for teachers, not just students.

My schedule is a pretty good one. I teach 1st, 2nd, and then have advisory. Then I am off for planning for 3rd period. Then I teach 4th and 5th periods, then have 6th off for planning. Then I come back to my room for the last period #7. I have 1st, 2nd, and 4th periods World History Pre-AP. Fifth and Seventh are Level World History. I haven't taught a level class in a while, a year and a 1/2. So I am a little nervous about that. It is more difficult because there are so many different levels of kids in there. I'll have kids that are bright enough and work hard enough to have taken the advanced class, but they just don't have the confidence socially to do so. Then I will have some average students and some very below average students. I think I have two kids that are repeating World History from last year, but it is hard to tell by looking at the computer.

Can't wait though! The adventure begins tomorrow at 7 am.

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Education: Saturday Before School Starts

Today we took the baby in to the school to get a few last minute touch ups done before school. He had a pretty good time. We had brought in a dvd of spongebob for him to watch on our dvds on the big screens in the room, but he was having none of that. The school just gets him fired up. He runs, gets into things, and generally goes nutz.

It was so cute though. When you walk in through the cafeteria, there is a big A with an Eagle on it. Aidan always stands there and points like, "Hey! Look at that birdie!" He won't move either. Which is a problem. Our rooms are like a mile away from there and getting him going is like dragging a mule. But, I promised him there are more pictures of birdies down the hall. That got him going.

The school doesn't look like your typical school. Example:
AHS is very cozy for students. The "flex" areas are places just outside of the classrooms that students can sit and collaborate on projects in groups. The sofa chairs and (I call them) cocktail lounge-style table and chairs are pretty nice for them. There is also a computer kiosk with 8 workstations and a printer.

The school is grouped into "houses" or smaller schools within the school. Norma is in the Red 1 house. I am directly above her on the 2nd floor in White 1. We are going to have a contest later to rename the houses from their Red/White/Blue current naming scheme. I am in favor of ex-President names, but we'll see how that turns out later.

[Here is a picture of Norma's room.] A house consists of about 400 students. They will all share the same core teachers on that hallway or pod. For example, I teach World History Pre-AP in the White House. Any sophomore taking World History Pre-AP in the white house will have me. So I could be pretty sure that if they are also taking advanced English that they would have the same teacher. It will give me an opportunity to collaborate with her. We could decide that the kids will do a project and use the same style of writing that she uses in her class. Or they could do a history research paper that may count as a grade in different ways depending on the class. We could also take kids to the teaching theatre or LGI (Large Group Instruction) room at the end of the pod. You can fit about 100 kids in there and it is theatre style seating.

Anyway, our rooms are really coming along. Norma is much further than I am. I like to take my time with hanging up posters. Plus, I will have a project right off the bat that I will be putting on the walls. I really like posting student work on the walls. It brings the room alive.

[Here is a picture of my room.] Monday morning is going to be crazy. But, I can't wait. Seeing my new students and starting this grand adventure is going to be something new for everyone. The beginning of the school year is always great, but this year it is something special at this beautiful new school.

I'll be wearing my new red, white and blue striped tie and trying to look sharp on the first day. I wear a tie Mon-Thu and wear a school spirit shirt and jeans on Friday. There is something about a tie that commands a little more attention and respect. I can't really tell you what it is, but the kids respond to it.

If you are interested in seeing all the pictures we took today of our rooms, check them out here at this gallery:

AHS_Aug_2006

Aug 12, 2006 - 47 Photos

There are more pictures there of our rooms and of AHS.

Check out my classroom website here: World History @ AHS by Mr. D.
Also, check back often at my blog for updates. It is going to be a fun adventure.
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Education: AHS What a Beautiful Place

Click on the images to view a bigger version of them. More images coming of our classrooms. Time now to grab a workout and watch the end of the Texans-Chiefs game. Texans up 14-7 and looking good (for a change!).
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Education: There is so much right with schools today!

Just as I was saying to my wife how tired I was at 7pm tonight... beat, whipped from a long week of moving our stuff into a new school. I check my school email from home. Administrators and our lead counselors are streaming out emails. I check the send time... 7:17pm. They are still at school working!

Amazing. And people in the general public (especially down here in the south) bitch and moan and whine about schools. If they only knew how hard people actually work. Hope much pride they take in a job well done.

It is really great to work with a bunch of people that are so selfless and so concerned with everything coming off smoothly for the first day. Sure we have had huge setbacks and things haven't gone as planned. I do not believe it is because of lack of effort from anyone's part though. Furniture can't be in rooms if it has not been delivered.

Sure it will be a shame for students to be sitting on folding chairs in my room at 7:30 am on Monday morning. Sure they will probably say, "Mr. Duez... this school has all this great stuff and they don't even have enough desks for us?" All you can say is, be thankful for what we have and the fact that more is coming.

At the beginning of last week (and through most of the middle of this week) I stressed about not having a teacher's desk and some of the more important stuff just to do my job. Those things have come through and I really feel confident that Monday is going to be a great day.

We are going to go in for about 2 or 3 hours tomorrow morning. We'll take Aidan in and let him run around some. I will probably even bring a SpongeBob DVD along so he can watch it on the projection monitor and relax. I'll take some pictures and pop them on here tomorrow night. The school looks amazing.

Speaking of SpongeBob. Norma remembered an episode that she saw this summer about "Imagination." One of our 7 Habits of Mind and Heart that we want to teach, model and focus on at AHS is "Imagination." So I am going to make a dvd of that episode so that we can show it in class during 2nd period on Tuesday. That day we will be focusing on one of the 7 Habits in each period (there are 7 periods/7habits... works great). The Imagination episode works great because the activity we are doing with the kids is what SpongeBob and Patrick do. They have a box and they imagine what is inside and what they can do with it. Of course, their neighbor Squidward doesn't believe and lacks the imagination to understand. So there is a good lesson for the kids that you have to believe and open your mind to be able to Imagine.

I am interested to see how the kids react to it. If it goes over well I will play it for my Advisory period this week also. Advisory is a class of 15 kids that will meet with me ever day for 30 minutes. We focus on Academic, Social and Emotional development of the student. The teacher acts as an "advisor" and does everything from helping with counseling problems to being an advocate for the student throughout his or her 4 years. It will be very interesting to see how the program works as we do it daily for the first time ever.

Can you tell I am a bit excited? Can't wait to meet my students.

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My Life: Monday will be here before we know it!

Houston Chronicle: AHS To Open It's Doors on Monday

This time of year is so crazy! Opening a new school year is always hectic, but this year has been the most hectic I have experienced. Everything will be worth it though on Monday when 2,200+ young people descend on our high school. It is a wild number: 2,200+. They expected 1,900 when they designed the school and hired the faculty. So that means we are OVER CROWDED. I should feel right at home after 2 years at the most crowded school in Texas! :)

My class sizes have come down through the week and they are much more manageable now. The counselors have just done an amazing job of getting it all ready. They are working crazy hours and doing everything they can to give the teachers some relief. Earlier in the week Norma had some classes with 35 and one with 38 kids. Luckily that has come down a few. My biggest class right now is 33 and my two level World History classes are around 25. Very manageable.

Of course, I need about 4 more desks... and I am crossing my fingers I get them. But, we will make due with whatever we have to on Monday.

Tomorrow morning is the faculty breakfast. It is supposed to be the start of a new tradition. Friday before school starts we have coffee and bagels together in the cafeteria. The PTSA (Parent, Teacher, Student Assoc) is putting it together. Then they are going to feed us lunch. It will be a festive atmosphere tomorrow. I am starting to get butterflies a little bit, but I finished my "Learning Plans" (previously denoted as "Lesson Plans") for the first two weeks and submitted them. So I feel pretty good about my progress.

As for my classroom, I still do not have many posters up on the walls. I will finish them tomorrow. I hope to be able to not go into the school on Saturday and just take Sat/Sun to relax and get mentally & physically rested. Both Norma and I got all of our copying done for the first week today. We got very lucky to hit the LONE copier in the school when no one was on it. That will be a mad house tomorrow. They have like 4 copiers on order, but just like a lot of our furniture - it has yet to arrive! (No worries, school just starts in 3 days!)

I had a student come by my room this afternoon with a vase of mini white and red roses. She said, "Are you Mr. Duez? These are for you." She also handed me a typed out note on nice flowery paper that said:

The white rose symbolizes loyalty and sincerity and is sometimes called "flower of light."

The red rose represents courage and respect.

But the red and white rose together signifies unity and togetherness.

They are given to celebrate a strengthening relationship.

I am looking forward to all the opportunity to learn, share and grow at AHS

I was stunned. School hasn't even started yet and I am already off to a great start. I must be the luckiest guy in the world. Every year I end up with the best students in the school!

It's going to be a great year.
Eagle Pride is born.
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