TOY Thoughts

Today was my interview for District Teacher of the Year. I was a final four finalist. The interview was a half hour long and in front of a panel of 7 people from our district. Of the 4 high schools and 8 middle schools it was all down to me and three ladies from our area middle schools. I walked out feeling great about my performance in there. I do not believe I could have done any better.

For a few hours I thought I had a really great shot at actually winning. But, as the hours slipped by I knew the chances were getting more and more slim. They make the decision pretty quickly and I knew they would be calling the winner quickly. Tonight after the PTSA meeting, my principal informed me that I did not win.

I just got finished emailing our faculty and staff and thanking them for all of their support. It is a real load off of my shoulders. The entire process is great and a wonderful opportunity. It was amazing. But, it was also a ton of pressure. And I actually do have a pretty important job to do each day (other than write essays, do interviews and give speeches). It will be great to go to work tomorrow with a complete focus of my energy back on my kids again.

Tonight at the PTSA (parent, teachers, student association) meeting they honored me for TOY. It was really great. They invited Norma and Aidan as well. They had a wonderful cake, a poster, and a big present. Inside was an eagle puzzle for Aidan to play with, 3 Red Eagle T'shirts for each of us, a red AHS Eagle Hoodie Sweatshirt for me and two great collared shirts for Norma and I. There was a nice teacher themed stationary in the box. And they also gave me a ceramic eagle. All of this as a token of thanks for the work I have done this year.

It was extra special coming from the head of the PTSA because I had her daughter in class last year and we know each other well.

What a year it has been. We only have about 3 weeks left. Then summer! We are ready for the year to be over... but I don't know if I will ever experience anything like it in my career. I will always look back on the 2006-2007 school year with a lot of fondness. It was a neat ride.
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Texans Land a "Phe"

1st Round Pick, Amobi Okoye is nicknamed "Phe" - short for Phenom. It's no wonder:

But most 19-year-olds haven't latched onto a Latin word he says speaks to his essence: invictus, or unconquered. Most aren't nicknamed Phe, short for phenom. And most don't have the chutzpah to put their career on par with that of their generation's premier prodigy. "LeBron was the old phenom, maybe I'm the new one," Okoye says. "We're going to go from King James to Phe." [quotes from this story in ESPNtheMag Huge for his Age]

His story is really something. He is now the youngest player ever to be drafted in the NFL. He was a high school freshman at age 12.

OKOYE WAS born in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. His mother, Edna, brought him to the school she worked at as a principal because she couldn't find a reliable baby-sitter. At 2, Okoye sat in a first-grade classroom, learning how to read. He picked up math and sciences quickly, too, and years later, he tested out of sixth grade. In 1999, Edna, Amobi and two older siblings immigrated to Huntsville, Ala., where his father, Augustine, had been living for two years. When Amobi was assigned to the eighth grade, he protested and, with his parents' support, argued that he had already completed all of his junior high requirements in Nigeria and therefore belonged in high school. After 12-year-old Okoye passed an aptitude test, he was given two weeks at Lee High to prove himself. Amobi interrupted one algebra class to show the teacher an easier way to solve an equation. He was allowed to stay.

Amazing. At Louisville he was indeed "Invictus"-like. He is a super pass rusher with a non-stop motor. As a "3" technique or inside defensive tackle, having the ability to get after the QB is a great bonus. He is very young and will grow a lot more. The Texans did a great job in landing him and they were shocked he was still there. They said that Amobi was their #1 player on the board on the defensive side of the ball and that they could not pass him up. I am glad they didn't! Great pick!

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Thomas Table

We finally got the table top for the Thomas table this week. We also bought a very nice train track set for him. It has enough fun parts to it that he should be happy with it for a while. He really enjoys setting up the track, so we will have extra track that he can setup on the floor, too. But, we are going to glue the track down to the table so that it does not come apart easily.

My sister Katie really got us started on these trains. She has sent down one for him for Christmas and birthdays just about every year. He has a nice little collection going. His uncle George built the awesome table for him. Aidan plays on that table every day. Now he's going to be able to play with his trains on it.

It will be fun to put together for him. He plays and says, "Choo Choo!"

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Final 4 - T.O.Y.

Today I found out that I am a finalist for the district Teacher of the Year. I will have an interview on Monday at 1:45 at the district office. I am the only high school teacher and the only male that will be interviewed. The other candidates teach middle school in math, english and computers.

It should be very interesting. The interview will last 30 minutes. They sent out the regional questions that I would need to answer in essay form, if I should win the district TOY and move on to regionals. It seems that they will be judging me on my ability to win at regionals. Here are the topics:

Teacher of the Year Topics
I. Professional Biography
What are the background, people and events that persuaded you to become a teacher? Describe your most significant contributions and accomplishments in education.
II. Educational History, Professional Development
A. List college and universities and post-graduate studies, with degrees earned and dates attended.
B. List history of teaching employment, with time periods, grade levels and subject areas.
C. List professional association memberships, offices held and other relevant activities.
D. List staff development leadership activity and leadership activity in the training of future teachers.
E. List awards and other recognition.
III. Community Involvement
Describe service-oriented involvement, such as volunteer work, civic and other group activities.
IV. Philosophy of Teaching
Describe your personal feelings about teaching, including your own ideas of what makes you an outstanding teacher. Describe the rewards you find in teaching. How are your beliefs about teaching demonstrated in your personal teaching style?
V. Education Issue and Trends
What do you consider to be the major issues in public education today? Address one, outlining possible causes, effects and resolutions.
VI. The Teaching Profession
What can you do to strengthen and improve the teaching profession? What is or should be the basis for accountability in the teaching profession?
VII. State Teacher of the Year
As the Teacher of the Year, you would become a spokesperson and representative of the profession. What would be your message? What would you communicate to your profession and to the general public?

So, I get to write 5 additional essays (already wrote two of these for district) if I should I win. Yikes. It would be wonderful to represent my school and distrit though. So who knows what will happen. I am taking this in stride as much as possible and enjoying the ride.
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Aidan Lounging with Corn!

The kid loves three things...
1) Sponge Bob
2) Pop Corn
3) Mom-mma!
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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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