News From My World-Special Updates!

Hello all of my fellow BET’s!  It has been quite a while since my last post, so I wanted to update you on some cool things happening in my world.

As most of you know, from a previous post, I was named the Middle School and High School Cross Country coach at the beginning of this school year.  This was quite a challenge for me as I had never coached any sports, save a season of church youth basketball way back in the early eighties.  I really enjoyed coaching these amazing kids.  I also had an awesome assistant coach in Austin Conner, so I think the season was a huge success.  Next year, I think we will have even more kids running and it looks like we may be able to field a team large enough to compete in team meets.

This Spring, we are staging the musical Guys and Dolls at Culver Community Middle School/High School!  I am once again serving as assistant director to our amazing director Diane Derrow, who leads this wonderfully talented cast of kids!  We are so excited to have several returning players from last year, and a truly promising group of middle school kids that look like they will carry the torch with swagger for many years to come.  So be sure to save the first weekend in March to come see our production of Guys and Dolls!  I will post times and dates later in February.

I have also been asked to coach the Boys Golf Team this coming season.  It is still unofficial, since I need to be approved by the school board, but I feel fairly certain I will be given the green light.  This is the position I have wanted since I began teaching but thought it was hopeless due to the fact that we already had a great golf coach in Kyle Elliott.  The fact that he is younger than me also made me think it impossible in the foreseeable future.  But alas, he has decided to lighten his load a bit, and I fortunately am in the right place at the right time.  I just hope I can work as well with the kids and be as good a mentor as he has been for the past fourteen years.  Thanks so much for allowing me this opportunity Coach Elliott!

So, that is what is happening in my world.  Still really enjoying the kids and the awesome group of teachers and administrators I work with!  See you next time!

Remember, if you like what you are reading, don’t forget to follow me on Networked Blogs, or Google Plus, or subscribe on the top right, and recommend posts at the bottom of each post using Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook etc.  Thanks again for reading!

Balanced Calendar, Unbalanced Life!

Greetings BET’s!

Well, we are about eight weeks into the semester and I am ready for a break.  This “balanced” calendar thing really has me bamboozled.  It is September 22, and we are eight weeks in!  Are you kidding me????

Ahhhh!  Making me lose my hair!

Oh well, at least we are not alone.  Many of the schools in our area joined this effort to simplify schedules for various reasons.  I’m sure it does simplify some things.  One thing I am sure it does not, would be the lack of a summer respite.  Many of you I’m sure are saying, “Eight weeks off isn’t enough?”   Coming from the outside and now looking out from the inside, I understand your comment.  For the world of people out there who are not in the teaching profession, let me break down my summer for you.

So, school ended on June 3^rd for us, but we had to make a day so we came back in the next Monday.  Now, I get my grades in promptly, so I was pretty much done for the year at that point.  I spent a day or two getting my room cleaned up and organized, and then I left for “summer” break.  I spent a week or two enjoying my family and traveling a bit, not really anything too exciting.

Now before we left for break, I had new computers added to my classroom.  I would be teaching the same software, but a newer version…five years newer, so there were some rather big changes. So, around June 29^th, I was back in the classroom, working up about thirty projects that my students complete during a semester.  I have to create them using the new version of software, so I know that what I am asking of the students, can actually be done by the students.

I also picked up a new course that I would be teaching so I needed to get some ideas together for how that would look in the classroom.  That didn’t go too well, as I am on my third different text, eight weeks in.  But, nonetheless, I did spend the better part of two weeks of my summer break, creating new material and lessons.

I also am the leader of the Freshmen Orientation program that we have here, so I had been working on the scheduling of that for those first two weeks as well.  We had our first training day for Mentors on the 13^th of July.  After that, I was in and out of my classroom daily until August 1^st, when we started back.

Don’t get me wrong…I am not trying to be the patron saint of hard working teachers. I know we get the extra three day in the fall and the extra week of spring break.  Frankly, I found one week of spring break a good enough time to recharge and I really can’t afford to vacation for two weeks anyway.  I am just pointing out, that while this calendar may look balanced to some, I find it to be something that tends to make me lose my balance more often than not. 

Conceptually, it may look good.  But do we really need to keep the kids in the classroom from August 1^st to June 1^st?  And who says this is where it ends.  Soon we may find ourselves starting school in Mid-July and ending in mid-June.  Twenty years ago, who thought we would be looking at the schedule we are today?  Just my two cents.

Remember, if you like what you are reading, don’t forget to follow me on Networked Blogs, or Google Plus, or subscribe on the top right, and recommend posts at the bottom of each post using Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook etc.  Thanks again for reading!

Our New YouTube Channel

Greetings to you all, my BETs!

Today is a special little post.  I won't do this for every video we publish, but I thought I would do so today, to ask for your help in spreading the word.

My son and I decided to put together a Vlog on YouTube.  We have been kicking this around for some time, but finally started putting it on video this summer.  Now, at long last, we have published our first video.  Please take a look and if you like what you see, share and subscribe and help us spread the word!

Thanks again for all of your support with this!

Don't Be A Dummy! June 1-7 National CPR/AED Awareness Week!

Greeting to you all, my fellow BET’s!

Well, it’s that time of year again…or, at least it was back in June when I missed it.  Time to raise awareness of and renew your CPR/AED certification!  Funny how I don’t have this observance day memorized, yet I can tell you at the drop of a hat when National Pizza Day is…February 9^th, if you are wondering.

Now because I am an employee of a school system, I have to be certified by the American Red Cross in CPR/AED to continue my employment and to be licensed as an educator by the state. (Just renewed mine this month!) But even if you aren’t required to do so, it is a great idea.  According to the American Red Cross, approximately 92,000 are saved by CPR each year!  Why not be prepared if you are ever in a situation where you might be needed to perform this on a person in peril?

Training is offered by the American Red Cross and you can find classes in your area by visiting their website, http://www.redcross.org/.  The training can cost anywhere from nothing to around a hundred dollars.  Training is also offered by private individuals, so you might ask around the area where you live.  You might find a group of people of like mind that are willing to set up a training just for your small group, which might be more cost effective.

So, don’t be a dummy!  Get trained and spread the word.  Someone’s life may depend on it!

Remember, if you like what you are reading, don’t forget to follow me on Google Plus, or subscribe on the top right, and recommend posts at the bottom using Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook etc.  Thanks again for reading!

Put Me In Coach...I'm Ready To Play!

Greetings my fellow BET’s!

Let me start off by saying that, I am not a coach.  Now technically, I am a coach, as I am coaching the middle and high school co-ed Cross Country teams here at Culver Community.  Let me reiterate; I am not a coach.

To make things worse…I am not a runner.  For those of you who know me, you know this to be true.  If you have seen me in the last decade, you know that a man of my frame (read big and heavy), probably should not be tempting fate in this way.  So, two strikes against me, right off the bat. (sports pun intended)

When I was in Junior High, I ran cross country as a seventh grader.  I did this because the cross country coach was also the basketball coach.  He told us that if we ran a season of cross country, we would automatically make the basketball team.  Seeing as how I was really bad at basketball but I was a huge basketball fan, I decided to give it a go.  To say I was successful at cross country wouldn’t be fair to the term success, or for that matter the words cross or country, in any order.  But, I stuck it out, showed up for practice every day, ran all the meets, and embarrassed myself fully.

Success as an athlete, by no means.  Success from the standpoint of achieving what I set out to do…ABSOLUTELY.  And my coach was good on his word as well.  I made the basketball team.  I rode the bench for the entire season, seeing action in only three games, but I was on the team.

So, do I have what it takes to be a coach?  I may not know strategy.  I may not have a great game plan.  What I do have though, is the experience in what it takes to be a good teammate and the determination to achieve what I set out to achieve.  And I always have “Run Faster” in my little bag of tricks!

I am not a coach.  But heck, I wasn’t a teacher three years ago, and look at me now!

Remember, if you like what you are reading, don’t forget to follow me on Networked Blogs, or Google Plus, or subscribe on the top right, and recommend posts at the bottom using Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook etc.  Thanks again for reading!