The Big Game and The Fireworks

Well, to be honest, we didn't do all that well in the big Homecoming game. We lost 38-22 to the Erie Tigers. We did fairly well, all things considered, but we had a hard time stopping their passing game and gave up a couple of really long runs at critical points in the game.

What was fun, however, was the fact that we had fireworks for the game. Apparently, an alumnus of Highland High does fireworks for a living and every year, gives Highland a fireworks show, pretty much at cost. For a tiny little town Homecoming Game, the show was pretty nice. They also shot off big booming fireworks every time Highland scored. Guess who got to alert the fireworks people to shoot of their rockets after a score? Yeah, me! I had a little walkie-talkie system and when we would score, I would open a channel and shout, "Fireworks! Fireworks! Fireworks!" A few seconds later, loud explosions would occur in the sky. That was pretty cool.

Another nice part of the game was that Shannon brought the kids out to see the fireworks. They seemed to like them!

However, by the end of the evening, I was dead-ass tired. What a long, long, long week.

The Homecoming Parade

It is now 5:45 p.m. My tenure as a traffic cop is now over. At 4:00 p.m., I was given a nice little orange vest and sent out to control traffic on the Homecoming Parade route. It was rather fun, pointing and telling people which way to go.

The parade lasted about 30 minutes or so. Our float turned out to be one sided, on the wrong side. Oh, well. Some overzealous 9th grade boys tore down half of the float before it got onto the parade route anyway, being idiots. I then grabbed a quick five dollar hamburger at the Booster's Club Tailgate Party and came back to my room for a few minutes of quiet and coolness before I have to get out there in the announcing booth.

What a long day....

The Freshman Float Advisor Comes Through

OK, for school today, I made my classes do some light writing. Nothing to strenuous, as the classes were only one hour long and band kids, cheerleaders, football players and homecoming court people were in and out most of the day.

After school let out at 12:30 p.m., I grabbed a quick lunch and then met with my Freshman Float Committee. Unfortunately, most of the people that said that they would bring stuff (like costumes, backdrops, etc.) did not show up. So we had three hours to put together a float from nothing. Well, we did have a flat bed trailer, but not much else. I rallied the kids that we did have and we started making phone calls. One girl called her grandma and had her bring some costumes. Another called his dad an had him bring some 2x4's for bracing our backdrop, another ran home and got some nails and a hammer. Some other people went scrounging in all of the trash dumpsters for leftover hall decorating materials that had been thrown away this afternoon. Yet another went looking for some large rolls of paper to use for our backdrop.

Somehow, two guys from the Nunn (local tiny town) Telephone Company showed up with some wood and a screw gun and helped us build the backdrop. We then decorated the trailer with a ton of old stars that we found in the trash, plus some red carpet that we used on the floor of the trailer. We got a camera and a director's chair and a director's hat and the little clappy thing and made some banners and put everything together. I think it will be OK. I hope.

I have a free couple of minutes to type this up. Then, I have to go direct traffic for the parade and make sure that people don't accidentally drive the parade out onto the highway. After the parade, I will try to grab a quick dinner, then get ready for the announcing of the game tonight.

After showing up at 7:30 a.m., I should be ready to leave work at around 10:00 p.m. tonight.

Whew.

Homecoming Week Continues and We Talk About 1984.

The week plods on.

The Bonfire/Pep Rally was held last night, starting at 7:45 p.m. I had run home for dinner and came back at 8:30 p.m. When we left the house (Shannon and the kids were with me) it was clear. By the time we got to Ault for the bonfire, it was dumping rain. Cars were streaming out and we could see the firemen hosing down the remains of a soggy bonfire. We turned around and headed home.

In class today, we did a writing assignment. I put forth two different assignments for the two different classes. In the Technology Classes, we analyzed the shopping experiences at two different Web sites, jaguar.com and mini-usa.com. At the Jaguar site, you can order a model and a color and they give you the price. At the Mini Cooper site, you can get lost for hours, customizing every little piece of your car, all the way down to the license plate holder and the color of the knobs on the dashboard. The kids had to compare and contrast the site and why the sites looked and acted like they did.

In Web Design, I showed them the 1984 Apple Commercial. Then, they had to research the novel "1984" and the Apple MacIntosh computer and write me a short essay on what the commercial means and why it was so important and influential.

I was pleased that, at least for the 1984 writers, they actually thought about the topic and put some good stuff down on paper.

Tomorrow, we have 1 hour classes and a shortened day. We will be let out at noon so that kids can A) Clean the hallways from the homecoming decorations and B) Work on completing their floats. This is where I come in. I get to try to wrangle a group of 9th Graders and talk them into creating Float Magic from nothing. Wish me luck.

It's Pie Time and I Am Elected to Office.

Well, I had a decent enough day, considering that the Green Day (which is 1st Period, 5th Period and 7th Period classes) is my tougher day.

1st Period, I spent time going over some AutoCAD problems with the kids. It was a lot direct instruction, but a good number of them are starting to get it. This is my class with 5 Special Needs kids. It isn't easy, but we do appear to be making some progress.

My 5th Period Class is a different story. In that class, I have a group of 7 kids that want to be pushed and work on the harder problems. I have been giving them stuff to work on and I have been letting them go. They help each other and are working hard all period long. That's the good part. The hard part is that the other 11 kids in the class are really struggling. There are some football players, some cheerleaders and some volleyball players in the group and they seem to need a ton of hand over hand and spoonfeeding to understand the littlest concept. I did get them through 4 problems today, though, so I guess I should be happy.

During Homeroom, the student body gathered on the front lawn for a pie throwing fundraiser. Students could buy a whipped cream pie for two dollars and then launch it at the teacher of their choice. As it was a fundraiser, I agreed. I was in the first lineup of three teachers, along with the football coach and the cheerleading coach. Guess what? All the pies that round went to the coaches. I didn't get hit with one pie. After that round, I figured that I had done my duty and I made myself scarce. I can't help it if the kids all threw pies at other people instead of me. I'm just lucky, I guess! My good friend John Cochrane, being a person of overzealous mouthiness on occasion, got pretty strongly abused with a number of pies.

After school, I attended the members meeting for the local chapter of the NEA, the National Education Association. Yeah, I joined the damn teachers' union. Not because I believe in their politics (I don't), but because each member receives a one million dollar professional and liability insurance policy with their membership. In this day and age, this is something that (male) teachers have to worry about. Along the way at the meeting, I was elected as the new Treasurer of the Association. I will be taking over for C.J., the current treasurer, who is my Mentor. I guess this will work out, as I already owe her big for all of the help and advice she has given me.

Me, Treasurer of the local Teacher's Union. Whoda thunkit?

A Birthday

I ran into one of my students today in the commons area at lunch time. She was toting a nice vase full of red roses, with a little card. I asked her about them and she said, "They are for my birthday!"

"Nice!" I said, "did you know that it is my birthday, too?"

"No Way! Really?"

I showed her my driver's license, indicating that 41 years ago today, my mother brought me into the world.

"That's so cool, Mr. B.!"

Then we talked about what we were getting for birthday gifts and so forth.

Sort of a nice way to make a connection....

Mr. B.! Where'ya Been, Man?

Wow! It's been like a week or so since I blogged.

Sorry. I have been pretty busy. I am trying to maintain six classrooms, be a Freshman Class Representative, Grade a Million Projects, you get the idea.

Classes have been going fairly well for the most part. I wondered for quite awhile about my planning. I seem to only be about 2-3 days ahead in my Web Design Classes and only about 1-2 days ahead in my Technology I classes.

When I was back at Berthoud High School doing my student teaching, my cooperating teacher, Mr. Lobdell, always wanted me to be "at least two weeks ahead of your classes" at all times. Meaning that I should have all of your lessons and activities planned out two weeks ahead of time.

I haven't been this year. I am only a couple of days ahead of things in most of my classes. When I got together with our Personnel and Training Coordinator, Sue Ann Highland, and asked her about this. She said, "No way! You never want to be more than a couple of days ahead of classes with your planning, especially in classes with a number of special needs kids." When I told her that I had to scrap a whole lecture last week and start all over again the next day, she was thrilled. "That means you're being a good teacher!" Theoretically, that means that I am in tune with my students and can tell when something isn't working and that I am willing to try over again instead of "Teaching Louder."

The one thing that she was disappointed in was that I have been staying rather late recently. I was at school until at least 6:30 p.m. each day last week. "Oh, please don't do that!" she said. "You'll be burned out by Christmas!" OK, I guess I am working too hard. She is working to help me know when to let some things go and when to hold on.

All in all, things are going pretty well, though. My student that hated me two weeks ago hates another teacher this week and has been doing fairly well in my class. However, her class is a pretty tough one to teach. There are a group of 6-7 kids in the 5th Period class that want to work hard and learn, and I have been letting them work ahead in the book and do advanced problems. They talk things over and figure them all out by themselves.

The rest of the class struggles to make a square.

It's not that they are dumb. They aren't. A few of them are motivationally challenged, however, and that seeps into the rest of the kids in the class. I may have to go to daily assignments for them, just to keep them on top of things.

Two of my Tech. classes are speeding right along. I decided to give them an "Expert Groups" Assignment at the end of the week. I split them into logical groups of two and assigned each group an AutoCAD command or two that they had to become experts at. They are completing a large Poster regarding their command and will be demonstrating their knowledge this week at a "Trade Show." Each group will set up a little booth with their poster and the computer and a presenter. Folks will rotate through the booths and learn all of the commands that they don't know yet and get a chance to practice at the booths.

I am hoping that it will be a fun way to learn some stuff without having to listen to me drone on and on. We'll see.

The nice thing is that it is Homecoming Week, so the schedule is pretty butchered and kids are a little scattered this week anyway. Each day, everyone is to dress up in a different way. Today was pajama day. Kids act slightly goofy when they are wearing pajamas. Tomorrow is Super Hero Day. You get the idea. Hard to get too serious about teaching in an atmosphere like that. That is why most of the stuff I am doing this week is pretty light hearted...