Again, I was asked by a reported some questions after the state tournament.
– What are your thoughts on the team’s performance at the State Meet this weekend?
It is tough to put the whole experience in perspective. We were pretty happy after Friday finishing in 9th only 327 out of first. We knew it was going to be a tough climb, but we knew we could do it. Then on Saturday morning we bowled our best 3 game series of the tournament but we still dropped a place to 10th. That was fine, we set our goals on 6th and moved forward, but then we kind of unraveled and dropped down to 12th. As I said, it is tough to put in perspective because you are in last place on the second day of state, but then you have to remember that only 12 teams in the state made the second day of state and you realize what an awesome accomplishment it is and then you look at the individual successes inside the larger team and you realize that it truly was an amazing weekend that I or the boys will never forget.
My main goal going in to the tournament was to get to Saturday and then see where we could go from there. So, in that sense the weekend was very successful. The boys were focused all weekend and really gave their all. After entering Saturday in 9th place we were hoping to move up in the standings, but it was a tough field with several quality schools. I was pleased with the determination the boys showed through all 12 games never giving up and fighting until the end.
– What were some of the highlights for you guys?
There are several pieces of the weekend that will always stand out to me. The first was the support we got from the parents. We had a fairly large contingent follow us down to state, and it meant a lot that there will willing to take the long trip to O’Fallon. On Friday in game 6 we were right on the bubble between advancing and being cut and the boys needed a big game, we were going strong through the first 8 frames and we were in good shape. Then, unexpectedly, the fan section starting chanting, “Let’s go Bears, Let’s go Bears…” and it was really awesome. This encouragement pushed the boys forward and we bowled our best game of the day (1039). The chants from the crowd gave me goosebumps and really made the day.
Another highlight is the performance of the seniors, Luke Mueller and Austin Wells. Both days Luke started out with a rough score (159 Fri and 148 Sat) but finished very strong. (1266 on Friday and 1211 Sat) he didn’t let the bad first game get him down and he kept fighting through. He was also always clapping and cheering on his team mates even when he was worried about his own game, which I really appreciate that he was able to put his own frustrations aside for the good of the team.
Austin’s performance was also inspiring. He has been battling with tendinitis since winter break and been fighting through the pain. On Friday morning his medication was not agreeing with his system and he just felt a little off leading to an uncharacteristically low (155) game 2. In the afternoon, after eating some lunch and letting the medication settle, he was back in good form finishing with a strong game 5 (266) and a 672 series for the afternoon. Then, on Saturday Austin was our rock. He decided to forgo medication and tough through the pain. In the morning most of the boys were clicking and bowling well which lead to our team’s high series (3052) but we still dropped a place to 10th with Austin finishing with a 622. In the afternoon as the team started to unravel, Austin was steady as a rock with only one open in the last two games and finishing with a 642 series and taking 28th place with a 2485 tournament total (207.1 avg). This makes him the highest finishing Lake Zurich Boy’s bowler in school history. It was really nice to see Austin achieve this since he has been our team leader for the last two years and to see all of his dedication to the bowling team really pay off.
Finally, the total team effort that the boys showed throughout the weekend very gratifying to me. It is difficult to instill the team concept in what is perceived by many as an individual sport, but the boys really came together as a group. When we had to substitute kids in and out to try and find the right mix no one got down or upset. The boys were constantly trying to help each other make adjustments and they were constantly encouraging each other. The leadership of Kyle Hunter, much like at sectionals, really helped us on the first day to keep from getting discouraged in the tight competition, he was always setting the expectation that we were going to do better each game, and that paid off.
– I believe Austin Wells reached the state tournament last year as an individual, how much do you think that helped him this time around?
Austin learned a lot last year in terms of how to adjust to the lane conditions as the broke down. The state oil pattern is still a house shot, but it is a slightly different house shot than what these boys play on all year. This isn’t as much of a problem in the early goings as it is as they break down. Austin saw this last year as he was barely eliminated after the first day because he was not able to string together his strikes. That experience gave him motivation to make his game more versatile and we can see that it paid off this year. Austin has never been one to be affected by the pressure of the moment, but I still think having been in that state environment last year helped he keep a cool head this year.
– Could you list how the rest of the team did at State?
Luke Mueller was 44th with a 2426
Steve Garcia was 45th with a 2407
– Can you put in perspective the season the team had this year?
This was the first year since my first were we had a full varsity team (5 or 6 kids who could average 200+). We had no seniors last year and only 2 two years ago, so we have been building to this for several years. Last year when we didn’t advance out of sectionals after winning the conference we said, wait til next year and all year we talked about how this is our year and the boys performed up that expectation. They won two large, competitive tournaments (Cougar Classic & Plainfield North Invite) and finished in the top 5 the last 5 weeks of the season. (Morgan Park, Rockford PBA Experience, Plainfield, Lake Zurich, Sectionals). With the 12th place finish at state this is the most successful team in Lake Zurich Boy’s Bowling history.
On top of that we are only losing two members of the Varsity squad (Mueller and Wells) for next year and we have some underclassman that have made a lot of progress in the past year. After the 2006-07 state trip, most of that team graduated, so the lessons learned from state where not passed on. This year, I am hoping that the returning members will take what they learned from this experience and use it to motivate and drive them forward as we work in the off-season.
The end of the school year is a hard time for me. Each year I meet a new group of students and get to form relationships with them. One of my co-workers has been preaching for a couple years about how the key to successful teaching is forming relationships. With this in mind, I have made an even more concerted effort this school year and I think it worked well. I open myself to my students in a lot of way that other teachers do not. I talk to them about non-school things during class (which is pretty common), I friend with them on Facebook if they request, and I allow them to text me. (Mind you I have only ever kind of given my number to my bowlers, but the number seems to get around.)
A lot of teachers would be uncomfortable with some of these avenues, but for me I truly believe that it has made my teaching more effective, (Research would seem to agree, Link 1, Link 2.) and it is the only way I know how to be. Many times I would see something on Facebook that I could discuss with the students during class the next day to build those connections, or a student would see something I posted about myself or Isaac and then we could use that to build a connection in class. I try to tell myself each year that I am not going to get as close to the students, but I can’t do it. I love teaching and I love it because of the students I get to meet. They change me for the better and hopefully the opposite is true. When the days are tough and I need a break from teaching, the kids are what get me up in the morning and keep me going. If I didn’t have a strong relationship with the students, I wouldn’t enjoy my job nearly as much. I wouldn’t know how to teach any other way.
On Scrubs Dr. Cox says he teaches through fear, but I can’t do that. I have too much fun being a goof with kids and interacting with them. Each day I am not sure what is going to happen in class, but it usually results in us laughing and having a good time. I’ve always believed that I can get more out of the students if they like me and want to work in class for me, if not for physics. Some people yell to manage their classes, but I like to use my relationship with the kids to manage the classroom.
Anyway, the point is that I formed some pretty strong relationships my students this year. I wouldn’t say it was with every student, but on the whole I felt closer to my students this year than any year in the past. One of my big fears in teaching had been that as I got older, I’m 29 now, I would start to lose touch with the students. I have actually found now that the opposite is true. This year I have found that more students have talked to me in an advice type sense than any other year. So, while my relationship with students is different than it was when I started teaching, I find that I am enjoying the new role I am in.
So, now the end of the year comes and I have to say good-bye to these wonderful young people. I do not know why this is so hard for me each year. Part of my says I only see these kids for 44 minutes a day for 180 days this shouldn’t be this hard. But, even knowing that, I feel a void when they leave. The truth of the matter is I see a lot of these kids more than that. Some come in for help, some come by to hang out, and some I just see other times. I love how things go for the first 9 months of the year, but the last week or so is just really depressing. I often refer to it as Post-Prom Depression. It is a rough week because the kids are stressed out and cranky because they are going through a bunch of emotions with high school ending and their teachers piling on projects. I have to battle with them to stay on task because they have senioritis yet I have to be the responsible one. At the same time I just want to hang out with them because they are going to be gone soon. This really makes closure tough to come by.
I try to do somethings to get closure. I give them a little speech with a couple of simple pieces of advice. Then I teach them how to tie a neck-tie. This year I started a new tradition by doing something that my high school calculus teacher Mrs. Courtney O’Berry did that was very memorable for me: I read them Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. This was received well and I liked it.
Anyway, I am not really sure what I wanted out of this post. Mostly I just felt like I needed to get some thoughts off of my mind. I love teaching and interacting with students and I would never conduct myself in any other way than fully committed to building relationships with students. This year in particular I have grown particularly close to two students and they have helped me grow as a teacher and as a parent. They may never know they affect they have had on me just like I will never know the effect I have had on many students. I recently read a quote, The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit. I don’t really like quoting other people, but this really sums up what I believe in a very elegant statement. I guess the hardest part is never knowing if the things I do on a daily basis have a positive lasting impact.
When I watch a video like this (I have seen similar one before) I feel extremely overwhelmed. The amount of knowledge and information out there is so huge. I find myself constantly saying that the combined knowledge of the world is at our fingertips and we just need to start taking advantage of it. Look at the growth of Facebook, and that was primarily with college students. Also, Facebook was free and televisions weren’t but those number are still huge.Now, I wonder if Twitter is going to beat that to be biggest fastest.
That there are more texts sent each day then people in the world, Holy Cow! Adults often just mock the younger generation and their texting, but to ignore the phenomenon is just ignorant. The Technology Tailor on WGN Radio, Alex Goldstein (or something like that) constantly mocks Continue Reading…
February 23rd — Today’s Good thing was getting through the first ACT prep class and feeling like the kids were listening and possible getting something out of it. (It goes so fast.)
February 24th — Today’s good thing was getting to go snow tubing with some fun kids and seeing those kids be good representatives of their school. Also, I was thrilled to see them Continue Reading…
So, if you were tagged, you are supposed to write your own list and tag 25 people including the person who tagged you. I say, do what you like.
I love teaching. However, it is way more work than I ever imagined it would be and I have a tremendous amount more respect for the good teachers I have had.
I love being a parent, but it is way more work that I ever imagined it would be (people always tell you it will be hard, and I beleived them, but you don’t know until you are there yourself.) I have a tremendous amount more respect for my parents now that I have a son.
I love Star Wars. I don’t know why. I know it (probably) isn’t real but the pageantry and the grandeur and the philosophy of it all is just so mesmerizing. It truly is an Oprah.
I have ADD and probably have my whole life. I was not officially diagnosed until I was 23, and knowing that I have it makes it easier as a teacher to deal with students who also have ADD (even if they don’t know they have it.) I also take drugs for ADD and, at least for me, they work.
I do not currently have a job next year and this weighs on me more than I let on or want to think about.
All I really want out of life is to do something that matters. I don’t know what that will be and I don’t know if I will know what it is (it may already have happened) but I will keep working at it until I die.
My son is named for Sir Isaac Newton (perhaps the single most important person of the millennium) and I think this is awesome and I don’t know if Gina will ever truly appreciate how much I appreciate and love her for allowing that. Continue Reading…
Today we joined the Costco family. The people are school act like Costco is a way of life so we decided to give it a shot. The tipping point was that someone point out how much we could save on diapers and formula, so we tried tonight. The reason we had waited so long was that we didn’t know that buying in bulk was feasible for a family of three. However we should be getting a big freezer from my Grandma if we ever get up there to get it.
Today’s good thing was that I had two really good laughs in class today. I haven’t had any good crying laughs in class that I can remember since my first year at LZ when two students argues over who popped their collar first. I was very stressed today after being yelled at by my student for “ruining their lives” because we had to cancel our trip, so I think I was little giddy and that led to me finding these antics hysterical!
Well, first a student said finding the displacement was a “super-sneaky” way to avoid doing extra work when in fact this was the correct way to solve the problem. Some of the students who were confused about the problem didn’t find this funny at all, but the ones who knew what was going understood why I was laughing.
Secondly, a student who is not known for homework completion completed his homework the other day and after being assured he would receive credit for it he promptly put the assignment in the recycling bin. Today for his presentation he was convinced by his group mate that he would need his worksheet so he walked over and calmly dug the worksheet out of the recycling bin as if it was his personal locker. I found this far funnier than any of the students.
So, as many of you know, all of the 1st – 4th year teachers in Lake Zurich have been told that they will have no job next year. This is the case because the school board is anticipating a 4 million dollar deficit next year and they are releasing as many teachers as possible so that they can have flexibility when they start cutting programs and increasing class sizes. I get this policy on some levels, but it leaves me in a bad place. I just wish they would have taken the time to be a little more thoughtful about the process. Half of the science staff had been let go and I can’t imagine that was necessary.
What really makes me sad is that I am now going to have to go out and apply for jobs. When I am offered one of those jobs in the next few months, I am going to have to take because I need a job in order to take care of my family. So, won’t be able to tell a job that is guaranteed to me to wait until LZ figures it out in April, May, or even June. This really starts to get to me because of the time and effort and really parts of myself I have given to that job. I don’t work at half speed and I really have put myself into that job and I feel like I have been dumped.
But, in all honesty, the part that makes me the most sad (I actually even cried a little because I was so sad) is that I will most likely not get to see the bowling team through next year. I always told myself that minimally I was going to see one class through bowling to try and get the program established and then decide what I wanted to do. I got lucky and the group I have right now is amazing. I never thoght I would feel this close to a group of students, but then, BAM, it happened. There are times when I want to wring some of the necks, but I am really going to miss the fun times we have had.
I really worry that when I get to my new job, that I am going to be relunctant to get that attached to the people there. I hope I don’t end up that way, but that is how I feel right now. I felt like I finally found a district where I had a place and role. I was coaching, teaching, working with technology and then the rug got pulled out from under me. I would like to think that I will be back there next year, but I have no idea and have to proceed as such.
There are people who are worse off than me in this situation, and I wish the district could have gotten their money right the past couple years so that they would have had the reserves in place to handle this. Oh well…
I just finished watching Happy Feet and I really enjoyed it. The movie seems to be a cross between The Ugly Duckling and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Mumble is a duck whose egg is dropped during incubation. The most important thing in the life of a penguin we learn is to be able to sing in order to find a mate. Mumbles, we learn, lacks the ability to sing well, but he can really cut a rug (this is an old term for dance.) Well, Mumble is shunned from the penguin community all of his life because of his “happy feet” and isn’t allowed to officially graudate from penguin school.
While this is all happening the penguins and other antarctic creatures are going through a fish famine. The leaders of the penguins say that the great “guin” is angered by Mumble slacker ways and his dancing and is punishing them with no fish. Mumbles learns from a large bird and a treachorous encouter with a walrus (or possible a large otter) that “the aliens” (humans) are causing the problem.
After being exiled from the emperor penguins, Mumbles sets off with 5 penguins of a different breed to find the source of the problem and exhonerate his name. The travel a long way until they eventually find a large fleet of fishing boats that are taking the fish. Mumbles companions are content to turn back now because they have proven the Mumbles is not to blame, but Mumbles actually wants to help fix the problem. So, he jumps into the ocean and starts following one of the boats. He is briefly successly but ultimately ends up trying to chase the boat until he ends up in, what I assume is, Australia.
Here he ends up in a zoo and interacts with aliens. He tries to reason with the aliens, but they don’t seem to understand anything he says. He ends up becoming depressed and hullicinating about his family back home. Eventually one little girl comes up to glass and starts tapping a dancing beat and Mumbles starts to dance. This gets the attention of the whole crowd and Mumbles is ultimately sent back to his home, but he marked with a homing beacon. I’ll leave the rest for you to watch.
The animation in this movie is really good and they weave music and dance into the movie in a really fun way. The voice acting is good especially the role of Noah, the patriarch of the penguins, who is portrayed by Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith from The Matrix.) I would reccomend this movie for anyone who enjoys animated films. Towards the end the movie gets very emotional as Mumbles is temporarily separated from his family and we are not sure what is going to happen. The movie also tells a good story that could open a dialog for parents and children.
Isaac is working through his first cold right now. He is a little more fussy than normal, which is too bad because it tends to mean that he gets less sleep when he really needs more. He is doing a better job eating consistently though so that is good. You can see here that he is quite unhappy.
In some ways he is still very small. Like when when I put him in his crib, he seems so slight. But when I hold him or put him in his car seat he seems huge! Gina referred to him as her little meatball the other day.
Today we had the football golf outing/fund raiser. It was a nice time outside. The biggest thing I missed while I was doing the Summer School Principal things for my internship was being outside everyday. It has been a nice summer for it so far. This last week has been rough in terms of humidity, but at least I am not in pads.
In addition, I am still loving texting and in particularly updating my Facebook status whenever I want. I now have found that I can reply to my friends’ status on my cell. I find that this really helps me stay in touch.
He is doing a better job eating consistently though so that is good. You can see here that he is quite unhappy.
