The Reason For Living

I Am In Real Trouble

\\Look at this beautiful little girl. I am going to have a very hard time letting her go one day. It's sad. She is only five and I am already worried about her getting married.

My Baby Girl

This is probably one of my favorite pictures. This was taken by my wife back when I was recovering from my transplant. Caroline climbed up into bed with her daddy and took advangtage of some "daddy time."

Some Years You Just Shake Your Heads

Okay we all know that I am in education. Some years you get a group of kids and AS A GROUP they just don't seem to get it. I have a grade level in my building that just does not understand or seem to care about following directions. One group...you tell them how to do something...model it...and they got it.

Then there is THIS group. Seriously, I am litterally walking them down the hall MYSELF between classes because if I don't they go NUTS in the hallway. Picture a kindergarten teacher walking down the hall. Walking backwards...slowly...with their hand in the air as a signal to pay attention to what they are doing. You have to stay on them EVERY minute because if you don't they lose it. Someone gets hit, tripped or falls down. We had a group of kids like this a few years ago. They are now sophmores in high school and are setting all kinds of records for stupidity.

Whats even more fun is when you get on them they are looking at you like
A. This is the first time they have ever heard of this rule you have called NO TALKING.
B. They seem confused by this thing called A F#$%KING LINE!!

They want to hang on one another constantly. And...they don't move. They just get in a big blob of kids and just stand. It's like herding cattle...and the whole time they are looking the same way they look at you when talking about example A.

So they don't like coming into the gym in the mornings because they have to come in and sit and not talk. So they get the bright idea that they are going to beat me and show up early so they can play out in front of the school.

So I show up earlier...now they are coming in an hour before school trying to beat me. So I keep getting there earlier and earlier. What about breakfast...I am hungry.....Breakfast starts in one hour. AN HOUR??? BUT I AM HUNGRY NOW....Well it sounds like you have a choice to make....STAY HOME AND COME TO SCHOOL CLOSER TO BREAKFAST or I SUGGEST YOU INVEST IN POP TARTS!

So today they show up at 7:15. The numbers are greatly reduced....(at least some of them are getting the point) I got to work at 7:00. So I was there waiting for them. You could see the WTF look in their face. Good Morning! Come into the gym. No talking and sit in your assigned line. As one kid passed he said...Man....how long are you gonna do this.....My answer...about 160 more days!

I love VICTORY!!!

The Family Curse

Jack went over to play at a friends house yesterday. The friends mother was fixing the boys a snack when she herd her son say...Jack, sometimes I just don't like you. Jacks response was...But it's not my fault. The friends mother admonished her son for saying that to Jack and here was his reponse.

But MMMOOOOMMMM all the girls like Jack! None of them like me. He is a CHICK MAGNET Mom!!!!

Jack said...But it's not my fault!!!

I was hoping the curse would have died with me.....but I guess it has been passed on to my son. It is really hard growing up good looking.

Hit A Wall

Well I have been fighting a low grade fever off and on for about 2 weeks. Last nighr I had a low grade fever but nothing major. I woke up this morning again with the fever and I was very tired. I decided to not fight it anymore. I called in and took meds and went back to bed. I slept off and on for the better part of the day. My fever broke late this afternoon. I feel MUCH MUCH better. I guess I just really needed to sleep.

That;s Alright....I got it..I am fine..It;s just a shot to my KNEECAP!

This week I had the opportunity to work with one of our students who is having a hard time adjusting. This student is VERY smart. He just has a lot of change in his life going on right now both in his personal life and in school. When he gets upset he begins to cry and gets into a type of trance. You can talk to him. He hears you but does not respond to anything you say. My assistant principal has delt with the student a couple of times this school year but her answer is to send him home. She has done this twice. I asked her if that had worked? Did it stop the behavior in other words. Her answer was...well no . Do you think he might be doing it because he WANTS to go home? The only place that is kind of what he is used to? Dad's girlfriend just moved in...with her son.....NOT GOING OVER TO WELL.

So back to my story. It is about 11:45 and I bring the child in and he is upset and he sits in a chair and does the crying trance game. I fall back on my experiences of working with students in the transition unit and start using those skills.

I am not going to bore you with a play by play of this but there is actually some funny parts to this story. Through out the day this student varied in his intensity in trying to get me to react to him. The problem is he is not a bad kid. He is very compliant normally. He tried to get me to react to him by crying in my office for over an hour.I just sat there and took notes on observations of his behavior. I never interacted with him. I did tell him I would talk to him about what made him upset but that I needed him to stop crying. After an hour he stopped crying but refused to talk to me. Fine...I took the chairs out of my office and I would let him stand. Let's see how long he will last now. After another hour he moved over to the corner and he stared leaning on the wall. Ahhhhh he is getting tired. Are you ready to talk? I only got grunts. He started kicking the wall. He started kicking the wall HARD. So I told him I could not let him do that because he could hurt himself. This is when he turned around and kicked me in the knee like he was kicking a 57 yard field goal! The pain shot through my leg and I left foot went numb for about 2 seconds. It's like I took what they call a stinger in football. I see the student is about to take another shot to me and I react quickly and get him in a restraint so that he can't kick me again. This now has many peoples attention in the office. My secretary jumps up and starts taking notes. This is to cover my bases. Make I am doing everything properly. I don't know if you have ever had to restrain someone but it takes alot of energy. This is something that is precious to me. I had a bone marrow transplant in January of this year. Now I am in a restraint. I had several people walk by and look at me but noone was coming in to help me. Where the Hell is my AP? I thought....I asked my secretary....Where is MRS... We have some kids texting during class so she is working getting all the kids involved in that. She knows you are here working with.......

Let me get this straight.....I have been with this kid since 11:45....it is now 2:30. I am sweating like a pig...I am taking shots to the kneecap and my back up is working on FINDING THE TEXTING BANDIT?!?!?!?!

I let the student out of the restraint and took his shoes off with the understanding that if he started kicking me again I would restrain him. I let him go. He kicked my desk HARD..ONCE..then he backed off...with a limp. Lesson learned I figured. I finally find someone to relieve me and I go out to use the restroom and regain myself.

I see my new AP coming down the hall into the office area. I ask her how she is doing. I am getting to the bottom of this texting Mr. JDHTeach....Hey I am glad that you are Mrs. AP. Are you okay Mr. Jdhteach....you look tired......hey I got it..you take care of those cell phones...thats important

Mental Note To Self.....talk to AP about PRIORITIES---- When I am taking shots to the kneecap texting on cell phones can probably wait

Daddy...When Can I Do THAT?!? Soon Jack

I watched the movie Friday Night Lights a while back. I thought Jack would like the football aspect of the movie but he did not get into. Until he walked through the room and this scene was on. The boy was GLUED! Only in football will you pray to God and literally go out and run through your mother if she has the football.

What Jack did to that other kid last week is what #90 did to the running back. When Jack saw the kid fly through the air and land on that quarterback Jack looked over at me and said...Daddy When Can I Do That???? In time son....in time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0z9vdGoghU

I Found My Song For the School Talent Show

We are working on organizing a talent show at the end of the school. I found this one about beautiful people. What do you think? Too Edgy? I am also trying to figure out my costume.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY0536g_6Wc

Teaching Sunday School

Well I did not have to have my arm twisted too hard but I am teaching 2nd grade Sunday School with Tracey. It is Jack's class so that is good. Tracey and I kind of got quilted into doing it. If we did not do it then every other week there would be no one else to do it. People think....you guys are teachers you like kids...PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEEEEE!

Here is the deal. We deal with kids all week. That is what we do for a profession. We love children and want to make a difference or we would not have chosen that field. But you need a break from it. You especially need a break from those type of children that are "special." Now don't kid yourself...Tracey is doing the teaching and I am the materials guy and crowd control man. I did take over and do the closure activity last week but all the prep work fell to Tracey.

Think of it this way....you are a data entry person for your career. You spend anywhere from 45 to 55 hours a week working on data entry. Not only that but you spend about 3 hours on the weekend getting ready for your data entry next week. ARE YOU GOING TO BE STOKED TO DO DATA ENTRY FOR YOUR CHURCH FOR COUPLE OF HOURS EVERY OTHER WEEK???? Probably not.

But since no one else is jumping in there out of the more than 4,000 active members here we are....

I like spending time with Jack. The girls in the class are great. Most of the boys are fine. We have two boys that need attitude realignment therapy. The part of the alphabet we had had 14 kids in it while the other class had 7. Hopefully we can balance that out a bit.

Am I At A Turning Point In My Life?

Here lately I have noticed something about myself. I am spending less time playing video games. A few years ago I was spending too much time playing video games. They were my stress relief. I have noticed within the last 6 months I have just not cared to play anything. I first noticed this back in the late spring. But nothing really great was out so I just waited. I thought to myself that when NCAA Football and Madden come out I will be ready to go! NCAA came out and I did not finish one season and I was bored with it. It still is there ready for me to play my bowl game when I get around to it. I have not touched the game in over a month. But MADDEN that game has been my bread and butter since college. I get the game every year. I played one season and I have not picked it up on a regular basis in over two weeks. I started a new season and started to play the first game and shut it off. Bored! Heck my xbox360 died two weeks ago and I have not done a thing to get it fixed. In the past this was a TOP OF THE LIST. Now...ehhh I will get to it.

I just like to come home and hang with the kids and read stuff on the internet. There is a new STAR WARS game out. I will eventually pick that up but again in months past that would be something that would be in my possesion on release day.

The past month T-Lady and Jack have put in more time than I have with Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones. But ThAT is another post

MJP and his Momma!

I am asking that everyone keep MJP's mother in your thoughts and prayers. His family just found out that her breast cancer has returned after many years. As I have mentioned before I grew up with MJP. He is the closest thing to a brother that I have. He is the Godfather to both of my children. My kids even call him and his wife aunt and uncle.

His mother is a saint. Growing up she worked in our school cafeteria all through elementary school. When she would see me come through the line she always gave me a little extra. During high school and college her house was ALWAYS open to us to hang out and watch TV or just listen to music. And cooking...oh my...her PIZZA!! None better. If we were over there watching a game she spent her whole time making sure we had everything we needed. Usually MJP would have to say..."MA...we are fine...have a seat and enjoy the game." This woman would not hurt a flea but at the same time she had the respect from us so that we would not want to get in trouble. Now MJP did that a few times on his own but that is another blog.

Throughout my sickness I would get cards from Mrs. MJP just letting me know that she was thinking of me. I got them when I was in the hospital and I would get them at home. It was nice to get cards just WHENEVER from her letting me know that I was in her prayers. Mrs. MJP has a shoe in heaven. This woman NEVER misses church. I figure if she is praying for me then God HAS to let me live. He does not want to make Mrs. MJP upset.

Mrs. MJP has kept track of me through MJP for quite some time. What is amazing is some times I will go a year or more without physically seeing her. But when I do we just start visiting like it has only been a few days. About 6 weeks ago I ran into her at the grocery store and we visited for over 30 minutes!

I know everyone probably has someone like this that they know and love. Please keep her in your prayers.

George George George of the Jungle WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE

I was walking down the hall this morning doing my normal duties as the kids were walking to their rooms to get the day started. This kid is walking down the hallway and walks into this door that he HAD to see open. This was not fake either. This kid nearly knocked himself out. I had to help him to the clinic. Not sure what happened there. He looked at the door but obviously it never regestered that the door was open.

Better check that kids file.

Who Says Flag Football Is Not Contact?

Yesterday was Jack's first flag football game for second grade students. They went up against a team that is pretty close to them talent wise. When Jack started practicing a couple of weeks ago they told me he was going to be their quarterback. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that. By looking at Jack you would think....LINEMAN or LINE BACKER. Not qb. Well at yesterday's game who was the CENTER? MY BOY! And who was the MIDDLE LINEBACKER? MY BOY!!

Yesterday was great football weather. We had some rain....cool weather...and wind. Jack LOVED it. With the rain I kind of figured my parents would not come out. I would not blame them. But I was surprised in that they did. Not only that but they stayed for the whole game!

My dad was really watching my son play. He was watching his technique, positioning, everything. You see both me and my dad played football but my dad took it to a whole other level that I never could have reached. My dad does not talk about it much but if you ask him about it you can see the ol' coach get into it. My dad's first job was teaching health and coaching offensive and defensive lineman. He eats it up.

Throughout yesterday's game you could see my dad getting exciting about Jack playing. He was talking to Tracey the entire time. Look at that T-Lady....see what Big Jack did there??? That is just natural...you can't teach that...look how he does his stance.....that is natural....just natural...all of his power is going to be..........

They did do a sweep play yesterday where the offensive lineman pulled and here comes my son rumbling across the field. A kid from the other team gets in Jacks way and Jack steam rolled him. This is a penalty in flag football. Who knew? When Jack saw the kid was hurt he did stop and sit by him until the coach from the other team got to him. The kid was fine he just got a little run over.

I told Tracey on the way home. Well I guess we need to brush up on good line play because it looks like we have another generation of lineman in our family.

Gotta Love MBIII

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mblwJbk7kTQ


It is a lot of fun watching Marion Barber punish people for thinking they need to try and tackle him. When are they going to learn ...GO LOW!

He is THAT Good

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=3208334&brand=null&videoId=3558501&n8pe6c=2

This video just game me the giggles. I have a ways to go before I can pull this shot off.

Blogger Follower

HEy there! I noticed a new feature on the blogspot website. Blog Follower--- It let's me know who reads the blog on a regular basis. If you would please put your name down so I can learn who is reading this.....

SECOND GRADE?!?!?!?!?!?

The students in my school are in the 5th and 6th grade. I have a young man who has a history of being a thorn in the sides of his teachers. I remembered this kid when he was in Kindergarten. He was a toot. In general he just has a chip on his shoulder and has no problem telling you what he thinks. His real dad is in jail and does not have anything to do with him when he is out of jail. His step dad is involved but at this point I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. He was not in the picture last year so I have no point of reference.

These are the kind of kids that I get into! When I was in the classroom I taught at schools with many kids in these type of situations and many times much worse. I love working with these kids and giving them the attention they are seeking in a positive manner. Many times they act out for the attention. They just want attention...good or bad.

Well I saw DJ in the hall yesterday and I came up behind him and said "Hey there Big Man!" He is small in stature.

He said "Hey Mr. Jdhteach"

I squeezed on his neck and noogied the top of his head.

He said," Dang Mr. Jdhteach...that's kind of hard"

I told him that wasn't anything. My son takes a lick twice that and barely flinches. He is about your size DJ how tall are you .....FOUR FOOT SEVEN was the answer I got as he bragged on himself. I said, well you got him on height my son is about four foot six. How much do you weigh DJ? SEVENTY THREE POUNDS DJ proclaimed proudly. Well he has you on that DJ ...my son is 95 pounds so he is a good bit thicker than you.

DJ said...Yeah Mr. JDHTEACH but how old is your son.

He is in 2nd grade DJ.

DJ looked at me with his eyes bulging out of his head... SECOND GRADE????

Yep...2nd grade.....

I saw DJ in the hall today....he said...Mr. JDHTEACH....when can I see a picture of your son? I told him to come see me in the morning. He said A'right!

Let the bonding begin.

Just Tell It Like It Is

I am a huge Dallas Cowboy fan. I am from Dallas and have lived here my entire life. When it comes to the Cowboys I am a realist. I am not one that is considered "a homer" if you will. There are times that I expect them to lose going into the game. This past week they played the Cleveland Browns. All I heard on the radio were predictions of a close game. Cleveland fans were all predicted the Browns to blow out the Cowboys. I have a friend in my district who is a big Browns fan. They predicted a big victory for the Browns. I just did not see it. I did not see how Cleveland could stop the Cowboys. Everyone pointed to their 10-6 record. They played ONE team with a winning record last year.

Well if you watched the game it was a kicking of the highest order. Romo grilled steaks waiting for his receivers to get open. They had NO ANSWER for the Cowboys. There were some timely drops by the Browns but overall that game was over at half.

So here comes Monday morning and I see my work buddy and I am ready for his excuses.

All he said was...." I got nothing man. Ya'll kicked our ends" "We are in for a long year."

Finally, a realist. It is refreshing to hear a fan from an opposing team admit they were wrong.

I still am swallowing crow from the paste job the Giants put on us last year on that Dark and Gloomy Day.

It could be worse...you could be a fan of the St. Louis Rams....anybody see that poop they put on the field? There were guys on that team I would not let on the plane coming home.

I Love Me Some Me!

I posted earlier that a couple of teachers were mad at me. Well it seems their class sizes are not as big as they thought....which is what I kept telling them...and I am not so heartless after all. They have been spending the past few days really kissing up to me. I love it when I am right. It's good to be KING!! Finally got through that drama. Now I can start doing my job!

It's A Small World Afffffter All....

Okay I am going to start this off by saying that this person has no reason to lie to me.

I know a person who is a nurse at another school in my district. She is older than I am. We have had the opportunity to work together in the past. The other day she was telling me that her daughter was dating a guy that was in an English rock band that she guessed was pretty popular. She guessed he had some money because he had taken her daughter with them on a recent European tour and across the United States. I asked her who the band was but she said she could not remember. She said she would check with her daughter and get back to me. A few days later our paths crossed and she told me she found out who the band was. She said....

Have you ever heard of a band named Def Leppard?

Xbox....The Ring Of Death

Well this past week my Xbox 360 started giving me the red ring of death. This is the 3rd xbox 360 that has done this to me. My son also has a 360 so at the moment I am using his. I am tired of dealing with this. I love the xbox but they really need to get this thing figured out. I am seriously considering moving over to the Playstation 3.

TTTRRRAAACCCEEEYYYY.....Have you seen my Budda?

Well it is almost here! It is time to get out the Football Buddha! Buff and polish the Football Buddha Belly and place him on the mantle! Where he will sit and be prayed to every Sunday until sometime in late February!

Oh Football Buddha! It is nice to see you again.

All praise the FOOTBALL BUDDHA!

I Can't Win

My school is packed. I am not sure what happened but we have about 60 more kids than we were expecting. I can handle it staff wise but if many more come in we are in trouble. I have been busting my tale trying to make this work. I (along with my counselor and PEIMS clerk) have spent HOURS working and reworking our schedule. From all of the late nights I have put in my wife has pretty much been a single mother for a while now.

It finally got to the point where we had to redo the whole thing from scratch. The good news is I got it to work. The bad news. My specials classes have two classes of 30 kids. I have two specials teachers out of the four mad at me and one is getting on my last nerve. Here is what I got to listen to from the one.

I cannot teach my curriculum with 30 kids in a class. My answer? Why can you teach with 28 but not 30? This morning you were thrilled that I got the number down to 30 from 38. Now you can't teach?

Well I request that I not have my PDAS observation during these two periods. My answer? Done! Not a problem.

This is just crap. You say we do whatever is best for kids but that is just a lie! My answer? You need to be careful what you say Mrs.......... IF you are upset I suggest you come back to me when you are calm. I have no problem with you disagreeing with me but you will be respectful.

To you it is more important that I have cafeteria duty than teach art! My answer? Due to the importance of providing the best learning environment in the classroom I have no one else available. WHAT I WANTED TO SAY IS.....No, what is more important to me is that my classroom aides are in the special ed classes helping those kids be successful. Those children are going to be judged on their academic success. Not that they know their facts about art or can color with char coal.

It amazing me how some teachers are not able to look at the BIG picture. It's all about them sometimes.

On the other side I got special little homemade goodies from some teachers expressing their gratitude for all of my hard work.

Loved by some...vilified by others!

The line of the day: One staff member heard this teacher talking to me and her tone and after the teacher left she said this....

Don't worry about it Mr. Jdhteach...some people just need to pull up their Big Girl panties and move on!

I just busted out laughing.

You Downloaded WHAT?

I think the year was 91 or 92. I cannot remember exactly. MJP along with two buddies of mine and my buddies sister went to a concert. We knew the headlining band since they opened up for Guns N Roses the previous year. We were excited to see them. For a change there was an opening band that we had never heard of. This is before the easy access of Internet. So we tried to look up some of their stuff at local music stores. We could not find anything. All we knew was the band was called...... MARILYN MANSON.

The concert was at Fair Park in Dallas in the old arena that was used back in the 70's for hockey and was now used for horse and cattle shows. Small venue....maybe about 5,000 total. Now getting out of the car we instantly knew something was different. It looked like we had four yuppies going to a GOTH convention. You know the old song from childhood....ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER.......we were the "one of these things."

On we go into the concert. Me, MJP and my buddy Todd have seats up in the stands. Jay and Todd's sister have seats on the floor. We were not too excited about Just Jay and Todd's sister going on the floor by themselves but Todd's sister was headstrong. She was only 15 but she looked 20 so we did not like this at all. Still she insisted. So Jay promised he would stick by her. I was just hoping Jay's Karate was up to date in case he needed it.

The concert starts and some band comes out and puts us to sleep...considering they were a heavy metal band this is a something.

Then out comes Marilyn Manson.....the place starts going nuts. The whole floor starts slam dancing. The guy next to me starts moshing so hard he bounced into me and fell to the floor because I pushed him to the ground when he hit me. My head is now on a swivel because I assume this guy has buddies and I am expecting to get jumped. Nothing happened. The guy apologized and went back to his moshing after I helped him up. The rest of the set for MM we just stared in awe of what we were seeing on the stage. It is not often you see a grown man as big as a string bean wearing a leather thong and that is it on stage. The music made no sense as most of the lyrics sounded like just grunts and screams into microphone.

At the end of the concert we just walked to MJP's car....I don't think we said anything. We got to MJP's car and noticed someone turned his antenna into a pretzel. As far as we were concerned that was the last time we were showing anywhere Marilyn Manson was at.

Fast forward about 15 years and MM has dropped his band and is solo. Some of his music is starting to actually get air time on the radio. There are still some signature MM riffs but for the most part his music, while still very heavy, actually dare we say.....is okay.

I called MJP one day on the way home from work and told him that I had a confession to make. I admitted to liking the new single by MM. MJP revealed that he too liked it but had not said anything.

This started me on a mission to listen to more of MM's music. I must say he has several songs now that I like. Now don't get me wrong....I am not going to a concert of his....I am not going to buy any of his albums. There is still a high "crap" factor to some of his music.

Fast forward to today. There are three songs of MM that I really like. So I downloaded them on ITUNES. My wife, the lovely T-Lady comes into the room and hears the song playing and she looks at me with an expression on her face of such disappointment you would not believe.

The difference between she and I is that I can see that his appearance is schtick. It is part of the "character" that is Marilyn Manson and actually listen to the music and if I like it fine. Notice I only downloaded 3 songs out of the more than 100 there are to choose from. I have not joined any fan clubs or gotten contacts to make my eyes yellow as MM has done.

Tracey cannot get over the appearance of MM.

This got me to thinking. We have other artist on the IPOD that have a more troubled past than MM but their appearance is more streamlined.

So yes! I have Marilyn Manson on my IPOD. You can now start the bashing.

Thank You Teachers

I have been in administration going on 6 years now. I love my job as a campus administrator. I love the challenge of building a great team and tweaking your schedule to get the most out of the kids. Having said that the past couple of weeks have almost killed me. At one point a thought back to the days when I was in the classroom and only had worry about MY classroom and not the entire school. The main source of my sleepless nights is figuring out where all of my 5th graders are coming from. As a campus I am about 50 kids higher than what was expected. More are on the way I am sure. After Labor Day we always seem to gain another 10 to 15. I might have to scrap my schedule entirely and start from ground zero and build it back up. I have tried patching it up but I have patched it so much that it does not seem to role smoothly. I know what you are saying....Just hire another teacher! Well it is not that easy. The district did not budget for this many new students so I am having to get REAL creative to get classes covered. Right now I have exactly 100 more students than my sister campus in the district. Can somebody PLEASE move in on the other side of town? I have 10 kids that moved over to our side of town this summer. We did not lose ONE kid to the other side of town. I don't get it. The other side of town is nice too!
The Score- 6th 176
5th 288 (What was in the water in 1998?)

I know the reason! Global Warming

I just want to thank all the teachers for rolling with the flow and making it through the first week. Congrats!

You Know Gas Prices Have Risen When....

P-Diddy has to fly on a commercial jet. Not only that but he is flying....dare we say.....coach! Poor guy. It seems that he is flying from NY to LA twice a month trying to pursue and acting career and that would cost him 250K to use his private jet. Can someone pass the cup for P-Diddy or maybe hold some kind of fund raiser concert. Help P-Diddy's "bird" return to the sky where it belongs!