UNLV Football Game

I was the lucky winner of four UNLV football tickets for last Thursday's game. I was thinking to myself, "boy, I don't have anyone to take to this game" (the loser/loner that I am) and so I thought I should take some students. The tickets were given to me by my school, so I might as well pay it back. Since I was going to take male students, I thought it best to take another male teacher, just to be on the up and up. So, I asked a fellow teacher (far left), Mr. Ridgway, to come with us. I took two boys who are at a turning point in their lives and hopefully this little activity will remind them of the correct choices they can make. Iban (student in white shirt) is suspected to be currently in a gang and is quite the tagger. He is very talented and skilled in his artwork, but is wasting it on vandalizing property. Abrahan (student in blue shirt) is a very nice young man and I don't want to see him join a gang or get caught up in that lifestyle. These boys are both in my honors math class and not doing very well, however very bright. They have such an opportunity to change their lives for the better if they just choose to get an education. We met at the school at 5pm and I took them out to In & Out Burger, which Abrahan had never eaten there before (how crazy). We made it to the game at 6:30 and stayed until the last 2 minutes. We had such a great time driving to and from; I think that was my favorite part of the whole evening. Then I dropped them off at their homes/apartments. Boy am I grateful for where I live. It was a wonderful experience and I'm glad that I was able to go.

Door Decorating Contest

We have a class in school that's one hour every Wed and Thur that's called advisory. I, being the lucky person that I am, have been writing the lesson plans for this class for the entire school since the beginning. It has been quite arduous and trying on my creativity skills. But, thanks to my many years of teaching, and teaching at a wonderful school in Utah, I remembered that we did door decorating contests in advisory. October is drug and violence awareness month. So in advisory we discussed drugs and violence, which is quite prevelent in our school, with our students. Then the following week we decorated our door. My students were so creative! I was so impressed with them. They really pulled together to accomplish, what I think to be the best door in the school. We have Spider-Man hanging from the Stratosphere shooting his web. You can see the Luxor and Wynn casinos also. Then across the hall, we have the web. The words above the door say, "My spidey sense tells me. . ." then on the web it says, "Stop the Violence Stop the Drugs". My kids were so proud of the job they did and they are hoping to win this competitions. But even if we don't win, we accomplished so much. The students were working with each other and helping each other. They also brought in cupcakes, cookies, and chips on the second day for a little party. I didn't have to do anything but provide the paper, tape and markers. It was very student led with minimal teacher direction. I was up all night thinking about what a terrific job they did. I have a great group of students this year that I am growing quite attached to. It's almost reminiscent of my first year teaching. These kids are very special to me.

1st Week of School

Well, I survived the first week of school. For the first few days, I had them looking at number patterns and sequences in math and nature. I really had a fun time showing my students how patterns are everywhere. I had my dean bring in some pine cones from her back yard and then we looked at their spirals. It all relates to the Fibonacci Sequence and the kids were totallly into it. I have a great group of kids this year and I am very excited to be teaching them. For the most part I'm around 25 students, but one class has 43 students. We all just squish in the room and do our best. This year I didn't start with any rules or procedures, I just went straight into math. And I think that is the best way to do it. I can teach procedures as I go along. They don't need a full day of "do this" and "do that". For the most part, they know how to behave. I wanted to get them from the start doing math so they knew what my class was about - MATH. I haven't even given them a chance to misbehave because we've been so busy learning. Hopefully, that will set me up nicely for the remainder of the year. I've almost learned everyone's name (except my big class).

I've been staying late at school to try and get everything done and I haven't been to the gym to work out. That's been bugging me a lot. I did still manage to lose one pound last week, so that has kept me going through this week. Thankfully, I have Labor Day off and I can go in the morning like I used to. I'm still trying to work out a schedule so I can work out, go on my RS visits, and be an effective teacher. It's quite the balancing act!