Ouch!

Well, this basketball season MHSA (Montana High School Association, the governing body of high school sports in MT) instituted a new rule in basketball. The new rule is a "mercy" rule. It basically states that in the 2nd half, if a team has a 40+ point lead, the clock will not stop.

Well, yesterday was our first JV (and varsity) basketball game. Back to the mercy rule. I know how the rule works now. Let me just say that the final score was 73 points them, 12 points us.

Oh how I hope the season (and team gets better), otherwise it could be a long season.

End of Volleyball

Well, last Saturday happened to be our last volleyball game. We didn't quite make it to the state tournament, however, we had the best finish in our school's history. (Prior to this year, we had never won a divisional game.) We compiled a very good record this year (18 wins, 7 losses, with 4 of those losses being tournament losses.) Hopefully next year the team will make it to state. As for who will coach that team, I don't know (Our current head coach is retiring from coaching so that she can spend time taking care of her 7 month old). Right now, I'm the next likely candidate for the head coaching position, but you never know.

Well, basketball practice officially starts in 1 week. I'm nervous and excited. It should be a fun season. At least I get a week of rest before the next season starts.

Stuck at School

Today, November 4th, 2008 is .... Parent-Teacher Conferences. O.k., so who is the dummy that scheduled this on election day. I've been sitting at my desk for 90 minutes, and no parents have shown up yet. To top it all off, another dummy (our Athletic Director) scheduled a set of junior high girls basketball games tonight. Hmmm.... A conspiracy to prevent us from voting? Possibly.

Anyway, we (myself and glaciermom) went to vote during my prep period at 1:45 pm. Conspiracy or not, I voted (and I got that cool "I voted!" sticker.)

More Volleyball, Less Sleep, More Stress

O.k., so I know many of you probably don't care or are not interested in my volleyball adventures. But, seeing as how Volleyball has taken up most of my time and energy, I feel I need to vent.

This week has been freakin' crazy. Starting last Friday (10/24), we traveled to our furthest away game (7 hours on the bus total.) Then on Saturday (10/25), we traveled another 4 hours on the bus (total time). On Monday (10/27) we had a home game. Yesterday (10/28), the JV and C squad had a game (only 1 hour on the bus total this time!). Thursday (10/30) we have another game (2 hours on the bus), and Saturday (11/1) we have our last game of the season (until district tournament.) Every game during this period is a conference game, except Thursday's. We only have 6 teams in district (7 including us), so 1/3 of our conference games have been played in 1 week. It's a THREE MONTH season! The girls are tired and are starting to get cranky.

To top it all off, I had a JV girl get mad at me, because I didn't play her the way she thought she needed to be played. Excuse me, I'm the coach. If you don't like it tough. I make decisions that I think will help the team play better and make decisions to help JV players grow and develop into better players. Winning is nice, but I also have to look at the development of all the JV players, most of which will eventually play varsity before they graduate high school.

I also had parents complaining yesterday. Of course, they won't talk and discuss this with me, just complain behind my back. To them, I say, the assistant coaching position was open for 3 months and no one applied. If you don't like my style or coaching philosophy, maybe you should have applied. (At least my head coach addresses these issues. I mean, that IS why she gets paid the big bucks.)

But the season is winding down, the Varsity players are playing, for the most part, like a State Contending Team.

And ... for the most part, all the girls on the team are pulling their weight, and respect my decisions, even if though don't agree with them.

Sports are running my life!!!

O.k., a stress (free?) rant.

Well, last Friday, JV broke their two game losing streak with a pretty convincing win. We play later today (in about an hour and a half) against the team that gave us our first loss. We also play this Thursday against a team that is not very good. Hopefully we will win.

But I have to rant a little about our district. We were placed in a district that requires more traveling from us than other teams. Our first road trip was 158 miles away, 316 miles round trip. All this for just 1 varsity match. Our second road trip wasn't nearly as far, just 64 miles away (128 miles round trip.) Our third road trip, was 128 miles away (256 round trip). At least that day we had C-squad, JV, and Varsity matches. The next day we had our 4th road trip, 84 miles away (168 round trip.) We do have one more l more long trip to do at the end of October, along with several smaller road trips in between. Our long trip that we still have to do is the longest of them all, about 170 miles away (340 miles round trip.)

Well, today I signed up to be the Assistant Boys High School Basketball coach. Unless someone else applies (no one has applied since the position opened up in April), I should have the job. So, when volleyball season ends, I will start basketball season. It lasts from the end of November to the beginning of March. Although I haven't played B-ball since high school, I have talked with our head coach, and he thinks I will do fine. I pretty much will have the same responsibilities that I do right now as an assistant volleyball coach.

Other than that, lets hope that the Twins beat the ChiSox tonight. Go Twins!

Losing is no fun.

So I know I've kind of been nonexistent on the blog front. Well, coaching high school volleyball takes much more time than junior high volleyball. And now, any free time is either spent playing with glaciertoddler; sleeping; or surprise, surprise, working on volleyball rotations, statistics, talking to players and parents; dealing with administration (board meetings, co-op meetings, conferences with the superintendent), etc.

Anyway, my Junior Varsity squad has now lost 2 in row (after a 3 win start). The worst part is, I think my team should have won both of the last two matches. We played really well last Saturday, but lost in 5 close games. Yesterday, we lost in 3 close games. We should have won. I know we have 1 or 2 rotations where we do not serve receive well, and that just shoots us in the foot. Oh well, I'll see how we do tonight, and then maybe this weekend look at shaking things up.

For the Geek in all of us

If you've read grrrbear's August 27th Post, then you can ignore the rest of this post. For those of you that don't venture to his site, enjoy!

Well the Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to go on-line in 1 week. I've found a pretty fun and entertaining "rap" about it on YouTube.

School's Back in Session

Wow, I can't believe that I didn't post anything for the entire summer. Of course, the only really working computer I use is my classroom computer and the fact that this summer was really crazy busy. Just a quick run down of what happened this summer.

First part of June: Wanted to move in to new place, but was put on hold. Don't know when to move in. Could be tomorrow, could be October.
Middle of June: Took two classes, one on Autism, ADHD, and PTSD; another on using statistics in the classroom.
End of June: Plan, go see G'ma around the 4th of July. Actual, get to move into new place around 4th of July. (Took 2 weeks to do).
Middle July: Took another class on the new Microsoft Office Suite. Like it a lot.
End July: Go see G'ma and G'Pa for a week in completely opposite part of the state.
Beginning August: Montana Fair, Bill Engval, and completing my coaches education unit.
Middle August: Finally go see G'ma for a couple of days
Middle August: Volleyball practice starts (18th), school starts (19th), students arrive (21st).
Late August: been crazy busy with school and volleyball.

Just a quick run-down. Of course, with me being a high school volleyball coach (JV and C squad), volleyball takes up a larger percent of time than in the past. (And next year, unless something changes, I'm slated to be the head coach.)

Will post more later, especially about issues we are having at school.

School's Out!

O.k., so there is officially just 3.5 hours left for students, and 6.5 hours left for teachers until summer vacation starts.

Over the last 2 days or so, lots has happened. First off, some how I got "elected" to be our union Vice President. I must say, our current Executive council has done a great job, but their really tired. Most have been on the council for the past 8 years. So, I got "elected" because I was nominated, and no one else wanted it. (Of course, that is also how the other people got "elected".) Thank goodness being a V.P. requires absolutely no work.

Then, later at the same meeting, I opened my big mouth and volunteered to be High School Lead Teacher if the School Board opens the position again. (We currently don't have lead teachers because no one stepped up in the past. Lead teachers in our school kind of function like principals when the superintendent is away. They deal with discipline issues, cranky parents, dealing with administration, etc.) Although I've had 8 full years at my current position, we have several other staff members at the high school level that have over 15 years experience (5 of them.) However none of them have stepped up to be lead teacher. Part of me hopes that we "reinstate" lead teachers, but part of me does not.

At least this summer will be relaxing. Yup, we are only moving, I'm taking 3 classes around the state, lots of doctors appointments, and a couple of trips to see glaciertoddler's grandmas and grandpa. (Not to mention that I will probably still be doing school work throughout the summer.) Also on tap, see some movies. (Indy IV?, Dark Knight, Iron Man, etc.)

Glacierdad needs help

So, I had this crazy idea for getting students to read science stories, think critically about them, and communicate their ideas. Start a blog!! Yup, a blog just for my science students, where I would post science news stories, have them comment, and then assign some sort of grade. So, after looking at a few sites, I found one that might be interesting to start a new blog on. I've decided not to use blogger, so as that this persona and my school identity won't be confused.

Anyway, I've put together a somewhat sample blog of what I'm kind of looking for. Check it out at

glacierdad.wordpress.com

If any of you have ideas, please comment on either blog. Remember though, the wordpress blog currently is just a test page so I can test out ideas, before I start school next year.

Quiz Time

So, about 1 month ago, I had the privilege to take one of our students to the State Geographic Bee. Although he did not make it out of the preliminary round, he did do quite well.

In preparation for the Bee, I stumbled upon the Daily National Geographic Daily GeoBee Challenge.
I usually get between 6 and 8 correct a day. Of course some days I do much better, and a few days (when my brain is turned off) I can do much worst. Today, I only scored 6 out of 10 correct.

Sore Muscles, really busy

O.k., so I got up really early (for me) on Sunday, headed to Target in town, and scored a Wii. Yup, the glacierfamily household is now the proud owner of a brand-spankin' new Wii, plus Mario Kart, Mario/Sonic Olympics, and some extra controllers. Let's just say that some of my muscles are quite sore.

First off, Glaciermom continually kicks my butt at bowling. I have her number on baseball though. Glaciertoddler loves watching us play. He giggles when the wii players round the bases, and loves watching the bowling. We've boxed just once, and glaciermom kicked my butt yet again. I do better at golf. Just 1 time in I was getting birdies (ok, it was on beginner level though).

I had to get Mario Kart. Just remembering how much time I wasted sophomore year at OAM, and I couldn't resist more of a time waster. Mario/Sonic Olympics we haven't played much yet, but we look forward to wasting more time. Granted we can't play much when glaciertoddler is awake, but we manage about 30 minutes total a day. (More when glaciertoddler naps.)

Other than our new Wii, it's been really busy around here. School is almost done, but that means more meetings, more students absent for other activities, grades, seniors graduating, athletics/academics awards banquets, etc. It's just plain busy. Then summer starts and we move yet again. (Not to worry, same town, different school house, same address/phone). Plus I'm taking a few classes this summer so that I can progress on the pay scale.

Now, If I can just figure out how to beat glaciermom at some of these games.

Prom

So tomorrow is our school's prom. I can't tell you how excited I am. (Written with as much sarcasm as possible.) Yup, I will be chaperoning it. Woo hoo. And it's not the chaperoning that I don't like, its the hours. Its from 9:00 pm to 1 am. Who in the heck keeps those hours anymore. I'm usually in bed by 8:30 or so, watch some TV or read, and asleep by 9:30. So by my guess, I'll be sleeping through most of prom. So if you're awake during late Saturday night, be praying for me to make it through prom.

Since February

O.k., so I know it has been awhile since the last post. So I thought I'd fill you in on the details.

Since the last post, glaciermom got hit with the flu really bad, and was out almost a week. 4 days of feeling really, really crappy and 4 more days feeling kind of crappy. At the same time, I got hit with some nasty head cold or something that made my brain feel like it wanted to explode from all the pressure. Glacierbaby didn't get sick at all.

During our sickness run, it was also basketball tournament time which meant many days of messed up schedules, trying to keep up, and going to as many games as physically possible.

After tournaments, things were somewhat back to normal, but due to the bball games and being sick, I had lots of "make-up" work to get done. Then March 3rd we weren't in school. Well technically we were but it was PIR (Pupil-Instruction-Related). So I was in school learning about stuff I already knew or stuff that didn't apply. What a waste. So last week was messed up as well.

Now this week. This week is our yearly CRT (Criterion Referenced Tests) that affect our AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). This is the first year that students have had to take a science test (before it was just language arts and math). Thankfully only students in grades 4, 8, & 10 have to take it, but that means I must spend two mornings administering the test, instead of teaching class. Darn NCLB. I hope the students do well on these tests. So this week is messed up as well.

Next week is Easter, so that means two more weeks of messed-upness. (O.k., so they are short weeks, and not really messed up.)

On a different front, I've decided to "upgrade" glacierbaby. He is no longer a baby and will now be referred to as glaciertoddler henceforth.

On the tv front, glaciertoddler loves watching Idol, but he really doesn't get into those ballads too much. And OMG, what the heck was that Kristy Lee Cook performance all about. Not to mention David A. messing up the lyrics to his song. On a more pleasant note, Top Chef starts tonight and both glaciermom and I are excited.

Final thought: How many of the new "Geeks" from the new season of Beauty and the Geek are either Autistic or have Asperger's. Of the nine, glaciermom and I think that at least 6 do. Those guys appear to be very odd indead.

New Year's Resolution: Post More often!

So, at the turn of the new year, I was going to make sure to post more often. Obviously I'm not succeeding. Anyway, life has taken over here in MT.

Holiday season was fun. Glaciermom and I actually watched several DVD's over the vacation. We thoroughly enjoyed Bourne Ultimatum, Transformers, and Live Free or Die hard. Shrek 3 was ok, and I think we were a little tired when watching Surf's up. And of course Harry Potter 5 (which we saw in theaters) was very good. Yup lots of movies. So much in fact, I bought a DVD Home Theater system that is just awesome, even though it isn't the fanciest (or the cheapest).

After a very busy, but good holiday season, life seems to be back on track. In fact, I seem to have just enough free time and energy to do things like read and blog. Until next week that is. The end of 1st semester/2nd quarter is tomorrow. So, I have to grade papers, do grades, clean up lab (hee hee), and other end of the semester goodies. I actually don't have to clean up lab because I'm getting my first lab assistant in 4 years. This student actually wants to clean lab and learn some lab techniques.

In other news, its January here in MT, with no snow, temps closer to 40 than to 30. It's practically fall or spring. I remember growing up and there was snow everywhere. Granted I grew up in the mountains, and now I live on the plains.

New Poll - It's time to read!

Reading is such an important part of life (and school).

So, how do you like to practice your reading skills? Vote Now!

EDIT: Stupid blogger won't let me fix my typo. Just to let everyone know, it is "Science Fiction/Fantasy" not "Science Finction/Fantasy". Dumb blogger.

New Tech

O.k., so I'm extremely excited today! They are finally installing my new smart board. Yup, I may have it up and running by the end of the day.

For those of you that don't know what a smart board is, it is basically a white board (Chalk board for you old school types) that is connected through the computer. You write on it, and can save it to the computer plus do a whole host of other things.!!!!

Yippee!!!!

New Poll/Blogging once again

Well, school started for me on August 20th, and I feel like I'm finally back into a routine. So hopefully I'll be posting more frequently.

To kick off the new school year, I've decided to see which sciences people enjoy. Listed to the right are the classes I'm teaching this year, in order by grade level. (Sorry, no Physics this year. If that's your fav, pick something else.) Pick as many as you like.

Spring Science Showdown, Brackets

Well, you may or may not know that the big NCAA tournament has started and my bracket already looks like crap. (Yup, I picked Texas Tech to make the Sweet Sixteen and Davidson to beat Maryland.) Well, hopefully I can gather enough cumulative points to win our office pool.

On the lighter side, some science people apparently have too much free time on their hands and have come up with a Science Tournament. Looks exactly like an NCAA bracket, however it there are science related concepts competing against one another. Personally, I have respiration going all the way, losing to Newton's Second Law of Motion in the championship.

I've upped the ante in my classroom, having high school students fill out the bracket as well. It looks like the overwhelming favorite to win it all with them is Dark Matter. (Although a healthy percentage also picked HIV and Jesus to be champions.)

Sub plans, candy, cold, elk & loss

It's less than two weeks away from the anticipated due date for glacierbaby! We are both getting very, very excited. Staff members, family, and friends have all sent clothing or gift cards to help us out which we are very grateful for. Right now, both my wife and I are trying to get our "sub" plans for when we will be gone. She will be taking a full 3 months off, and I will be taking off 1 week at the beginning. The problem with my plans is that I have no idea when the sub will be needed. As a result, I can't just say "Lecture on Kinetic and Potential Energy". Most because in a rural area, the sub you get isn't qualified to teach most upper level classes. As a result, I've combed the video library (and purchased a few new ones) that the sub will show during my week absence.

I think now the hardest part is waiting. On the plus side, this has given me some time to try to finish my book.

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Yesterday we had approximately 35 trick-or-treaters come to our house. Very exciting. However none of them wanted to do a trick, and when they told me to do one, they didn't like my invisible guess the card trick. At least I tried to do a trick.

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It has been very cold these last few days. Yesterday and today it is only supposed to be in the mid 30's. On Sunday Night/Monday morning, the low was 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit. These last few nights, lows have been around 10 degrees. I guess winter is coming.

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We got some bad news last night after the kids stopped visiting. We received a phone call at about 9 pm last night that informed us our head custodian at school had had a heart attack and died. He and his family have been apart of our small community for quite some time. Obviously it came as quite a shock, and all of us are upset. He did die doing something he loved. At the time of the heart attack, he was skinning an elk he had just shot. He always talked about the elk that would "hang out" on his property. Last night, he saw an elk on his property, and proceeded to shoot it (out his kitchen window). Granted it took 10 shots and 3 guns, but he got it.

School has been tough today. Staff and students are upset. Trying to maintain a routine is tough, but we're getting through it. My wife being the counselor has been very busy the last two days. Yesterday she had to deal with a student that wanted to drop out of school and proceeded to be very difficult (and was quite angry when his mother showed up). I guess the school didn't want to give her a very easy last two weeks.