Our Friday Evening Get-together

Almost everyone showed up at Kylie's house on Friday evening for a get-together to talk about our week. Robert, Ali, Terry and Mauricio didn't come, and of course, Lee is fishing in Alaska.

It was *great* to see everyone! I tried to connect with almost everyone to talk about our experiences, or lack thereof.

First off, I must say how sorry I am for Wendee, Stephen, Lynn and Dave M. They do not have a placement yet and are being bounced around schools and classrooms and are feeling very disgruntled about the whole PP process. I truly wish that they were having the experiences that I am having. I felt so bad for Wendee. I was telling her about our first day at CLP, how the new principal showed us around and how we had so many teachers come up and introduce themselves, and Wendee began to tear up. She has been sent to classroom after classroom and has even been told straight out, "I don't want you here!" Nobody will talk with her and she leaves her campus for lunch. Stephen has had some similar experiences. I think that all of them are feeling very unwanted at this point.

I am thinking positive thoughts for all of the four of them. I hope that they get a placement soon!

It was great hearing the stories from the others that have been in schools this week. The people in Loveland schools and Jeff at Pioneer School have not had any kids yet, but the rest of us have been in classes since Wednesday. I really like Sara's story about getting an apple from a student after she helped the little girl open her locker on the first day. It sounds like Tim is picking up some nice teaching skills in his Crafts class. Wendee, even though she is not firmly placed yet, has managed to learn abit about the underground Japanese Goth culture and Abby is teaching the boys in her French class how to kiss each other.

It sounds like there are a number of cooperating teachers, however, that are pretty strict about their classroom and aren't giving PP students as much of a chance to participate and contribute as I have had.

After listening to everyone's stories, I realize how incredibly lucky I am to be at CLP. The school and its staff have bent over backward to make me (and Jay) feel welcome. I truly feel that Mr. Jewett, my cooperating teacher, is glad to have me there and is anxious for me to help him in his classes in any way that I can. He is also very willing to let me try new things, conduct new projects and take over the class whenever it is needed. So far, my experience has been wonderful and I am truly grateful to be at a school where I feel that I belong.

I have learned a few things in my first week. I will list them later.

Accomplishing Some Things

Well, my adventures at CSU are done for the day. I paid my summer tuition bill, as well as my Graduate School Application Fee, which I had somehow forgotten long ago. I also submitted all of the rest of the papers that needed to be turned in to Randi. Donna was not available, so I am to call Randi on Monday to see if the Grad School application is all ok and I am admitted and ready to register.

If this happens on Monday, I can still get my online registration done for most of my classes. I will still have to go through the override process, but that should be easy.

I also talked with Teresa Yohon about our Business Methods class, starting next Tuesday at 3:10. It is in room 229 of the Education Building. I told her about my registration issues and she said not to worry.

I also ran into Mauricio at the Education Building, but none of the other PP staff were around.

I am going to try to get to the FAC this evening at Kylie's house. I might have to bring the kids and will only be able to stay for a little while, but it would be good to see everyone again and hear stories.

Junior High School Girls are Mean

Mr. Jewett and I were teaching some basic graphics using the "Fireworks" program in our second period class this morning. We were having the class experiment with different effects on their brushes, drawing weird and interesting colors and shapes.

Two girls in the class had the program open, but were talking, instead of working. I went over and said, "Come on you two, let's see some brush strokes on your screen." One girl, J., said, "Oh, Mr. Burkhard, I am going to write you a message!" She proceeds to pick up her mouse and, in bright red on a yellow background, begins to spell out "LO..." I start to get a little worried, thinking about the seen in the Indiana Jones movie where the girl writes "I LOVE YOU" on her eyelids and then bats her eyes at the teacher. She reaches for the mouse again as I start to sweat.

She quickly finishes off her message by writing "...SER." "LOSER." Oh, that makes me feel better. She has a smug air about her. I stick my tongue out at her and walk away.

I am taking into account the fact that girls her age are naturally mean and am trying not to take it personally. My response was undoubtedly not the best, but I couldn't think of anything else to say!

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There is an addendum to this story. See the post here.

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Friday, Dealing With CSU

Hi! It is Friday at lunchtime. I have asked my cooperating teacher and my principal for the afternoon off, so that I can chase down my registration problems at CSU and get everything straightened away.


After much legwork, I found out my problem. I am not admitted into the Graduate School yet. This is putting a hold on my registration. I talked with Randi Fuller and there are still two pieces of paper that I am missing from my folder. I have them and will be taking them to her this afternoon. I am hoping that with some luck and alot of running around, I can get the admission approved this afternoon and complete registration. She is out to lunch at the moment, but I will check in with her afterwards. I will need to get her approval, the approval of Donna (?) the head of the Ed. Grad. School, then get the information to Admissions, so that they can release my hold, allowing me to register at The Registrar's office. Of course, I will be unable to get registered for all classes, as I need an overload form, taking 23 credits instead of the normal 15 as a Graduate Student. This means I will have to get the signature of the Dean of the Graduate School on my Overload form, then take the form back to the Registrar for completion of my registration.

Think I can get all of that done today? I doubt it. If I can at least get the Admissions stuff completed today, I think that I will be alright, because I can do late registration if absolutely necessary.

Everyone is getting together this evening at Kylie's house for a check-in with our cohort. My wife will be working and I will have the kids, so I don't know if I will make it...

Anyway, I need to get going.

Bye!

Making Lunch

Almost everyone that sees me eat lunch at school asks about it. It is always a salad. They tend to be fairly magnificent creations. To date, I have received one marriage proposal, numerous orders and an offer to become someone's chef for life.

I make each salad fresh each morning. Preparing the dish usually requires about 1/2 hour. Here are the ingredients of the salad that I made Thursday morning:

A Generous Amount of Red Leaf Lettuce,

Modest Amounts of the following:

Fresh corn cut from the cob
Fresh Blackberries
Fresh Raspberries
Diced Red Peppers
Chopped Broccoli
Diced Baby Carrots
Chopped Dried Apricots
Dried Cranberries
Chopped Green Onion
Tomato quarters
Diced Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Diced Fresh Peaches
Diced Fresh Pluots (Plum/Apricot cross, wonderful!)
Diced Cucumbers
Chopped Cabbage
Chopped Green Snap Beans
About 1/2 cup of diced Honey Ham
Sliced Mushrooms
Chopped Pecans
Diced Golden Kiwi Fruit
Diced Apple
Diced Green Olives stuffed with Jalapeno
Diced Pepper Jack Cheese

All topped with a modest amount of Poppyseed Dressing

This usually takes me about 20-30 minutes to eat. I did not have time to get my whole salad eaten today and had to bring some of it home.

Depending upon what is available, I might also add Strawberries, Blueberries, Pears, Hardboiled Eggs, Turkey, Tuna, Raisins, Black Olives or any other fruit or vegetable laying around.

In case anyone is wondering, I have almost the exact same thing for breakfast each morning, leaving out the meat and vegetables. I put any fruit and nut available into a bowl with one Shredded Wheat biscuit and about 1/2 cup of Wheaties or Bran Flakes (whichever is on sale.)

I get lots of fruit servings each day!

Logging in, computer problems, laughing at the Student Teacher, etc.

It is Thursday, August 19, 2004. The first day of the block schedule here at Cache La Poudre Junior High School. Mr. Jewett and I have classes for period 1, 3 and 5, each lasting about 88 minutes. 7th period, also known as right now, is a planning period, so I am blogging in the media center.

Today, we worked on getting each student logged into their computers, change their passwords, open their student folders and save a file to their folders. Of course, with the start of school and the installation of a new server, we were bound to have some problems. Some kids seemed to be able to log right in and change their password, others couldn't. At first, we thought that students had to log in under the PSDSchools.org server, as this is the way things were last year. This year, they have to log in under the "Students" server. Still some computers worked well and others didn't. Having students change computers seemed to help on occassion, sometimes not. Jeremy (Mr. Aragon) came down from the server room to help. He is the new tech guy and was a student here at CLP 4 years ago. He helped abit.

Student folders seemed to be opening in random places, sometimes in the student directories, sometimes in the "year of graduation" directories. This turned out to be a scripting problem and should be fixed soon.

Most kids were able to login eventually. In some of the more basic classes, Mr. Jewett and I began by going over some basic computer terminology, such as "network," "LAN," "Internet" and so forth. For the Web Publishing class, we began by having the kids start a webpage using only HTML script. This was actually kind of fun and the kids all seems to get excited about the smallest things, such as changing the background color of their webpage. They put in a link and a picture from the Internet.

Our Computer Skills II class began working on their Scavenger Hunt. Mr. Jewett put this together and the project has students searching for the answers to questions on the internet, such as "Who is the President of Mexico?" They had to include the answer as well as a posting of the web link on their answer sheet. A couple of kids got the entire set of questions completed within the 25 minutes we had left in the period. Alot of kids got stuck and only managed to answer 2 or 3 questions.

We will be completing this Scavenger Hunt about three more times. Just to stay involved and understand what went into the creation of the project, I just completed my own Scavenger Hunt. It is saved to my resource file on the server and I will have kids work on this tomorrow and Monday.

Mr. Jewett and I seem to be working together pretty well. I think he likes having me in class to help answer questions for kids on one side of the room, while he works the other. I have also been able to contribute on occasion, such as pointing out that the html code for colors does not necessarily have to be a hexidecimal, but can merely be the name of a color.

Mr. Jewett has been taking time from most classes to try to help me learn the names of our kids. I have been doing the "Name Circle," having each student list their name and the names of each of the students in line behind them. I then have them change all of their positions while I am out of the room, to see if I can get their names right. I tend to fail miserably and everyone laughs. That's OK. I am batting about .300 or so, but I am at least getting a couple of names down.

While sitting here working on my blog, I was introduced to our new Superintendent, Nancy Wright, as she toured our building. She seems like a very nice and enthusiastic person.

I am almost done with my planning period, so I will be heading off to Study Hall, a 30 minute "mini-period" at the end of the day, Tuesday through Friday. In this study hall, students are supposed to be working on homework, class projects, etc. No sleeping, no music, no goofing off. I think that we have a stack of papers to hand out to the kids today. I believe that we have to review the student handbook and some of the new rules for the year, such as the dress code, the electronic equipment ban, etc.

I may log in for another word or two later. Maybe not.

End of the First Day with Kids

It is now the end of the 8th period of the first day. We did the straight schedule today, with each class coming in for 45 or so minutes. Tomorrow, we start the modified block, with the odd-numbered period classes coming in for 88 minute blocks. We will actually start doing schoolwork tomorrow, such as establishing login accounts, emails, etc.

Mr. Jewett had me conduct the class for 8th period. It was a 7th grade Computer Skills class. I went over all of the lab rules, etc. and was talking about the agenda for the semester while Mr. Jewett took a phone call. Unfortunately, all of the stuff that I covered was wrong. The agenda for the class does not include typing skills, even though I said it did and does not include PowerPoint, even though I said it did. I think I confused the poor kids, because Mr. Jewett then came in and said, "hey, we don't do any of that stuff!" I looked kind of dumb, but it went pretty well, for the most part. Seventh graders, especially in the last period of the day, are kind of dazed and confused, anyway.

Mr. Jewett is off to football practice. I will be taking off as well. My first day as a teacher, done!

First Day with Real Students

It is 7th period and Mr. Jewett and I have a planning period. As there isn't much planning to do on the first day, I decided to find an open computer in the media center and put up a blog.

This was our first day and it has been hectic, but fun. I got in at 7:15 a.m. and spent much of the first part of the morning at the front door, directing kids into the gym until the first bell at 7:35 a.m. Then, kids began finding their lockers, reading there schedules, etc. First bell for classes goes off at about 7:45 a.m. At the start of the first period, there was a quick assembly for the 8th and 9th graders, then another for the 7th graders, to review Mr. Bird's death. That cut the first period pretty short.

The first day for the most part has consisted of Mr. Jewett going over the rules of the computer lab, how to take care of the computers, what to do to get in trouble and lose your computer account, etc. In each class, he spends some time going over the "agenda" for the class for the quarter or for the semester. We are not doing any computer logins, password changes, etc., until the next class period.

(The photograph shows the Cache La Poudre river, which runs behind the CLP campus)

Mr. Jewett knows many of the students already, either from classes last year or from football or other sports. He does not spend much time at all going over names. This will make it hard for me to learn student's names, but I will do my best.

It sounds like Mr. Jewett will be letting me teach alot of his courses when the time comes. He had me do most of the classroom procedures for the 6th period class, as I already had heard it 4 times.

We had a planning period during 4th period. Mr. Jewett went to lift (attend to coaching duties.) I checked out of the building with Peggy at the front desk and took a tour of the grounds. There is a nice nature path by the river in the back of the school grounds, as well as a frisbee golf course. I am an old time frisbee golfer, so I will have to try out the course someday.

I had lunch with Mr. Jewett and Jay, as well as a host of other teachers in the teacher's lounge. Lots of talk and laughs about swimming dogs and the new condiment dispenser in the lunch room (which resembles a cow udder.)

I talked with Mr. Jewett about the case study and needing to find a student. There is a wheel-chair bound student with MS that I was immediately drawn to, but I don't think he will work out. He was scheduled to be in our class first period, but his bus doesn't arrive early enough and we won't have him at all this semester. I might try to work something out to shadow him anyway, as he seems like a great kid and it would be neat to work with him.

Mr. Jewett also has indicated that I might want to try to sit in on another class at some point in time to see how a "real class" works. I am still interested in the "Personal Economics" class, but I am not sure who teaches that course and if I could sit in with them or not.

All in all, this has been a great day. My first day in a real school classroom as a "Teacher," something I have been dreaming about for 25 years or so.

Bell will be going off for 8th period soon, so I must log off.

Hope everyone has had as good a day as I have!

End of the Day

It is the end of the day and I am getting ready to head home.

I helped Guy put all of the CPUs back on their respective shelves and sort out cords and connections. Mostly crawling on the floor work. As Guy does all of his work with students by way of the computer, there are no copies to be made, etc. I am kind of getting a free pass in this area, as I have seen lots of other teachers making piles of copies and sorting through mountains of old paperwork to find sheets that they need.

Tomorrow, we will mostly be learning names and covering some of the rules of the classroom. I don't think anyone will even touch a computer. I am to report at 7:30 a.m.

Be prepared for locker problems, says everyone. Our hallway has 7th Grade lockers and word on the street is that *nobody* will be able to open their locker. Apparently, you need to spin, spin, stop, left, spin, right, spin, twist and pull. I think that the "twist and pull" gets them.

Tomorrow, "real kids."*

Wish me luck!

* My original post for this blog was "live bullets." By this, of course, I was refering to the military saying after soldiers have gone through training with rubber ammunition and are then thrust into real combat that they will be facing "live bullets," as opposed to practice bullets. This in many ways applies to the situation that many of us are facing. We are done talking and practicing, we are now in classes with real kids.

However, I suppose that in the post-Columbine world, any reference to bullets in a classroom is probably taboo. I have changed the post.

Midday on Day Two

Just posting a little update regarding the day. We had a staff meeting this morning to review the procedures for the start of school with respect to the death of Mr. Bird. There will be a general meeting in the gym for 8th and 9th graders to discuss his passing and there will be a number of crisis team members on the grounds to talk with teachers and kids as needed.

I then met with Guy and two teachers that will be teaching Computer classes this year. Neither teacher has much experience with computers at all and I was pleased that, as we went through most of the terms and procedures, as well as the programs that we will be covering, that I knew most of the topics of the "curriculum" already.

I had an idea about my goal for the classes and my participation this session. I ran it by Guy and he is all for it. The North Fork Lab, our classroom, has a couple of faded bulletin boards and some ancient Apple "think different" posters on the walls. We don't even have Apple computers anymore. I would like to use our computer graphics class to have kids create some computer artwork to start a gallery in the lab. They do it in the Media Center, I think it would be great thing for the lab, as well. I will work this into the classes later in the year, if possible.

Talked with Randy, a math teacher, about Guy. He told me the story about how Guy met his wife (Randy set them up.) He says that Guy is a great teacher, sometimes unorthodox, but that he gets great results from his kids. Guy does not seem to have any written lesson plans or syllabi, he just knows what he is going to teach and he teaches it. Alot of the progress in his classes appears to be the students branching out on their own and learning how to do things. This will be a neat process to watch.

At the moment, Guy is off taking care of some "coaching" stuff, so I am set free for awhile. I may try to find Jay and see about lunch. I saw Stephen here this morning. I think that he is observing social studies procedures with Megan, a PP13 graduate, for the day.

I will be back here at 1:00, when we have to get the classroom ready for tomorrow. This mostly will involve moving the CPUs for each workstation into place, cleaning up, etc.

Time for lunch.

Starting Another Day

I am in a little early this morning to jot down some thoughts about yesterday. Guy wanted me to come in at 8:30 a.m., but I am in at 8:00. I tried to remember everyone's name in the office, but was unsuccessful. I think that I will remember Peggy, the office manager, next time, though.

Just in case anyone was wondering, when I got home yesterday at 2:45, I slept straight through until 6:00 p.m. I was exhausted.

One thing that really struck me about the meetings and interactions yesterday was the extent to which student privacy is an issue. Teachers are not allowed to post or announce any test scores, students cannot grade each others papers (without alot of hoop jumping,) one teacher is not allowed to know the grades of their students in another class. In Guy's class, the websites that students create for projects cannot be posted onto the Internet, only on the CLP web. I have even heard that a teacher is not allowed to have any pictures taken with their students that show the identity of the students. This is an unfortunate consequence of the way the world is nowadays, I suppose.

More later.

First Day Reflections

Well, it is later in the evening on my first day in a school. What a day! I have already written about the death of one of most popular teachers at CLP this morning. That was a very unsettling event. Brings home the idea that one minute you are and the next minute, you aren't. Makes me want to savor each PP moment, if I can.

I got to CLP at 7:45 a.m. Guy Jewett, my coordinating teacher, usually arrives fashionably late and with style, so I spent the first 45 minutes or so meeting teachers, listening in on conversations and getting a quick tour. Jay and I both received the short trip to our rooms, guided by the new CLP principal, Brian Williams, who was very accomodating and welcoming. I met Cheryl and Eric, Jay's co-op teachers, as well as Megan, a Project Promise 13 graduate. I was made to feel very welcome, which I appreciated.

At 8:15 a.m., Brian brought out the breakfast burritos and fruit and juice for all. I had already eaten. Brian then started the video of the new Superintendent. We listened to that (sort of.)

We then had an introductory staff meeting and began to cover some agenda and theme issues for the coming year. We discussed the new study hall, implemented each day for 1/2 hour at the end of the school day. Also talked about bullying, grades and attendance. Consistency of implementation of policy was a common theme.

We reviewed the "6 traits," ongoing writing goals to be addressed in each class. We also talked about Discovery and AVID. These appear to be behavior management techniques, but I am not too sure about these yet.

We wrapped up talking about some scheduling issues.

Guy arrived at 8:30 a.m., to the catcalls of other teachers. He is, apparently, well-liked and is used to taking and giving out grief. Guy is a Computer teacher, but used to be a Social Studies and History teacher. He appears to be one of the "go-to" guys regarding "Gradebook," the computerized grade and attendance tracker that each teacher uses to track the progress of their students. He was giving a little inservice to the me and the other new teachers about the program when we received the announcement regarding Mr. Bird's death.

That shocked and stunned everyone and the staff quickly lost their focus and determination to get on with the school year. Guy sent me off to have lunch while he collected his feelings and thoughts. I ate lunch in Cheryl's room with Cheryl and Jay. It was great having someone welcome us in during such an unsettling time.

After lunch, I met again with Guy in the North Fork Computer Lab, our classroom. We went over his class schedule and some of the courses that we will be teaching. I got to see some of the work from last year's students and the presentations were excellent! Powerpoint presentations with music, animation, video, etc. all done by 7th graders! CLP is one of the flagship schools in Poudre School District with respect to Technology. They were, in fact, the pilot school for the implementation of the Gradebook program, now used in all schools.

Guy has a great approach to his subject and seems to thrive on encouraging students to try and to experiment and to learn on their own. He provides the tools and some instruction, the kids take it from there. I think that it will be a *very* exciting experience for me.

Guy also appears very willing to let me teach or participate however I wish. I am sure he would let me start teaching right away, if I wanted. I would like to do some observation and help out a little before I dive in, but I am not as worried about teaching his classes as I might have been otherwise.

One other thing about Guy is that he is the Football, track and wrestling coach. He has alot of respect from the students, particularly athletes. Add that the fact that he teaches elective classes and I do not foresee classroom management as being much of a problem.

He indicated that there was a "Personal Economics" class taught at CLP and that he would be willing to try to hook me up with that teacher, so that I can get some "business teaching" experiences in, as well.

We wrapped up the day by setting me up on the computer with a staff login and password. We also got me a key. Makes me feel like I belong there.

Guy was off to conduct football practice at 2:00 p.m. I offered to help in any way that I could, but he declined. I don't think he wants a "student coach."

Wow! What a first day. We start again tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.

I hope that the PP cohort members without student teaching assignments got some today. This is cool stuff and I hope that everyone is getting a chance to be a part of this like I am.

First Day Bombshell

I am taking a quick lunch break at CLP and found a computer with an internet connnection. This morning, we had a staff meeting, where everyone introduced themselves. About 1/3 of the teachers here this year are new. Jay and I introduced ourselves along with the rest of the teachers. I was pleased that numerous teachers, paras, etc. came up to introduce themselves throughout the morning.

I will go into a little more coverage of the morning meeting later, but must first discuss what happened shortly after the meeting. We were meeting with our cooperative teachers in their rooms when Brian Williams, the new principal at CLP, came on the intercom and demanded an "all staff" meeting in the media center. Guy, my cooperating teacher, said, "Either something is wrong or something really bad has happened."

Once we were gathered in the Media Center, Brian announced that Myron Bird, a CLP math teacher for more than 30 years had died of a heart attack on the way in to school this morning. Everyone was stunned and many were crying. This was to be Mr. Bird's last year before retirement. The mood in the school went from one of excitement and anticipation to one of shock and dismay instantly.

As it turns out, I may have seen the accident on my way to the schoool in the morning. I had no idea at the time what was transpiring. Being from outside of the school, I feel a little out of place, but I can feel and understand the emotion and the feelings.

The school BBQ that had been planned for tomorrow's lunch has been cancelled and it almost seems like the wind has gone out of the sails for our school.

More later. What a day.

It's Really Early in the Morning

Hi, everyone. It is about 4:30 a.m. I am awake. My allergies have kicked in, as they so often do in August. I am sneezing like crazy and cannot breathe. I thought I would come down to the computer and put up some thoughts.

My allergies have plagued me since I was very young. I remember going out and sleeping on the garage roof at my parents' house when I was a boy. I thought that going outside would help. Now, I do not have a garage roof.

Allergies have been particularly tough on me in the month of August, so I always dread this month. Historically, most of my worst work is completed in the month of August, such as relationship breakups, lost jobs, etc. Right after Emma, our daughter, was born, I had a particularly tough time in August, as I was having a great deal of difficulty getting any sleep. This made me a little nuts and I began to have what they call "morbid thoughts," a sign of depression. I was convinced that my marriage was breaking up, that everyone was laughing at me all the time and that generally, life would be better unlived.

I remember watching an NYPD rerun late night on TV during that time. It was the episode in which Jimmy Smits lay dying on his bed in the hospital, with his wife by his side, struggling to draw breath. My thought at the time was, "He is so lucky, all he has to do is try to breathe!"

Obviously, this was not clear-headed thinking. Dr. Robert Lawrence in Fort Collins helped me to identify what my problem was, not enough quality sleep. He prescribed some medications that truly helped me get back my sleep and myself. Unfortunately, it is very expensive. Because of the good Doctor's diagnosis, I no longer am health insurable, so I can no longer take the medicine. I compensate with some over-the-counter medications, but it is not as useful. Witness today.

I am going to start my day, a little earlier than I thought. Wish me luck!

Final Thoughts Before We Begin

It is the night before our first day in a classroom. Tomorrow, we will be meeting with our cooperating teachers in their schools to attend meetings with them and begin helping them set up their classrooms. I am excited and a little bit nervous. I have not been able to contact my cooperating teacher yet, so I will be meeting him tomorrow morning for the first time.

Had to attend to a family birthday party, so I put on my new "Teacher Shoes" to wear for the day, just to get used to them. They seem to be pretty comfortable.

I will be getting to bed at around 10:00 p.m., hoping to get up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready. I already have my clothes picked out and everything. (Aren't I cute?)

Unfortunately, on only my second day of posting, I have already hurt the feelings of someone in our cohort that I care very much about. I have apologized and amended my commentary. The things that I meant did not come out as well as I wanted them to and I am sorry.

Best of luck to everyone!

Paul

Starting your own Blog.

I have had a couple people write regarding blogs and
how you get started with one. I am using:

http://www.blogger.com/start

There are no fees or anything for this blogger. Just
click on a "Create a Blog" link and get started.

If anyone has any questions, let me know. If a couple of us or more start blogs regarding PP16, we could try to webpage them for easy locating.

How to Comment

If anyone would like to post a comment on one of my articles, click on the small "Comments" link at the bottom of the article. Then click on the "Post a comment" link on the next page. This will allow you to critique my writing style, or whatever.

Me. Some background.

As I mentioned awhile back, I have wanted to be a teacher since my junior year in high school, when the late (and great) Mr. John Calmus was my AP History teacher. He had flair and a passion for teaching and made History seem relevant. Unfortunately, he passed away suddenly when I was a Senior. His funeral was the first that I ever attended. When I am finally standing in front of my very own classroom, I will think of him. Hopefully, I will not cry.

I left Westlake High School in Ohio to attend the University of Denver to study History. I did not fit in very well, as much of DU was made up of Theater Arts majors and Hotel Management people. Somewhere along the line, I read some books by Edward Abbey, the "Monkey Wrench Gang," and "The Journey Home." This convinced me that I needed to be a Wildlife Biologist. I was wrong, of course, as I am not really an outdoor person.

However, I left DU and went to Colorado State University the next year, to study Animals and Birds. I did not do well. Soon, I was faltering in my classes and losing my way. I eventually dropped out of school.

Meeting some people in a bar one night throwing darts, I happened to mention that I was needing work. One very nice lady, Marleen, said, "I run a group home for the Developmentally Disabled. I need a morning staff person, why don't you come by?" This was early May, 1986. I worked with the Developmentally Disabled from May 5, 1986 until May 30, 2001. 15 years. It became a career. Not the career that I wanted, but a career.

I eventually started my own business serving the Developmentally Disabled in Weld County, Colorado. The business was called SupportPeople, LLC. I had a staff of up to 24 people, serving as many as 25 clients. I prided myself on hiring the best for the job, no matter the circumstances. Of my employees, I had five people with advanced degrees, four employees with disabilities and one that was in her 80's.

Working with that population is rewarding, but difficult. I eventually had to give up the business when we moved from the area. This may have been a bad decision, but it has led me to where I am today.

Along the way, I went to the University of Phoenix to get a Master's Degree of Business Administration in Technology Management. This had helped me run my business and give me a deep appreciation of all things capitalist.

I then tried a number of other things, such as being an Investment Counselor, a Sales Manager and so forth. Shannon (my wife) and I had a talk (similar to Jay's talk with his wife.) We decided that I should be a teacher. She pushed me to look into the prospect, although I thought it was impossible.

I first applied with the state of Colorado to receive an Alternative Teacher Licensure, which would allow me to teach Elementary Education based upon my schooling and work experience. I applied to 15-20 school openings in the Spring of 2003. I heard nothing from anyone and was very discouraged. Of course, the teacher job market is pretty tight in Fort Collins, so I am now not surprised that I could not find work with no teaching experience whatsoever.

Shannon had heard from one of her clients that if one wanted to become a teacher mid-career, they should look into "Project Promise" at CSU. I said, "yeah, whatever." (Remember, I was disillusioned at this point.) She looked into it for me. She called Ali and talked with her about the program and got me the paperwork and prodded me until I got everything done. In my own tardy fashion, I turned in the PP Application on the last possible day and 4:00 pm. I was pretty sure that I would hear nothing more.

Ali called me two days later to set up an interview. I met with Ali and Sandy. The interview was exhilarating, as I thought that it went well and that I might be accepted to the program.

I was. Here I am now. Wow!

Unfortunately, joining Project Promise is tough. You are pretty much chained to school and teaching for a full 10 months and cannot work. This was going to be hard on our family. Fortunately, Shannon's boss has agreed to allow her to work flex-time hours so that she can stay at home during the day. My parents have also agreed to assist with some of the financial shortcomings and provide a small-interest loan to pay tuition. Without their help, this would not have been possible.