I'm going to try to keep my blog posts updated weekly, but some times I will get busy. This was one of those times with the Tropical Storm that came through, Labor Day, and back to school events I got lost last week. But this past Sunday I was able to re-group and remember. Remember why I teach (to raise the next generation), remember why I work so hard (to raise my next generation), and remember why others have made sacrifices (to raise OUR generations). Between Labor Day and 9/11, this has been a week of thanks. Thanks for all of the sacrifices that give us all of our freedoms. We live in a country with many problems, and no one citizen is going to fix them but one citizen can bring awareness to an issue and we can all work to fix them.
Whether you defend the rights of athletes to stand, sit or kneel during the anthem or do not is irrelevant. Colin Kaepernick won't fix injustices. Whether one of my students says the Pledge of Allegiance in class to start their day or chooses not to is irrelevant. He or she won't fix injustices. This country needs to recognize its strengths and weaknesses, as any good team will do, and play to them. If we have race issues, address them... don't ignore them. If we have financial issues, address them... don't ignore them. If we have ethnic and religious issues, address them... don't ignore them. Right now in Science we are learning about Diseases and Pathogens. We are learning how they spread and how to handle the different ones. Zika is the one on the kids minds right now, just as Ebola was the last few years. We address these concerns directly in class, education is the greatest weapon and dealing with lack of knowledge head on usually puts minds at ease. As I said, Zika was the big issue in class so we had a jar of mosquito larva and watched them hatch. Learned about Zika, parasites, vectors, and how to protect ourselves. We need to do that in life as well. Address our issues, bring them to the front. No country is perfect, but we can work to make ours better. Thank you to all that have served to protect our freedoms, thank you to all that respond first to disasters, and thank you to all that have worked hard to create a labor force where hard work is encouraged and rewarded. At HJ MacDonald, We are One Vision, One School, One Squad!!!
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Well, summer is officially over, and I spent my last days doing what I love the most. I was at Creekside for the 2nd Annual "Angel in the Outfield" Baseball Tournament to help the Together4Tanner Foundation. Tanner was a baseball player of mine, and close friend of my family's up until his untimely passing a little over 2 years ago. Matt and Trish Webb have committed their lives to helping the baseball community in and around New Bern through the foundation and work tirelessly to keep his memory alive. There is not a day that goes by that he is not in my thought. I bring this all up, not for sympathy or compassion, but because Tanner was such a huge part of HJ during his time here as a student-athlete. He was a golfer, basketball and most importantly, baseball player.There are many ways we honor and remember him at HJ and if you get a chance to go in the Media Center, look up because there is a tile painted in his name.
This weekend was one to celebrate Tanner, His former teammates playing at NBHS, younger siblings helping out at Creekside watching their friends play and remember Tanner, and a Devotion said at each location where Tanner was remembered not for his excellence but his character. That is what I want to bring to my students this year. Be remembered for your character, not your accomplishments. You do not need to be the best to make a mark in life, just need to be the best you that you can be. At HJ MacDonald, We are One Vision, One School, One Squad!!! This past Wednesday, we went on a field trip to Camp Don Lee. The purpose of the trip was to build team unity and develop character. As a team, we decided to let our students choose their own groups of up to 15 kids and each teacher grabbed a group, with the help of a couple of parent volunteers (and a sub who picked the right day to accept!).
The kids were then tasked with games that were designed to be not only difficult, but needed team effort to accomplish the goal. As adults, we see this as fun and a great way to learn some life lessons, as kids... they saw this as a way to look foolish in front of friends and could not see any life purposes. I really enjoyed watching the dynamics of my group as they chose when and how hard to work to accomplish the task. My group had leaders and followers, athletes and readers (not that the two are or should be exclusive), males and females, and shy and outgoing kids. I saw some kids step up to take charge and others I thought should take charge stand back because they had failed on the first attempt. We forget as adults what it is like to be a pre-teen and teen. It is embarrassing when something does not go your way so many of the kids feel it is easier to not try than to try and fail. This is the same with classroom tests. The benchmarks for Language Arts and Math recently took place and the results were disappointing. The Science ones have been decent, but still not where we would like the scores to be. This week we will have another Science Benchmark on Monday and hope we can keep the grades on the upward swing. I bring this up because kids in the classroom often brag about how low their scores are, I just do not understand this but last Wednesday gave me a small insight as to why. If they do not feel comfortable with their knowledge, it is easier to make it seem like they do not understand something than to try hard and fail. This was the case with the complicated tasks given to us at Don Lee and it is the same in the classroom. Kids do not like to fail. I see this also on the field with athletes. We reward participation and many kids and players expect playing time to be handed out evenly. Life is not like this, life is not fair. You get rewarded for working hard, succeeding more often than failing, and caring about what is placed in front of you. I saw a picture today on Facebook of a kid playing baseball and the motivational words stated that it is often the moments that mean the most that come from the person we least expect and that we will never know this unless we give them a shot. While I agree with the first part, players and students do not need to be "given a shot", then need to earn it. Hard work pays off either on field trips, on the field of play, or in the classroom. We can not give things away, they need to be earned. With all of that in mind, we did have some great food that was served family style on the field trip, so you can give me some more of that any day! Thanks for trusting me with your children. At HJ MacDonald, We are One Vision, One School, One Squad!!! Happy Thanksgiving to all. Well, one week after taking my first sick day, I was actually sick for Sunday and needed to take some time off at my second (or is it my third or fourth) job? It was a rough day pushing through a stomach bug and more than the time lost at Bear Town Cinema, it set me back on my lesson plans, website updates, and blog post. Thankfully I have a great boss and owner at the theater to allow me to go home, get some rest and then come back to close. At work, my team is just as good. We already had the lesson plans and powerpoint for this week and next ready so it was just plug and play.
It has been interesting these past few weeks at HJ. Benchmark tests, celebrations, field trips, days off, etc have all played havoc on our schedule as we try to work through our unit on Ecosystems. While I'm not sure that we have given our kids all the time we need to effectively teach this unit, I do feel we have done our best with the chaotic schedule we have put them through. Luckily, it is a unit that they already have a solid base to work with. Just as my schedule at home starts to clear up with NBHS football coming to an abrupt end and the HJM football season ending, the schedule at HJ will get interesting. Field trip for our team this Wednesday, another one December 9th, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other interruptions always makes this time of year interesting. I will do my best to keep your child focused, but please do your part to keep up with all of their classes to balance home and school. Lets close out 2015 strong! As always: We are One Vision, One School, One Squad!!! This past Friday I took my first official sick day not just at HJ MacDonald, but as a teacher. Now I have had to take days off due to professional development, planned events, and even the memorial service of a young man taken way too soon (T4T). But, Thursday my two youngest kids had doctors appointments and got their shots. As parents we know that most of the time this is not a problem, but on occasion there can be reactions. Soon after the appointment, my wife left with her mother and my daughter to visit family in Florida. I was left with the three boys. Things were going well, boys night... pizza ordered, TV all warmed up--- Showers out of the question!
Well, I should have seen it coming when my pizza order arrived messed up, but I did not. The youngest, Brady, went to bed early... he was tired. He fell asleep missing mom so i let him into my bed. When it was my time to get to bed, I moved him to his bed and tried to sleep. This is when the fun started. Brady started having a bad dream, hallucinating really. He was convinced that someone was coming in our house but it was our two kittens playing in the living room. He had a fever, could not get to sleep and wanted mom who was driving through Florida by this time. At around 5am I put in a request through our Subfinder program to get a sub. This is for a Friday and these are hard to fill. Most subs have already used their allotted 3.5 days that Craven County approves. As 7am rolls around, I still had no sub and had been calling people for an hour. My teammates were helping me, but no luck. My administration said I needed a sub so I put out a Facebook request. No sub, but a neighbor said she could watch the boys. I dropped them off at her house and went in to school. As I got there I was told that the book keeper (thank you Mrs. Garner) found me a sub and had pieced the day together. I could go home and spend the day with my son (an amazingly my 10 year old had a morning headache once he found out Brady was staying home!) I tell you all of this because todays youth gets a bad rap for many things, but when I stopped in my classroom that morning, not only were my kids well behaved and working, they asked why i was out. i told them and I heard this: "We got you Mr. C, take care of your son." I say it all the time, I do not teach Science, I teach kids and that day, my kids in the classroom were growing up. They knew that I had their back whenever necessary and that day, they had mine. I had built up enough trust with them in 50 school days to know they would be good for the sub, handle a day where things were different, and get their work done. I hated being out sick, my wife usually handles these things, but I knew my team, my students, and my school had my back that day. Thank you to all involved. With emphasis today... One Vision, One School, One Squad!!! ... Every Day! |
Mr. CI am looking for a fun school year. But be ready to work. Archives
September 2016
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