The Day Has Arrived! Day 1 of 2017-18

I woke up early this morning...it may have been the dream that I won the Powerball, or maybe it was just overthinking everything that I need to try to accomplish in the first couple of weeks of the school year.

Today and tomorrow, though, are "institute days" - days without students designed to allow teachers and administrators and staff a couple of days to get their engines going.  Having had an awesome summer, and having attended a Google training session at school on Monday, I sort of feel like I have already started the "start-up" process, but today and tomorrow will be busy as well.

Every year is unique, but this one seems to be uniquely unique.  Amber and I will be empty nesters, as my youngest step-daughter is headed off to her first year of college.  This will make the house a bit quieter in the mornings, and will also make the entire house entirely accessible in the mornings.  The result will be my ability to go downstairs and get a workout in while also turning on the television and watching my morning news shows.

The next unique quality of the school year will be the absence of the trials and tribulations of being a yearbook adviser.  I resigned that duty at the end of the school year in May, and it was a difficult decision.  I love yearbook and school newspaper, but I wasn't able to generate a renewed student interest, and I tired of the battle.  I'm at an age now where I don't mind challenges and battles, but I also am quicker to recognize when a battle is too much.  So without the publications course this year, I'm interested to see how that impacts my days.

Finally, I'm also not a salaried coach.  My previous three years, I had coached at least one basketball team.  This year I wanted to make sure I could be available to watch my son in his senior year of his sports and activities at his school, which neighbors the school district I work at.  I am actually volunteering some of my time at his school with his football and basketball teams.  I also helped with football last year, but helping with basketball will be new.  I know the head coaches very well, and I'm looking forward to contributing to their programs and also learning from them.  There is awkwardness in coaching at a neighboring school district, but I fully expect that after this year I will make myself available to coach again at Rockridge where needed and where I can be a comfortable fit and good contribution.

So let's see how this goes!

JBiz

Find Your Faith

It's Sunday morning, and I just got cleaned up here at home for 10:30 church service.  The history of my faith journey is muddled; the future of my faith journey...also muddled.  I grew up attending a Catholic church - Sunday school lessons, communion, etc...  It didn't stick, and I'm not exactly sure why.  I didn't enjoy church; I suppose that's not unlike many other young people growing up.

In college I was enrolled at a Lutheran church; in fact my ex-wife and I were married in the campus chapel.   And soon after we were married, we attempted to visit a few churches to see if a faith journey for both of us at that time would be a good fit.  The effort didn't last very long.  After several years of marriage, my ex-wife began attending a Wesleyan church after several years into our marriage, and the organization and the services really clicked for her.  The became a member and was baptized.  Unfortunately, there wasn't so much of a click for me.  In short, it was just too much for me, I think looking back on it now.  I do have regrets, though, that I wasn't more supportive of her journey.

Amber was a member of a Methodist church in Reynolds when we met, and we were married in the church.  Through our marriage sessions with Pastor Paul (Newhall), I became somewhat interested in exploring the possibilities of a journey, and I really appreciated the down home and genuine personality of Paul.  I eventually became a member of the church, I attend services fairly regularly, and I try to help out when/where I can.

I'm not, though, necessarily "all-in".  I often have conflicts with church services since I frequently umpire or officiate on Sunday mornings.  I'm often asked to contribute to the church in other ways, and teaching and coaching responsibilities often prohibit me from those things.  I do serve as a service liturgist now and then, and I am a member of a committee that meets a few times a year.

I often struggle with many things and am challenged to consider what I believe and don't believe.  I was worried about that.  In fact, it was something that initially kept me from becoming a member.  Paul, though, basically told me to feel comfortable starting a journey with doubts and uncertainties, because it's only through those things that we take the time to explore the world and our place in it.

I enjoy service.  It's a positive place, and I get the opportunity to listen to Paul's sermon which always gets me thinking.  The world slows down for me in our little rural church in Reynolds, which is a good thing.  Have a great Sunday.

JBiz

THE LETTER ARRIVED

I honestly try to avoid thinking too much about back to school until THE LETTER arrives.  It arrived last week.  Our district letter began with, "It is that point of your summer break that you receive the dreaded welcome back letter."

The opening to the letter did admittedly make me smile.  The word "dreaded" is generally associated with the welcome back to school letter, but I think the key to really being ready for back to school is working hard to get the most out of the summer months.  Some teachers spend at least a little time in some type of professional development training, and that's great.  Other teachers take some time to travel, and that's great.  Other teachers work another part-time job to earn some extra money, and that's great too.  And I'm guessing that some teachers also get in a few "projects" around the house like we did this summer.

So while the letter did arrive, most of us are ready to start the new school year.  We are recharged; we are refreshed; perhaps we have retooled with some new teaching strategies or enhanced our content knowledge.  And to be honest, it's still just August 4th.  We report back on the 16th, so we still have a lot of time left before the official work begins.

Yes, the letter arrived.  Yes, the official summer break is winding down.  That's okay, though.  Soon I will be getting the opportunity to meet and experience a brand new set of students that will teach me, will make me smile, will frustrate me, and will enrich my life with their lives.  Sounds like fun.

July 2017 Comes To An End!

After a bit of a break from blogging, I'm back.  I refuse to call summer over, because it's not.  What has concluded is July, and it was a fantastically hectic and enjoyable month featuring three adventures that were funded in part by my working a lot of officiating and umpiring a lot of basketball and softball games in June.

• Snow Valley USA Basketball School - My son, Cole, two of his friends, and I traveled to Waverly, Iowa.  Up by 6:15 a.m. and bed no earlier than 11:00 p.m. meant jam-packed days of basketball - exhausting but fun for us basketball gym rats.  Of course I was one of the camp coaches, and the boys were players and we left with many ideas for skill development.  The camp featured coaches from all over the U.S. and several international coaches as well.  The dorms were functional and the food was great, but all of us were very tired and ready to return home by the end of the camp.  Cole and Dalton both received awards, which was nice.  The team that I coached during the week in the fresh/soph division went 4-1 and were fun to coach.
• Las Vegas - Amber and I traveled with my basketball officiating buddies, Jason (and Laura) and Tad (and Lynn) to the one and only "Sin City".  We flew out of Cedar Rapids, and I hadn't flown since my days in college.  Our trip featured a couple of Vegas shows, an evening on Fremont Street, and lots of walking and touring of The Strip.  We stayed at Bally's and enjoyed the pool and the casino.  Highlight's included seeing Jeff Dunham live with all his crazy characters, riding The High Roller at The Link, and having lunch at Guy Fieri's restaurant.  As the saying goes, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" - really, though, our trip was tame.  Each night we were in bed by 10 p.m. because we had been walking and touring so much each day.
• Pawhuska, Oklahoma - Amber, Karrigan and I went for a "road trip".  The goal destination was to visit The Mercantile in Pawhuska, a place near and dear to Amber's heart.  She is a huge fan of Ree Drummond's show on the Food Network - The Pioneer Woman.  The show is a cooking show, but Ree also includes a lot of coverage of her family life on their cattle ranch near Pawhuska as well as their restoration of a downtown building that now includes a restaurant, bakery, and gift shop.  On the way out we had lunch at Zombie Burger in downtown DesMoines and stayed our first night in Kansas City.  For supper that night we drove to the Arts District downtown at ate at Grinders - a restaurant featured on Guy Fieri's Food Network Show - Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.  The next day we visited Worlds of Fun amusement park and spent a few hours riding their coasters - Karrigan and I were fans of The Mamba, which had a thrilling drop.  We then traveled to Wellington, Kansas and spent two nights at a KOA - Karrigan's first experience with cabin life - my preferred road trip accommodations.  On day one of Kansas stay, we headed further southwest and visited the Great Salt Plains National Refuge near Cherokee, OK - we didn't find an selenite crystals, but it was fun digging for them in the salt flat.  We then visited Wakita, OK to visit the museum of the film "Twister".  This was my one main blunder - the museum was closed on Mondays --- oops.  We did peek in the window and looked around.  On Kansas day 2 we packed up and left our KOA and ventured southeast to the land of the Pioneer Woman.  We drove past the Drummond ranch on Highway 60 and visited The Mercantile in Pawhuska.  We weren't able to take the tour to the ranch lodge were the cooking show is taped because episodes were being filmed, but it was still fun to see the area and The Mercantile that we see so often on the show.  Then we drove straight through home (nine hours in the Equinox) and arrived home yesterday evening.

So July (and one day of August) was full of fun, and today it's time to shape up the yard and start thinking about the upcoming school year.  Actually on the Vegas flight and the drive west, I did catch up on my podcasts (The Google Tribe, 10-Minute Teacher, and Pure Sweat), so I suppose I have been doing a little thinking about school even before August.

The summer is definitely not over, though.  I still have some projects around the house and some anticipated relaxing pool time to enjoy while I'm also contemplating the 17-18 school year.