Northfied Raider Football

Josh had his first football game yesterday. The Raiders began the season with a tough non-conference schedule. Mankato West was the first of the opponents. Both the 10th grade team and varsity lost their game.

Josh is playing 10th grade football and rarely comes out of the game (he only comes out when he subs himself out. Yes, Josh takes himself out of a couple of plays when he is tired!). He is playing on the offensive and defensive line as well as special teams. He even was asked by Bubba, the head football coach, to dress varsity for the season. Needless to say Josh was pretty fired up to dress varsity with four other teammates.

In Josh's first game Northfield let West go up by 21 points in the first six minutes of the game. Fortunately Northfield was able to score in the first half and convert a 2 point conversion to make it 21 - 8. Northfield scored again in the early minutes of the second half (unable to score on a 2 point conversion, apparently they don't have a field goal kicker). They even had a chance to tie the score with the clock winding down but an interception was thrown in the end zone as the clock ticked to zero. Josh was feeling pretty good despite the loss. The eternal optimist was part of at least 30 tackles (if you asked him).

Welcome Readers!

Summer is over and school has begun! Monday we had the district kick-off. It was such a grand kick-off that the "big wigs" decided to begin the morning with telling the staff all about the alt-comp pay plan. Yes, that is right, we are part of the Pawlenty incentive pay plan. If we successfully teach our students this year, teachers will get an incentive pay. So I will get a "bonus" at the end of the year if I do my job. If I don't do my job, I will be looking for a new job since I am still a probationary teacher. Cross your fingers that I succeed, students pass the standardized tests, and that I will have a job next year!! Despite the money talks to welcome us back to school, the afternoon session went well. Dr. Dressen welcomed us back and the marching band got us shouting for green and white.

Today involved more district in-service sessions. I joined my communities of practice group, NUA (or culturally responsive numeracy) math and science strategies. We left with a notebook full of great strategies to apply immediately in the classroom. The three hours flew by and we only had one 10 minute break. The session was better than 95% of my master program classes.

Tomorrow begins our school building in-service and some classroom work time. It will be good to get back to South View. I am anxious to meet our new administration. Our assistant principal left in the spring (third one in three years) and our principal just left two weeks ago (we have an interim principal for the year).

Kind of off topic though, I have my classroom organized. The classroom library looks great - all thanks to Jill. She has donated several books to the library and has helped me with ideas on how to organize my once crazy system. Now I just have to figure out what to teach and I will be set. :)

New Moon

I recently finished the second book of the Twilight series. New Moon was a good book but did not live up to the first book. To me it is the book that sets up the remaining two novels. It gave more information about some important characters and put the main character, Bella, into some "hairy" situations that will have to be resolved in the next novel.

One disappointing part of New Moon was the opportunity to create an action-packed scene in Volterra. It didn't live up to the action part I thought it may but it did create a frightful mental image involving a group of human tourists gently guided to a dark and dreadful meeting room with cold, cloaked individuals.

I am well into the third novel, Eclipse, and am excited to see where this guides me. I never thought I would enjoy these vampire novels but they have me hooked! I am so hooked I had to create my own shirt (thanks Jill for the iron-ons). As you can see, I am undecided on my team preference - Edward or Jacob. The jury is still out on both of the characters.

Olympic Fever

The Olympics have begun and I have enjoyed watching it everyday since Friday evening. It is really nice to not have to work so I can enjoy the Olympics.

Even with doping, super swimsuits, and other negative influences, I love the Olympics, in particular the summer Olympics! Pathetic or not, I still shed a tear when I watch the opening ceremonies. I have never missed an opening ceremony since I was old enough to remember and the Beijing ceremony was spectacular! Someday I hope I can actually be at the Olympics (watching of course, not participating unless I become really good at kayaking around Big Dummy Lake in Wisconsin or find a strong passion for shooting guns).



In watching the Olympics, here are some highlight events and stories that I find interesting. First, Becky Hammon, a WNBA player for the San Antonio Stars, was not invited to play with the USA Olympic Basketball team. She has quite the resume but doesn't have the "big name" that Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, or the terrible, Kara Lawson have. Yet Becky was the MVP runner-up for the WNBA last year and they don't even have a spot for her on the national team! So Becky is playing for Russia in the Olympics. She plays for Russia during the WNBA offseason and was able to get citizenship last year. I am anxious to watch these two teams match-up.

More basketball news, Diana Taurasi, is a phenomenal basketball player. She just turned 26 years old and has already won a NCAA national championship, WNBA championship title, and the 2004 Olympic gold medal in basketball! WOW!

Now for swimming, if you missed the Olympic men's 4x100 meter freestyle relay last night - YOU MISSED OUT!! It was amazing, spectacular, unbelieveable, ...! It came down to France and USA in the last 25 meters. USA won by 8 hundredths of a second! When the video is available on youtube I will post it, as for now, here is Cullen Jones's recap of the competition.



As more stories unfold, I am sure I will post them. As for now, I am going to watch more of the Olympics.

Twilight

With half the book remaining, I couldn't put Twilight down this weekend. I really enjoyed the vampire, love story. I know it sounds cheesy but it was fabulous! I really enjoy Stephenie Meyer's writing. In the beginning of the book she leaves so many things left unanswered that you can't put down the book. Throughout the rest of the novel she seems to leave hints or clues about characters and events which lead up to the heart-thumping action of the last several chapters. She sets up the next novel well too with a cliff-hanger at the end. Needless to say I am starting the second novel, New Moon, immediately.

After finishing Twilight I went to Stephenie Meyer's website. Her story about Twilight was fascinating. The book idea started as a dream and it took off from there. I wish I could have a dream like hers! Her dream continued into a series of four books with Twilight's movie release in December. Anyone want to go to the theaters with me on December 12?

You're Leaving Me Where?!!

What, you are letting Angie and Charlie babysit?!! That's right, Miles didn't have a choice he was stuck in ghetto Richfield for some quality time with Auntie Aunchie and Uncle Charlie.

We had a great time! Miles took some time adjusting to the new surroundings. The low ceilings in the basement might have frightened him. As you can see from the pictures below, the optical illusion of the low ceiling makes Miles seem like one tall baby. "Aaaahhhhh, don't eat me big baby" says the bathtub-water-filled crab!!



Miles displayed many of his new talents to Charlie and me. He claps, waves goodbye, fake-coughs, blows air only out of his nose, and makes a hilarious old-man-like face. We tried to catch the face on camera and the picture below is the best we could do.


We had a lot of fun playing for the afternoon. There were no major diaper changes. Miles kept it even and allowed Charlie and I each one diaper change. He was a champ at the dinner table too. His favorites seemed to be sweet potatoes and some fruit. The fruit smelled delicious but I didn't sample it. With a full belly and some play time under his belt, Miles fell asleep (preferably in the 'butt in the air' position).


After the snooze he had some good play time and Olympic watching with Uncle Charlie. Miles really wanted Michael Phelps to win!

As Miles would say or wave - goodbye!