Happy New Year, everyone. I hope that this next year will bring you lots of joy.

I know it will for me. My wife is due with a little one in August. Keep us in your prayers and keep your fingers crossed.

Unbelievable finish

I saw this highlight video of Trinity College winning a football game as time ran out. They lateraled the ball 15 times and scored the winning touchdown. Too good to be true, well watch the video.

Happy Thanks Giving

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy thanks giving.

Lets give thanks for what we have. Spend time with your family and count your blessings, there are many who are away from their families during the holiday seasons.

Give thanks for our freedom and for the ones who are defending that freedom.

Have a piece of turkey and thank a veteran.

State Championships

I just wanted to congratulate the Iowa state Champions. They really worked hard this year and they deserve all the glory.

In Class 4A - Bettendorf 21, Ankeny 16
In Class 3A - KEOKUK 42 , BISHOP HEELAN CATHOLIC 7
In Class 2A - SOLON 24 , CENTRAL LYON/GEORGE-LITTLE ROCK 7
In Class 1A - SAINT ALBERT, COUNCIL BLUFFS 7 ,REGINA, IOWA
In Class A - WAPSIE VALLEY, FAIRBANK 22, LAWTON-BRONSON 14
In 8 Man - STANTON 32, ARMSTRONG-RINGSTED 24

I am really impressed By Solon and how they run the Jet/Fly sweep They run it very efficiently. I have been following them for the past several years and they only get better and better.

What to do? What to do?

Well for most high schools football is now over. Here in the sate of Iowa we are watching the semi-final games at the UNI dome.

We don't have as many classes of football as some other sates do. We have 4A (700 students & larger), 3A (next 64 schools), 2A (next 72), 1A (Next 72), A (remaining 11 player teams) and 8 man football.

I was kind of glad to be done coaching this year. I was banished to coach 7th graders because I wasn't one of the head varsity coaches drinking buddies. There were 3 of us that were bannsihed and used as scape goats as to why the varsity went 1-8 that year. Well this year they went 1-8 again. We had more success at 7th grade than the varsity did this year. We even had to make sure that everyone played.

My question is what do I do now? I have head coaching experience (2 years) and 9 years varsity assistant, 1 year middle school coach. Should I start applying for head positions? Do I look else where to be a varsity assistant again? Do I suck it up and be a 7th grade coach again?

I do know that I do not want to be a 7th grade coach any more.

My wife and son like it though because I get to spend more time with them. Yes that is a nice benefit, however 7th grade drives me crazy and I want to do high school again.

I would love to be a head coach again but that means I would have to leave the school I am teaching at. I really like it here. There is little to no chance of me coaching varsity at the school I am at.

Can anyone give me some advice? Please if you read this tell me what you think.

Greatest hits video

I just saw this greatest hits video and I just had to share it with everyone.

Enjoy!!! Let me know what you think

The best Offense around

Here is a video about the wing-t. It is the best offense around for the high school level. It should be run more at the college level also. It is a highly effective offense.

If you are thinking about implementing an offense than check this one out.

Find more videos on www.findinternettv.com.

Here is another example of how the Jet sweep can be implemented into the offense.

This is the Jet Sally





Here is another play that shows just how much of misdirection there is in the wing-t. It is called the counter x-cross

Find more videos on www.findinternettv.com.

They have outdone themselves

I know people say that you shouldn't try to reveal much about yourself on the Internet. On my wife's blog she will only refer to people by the first letter of their first name.

Well I decided that it was about time I share a little more about myself. I am sharing this with you not because I think people should know about me, I am sharing this because of the wonderful school that I teach at and the strides that I believe we are making in special education.

Through out my past 10 years of teaching I have seen many changes in special education. I know there have been many other teachers that have been around longer than I have and have seen education come full cycle.

When I first started teaching it was common practice to have those kids who are in special education locked away in a room that was formerly a closet or in a room next to the boiler. I was fortunate to teach at a school that had an excellent moderate special education program. They taught kids about life skills, community functioning, and job related skills. This school was said to be leading the state of Iowa as a model for a moderate special education classroom.

Since leaving my home town I have ventured into some pretty horrible classrooms. I will not name schools but they have literally dumped all of the special ed kids into a small room that use to be a storage room. This room was to be a common room to two other rooms. Five teachers were to share these three rooms and teach math, science, social studies, and English. There were approximately 75 kids served in these three rooms. All disabilities levels were thrown together. Needless to say that this was the worst year I ever had teaching. There are many horror stories I could tell but that would take up too much time. The past is in the past.

I am presently teaching at a high school in central Iowa. Now this is a truly remarkable school. For the past thirteen years they have served the needs of special education students in the regular education classroom. We have become the model school for others to follow in the state of Iowa. We have been visited by five other schools since the beginning of this school year.

You may wonder how we meet the needs of our students. A special education teacher is in all core education classrooms at the high school. I am the social studies collaboration teacher. It has become the expectation that I will be in the classroom co-teaching subjects right along with the regular ed teacher. Visitors have even remarked that they cannot tell who is the regular ed teacher and who is the special ed teacher. I will make sure that all accommodations are made for our students and I am also their to make sure that general education students receive help as well.

I also teach a skill building class called NASA. The NASA classes are divided into English and math NASA's. Students receive an elective credit for taking NASA. I teach 9th grade English NASA. In this class I work with the students to build skills to be successful in the general ed setting. I will work on reading comprehension, fluency, writing, paraphrasing, sentence writing, and studying for test. We will also do several fun activities such as using PowerPoint, movie maker, and pod casting.

A new idea that I have brought fourth is having tests read on Ipods. Teachers or student helpers will read a test and it will be recoded and made into a podcast. This podcast will then be put onto an Ipod nano and given to a student who is to have tests read as an accommodation. The student is able to stay in the general ed classroom and take the test or quiz. When they are done they turn in the Ipod with their quiz/test. This helps student from feeling embarrassed from having to leave the classroom when tests are being given. It helps them avoid the special ed stigma that they hate to have.

This is just one of the many great Ideas that has been coming out of our High school. We have a great staff and a very supportive administration. I consider myself lucky to be part of such a great staff.

What makes a great High School Football Coach

I really want to know the anser to this question!!!

What makes a really good or Great high school football coach?

I know you have to surround yourself with a good staff. You have to teach the basics of blocking and tackling.

I know that you have to build a good relationship with the kids.

I know that you have to know about the X's and O's

So what makes one coach standout over another? I really want to know the answer to this question.

I don't want to be an I told you so but....

It all started at lunch time today. I was sitting next to other teachers and was listening to their conversations and would occasionally throw in my opinion on a couple of different matters. The talk then turned to our high school football team. When this subject comes around I zip my lip because I am very opinionated on this subject and would get myself in trouble by saying something against the present program and the head coach.

My fellow teachers were wondering why we cannot be successful when we obviously have athletes at the school. We have won 4 state titles in other sports over the last 3 years. We have athletes on the football team but we don't seam able to produce results.

For the past two years at the high school I have been an assistant coach. I am a former head coach, have been an assistant at other schools with winning traditions. I have voiced my opinion about what needs to be done at the high school for those two years. We need to get back to the basics and show consistency from week to week, let alone year to year. The head coach seams to change everything from year to year. He has not run the same offense for the past 5 years. Sure the last 4 have been zone blocking but he changes up the scheme. One year he renames all of the formations, trying to simplify. The next year he decides to run everything in a single back offense. The next year he decides maybe we need to pass more and does more of a run and gun offense. He also changes back and forth depending on who we are playing for the week. He in very inconsistent.

I have been telling the head coach for the past two years that we need to make sure we are more consistent. We need to get back to the basics. Emphasize blocking and tackling. Emphasises the steps we need to work on our blocking, hand offs, passing, catching, etc. Make sure that we can run a couple of plays very well. make sure we have the perfect play. We than run those couple of plays out of different formations. GET BACK TO THE BASICS - Don't worry about our opponent so much and worry about ourselves first.

What do I get for voicing my opinion when I am asked what we need to do. I am told to coach the 7th grade team and make sure the basics are taught there. That I am needed to revamp the middle school program because it is our future. What does the high school do to remedy it's problem? NOTHING!!!

So when I was asked during lunch by my fellow teachers and later by parents and by rookie coaches "why is it that you move the ball and have success at the 7th grade level when the varsity struggles" I just close my mouth and zip my lip because I am a member of the football program. I am an assistant coach. I do not bad mouth the program

But.... I told you so.... (The Varsity is presently 1-5)

(I want to be a head varsity football coach again)

The best Kept secret on the east side

On the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month my wife and I are youth leaders. We kind of got volunteered to do this this year, since my wife has been part of the youth group the past couple of years and because I am a teacher. Our pastor has been the youth group leader for the past several years. He decided that he need to step back and have someone else run the program. He chose us.

at first I wasn't sure what to think. I thought the pastor was going to still be there and we were going to lead from what his plans are. Nope we had to come up with the entire plan. My wife took it on herself to come up with the plan. She chose to follow the God Rocks theme. (If you haven't seen the Gods Rock video they are great) She did a great job setting everything up.

We discuss and interpret a bible verse with the kids. There are a good handful of kids and they range in ages of 4 years old (my son) to juniors/seniors in high school. The kids seem to really like the format that has been created. There are also two other adults who attend youth group with their kids. They are there as kind of support if we need them.

This past Sunday my wife and son were unable to make it to youth group. They were visiting relatives in Arkansas. I was left solely in charge. I started the class by reviewing what the kids thought they saw as a need for the community. They came up with feeding the hungry, raking leaves, painting houses. That sort of stuff. Well after hearing the lecture, oops I mean the sermon from the pastor that day and counting the 31 people in church that day I decided that we really needed to look at our own congregation and try to revitalize it.

See our church has slowly been dwindling. The congregation has been getting old and dying off. They are also the elders of the church and do not want to do things to try and attract new blood to the church. The pastor has been trying to do things but feels like he has been banging his head against the wall. The same people are the ones that do everything for the church. It will die off if something is not done. I have been sitting off and on in church for the past 6 years and have finally decided that something needs to be done. Many of the older members want to keep with a traditional service. The younger members who are starting to out number the elders want a more contemporary service. More upbeat music, visual aids, and instruments. The human voice can be a wonderful instrument but when it sings the same droning songs it can be horrid.

What a better way to try and do a community outreach than to start within and trying to help our own church community. Our church is situated on the East side of Des Moines, Iowa. The church has been there for over a hundred years. The Chapel inside is just beautiful and the church needs to survive. If not for the peoples sake than it needs to survive because it has touched so many peoples lives. It can't just die off.

For many years the East side of Des Moines has gotten a bad rap. People believe that there is a lot of crime and poverty on the east side. In actuality if you read the paper there are more crimes on the south and north sides of Des moines than on the east side. As far as drugs goes the richer areas of Des Moines can afford them. Sure the east side is poor. But they will give the shirts off their back to help each other out.

Any way as a youth group, with a little guidance from me, we decided that we needed to blanket the east side of Des Moines with leaflets. It seams that the East side hardly even knows that the church exists any more. The leaflets will be placed in peoples mailboxes. On the leaflets it will say "The best kept secret on the east side" Next to this it will also have 3 pictures and say faith, community, friendship. On the back side it will say the secret is out and list the attributes of the church. Next Sunday the youth will go out with adult supervision and begin putting the leaflets in mailboxes. If we can just spark an interest and get people to just walk through the door we can get them to stay.

Once we start getting more people in the door we can possibly increase services by having an early traditional service at like 8am and the contemporary service at 10 am. But first we need to work on attendance.

Hopefully this little bit will help. It couldn't hurt. If we put forth an effort and put things in the hands of god, who knows what can happen.

Wish us luck.. better yet come check out Grant Park Christian Church on the east side of Des Moines.

Birthday wish to the one who completes me

I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish my wonderful wife a happy birthday. Happy Birthday Honey, you are my best friend

I love you

Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium

the morning of September 29th we visited a little museum on the Mississippi River. they have an abundance of things to explore and activities to do. here is a little snippet of our time there.


inside the museum and up on the second floor they have a barge simulator. the kids had a blast driving a barge and even more fun wrecking it!

in the first floor aquarium area they have a water lab. here they have animal pelts to pet and nasty looking spiders. they also have an area where an attendant will lift out different water dwellers so that you may touch them and this attendant can answer almost any question posed (at least the lady we had could). my little man's favorite part, though, was looking through the many microscopes at butterfly and moth wings, fleas and ants, and different fish scales.

they have a very nice model showcasing the way rivers flow. the kids just push different buttons to watch the water go. they can compare the way a river flows naturally with the way a river flows through an unnatural straight path or a fortified river through a farm community.

outside, on the river, you can explore one of Iowa's haunted places. the steamboat, William H Black, was once a working dredge boat on the Mississippi and is now a tourist attraction for the museum and a Bed and Breakfast. we didn't see any ghosts, but we did get to play down in the boats belly and explore the inner workings of the steamboat.

the pictures and descriptions i have provided are only the smallest sample of the wonderful things we got to see and do at this museum. it was one of the best museums i have visited in awhile. i highly recommend it if you are traveling through the Dubuque, Iowa area. it is a wonderful and informative place for children and adults.

Origionally posted on the blog Life Dreamed (my wife's)

The Wing-T, The best "O" around

I was reading a couple of different football blogs and they were talking about what is the best offensive scheme for high school football. I heard people talking about the power I formation, the double wing, the vier, and the wishbone.

I personally believe that the wing-T is the best offense for high school football. I think that if you have two equally talented teams and they are playing each other that the wing-T would win every time because the players have an advantage because they are angle blocking and it is a misdirection offense. The other offenses are dependent on their linemen manhandling the defensive line. If we in the wing-T can block someone at an angle and that person is less aware that they may be blocked that the battle can be won.

Here is where the battle lies. If a team is undersized and out skilled they will still have to fight to win the game. You need to have guards who are quick. a Tight end who can block, a quick running back, a pounding fullback, and a wing back who can run and catch. If you have these things you can win several games.

Because of this offense and my love to work with high school kids, I want to be a head football coach again. I love the challenge of trying to build the team and try to build that winning tradition. I have two years experience as a head football coach and 8 years experience as an assistant.

I gave up being a head coach after my son was born and also because of an administration who was unsupportive. If you have an AD who thinks they should still be the head football coach and won't let you have a budget, it is a little hard to run things the way you want things to run. But that is another long story that I don't really care to talk about.

I know that with the right assistant coaches, a supportive administration, and hard working kids, I can be a successful head coach again. I have been a part of winning programs and struggling programs. There is a key to success!!!!

One of those Days

Have you ever had one of those days when it seams like nothing can go right?

It started that way for me Sunday afternoon and carried into Monday (today).

I received an e-mail message from a college who was responding to an e-mail I sent out saying that if anyone needed help with using an excel template that I would be willing to help them.

His response was as follows: (I am leaving out names for privacy sake)

Larry,
I figured that sense you like computers this is the way I would handle this. We appreciate what you do technology wise but it is time to quit focusing on cool things you can do on a computer and start to focus on collabing and NASA classes. I have a kid on my roster that when her folks see an F on her portal I have to answer them why. This is not a kid that is a behavior problem or any thing of the sort. Basically what you are doing is punishing them for the exact reason they are in your class. I thought we had this worked out. How can you fail NASA? That was her question to me. When Dale said he would like the NASA grade to reflect effort in NASA I don't think he meant that. I certainly am going to find out. I am going to call a meeting with all of our team and principal and get this worked out once and for all. I am not trying to be a hard-butt but this is not what NASA is all about. My hopes are is that you will read this before Monday and we can sit down and get it ironed out.


How should I take a letter like this?

First of all the girl failed an assignment not the entire class. The girl is presently getting a B+ in my class.

I didn't want to talk to the person who sent me this since I was just a little Pissed. He also sent this same message to the principal. So I talked to the principal and he was on my side of things and even laughed because the person who wrote the message is the one who asks for my help when it comes to computers the most.

From now on I am just going to worry about my self and not worry about trying to help out my fellow teachers as much. I am just going to do my job and move forward.

When reading this letter and to self reflect on this I could take it as maybe I was over stepping my bounds and was being viewed by some staff members as trying to run the department. That it is OK when they want to come to me for help but it is not OK for me to come forth with something that they could use to help out their teaching and collaborative teaching.

I admit, I like computers and I like trying to help people out. I was just trying to be a good member of our special education department.

By the way NASA is a skill building class for special ed kids. I grade the kids on how much effort they are putting forth and also grade them based on how well they do on their reading or writing probes. If they are not improving on their baseline then they will not receive a good grade.

So what view do you take. Am I a good guy, bad guy, or something in between?

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Well today is my b-day and so far the day is going pretty good for me.

Even though I was facing my 37th year and the possibility of not having a cake for my birthday (that's a long story), I ended up getting a cake from my cryptic college at school today. I have no idea who this person is but I was very impressed because they bout me a $15 cake at Dahls.

I hope the rest of my day goes well for me. I just have a couple of periods left today after this lunch break. Than I have football practice (It's suppose to storm today) and then I go over to my in laws for homemade pizza.

My brother-in-law makes the best homemade pizza. He makes it from scratch sort of, he buys the pizza crust mix and goes from there. He could go into business making pizza. The only problem is he doesn't like people very much.

The nice thing is I got a card from my parents in the mail yesterday. They can't wait for us to go visit them again. Dad is looking forward to making homemade Jelly. and Mom just wants us to come visit. I do really miss Dubuque but I also really like the school I am teaching at now.

I just got done talking to my wife on the phone. She said that my son is upset because he wanted to make me a cake for my b-day.

Ok, Here is the story. While I was talking to my mother-in-law on the phone the other night I was to ask her to borrow a cake pan because my wife wanted to bake a cake for me. We still had cake left over from her b-day on the 14th at my house.
I told her my wife couldn't bake me a cake because we still had so much cake left over. She than changed the subject to what I wanted to have for dinner. She than asked me what kind of pie should buy. I told her I didn't care. she asked me if I wanted lemon merragne and I said sure.

The next day my wife and her talked and she told her that I didn't want a cake because we had so much left over and that a cake should not be made. I never said I didn't want a cake. I was looking forward to my son baking the cake.

Never the less I am now getting a pie instead of a cake for my birthday. I guess I was at fault but I think my mother-in-law is also. what do you think.

Oh well - Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Next Blog Button

Have you ever tried clicking on the view next blog button at the top of the page? I have tried doing this just to see what I get.

Some of the blogs are pretty nice. Some are very strange.

After you click on maybe 10 view next blogs it seams that you are directed to a site for porn. I ran into such things as midget porn, foot fetishes, and bestiality.

All I was looking for was some other interesting blogs to read. I really don't care to see blogs or sites dedicated to bondage and just porn sites in general.

I believe that it is a persons right if they want to blog about those kinds of things. I just don't think that after 10 or so clicks we should be automatically directed to a porn site.

I guess I won't be so adventurous when it comes to the view next blog link in the future.

I am not an associate

I am a special education teacher in a school that believes to the inclusive classroom. That me that special education students have their classes in the regular education setting and the special ed teacher co-teaches the class with the teacher. Students are spread out in different subjects as if they are regular education students.

During the beginning of the year I sit down and look at the schedules of all of the sped students in the high school and see when they are in a social studies class. I than set my schedule based on the number of sped students in classes and how needy those students are. If I am not in a class with a student I make sure that they receive their accommodations and I am there for them if they need tests read or what ever.

This year I have scheduled myself to be in 4th hour Government on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, I am in American History on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have also scheduled myself to be in 8th period American history with the same teacher.

Now I am there to co-teach these classes. We have that understanding with the teachers in our school. We are know through out the state of Iowa as a leading school when it comes to special education. If there is a movie being shown or students are doing presentations I do not need to be there.

Any way yesterday and today in American history students are doing presentations on their choice of presidential candidates. I have been in the class the last couple of days working with the students helping them do research on these candidates. So yesterday and today I should not have had to be in the classroom. I can there for go to another class to observe or get paper work done.

during 4th period I decided to go to government class and during 8th period I decided that I needed to work on writing a recent IEP that I needed to get typed up.
The teacher decided to throw a fit that I wasn't in the classroom. She said that I needed to be there to make sure that the students have their notebooks out and are taking notes during the presentations. I told her that I am not there for discipline reasons and that she could have done the same thing.

I went to 8th period today and the students are doing the same thing, presentations. The teacher told the class that I was going to walk around the room making sure that they were taking notes. Keep in mind there are 5 sped students in this class out of 27 students. I walk around the classroom once and then left the room. I had better things to get done. So she threw another fit today. She said that I am scheduled to be in this class every day and that I should be there every day, even if we are watching a movie or what.

I talked to our principal to make sure that I was understanding the correct concept. He agreed with me and told me that he thinks he needs to reiterate with all regular ed teachers what exactly the roles of special ed teachers are in the classroom.

I have had difficulties with this teacher in the past. She is a very anal teacher. She has been here for two years now and is having trouble with our concept of special ed.

There are other teachers here where I get right in and teach almost every day. Other schools have come here to observe and they can't tell which teacher is the regular ed teacher or the sped teacher.

I guess I am just a little frustrated

Any way

Should I feel Guilty???

I am feeling torn about something. How should I feel?

At one point in my life I use to be a head high school varsity football coach. I had some problems with the administration and am no longer a head football coach. I than moved to a differnt school and became an assistant varsity coach.

The head coach at my school has began to receive some pressure from several differnt sources. Sure he gets pressure from the fans and the parents because he hasn't been winning. However he has now gotten even more heat because he has shown to be very unorganized. He changes a lot of his offense every year. He is even inconsistant from game to game. If you know anything about football this isn't god. On top of this he has also been insonsistent on discipline matters and also very unorganized when it comes to (how to word this properly), I want to say manage the team but that isn't quite it. He is good at the X's and O's don't get me wrong, He is also good at scouting, I am just lacking on how to describe it right now. I know it sound stupid...

He doesn't have a players handbook. He doesn't give the players a O or D playbook. Most of the coaches don't have one. Most of the time the rest of the staff don't get a practice plan.

Again don't get me wrong I think he is a good guy and even a good coach. I guess I just have a different view of how things should be run.

Well any ways he was told that things had to change. He decided to make some changed by deciding to move two other coaches and myself down to redo the middle school program. I do agree that the middle school program was/is in a shambles. He decided to hire two good friends of his, drinking buddies, to become the new assistant varsity coaches. I was told to do middle school or quit.

I believe that the kids are great and that they can be a winning program. I just think things need to change and consistancy needs to become the norm. I decided that I am a loyal coach and to coach at the middle school. However I am pretty bitter over it all.

I know, people will say that I am not being a loyal coach because I am posting/blogging about it right now. I just have to get it off my chest though. If I offend this head coach and the football program at the school than I am sorry.

I would like to be a head coach again though and would love it to be at the school I teach at.

Any way back to the guilty part of this all. The varsity and the JV lost their 1st football games of the season. I was actually a little happy to see it happen. Maybe I shouldn't have because I should show school spirit and all.

Teaching ESL - YES or NO

I have been teaching adult English as a second language for the past year and a half now. I didn't mind teaching it at first. It was great to build relationships with my students and to help them pick up the English language.It was also nice to pick up some extra cash for only doing 4 hours a week

I am now getting burned out teaching the class. I do not get any planning time for the class. at least not any paid planning time for the class. I am given a book and told go get'em.

Even if I did have the planning time, I don't think it would make that much difference. I usually have about 20 - 25 people registered for the class. I usually only have 6 or 7 show up for class. They are usually different every week. Sure I may have 2 or 3 who are pretty consistent. Believe me those are the students that have the most success and help make the class worth while. So how do you plan when you don't know who is going to show up from week to week?

If I try to bring in things to supplement the class and try to make it more fun for me and fun for the students, I am discouraged by my supervisor. "You are doing to many PowerPoint's, you are playing too many games, They need to do more from the book"

Students, especially adults can only do so much from a real boring book. I know the book is to help them get the concepts and to help them speak the language and have conversations. I do use the book quite often but I just need more....

I guess I am burnt out! I notice that there is a pretty large turnover of teachers, however some have been teaching it for 15 years now.

I wouldn't mind giving it up how ever the money is nice and my family sure can use it. My wife also thinks I should stick it out. I am just frustrated!!!!

What do I do??? Do I quit, upset my wife and loose the income or do I stick it out, make money and feel like I am just spinning my wheels?

Fantastic video

I went to an in service the other day and I saw the video called Did you know.

Since then I have found that they have redone the video and made it a little more accurate.

I would like to share it with you and let it speak for itself

Wives

I sometimes wish my wife would just leave me alone. For instance she is bugging me right now to set up this blog. She is now even trying to quote me and make fun of me. STOP!!!!!!!!!