JOHN - Before I came down to San Antonio, I have been in touch with my cooperating teacher, Phyllis Schiebel. She is a 7th grade math teacher at Rawlinson Middle School for the Northside Independent School District. We have chatted a few times over email and she informed me that she was going to be setting up the classroom this week. I felt bad that I lost a day due to car problems but she said it was no big deal. We agreed to meet on Thursday, at the school, so that she could show me around.
I arrived at the school and was impressed by the look of it. The building itself is only seven years old and seemed very inviting. Which every good middle school should be!! Mrs. Schiebel immediately greeted me at the front entrance and took me up to our classroom.
She explained to me that she has a Survivor theme for her classroom. Basically, the desks are grouped together in 4's and the students are required to name their tribe. As most middle school education majors know, group interaction amongst young adolescents is encouraged (thanks C + I 233). The classroom, itself, looked liked you were walking into a jungle. There were 6-foot long snakes hanging from the ceiling, frogs on the walls, posters of jungle cats, etc. Mrs. Schiebel definitely made this an exciting and interactive environment.
As I toured the school, I noticed how modern everything seemed to be. The school's mascot is a Patriot and the colors bleed through the entire school. The great thing about the school, especially this time of year was that it was nice and cool. That A/C was cranked!!! I met a few of the other teachers who were working around the building.
After a couple of hours of assisting Mrs. Schiebel set up the classroom and getting to know one another, we decided to call it a day. She wanted Jayma and me to meet her ISU student teacher that she had in the fall of 2008 who just got a job in the district. I was pretty excited about because she would have a fresh take on the student teaching experience. We agreed that we were going to meet for breakfast at the Egg & I the next morning.
By the way, the whole time I am at school working, Jayma was at the pool working on her tan!! ARGH!!
That afternoon, Jayma and I decided to brave Walmart. It wasn't the most exciting of trips but we soon realized how much we hated this particular Walmart. In fact, we agreed to NEVER step foot in that Walmart again. We bought all our necessary supplies, food, etc. and headed home. I think I fell asleep watching tv (again) as Jayma organized the apartment. I felt bad but she said she loved to do that stuff. In another blog, I will post pics of the classroom and our apartment and complex.
Finally, after a long day of running around, Jayma and I went to the San Antonio Missions minor league baseball game. The Missions are a farm team of the San Diego Padres. Before we evened moved to S.A., I went on-line and found the Missions' schedule and saw that they were playing the Springfield Cardinals the week were arriving. Knowing this, I immediately got tickets for the Thursday night game. They were pretty inexpensive and I always like attending a minor league game. On top of that, I get to see my Baby Birds play!
The game started at 7:05 but we got there about a little late. Jayma's stupid GPS took us all over town, back roads, etc. One thing we noticed, as we drove there were all the stray dogs we saw roaming the streets. We counted at least 3 dogs just roaming around. And they weren't small dogs either. They were the ones that would eat John alive!! Oh, we also saw a street called Acme, which I thought was funny. I took a pic of it so my boys at the Normal Acme could see it.
Anyway, we arrived at the stadium around 7:10ish. We got our tickets, picked up some food and drink and finally arrived at our seats at 7:23. So we missed 18 minutes of the game. Guess what inning they were in at that point? They were in the middle of the 5th inning. I asked some people around us if that was accurate. I was a disappointed b/c, at this pace, the game was going to be done in less than an hour!! Well, it ended up going into extra innings and the Missions won in the bottom of the 13th.
We had amazing seats. We were in the first row, 1st base side, right behind the Cardinals bullpen. I asked Jayma to use her flirtation skills to get a ball from one of the players. Finally, a foul ball came their way and when the player turned around, Jayma got his attention and he threw the ball to us. It probably didn't hurt that I was wearing a Cardinals jersey either but I will give Jayma all the credit for this one. At the end of the game, one of the player's girlfriend came down to talk to her boy and Jayma and I asked for a picture. So we got to meet one of the Cardinals (still no idea who) but it was a great way to end the evening. We had a good time, loved the weather and were glad to be in San Antonio!
BTW, on the way home from the game, we took a road we were familiar with that was more direct and got us right to our apartment. GIPS (We named Jayma's GPS GIPS) kept wanting to take us all over!! Stupid GIPS!
I arrived at the school and was impressed by the look of it. The building itself is only seven years old and seemed very inviting. Which every good middle school should be!! Mrs. Schiebel immediately greeted me at the front entrance and took me up to our classroom.
She explained to me that she has a Survivor theme for her classroom. Basically, the desks are grouped together in 4's and the students are required to name their tribe. As most middle school education majors know, group interaction amongst young adolescents is encouraged (thanks C + I 233). The classroom, itself, looked liked you were walking into a jungle. There were 6-foot long snakes hanging from the ceiling, frogs on the walls, posters of jungle cats, etc. Mrs. Schiebel definitely made this an exciting and interactive environment.
As I toured the school, I noticed how modern everything seemed to be. The school's mascot is a Patriot and the colors bleed through the entire school. The great thing about the school, especially this time of year was that it was nice and cool. That A/C was cranked!!! I met a few of the other teachers who were working around the building.
After a couple of hours of assisting Mrs. Schiebel set up the classroom and getting to know one another, we decided to call it a day. She wanted Jayma and me to meet her ISU student teacher that she had in the fall of 2008 who just got a job in the district. I was pretty excited about because she would have a fresh take on the student teaching experience. We agreed that we were going to meet for breakfast at the Egg & I the next morning.
By the way, the whole time I am at school working, Jayma was at the pool working on her tan!! ARGH!!
That afternoon, Jayma and I decided to brave Walmart. It wasn't the most exciting of trips but we soon realized how much we hated this particular Walmart. In fact, we agreed to NEVER step foot in that Walmart again. We bought all our necessary supplies, food, etc. and headed home. I think I fell asleep watching tv (again) as Jayma organized the apartment. I felt bad but she said she loved to do that stuff. In another blog, I will post pics of the classroom and our apartment and complex.
Finally, after a long day of running around, Jayma and I went to the San Antonio Missions minor league baseball game. The Missions are a farm team of the San Diego Padres. Before we evened moved to S.A., I went on-line and found the Missions' schedule and saw that they were playing the Springfield Cardinals the week were arriving. Knowing this, I immediately got tickets for the Thursday night game. They were pretty inexpensive and I always like attending a minor league game. On top of that, I get to see my Baby Birds play!
The game started at 7:05 but we got there about a little late. Jayma's stupid GPS took us all over town, back roads, etc. One thing we noticed, as we drove there were all the stray dogs we saw roaming the streets. We counted at least 3 dogs just roaming around. And they weren't small dogs either. They were the ones that would eat John alive!! Oh, we also saw a street called Acme, which I thought was funny. I took a pic of it so my boys at the Normal Acme could see it.
Anyway, we arrived at the stadium around 7:10ish. We got our tickets, picked up some food and drink and finally arrived at our seats at 7:23. So we missed 18 minutes of the game. Guess what inning they were in at that point? They were in the middle of the 5th inning. I asked some people around us if that was accurate. I was a disappointed b/c, at this pace, the game was going to be done in less than an hour!! Well, it ended up going into extra innings and the Missions won in the bottom of the 13th.
We had amazing seats. We were in the first row, 1st base side, right behind the Cardinals bullpen. I asked Jayma to use her flirtation skills to get a ball from one of the players. Finally, a foul ball came their way and when the player turned around, Jayma got his attention and he threw the ball to us. It probably didn't hurt that I was wearing a Cardinals jersey either but I will give Jayma all the credit for this one. At the end of the game, one of the player's girlfriend came down to talk to her boy and Jayma and I asked for a picture. So we got to meet one of the Cardinals (still no idea who) but it was a great way to end the evening. We had a good time, loved the weather and were glad to be in San Antonio!
BTW, on the way home from the game, we took a road we were familiar with that was more direct and got us right to our apartment. GIPS (We named Jayma's GPS GIPS) kept wanting to take us all over!! Stupid GIPS!
Another thing, I am NOT pulling down that palm tree. It was already leaning, I just wanted Jayma to get a pic with me looking as if I was really was pulling it down. Ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment