John and Jayma's San Antonio Adventure

Train & Uncle Kracker concert (Nov. 21)

2009-11-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

JOHN – After a pretty horrible week and finally making up with Jayma after a few days of fighting and ignoring one another, we finally patched things up thanks to our “listening chair”. Plus, it didn’t hurt that we are done with the stress of student teaching and have a week off for Thanksgiving break. Even though that stupid curse was still following me.

A few months ago, I introduced Jayma to Train and we were really excited about the concert. Uncle Kracker was opening so it was a double-shot of awesomeness. Train was performing at La Zona Rosa, the location of our first Texas concert and where I got to dance with Sugar Ray. So we were looking forward to going full-circle and ending our concert tour at the same place we started it.

Jayma and I were going to go to Austin for a day of fun in the sun. However, it didn’t work out the way we’d hope. We ended up going out the night before with Jared and had a good time with Jared. However, that good time caused us to be a bit lazy and slow on Saturday in getting going. So, we didn’t end up leaving the apartment until 3:00 or so. By the time we left, the sky was pretty overcast.

When we finally arrived in Austin, the traffic was pretty steady because the Horns were playing Kansas that night and there were a lot of people there for the game. Jayma and I wanted to visit this little Lutheran college that her niece is considering going to. Well, Jayma, being the Queen of Plans, failed to get the address and found out that the building had moved. I started to laugh because it really is a small college.

After making a stop at the capitol building and walking around and getting pics, we decided to stop and park close to La Zona Rosa. Well, Jayma redeemed herself and found a parking spot on the street less than a block from the venue. And it was free parking!! We decided to walk down 4th Street to see if there was anywhere to eat. We didn’t want to settle for pub food, we actually wanted to sit down in a restaurant and have a nice dinner. After walking around for about an hour and doing a little souvenir shopping, we finally settled on The Iron Cactus. The Iron Cactus was really good Mexican food. I had this spectacular burrito and Jayma ended up chowing down on a delicious steak. And it was a restaurant!! After dinner, we went and had a drink and played a little darts before heading down to the show.

We arrived at La Zona Rosa around 8:40 and patiently waited for Uncle Kracker to come on. And when he did, he was awesome. He had a short set but he played all of his hits and even a cover of Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long”. That was interesting because he stated that he helped write that song about 10 years ago. I hope to have the chance to see him again because I bet he can put on a great show and actually be a headliner.

Now, the moment we had been waiting for: TRAIN!! Let me say this, they were amazing. Pat’s voice is phenomenal. They played all of the songs we were wanting to hear, especially OUR song which is “Hey, Soul Sister”. Jayma and I love that song and it’s officially our new song (our last song was “Hot N Cold”).

I was pleased to say how much fan interaction Train had with the crowd. During one segment, they invited some tween girls up who all got a shirt and were affectionately named the Trainettes. At one point, Pat said that he was going to sing without a mic. What an amazing and intimate moment. He literally got up in front of the crowd and sand amazingly!! As I said before, they were incredible, one of the best live acts I have ever seen. They ended up closing with “Dream On” and “Mississippi” and ended up inviting some cougars on-stage to finish the show. All in all, a great show and I am looking forward to seeing them this spring when they come back. Hopefully my partner-in-crime will be able to join me.

Return of the Thanksgiving Curse - John's Worst Week. Ever.

2009-11-22T13:31:00.001-08:00

JOHN - I had, to put it mildy, a really crappy week. I mean, let's be honest, if my week was to be described as a smell, it'd be "shit". And with it being so close to Thanksgiving, that can only mean one thing: The Curse of Thanksgiving has returned!!

You're probably thinking...what is this curse John is talking about. Well, it all started when I was a kid and my cat, Beamer, got sick. It was a few days before Thanksgiving and I thought that he was going to be okay. Well, things got worse, to the point my mom ended up taking him to the vet on Thanksgiving Day. I am sure you can guess where this story is going but we ended up having to put him to sleep. On Turkey Day. Yeah, I had a lot to be thankful for that day. And so, the curse was born.

Over the years, the curse has hit in my numerous ways. I got a ticket on Thanksgiving eve when I went to pick my brother up from work at Best Buy. I have gotten into major fights with girlfriends on Thanksgiving. I remember Gina screaming at me, in front of her entire family. Karen and I had a knock-down, drag-out because I stayed up all night playing Street Fighter. I have seen my family well at each other. Last year: Jenna (need I say more). And now this year, I have had the apartment broken into and just last night, I got a speeding ticket on the way home from the Train concert. Yep, the curse is alive and well.

So, after the fiasco of the break-in, I was back at school on Monday. Margie had called me around lunch and informing me that all of the Livetext work I had uploaded was nowhere to be found. Well, I went home that night and I was eventually able to find it but I wasn't sure how to transfer it to my portfolio. Well, I was going to ask Jayma to help me but we ended up having a nasty fight. Yeah, I was a bit a jerk but she has a way to get under my skin so we both found new ways to piss each other off. So, there went my help with Livetext.

Of all of the things that was most valuable to me, which was stolen, was my laptop. I really needed that because EVERYTHING I have done this semester was on it. Everyone was asking me why didn't I back my stuff up. How many people do you know back their stuff up? Probably 1% so I really don't want to hear how everyone does it. Anyway, I was able to get all of the Livetext stuff done by late Tuesday night. But I was still behind on getting my resume uploaded on Northside's website. I was going to do it that previous weekend but couldn't, for the obvious reasons.

As the week progressed and was able to knock out the resume, I received a letter from ISU on Wednesday listing my endorsements. The endorsements listed were: Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Business/Marketing/Management. Waitaminute, where was my Language Arts endorsement. I immediately emailed my advisor about this. Well, guess what? On Thursday, she emails me back and states that I was still 3 credit hours short. However, this contradicts EVERYTHING she has told me over the past year. Evidently, a communications class I took at ICC was no longer allowed to be applied towards the L.A. endorsement. What pissed me off was how nonchalant she addressed the email. There was no “John, I am so sorry I have been misinforming you for the past year” or “John, I am sorry you spent $400 and 2 months on a class this summer only to not get your endorsement even though I told you that you that’s all you needed”. Nope, I was informed that I could take another class. I am thinking “When am I going to take this class when I graduate in two weeks”. What irks me the most is that this screw-up could’ve cost me employment opportunities. This was not just about my certification, this is about my life!!

Well, I immediately emailed some higher-ups in the C&I department at ISU and voiced my feelings and expressed how unfair and unprofessional this is. It reminded me again of what happened when I questioned my grade. It seemed as if ISU was not intending on helping its students. I find that ironic considering that we, as future teachers, are told to be accountable for our actions. Yet, who is holding ISU accountable? And how many students has this happened to and no one question them? I was not going to let this just happen and I was going to fight it.

It ended up working out because by Friday, I had received word that it’s been resolved and that I was going to be receiving my language arts endorsement. However, as much as it feels like a small victory in a bad week, I still have a sour taste regarding the entire situation. Why was it that it had to get to this point? WHY? I am not just student who is graduating from ISU with my first degree. I am an alumnus of ISU as I graduated with a degree in Political Science back in ’98. I am not some spring chicken, I have lived in the real world and I have paid my dues. And I remember ISU do this EXACT same thing to friends of mine back when I was in school the first time. If this blog does anything, I want it to bring awareness to other students. As a student, it is your responsibility to be on top of grades, endorsements and graduation requirements. Do not always take what your advisors say at face value. Anything they tell you, be sure to document it. Save emails and notes. And if you question something and don’t like the response, find someone else to give you a better one.

Ok, I am getting off the ISU soapbox. I don’t want my feelings to be a reflection of how I feel about the university, as a whole. For the most part, I have enjoyed my experience. I have had the pleasure of attending classes with some wonderful teachers who seem to really care about the students. I am proud to be a Redbird and a two-time graduate. And I want to thank everyone who helped me resolve this (hopefully) last hiccup on the road to graduation.Just when I thought the Thanksgiving Curse was over (I mean, really, how could it get worse?) I ended up getting a speeding ticket last night on the way home for the Train concert. So, with five days before Turkey Day, I am curious how much more bad luck is going to find its way into my life. I think I am going to be a hermit and hide out and pray that bad luck won’t find me. But then again, the holiday isn’t over yet. Damn.

Classroom Divided - Texas vs. Texas A&M

2009-11-22T09:20:00.000-08:00

JOHN - Mrs. Schiebel and I decided that the week before Thanksgiving break we would arrange the classroom. To be more specific, we were going to split the room right down the middle. On one side, Mrs. Schiebel's, the room would be painted in maroon and Aggie colors. On my side, it's all burnt orange and UT!! Since the big UT-A&M game is on Thanksgiving, we wanted to get in the spirit of the game. This is such a big rivalry here, similar to Cardinals-Cubs back home in Illinois. So you can imagine the state is divided on this. Unless you're a fan of Texas Tech and then you could care less about either team. But TT is insignificant so that's neither here nor there.

On Monday, some of the students came to classroom before school started and helped decorate. Mrs. Schiebel had her A&M supporters and I had my UT fans. I am soooooo glad I brought my UT blanket, football, shirt and Colt jersey to school on Friday the 13th. Because if I didn't...it would have been stolen!!

Anyway, the room turned out to look really nice. The door was also decorated by our advisory kids and was also split down the middle. I am posting lots of pics and I am really excited about the game. On another note, the Raiders play the Cowboys that day and that should turn out to be a really good game too! Well, maybe for a minute. Thanksgiving...here I come. HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!

Last Weeks of Student Teaching

2009-11-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

JOHN - The semester is quickly wrapping up and I have finally completed all of my student teaching. This past week, I started giving classes back to Mrs. Schiebel. To be honest with you, I was ready to give them back and she was ready to take them. Not that I didn't want to teach the kids, do the lesson planning, etc.... It's just, after the break-in, my focus has shifted from enjoying the remainder of the semester to just getting finished with school and starting on the next phase of my life. It's a shame I feel that way because it's somewhat tainted this entire experience.

Anyway, let me say this to any and all future student teachers...STUDENT TEACHING IS GOING TO BE THE MOST REWARDING LEARNING EXPERIENCE YOU WILL HAVE YOUR ENTIRE TIME IN COLLEGE!! I have learned so much while completing my student teaching.

First and foremost, I have to thank Mrs. Schiebel. If it wasn't for her, I do not believe I would have gained the knowledge I already have. I wish I could take her years of experience, her calming demeanor and unending patience and give me just a portion of it. She is supportive yet willing to give constructive criticism. Plus, she's not one of those cooperating teachers who goes off to read a book and leaves you alone w/ the students. She's there to help you if you need it. She gives you enough space to run a lesson but is willing to offer up advice when appropriate. In fact, we would meet and discuss the first two lessons during 3rd period and she'd give input and suggestions for the later class periods. The one thing I noticed is that I would usually make most of my "mistakes" in 2nd period but by 6th, 7th and 8th period, the lesson went more smooth and the "bugs were worked out.

The other thing I have taken from this experience is that there are many key things to student teaching. Here is my list of items I feel is needed to be a successful student teacher (or teacher in general): 1. Content knowledge: You have to know the subject you are teaching. However, keep in mind, just because you are good at something doesn't make it easy to teach. Those skills will develop and come with time. 2. Time management: 50-minute classes go so quick!! You blink and the class is over. So this means you have to plan accordingly. 3. Patience: You need to be patient with young adolescents. They are in a constant rate of motion and are squirrely. I have gotten better about their behavior. But don't be afraid to have them settle down. Sometimes they need to move and sometimes they need to just relax. 4. Discipline. This is one area I constantly worked on (well, I have worked on everything but this was an area of concern for me). The key to discipline techniques is to just remain consistent. Do as you say, say what you mean. 5. Comfortable shoes: Trust me on this, get shoes that will not tear up your feet. Girls, no heals. Boys, those dress are nice but a good pair of Skechers are still dressy and comfy!!

After a long semester, it's finally come to an end. It's a bittersweet feeling. I am sad to be leaving these kids I have grown to care for. I want each and every one of them to be successful. I will miss their insanity and their bluntness. I will miss their calling me "Mr. G". I will miss joking with them or telling them to get quiet. I will even miss the days they failed to do their homework. What I will miss the most is their ability to surprise me. These kids have a way of making teaching worth it. They will surprise you daily. Sometimes bad. Most of the time, good. Maybe even great. When you have kids telling you that you are his/her favorite teacher and that you will be missed, it almost brings a tear to my eye. And it just reminds me that I have chosen the right career.

I arrived here in August with the excitement and nervousness of teaching middle school. I am leaving with the anticipation and pride of teaching these students again in the future. As I said in my initial reflective essay; "Someday, I will be somebody's teacher". Someday is now.

Breaking and Entry - Friday the 13th

2009-11-18T02:49:00.000-08:00

JOHN - Well, as many of you already know, our apartment was broken into on Friday, the 13th. How freakin' appropriate, right? I was looking forward to going to Rawlinson's 7th and 8th grade dance that night. In fact, it was around 5:00 PM when I got the phone call from Jayma that changed everything for us.

As I said, RMS had a dance that night so I decided to stay after school and do some final ISU-required stuff with Mrs. Schiebel. We got the classroom set up and we were going to go grab a bite before the dance started at 6. I had my phone's volume off, which I usually do during the day, so I missed Jayma's initial. When I did see that she called, I noticed she called twice w/i a minute and even left a voice message. If anyone knows Jayma, she NEVER leaves a voice message. She'd much rather text you. When I listened to the message, she sounded hysterical. After calling her back, and finally understanding what she said, I immediately drove home.

As I arrived to the apartment, the first thing I saw was the huge crack in the door frame. It looks like the thieves broke down the front door. I was a little bit shocked that they had the balls to break thru the front door in the middle of the daytime. As I walked thru the apartment, I first noticed Jayma's tv (the one she just bought a few months back) missing. Then, I noticed both of our laptops were gone and then I moved into my bedroom.

Inside my bedroom, I immediately noticed that the mattress was moved. My room wasn't torn apart but lots of things were missing. My custom made Tim Brown Raiders jersey...GONE. My rare Vince Young Texas Longhorns Rose Bowl jersey...GONE. Plus, I had other jerseys including my Bruins, 3 Cardinals and a Celtics jersey....GONE. My PS2, which was under my bed...GONE. All of my Sunny and Scrubs dvds in the living room....GONE. I had a cd case which held 20 cds...GONE. I had some comics...GONE. Even my black suit, YES, my black dress suit with matching shoes...GONE. Assholes took some of my hats, too. Camera, guitar, MP3 player...ALL GONE.

Thank god Jayma and I both have renter's insurance. And I realize now that a lot it is just "stuff" and can be replaced. But now I have mixed emotions on everything. Once I get my check from the insurance company, do I want to go out and buy everything I lost. Not that I don't want my stuff back but rather, I wonder what's the point to having all of this stuff if it can happen again. I realize that I cannot stop living my life b/c of these pricks but our life has been turned upside down b/c of this mess.

The two things I really want back is 1) my computer and 2) the Vince Young jersey. That jersey is rare. I tried looking for it on Ebay. No one is selling one. Granted, it means it's going to be valuable but I don't care about the value, I just want it back. I will never get it back and probably never find another one. It just pisses me off that someone, somewhere has my jersey. Ironically enough, I took ALL of my UT stuff to school that day b/c Mrs. Schiebel and I were decorating the room for the UT-A&M game. I decided to take my Colt McCoy jersey instead, thinking that I didn't want the kids to do any damage to the jersey. I chuckle now it would have been safer at school then at home in my closet.

As for my computer, this sucks because I just bought that computer and I liked it. But what's worse was, my entire life was in there. Every picture I have taken w/ my camera (which was also stolen), is gone. Jayma was lucky enough to have some saved on a flashdrive but still, it sucks. However, EVERYTHING I have done this semester is GONE. EVERTHING. Granted, there are some things I was able to find on Livetext and on sent emails but still, I have spent hours saving things and changing passwords. You never realize how much your life has become dependent on computers until yours is stolen.

I think the thing that bothers Jayma and I the most is that we no longer feel comfortable in this apartment. Even with all of the maintenance issues and loud neighbors, we still felt that this was our little home. Not anymore. Now, it's just a place to keep what's left of our stuff. Jayma no longer feels comfortable being here alone. We decided to keep all of our windows and blinds shut. We'd rather turn the air on than give anyone another opportunity to violate us. I have since packed up what remaining valuable items and moved them to Don and Lisa's. My room is pretty bare minimum now and that's fine. Granted, I still have a bed (with a missing pillow case which was stolen and really pisses me off), I don't sleep well here now. Hell, I woke up at 3:30 Saturday morning thinking my spare set of car keys could've been taken which would make it easy for my car to be stolen.

I will say this, Lisa and Don have been wonderful to us during this chaotic time. On Saturday night, Lisa invited us to the Spurs game. Granted, the Spurs lost to Oklahoma City, it was nice just being out of the apartment. We ended up going downtown for some drinks (I needed one or ten) and tried to get our thoughts off of it. Sunday, I went to Don and Lisa's and they were gracious enough to let us borrow one of their laptops and tv's. That was so amazing of them. It's weird how much a tv adds to a living room but it makes the room feel "right" again. It's strange, I know, but it helps bring back some level of normalcy.

As the days of progressed, Jayma and I have been trying to get back to normal. We have contacted our insurance companies and have created our lists of missing stuff to send to them. We are not going to go out and buy things since we are leaving in a few weeks. We are just going to try and get through the remaining time here and then head back to Illinois on December 7. I know that, even though I am coming back here in January, I am not going to live here at Fountainhead.

Here's my advice for those students considering moving to San Antonio or getting an apartment (and this could go for anywhere you live): 1. DO NOT rent from Fountainhead. Have Linda Mendoza help you find another place but DO NOT live here. Some of the clientele they have moving here is looking shady. 2. DO NOT rent a ground floor apartment. Get one as high as you can. Having worked in property management for 9 years, I can say that if you take some small but smart steps, you can rest easier knowing that something like will not happen to you. No guarantee, just be smart.

Texas v. Central Florida game (Nov. 7)

2009-11-08T08:16:00.000-08:00

JOHN - Before I even came down here, I knew I was going to go to at UT football game. I mean, I have been a fan since I was a kid so I had to see at least one game. And I didn't want to see them possibly lose because I always enjoy a blowout. This is why I settled on getting tickets for this game because UCF, though it's tough, probably wouldn't have beaten UT. And guess what, they didn't stand a chance!!

After I finally got over my illness from the past couple of days, we decided to go to Austin for the game. We had already purchased tickets and I was feeling better. Plus, this may be the last time I get to see them play live this year. Anyway, it turned out to be a perfect day. The weather was gorgeous as it was in the upper 70's. The sun was shining down on us as we were getting burned on our right sides.

The game started and UCF took a 3-0 at the start of the 2nd quarter. It seems that the Horns always start off slow each game but then really come on around the 2nd quarter. Well, it happened again. UT pretty much pounded UCF and moved the ball all over the field. Colt looked amazing but Shipley had a record-breaking day. He ended up finishing with a total of 273 yards!!

At the end of the game, Jayma and I decided to wait around the stadium. She noticed that there were people getting pics taken on the field so we decided to see if we could. Remember, Jayma and I live under the mantra "What's the worst that could, they say no"? So, we proceeded on down to the usher and he lets us on to the field. We were only there for a sec but we immediately walked into the end zone. It was a dream come true for me!!

As we were walking out, we ended us seeing one of the smoking-hot cheerleaders and I had to ask for a picture. What she doesn't know is that she's going to be my future ex-wife!! And that's okay because she was definitely nice on the eyes.

After the game and on our way back to S.A., we stopped at the Harley-Davidson dealership and picked up Terry a shirt. We stopped and got dinner before heading home. That night, Lisa and Don and Bentley stopped by and watched a movie. Another fun day in the life of the Dynamic Duo!

Halloween!

2009-11-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

JOHN - Last year, Jayma and I had a blast when we went out together for Halloween. We ended up dressing up as zombie doctors and had a great time. This year, we wanted to do something different. Since we like calling ourselves the Dynamic Duo, we figured we would be Batman and Robin for Halloween. Jayma would be Batman and I would be Robin. However, procrastination got the best of us and when we went to buy our costumes a day before Halloween, there were none to be found. After arguing back and forth as to what we were going to be, we finally settled and agree to be nerds. But not just any nerds. We decided to be...ZOMBIE NERDS!! As you can see, there is a theme going for us.

Anyway, Jayma had the great idea to go to Goodwill and we would find clothes that would work perfectly for our costumes. We spent about $30 each on all our costumes and they turned out great. I ended up getting some pleated trousers, an old tie, sweater vest and Jayma found me sound glow-in-the-dark neon green glasses. She had this cute skirt, bought some teeth and glasses and we did our hair (of course, mine was parted down the middle).

Jared ended up coming over and we went to this party that Lisa knew about. Evidently, her dog groomer has this party every year at their house. It's called Pawderosa. There was a live band there that night and for $5, we got some really good food. Jared dressed up as a skeleton or as I like to refer to him as a x-ray machine. Don dressed up like an 80's white rapper and Lisa was a Twister board.

The party, itself, wasn't too exciting but we had a good time, nonetheless. Jayma and I, of coursed, danced our zombie dance. Bentley, Lisa and Don's dog, was a "hot dog" and was freakin' adorable. He entered the costume contest but didn't win (I smell conspiracy or is it dog poop?). After hanging at the party for a few hours, we took off to this pub called Jack's. There, we played some darts and had a good time looking at all the slutty costumes. There was this one costume on this girl...I can't say too much because I am trying to keep this a PG-rated blog but, man, was she HOT!!

After Jack's, we went up to Don and Lisa's for to finish off the night. There, we played some darts and Jayma passed out on the couch. Needless to say, Bentley made sure she wasn't going to rest easy. We had a great time that night and even though we didn't get to dance and party as much as we would've liked to, we had a blast nonetheless. Next year, maybe we will be zombie ducks or something...

Sara & Leann's visit (Oct. 22 thru Oct. 25)

2009-11-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

JOHN - My friend, Sara, and Jayma's friend, Leann, decided to come spend a weekend with us in October. We were really excited to have the girls here because it was a new visitor for us and we haven't seen them in awhile. So, we decided to show the girls all around San Antonio and Austin. Leann flew in Thursday night and we took her to dinner over at Mamacita's. Sara flew in on Friday.

I decided to take the girls downtown and show them the Riverwalk, do a boat tour, visit the Alamo and go up the Tower of Americas. We hit all of the touristy places and spent a few hours just walking around downtown. The girls seemed to enjoy the area and I was glad to finally get to see the Riverwalk and Tower.

Later that night, Sara was wanting to go to Cowboys, which is a huge dance club. HUGE!!! And it's named fit right in. The minute we walked in, we were taken aback by how much area this building took. The dance floor is huge. There was a live, country band playing but in between sets, the DJ would rock the crowd with some hip hop beats. It was a great mix of country and pop and the crowd was just as diverse as the music. There were a lot of authentic country boys and girls there, all decked out in their country regalia. We are talking creased jeans, cowboy hats, big belt buckles, long skirts, and boots. It's like Sara died and went to heaven.

The girls had a blast at Cowboys. They ended up meeting some guys who were in the military so they had built-in dance partners for the rest of the night. I was on purse/drink watch the entire evening so I didn't get to partake in all the dancing that I would've liked. Regardless, the girls had a blast and Leann even got to ride the electric bull!!

The next day, once we finally got up and moving, we took the girls to Gruene where they got to see some of the little German shoppes. Leann's family has a strong German background so we thought she'd be interested in that. After stopping there for a bit, we proceeded to Austin where we had dinner and another night out on the town. The girls left early the next morning and I think they seemed to enjoy their weekend.

Spurs v. Cavaliers game (Oct. 16)

2009-11-08T06:44:00.001-08:00

JOHN - One of the great things about being a teacher is all the little perks you get. For instance, the Northside school district had some connections with the Spurs and we were able to get really cheap tickets. Jayma and I, deciding that we haven't done enough already since moving here, decided to go to the Spurs-Cavaliers game. I thought it'd be really cool to see a game, especially one that has Tim Duncan, Ginobli, Shaq and LeBron. Well, the night of the came and did it turn out to be quite the adventure.

It all started with Lisa calling and saying that her and Don had tickets to the game. To be more specific, they had great box seats where Don't employer, HEB, owned. We told them that Pete was flying in that night but we would meet up with them before the game.

As Jayma and I left for the game, I told her to head down to the Alamodome. Well, once we arrived there, we saw that there no cars around. Not one! I was thinking, maybe I got the wrong night. But, silly me, I didn't think to look at my tickets. Nope, I called Don instead. Don said the game was that night and that him and Lisa were on there way there. I asked him if the Spurs played in the Alamodome and he started to laugh. He informed me that they haven't played there for a few years and that they now play at the AT&T Center. Jayma called me an idiot and we proceeded our way to the AT&T Center.

Once we arrived and parked, we went up to the will-call ticket window and I gave the lady my name. She said that she didn't have the tickets. And then I realized, at that very moment, I had left the tickets at home. You see, the guy I bought the tickets from is a broker for the Spurs but they were purchased through him. Therefore, there's no way they would even have my name to look up. Jayma looked at me like I am an idiot (which I was) but she was pretty cool with the whole thing. Anyway, we decided to wait for Don and Lisa to see if they could get us in. Unfortunately they couldn't and Jayma and I decided we were going to leave. However, Jayma informed me to talk to the person in "ticket resolutions" to see if there is anything they could do. Well, by this time, much of the first period was over and we had no idea what to expect. Guess what, the lady immediately reached into the drawer, pulled out two tickets and told us to have fun!! The John and Jayma luck comes through again!!

We ended up going into the game and having these amazing seats. Not only were they great seats, they were in a suite!! Talk about getting lucky!! We watched the rest of the game where the Spurs ended up defeating the Cavs and we got to see Shaq and Tim and LeBron. I cannot believe our luck sometimes but that's all it's been since coming here.

All-Day Party in Austin (Oct. 17)

2009-11-08T06:14:00.000-08:00

JOHN - Pete decided to make another visit because he was missing the beautiful weather and girls of Texas. He flew in a Friday night. He arrived a little early because Jayma and I were still at the Spurs game. There is a funny story about the Spurs game that I will cover in another blog. Anyway, we ended up picking Pete us because he took a bus downtown to have a drink.

We picked Pete up and headed home. We weren't going to stay up late because we had a full day ahead of us partying in Austin. We woke up early the next day, got dressed, packed our bags, picked up Jared and headed to Austin. The Red River Shootout (UT v. OU game) was that day so we wanted to get to a pub to watch the game. After finally deciding on where to park our butts, we commenced with the daytime partying. We stayed at one pub until halftime until moving to a rooftop tavern that was also playing the game. The game, itself, was kind of boring but my Horns ended up hookin' the Sooners so I can't say I was disappointed.

After the game, we headed on over to another bar that Pete had read about. If I remember, it was called DB or something. Anyway, this place was known for it's travelling gnome. In fact, there were pics all over the place of where this gnome had been to. Plus, this place had lots of old-school video games like Centipede, Galaga and Joust. Needless to say, we stayed there for awhile.

Once we left DB, we went to the hotel where we would rest for a minute. I forgot to mention, Don and Lisa ended up coming to Austin too and they also got a hotel room. Anyway, we took showers, rested and proceeded to head out for a night of crazy fun. Jared was a dancing machine. In fact, I don't think he stopped after awhile. Everyone seemed to have a great time, the weather was gorgeous and it was nice to have such a large group of people to hang out with.

The next morning, I had to take Pete to the Austin airport real early. After waking and picking up Jared and Jayma, we headed back home for a nice, restful Sunday afternoon. It was great weekend, it was fun seeing Pete so soon and we had a blast.

Full-time Student Teaching

2009-11-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

JOHN - Hi everybody (all 2.5 of you who are actually reading this), I am back. I would apologize for not keeping this blog as updated as you'd like but considering there are probably only 3 or 4 people reading it, I don't feel that bad. Besides, I have been too bizzy teaching school and playing on the weekends to actually sit down and blog. But, now that I have a little time, I figured I would do a little writing. Oh, as you can tell, my roommate is completely useless when it comes to updating the blog so it's really just my dog & pony show now. Let's talk about school, shall we?

Over the past few weeks, I have been in full-teach mode at school. This means that I am responsible for the planning of lessons, teaching of them and everything in between. Mrs. Schiebel has been a great help by assisting me when needed but hanging back when she knows it's something I have to do on my own.

The first coouple of days were a bit rocky when it came to teaching the A.P. class. By the time I full taught, I was pretty familiar and comfortable with the Regs curriculum and had already been teaching a lot of the students. However, the A.P. kids had an entirely different curriculum and I wasn't as comfortable knowing those kids. For some reason, I was a bit nervous when it came to teaching them and some of the lessons were a bit rocky. The downside to that is, I only have ONE A.P. class and they are my first period students. This means I only have ONE shot to get it right whereas with my Regs, I have multiple classes to fine-tune the lesson. Like I said, it's been a bit rough but by the end of the first week/start of the second, I was getting used to the extra responsibilities of that class.

On top of the additional class, I have also been lesson planning with Mr. Wogstad, the other 7th grade Regs teacher. Each week, during our 3rd period prep, we'd meet and discuss the upcoming week's curriculum. Northside provides much of the curricuculum for its departments so we already have a nice foundation from which to work. It's definitely suited to assist new teachers. Anyway, I have to not only look over and understand the curriculum but also write lessons that will be posted on our website as well as given to the administration. It's been a lot of work and late nights but I really feel like I am getting a good hand of all a teacher's responsibilties.

While all of this is going on, I am still planning and teaching my 5 Regs classes, going to different meetings either for the math department, PBS or everything in between. I have been helping out as the assistant tennis coach for our fall intrumural season. In fact, there was an instance where I had to actually conduct practice because the coach had to leave for a family emergency. Again, great practice and training. I hope to coach someday and I can see that takes a lot of work to balance teaching and coaching.

If there is any advice I can give to future student teachers, it's these 3 things: 1. Time management, 2. Organization and 3. Comfortable shoes. When it comes to time management, you have to just be ahead of the game. Unlike college, where you can cram a paper and stay up to 4 AM drinking Red Bull, you don't have that luxury as a teacher. First, you'd be too tired to teach effectively the next day. So always be ahead of the curve. Plus, you will have to be ready to improvise. Next, you should be organized!! Organizationg goes hand in hand with time management and you need to have both down pact. In fact, one cannot work w/o the other. So be sure to stay organized. The better you are, the more smooth your life will run. And last, wear comfortable shoes. I bought these nice Skechers and have they been great for my feet. Teachers at Rawlinson are not allowed to wear sneakers (unless it's a jean or spirit day) so I needed some dressy yet comfotable shoes. These are great because you are on your feet ALL DAY LONG!! Trust me on this, you don't get to sit until after the bell rings. Invest in comfortable shoes, you will be glad you did. Jayma would agree 100% with me on that one.

Other tidbits about school... On the day before Halloween (it fell on a Saturday this year), Mrs. Schiebel decided to scare the kids. We rearranged the classroom to have her hide in the back corner. As the kids came in and class got started, I informed them that she was at a meeting off-campus and it was me that day. Then, after taking attendance, going over the Focus problem and homework, she would slowly creep from the tree and kids would begin to notice them. It was pretty funny because some of the students didn't know how to react. It was great time for everyone and most of the classes were surprised. It's nice to know you can still have fun with the kids in this day and age of accountability. They seemed to really enjoy it and I got a kick out it. Oh, I forgot to say, she dressed up as a gorilla for most of the day. For last period, she decided to be an alien.

I caught a nasty cold last week. Jayma was sick the week before and kids have been out sick all school year. I am surprised it's taken this long for me to get sick but I knew my luck would eventually run out. So, last Wednesday, I noticed that scratchy feeling in my throat develop and I knew then and there, it was all downhill. By Thursday, I started the day off alright but by the middle towards end of the day, I was in full-blown sickypoo mode. My head was throbbing, I couldn't breathe and I was making careless mistakes in class. I was really out it. Good thing it was a test day and that Mrs. Schiebel was there to back me up. I ended up calling Mrs. Schiebel that night telling her that I wouldn't probably be making it to school the next day. It ended up working out because Friday was only a half-day and that we were going to be in the library conducting Math Blitz so there was already going to be a substitute teacher there. It worked out well for me to miss that specific day. I do feel better now but I still got that lingering couch and stuffy nose but I do feel much better.

Next week is my last week of full-teach and then I start giving back classes to Mrs. Schiebel. To be honest, I am ready to be finished with student teaching. I have loved the experience and have learned so much from my time there. I still have a lot to learn. But it's coming to the point where I am going to have to do this learning and training on my own, inside my own classroom. Mrs. Schiebel has been extremely patient and helpful and I am ever grateful for that. But it's time to do this on my own. Plus, I am looking forward to finally graduating (again) and start making some actual money. I am broke as heck and living off credit cards which isn't a good thing. On top of that, my car has decided to have a some major problems which is going to cost me some major coin.

Alas, I have less than a month here before heading back to cold and snowy Illinois and getting my degree. It's been a great experience so far and I have no regrets taking this journey in my life. From going back to school to coming to San Antonio, it's been an amazing experience. But, I still have few weeks left and an upcoming 7th/8th grade dance I need to talk about. I will probably be posting 2 or 3 more times before ending it with graduation day. Thanks for reading.... all 2.5 of you!

By the way, here are some new classroom pics. The leopard, Decimo, I found at Goodwill. I bought him for $2.15!! I donated him to the class and had the kids come up with a name. Decimo was chosen (like decimals in math, get it?) but we call it Deci for short. The door is the one created by my advisory class. The girls who worked on this put a lot of time and effort into it. I wanted to make sure there was a picture of it.

Siesta Valley Ranch Walk - Sat., Oct. 10

2009-10-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

JOHN - On October 10, Jayma and I went with Lynn and Irene on a ranch walk. What exactly is a ranch walk, you ask? Well, a ranch walk is just that. We went to a real-life Texas ranch about an hour west of San Antonio, located in the middle of Texas hills country. Anyway, every year, SAS Shoes (a locally-0wned shoe company) sponsors this walk at the Siesta Valley Ranch. Were there longhorns and buffalo there? CHECK! Were there real-life cowboys? CHECK!! Was the land beautiful and spacious? CHECK!!! Basically, we had the opportunity to walk around the entire ranch, which is about 6 miles around.

The morning started off a little chilly. Chilly for San Antonio is around 70 and cloudy. We got registered and off we went. The first thing we came across were some buffalo which I immediately needed a picture of. After that, we continued to walk and getting pictures of the beautiful valley in which we were hiking. This is one area of Texas we haven't really seen yet and it was pretty exciting to finally have seen it. With all of the recent rain, the grass was beginning to look green again and the trees were full.

It only took us a few hours to walk the six miles around the ranch. Granted, Jayma and I goofed around a little and took pictures when the time was right. Which, for us, is almost every five minutes. Once we completed the 6-mile hike, we stopped at one of the tents where we collected our t-shirt and had a chance to "roll the dice". If you roll the number you predicted, you win a gift certificate for a free pair of shoes or handbag. Well, I guessed 8 but rolled a 7. However, both Lynn and Jayma both predicted and rolled 7's. After that, we grabbed a delicious cowboy-style meal consisting of BBQ chicken, sausage, potato salad, bread all with a touch of hot sauce. Plus, they were serving glass-bottled Coke!! After our delicious meal, we headed out. But before we left, Jayma and I made sure we got pics of the longhorns (WOW, they are huge!).

I also wanted to mention that this entire event didn't cost us a dollar! No, Irene and Lynn didn't pay for it! Rather, this was all sponsored and paid for by SAS Shoes. The food, the shirt, the gift certificates...everything!! What a great event and I highly recommend someone doing it whenever they have a chance!

After our walk, Lynn and Irene wanted to show us Bandera, which is affectionately known as the "Cowboy Capital of the World". Never have I seen someone ride there horse and "park" it at a bar until now. But you can see that in Bandera, Texas!! There was store after store of cowboy-themed items from clothing to souvenirs. We saw cowboys riding their horses down the street like something you'd see out of a movie. We stopped and had a drink at a bar called 11th Street which is probably the biggest cowboy bar I have ever seen. In the original and smallest part of the part, there were bra's hanging everywhere! And I mean, everywhere. I asked the bartender why were bra's all over the placed and they said it's just become a tradition. Ironically enough, Jayma and I agreed that we wanted to bring Sara and Leann there when they come to visit in a few weeks. It looks like it'd be a rowdy good time.

After that, Lynn and Irene showed a little more of the Texas countryside. After getting home from a long day, we both needed naps. I ended up not falling asleep because the Cardinals and Longhorns were both playing. Later that night, we were going to go downtown to see the International Accordion Music Festival but we ended up missing it due to my bad scheduling. We ended up having a drink on the Riverwalk and then went home because we were beat. The day was a great one and we really got to see many different parts of Texas. I definitely want to hit a ranch again and this time ride one of the buffalo!! Not those longhorns, though. They'd hook me!!

A Laid Back Weekend - Oct. 2 - 4

2009-10-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Jayma's boyfriend, Billy, came into San Antonio on Friday and this gave her the opportunity to finally see him after two months. I knew they were going to go have some alone time that night and go out to dinner on their own. Which worked out well for me because Mrs. Schiebel and I stayed late at school, rearranging it and getting things ready for Monday. Lisa texted me and asked if we wanted to meet out for a drink so Mrs. S and I agreed. We decided to meet at this hole-in-the-wall called Hills & Dales, aka "The Center of the Universe". It's more of a biker bar than anything, nothing special. It was a beautiful evening and it was a lot of fun to just relax after a long week. Later that night, Don, Lisa and I went out to Stone Werks for dinner and to continue enjoying the start of my laid back weekend.

On Saturday, I pretty much did nothing except school-related work and run errands. It was nice to have a lazy Saturday. That night, Jared and I were going to go to Smitty's. Jayma and Billy decided to tag along and we later met up with Don and Lisa there. We played some pool and darts and had a pretty good time. It's funny but I noticed that there were 5 ISU grads (Lisa, Billy, Jared, me and soon Jayma) hanging out in San Antonio, Texas. Just kind of ironic. Regardless, it was a good night and it's good to see our little posse growing. BTW, we made plans for a fun Halloween party so who knows how that will turn out.

On Sunday, it was back to more school work and watching some football. I was going to meet Lisa and Don at Boston's but they overslept and so I decided to stay at home and watch my Raiders lose miserably. Oh well. Billy and Jayma went out and did a few things and I just chillaxed at home. It was everything I dreamt it would be!!

6th & 7th Weeks of School

2009-10-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Over the past few weeks, I have increased my responsibility at school. I have taken on yet another class period. That leaves only two class periods left to inherit from Mrs. Schiebel, 2nd hour and 1st hour A.P. It's now the half-way point of the semester and mid-term papers are due this week. Everything is becoming busy, bizzy, etc.

So, here's what's been happening over at Rawlinson for the past couple of weeks. The students had a big test last week on fractions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of). I was a little worried how the students were going to perform. For the most part, most of them passed and anyone who didn't is given the opportunity to make corrections and bring part of the grade up. I was amazed by some of the little mistakes the students made. I would say 90% of the students understood the concepts. What hurt some of the students were simple things like addition or even multiplication.

On Friday, I brought back Tribal Trivia to help prepare the students for their upcoming benchmark. Down here in Texas, all grade and middle school students are required to take the TAKS test. This math test very important to the school districts and is highly emphasized throughout NISD. So important that Northside requires each middle school to have the students complete a benchmark test every six weeks. This benchmark is not required by the state but Northside uses it to better prepare the students for the TAKS test, which is taken in the spring. Anyway, I built Tribal Trivia 2 based on a little bit of everything that was covered since the beginning of the school year. The students, when finding out that they were playing TT again, were pretty excited. This time, Mrs. Schiebel was there to participate and she seemed to get a kick out of it. In fact, we will probably do it one more time before I leave, just with a few changes and suggestions that she gave me.

Our classroom is forever changing. I created an "Absent" board to help keep the make-up organized for all the students. It helps considering the number of students who have been absent this school year. In fact, there was one class period where nine students were out one day. The swine flu is spreading throughout San Antonio. Not as severe as the media seems to make it and no one is dying but it is hitting a lot of students. In fact, it probably isn't even the flu, maybe just a case of the students getting sick because that's what they do at the start of the school year.

Mrs. Schiebel and I are also incorporating some Halloween decorations inside the classroom. There's now cobwebs and spiders, ghosts and even some skeletons. It's Survivor, with a haunted-touch added. On top of all of that, Maurice (the monkey) has his own Cardinals jersey and hat. Mrs. Schiebel is letting him wear it while the Cards are in the playoffs. GO CARDINALS!! I have also attached pictures of the classroom for you to see all new additions.

After getting approval from Mrs. Schiebel and Margie, I have decided to become the assistant tennis coach at RMS. Granted, it's only the intramural tennis since the team tennis doesn't start until the spring, but it's still a school activity and I am excited to be helping out. It's starts next week and I am not sure how many students will actually be playing but I am quite excited to help out and do something outside of the classroom with the kids.

As for my student teaching, I feel that I am improving every day. Mrs. Schiebel continues to give me invaluable advice and constructive criticism. I have been working on using more transitions, focusing and stating objectives and just leaving enough time to end the class period. Plus, we are really getting deep in to the Survivor stuff. In fact, we just had our first tribal winners. This week, the students were randomly selected and new tribes were created.
I cannot believe that we are at the halfway point. In less than two months, we will be leaving San Antonio. We will be heading back to Illinois, graduating and finally moving back into the real world. No more school (well, at least for now). It's hard to imagine that everything is quickly coming to an end. But that's ok, I am ready to move forward. Plus, student teaching is making everything seem to move pretty quickly. And before you know, I may just be blogging about my very own classroom.

Here Comes the Weekend - Sept. 25 - 27

2009-09-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

JOHN - On Friday, I received a text from Jared and he wanted to see what I was doing that night. Originally I was planning on coming home, playing a little First in Math and doing absolutely nothing. But like everything in life, plans changed!

Jared and I were going to go out and have a few drinks at this little local pub called Smitty's. In case you're wondering who Jared is, he and I shared a few classes at ISU. Though we didn't hang out too much, I did know he was coming down here last semester and when I found out he got a job here, we were eventually going to hang out.

Jared came on over and we had a couple of drinks and then we took off over to Smitty's. Smitty's is your typical, townie bar. There was a jukebox with 80's and 90's music, a couple of pool tables and some dart boards. Jared and I talked school, life, music and everything in between over a some pool and games of Cricket. It was a great way to start the week.

On Saturday, I had to run a bunch of errands. I needed a new dome light for the car, get some comics and some other miscellaneous stuff. Jayma went and laid out at the pool. That night, we met up with Lisa, Don and Lisa's friend at Boston's to watch some football and spend a beautiful Saturday night outside. Jayma and I are beginning to build up quite the little posse down here and are happy to have such great people to hang with.

On Sunday, Jayma and I spent the afternoon with Lynn and Irene. They wanted to take us to this little German town called Gruene (pronounced green). Maybe I should change the spelling of my name to Grueneacre? HA! Anyway, Gruene was this quaint, little town full of gift shops, restaurants and dance halls. It was definitely a throwback to a older time and we had a great time walking around to all the little shoppes. We also had a wonderful lunch at the Gristmill! We definitely want to go back on a Friday or Saturday night to see how the natives really party in rural Texas. I guess it's time for me to get my cowboy hat!

Lynn and Irene also took us to New Braunfels where we saw people tubing on the river. Jayma and I decided right then and there what we were doing next weekend!! We went and tested the water but it wasn't too bad. We texted Lisa and Jared and they agreed that next weekend would be a great time to go tubing. We also visited a couple of smaller towns around the area and got to see a different part of Texas. It was a great way to end the weekend!

ISU Comes to Visit - Thursday, Sept. 24

2009-09-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

JOHN - On Thursday, September 24, we had visitors from ISU. And not just any visitors. San Antonio was proud to welcome Phyllis Metcalf-Turner and Jill Donnel. Dr. Metcalf-Turner is the Chairperson of the College of Education and Jill Donnel is the Coordinator of Educational Partnerships. They were here to see how the program is working out for not only Jayma and myself but to also meet with other ISU graduates who stayed here and accepted jobs. Margie Irwin also joined us for the dinner.

Lisa picked us up at our apartment and we went to downtown S.A. where we met Don. We walked along the Riverwalk to the Hyatt. It was there we met Dr. Metcalf-Turner and Mrs. Donnel. We were surprised to see so many other people there accompanying them. There were about 7 other ISU alum and that wasn't including Jared, who just took a job at NISD. From the Hyatt, we walked down to Rosario's for a nice dinner.

I had a wonderful time talking with Dr. Metcalf-Turner. After breaking the ice, we discuss the C&I program at ISU and some of the grievances I had. I tried to not focus too much on the negative but I wanted to express some concerns and Dr. Metcalf-Turner was willing to listen to those concerns. We had a delightful conversation about the state of American education and eventually moved into non-school topics such as music, history and Kanye West. We had a wonderful evening and I believe they can see how important the San Antonio partnership is for ISU. Speaking not as a student but also an alum myself, I feel this program is wonderful opportunity for students to challenge themselves in a new environment and it opens new doors and opportunities.

I just wanted to again thank Dr. Metcalf-Turner, Mrs. Donnel, Margie Irwin and ISU for coming to visit us (too bad you arrived on the two coldest days of the year). Plus, I hope this program becomes even larger next semester and years to come.

P.S. President Bowman, if you should ever read this, you are more than welcome to come down here. I will take you to a Spurs game (of course, it'll be on ISU's dime!).

Chickenfoot concert at Sunset Station in San Antonio - Sept. 20

2009-09-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

JOHN - On Sunday, September 20, Jayma and I headed to downtown San Antonio for the Chickenfoot concert. For those not in the know, Chickenfoot is made up of Chad Smith (drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Joe Satriani (a great guitar player), Michael Anthony (bass player for Van Halen) and Sammy Hagar (all-time rock god). This is my 4th time seeing Sammy live but first with Chickenfoot. And anyone who really knows me that I love Sammy! Needless to say, I was pretty psyched for this show. However, two days removed from the Living Colour show and a night out for the Texas-Texas Tech game has started to take its toll on me. But we persevered and ended up having a good time.

On the way to the show, I wrote down directions to the Pavilion. However, I made the mistake of entering the directions using W. Commerce instead of EAST Commerce. Let me say this, there is quite a difference between East and West Commerce. We hit W. Commerce and we knew immediately were in the wrong part of town. There were a ton of homeless people and and we were surrounded by buildings that advertised bond and bail money. We ended up stopping at at Motel 6 and got directions realized that we were on the wrong end of Commerce.

After finally finding the Sunset Station and parking (it's located right next to the Alamodome), we made our way to the ticket window. Once again, we hit another snag. The ticket lady asked me for my I.D. and credit card that I used to buy the tickets. I had my license but not the card. She asked me if I had the order number and I didn't. Sooooo....I ended up having to call my buddy, Jake, and he was able to look it up for me (THANKS, JAKE!!).

After all of this, we finally made it into the show. The opening act was still playing so we decided to just walk around and chill. We were sooo tired from the weekend but it was such a beautiful night. We got a few drinks and chilled by the fountain. The Sunset Station is an old train station that has been converted into a place where weddings, receptions and concerts can be played. The concert was outside and there was plenty of room to move around. We never felt crowded at any time. Plus, there is a nice restaurant that we plan on hitting the next time someone comes to visit.

For this concert, Jayma and I agreed we weren't going to make the effort to get up front. We were just too tired and our ears were still feeling the effects of the Living Colour show. So, we decided to just stand towards the back and just chill. We are so glad we did. Even though I didn't get as great of pics as I would've liked, the band sound amazing and Sammy's voice is still great at the ripe young age of 61. That's right, Sammy is 61 and he still rocks harder than everyone! I hope to be that awesome when I am his age. Anyway, they performed the entire CF album and came out for an encore. They performed Bat Motor Scooter (an old solo-Sammy hit) and a cover of The Who's My Generation. All in all, it was a great show, beautiful night and a great way to end the weekend.

Texas-Texas Tech game at Fox & Hound - Sept. 19

2009-09-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

JOHN - On the day of the Texas-Texas Tech football game, I was getting pretty psyched!! This was the Longhorns' first real challenge and it was revenge game from last year when TT got real lucky and beat UT in the last minute. That game not only cost the Horns a conference title but a shot at the BCS title. But don't get me started on how screwed they were (sorry, Pete, UT deserved it more that TT and OU!).

The night before, Jayma and I were in Austin for the Living Colour concert. However, we decided not to get a hotel and tickets to the game. We knew that the game would be really expensive and we didn't feel like forking over all that money. Instead, we were going to go to some bar and watch the game surrounded by all of my Texas peeps.

On Saturday night, we met up with Lisa and Don at the Fox & Hound. We were going to go to Buffalo Wild Wings but the wait was too long and I wanted to get somewhere quick. We invited Mrs. Schiebel out and she joined us even though she refused to wear orange (She's an A & M graduate). However, I was decked out in burnt orange and so were most of the patrons of the bar even though there were some TT fans (They must have been rejected by UT if they were TT fans!!).

After text-trash talking with Klay (my cousin-in-law), the Longhorns ultimately prevailed. Sorry Klay, TT is overrated!! It was a good night and we all had a blast just kicking back and watching the game. Even Mrs. Schiebel seemed to have fun even though I know she was secretly rooting for TT to win. When we got home, I immediately passed out on the couch which Jayma was kind enough to get a picture of.

Living Colour concert at Emo's in Austin - Sept. 18

2009-09-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

JOHN - On Friday, September 18, Jayma and I made the trek back to Austin (my new favorite city) to see Living Colour at Emo's. Living Colour is one of my all-time favorite bands and it's the first time I have gotten to see them. They were really popular in the early 90's with songs like Cult of Personality and Open Letter to a Landlord. Well, they just reunited and put out a new album and were touring around the country. When I found out they were coming to Austin, I had to jump at the chance to go. Plus, tickets were only $20!!

Before we took off to Austin, I asked Jayma to cut my hair. We went out on to the patio and I had my clippers, she grabbed the scissors and she went to town. I was a little nervous at first but she ended up doing a phenomenal job. If this teaching thing doesn't work for her, she should definitely consider becoming a hairdresser!!

Jayma and I arrived in Austin around 9:00. We went to Emo's, which is located on 6th Street. Once we got to Emo's we found out that Living Colour wasn't coming on until 11:30 so we decided to walk around 6th Street and get a few drinks. Our first stop...Coyote Ugly!

Within 30 seconds of walking into Coyote Ugly, one of the scantily clad bartenders who was dancing on top of the bar looks at me and say "You are one lucky guy"!! I believe she was referring to Jayma and assumed we were dating. Jayma was looking really pretty that night and I think the bartender wanted her to join her on top of the bar. Well, never one to shy away and from a little push from me, Jayma danced on top of the bar. Believe it or not, Coyote Ugly is not as bad as I thought. To be honest, it's like Hooters, just with girls dancing on bars. It's good clean, all-American fun. After a few more dances and a couple of drinks, Jayma and I bounced around to a couple of more places before heading back to Emo's.

Once we got back to Emo's, we maneuvered our way to the front of the stage, directly in the middle. Somehow, when Jayma and I go to a concert, we are always able to get up front. Living Colour finally came on and they rocked the show! They played most of their hits (they forgot to play Landlord though) and the crowd went nuts when they performed Cult of Personality. In fact, a mini-mosh pit broke out next to us and I actually saw someone get punched and knocked out!! We were really impressed with Doug Wimbish's playing of the bass. His energy was unbelievable!! In fact, he came into the crowd and played bass surrounded by the fans. Living Colour performed for over two hours and had great interaction with the crowd. They performed a lot of new songs which was good but I wish they would've spaced them out instead of playing them back-to-back but that's my only complaint. Jayma also caught one of the broken drum sticks which was pretty cool!!

After the show, Jayma and I waited around and we got to meet Living Colour, get some pictures and I got my cd and drumstick autographed. I finally got see one of my favorite bands but my ears were feeling it the next day!!

4th and 5th Weeks of School

2009-09-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Well, I haven't been the best at updating this blog but I also have been working hard at school and having fun on the weekends. Therefore, I won't apologize too much.

The last couple weeks of school have seemed to fly by. I am now teaching 3 class periods each day (6th - 8th periods). I am really enjoying all the extra responsibility that I am picking up and beginning to realize how teaching the same lesson is a double-edged sword. You see, when you teach a lesson the first time, those first hour students are your guinea pigs. During the lesson, I can immediately see what is working and what doesn't. As much as ISU pushes its students to write reflections each day, I have no choice but to reflection each class period. Heck, I will reflect during the class period. My point is, by the time I get to my 2nd and 3rd classes, I have worked out the kinks and adjusted the lesson enough where it's beneficial to the students and more comfortable for me.

Mrs. Schiebel has been really supportive and her feedback (constructive criticism) has been most helpful to me. Almost daily, she provides me with praise. But she also gives me areas of focus in which I need to work and I appreciate her honesty. For example, this past Friday, I had a difficult time keeping the 7th period class in line. 7th hour is my most challenging class because there are more students with special needs and they are quite the social bunch. Plus, there are some combination of students that just shouldn't be sitting next to one another. Anyway, I expressed my frustration with Mrs. Schiebel and she gave me some great advice. First, she said that I should never punish the entire class. Most of the students are good and if you punish everyone, you begin to lose ALL the students. Instead, she said that I should deal with those students at the root of the problem. Sometimes it's as easy as turning the desk around and facing the wall. Or sending a student to "Isolation Island". Or pulling that student out of the classroom and having a talk. And if comes down to it, request a conference with the parents. And it's important that once the issue is resolved, I have to be sure to go back to being positive and not focus on the negative. That's difficult for me because I can sometimes be impatient and a little bit of a control freak. I have gotten better as I have grown older and I do appreciate the insanity that is middle school students. I just know that I have to adjust my teaching and develop discipline techniques which work for me and help the students.

This week, I taught my multi-cultural lesson. Mrs. Schiebel and I came up with the idea of showing the students how to use an abacus. I have never used an abacus but I have seen one used, I just wasn't sure how to operate one. Well, after conducting some research and background history on the abacus, I have become quite fascinated by it and all its many variations. For those unfamiliar with an abacus, it's a device originated in Chinese culture but used during the Roman Empire and later adopted by Russia and other countries. The Western version is more basic where the Asian counterpart is much more complicated. Needless to say, I am going to buy one for my classroom (probably the Chinese version) and use it a supplemental aid if need be. If anything, it will be a good history lesson and I love me some history.

Over the past two weeks, RMS has had something called "No Freedom Friday". NFF is where all students who are failing (it can be just one subject), are sent to a classroom where they can complete all their make-up work. The first week, I spent over three hours organizing who was going and what work needs to be made up. Well, I decided to take it one step further and get ALL make-up work for ALL students who need to complete it. As many students that have been sick since school started, that means there is a lot of make-up work. On a side note, the flu is going around and kicking a lot of students' butts and I average about 3 students out each class period. This past Friday for 8th hour, I had 7 students missing; that's a lot of kiddos. Anyway, once I got all of that work together for those students "failing" math, I saw that only 4 of the 8 students had missing work. That means the other 4 students had all of their work in and were failing math for other reasons. However, those students still had to go to NFF. This doesn't mean they had make-up work for another class. But I feel it is more important for those students to be in class than working on make-up work. I think NFF can work but there are some kinks that need to be worked out and I feel there needs to be tutors on hand to assist students that do struggle, regardless of the subject.

The further they get behind in math, the more difficult it is to catch up. Plus, math has a very tight curriculum here in Texas and we don't have time to wait for our students to go at their pace. In fact, the schedule is so tight that we have very little leeway where we could incorporate a make-up day. This is where the students and parents need to step up and come in for tutoring or during advisory. There is only so much we can do in the time that we have and there has to be some responsibility by the students.

One thing I can recommend to any student teacher is that you need to move around the classroom. On Thursday, I told Mrs. Schiebel that I felt I was confining myself behind the overhead. I didn't feel as if I was moving around enough. Well, that means I needed to become more familiar with the E-board. The E-board is similar to a Smartboard. It allows one to use a portable mouse pad and electronic pen where you can write on a worksheet. You'd have to see it to understand. Anyway, on Thursday and Friday and using the E-board, I had the chance to maneuver throughout the classroom which really helped become more comfortable.

Okay, I think I am done talking about school. I need to go play some First In Math and start beating my 2nd period students before they run up the score!

Visit to Jim & Lynn's

2009-09-15T21:30:00.001-07:00

JOHN - I forgot to write about this but I wanted to be sure to include it in the blog. A few weeks back, Jayma and I went over to her mom's cousin's house (Lynn). There, her husband, Jim, and her sister treated us to a day at the pool and a wonderful dinner. The weather was a beautiful and we spent a few hours in the pool.

Jim prepared the dinner and we finally had a wonderful, home-cooked meal. We talked school and all sorts of thing. We felt very welcome and full and appreciated everything they have done for us since we first got here.

Parachute concert at the Scout Bar

2009-09-13T14:50:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Jayma and I decided to go to yet another concert but this time, right here in San Antonio. Jayma's old roommate and our good friend, Stephanie, introduced us to Parachute a few months ago and we became fans. We decided that since Parachute was opening for Secondhand Serenade, we would get to see two good acts for under $20. Plus, one of the teachers at my school spoke highly of Scout Bar so I definitely wanted to check it out.

On the day of the concert, Jayma had a parent orientation that night at here school. We knew we were going to miss the opening acts but were pretty sure we'd make it on time to see Parachute and S.S.

I ended up picking up Jayma from her school around 7:45 and we headed up to Scout Bar. What should've taken us only 15 minutes to get there took us over an hour. We ended up getting lost on the way. Let me say this about S.A.'s highway system...since when does going north mean you're going west? ARGH!!! Anyway, after asking for directions twice, we ended up arriving at Scout Bar right at 9:00. We walked in the door and there was Parachute, on stage, tuning up. We arrived right on time!!!

The Scout Bar is a large bar with a stage. It felt like a very likely and clean bar. There were autographed guitars on all the walls from the bands that had played there. Bands such as Collective Soul, Creed, and Soundgarden had all performed there at one time or another. The great thing about it was that it didn't feel crowded at all. There were probably a couple hundred people there at the most.

Parachute performed a great, 45-minute set. Jayma and I got some great pics and video. We wanted to make sure we got lots of footage for Steph. After Parachute was done, S.S. came out and announced they weren't going to be performing due to an illness to the lead singer. However, he was going to be signing autographs and taking pics. Plus, everyone was going to be receiving a refund!! This concert ended up costing us NOTHING!! Well, we did have a few drinks but we would've done that anyway!

As the Parachute singer was on stage, after the show, Jayma yelled to him to keep playing. He looked up and smiled. We ended up getting pics of the lead singer of S.S., Parachute and one of the opening acts, The Rust. Even though we didn't see The Rust, all of the guys came out and talked. They were really cool. We told them we were from Illinois and asked if they were heading towards Chicago anytime soon. I ended up buying their cd which they autographed for me. Believe it or not, it turned out to be a pretty good album. Anyway, we had a great time, and got to once again meet and party with more rockstars!!

3rd Week of School (Sept. 7 - 11)

2009-09-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

JOHN - The 3rd week of school started and I am becoming more entrenched in the happenings of the classroom. I am now teaching at least one class period each day. Mrs. Schiebel and I agreed that since I was already kind of teaching 8th that I would just stick with that period and begin working my way up as the weeks progressed.

This week, I was going to be observed by the ISU supervisor, Mrs. Irwin. She was going to be stopping by on Wednesday to observe me. So this gave me a few days to prepare my lesson. Since the students had a test this week, Mrs. Schiebel and I agreed that I would be responsible for preparing a review lesson that day. I was pretty excited about creating my first real lesson since coming here but also a little worried that I had a lot to cover. However, Mrs. Schiebel recommended I try doing some form of game with the students where they could have some fun while still reviewing for the test

I decided that I wanted to do some form of Family Feud style game. This way, the students could still break up in to their tribes and work together. It was important for me to create the game in a way where everyone would be involved. So, after some thought and brainstorming, I ended up changing the game and creating a new one called Tribal Trivia. In Tribal Trivia, there would be 20 questions the students would have to answer. Most of them related back to what they were reviewing. I threw in a few questions about Mrs. Schiebel and myself to mix it up. The teams would score points as long as they were one of the first to wave their tribal bandanna and provide the correct answer. On top of that, each tribal member must have the same answer and show all their work.

On the day of my lesson and observation, Mrs. Schiebel informed that she wouldn't be there due to an illness. However, I was going to have a substitute teacher, Mrs. Hoffman, there to fill in. Mrs. Hoffman is a retired RMS teacher and was a tremendous addition that day. She allowed me to run the classroom all day and stepped in only when she thought I would need it or when I would request it. She provided great feedback and was very helpful that day. I appreciate her allowing me the freedom to be the "teacher" that day.

The lesson went off amazingly!! After 2nd hour, which is my first class period with the regs, I was able to make a few alterations to the lesson. I was never able to get through all 20 questions and I ended up switching the order of the slides because I wanted to be sure certain things were covered such as PEMDAS and subtracting of integers. The great thing is, by the time Mrs. Irwin came to observe me, I was an expert on my lesson and everything seemed to run smooth.

I loved teaching that day and I appreciate Mrs. Schiebel having the trust in me being able to do so. It was a lot of work prepping for the lesson but it was totally worth it. Mrs. Irwin said that I did a pretty good job and that I seem to display a lot of energy. I just feed off the students, to be honest. The more excited they got, the more I did.

The one thing I learned in this whole experience is that it's okay to over plan and not to be afraid to make adjustments throughout the day. Sometimes lesson plans don't turn out the way you'd like at first. As a teacher, you need to be able to improvise and think on your feet. Plus, you need to reflect quickly and adjust things when necessary. Even fine tuning a few things here and there will make a lesson run so much more smooth.

The rest of the week was back to normal. On Friday, I went around and observed some teachers. Let me say this, I wish I would've done this sooner than later. Each teacher I observed, I was able to take a little away. It's good and necessary for all students teachers to watch other teachers in action. It just gives you an opportunity on how other teachers operate. You may not necessarily like everything they do but you can learn something each time.

Pete's Weekend - Our First Visitor! (Sept. 4 - 6)

2009-09-13T13:19:00.001-07:00

JOHN - Pete, my good friend from when I went to ISU the first time, flew down from Chicago for a quick weekend visit. He's our first of hopefully many visitors. The weekend ended up being a blast and it went all went so quick. Good thing I had a plan because I wanted to make sure that we got everything in.

Friday night, Pete flew in and I picked him up around 9:30ish. We came back to the apartment and immediately went to the store to get some beer. We ended up picking up some Busch. But not just any Busch. We got Texas Busch. You'd have to see the cans to understand. We sat around and talked the rest of the night and got some sleep b/c we had a busy day planned on Saturday.

On Saturday, the plan called for us to head to Austin. We were going to hit 4th street and maybe get tickets to the UT game. We figured that if we didn't get tickets, we'd at least tailgate and just hang around Austin. Well, let me tell you about what it means to tailgate at a UT football game. I have tailgated in Milwaukee where it's an art form. Let me say this, Texans put Wisconsian's to shame when it comes to tailgating. As we pulled into Austin and found a parking spot a few blocks from the stadium, it was as if we were walking into a sea of burnt orange. I couldn't believe I was finally in Austin for a Texas football game!! Plus, I was sharing it was two of my best friends!

Anyway, back to the tailgating...WOW!!! Not only were there grills, there were actually smokers. There were people with huge smokers!! At first, we thought it was people setting up vending stands, that's how professional it looked. In fact, the closer we walked to the stadium, the more extravagant the tailgating became. We saw people with painted school buses, hearsts, trucks and so on. Some people had their 60-inch flat panel tv's and even had portable sinks set up. The only thing that was missing was the actual cow that was to be served up.

Before the game, we decided to walk towards downtown Austin. We ended up having lunch at this sports bar called Bikini's. Bikini's is similar to Hooter's except with hotter, Texan girls and they are all wearing, guess what, bikini's and cowboy boots!! Let's just Pete and I weren't disappointed with the view.

After lunch, we did a little souvenir shopping as well as hit a few taverns. It was a great time and as game time, we wanted to see if we could tickets. We ended up buying tickets from a scalper for $15 under their initial value. These seats ended up being awesome because we in the front row of our section.

When we arrived at the game, we found our seats and we getting pretty psyched. Even Pete, who is an Ohio State fan, seemed to enjoy the euphoria. Since I am a longtime UT fan, this was my dream to eventually go to a game and I was finally fulfilling this dream!! To be among the sea of orange and all the fans was everything I thought it would be. I started to learn all of the Texas songs and really grew to appreciate the passion of Texas football. The Longhorns ended up pounding Louisiana-Monroe 59-20. After the game, we decided to head back to San Antonio because we were beat plus we wanted to up for the beach the next day.

On Sunday, we got up early and headed to Corpus Christi for a day at the beach. Since we wanted to get the peak sun, we left early. As we drove into C.C., Jayma and Pete were a little worried that the weather wasn't going to be in our favor. I, ever the optimis, didn't worry. And guess what? The weather turned out to be perfect. We ended up getting lots of sun and I got burned for the 3rd week in a row. That's ok, it was worth it.

After spending the afternoon playing in the sand and the ocean, we headed back to San Antonio to spend an evening on the Riverwalk. After showering and changing, we headed to the Riverwalk. After walking around a bit, we had a delicious dinner at this restaurant that neither one of us can remember the name for. After dinner, we did a little more walking around and decided to hit some of the clubs. We found this British pub that wasn't really British. Maybe they thought they were British because they had a old school phone booth inside it. But the bartenders (guys) were all wearing kilts. Isn't wearing a kilt a Scottish thing? Anyway, we went to another club after that and continued getting our dancing on.

The night ended up with us getting completely lost in San Antonio trying to find our way back home. It ended up taking us almost an hour to find our way back home. By this time, I had a pretty nasty headache and all I wanted to do was go to bed. Jayma and Pete ended up hitting the hot tub which they said was nice. A few hours later, I got up and ended up taking Pete to the airport. It was a fantastic weekend (except for the getting lost part) but we all had an outstanding time. Pete's already talking about coming down again and we are hoping we get lots more visitors during our time here.

Our Apartment

2009-09-13T12:50:00.001-07:00

JOHN - Everyone's been asking us about our apartment. Well, here are some pics of the place. Just so you know and because I want to make everyone jealous but we have five pools here at our complex. We also have access to a work-out facility that isn't too bad. Plus, inside the apartment we have a stackable washer-dryer, dishwasher, central air, 2 full bathrooms, lots of closet space, a little deck and lots of parking. The cost for the apartment was around $800-something each month (split that in 2 and it's a little over $400 each). We have to pay all utilities (no gas) and ended up getting cable w/ internet.

If anyone is considering moving here, we would recommend renting furniture instead of bringing a Uhaul. First, it's a lot less expensive. Two, you're only here for four months so save yourself the hassle. Trust me, just bring a carload of stuff and that's all you need. The furniture company that we rented from had everything set up when we got here and it turned out to be pretty decent. No complaints in that area.

The apartment has been pretty good. We have had a few hiccups with some maintenance issues but they are always quick to respond and fix the problems we have. The only thing that we can't stand are our loud neighbors upstairs. They are a family with a small child who seem to forget that there are people living below them. I have had to even go knock on their door because they were way too loud banging around one late Sunday night. Of course, they didn't answer the door. Jerks.

The location of the apartment complex is fantastic!! We are about a 10 minute drive to downtown San Antonio. We are 2 minutes from I-10 which is one of the major highways here. Alongside I-10 are access roads that have everything we need. Grocery stores, Walmart, Target, restaurants, etc. My drive to school is about 8-10 minutes since I take I-10 most of the way. Jayma's drive to her school is a little shorter. We seem to be avoiding the heavy traffic both ways. We are also 8 minutes from the airport and are close to 410 and 1604. All in all, not too bad. I don't know if I would want to live here for a long period of time but for one semester, it's not too bad.

Week 2 of School (Aug. 31 - Sept. 4)

2009-09-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

JOHN - I first want to apologize for not updating this blog as often as I would like. Jayma too. But I always said that when I started this blog, I didn't want writing about life to take precedent over actually living it. But I have a couple of hours so here I go.

The second week of school was pretty interesting. I have taken up more responsibility inside the classroom. I have started teaching at least one class period each day. Usually it's 8th period and I also teach off Mrs. Schiebel's lesson plans. I am still in the process of getting to know the in's and out's of RMS and all of the students.

During that second week, it was business as usual in the school. There were days where I'd help make copies. Mostly it was a week of watching, observing, learning and helping out when I could. I can't say this enough but being there at the beginning of the school year is so much better than coming in during the middle of one. I did that when I completed my clinical observations I just didn't get a good feel for the classroom. I know, for some, it's not possible to be able to student teach at the beginning of a school year. I just feel there is an advantage to it.

Week 3 is much more exciting and I will talk in greater depth about that in a couple of blogs.

Saturday, August 29: First visit to the Riverwalk

2009-08-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Jayma and I finally decided to hit the Riverwalk. Well, it was well worth the visit. We got down there in about 15 minutes and that was just getting a little lost. Now that we know how to get there, the trip from our apartment takes 10 minutes, tops.

We were immediately struck by the amount of energy coming from the area. It was still early in the evening and hot enough where it wasn't very crowded. We decided that we were going to have dinner that night but not hit The Alamo. We wanted to eat dinner down there but we were going to walk around for a bit. Plus, I had a new pair of sandals I wanted to break in.

As we were walking around the Riverwalk, we loved all of the restaurants we kept running into. There were plenty of Mexican restaurants/bars but there were also some Italian and even an Irish pub. The great thing about all of these places: you could sit right alongside the river. There were tour boats were in full force. We decided not to do the tour boat thing yet b/c we figured we'd be going down there again. And again.

After walking around a bit and taking numerous pictures of us goofing around (and ducks too), we decided to have dinner at this restaurant called the Republic of Texas. I think we had a waiter who was in the worst mood because he didn't seem happy at all. We ordered margaritas and daiquiris and people watched. By this time, the crowds were starting to pick up but the weather was just right and it was fun just sitting there on the river. Across the river was another restaurant where the music was loud and the patrons were having a great time. I think we are going there next time. We ended up sharing a mushroom burger and some apple crisp. It was yummy.

After that, we walked around some more and stopped at this really cool gift shop where Jayma picked up some postcards. By this time, the sun was down and the Riverwalk was really coming alive. We ended up leaving around 9ish but agreed that we wanted to stay there one night and enjoy a long night at some of the taverns. My good friend, Pete, is coming to visit next weekend so I think that's where we will go.

After that, we went out with Lisa and her boyfriend, Don. Lisa was Mrs. Schiebel's student teacher from fall 2008 and recently took a job here in San Antonio for NISD. We were originally going to go to this place called Big'z but it was closed. We ended up hitting this really nice bar called Stone Werks. It was a gorgeous night and we sat there and talking teaching and other stuff. Lisa and Don were fun to hang out with and we actually met some new friends, Corey and David. They had the really strong Texas accents and displayed that Southern hospitality. For some reason, everyone always wants to talk to us about Illinois. I find that funny b/c we just want to talk about Texas.

It was a great night and we are looking forward to going to the Riverwalk again and hanging out with Lisa and Don.

(500) Days of Summer: GREAT MOVIE!!

2009-08-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

JOHN - On Friday, Jayma and I went to see (500) Days of Summer. Well, if you haven't seen it, you're missing out on one of the best of the summer. I don't want to give away too much of the story but it's one of those few original movies that come along once in awhile. It's kind of a romantic comedy but it's a little more than that. Just go see it and let us know what you think. Plus, Zooey Deschanel is in it and everyone knows of my slight obsession with her!

Tuesday - Friday, Aug. 25 - 28: First Week of School

2009-08-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

JOHN - What a week!! On Monday, the students arrived, to much fanfare. I already talked about Monday so let's just move on to the rest of the week.

Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of many get-to-know-you activities. Mrs. Schiebel started off the week with a math trick using dice. By Tuesday, only a handful of students had determined the result. It would remain that way the rest of the week until she finally revealed her secret on Thursday.

Some of the ways we got to know the students were fun and interactive. Mrs. Schiebel does an amazing job of getting young adolescents involved in class. They are also able to move around a bit, which definitely plays to their growing bodies. See, more C & I information being thrown at ya!!

On Tuesday, the students came up with their tribe names and chose their mascot. It was really cool to see how the students developed their tribe names. Some would take the first couple of letters from each person's name and mix it together. Others would choose their favorite foods or animals. Then, Mrs. Schiebel would have the students draw cards to see who would choose their tribe's mascot first. Not many chose the hippo, which I dubbed the HipHopopotamus.

Over the first couple of days, I would assist Mrs. Schiebel in getting the material needed. I got to see how much work it takes to really get the first week of school going. I was amazed by the amount of paperwork the students have to complete. I remember, when I was a lad, I only had to have my mom fill out one or two forms. Now, the students had 9 forms to have signed and returned. Not only that, some forms needed to be initialed or even signed two or three times!!

One of the first real jobs Mrs. Schiebel gave me to be responsible for was making sure all of this paperwork was returned and completed fully. During advisory, I would have to check off each form and let the students know if they were missing anything or if they were good-to-go. Those who had everything in were issued their locker. Those who didn't have the paperwork in had to wait to get their locker until everything was returned. By Friday, all but two students had everything in so it worked out pretty well. I still think this paperwork thing could be done more effectively, however. If this packet was given to the parents at the open house, it would help alleviate the responsibility of having the students take it home during the first week. But that's just my 2-cents.

Let me say this: If you want to succeed, especially in student teaching or teaching, in general, you MUST be organized. Mrs. Schiebel is one of the most organized people I have ever met. She is able to tap her years of experience and limitless resources. Since I have certain type-A tendencies, I immediately appreciated her organization. Having an organized classroom means having a well-run classroom.

Toward the end of the week, Mrs. Schiebel began introducing math to the students. For the regular ed. classes, we introduced integers and comparison. I asked her if she'd be willing to let me teach 8th hour and so on both Thursday and Friday, I was teaching those periods. Thursday, I was little nervous and I went a little long on the lesson and to rush at the end to get everything in. Mrs. Schiebel assured me that time management is one thing that any good teacher picks up with experience and time. On Friday, I was a lot more comfortable in front of the students. The lesson went more smooth and I think the students and I are beginning to develop a rapport.

One of the goals that I have for the upcoming week is to teach at least one lesson each day. Mrs. Schiebel and I agreed to switch it between 7th and 8th period. She would continue to prepare the lessons but I would start understanding the curriculum and providing feedback. I have to be careful not to rush myself, which I have a tendency to do. As eager as I am to teach, I still have a lot to learn and I have an entire semester to really train. No sense in jumping in without a plan. Thankfully Mrs. Schiebel is keeping me grounded enough to do so.

It was a great first week. I know that there over the next several weeks, the amount of work will build and I will be doing more at home and at school. But seeing how a school comes together in its first days was an eye-opening experience. I am so glad I am student teaching now rather than the spring semester.

Monday, August 24 - Students finally arrive!!

2009-08-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Today was the first day of school with the students!! Truth be told, I was a little nervous. I didn't sleep well but I don't know if it was due to nerves or the fact that I dreamt of a tarantula crawling through my hair. What's even more funny, it's not like this is my first time in a classroom. I have substitute taught almost 200 days and have spent numerous hours just observing for my C & I classes. However, this was a different situation. I was going to be spending 4 months with these students and I was going to be teaching them day in and day out.

When I arrived at school, Mrs. Schiebel and I went over the days activities and what was needing to be covered. I have to give props to Mrs. Schiebel. She was very calm, collected, organized and raring to go. I think it just goes to show you that years of experience and a passion for your job makes you prepared for anything.

When the first hour students arrived, Mrs. Schiebel met them at the door to make sure they had their vaccinations. Any students who didn't have their shots were not allowed in class and had to go to the cafeteria. NISD has a strict "No shots, no school" rule and they were going to abide by that. As the students entered the room, they came to me for their table placement. Mrs. Schiebel decided to place the students in their group by alphabetical order for the first six weeks. It just helps her and me get to know the names and students better.

After going over the obligatory classroom expectations, Mrs. Schiebel showed the students this cool dice trick. I can guarantee you that I am going to use that somewhere in my teaching. Only one student (all day) figured out the trick. After that, we played a number of "name" games which helped us begin to learn the names of our students. Mrs. Schiebel allowed me the opportunity to participate in the classroom activities and interact with the students.

Tomorrow, the students are going to start naming their tribes and choosing their mascots. Today was a great day and I think everyday will be something new and challenging.

BTW, the first day is somewhat chaotic. There are students running around, trying to find their classrooms. Administration is trying to get everything organized, teachers are trying to getting to know the students and the students are trying to take it all in. What a great time to be a teacher!!

Saturday & Sunday, August 22 and 23

2009-08-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

JOHN - After an amazing night dancing and partying with Sugar Ray, Jayma and I took it easy the rest of the weekend. In fact, I believe Jayma slept in til noon on Saturday while I updated the blog (as you can easily see).

Texas was having its annual tax-free weekend and Jayma and I were going to do a little shopping that day. We both needed some shoes and sandals and some clothes. So, once Jayma and I got to rolling, we hit The Rim and La Cantera. I ended up buying a lot of sandals (brown & black) as well as some dressy clothes. Well, we ended up spending a lot of time in many shoe stores that we ended up not doing much clothes shopping. However, we did end up getting our shoes and getting to know those shopping centers.

Originally we were going to go to downtown San Antonio that Saturday night. However, we were pretty worn out from all the shopping and walking but we were still feeling the effects from the concert. We decided to just do dinner at Papasito's. Let me say, I had some of the best strawberry daiquiris, even with the whip cream. And I refuse to accept the fact that it's a foofoo drink!! Our meals were delicious too!!

After dinner, we headed home and crashed for the night. For some reason, we ended up watching High School Musical 2, which was actually cute in a really cheesy way.

On Sunday, we were making it a pool day. I spent a good chunk of the morning updating the blog! I am glad I finally caught up because it makes it easier to just update it daily now. Before we hit the pool, Jayma comes back from getting the mail all excited b/c she found a really cool dresser/book case sitting next to the dumpster. She said that someone had just put it there and that it would be perfect for our living room. So we went out and grabbed it and it was in pretty good condition. After cleaning it off, Jayma made quick use of it by placing her printer and speakers on it.

We hit the pool and Jayma was able to break in her new raft. I pretty much swam the entire time and worked on my tan (it's getting better). One funny thing we saw, once we got there, was that Allergy (the stray cat) was walking around. Jayma told me to ignore her but I couldn't avoid her cuteness (the cat's, not Jayma's).

After our day at the pool, I made my delicious chicken enchiladas. Jayma went and picked up some chips and salsa from the Alamo Cafe to complement our meal. After that, we had to finish our weekly reflection and prepare for our first day of school with the students. We were both pretty excited to finally be at this point in our college career. It's been a long and exciting journey and we are ready to start this final stage. Tomorrow, the work really begins!

Jayma's Debriefing

2009-08-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

John thinks he needs to write a book! For those of you who do not have time to read his very detailed blogs I am going to be debriefing you on our trip.

Trip Down South
Thanks to John we got an extra day with friends and family because his car broke down. Our cars were packed to the max! Who knew how hard it was going to be packing our lives in our cars? Humbling to say the least. The trip down to San Antonio was long, but we both rocked some great tunes out on the way and felt that we made great time. Contrary to what some may think, the Action Figure Museum was very cool! I was so thankful that we took a wrong turn in St. Louis and drove towards Oklahoma. We were able to stop at the Oklahoma City Memorial, which was very moving and a great educational experience. The terrential down poor was not expected in Austin at all, and the roads were flooded so bad that cars had to get over into other lanes to prevent floating away...

All in all, we made great time and only ran into traffic in Austin for obvious reasons. We were then graciously greated by my Mom's cousins with drinks and dinner! Yummo! I must appologize because I thought John was being a baby when he said he was getting bitten by ants at our apartment. The next day he had welts on his feet....poor guy! I eventually felt bad for him.

First Few Weeks in San Antonio
As John stated, I did have my room completely organized in the first 24 hours. He continually lolly gagged for about a week before he was all moved in. In his defense, he helped his teacher literally the day after we arrived, while I relaxed at the pool. Sorry John! Let me just say that John has been the best roommate thus far. He is always finding great places to visit (ie: Action Figure Museum, Memorial in Oklahoma City, Missions baseball game, Corpus Christi for some fabulous beach time, and the Sugar Ray concert!!) He is also the most clean and organized roommate a girl could ask for!!

We have both been able to relax at our pool a few times since arriving....Myself getting tan and John burning! We are trying to get John a base tan to prevent this from happening in the future, but as of right now he is still sporting the farmers tan. OwOw

Tomorrow is a day we have anxiously been waiting for. We have both been participaing in meetings, organizing our classrooms, and compiling our curriculum the past week. We have met the parents and some of the students during our "Meet the Teacher Nights" and feel that it is going to be a great semester. My teacher moved up with her students from 2nd grade and will have them again this year in 3rd. For me, this will be a huge benefit because the students will know exactly what we expect from them. For myself it will be a great learning experience because the class has a wide variety of students ranging from special needs to gifted and talented. It will be a great way to put to practice "differentiated instruction", which we have learned so much about at ISU.

Sugar Ray party in Austin!

2009-08-23T11:11:00.001-07:00

JOHN - Here's the blog EVERYONE has been dying to hear about!! On Friday night, Jayma and I head to Austin to go see Sugar Ray. We just bought tickets a few days beforehand b/c we weren't sure if we were going to see them or not. We knew they were playing in Austin on Friday and Houston on Saturday. Once we realized how close Austin is to San Antonio (1 hour & 20 minutes), we decided to do the Austin show. Plus, they were performing in a smaller club, similar to The Rave in Milwaukee or The Vic or The Riviera in Chicago. Plus, tickets were only $25 each so it was definitely the better of the two locations. Houston would've been a 3+ hour drive and would've cost a lot more b/c it was at the House of Blues.

Anyway, we made our way to Austin and exited on 6th. As we drove to the club, we noticed all the cool bars and clubs along the street. I think UT was really close b/c this seemed like a great place for college kids to hit. The street was alive with the sound of live music and people walking around. It reminded me a lot of State Street in Madison. Jayma and I both agreed that we were going to go back up there and spend a weekend there.

We finally parked and walked to the club. La Zona Rosa was this tiny club that could hold about 1000 people, so it was very intimate. We walked in around 9:05 but the first opening act, Aimee Allen, was just leaving the stage. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to hear her except for one song. She sounds a lot like Gwen Stefani with a gothish look to her. VERY HOT!! But there will more about Aimee later.

After getting a couple of drinks, we proceeded to move up to the stage. Well, we maneuvered our way to the point where we standing behind these two couples who were right on the railing, in front of the stage. They were all shorter than us which was great! We did not have an obstructed view of the stage and we were less than five feet from it.

Fastball came on and put on a pretty good show. They have a bluesy rock sound with a mix of some older rock. Evidently they are from the Austin area and had a decent following. The set included all their hits but even the songs we didn't know were really good. I am not one for opening acts but Fastball was definitely one of the better ones I have seen.

Here's the YouTube link for my on-stage performance w/ Sugar Ray but please read below so you can know what was going on in my mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ1tYRA98GM&feature=channel

The time finally came for Sugar Ray to come out. And when they did, the crowd went crazy. A whole bunch of teeny boppers and trashy college girls tried to make their way in front of Jayma and me but we stood our ground and didn't give up an inch. Some girl kept tapping me and asked if I would let her in front of me since she was shorter. I ignored her request. Not because I wanted to be a jerk but b/c I knew if I let her in, all of her friends would soon join her. Sorry, sweetheart, not this guy!!

Sugar Ray started off strong and never let up. They went through hit after hit. The band seemed to be really enjoying themselves, especially Mark McGrath. In between each song, he would joke around with the crowd and just do things to keep the party going. And that's exactly what it felt like: one big party. In between each song, DJ Homicide would spin some tune such as Journey's Don't Stop Believin' or GnR's Sweet Child of Mine to keep the crowd stoked. Mark even joked saying that they know Sugar Ray isn't as big as it was in the 90's and probably never be again. He said he just loved playing music with his boys and having a good time. And that's exactly what they did.

Here's the best part. Toward the end of the show, Mark McGrath wanted to invite two people to come on stage for a karaoke/dance off. He looked in the crowd and picked this guy to come up on stage. Then, he looked in our directions and pointed at Jayma and me. At first, I thought he wanted Jayma so we got her to the railing and the security guard lifted her on to the stage. Mark said that's not who he wanted...he wanted the guy in the Jet t-shirt, i.e. ME!! So Jayma was put back in the crowd and I was placed on stage.

Mark was standing on the stage, between this other guy and me. I was pretty nervous at this point. He asked us our name and where we were from. I said my name and said I was from San Antonio. I was afraid to say Illinois for fear of getting booed. HA! But it's not as if I was lying b/c I was from San Antonio that night. I got some cheers for that. Mark said he liked my shirt and told me to go wait on the side of the stage. When I got there, the stagehand said to me that I was going to be singing and dancing with Mark to House of Pain's Jump Around. The other guy was going to go first. Well, he didn't do that great a job.

When it came time for me to go, Mark came over and handed me the microphone. I don't know what hit me but I went nuts. I was jumping up and down, trying to remember the words to the song, running back and forth on stage. Let's just say I was really into it and so was the crowd. Once we were done, I finally saw Jayma in the see of people and I could see her giving me the "camera" sign. I forgot I had the camera in my pocket the entire time. So I got the camera to her and she was able to get some pics. After that, Mark pulled both of us to the front and had the audience voted who they thought was the winner. There was no doubt I was the clear cut winner. However, Mark being the nice guy he is gave us both a girl's tanktop (which I gave to Jayma) and a hug. In fact, I got to hug him a few times (sorry ladies!!).

As I left the stage, everyone kept asking me how it was up there. I was getting hi-5's and knucks from everyone!! I found my way back to Jayma and we listened to Sugar Ray close out the set with "Fly". After the show, people were coming up to us, giving me props and asking me how I liked it. Everyone kept telling me I was the winner.

After the crowd died down, we made our way to the souvenir table. There, I picked up a copy of the new Sugar Ray cd which I already downloaded a few months back. But I was glad to the actual cd. Jayma wanted to pick up a copy of Aimee Allen's cd. We didn't realize that she was there signing autographs. She asked Jayma her name and said that she loved it. In fact, she wanted to change her name to "Aima". I think she was a little drunk and/or something else but she seemed like a lot of fun. Plus she had tats on hers which made her really hot!!! We got a picture with her and finally decided to leave.

As we drove home, let's just say I was feeling pretty good. I was trying to think of people to call but everyone was asleep. Jayma fell asleep in the car so I had to navigate my way home. Thankfully, Brandi took my call and we talked the rest of the way home. We both had such a great night and this will go down as one of my most favorite concerts. And for those who know me, I have been to a lot of concerts!

Friday, August 21

2009-08-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

JOHN - So, before I talk about the Sugar Ray concert, I wanted to talk about I did at school Friday. That morning, all the teachers met in the library and were introduced to the custodial and lunch room staff. After that, Mrs. Pena (principal) went over some first-week requirements, especially all the paperwork students are needing to turn in. After that, we spent some time discussing expectations and consequences, especially regarding gum chewing. Most of the meeting dealt with school rules and things that most of the students already knew. We did focus on the dress code for both students and teachers. I was surprised to hear that our students are not allowed to wear shorts. Part of the problem is that girls will wear too short shorts. Teachers are not allowed to wear Capri pants but they can wear a skirt. Guys have to dress appropriately, i.e. khaki's, polo's, no sneakers, etc. One of the coaches said that all athletes are to have their shirts tucked in AND they will be wearing a belt. This garnered applause from the staff. I get the sense that the school takes great pride in how their students look and they try to avoid any problems with raging, adolescent hormones. And, yes, the school is air conditioned and quite comfortable.

After the meeting was over, the math department headed on over to Habernero's for lunch. It was not as good as La Bamba but better than Chipolte and Qdoba. Of course, I got me a yummy chicken burrito! That afternoon, Mrs. Schiebel and I added the finishing touches to our classroom. I spent an hour in the workroom using the cutting board. I didn't mind it so much except my back started to ache. Dang age!! But I just remind myself there could be a lot worse things I could be doing. Knowing that this is just part of the job makes it all the more worth it.

After that, I headed home to get ready for the Sugar Ray concert.

Thursday, August 20

2009-08-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

JOHN - This is going to be one of my shortest posts b/c Thursday was a lot like Wednesday but w/o the open house. Again in the morning, there were four seminars we had to attend and, in the afternoon, we continued to work in our classroom. There was really nothing exciting to report for Thursday.

When I got home, Jayma was still at school b/c she had her open house that night. So I was eating dinner alone. That's ok, it gave me time to do some work for Mrs. Schiebel, hit the pool, update the blog, and watch ESPN. I was pretty psyched to see Brett Favre decide to come back and play. I am not a Packers fan (RAIDER NATION RULZ!) but I do like to see an older guy like Brett doing something others don't think he should be doing. It's kind of how I felt before I decided to go back to school. So, Brett, you keep playing as long as you want!! I just wish you were doing it for the Raiders.

PICS: These are pics of Jayma's classroom.

Wednesday, August 19

2009-08-23T09:16:00.000-07:00

JOHN - For the next two days, school was going to be running the same way. In the mornings, each teacher had to attend four, 45-minute seminars. In the afternoon, we could go back to working in our individual classrooms. However, today, the 7th and 8th grade teachers were hosting an open house that night so it was going to make for a long day!

The seminars were pretty good. Each one focused on something different. PBS, the one that Mrs. Schiebel conducted and used my awesome powerpoint, was the first one I attended. It focused on student behavior and incentive program for students. It encouraged more positive behavior instead of focusing on the consequences of negative behavior. Plus, everyone seemed to enjoy my powerpoint and Mrs. Schiebel was sure to mention me each time!! Some of the other sessions I attended involved making the classroom more engaging, getting-to-know you activities and formative assessment. I took a little something away from each session and I think this is something each school should put on.

In the afternoon, Mrs. Schiebel and I scrambled to finish decorating the classroom for the night's open house. However, before all of that, we had to run over to Jayma's school and meet our student teaching coordinator, Margie Irwin. She is a nice lady who asked Jayma and I why we wanted to be student teachers. She seems very interested in us becoming successful teachers and I am excited to be working with her this semester.

After going home and changing and heading back to school, it was time for the open house. Here's how it worked. All of our first period students were to come to the classroom with their parents. At 7:00, the principal was going to come on the tv and introduce the administrative staff and counselors. She then went over a few things. After she was done, Mrs. Schiebel introduced herself and talked about the Survivor-themed classroom. She went on to explain some of the classroom expectations and some of the paperwork the parents need to fill out. Lastly, she introduced me and I had a chance to talk for a bit. I was little nervous talking in front of the parents but everyone was very welcoming. After about 20 minutes, the first period parents were dismissed and headed to their students other teachers' classrooms. Throughout the remainder of the night, I met a lot of my students' parents as they came in and out of the classroom. It was really cool to finally be meeting some of my students and this only got me more psyched to finally be teaching!!

After that, I went home and crashed. I think I only saw Jayma for 5 minutes that day.

PICS: Here are some more of my classroom.

Tuesday, August 18 - Convocation

2009-08-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

JOHN - For the second day of school, we spent the first part of the day in a few more meetings but, again, did more classroom set-up. Mrs. Schiebel was showing me where things were located, how to maneuver around the NISD website, looked at the curriculum, etc. Texas, unlike Illinois, has a set curriculum which can be a good and bad thing. For new and first year teachers, it gives you a clear outline as to what needs to be taught, when and how many days are supposed to be focused on a particular topic. However, there is not a lot of room to go outside the box. Mrs. Schiebel explained that even though the curriculum is set by the state, it's up to her how she wants to teach that curriculum. Hence why she is able to be creative in her classroom and do a them like Survivor. I think that is just one of those things that comes along w/ experience. I realize that as a future first-year teacher, I will still be learning a lot about curriculum, teaching and what I want to do with my classroom. And I am quite certain that my view and actions will change a lot over the course of that first year.

That afternoon, the entire school went to something called a convocation. What it is pretty much a rallying session put on by the district superintendent. We all had to wear our Rawlinson t-shirts and each got our archaeological hats. I didn't know this at the time, but this is a big deal and schools try to outshine and out cheer one another. One of the new teachers had to dress up as a cheerleader, pigtails and all. I am sure he loved that (he didn't seem to mind). Once we got there, it was quite the scene. We went to one of the local high schools and the place was roaring. All of the different schools were being represented and it was quite the party. The superintendent came out and gave a great speech. In between, some of the marching bands performed along with a true Texas fiddling group, dancers and cheerleaders. It was a Texas hoedown, for sure!! What's funny was that some of the teachers said it was a little more calm this year as compared to previous convocations. Since I had nothing to compare it to, I thought it was quite the party!! It definitely gets you pumped.

A couple of more notes about the convocation. NISD is the 37th largest school district in the nation. It's adding new schools (elementary, middle and high) every year. My school went on Tuesday along with about 10 other ones. Jayma's school didn't have theirs until Friday. Plus, there were about 3 or 4 convocations each day. That just goes to show you how many schools there are in this district. The pictures on here are ones Jayma took the day she went. As you can tell, it was a lot of fun.

After the convocation, we went to another school where we met w/ all the other middle school math departments. There, we went over the TAKS tests, which is a test that all students are required to take once a year. We went over the six most commonly missed questions and discussed why we felt the students may have missed them. I really enjoyed this because it gave me an opportunity to practice my math skills and discuss with the other teachers where students had problems. It was great to see how teachers bounced ideas off one another and looked at the math from a different viewpoint. Many of the problems focused around either geometry or specific concepts. Everyone agreed that those areas would need to be focused on more. Another thing was that the students were broken down by grade, socio-economic status, and whether or not they had any form of learning disability. This really helped us get a better grasp on where we need to focus our attention. Even though I am not a big fan of meetings, I really took a lot out of this meeting because we were starting to dig deeper in to where young adolescents have difficulty in math. Oh, I also won a door prize for our department. You're welcome!

ROOM UPDATE: Room is done but the kitchen table is a mess!

PICS: Pics of the convocation Jayma attended

Monday, August 17 - First Day of School!

2009-08-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

JOHN - I arrived at school and headed to the cafeteria. There, we had a half-day seminar over a great many things. It was neat how the room was set up. If you can imagine this, it was decorated to look like something out of an Indiana Jones movies. There was a tent set up, Egyptian-themed artifacts, the snakes from Mrs. Schiebel's classroom, and so on. The administrator's were dressed in khaki's as if there were about to go on an archaeological dig. And that was the theme throughout the week. It was something fun and it definitely sparked my interest.

Some of the items that were brought up for discussion included where Rawlinson placed in regards to its standardized tests. Each subject area and grade was discussed. I was impressed to see where Rawlinson placed in regards to the school district and the rest of the state. They seem to be performing at a high level. Many times, RMS placed first in some categories, especially math. This made me excited b/c I was going to be working with those same students. Then I realized I was going to be teaching them too and I got to thinking "I DON'T want to be the guy that brings their scores down"! Ha!!

After that, we participated in some fun little activities after we split up into our departments. Each department was given a word and had to link and compare to archeology and education. The math department's word was "discovery". So, using only straws and sticky notes and toothpicks, we created a little pyramid and placed our pharoah inside it. I came up with the name for our pharaoh which was "King Ra....Linson". Get it? Ra was the Egyptian sun god. Rawlinson is the name of our school. Nevermind!! Anyway, when it came time for our department to present, guess who was chosen to talk? Yup!! I was!! I was little nervous but I always seem to work well under pressure. I said something like we need to discover our students true potential. I also said that each child is a mystery, much like a pyramid. And once you discover them, you will unlock their true potential and find a treasure inside each one of them (I proceeded to lift the pyramid and show the King Ra). Yeah, I was a little cheesy but I don't care and I said what I felt. Sometimes, as a teacher, you just have to ad lib and speak from the heart. And that's what I did.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent with the math department. Mrs. Schiebel went up to our classroom and did some more work in there. All the teachers were given a homework assignment and had to have our first week's lesson plans in by the end of the week. Mrs. Schiebel worked on that while I did some other stuff around the room.

After school, I headed home and finally started working on the room!! I think Jayma and I also took a dip in the pool around 9 or so. So nice to jump in the pool, at night, and it be warm!

ROOM UPDATE: Most everything has been put away and/or moved to the kitchen table!

PICS: The pics were actually taken on Friday, August 21. They are of our classroom, all set up and ready to. There was a lot so I wanted to spread it out throughout the week. As you can see, I have a ISU Redbirds football helmet on my desk. Mrs. Schiebel, a graduate and huge A & M fan, will not allow me to bring in my UT helmet. Out of respect for her, I agreed but she said anything ISU was fine. Plus, it had the color red in it.

Sunday, August 16 - A Day at the Beach!

2009-08-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

JOHN - We decided that we were going to go to Corpus Christi today and enjoy a beautiful day at the beach. However, I agreed that I would help Mrs. Schiebel complete a powerpoint for a presentation she had coming up, so I had to make sure I got that done Sunday as well. Jayma said that I should bring me laptop and do it in the car on the ride over to C.C.!! Well, she didn't need to tell me twice.

We got everything packed up including some sandwiches, water, snacks, football, Frisbee, radio, etc. If we were making a day of it, we were going to do it right!! Jayma decided to take GIPS with us but I also grabbed some maps b/c GIPS and I weren't seeing eye-to-eye after the baseball game fiasco. However, GIPS got us right to C.C. with now problem. It was about a 2 hour drive and there wasn't a lot to look at between San Antonio and there. We saw a lot of ranches, moo cows, refineries but that was about it. Texas is a lot like Illinois because it's flat and when you drive through it, you're completely bored and want to nap. However, I didn't have time to sight see because I was busy working on the powerpoint, listening to Jayma sing!

Once we got to the beach, parked, we found our spot and hit the ocean. The sun was bright that day so we needed all the sunblock we could get. However, I wanted to work on this stupid farmer's tan that I have so I didn't put on as much as I probably should've. Needless to say, that came back and bit me. Or should I say, burned me!!

The ocean was nice and warm. It was a little brown but we didn't care. There was a nice breeze throughout the day which made it very tolerable to be laying out or in the ocean. We were surprised to not see so many "single" people out and about. To be honest, there were mostly families but we didn't care. We have a good time wherever we and whoever we go with!! I tried to teach Jayma how to throw a football but it may have been too windy to show her. Plus, once the ball got well, it wasn't even worth trying after that. We still played in the ocean and had a great time.

After awhile, I was getting worried that I was burning. Jayma said that I didn't look like I was getting any sun and not to worry too much. Once we left and I put a shirt on, I felt a little warm but nothing to worry about. We stopped at Whataburger for dinner and had a delicious hamburger. Whataburger is a fastfood franchise in Texas. You see them all over the place. I told Jayma we had to go just for the name alone. It reminded me of the movie, Good Burger, that Wes had me watch (good movie, BTW). Anyway, it was a good meal to end a great day. We got home and crashed. We seem to do that a lot but that sun does wear you out quickly. Had to get to bed early because school was starting the next day!!!

ROOM UPDATE: Yep, still haven't done anything. Well, I did a little before leaving but it was still in complete disarray!

Saturday, August 15

2009-08-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

JOHN - I had to be up early today because Rawlinson was having a teacher retreat which Mrs. Schiebel invited me to. It was an all day affair so I wasn't sure what to expect. When I arrived at the school and went into the library, I was surprised to see all the teachers there. In fact, I would say 90% of the teaching staff was there, raring to go.

Mrs. Schiebel took me around and introduced me to a lot of her fellow teachers as well as the administrative staff. Since I am not the best at remembering names, I knew I wasn't going to remember everyone's name that day. The one thing that I noticed was how pleasant and welcoming everyone was to me. Other teachers, who weren't in my grade or subject area, said that if I ever needed anything, to let them know. The entire environment felt all warm and fuzzy.

The retreat lasted until 4:00 PM that day. For the most part, I took a lot away from it and I was glad I accepted Mrs. Schiebel's invitation. Throughout the day, there were a lot of team building activities where you had to work together and get to know one another. Mrs. Pena, the principal, introduced all the new teachers (including me) at the beginning of the day. I was a little nervous but I cracked a joke about being from Normal and that seemed to break the ice. Even during breaks, other teachers would come up and introduce themselves and asked about ISU, Illinois and Maine (I had told them I lived there when I was younger). A lot of them seemed to have connections back in Illinois either in Chicago and even State Farm. It just goes to show you that we are now living in a small world!

Some of the team building activities included building a tent made of nothing but newspaper and tape. Another one required us to complete a maze, helping each other, but w/o the aid of talking. In between each activity, the activity would be discussed and reflected upon by everyone. This helped link everything we did to what was trying to be accomplished. This reminded me a lot of how Dr. Hatch taught his class. I liked how the activities were separated into random groups and then were required to work together to solve a problem. We had to step outside our comfort zones and learn to rely on each other's strengths. Which is a lot like how a middle school classroom should be taught. The purpose of all of these activities were to show us that students can work together to solve common problems and seek out answers to questions. Teachers do not necessarily have to give students the answers. If young adolescents are engaged in their learning, they are going to want to seek out the answers themselves. So, I may not remember everything that was discussed throughout the day. However, I can say that it help reinforce a lot of what I learned throughout my time at ISU (and ICC) and to see that it works everywhere, especially in San Antonio.

A couple other notes about the retreat: Everyone won a door prize, including me. Ironically enough, it was a $50 gift certificate to HuHot Mongolian Grill. I was just telling Jayma that I was crazing FlatTop and it turned out that HuHot was a stir fry restaurant. So guess where we went to dinner that night? Oh, I forgot to mention that the San Antonio Silver Stars mascot, came that morning to get the retreat started. It was a lot of fun. I was really impressed by the time and effort the administrative staff and other teachers put in to make this retreat a success. There seems to a good reported between the administration and teachers and it was shown that day. Any successful school needs EVERYONE to be on the same page if they want their students to shine. Rawlinson seems to reflect that exact sentiment.

Once the retreat was over, I headed home, showered and got ready for dinner at HuHot. Once we found it (I actually got us lost, not GIPS), we proceeded to have an outstanding dinner. If only Sara Bay was there to join us b/c I know how much she loves stir fry like Jayma and myself. After dinner, we did a little more shopping (you'd be surprised how much stuff you need to buy if you can only get so much stuff in a car). We went to Walmart and Jayma got a picture of me being goofy. After that, we went home and found a visitor on our patio door. After a few days of non-stop running around, we both crashed early.

Another tidbit...We saw this cute, little, fluffy, silver cat walking around meowing. Well, I decided to give it some milk b/c I thought it might be thirsty. Well, not the brightest thing to do b/c then the cat stayed outside all night and meowed. Of course, Jayma's bedroom is right next to the door so she may have heard the cat. Jayma didn't like the cat but we ended up naming it Allergy b/c she's allergic. We call it Allie for short. I wanted to take her in but Jayma said no. Allie had to go back home.

ROOM UPDATE: Day 3 and the room is still a mess and I am not unpacked all the way!

Friday, August 14

2009-08-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Friday morning, Jayma and I went to breakfast with my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Schiebel. We met her at Egg & I where her former ISU student teacher from fall 2008 was going to join us for breakfast. We had a great conversation about student teaching and Lisa gave us a lot of great tips regarding student teaching. Lisa just took a job in San Antonio, at another Northside school, and says that she loved S.A. enough to want to stay here. In fact, there are a lot of ISU alum running around down here in Texas. With the great starting salary and reasonable cost of living, especially for a growing urban environment, S.A. is a very enticing place to live.

Lisa showed us some of the work that was required during student teaching. At first we were a little intimidated bu she said that as long as you don't put stuff off to the end of the semester, it's not that bad. Jayma and I both agreed to not do that and work together to get our stuff done. Lisa also told me that Mrs. Schiebel is a great cooperating teacher and that she'll really push you to be the best teacher I can be. I am excited about that because I want to be pushed b/c I know that the main purpose of my visit here is to student teach. That's my #1 priority. As much fun as I know we are going to have while down here, my job is become a better teacher. And it sounds as if I have the best teacher to help me accomplish that goal.

At the end of breakfast, Mrs. Schiebel reminded me of the teacher retreat on Saturday. I didn't have to come, it was only for teachers but she said that I would be more than welcome to attend. As much as I wanted to hit the pool, I accepted her invitation. I wanted to get to work on student teaching and didn't want to start saying "no" to things. It's important for student teachers to remember that school isn't just a 7 to 4 job. There are meetings and meetings and meetings. On top of that, there are seminars, conferences, games, dances and other things and you have to be willing to go to those things. If you start saying no now, you will be in for a rude awakening when you actually get your first teaching job. Plus, most of the time, they are a lot of fun! So go, support your school!!

After breakfast, Jayma and I met Lynn who took us clothes shopping. We weren't familiar with all the shopping centers so Lynn took us all over. We hit Old Navy and a few other places. Some of the big malls here are The Rim and La Cantera. La Cantera is awesome and this is coming from a guy who hates to shop (right, Lora?!). But it's designed like an outdoor mall and it's just very clean and fun. You have to go there to understand.

For a late lunch, we stopped at Rudy's, home of the Best Worst BBQ in Texas!! And they lived up to their name. We had a little bit of everything: pork, chicken, beef....hhhhmmmmmggoood! Jayma kept saying that this was a place that her dad would love so if they come down for Thanksgiving, we are taking them there.

Once we got home, we were a little beat but we definitely wanted to hit the pool for the first time. So, we got our swim gear prepped and put on our flippy floppies and headed to the pool!! I had to work on my farmer's tan!! Ha!! Everyone down here is so tan and I am whiter than Casper! I guess I will have to work on that.

After a few hours at the pool, we headed home and crashed for the evening! Just so everyone knows, by this time, Jayma's room is completely organized and I haven't really started. But I haven't been home long enough to get it done. ARGH!

Thursday, August 13

2009-08-21T15:22:00.001-07:00

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!

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!

Heading South - Day 2

2009-08-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

JOHN - I woke up pretty early on Wednesday morning, raring to go. Jayma was in the other bed sleeping away so I didn't want to bother her. So, I got up, showered and went down for my complimentary breakfast. Well, it wasn't the best breakfast but it did have Froot Loops and orange juice, so I was a happy camper. Since I am a gentleman, I grabbed some muffins, cereal and orange juice and took it to Jayma. Talk about service!!

After Jayma ate, got dressed and all packed up, we checked on the times to see when the Action Figure Museum opened. We wanted to get past Dallas by 3:00 PM b/c that's when their rush hour starts. And from everything I have heard, Dallas has some of the worst rush hour traffic in the nation. However, I still wanted to see the museum and I talked Jayma into going.

We arrived at the Action Figure's Museum and it was everything I thought it could be. In fact, it is every boy's dream and every fanboy's heaven. Truth be told, the only difference between this museum and heaven is that the action figures would actually talk in heaven!!

There were action figures ALL over this museum. One display, the largest one, was set up like a boy's bedroom and there were figures all over the place. We are talking hundreds of figures on the wall, floor, under the bed...everywhere. You name it, it was there. Everything from Superman to Popeye to KISS to The Simpson's to Gremlins to Freddy Krueger to He-Man to Barbie to Godzilla and even one of my all-time childhood favs...Silver Hawks. This display looked just like my childhood bedroom, just on a much larger scale.

After we left that display, we walked throughout the museum. There was a G.I. Joe display, a Batcave that had all things Batman-related, some Star Wars displays, a toy room for toddlers and a WWII battle scene. Not only were there action figures, there were lots of pics, drawings by local artists, movie posters and even a Spider-Man pinball machine!! If you love toys or comics or you just want to see something out of the ordinary, I highly recommend you visit the Action Figure's Museum in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. Just remember, if we didn't get lost way back in St. Louis, we never would have made it there!

After we left Paul's Valley, we started our journey south towards Texas. Once we crossed the border, we stopped at this amazing tourism center and grabbed ourselves some local maps and brochures. We also got some pics of us next to this cool Texas-shaped piece of granite. We were finally in our state!!!

Once back on the road, things were pretty unexciting until we reached Austin. Thankfully, we missed the Dallas traffic but we ran into Austin's rush hour. 35, the interstate we were taking, goes right through Austin and so we go stuck and weren't moving. And when we did, traffic was very sloooooooowwww!! However, I did get a good look at the Longhorns' stadium and knew I was going to be there in a few weeks. It didn't help that there was some pretty heavy rainfall and really close lightning! After finally getting through that Austin traffic, we proceeded towards San Antonio and the last part of our looooong drive.

We arrived in San Antonio around 8:30 and drove over to Jayma's mother's cousin's house. There, we met Lynn, her husband Jim and Irene. We had a delicious home cooked meal and received our keys. Lynn was nice enough to have picked up our keys for us so we were anxious to get to our new apartment.

We got to our new apartment and Irene was nice enough to help us unpack. Thankfully, our apartment was nice and clean and all of the furniture was here. That was nice because we were really tired and I think we wanted to get some sleep.

One of the final things we had to unpack were our bikes. We found that we had a little closet off our porch and decided to put our bikes in there. I decided to hand Jayma the bikes, over the rail, and then she'd place them in the closet. Well, as I was standing in the grass (I had sandals on), my feet immediately started to burn. At first I thought I had stepped in some poisonous grass or something. But after a few seconds, it really started to hurt. I ran to a lighted area, looked down, and noticed little red ants all over my feet. I immediately ran inside, jumped in the tub and washed my feet off. But it was too late, the damage had been done. The little fire ants had bitten me about 20 times!!

Since we got our second wind, we decided to put a lot of stuff away. In fact, Jayma got most of her room set up. I, on the other, gave up after a couple of hours and fell asleep on the couch, watching tv. Plus, my feet were hurting!!

All in all, it was a long two days of traveling but we saw some great things and we were finally at our new home! Now, the real fun stuff begins!!

Heading South - Day 1

2009-08-20T16:51:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Since I was staying in Normal Monday night, at my old apartment, and Jayma was at her parents, we agreed to meet in Lincoln around 8:00 AM. If Jayma came to B-N, it'd be going out of her way so we felt that Lincoln was the easiest place to meet up. However, Jayma was (SHOCKING!) running a little late so I decided to keep on moving to Springfield where we met at a hotel parking lot. We talked, compared notes, came up with a game plan, looked at the map and got moving.

One thing to know, Jayma and I did NOT come up with a route until the morning of our departure. In fact, it wasn't until we met in the parking lot where we finally decided on a specific route! As you can see, we are not the best planners. Thankfully, my wonderful Aunt Cindy went to AAA and got us a ton of maps and books as well as detailed directions. However, even after all of that, Jayma wanted to go by what her GPS said and so I finally agreed to follow her. But as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men...

When we got to St. Louis, we were supposed to continue south on 55. Somewhere in the mess that is the Missouri Highway system, we missed our turn-off and ended up on 44W. We called each other on the phone and pulled over somewhere in St. Louis. I immediately got the atlas out and AAA's directions. AAA recommended that we head west on 44 and go through Oklahoma which contradicted the GPS (the GPS wanted us to go south through Missouri and west through Arkansas). After a quick conversation, Jayma and I agreed that we were going to take 44W because it seemed the most direct and easiest to follow. Let me just say, thank you for happy mistakes!!

As we drove through Missouri, I never realized how hilly it was. It wasn't the most beautiful of states (as if Illinois is, right?) but it was good to be traveling through Cardinal country. Once we got to Oklahoma, we had to pay a $4 toll. The one thing we found surprising about 44W while in OK was that there were not exits. I think we drove for well over an hour before we saw any kind of exit. We got through Tulsa and stopped for gas and potty break. By the way, the exit toll costs $2, as well. Since it was about 4:00 PM, we decided that since Oklahoma City was so close, we'd go see the OKC Memorial. We are so glad we did.

We arrived at the OKC Memorial around 6:30. It was pretty warm but the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. OKC's rush traffic was nil so getting into the city was pretty easy. It's not as big a city as I believed but it seemed pretty clean and easy to travel through. We went to the Memorial and it was quite the sobering experience. If you've never been there, I highly recommend you take the time to see it. It's a beautiful tribute to all the innocent lives lost on that fateful day in April 1995. Seeing the chairs represent a life lost in the explosion was heart wrenching. Once I saw the lone tree that survived the blast, I became filled with emotion. I told Jayma that this tree represented life and not death and it's purpose was to inspire people. This experience was very moving and it's an important part of American history. The 9/11 tragedy has seemed to overshadow this but I really believe every American should visit this Memorial.

After we left the Memorial and grabbed some McD's, we decided we were pretty tired and wanted to stop for the night. We looked at the atlas again and decided we were going to drive one more hour and then stop for the night. We looked at the map and decided that Paul's Valley looked like a decent sized town and that's where we were going to lay our heads for the evening.

On the way to Paul's Valley, I saw a billboard that said "Largest Action Figure Museum in Paul's Valley." Well, I am sure you can guess what I asked Jayma the minute we parked? That's right, we were going to the Action Figure Museum the very next day!!

We got a room at the Day's Inn, cranked up the A/C and fell asleep after a couple of showers. We were a little stinky from sitting in our cars all day long!! Needless to say, we fell asleep pretty quickly! We knew we had another long day ahead of us but we had already completed more than half our journey!

The Journey to Texas begins...

2009-08-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Once Jayma and I got all of the important details made (apartment, school, teacher), we decided that we would leave for San Antonio on Monday, August 10. The week before, we had a going away party (or should I say parties) in both Bloomington-Normal and Peoria. We got to say goodbye to our family, friends, and co-workers. I was leaving two jobs (Hile Group and Acme Comics) and my awesome apartment that I shared with Dennis, so I was a little sad. However, I was anxious to start heading south. But, I hit a little snag.

As I was moving stuff back to Metamora, I started to hear a loud, grinding sound come from my car. This was occurring the Saturday before I was to leave. I immediately took it over to Goodyear and said they wouldn't get a chance to look at it until Monday. Since the grinding sounded pretty severe, I opted to schedule the appointment and notify Jayma of my vehicle problem. She was fine with it and, in fact, was happy to have the extra day to pack and say her goodbyes.

Thankfully, all that was wrong was a brake caliper was loose and they tightened it. They also replaced a valve stem on one of my tires. After all that, they ended up charging me NOTHING!! Needless to say, I was ecstatic. With the car fully operational again, I was ready for our Tuesday take-off.

Why San Antonio? WHY NOT!!!

2009-08-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

JOHN - Over a year ago, I was sitting in one of my C & I classes, and Dr. Hatch came in to talk to the class about student teaching. Even though I was more than a year away from starting it, he wanted all of us to give some thought on where we'd like to student teach. He mentioned South Dakota on an Indian reservation, England (for El. Ed. majors) and San Antonio. Well, I was immediately intrigued by San Antonio because I have always wanted to spend some time there. Plus, I am a huge Texas Longhorns football fan (Hook 'em Horns!!), so I thought that this was the ideal opportunity for me to finally go to a home game. When the time came to make a decision on where to student teach, San Antonio was the only placed I even considered. After talking with Margie Irwin and her talking-up the program, I became very excited. When I found out Jayma wanted to go too, that made my decision even more concrete.

One thing to note: I was not scheduled to student teach until spring 2010. However, when Jayma told me of her interest, I decided to take more classes, a couple of mini-mesters and summer courses so I could join her in fall 2009. I am happy with my decision and am loving it here so far.

Another thing: I am using this blog to promote this opportunity and to encourage other future student teachers to consider coming to San Antonio. In another post, I will discuss cost of the apartment, travel time from Illinois, and cost of living here in San Antonio. I hope ISU will continue to showcase San Antonio as an exciting opportunity. It sure as heck beats student teaching in Naperville!!