Recent Events

Sorry for the lack of steady posts from me... Just a wee bit busy over here in wonderful south. (note hint of sarcasm)

Michelle spent a well deserved weekend with three of her all times best friends, in New Orleans to celebrate their 40th birthdays. All of them graduated together and have maintained close friendships since. They had a blast but I have yet to see any photo evidence.

The boys have been busy as usual here is a recap:
Evan-
Evan's recreational league team had a great season and were seated 2nd for the season ending tournament. Their record was like 6-2-0. They won the opening game and Evan had a breakout game scoring 16 of the teams 32. The semi finals were against a team they had lost to during the regular season. They played great and defeated them easily. Evan had another good game scoring 6 or so. The championship game was against the #1 seat who only had one loss and that was to Evan's team during the regular season. Unfortunately their point guard went totally in the zone and was able to rack up 23 points in the first quarter. This was done with people fouling him and always contesting his shots. They could not come back but did make up some of the points to make it a good game. We were proud of his team, they played as a team and had great chemistry.


Evan's city league team finished the season without a win and lost the first game of the tournament. They played it and their last regular season game against the same team. In the tournament they played great and almost won. Evan had to guard a boy that was 5'6" and was a year older. He had played him great in the previous game but in this one he got into foul trouble and fouled out in the forth quarter. That really stung because it was a close game and he has a lot of pride.



Evan was chosen for allstars for the rec league. His team played their regional tournament and came in runner up. His team received medals and also an invitation to the state tournament in Gadsden next weekend. We are ready to be finished with basketball but will likely let him go so his team can play some more. It will be a good experience for him.



Evan found out this week that his score on the written portion of his qualifying test was high enough for him to compete in the state geography B held locally (thank the lord) at Stamford University on I believe April 5th. His score had to be in the top 500 of students from around the state that won their school geography B. As a fourth grader he is quite pleased with his accomplishment and is not taking his job lightly. He has had his head in an atlas during much of his "free" time.

Evan was sick again for this years Shades Cahaba Owl Prowl 1 mile race. He came in second in second grade and has been sick the last two years. Bummer, hopefully next year he will get to see if he is still keeping up with the leaders. I believe he would be close.

Evan has started back to soccer. He has his same team with a couple of additions. They are a U10 (ten and under) club but will be playing up this year to get better competition. They will be playing local U11 clubs. His first games are in a few weeks.
It should be a great season, Evan continues to improve and is a skilled and formidable player. The move to U11 also means more players on the field and offsides will be called. Evan plays center mid and distributes many assists.


Ian-
Ian's basketball team came on strong toward the end of the season and finished 5-4. They lost their first tournament game to the team that won it all. He had fun and his game is getting better. It was not quite the experience we wanted for him but things can't always be perfect.



Ian is playing soccer and is on the same team that he had such a good season with last fall. He needed some continuity in this area so we are happy for him. It should be a great season, Ian is really getting better with this sport as well. He is a keeper clinic right now. Hopefully he will still get to spit his time between being keeper and forward.

Race Report - Ian was feeling better than Evan and was able to compete with his third grade class for a rainy 1 mile race. Ian ran a great race and finshed 5th among boys and 6th overall. He recently did a big project about Jessie Owens which helped him to run more relaxed and ignore the pain.






Ian is getting very good with both his piano, which he takes very seriously and playing guitar on RockBand, his Wii game. I am also quite good with the guitar.

Boys together
The boys had a great time playing in the snow when we received 3" last Sunday. They have both been reading a lot and playing with things like zoobs (a building toy). Evan got a nice bike for his birthday that he put in half for. It is a bigger (midsized) road bike. The weather is getting nicer so we should be going on some rides soon.

We have a few bright spots on the horizon....
We will be going to Edistow Island SC, near Charleston, to camp at the beach in about two weeks. This is over the last part of spring break. We also have a long weekend camping trip planned for Easter weekend to Vogel SP in N Georgia. We made some of our summer plans, getting camping reservations for GSMNP for late June. Michelle will be in Spain and France with students the first two weeks in June.
On top of all that we are considering taking new teaching positions in Auburn Al for next year. There is a digital photo position open at the high school and an english position at the middle school. It is a big decision but Auburn is a really great place and we still have friends there. It is a small town but the University brings in a lot of cultured people so there is plenty going on. The school system for the boys is one of the best in the state as is their soccer program. So we are being proactive about looking into the possibilities. I will keep you posted.

Erik-
I have had a rough year for many reasons at my school this year but have also had a lot of success. I had a student's work win 2nd place at the state superintendent's art show. I also just found out that I had student work win all three categories that I entered in the district art competition. Photography, digital art and printmaking. The work will now go on to be judged at the state show. It all has a great chance to win there. I have an article about to be published in the journal of professional libraries association (or something there abouts), called Knowledge Quest. The journal goes out to member librarians around the world, some 10,000. The article is about using web 2.0 tech in my class curriculum. The article turned out really well and as a bonus my students were asked to design the cover of the issue. The issue is about "social scholarships" and web 2.0. They liked all my student's submissions that they also printed all of the submissions in the journal as well as using the cover image. So it is good, I will not bore you with the "rough" aspects to the job, but someday I will fill you in.

So whew.... there I made up for my lack of posting. till next time....CHOP THAT WOOD!