I want to take some time and do some stories from my years in theatre and performing arts. I mentioned very early in this blog that I got into the Theatre Department because the principal in my interview talked about the activities I did in high school.…
Day 140 March 31, 2023 Clean Uniforms
The graphic for today should say everything. Mothers have always hated white baseball pants. I have told my players to have a practice pair of pants and then game pants. It just made it easier. We played on a field that was rough on uniforms.…
Day 139 March 30, 2023 Under The Base
Field conditions in high school run the gambit from perfect to perfectly horrible. One game where I was able to make the umpire laugh so hard that he forgot to yell at me. We were playing a game against Bruce Randolph in Denver.…
Day 138 March 29, 2023 I’m Outta Here!
Working with umpires is a delicate balance between diplomacy and losing your mind. I need to say that the overwhelming majority of the umpires we have had were outstanding and did their job well. There were times that I didn’t agree with them but that is to be expected in a game.…
Day 137 March 28, 2023 Access-a-Ride
One of the challenging parts of coaching a high school sport is working with umpires or other officials. Before I get too deep into a couple of stories I need to preface my comments with the fact that I was only tossed from a game once in all of my years of coaching.…
Day 136 March 27, 2023 Hat Direction
Successful coaches often have things that are non-negotiable in their program. Mine was the direction of the hat. I am a believer that the athlete represents his team, his program, his school, his family, his community, and himself. Respect for all of those folks is paramount for me.…
Week 29 Musical Interlude
A sad look at nostalgia from Bruce Springsteen. I don’t visit Lakewood much but it has changed so much that I wouldn’t recognize it. It does remind me of something I said as we were planning the 30-year high school reunion.…
Day 135 March 24, 2023 Skittles
A snack bar is a favorite place for spectators during a game. We made some good money for our program when selling snacks and soda. Players can even indulge between the first and second games of a doubleheader. I have had many hotdogs and Snickers bars between games, but not much during a game.…
Day 134 March 23, 2023 Devon Watts
The goal of every coach is to have a kid who throws with good velocity, and movement, and can disguise his pitches. We all make them pitchers and if they are left-handed we are in heaven. One year I had a kid named Devon.…
Day 133 March 22, 2023 It’s A Canales
The game of baseball is a love affair and not just a sport. I am one of those that hold the game sacred. I am an old-school guy and am still grumbling about the designated hitter. “If the pitcher ain’t hitting, it ain’t baseball.”…
Day 132 March 21, 2023 – Exchange Relationships
This will be my last post about the German Exchange for a while. This one I am writing this one now instead of using a previously published story.
Relationships are the most cherished memories from the exchange. The friends I have made make me long for a return visit.…
Day 131 Spring Break Extra – Match 20, 2023 – Final Thoughts
This was the final post from 2009. I will have a couple of more later in the year but this covers the serious and important stuff. I will talk about an American Consulate Guard almost shooting me and a French Monkey later!…
Week 28 Musical Interlude
I have been a Billy Joel fan and this is a look back at high school for both of us.
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Day 130 Spring Break Extra – March 17, 2023 Farewell Dinner
This is the post after visiting the Graduation Ceremony for the Heimschule Lender.
June 28, 2009
Last night we had the chance to see the ceremony for the students that have successfully completed the Arbitur. It is the test for school completion in Germany.…
Day 129 Spring Break Extra – March 16, 2023 Europa Park
June 24, 2009
Did I mention that I am afraid of heights? Yesterday we went to Europa Park. I had a chance to ride three of the 5 roller coasters. The other two had very long lines and we were in one for a while but it was over an hour wait for them.…
Day 128 Spring Break Extra March 15, 2023 Travel & Leipzig
Another post from our trip in 2009. Leipzig was a great adventure and our time there was memorable beyond belief. To walk in the steps of history was humbling.
July 03, 2009
Our next adventure was to get from Achern to Leipzig and to our next destination.…
Day 127 March 14, 2023 – Spring Break Bonus German Theatre
Theatre at the Heimschule Lender
Another post from our exchanges. This one is from the theatre show we saw put on by the students.
Last night I had the honor of attending a performance of a student musical at the school.…
Day 126 March 13, 2023 – Spring Break Bonus Berlin
Berlin – 2009
I am doing some blogs from our German Exchange. Here is our first trip to Berlin.
The next day we tried again with the train and it worked perfectly. Well almost! The trip there was perfect but on the way back the next adventure began.…
Week 27 Musical Interlude
This one is done on spring break but I have so many I can’t afford to miss a week. I have been lucky in my classes to have students that have gone on to do great things. Many will not be celebrities but they will be famous in their world.…
Day 125 March 10, 2023 – Spring Break Bonus Bodensee
Bodensee
I am adding blog posts from my trips to Germany for the exchange. This story is about our trip to the Bodensee 2014
Thursday morning we left for the Bodensee with all of our students and our hosts. It was an experience in public transportation.…
Day 124 March 9, 2023 Struthof Camp
Of the trips I have taken, this was the hardest day. We went to the Struthof Concentration camp. Prisoners here worked at a quarry about a kilometer away. The post was short but the pictures were more powerful. I have added a link to the website for further information.…
Day 123 March 8, 2023 A German Walk
I love to walk and enjoy nature and sites. I was to learn that a walk in Germany means something completely different. Here is a post I did in 2009:
June 22, 2009, By: Randy Mills I was informed this morning of what is considered a short German walk.…
Day 122 March 7, 2023 Viva La France!
This is a post from the 2009 trip. It was a day in Strasbourg France. It hit all the right spots: food, international politics, and my fear of heights!
June 17, 2009 By: Randy Mills
Monday, June 15th found us in Strasbourg, France.…
Week 26 Musical Interlude
This is a beautiful love song but because he is the professor, it is wildly inappropriate.
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Day 121 March 6, 2023 Prague
Another blog post from the 2009 Exchange. This was a visit to Prague in the Czech Republic.
July 06, 2009, By: Randy Mills
Prague is an ancient and historic city. We roamed buildings that had their origin in the 880s. A couple of hundred years before the Vikings traveled toward North America.…
Day 120 March 3, 2023 Bodensee
Another post from the 2009 German Exchange about our trip to the Bodensee:
June 16, 2009 By: Randy Mills: Thursday morning we left for the Bodensee with all of our students and our hosts. It was an experience in public transportation. We first caught a train to Friedrichshofen to stay at a Jungendherberge.…
Day 119 March 2, 2023 School Days
We are getting to the end of the quarter and like the students, I am going to recycle some stuff. This is a post from our first German exchange talking about the school.
Our next big adventure was to attend school with the students.…
Day 118 March 1, 2023 Lunch Time
There is nothing that compares to a school lunch. I remember back to the pizza day or even better the cinnamon roll day. Those were our favorites. I still long for corn with my pizza because that was how it was paired in school.…
Day 117 February 28, 2023 My Overseas Office
As an American teacher, I am used to having an office for my job. I loved my desk in the business office and it was a place to relax and not be stressed for a short time. It was very important until it was taken from us a couple of years ago.…
Week 25 Musical Interlude
This is one of my favorites. Charlie Brown by the Coasters. This was my life in school.
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Day 116 February 27, 2023 My Best Friend
The relationships you develop over the course of an exchange are lasting. Dawn and I have developed a relationship with our German counterparts over fifteen years. It is a bond that goes beyond just partners for academic activity. We have spent a great deal of time with many teachers over the years but we have a family that we are especially close to and have contact with until this day.…
115 February 24, 2023 Exchange Hosting
The Greman Exchange program has been a highlight of my teaching career. Your first question might be if I know the language. The simple answer is no. It is much more complicated than a simple answer. I could survive but not for too long.…
Day 114 February 23, 2023 Kazakhstan
I am going to start doing some stories from our part of exchanges at Rangeview. Bud Blauer & Patrice Dovas-Hudson had very strong programs. Bud had a school in Kazakhstan to support the Russian language program. I loved having the students in my classroom every year and as a result, I received one of the most prized souvenirs of my teaching career.…
Day 113 February 22, 2023 Bouncing Laptop
I was listening to the Barry McGuire song, The Eve of Destruction, and thinking about anger as a part of teaching. I have over the years had moments of frustration but I only think I was angry at a student a couple of times in my career.…
Day 112 February 21, 2023 Everybody Does It
Teaching tools make our lives easier. If it is the EZ-Grader that gives percentages based on the number of questions to interactive whiteboards These tools can be very handy and I started with the Apple Network Administrator Toolkit (ANAT.) It allowed me to monitor students and when students started the machine, it cleared everything from before and gave them a clean image.…
Week 24 Musical Interlude
1984 saw the release date of the movie Teachers. If you haven’t seen it, I relate well to the character played by Richard Mulligan.
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Day 111 February 16, 2023 Cheaters Sometimes Prosper
When I talk to some of my CybperPatriot competitors about the National Finals, they only think of one school. I think one of the hardest things to do as a teacher is to instill a sense of values and the importance of fair play and have it proven that sometimes cheaters get ahead.…
Day 110 February 15, 2023 – Multimedia
I have the had the pleasure of being on the forefront of technology in schools. I did several posts early about the technology I was using in elementary school. In high school we had the chance to explore and create. I started when the multimedia class was PowerPoint and all of the things you could do with it.…
Day 109 February 14, 2014 Valentines Day
St. Valentines Day. A day of love, fun, and romance. The single most important romantic advice I give to students is: “Your future spouse is not currently attending Rangeview!” The hope was that students understand that the vast majority of high school romances end and that there is more out in the world other than Rangeview.…
Week 23 Musical Interlude
This song doesn’t talk about school specifically but does talk about the joy of September when school started. It also speaks to aging and I know that in the December of my career I am enjoying the return to earlier times.…
Day 108 February 13, 2023 – War Games
The title for today is a slight throwback to my elementary days but it is worth the story. In 1999 long before 9/11 changed how the government and secure sites handled things, I got to attend a 4-day workshop. The workshop was sponsored by NASA and held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.…
Day 107 February 10, 2023 – CyberPatriot 2010
CyberPatriot changed my career in many ways. That first group was an amazing year. None of us knew what we were doing. The students, mentor, and I were not sure how to train. We did it every Wednesday afternoon for a couple of hours.…
Day 106 February 9, 2023 – New Adventures
I tell my students that high school is a time to try a lot of different things. In my own high school days I was involved with sports, theatre, vocal music, and the speech team. As I look at my friends from over the years they encompass all of those groups and more.…
Day 105 February 8, 2023 I See You
During the Presidential Inaugural in 2009, there were millions of people on the National Mall and the surrounding areas. At this same time, our DECA chapter was starting some new businesses as a part of the class. They had all kinds of clothing, scarves, and jackets.…
Day 104 February 7, 2023 Inaugural Parade
With the crowds at the 2009 Presidential Inaugural, It was important to plan, scout, and choose wisely. I don’t want to hear any argument about crowd sizes but I know I was in a big crowd. Me and 2 million of my closest friends.…
Week 22 Musical Interlude
A little advice from James Brown in 1967.
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Day 103 February 6, 2023 – Bad Fish
I have been lucky in my career to travel to Washington DC several times with students. I started the stories last week of the 2009 Inauguration trip. Today I tell the story of what can go wrong on a trip. From the title you can probably guess where this is headed, We are still not sure if it was the fish but I am a believer.…
Day 102 February 3, 2023 – Toilet Paper
BRING TOILET PAPER AND HAND WARMERS. It is not often that you see a headline like this. In 2009 we had a group of students attending the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC. The trip had been planned for many months without regard to who the winner would be.…
Day 101 February 2, 2023 – RHS Rattlers
Rangeview has been good to me for over 20 years and I live by the motto “Once a Raider, Always a Raider.” We are a Raider family. Dawn, my wife, works in the Special Ed. department and my daughter graduated from here in 2010.…
Day 100 February 1, 2023 – Student Activism
It is fitting that the students sometimes are our best leaders. One of my memorable experiences is student activism. I was happy to be a part of the Black Lives Matter Protest a few years ago. It is also fitting that the date was 2 days before the Juneteenth celebration.…