Kids are much more observant than we sometimes give them credit for. I have a short story but the picture tells the whole story. This was not one of my students. I happened to be walking by this young man during finals week on his way to class.…
Category Archives: Education
Day 95 January 25, 2023 – Shout Key
This story happened to Ingrid from my department but it is too good not to include. When I first started at Rangeview we taught computer applications which was the Office Suite. We also taught keyboarding. At this time we also had a graduation requirement of Practical Arts and our department counted for that.…
Day 94 January 24, 2023 – Trash Homage
Today is my birthday post. With that in mind, let’s talk trash. One of the joys of teaching is seeing the artistic skills of some students. I casually was speaking of how the big new trash cans we got were bland.…
Day 93 January 23, 2023 – What Toaster?
Reverse engineering is an integral skill for my students in engineering class. We spend a few weeks on this task. We learn about the elements & principles of design. We do a visual analysis of a product and then do a functional analysis.…
Day 92 January 20, 2023 – Home Advantage
My daughter was a captain of the girl’s swim team in her junior and senior years. She was the one to greet the opposing team and captains before the meet. Her favorite story was to tell the other team that they were swimming in thirty-year-old water.…
Day 91, January 19, 2023 – Marching Band
The sights and sounds of a high school are sometimes the most amazing sounds you can hear. I live in the community where Rangeview is located. From my bathroom window, I can see the school. One of my most vivid memories during the summers was the Marching Band.…
Day 90 January 18, 2023 – Mile 342
342 is an important number to Rangeview and almost everyone who passes by the sign has no idea what it means. The number changed how the building and external amenities were placed on our site. Rangeview has one of the smallest land footprints in the state for a 5A high school.…
Day 89 January 17, 2023 – Little Dots
Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. holiday so I have a short week. One of the great mysteries at Rangeview is
the white dots on the walls on the first floor. Most people go through their entire 4 years as a student and don’t know they are even there.…
Day 88 January 13, 2023 – Fun with TSA
I did a story about TSA on day 87 so I might as well keep it rolling. We went to the Presidential Inauguration in 2009 and took a group of students. It was a fun time and a chance to witness history.…
Day 87 January 12, 2023 – Cheez Whiz
Airports became a serious matter after 9/11. Before that time you could have fun at the airport security lines without anyone going crazy. 9/11 changed that and made simple airport security much more of a serious gauntlet. Now we must know a bunch of rules and be on the right side of the law or things will be confiscated and destroyed if they do not meet the standards.…
Day 86 January 11, 2023 – Parking Lot Duty
I mentioned in my last post about being a class sponsor. There are several more stories about that role but I want to share a quick one. I did not realize that we were a little better off than the elementary school I started with.…
Day 85, January 10, 2023 – No ID?
Being a class sponsor for the freshmen and seniors over the years was a blessing and a curse. I loved working with the kids and doing big projects and making the school better for everyone. One experience was to be at all of the dances over the years.…
Day 84 January 9, 2023 – Burgers Anyone?
A large part of my experience at Rangeview has involved travel. All over the country and Europe. One of my favorites was traveling to Disneyland with the student leadership group. Disneyland has a wonderful leadership academy and ran a good program that taught the fundamentals of leadership.…
Day 83 January 6, 2022 – My Flag
I am a strong believer in our commitment to diversity at Rangeview. We have been a No Place For Hate designated school by the ADL for many years. One of our added pieces is the Diversity Week we have every year.…
Day 82 January 5, 2022 – Quit Teaching
I am going to recycle a post I did several years ago. It is a post about tragedy but also about why I teach and accept the good and the bad.
…
We were given the question at an in-service about the day that we wanted to quit teaching.
Day 81 January 4, 2023 – Flying Cars
The story for today isn’t about my time at Rangeview. It is about my time at Vivian Elementary in Lakewood growing up. As we pass into the year 2023 I am reminded of how far away the year 2000 is. It is as far from my high school graduation as the year 2000 and I remember thinking about how far off that was.…
Day 80 December 15, 2022 – Winter Break
Last day before break. This is a bittersweet day. I am tired and need the break but I know that after three days I will be chomping at the bit. Vacations are a time to evaluate and prepare. The one lesson I have learned in thirty years is that no matter the planning, there will be things that change it and shuffle things.…
Day 79, December 14, 2022 Airplane Cockpit
This is a thank you and one a secret about our building. In Aurora, we have been lucky with the community passing bonds for school improvements. In my tenure in APS we have passed them all. I will later tell some stories about being on the committees that passed these bonds.…
Day 78, December 13, 2022 Wifi Highjacking
Being a computer teacher has its advantages. I often will get things before anyone else and get to try them out for others. Earlier in the blog, I spoke about the introduction of laptops to our itinerant staff and how we were unprepared for them as a district.…
Day 77, December 12, 2022 My Grade
This is the start of finals week and it is time to let the begging and pleading commence. I like to give production tests where a student creates something. It can be anything from a program, a cybersecurity incident report on an image, or a part and drawing in engineering.…
Day 76 December 9, 2022 Student Assessment
Teachers feel judged daily by students, parents, administrators, district administrators, the state board of education, state legislatures, and society as a whole. Nothing about that system is going to change. Teachers who spend countless hours railing against this are doing themselves and their students a disservice.…
Day 75 December 8, 2022 Power of Music
Music is one area that often gets a raw deal in education. I believe that music can tell the story of your life and can be a means of expression for people that are unable to in any other way.
Day 73 December 6, 2022 – Sharpshooter
When I started spending more time in Computer Science I spent a lot of time with another colleague in our department. Tom Fox had a programming background and taught our most advanced courses. I was lucky enough to take several professional development classes using Java when the AP CSA class moved from C++ to Java.…
Day 72 December 5, 2022 Strouse
If I am going to be honest, there is one person that I have spent many hours with that has been a big influence. Tammy Strouse has been a steady force at Rangeview for the entire time I have been there.…
Day 71 December 2, 2022 Binaca
Another department member was very influential and generous. Cindy Hope was a character and allowed me to do my first traditional business class with Management and Entrepreneurship. She ran the PACE class which allowed students to get credit for working. It wasn’t just a blow-off where you just had to turn in pay stubs.…
Day 69 November 30, 2022 – Bagota Buccaneers
Every now and then you run across a storyteller with exceptional skills. Rob Schurich was one of these in the Business Department when I got to Rangeview. His favorite courses were his law classes and a class he did for Intersession.…
Day 68 November 29, 2022 – Ingrid
We have just completed the Thanksgiving weekend and I will take this time between this and the winter break to be thankful for colleagues. I am a strong advocate of focusing on the students but colleagues build your environment and create or destroy a happy workplace.…
Day 67 November 22, 2022 Inclusion
Yesterday I told a story of inspiration from a student at Rangeview. Today I will tell the story of one of my students. We had a wheelchair-bound student with a deteriorating muscular disease. He was interested in art and graphic design.…
Day 66 November 21, 2022 – Inspirational Moment
It is Thanksgiving week and I thought it was time for a couple of inspirational stories. Today and tomorrow will be stories that still bring tears to my eyes because of the inspiring story of students. I remember my first couple of years and some of the kids we had.…
Day 65 November 18, 2022 Bumper Sticker
This is one of my favorite stories. This one is about someone else but is well worth sharing. Different people have different takes on things. I don’t put bumper stickers on my car because I keep those opinions to myself most of the time.…
Day 64 November 17, 2022 Employee 397
Our employee number is used for an immense amount of record keeping. The most telling is when we use it during employee meetings for staff development. When I give mine I am usually met with: “No honey, the 5 or 6 digit number you use for payroll.”…
Day 63 November 16, 2022 Cops, Robbers, & Idiots
I mentioned that I would go back to elementary now and then. Today is about a robbery down the street from Montview. The store was held up at gunpoint and the robber headed toward Montview. This was in the days before lockdowns and duck and cover, He crashed his car about a block from Montview and jumped out of his car, and ran toward our building.…
Day 62 November 15, 2022 Error Message
Derek was one of my favorite students when I first started at Rangeview. I worked with him in Theatre and had him in web design class. Derek had a sense of humor that matched mine. We were working on a project to create a website for a resort and had to have pages that covered the full gambit of a resort.…
Day 61 November 14, 2022 Campfires in Cyberspace
A teacher has a lot of choice in their environment. I did cause a little problem my first couple of years when I moved my room. The class was all in rows with the computer facing the front of the room.…
Day 60 November 11, 2022 After High School
I had an experience today that is special and I wanted to share it while I had it fresh in my mind. I believe that our job carries students into their lives and considers their dreams and aspirations. The last week or two are always my favorite.…
Day 59 November 10, 2022 Fuzzy Dice
One of the joys of teaching high school is the fun of putting students into real world settings. I got my first lesson when I had the Management & Entrepreneurship class. A third quarter assignment was to go through the process of creating a business.…
Day 58 November 9, 2022 Intersession
Intersession! This was one of the greatest ideas we ever had at Rangeview. Our principal felt that we needed something to spice things up a bit. It was also at a time when the first semester ended in January. It was a strange three weeks.…
Day 57 November 8, 2022 Wiring Techniques
Building improvements and retrofits are common in schools. Over the years we have had several additions and some remodeling. The two biggest have been additions and wiring retrofits. The wiring is the most important to me as a computer and business teacher.…
Day 55 November 4, 2022 Near-Sighted
I have been near-sighted for as long as I can remember. It was discovered in junior high school by a wonderful English teacher. John Glover discovered that when I sit in the back I just goofed off and was a class clown.…
Day 54 November 3, 2022 First Day at RHS
Starting at Rangeview was a new start and a new challenge. I was working with a new staff and learning new systems. The first thing I discovered was that a staff of almost 150 is very different from an elementary school.…
Day 53 November 2, 2022 Interview
Yesterday I talked about meeting Marc Stine at my Aunt Dorothy’s funeral and the winding way I put in for a transfer. Today is about the interview process. I had mentioned to my principal at Montview that I might not even get an interview.…
Day 52 November 1, 2022 High School?
I am moving into high school. I will still do an elementary story now and then but it is time to transfer to Rangeview High School. I will be using my experience in several areas as the basis for these stories.…
Day 51 October 31, 2022 Frog Fiasco
I have a few thoughts on teaching elementary that I want to share. This is my last post for my elementary years and I still have a ton of stories. I want to say that teaching for nine years in elementary was the best prelude to teaching high school.…
Day 50 October 28, 2022 Technology Leader
Accomplishments are important and I am a believer that if my accomplishments help others, I have been successful. In the mid-90s we were writing out report cards for every student. Your hands would cramp up and trying to find ways to say things briefly became an art.…
Day 48 – October 26, 2022 Financial Fiduciary
I am a big fan of planning. There exists a group of people that spend money like there is no end and that they will always have money. The other piece is that people often look at the new shiny toy and feel the need to have it.…
Day 45 – October 13, 2022 Sheltered English
I think every child ought to visit Disneyland. It really is the happiest place on earth. I have many stories about Disneyland and they will come up when I transition to high school. My first time at Disneyland was as a teacher at Montivew.…
Day 44 – October 12, 2022 Mentors
Teaching has given me the good fortune to meet many influential teachers over the last few years. One of my favorites was meeting and talking to Donald Graves. Donald Graves was a leader in the reforming of writing. His books stand out as beacons of light as a way to instruct young writers.…
Day 43 – October 11, 2022 Interview Intervention
It is not what you know but who you know. This will be a repeating theme in my story. On September 6 or Day 18, I spoke about getting hired. This is about the interview before getting hired. The first time I encountered this was while getting hired at Montview.…
Day 42 – October 10, 2022 Chrysalis not Cocoon
Opportunity and flexibility are important in elementary classrooms. Too many teachers teach their lesson plans and often don’t teach their students. You sometimes have to seize an opportunity and let the planned lesson fall by the wayside. These are often the best learning days.…
Day 41 – October 7, 2022 Thematic Phones
In the words of that great philosopher Kermit: “It isn’t being green.” Most elementary teachers use themes to enhance their rooms and build the sense of family. My first few years saw me use a frog and green theme. It was at this time that cell phones were starting to become more common.…