Day 177 May 24, 2023 Graduation Day

This is the completion of my official retirement blog. I did exactly what I said I would do. I have a story for every student contact day. I will be branching out a little bit because I still have many stories to share.…

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 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 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 56 November 7, 2022 Balloons & Golf Balls

One of the joys of working at Rangeview was the Business Department team. Cindy, Rob, Tom, and Ingrid were a joy to work with. We had fun and still were leaders in the building. None of us took ourselves too seriously and enjoyed the relationships with the students.…

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 49 – October 27, 2022 Sharing Ideas

Today I landed in Orlando, Florida getting ready to present at the PLTW Summit for the next three days. I have been to many conferences in the last 30 years. This weekend will be the last one as an APS teacher.…

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 40 – October 6, 2022 Work Wife

Usually, businesses and other organizations make sure not to have spouses working together. In our case at Montview, we were looking to hire a special education teacher. My principal asked me if it was okay to hire my wife away from the private school where she was working at the time.…