There's No Way to Make Bleachers Comfortable

Tonight I sat on the bleachers at Bethany for over four hours.  Cam had a game against Lakeland and Meg had two against Central Noble.  No matter what I tried there was just no way to make those seats comfortable.  The ones in the middle school gym were the worst.  They were made out of plastic and just don't sit well.  I have noticed that a lot of schools have switch to those from wood ones.  I definitely was not a fan.  Fortunately, the majority of the night was spent in the main gym with the old style bleacher seats.  Both Meg and Cam's team came up on the short end tonight in the win column.  Meg earned high point honors for the junior varsity this evening, however.  It definitely reminded me of her middle school days.

Teacher Day

Friday was the end of the trimester, so today was a teacher work day.  I started at a math meeting at Wawasee High School.  It was supposed to be a vertical planning session, but it didn't feel overly productive.  Our group tried to stay on task, but others decided to follow their own agenda.  It helped to ask our 7th and 8th grade teachers questions about their standards and rules in their classroom, but I was glad when the meeting was over.

I spent the afternoon working in my classroom. This year has been challenging because of the number of students in 6th grade.  We have over 80 right now and this has typically been the time of year when we get a lot of move-ins.  I have found it difficult to manage that many students and continue to hep them grow academically.  I appreciate that my own children do not have to be in classrooms of this size.  Cam's entire grade was only 29 students to start the year and they have two of sections for each subject.  Thus, he rarely has more than 15 in a class.  Meg's class sizes have pretty much been the same as well.  All educational studies have shown that the best way to improve education would be to reduce class size.  Most agree that twenty-two should be the maximum a teacher should have to run a classroom effectively.  I would love to see that implemented in our district.

Leaves and More Leaves

Today Doug spent the majority of the day working on the yard.  It looked as though most of the leaves were down and he made a huge dent in them today.  I wish I could have been more helpful, but I have never been great at the leaves.   Without soccer I thought he would have more time, but his workload at Renegade has picked up tremendously since August.  I did appreciate what he got done today as the yard looked a lot better.

I spent my day working on laundry, giving haircuts and cleaning the kitchen.  Lately, I have felt that I overwhelmed with our daily schedule.  Basketball has added quite a bit to our plate.  My classes at school are the largest that I have ever taught.  Those two items combined along have made it a lot more challenging for me to keep up with it all.

Can't Win Them All

Cam spent his morning and early afternoon at Bremen elementary playing in a chess tournament.  He started off slower than normal and ended up finishing in the middle of the pack.  He was disappointed with his first loss, but overall was glad to have the experience.  Evan and JJ were there and Cam enjoyed hanging out with them.  He even joined in the Brower family gin rummy game.

Meg had a tough day on the basketball court as well but didn't take that to heart either.  West Noble had beaten up on them since she was in 6th grade AAU.  She knew it would be a difficult game.  She did get to play a lot and did well when she was on the court.  She said that a lot of the girls were upset after the game, but she was just happy to be a part of a supportive team.

Another Day, Another Game

Today was the last day of trimester one at Milford.  It was a long week as my students had tests to finish and I had grades to put in the grade book.  I was able to finish it all by 4 p.m. today which I was very thankful for.  Today was also our Veteran's Day program at school.  It was one of our better ones as the speaker was one of Milford's former PE teachers.  I never make it through the white table ceremony without tearing up and today was no exception.

Tonight both Cam and Meg had games.  Cam's was at Elkhart Christian Academy while Meg's was at home against two different schools.  Since it started at 5:30 p.m. and Meg's was at 6, we decided to split up.  Doug went to Cam's game and I went to Meg's.  We thought that Cam's would be an easy win, but that was not to be.  ECA had a player who was taller than Doug.  Bethany lost by quite a bit and Cam was pretty frustrated.  He felt better by the time he got back to school especially after watching the A team win by double digits.

Meg played on both the JV and Varsity tonight.  The JV played Goshen's 9th grade.  Doug was able to make it to the second half of the game.  The girls started slow and at halftime found themselves down 15-1.  The break must have regenerated them and the girls put on an impressive comeback losing 21-19 in the end.  Meg played the majority of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter.  She has definitely improved and looked a lot more comfortable on the court.  The Varsity played ECA and controlled the game from the beginning.  Meg also played in that game coming off the bench for seven to eight minutes in the second half.  We didn't get to talk to her much as she went to Jackie's after the game to spend the night.

Bethany vs. Milford

Tonight was Cam's game against his former classmates at Milford.  When I left school several of the Milford players asked me who I would be cheering for.  I told them Bethany.  They gave me the raspberries and I made sure to "boo" them as well.  I did enjoy watching the game as I know all of the boys playing.  Cam guarded Ryden most of the game and held his own.  Bethany did not win, but the game was close for the first three quarters and I was impressed with how much the Bruins had improved since last year.  It wasn't the overwhelming defeat that we suffered then.  Cam even scored the first basket of the day on a put back offensive rebound.  He also dressed for the A game tonight, but he never got in the game.  Cam was more than ok with that as the teams were big.  Milford won that one as well, but not as easily.  I was pleased with how well Bethany did against the 8th grade especially since they had to play a 6th grader at point guard and two seventh graders on the wing.

Physical Therapy

Today I was able to go back to physical therapy for my ankle.  I had to miss last week because of my wrist.  It was a little more challenging as I was afraid of falling.  He gave me a walking stick to hold.  That helped a lot.  I exercised on the bike, did lunges and worked on balance.  My ankle has not hurt in ten days.  I do not feel as though I need to go to therapy anymore for my ankle.  The PT wants me to go one more time next week just to make sure.  I never thought that my ankle would stop hurting.  I know that I will always have to do exercises to keep it painfree.  I don't mind, however, as I have gone from cringing with every step to hardly noticing any difference between my left and right foot.