First Week of Basketball Practice

The first week of basketball practice went by smooth. The only problem I ran into is, I only have nine players and would like eleven to make practice a little better. The only thing you can do with this many players is a lot of drills which is good for fundamentals, but it hurts when your putting in an offense or defensive play.

This year I have focused a lot on shooting, which is different for me because I'm a defensive person. To me defense wins championships, but the last couple of years we have had very poor shooting habits and form. One of my main focusing areas is foul shooting. This part of the game can either make you or break you. Our goal for the year is to shoot 70% from the line. To tell you the truth I have never had a team shoot that high, but I have a feeling that this is going to be the year. For the first week in practice we shot 45.5% which is not good, but it is the first week of practice and these kids came from football and probably haven't picked up a basketball in months. I read an article by a college coach where he said that there just isn't any good shooters coming out of high school anymore. Hopefully this year we can change that.

I will have to say it is great to coach basketball again last year I took the year off and missed it. It was also great to get out and run up and down the floor again. Man I am out of shape. Hopefully by Christmas I'll have my legs back in shape and go up and practice against the Varsity kids. They keep bugging about it, but I don't want to go up there out of shape they will kick my butt.

Night Before

Here is a picture of me and my wife the night before our wedding.

Assignment 5 Reflection Piece

I decided to write a little reflection piece on this class. Over all this class as been a great experience for me. I learned a lot of new stuff about technology that I never knew before. To be honest I probably would not have tried them either if it wasn't for this class. To begin with I was a little scared to use technology, but now I'm going into with an open mind.

One of the most rewarding things in class has been the use of this blog. I learned a lot about blogs and have a ton more to learn. I even started to try to use it at school with my book club. I have only had one little minor problem at school the kids are not allowed to use it because it is one of the sites that is blocked in school systems, but they can use it at home or in the local library. It has helped because not all the students can attend the meetings and it gives a chance to talk to other students about books on the discussion page. It also gives them a chance to also talk about other books that they have read.

Another thing that I learned a lot about is the use of Wiki pages. Our group created a homework center on a wiki page. Another thing I have never done before this class was chat on line. Our group used the whiteboard chat a couple of times as a source of communication. This is something I never thought I would see myself using, but I was wromg. I now see a use for it especially with my sister now living in Florida. It is a great way to communicate with her without running up my minutes on my cell phone. It was also useful in a group setting where you can communicate with each other living hours apart and get things accomplished.

Another great thing about this class has been the discussion forums. Communicating with other teachers and people and getting their input on certain things has been great. It has givin me a great opportunity to see other peoples philosophy and point of view on many different things as well as getting feedback on questions that I have asked.

Over all, I would recommend this class to anyone who wants to learn a little bit or a lot about technology. Technology is the future one way or another your going to have to learn how to use it sooner or later.

Assignment 4

Well I tried adding audio to my blog whether or not it worked is the scary part. I had fun doing it, but like I said I hoped it worked. Only time will tell.

Update on the library book club blog! The book club is going great and the kids love the idea of the blog. Not only can they have discussions about the books the club is reading, but they also can talk about other books they are reading and try to encourage other students to read them. I am so glad that their are kids out there that still enjoy reading a good book. A lot of kids today will not even pick up a book. They look for the easy way out and find the cliff notes to take test.

The Use of Blogs

I started a book club at the high school last week. Many of the kids said they couldn't make it to all the meetings. So I decided to use a blog where the club members can get online to discuss books and ask questions. I figured this would be a perfect time to implement what we have learned in class. I will keep you updated on how it is going.

NFL NEWS

Hands down the best team in football this year have been the Chicago Bears. They have a great defense the literally kills everybody. Teams have not been able to move the ball on them and when they do its not for to long. Their offense has gotten a lot better to. The key to their offense has been the rise of their quarterback Rex Grossman. For the past couple years people have said he was going to be great, but he has suffered through some tough injuries. However, this year he has arrised as an emerging star in the league and will only continue to get better as the year goes on.

Tough Loss!

Yesterday my 8th grade football team played their butts off only to suffer another loss. We are now 1-4 on the season. I felt bad for my kids they really wanted that game bad. I am extremely proud of them, they never gave up and fought tooth and nail to the last second. Today at practice they showed up eager to work even harder than they have to get better. Usually when you lose a couple of games kids sometimes give up. I'm proud to say not these kids.

The Cleveland Browns finaly one their first game and yes it was probably against the worst team in the league, but a win is a win.

Assignment 2

Well its been a busy week. Sunday I went to the Browns game. The Browns actually played pretty well, but once again we were disappointed. With 29 seconds left in the game, Stover kicked a 51 yard field goal to win the game. To make matters worse Stover is the only player left on Baltimore's roster that played for the Browns before they moved to Baltimore. I seriously don't think Charlie Frye can take many more poundings like he did Sunday. He was sacked seven times and was pounded. A couple of times I didn't think he was getting back up. The same thing happened to Tim Couch and look what happened to him. Granted he wasn't really that good of a quarterback anyways. I like Charlie Frye, he is a home town boy trying to succeed.

The Indians are finishing up there season this week. Yeah it wasn't the season we hoped for, but I've seen a lot of promising things from several rookies. One rookie who caught my eye is Ryan Garko. This kid plays the game hard. He hussles at all times especially when he gets walked by a pitcher, he runs all the way to first base instead of walking like most major league players. Another rookie that stands out is Jeremy Sowers. This kid is an outstanding young pitcher that is going to win several games for the tribe. I thought the young kids brought new energy to the team that seemed flat all season. The starting pitching did get better towards the end of the season. However the thing thestill scares me the most is the bullpen. Next season we need a closer and a setup man. We should of never let Bob Howry go. We also need to get a hard hitting runner producer in the outfield. I like Casey Blake, but he is more of a utility player that can fill in anywhere and get a lot of at bats.

The CAVS start their season October 11 2006. I Can't wait to see how good they are going to be this year. They really didn't sign anybody in the off season, so I am kind of wondering if they will be any better than last year. Of coarse Lebron will be a year wiser and better. They need to play better team defense, who am I kidding its the NBA nobody plays defense. They also need to play more as a team offensively. It was to much one on one last year. They need to move the ball around and work the defense to get open shots.

What can I say I am a die hard Cleveland Fan and when I start talking about them I can't stop.

Here are a couple links to my favorite Cleveland websites.
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp?c_id=cle
www.clevelandbrowns.com
www.nba.com/cavs
www.cleveland.com

Assignment I

The website that has had the biggest influence on me as an educator is www.infohio.org. It has helped me as well as my students research many issues. It offers many different research engines to students and teachers. For students it offers information on any subject they may need help on. It offers them online encyclopedia Britannica, as well an encyclopedia in Spanish. It also offers students a website called Ebsco Host which is an online resource that offers students and teachers access to journals and magazine articles. The biggest website I use off of Infohio is www.learningexpresslibrary.com. This website offers students practice test on pretty much any subject. It offers college bound students practice tests on ACT and SAT testing, as well as helping students heading into the military with the ASVAB test. It also gives teachers a practice test on Praxis I testing. Infohio also offers teachers websites to help with lesson plans as well as a website that has the academic standards for the state of Ohio. It also gives them access to a website that offers them many online videos that they can stream or down load for their class. For librarians it offers them an online catalog.

Internet sites, journals, books and video's are all great resources to help educators with their job; however the biggest impact on me as an educator was other teachers. I am fortunate to teach at the high school where I graduated from because all my former teachers were willing to help me with any problem I was having. I never had to ask any of them for help they were always their mentoring and helping me become a better teacher. Not all of their ideas were useful, but without them I don't know what I would have done.

Overall, Infohio is a great resource for teachers and students. I would recommend this site to any teachers especially teachers, who are just starting their career. I utilize this website on a daily basis with my students.