Bucket List

Visit Grand Canyon
Visit Scotland
Go to an Olympic event
To get healthier
Go to a major tennis or golfing event
To read a minimum of 12 books each year -finished Erik Larson's "IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS" a true story of love, terror and an American family in Hitler's Berlin. Have also read "How They Croaked" a book about how some famous people died. Recently completed "blink" by Malcolm Gladwell which is a story about the power of thinking without thinking. Completed "GREAT BATTLES Decisive Conflicts that have Shaped History". Presently 1/29/13 reading "The Journal of Ben Uchida" who as a teenager was Citizen 13559 at Mirror Lake Internment Camp in California 1942 for Japanese Americans. Read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult which I would recommend. Completed Raising the Curve by Ron Berler. This book is about my school (Brookside) and the attempt to improve our test scores. Interesting and fast paced read. Just finished :Ted Williams the Kid" by Ben Bradlee Jr. Listened to APRIL 1865 on tape - a 12 part story about one of the greatest months in America's history. Reading "Parcells" at this time. Half way to my minimum goal.
Visit San Diego again
To be continued

School 2012-13

It may be summer but the coming year is full of questions. The system has had a major budget issue that still has not been solved. At this point there will not be an asst principal, a librarian, intervention specialist as well as a half time utility aide. We will also we losing 3 classroom teachers that will increase classroom size. All summer work - schedules and student assignments are on hold. I have made a decision to continue to work in Norwalk for two more years and I hope the above will look better at the begining of the school year. The lost of my asst Jenna is a major blow to the school. The loss of our librarian Paula also another major blow.
Update - Latest news - Brookside is scheduled to receive a 1/2 time asst principal and a full time intervention aide. We will also get a 1/2 time librarian. Looking a little better but we will be losing teachers as well as the services of Jenna and Paula.
Latest update - Dr. Marks, Norwalk's Superintendent has resigned. She will be leaving around August 17th.
More updates - Jenna has taken a job in Darien. It is a great move for her. We have lost four teaching positions, a half time librarian will be in place. We have new people in the following positions: half time asst principal, nurse, librarian, intervention aide, ESL teacher,  half time ESL teacher, and we will be hiring 5 to 6 new paraprofessionals.

Raising The Curve

Ron Berler was a mentor at Brookside and he also married a Brookside teacher. Ron is a professional writer by trade. He has written numerous newspaper articles as well as stories for different magazines. He also has written two books with a sports theme for children. Ron came to me about two years ago and suggested an idea about writing about Brookside School. He said he would like to spend time at the school and his basic idea was to discover why a school fails or succeeds. During the 2010-11 school year Ron spend nearly every day in the fifth grades listening and writing notes about what he was seeing and hearing. Ron also did many hours of video and audio taping myself as well as a few teachers, students and the Superintendent of Schools. This past year Ron has spent his time in reviewing his notes and writing his story. Ron completed the book and sent it to his publisher. Ron has indicated that the book company editor enjoyed the story and is very excited about the book. Ron has just finished the final editing and it is scheduled to be out on March 5, 2013. The title of the book is Raising The Curve. It will be exciting and interesting to finally see what Ron thought about his year at Brookside.

Going Yankee

Tonight I am going to see the Yankees with my friend Ron Berler. We will be taking the train into NY. This will be my first trip to the new Yankee Stadium.   Cleveland Indians are in NY to take on the Yankees. Update - Last night the Yankees won 6 to 4 on Derek Jetter's birthday. Stadium looks great and we met a passionate Yankee fan (Ray) who was 72 years old . Enjoyed the night! The Red Sox also gained a victory over Toronto.  

Honoring Aaron

Yesterday one of my teachers Melania Smith came to me to ask a question. It seems that she wanted to do a scholarship for a young person in college and she would like to honor our son Aaron. I told her if was a wonderful thing that she was doing to help someone else as well as to honor the name of our son. A $500 scholarship will be presented to Randall Austin. Randall is a great young man who works with our after school program. Randall is in college and he did some observations in our art room and fifth grade this past school year. I noticed that Randall came in early quite often and he would be helping in the afternoon art classes. A great choice for the scholarship!

Some Final Valentine’s Day Resources

Some Final Valentine’s Day Resources

Someday Isle!

I want to lose weight!
I want to complete my evaluations!
I want to be happy in retirement!
I want to spend more time with family and friends!
Each of the above are things that I promise myself that I will do. However, I always seem to have some excuse or reason for not accomplishing these objectives.
I need to answer the following riddle: Three frogs are sitting on a lily pad. One decides to jump off. How many frogs remain on the lily pad?
Answer: three - Deciding to jump off and actually doing it are two completely different things. One must have the desire to action.