Flashbacks and Another Injury?

So these last couple of weeks have been quite busy. I've been diligently trying to figure out what material my students missed out on last semester and bring them back up to par (I found out the day before a test on linear inequalities that my students did not know how to graph linear equations). For the most part, it's been fairly easy with my Algebra class. These students remind me of all my friends back home and some of the good times we had in high school. It actually made me miss how easy life was back then. Never had to worry about bills, never needing to plan my life more than a few days ahead, sports practice after school, skipping track practice to play Euchre and eat all of Corinne's food on Friday's, hanging out at Caribou Coffee, high school dances, Super Bowl Parties, skipping AP Composition to get McDonald's for the class (including the teacher), good times.


They have so much energy and the smallest things make them smile, just like we used to. Unfortunately, my Pre-Algebra class is a different story.

Majority of the students have little to no motivation to succeed. Homework assignments are rarely turned in and it's like pulling teeth to get some participation out of them. I've dealt with situation before, but that was with an Algebra class. Pre-Algebra is a whole new can of worms. The math seems so basic, but most of the students lack the skills needed to be successful in the class before. I really need to use this upcoming weekend to research some "math games" to hopefully inspire them to learn the basic skills they seem to be missing (times tables, operations with negative numbers, writing your name on papers, etc...)

A couple other interesting things about this teaching job. I have a student that just moved to the U.S. from China. He speaks almost NO ENGLISH. It's definitely a new challenge that I really enjoy. His math skills are phenomenal, but he cannot understand any of the word problems. Vocabulary that's so elementary to us like exceeds, at most, at least are completely foreign to him. So I've paired him up with a teacher assistant to help him through those problems and found a website to translate some of the story problems on assessments into Mandarin for him. I was really surprised he could understand what babelfish spit back out since it's French translations are horrendous.

On the weekends I've been working up at Winter Park. It's been awesome so far this year since majority of the supervisors are some of my closest friends. Every Saturday and Sunday for the next weeks I'm doing Barracudas which is a 3-week special program where you get the same kids for one day, every weekend, for three weeks. You actually get to build some rapport with the students and parents (just like teaching in a public school).

Weekdays have been dedicated to getting better at skiing. I took a clinic at Winter Park the other day and the head supervisor of Ski and Ride School told me I "ski like a snowboarder." OUCH! I need to start reading up on my level 2 materials and possibly think about completing my level 2 exam this year.

(View from about 500 ft. below Union Peak Summit, the road is the bottom of Copper)

Yesterday, I went skiing over at Copper and hiked up to the top of Union Peak to drop one of the back bowls. It was the first time all season I've skied in that much snow on that steep of terrain. I loved every minute of it until I made a quick cut and pain shot through my calf. Earlier that day my ski boot was bothering me a little bit. It was putting too much pressure on the outside of my right calf, but I decided that it would probably loosen up after a few runs. Unfortunately the exactly opposite happened. It was the same pain that I had felt when I broke my arm at A-Basin last month.


I still refuse to ever ride down the mountain in the back of one of the ski patrol sleds, so I rode the rest of the mountain on one ski, loaded up my car, went home, iced and elevated my leg in excruciating pain for the next 6 hours. I really couldn't believe that I possibly broke another bone during the same season. I decided to wait it out since I need that leg to ski this weekend, and frankly I'm in no financial position to miss any work. Luckily, I woke up today, and it feels remarkably better. Nothing a few Ibuprofins can't take care of on the slopes tomorrow.

Bouncing Back

The rest of the week was great. I had a blast hanging out with Alex and his friends from back home. Tuesday we went over to A-Basin and found a sick spot on the West Wall to bomb down. I swear we had to have made hit at least 50mph. Fortunately we video taped it, unfortunately, it won't load on here. Below are two pictures of Alex after he took a huge spill at about 40mph. It was probably the biggest yard sale I've ever seen. Alex took a bad turn and basically exploded (goggles, poles, skies, hat, everywhere). Luckily, his mild concussion was the only injury of the day.

A day later, he bought a helmet.


I got my job back at Winter Park. I went up Thursday morning with Alex to get my paper work done and show him why I love that resort so much. After about a 4 hours of intense bump/tree skiing and one gnarly cliff huck from Alex, we called it a good end to Alex's week-long visit.

Today I got my hard cast off. Now I have this sweet spider cast for the next 3 weeks. It's washable and removable. So no more itching, accidentally clubbing Kelsey, or writing with my left hand. Three more weeks and I should be back to 100% :)

The White Crayon

My friends from Copper and I were doing a bar crawl a few weeks ago and I decided to take this crayon from the hostess stand. I have no clue why I did it at the time, I just thought "I bet at some point this night, my white crayon will come in handy." That crayon never came in handy, but it has remained in my pocket since that night. Every time I put that jacket on, I wonder what that object is in my pocket, pull out the crayon, and then put it back in. A couple of nights ago, I picked up Kelsey and explained to her the story of the white crayon. "I'm afraid to throw it out. I feel like if I throw it out I'll get bad luck or something."


Friday, I went up to Winter Park for a few hours and went riding for the first time since I broke my arm. I was definitely timid for the first few runs until I dropped the Parsenne Bowl. Only after then did I feel like I finally got my ride back. It felt so good to get out of the house and back on the mountain.

Saturday morning I woke up early to try get a few turns in before my 10am shift started. I was a little skeptical about skiing without any poles. I haven't done that since ski instructing last season. But it went really well and motivated me to get out to A-Basin on Tuesday.

After a few runs I got into work around 9:30 and Michael (our manager) called me into his office. "Andy, grab the door. I've listened to a few of your phone calls.....you misquoted this customer and said that he had a kitchen....told this customer that he could get a group rate with his party of 18......etc, I'm gonna have to let you go."

I packed up my stuff and headed over to ski and ride school in hopes of getting an instructing job. As I was driving over, Michael called me back and said that "due to the nature of your termination, you are not allowed to work at Copper for 1 year." I dropped off my season pass at Human Resources, called Winter Park and left a message on Bryan's voice mail requesting my job back (he's the head kid's ski instructor and a pretty good friend of mine). I can't believe I just got fired.

I got home at 10:30am, cracked open a beer and sent out 8 applications to Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge. Skiing and snowboarding are my primary outlets for stress - losing this job adds anxiety and takes away those outlets.

Later that evening, Kelsey came over after work and says "Andy, I have something to give you. It's probably going to make you upset." She reached in her pocket and pulled out the white crayon. "I was walking down my hallway this morning to go to work, and I saw it laying on the ground. I couldn't believe it when I read your text message. You were right about the crayon."

We had a couple beers, walked to Main Street to meet up with some friends at a bar called Ollie's. About five of my friends from the call center including one of my other supervisors, my friend Samira and ALEX WHITE eventually made it out. Alex arrived yesterday evening and is staying in Breck with some friends for the week. You can see from the picture below that we welcomed him to Summit County appropriately :)

That's Alex, Me (representing the Red Wings) and Kelsey doing a "shot-ski."

I felt terrible when I woke up this morning, but it was worth it. Definitely cleared my mind and it was great seeing Alex (he's the first friend I've seen from back home since August). I still can't believe I lost my job at Copper.

Hopefully all is not lost. About 30 minutes ago I received a phone call from my buddy Southy at Winter Park and said that Bryan will be giving me a call later tonight. So keep your fingers crossed.

The Perfect Balance

Summit High School might be the perfect balance I was looking for in my career. I have an extremely supportive staff and admin team. In fact, the day before I began, Gretchen called me and asked if I needed another day to prepare - they would find a sub for me. I was too excited to get in the classroom regardless of how ill-prepared I was.

Housekeeping:

The teacher that left did not move ANY of her stuff out of the room. It's amazing how much "junk" teachers collect over the years, especially this lady. She was quite active at SHS and also the department head for several years. She has materials from every possible math class ever offered here and more arts and crafts supplies than a kindergarten teacher (she needed them for her doctorate apparently). Apparently she was supposed to come clean everything out, but come Monday (first day of classes), my new room was a complete disaster. The math department cleaned out 8 boxes of her stuff (including a life-size unicorn) before I even had a chance to get organizing. Kelsey and I spent 5 hours cleaning out the desk alone. However, it's almost a blessing a disguise. I will now never have to buy another teaching supply again. I estimate having about 200 pens, 5 staplers, 20 scissors, 50 dry erase markers, 50 sharpies, and over 100 three ring binders. How ironic that I actually had to buy these for my old students and now I'm trying to give them away to clear space. I'm actually going to donate them to anyone that needs them at West High School.

The Room:

It's huge! I have 3 computers, 2 televisions, an ELMO and 3 working projectors!


The Kiddos:

My students are great. I have 2 sections of Pre-Algebra and 1 section of Algebra. My Pre-Algebra classes are mostly ELA just like at West High School. There's also quite a few students with learning and physical disabilities as well. My Algebra students are motivated and incredibly energetic. I think they will be my most challenging class because they are constantly talking and moving around the class.

I have five teacher assistants and two para professionals. What the heck do I do with them? I'm not used to having this much help. I've basically put them in charge of cleaning the filing cabinets and constructing my posters (since I can't draw or write with my right hand) for now.

I have a perfect balance of high-performing, highly-motivated and lower performing, struggling students. I don't know if I could ask for a better fit.

I also received my first parent letter! Wouldn't expect that after 2 years of teaching eh?

Preparation:

It's been a lot of work getting everything situated for the rest of this semester. This situation is similar to my first at semester at Denver West being that the students often struggle because they did not have a consistent teacher. I've specifically used this week to build the classroom atmosphere I desire and discover where the learning gaps exist. I'm stoked to finally have the supplies, time and a quality classroom to do all the things I've been wanting to do since I began teaching.

Motivation:

The students and working environment has reignited the motivation I've been lacking for so long (since being turned down by so many schools). I spend at least 3 to 4 extra hours a day in the class and just as many hours planning at home. The crazy thing is, I enjoy every moment of it.