First, a shout out to Ice Cube for the title of my blog.  While he may not be for everyone, it’s a pretty good tune, although not quite for work! 🙂

However, yesterday was a good.  Between hormones, attitude, and just a general gloom in our hallway, it’s been hard to find these which wears on you after a while, bringing the gloom to your own place.  I’ve started to look for those little things, the things that make me smile and just keep them close because they are a must right now.

Yesterday started with a 4:30 A.M. wake up call. Now, most will say, “4:30 in the morning would ruin my day!”  I’m not the best morning person, but it’s never something I mind a whole lot, especially when it’s because of basketball practice!  The day’s schedule was going to get weird, so I rescheduled my practice for the morning.  The girls are a bit drowsy, but they work hard, and I just feel like we get more accomplished.  My wife made a couple of pastries for after practice (feed them, and they are more willing to come back the next morning practice!), one of which needed to be baked before I left, so I got up, had that taken care of, and away to practice!

Next, we took our students to the Gallagher Bluedorn theater in Cedar Falls to watch a production of “The Nutcracker” performed by the Minnesota Ballet.  This was the first performance ballet performance that any of the students had attended and it was my first one as well.  All I could say was “wow”, both for the performance and for the students too.  The performance was what I would expected: powerful, passionate, yet emotional and showy.  We had some outstanding seats, and from where I sat, I could see a majority of the fifth and sixth graders who went.  Of the 40 students who were there, maybe two started to get wiggly.  Otherwise, they were engaged, enthralled with the pageantry in front of them.  That is what I’d hoped, and while I know it wasn’t for all of them, I feel good about giving them this opportunity, something most of them wouldn’t have seen on their own.  We ended up at a local nature center for lunch, which happened thanks to a couple of people at U.N.I. and the Cedar Falls Tourism Department, and finally home.

Our school day ended at 7:30 that evening, isn’t that normal? 😉  We had a “W.I.N. Night” for parents.  Our RtI time is called “W.I.N. Time – What I Need”, and last night, we had a family night to explain some of what the Common Core looks like for literacy, what our math series looks like, along with math games, computer game suggestions, and of course, door prizes!  While it was a long evening, it was good to see the students and parents interacting together, eating supper as a family, and moving through different stations to experience some of what the Common Core is like.

And finally, a small group of us ended up at the local watering hole just to talk, laugh, and connect as friends as well as educators.  I cannot ask for a better group of people to work with.  We are stressed, stretched too thin, and an opinionated group, yet, I know each one of them comes to school to do what is best for their students.  I’ve trusted both of my daughters with this group, and know they received the best education possible.

Like I said, it was a good day. 🙂