1/7/16 Pocket Full of Sunshine

     Today was day two of teaching math at Heritage Academy. My second hour went much better today. We dove straight into the material and I think that helped things a lot. I've heard through a couple of other teachers that at least some of my kids are enjoying my class. Mrs Ortega, the Chinese teacher, reported that her student called me "a pocket full of sunshine". That made me smile. First time I can recall someone calling me that. The kids are doing better at not talking over one another. That alone has helped us to cover more material. I'm still a little nervous about relearning and covering all the material well enough that the kids learn and retain it. Good that they are listening better know, more important that I say something worth listening to.  

      Heidi and the kids did a good job holding down the fort. It's been raining every day since at least Sunday. That is super weird weather for Mesa. Heidi picked up the kids from school to help them stay dry. They ended up giving some of the Connolly kids a ride as well. 

      Heidi went to Roundtable this evening. Rebecca was a huge help with Peter. She got him to nap for at least an hour. Peter still likes to nurse to go to sleep so he was pretty cross that Mom was gone. Rebecca's help was invaluable at helping us survive until Mom got home. 

1/6/16 Catch Up Day at Valiant

    Life goes on even when I'm not here. There were some medium sized fires to put out today. I've been putting in way longer hours than usual. Still, I feel good about the way things are going. 

    This evening I got to take a well earned break with the family when our neighbors 3 doors down invited us to celebrate 3 Kings day with them. There is a special pastry that you eat that has a little plastic baby Jesus hidden inside it. Aside from needing to be careful to not eat it there is a tradition that the one who gets it gets to host a party on February 2. That's the day the Presentation of the baby Jesus is celebrated. I think that Ruth said they traditionally eat malasadas. Anyone fact check me on that? Rebecca got the toy. She did not eat it. Maybe we can invite Ruth, Beatrice and David over on February 2nd to a party hosted by Rebecca. 

1/5/16 First Day of School

The kids all gave me a big hug when I got home from teaching school today it made me feel very loved and missed. They asked me how my first day of school went. Let me report that it went well for the most part. Two of my three classes did fine with listening. The seniors were more anxious to cut to the chase. I adjusted after 2nd hour and I think it helped during 3rd. The tech wasn't quite ready for prime time and my Trig is rusty. The kids from my 7th grade class reported to the math chair that I did a good job and that they are excited about the quarter ahead. It was pretty wall to wall busy and I'm still not ready for Thursday but overall it felt good. The kids are basically great kids. I need to plan on changing things up more to hold their attention better but it should be do-able. 

     This is a kinetic sand house and volcano that Rebecca and Sarah put together. This picture to me shows how hard Heidi is working. She held down the fort with Valiant Accounting emails, solving a couple tricky issues that came up today. All that PLUS helping kids with homework and then having energy left for supervising the kids with sand. She is amazing. 

1/4/16 Heritage Academy AZ

     Today I did my first official work for Heritage Academy. I met with the head of the Math Department Angela Parker. I also met HR/key office lady Karen Hunt, handyman Vince and IT specialist CJ. Eric Parker (no relation to Angela) teaches the other sections of Pre calc. Michelle Baldwin is the teacher I am replacing. She came and let me know where the classes are at. There is still much to learn and much to do. The best thing for it is to get started and keep at it. The school on the whole has a good feel about it. It reminds me a lot of my time at BYU. I thought it was a fun that when I was at BYUB there was an Angela in my department and a Karen in a key office position both of whom were great. I also spoke to Earl and Jared Taylor. Both are warm and caring individuals. Earl is the Principal. Jared is listed as the business manager. I have had good experiences with each of them. Tomorrow is my first day teaching. Time to prepare. 

1/2/16 Happy Megan's Birthday

     To celebrate Megan's birthday I worked on finishing a job for a client. It's one of those projects that seem to go on forever. Just when you are about to finish you find some other problem that can't be overlooked. It took all night but I got it turned in. It feels good to have it taken care of. 

     The picture above was drawn by Sarah. It's nice knowing that she has such a good relationship with her cousin. It's also fun to see her developing drawing skills. 

1/3/16 Sub in Primary

      Last night I was asked through Heidi to substitute teach a class of 8 boys age 6 and 7 in Primary. Teaching Primary is one of my favorite things to do. I believe that while it is important that the kids be learning Gospel principles it is also crucial that the class be fun. If it isn't the kids disengage and learning doesn't happen anyway. 

      The picture up above is from a boy named River. He gave it to me after class as a thank you for being his teacher. Doug Roche was my team teacher. He is fun to teach with. We learned about choosing the right. We started by playing Simon Says so the boys could practice listening. Then we talked about what it means to choose the right. As a class we worked on memorizing 2 Nephi 32:3 about feasting upon the words of Christ. It was good fun. The boys were very well behaved. 

     After church we mostly rested and made a plan for the new week. School starts in the morning. 

1/1/16 Happy New Year

This morning I was up first. That makes sense since I was the first one asleep. Heidi reports that Rebecca stayed up reading past Midnight. The other kids were close. I got some work done this morning. We stayed with Grammie and Grandpa through lunch and then some. 

     In the afternoon we visited my parents. The picture above is Heidi helping plant the small pine tree they bought for Christmas this year. We helped with a few other small chores until it was close to dinner time. 

     We picked up pizza on the way home. The girls picked a movie downstairs. Heidi picked out Star Wars (now called episode IV). It's the first time i think Joseph has seen it. He liked it. David watched more than he has in the past as well. Fun that he finally has the patience for it.