The Adventures of a High School Teacher

Not sure if anyone is really interested in what's it like being a high school teacher but I am thinking of writing a weekly blog from a teacher's view. I am a high school teacher for the last 30 years currently teaching Social Studies and P.E. I am not the typical teacher because even though I am 53, I think and act a lot younger than that. One good thing about teaching is that you are around young people so much that it keeps you thinking young. I love teaching and couldn't think of anything else I'd rather do. I once tried out to be an astronaut in the "Teacher In Space" program but didn't make it past the first cut. Good thing because that was the mission that blew up in space just after liftoff and the teacher and the other six astronauts died. I like to give my students nicknames and many of my nicknames and assignments are based on sports and athletics. I call many of my best students "All Stars". I like to do sports based assignments in class like review football or baseball, and instead of learning the state capitals, we learn the NFL football cities and we always "Ro-Cham-Bo" in my class to see which team gets to go first(2 out of 3 since anyone can get lucky and win once). I've seen it all since teaching, lots of great kids, coaching my kids in tennis and basketball, good faculty friends, but I have also had a loaded gun in my class, drug sales during Silent Reading Time, a student having a heart attack and near death in a P.E. class, and a few of the craziest students you would ever want to meet. (They both had nicknames). So my main goal in teaching is to learn while having fun and enjoy the students.. So here we go. Let me know if you want to hear more.