Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. I hope all of my staff and students are able to enjoy the day off and time with family. Thanksgiving for a those of us with ties to high school students often means three things: family, food, and basketball. Our boys will be @ home Friday and Saturday. Our girls will be @ Litchfield Friday and Saturday. I hope to see all of you back on Monday (or sooner if you attend the Warrior Classic). Good luck to our boys and our girls this weekend. Also, if you had a chance to watch the Macy's parade this morning, you may have seen Celynn, Hillary and Erin marching. I heard they had a 4:30 AM wake-up! Congrats to the girls for partaking in the holiday classic in the Big Apple. Have a great day!

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Another Outstanding Veterans Day Program.

Mr Tobias and the Athens Leadership Committee put on another great day and evening for local veterans. Unfortunately, I was at an IHSA meeting Wednesday morning and had to miss the yearly morning ceremony. When I returned, I was met with many compliments regarding the morning's activities. It sounds like Janelle, Lindi, Alex and Nate gave great speeches. The HS and 6th grade bands played and the HS and CIS chorus performed as well. Wednesday evening, the veterans who were honored at the assembly were treated to a great meal. Todd Lawson prepared a pulled-pork meal for the 100 or so guests. The speaker was a Korean War Veteran who is very active in the Illinois Chapter of the Korean War Veterans Association. I believe that everyone had a great evening. As the guests of honor exited the building at the end of the night, each one of them thanked us for having such a wonderful event for the local veterans. They also wanted to make sure I knew how great the students involved the activities were. I said "thanks" and added that we do have "great kids and staff here." It is true! We have kids and staff doing things like this all of the time. For the record, we have two veterans on staff at the high school- Jim VonLehmden(US Army) and Chuck Walbert(US Marine Corps). Rick Small - Jr. High science teacher- also served in the military. So, I say "thanks" to the veterans who attended, to all vets, to all those serving currently, and to Mr. Tobias and the kids who worked to make yesterday a great day. I hope everyone enjoyed their Thursday off. I also hope that we all took a minute or more to think about why we had the honor of having such a day off.
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Honor Roll Numbers for 1st Quarter 2010-2011

The Honor Roll became public today and I thought I would share a few statistics with you. The numbers are very positive. We have almost 50% of our students earning a 3.0 or better. We would always like to see the numbers higher – but 50% is a very respectable percent of students earning no grades lower than a C and carrying at least a 3.0 for the 1st quarter.
1st Quarter Honor Roll Statistics:
Currently we have 334 students in the high school.
93 - Frosh
80 - Sophomores
83 - Juniors
77 - Seniors
163 students earned Honor Roll or better status. 49% of our student body
51/93 - Frosh 55%
31/80 - Sophomores 39%
46/83 - Juniors 55%
35/77 - Seniors 46%
33 students earned all A’s. 10% of our student body
Have a great day!

What A Game!!!!

Last night was why people love sports. It was also why people hate sports. The emotional drain that game placed on the fans from both sides was amazing. Each team's fans went from jubilation to dejection and back all night long. Athens had outstanding support all night - great job fans. It was a tough fought game that many thought was going to "be over before it started." Our Warriors showed-up big and stood toe-to-toe with the Trojans for 4 quarters. The game didn't end the way we all wanted but, I hope you are all as proud of the effort of our team as I am. I say, “Great season, Coach Knox and the rest of the coaching staff”. Football is the type of sport that takes most of a coach’s waking hours to prepare for, evaluate, reevaluate, prepare some more for, and then actually coach the games. The players put in long hours at practice and the coaches put in more work before and after to be ready each week. I believe that this staff and the returning players have a bright future. The seniors we are losing will be missed and their efforts have been appreciated for the past 4 years

Parent/Teacher Conferences.

Parents/Teacher conferences are just around the corner. These meetings allow parents and teachers the opportunities to discuss academic and behavioral progress of students. The idea is to try and remedy any negative behaviors or poor study/academic habits. It is important that both the parents and teachers take a chance to "get on the same page." In today's world, it is difficult to check grades every night on the computer. It is difficult to get your child to talk about school work, it is difficult for teachers to always make contact with parents when an issue arises. The conferences are a great time for everyone to meet. They are scheduled after the 1st quarter in order to get a sizable picture of what the student has done to this point. As well as, provide plenty of time to take corrective action and still reach an acceptable academic or behavior goal for the 1st semester. Conference time slots fill-up pretty quick. Be sure to have your student's schedule handy when you call. Hope to see you at the conferences.
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500 meters....

Ok, so I am sitting at the swim meet in PORTA. The PORTA team is comprised of PORTA, Athens, Greenview and Plains girls. I just watched a 500meter race. FIVE HUNDRED......that's 20 lengths of the pool! I have to say that it looked extremely HARD. I can just imagine how tired their arms must be. Tonight is Sr. Night for the Swim team and our own Emily Thomas is swimming her last "home" match. We also have Meg and Kali swimming tonight. It must be the ultra-competitive side of me -but I am finding myself caught up in A SWIM MEET. Never done that before. I have never been able to attend one before. Truth be known, I am rooting for PORTA for the 1st time I can remember:) "Go Blue Jays(WARRIORS, Bulldogs and Cards)!"
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Now Batting.....

This weekend I attended a wedding in the town I began a long teaching and coaching career. As the wedding party was introduced, I felt like it was 1999 again. The wedding party was similar to the line-up card I would fill-out each day prior a ball game. My starting CF, Catcher, DH, 1b, P and a couple of role-players were in the wedding party. As each member was announced, I was expecting to hear the voice of Terry Klein saying...."Now batting, number........" It was great to see many of them together again. As the evening continued, I was visited by other baseball players - some from other years and teams as well. Eventually I made my way to the "younger" side of the reception hall and ran into 2/3rds of the Power I backfield that led my JV football team to an 8-0 record with pure power football. It. That team was so talented, I only had to find a way to share the ball with 5+ outstanding players. Other football players, basketball players, and history students were on that side of the room as well. Of course, these "kids" were now 28,29,30 years of age. We visited about their lives since their playing days and their families and mutual memories from "back in the day." I was also able to reconnect with great parents who allowed me the chance to build relationships with their kids as a coach and teacher. This weekend was a great reminder of why I entered this profession 16 years ago - to build positive relationships with students and athletes and provide them an opportunity to reach their highest potential in the classroom, on the field and diamond, and in their own personal lives. Coaching and teaching are both easy for those outside of it to criticize, but if you put your time in and put relationships first - you can make a positive impression on most of your students and players. Nights like Saturday easily prove that many of the relationships and impacts are long lasting.
Have a great week.
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