Texsox

I was surprised when looking at the map that basically it's a lollipop loop. Not a lot of roads other than to connect the cities.

It's a hole in the ground, big deal. I give it 3 stars. ?

Many teachers I work with were excellent students. They loved school and were model citizens. I was the "smart kid who could get straight A's if he just applied himself". I applied myself to four varsity letters, four trips to the state chess finals, editor of the school newspaper, and various other clubs. Plus a sparkling 2.4gpa and 32 composite in the ACT. I rarely completed any homework but could earn As on most tests and quizzes. I also disrupted classes with ad libs. Anecdotally I believe I learned as much or more than my classmates with better grades. My 3.8 college gpa and ACT would be artifacts I'd present as evidence lol. In sales you can do everything right and not get the order. Changing someone's behavior (the buyer) isn't easy and it's almost always out of your control. But I was responsible for a budget and needed to hit it. So about those former model students who became teachers that I mentioned earlier. They get frustrated by kids who aren't like them. The chatty ones, the too busy to do homework ones. The kids who don't have a sense of "responsibility"*. Me? These are my people. I was a sweathog**. So what I bring to the classroom is a desire to help the students that were like me in high school plus loving challenging the students that were like me in college. It seems to be a winning combination. * I sat listening to a colleague complain about the total lack of responsibility one student was showing in her class. This was a Frank Thomas playing tee ball moment. What she didn't know until I told her was the kid at 17 has been working a job for almost a year to pay for his apartment which his 13 year old brother just moved into with him. Her little math worksheet probably wasn't the best way to judge responsibility. I found out about his situation by asking "why are you so tired?" Instead of "wake up! Or I'm sending you to the office" seems easy to me. **1970s TV sitcom reference kids.

Officially in Texas teachers are in complete control of their grade book and no one can override them. But, admin controls what classes you teach and when. Here's the math that I see and what I tell my students. If you don't turn in one assignment you have a 0. If you make 100s on the next three assignments, you are still failing. Three missing assignments and nine 100s is failing. Turn something in, no matter how craptastic, and you'll have a much better chance to pass. For most of my career I've taught seniors. They have passed English since kindergarten and passed two comprehensive state wide exams. Who am I to stand between them and their diploma and say you haven't passed my standards? So I usually have 99% passing rates. I'll also pull up a chair and sit next to them until they finish the assignments. A key difference is I accept and embrace that it's my job to get kids to pass. It's likely from a first career in sales.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/sport/chad-johnson-nfl-cincinnati-bengals-spt-intl/index.html Lived at the stadium for two years. Saved 80% of his salary.

It's a broad mix. Start with any one who believes anything school appropriate is lame/stupid etc. Toss in the loners and hard core shy kids who get good grades. Since they aren't trouble they get ignored while teachers battle the 5% who are in trouble. I few times a year I try and look around the room and talk to them. Kids who require the bus to get home and don't have friends who will give them a ride. A scattering of language challenges. I really wish I spoke Pashto. We have a growing group of refugees from Afghanistan and many are illiterate so my Google translate strategy doesn't work. Generally speaking many that we are settling here were involved helping the US in the war. Seems like the least I can do to repay their bravery is try to help their children. Side note, prime example of our district philosophy of teaching the whole child and offering opportunities, two of our high schools have cricket clubs and I'm hearing the level of play is good. It's mostly our refugees but little by little they are drawing in other kids. I'd love to see that keep expanding. The cricket pitch is behind one of the city owned golf practice facilities we use. Whenever I go over to watch someone will offer me a bat but I haven't taken them up on it yet.

Here's something I really like about my school. Our principal pushes to get every kid connected though a club, organization, sport, etc. She wants every student to have a teacher that they see for something they choose to do and hopefully share a passion for. Sports is easy. Then when a student is struggling in class, either academic or behavior, the classroom teacher has someone that hopefully knows the kid and can help the issue. Just Wednesday I had a student that was missing 90% of the assignments. I checked his schedule, emailed his coach, and four missing assignments were completed during his lunch hour. ROTC, band, etc same thing. I share an athlete with basketball. His teacher reached out about a behavior issue and he had conversations with three coaches by the end of the day. Problem solved. It's the kids that we can't find ways to connect with that keep me awake.

It's probably a combination of all of that and things that aren't apparent yet. We hear a lot of "respect". They disrespected me so we had to fight.

@The Beast That seems to be everywhere. We've had much worse behavior in our school since COVID. Eighteen months of quarantine and away from in person coats l classes seems to have long term implications beyond gaps in learning. (For comparison we're a mostly two parent, college educated, upper middle class school.) We've had more like expelled this year than in the past ten years combined. I'm at an out of town tournament with seven players ranging in age from a nearly 18 year old to barely 14. We're staying three days so we've kind of settled in. This seems as normal as it's always been. But once we get back to large groups things just are different.

You might want to contact Bryant's doctor.

Leury will be around for a couple more years. "Grifol: "I've seen Leury play for a while. Leury's a talented player"

But it may be rough to repeat that without a hall of fame manager to guide him.

And I responded to your jest as if you actually meant it. Sorry.

So do I. Ironically we may be back to 1980s era pay per view models. JR was way ahead of the curve.

Now imagine the guy playing in a post season game at Yankee stadium. He'd s%*# his pants. We keep drafting guys that can't handle any stress.

And seriously, I care more about our players and their desire to win than the octogenarian chairman.

We survived the DH only being in AL ballparks for a couple decades. Having different rules in the post season isn't a big deal to me.

Keep the tie.

This makes a lot of sense. Now let's look how it could be manipulated unfairly. I wonder how many players have been investigation only to be cleared? Imagine if a disgruntled ex could get an investigation started right as a player enters free agency? That seems unfair to the players. I wonder what avenues the owners have tried to get entered into the CBA that would protect them.

While it's easy to blame MLB for the investigation taking so long, could it be Clevinger's legal team pushed to delay as long as possible? Seems like the person who gains the most by the delay was him.

If he cared about winning we'd have a top ten payroll.

This really hit home in our district after Uvalde. How many teachers and students are in classes today who are not able to focus on lessons? Daydreaming is one thing, persistent fears for personal safety is a completely different issue. It's also adding to the acute teacher shortage around the country. Lack of respect and constant attacks wears folks down. We have to take a bullet to gain any respect from the community at large.

As a teacher with a sense of duty to protect my students, I've learned my family worries a lot for my safety. I worry for my son's safety who teaches middle school. How to prevent this? Companies are realizing there is money in inventing systems to keep kids safe. Go to Green looks promising to help lead kids to safety. Less intrusive metal detection technology is being worked on. Shifting money from other areas to enhance security is being done. Voters tend to approve bonds with school safety measures. Out of respect for the many victims of gun violence each year, perhaps we can shift from any gun debate, which leads us down a predictable path.

Like every other worker in our economy. By doing what the person paying him believes is worthy of the pay check. Personifying all that is wrong with the team may be in his job description.