Load 'em Up!

It took us five hours to load the truck and trailer from Uhaul with seven people helping me. Thank God for the Schlarmann family and for Mike (the band director that is taking my place at my old school). If it were not for them I think I would have gone insane. I pushed my father a bit too far I think. There was a time when moving me around was no big deal, but in the last ten years diabetes and other medical issues have taken their toll. At one point I was seriously worried he was having a heart attack. In the end he made it through okay, but we have never been at each other's throats so much in the thirty years I have been alive. He was exhausted and I was just plain grumpy and emotional about the move. I don't really want to move, and the stress of moving, starting a new job, and setting up a new household is wearing on me.

Ease on down the road

I just completed the biggest move of my life. Three kids, my wife, my dog, and a house full of belongings just made the big trip to a new community over three hours away from our old home. Of course, we picked the absolute worst weekend of the summer to move. Heat indexes have been up around 105 or higher every day this week and doing anything outside is an exercise in exhaustion. To top it all off I stupidly scheduled the move on a week that my wife was obligated to go to a week long conference in Des Moines. I thought I could do everything by myself, but I quickly found out differently. Luckily I have some very good and kind students and their families that volunteered to help me move out.

National Board Certification and Student Achievement

A recent study seems to suggest that teachers that have gone the extra mile to become certified by the National Board For Professional Teaching Standards may not necessarily teach better or increase student achievement more than non-certified teachers. The study has apparently caused some controversy with some professionals arguing that the National Board is "sitting" on the results of a recent study that may not weigh in their favor.