Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Mid-terms

Within a week I will have ventured through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Mid-terms.

Our team went to a water polo tournament last Friday and Saturday, just south of Philadelphia. Coach Cassidy and I rented vans Friday during school, and each drove eight polo players to Pennsylvania. We played three games Friday and two Saturday. After returning Saturday evening, I can now say that I have driven on the New Jersey Turnpike and survived.

Mid-terms grades and comments were due today at 6:00 PM. I have a pretty good idea of how all my students are doing, and now just need to keep the material interesting. I am starting to see some students get into routines that I do not especially like: purposefully asking questions that lead the class in different directions, not being productive during group work, and complaining about notes. I tried to address some of those topics with my comments and have been working to change up the way class flows.

We are getting into some of the tougher-beginning concepts of economics: supply and demand, changes in demand vs. changes in quantity demanded, and graphing price as a dependent variable - even though it is much easier for them to think of it as an independent variable.

Today we beat Horace Mann, and now have a 4 and 6 record - I think? It is amazing how dirty and disrespectful some high school sports teams can be. Juan-Carlos De Jesus, one of our senior captains, got punched in the face in today's game - the player that did it was kicked-out (taken out of the game for 20 seconds, until a goal is scored, or until a change of possession),
Isiah, a junior, was headbutted and got a black-eye, one of the Horace Mann players spit on his hand before shaking our hands, and during the tournament last weekend one of the opposing players called Troy the N-word during a free-throw. It is kind of disheartening when things like those happen - I can imagine how a parent feels telling their kid not to start fights, but at the same time not wanting their kid to get beat up.


Saturday morning we will be going down to a tournament in Bethesda, Maryland. We will be taking a coach bus (praise be to God), so I will not have to drive during the four hour trip!

I enjoy being with the team and coaching, but sometimes I need a little time off. I look forward to the events on October 13th and 14th when Father Bob Koopmann comes out to NJ and NY. It will be nice to catch up with him and see what his new job is like.