This was the first time since I started teaching that our district elected to start the school year on a Monday... and I've gotta say... I liked it.
Over the summer the district hired a full-time art teacher and our band teacher went from part-time to full-time, so there are seven more elective periods compared to last year. That means this year class sizes are much more reasonable.
I know it's only been one week, but it looks like I have five solid classes. I'm pretty excited about this group of kids. Each year I have a few siblings of former students. One of them hooked me up with a plate of spam musubi:
His mom is one of the PTSA parents and has a catering business. I forgot to take a photo, but on the second day she hooked me up with a kalua pig plate lunch. It was a very tasty way to kick off the school year.
This is my twenty-seventh year working in my district and after planning out my retirement... I've got anywhere from nine to eleven years left. A lot of it will be based on my health (both mental and physical) and how stable I am financially.
In the meantime... let's check out some cards from the shoebox I received from Xavier back in May. I picked out twenty-seven cards... one for each year that I've taught in my district.
Let's start off with nine Shohei Ohtanis:
2024 Topps Heritage #307
Last season he led the American League with forty-four home runs. As of today, he's currently leading the National League with forty.
There's a pretty good chance he'll become the first 45/45 Club member. Maybe he'll even reach the 50/50 milestone.
And from what I've read... his rehabilitation as a pitcher has been progressing very well and it's likely we'll see him back on the mound in 2025.
2023 Topps Archives Doubleheaders #89DH-5
And if the Baseball Gods are smiling down on us... both of these guys will stay healthy next season.
Xavier sent me a nice stack of other Japanese baseball players. Here are three that stood out:
2023 Topps Chrome Sapphire #270
2024 Topps Heritage Then & Now #TAN-1
These Chrome Sapphire cards are always attractive... but they are even more attractive when the feature blue teams like the Dodgers or the Blue Jays.
2024 Topps Heritage Then & Now #TAN-1
Masataka Yoshida had a slow start to the 2024 MLB season... but the past two months he's been hitting really well. I'm sure Red Sox fans would love to see him win an MVP Award or batting title like Fred Lynn did during his tenure in Boston. Unfortunately Yoshida just turned thirty-one last month, so he's not getting any younger.
2024 Topps Grand Gamers #GOG-25
Pretty sure this is my first 2024 Ichiro card. The past month or so, I've been a little obsessed with putting together a Topps base card run of his. As soon as I get a few more cards in the mail, I'll show my progress.
The final fifteen cards all feature the hero for USA's basketball team...
One of my beginning of the year traditions is polling my students on their favorite sports, sports teams, and athletes.
This year there are way less students interested in professional sports. I'm guessing that class size numbers has something to do with it. But in general, there seems to be less kids wearing jerseys or team memorabilia.
That being said... Steph Curry is by far the most popular athlete among my students. Thirteen students voted for him. Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey were next in line with seven votes each. Lebron James was the only other athlete to receive multiple votes (3).
Sadly... not a single baseball player was listed as a favorite athlete and only one student said baseball was their favorite sport.
However there were four students (all female) who listed the San Francisco Giants as their favorite team. I have always had the students take this survey on paper. But I'm thinking of using a Google Form next year to keep track of responses. It'd be interesting to see how things change over the years.
I have several more years in the classroom before I can retire, so that's plenty of time to gather information on which sports and athletes are popular among middle school students.
Thank you Xavier for hooking me up with all of these cards. I'll share highlights from the other half of the shoebox on Monday.
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
12 comments:
I don't think I've ever seen a picture of your classroom before. It looks awesome! You certainly put a lot of time into making it a fun environment for your students. Hope you all have a great school year!
Your class room looks so big. Huge. I think the classrooms down here are like 15x20 and then add individual desks to seat 30-33 kids plus the teacher's desk. Now, with that said, the payoff is you put in 27 years, you could (retirement eligible after 10 yrs), retire and draw your full pay immediately. (keep in mind the wages are slightly lower here in the horse capital vs. California) LOL. albeit there is basically an annual increase so with 27 yrs, that pay would be pretty good for these here parts.
What a cool classroom. Have a great school year!
Best of luck with the new school year! Your classroom looks positively captivating for students!
"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said." That's a good one! Hadn't heard it before, but I bet I can use it.
Hey now, there's nothing wrong with the Dodgers winning and Ohtani is going to see to it! (he's at 41 at this writing). ... In the northeast we do not start classes until September, it always makes me sad seeing school start up in August.
Congtats on the start of the year and glad you have some good classes, I am sure that can make or break a year.
Your classroom is awesome, all except for the Packers stuff on the wall (Bear Down!).
It appears based on the pics that rooms are all standalone and face outdoors? That is cool and disorienting for us Midwesterners not used to nice weather all the time!
You and I need to keep in contact about our retirement plans... We are on the same trajectory!
Good luck on the upcoming year!
Good stuff and your classroom looks great!!
Love Steph Curry and glad Ohtani is a Dodgers player.
I need more cards of both.
Have a terrific school year!
If things were the way that they should be, teachers would make enough money to retire after 25 years (if they want to).
Spam Musubi AND Kalua pig? VERY NICE.
That is such a sweet setup!!! Have a great school year, Fuji!
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