The 2010 WN Middle School track team had an amazing season finishing 9-0 in dual meets, champions of the Westview Invitational, and….. LLC Conference Champions!!!!  I would like to think it was all because of the shirt design….  Or maybe it was the fantastic coaching staff?  Okay, in reality we had a really great group of 8th grade athletes to lead the way to an undefeated season.

Here is an early shirt design which was created in Adobe Illustrator CS4:

2010 Track Shirt Design

Here are photos of the actual shirts:

Team Shirt 2010

Conference Champions Shirt

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The boys voted for yellow team shirts but the design looks even better on gray.

Well, it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve even looked at my website.  I’ve had some news items to share but apparently not enough time to share them.  Not a lot has happened in the studio since my last update but plenty has been happening in the “real world”.  Track season came and went.  My team finished 7-2 on the season and we ended up 4th at the conference meet.  I finished my class at IUSB.  I finished my duties as a Reading Recovery teacher for the year and completed all my paperwork.  I began another season of grass mowing and other yard work.  I spent some time on the Internet studying fantasy baseball stats and getting used to Firefox.  I finished the yearbook at school and worked on the Black Lab website and finished a few minor graphic design jobs.  Now I have to finish my required technology days before summer break officially begins.  Then I’ll have to take another class at IUSB.  In the near future I hope to get back into the clay studio on a regular basis.  Today I worked on my trimming chuck.  Tomorrow I hope to finish it and get some clay ready to throw.

Now I’m sitting here at the old computer that I’ve pieced together.  It started as my original college computer (2000 AD) so it’s far from top-of-the-line.  I added some RAM, bought an LCD monitor and laser mouse while browsing garage sales and bought another Linksys USB adapter from ebay.  I decided Windows ME wasn’t what I wanted so I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and even got it onto the wireless network here at home (mostly by pure luck?).  Now I can surf the net while my wife is “doing research” which looks suspiciously similar to finding coupons on the Internet.  Ubuntu has run smoothly so far considering the ancientness of my machine but I haven’t exactly been editing video or playing the latest video game.  I plan to get a little more experience with Ubuntu and the world of Linux and the universe of Open Source software this summer.  First step: figuring out how to use my printer without unplugging it from the main computer and plugging it in here.  Second step: downloading and installing some of the 304 updates that the little red arrow says are available.  I better get busy…

West Noble 2008_xc_shirt_design

Well, it’s been almost 2 months since my last entry….  But it seems like it’s only been about 3 days.  The first few months of school have raced by.  I’m teaching Reading Recovery half the day and working in the computer lab the other half.  We have been testing in the lab for most of the year so far which isn’t very exciting but it keeps me busy.  I’m coaching the 5th grade Cross Country team again.  In fact I was called upon to design the shirts for the middle school runners.  Actually they wanted me to use a design that they found so it was more copying than designing.  But it looks pretty good to me.

I’m also taking a class at IUSB towards my reading certificate.  On the weekends I catch up on my sleep, watch football, and work on pictures – sometimes all at the same time….  So basically this post is just a post to explain why I haven’t posted any new posts for a while.  But soon I hope to put up some stuff that I’ve been working on.   Stay tuned, Christmas Break isn’t too far off….

Technically I still have a few days to work in the computer lab. But I’m not going in this week due to some transportation issues and a wedding. My wife is using my car this week because her car’s back struts are shot. Tomorrow I will be heading to Michigan to get ready for my brother’s wedding on Friday. So the last few days have been like a preview to my summer vacation.
The school year wrapped up without too much excitement. So now I have a full year of Reading Recovery under my belt. I will probably do it again next year unless they decide we want to replace RR with a different program. Then I guess I’ll get to learn something new…. We finished the track season on a strong note, taking 2nd place at the conference meet.

After working next week I’ll get ready to shoot the wedding in Indianapolis. I hope to spend a lot of time working with clay this summer and not a lot of time mowing the grass. My wife and I might take a trip somewhere but we haven’t decided where. I also plan to update the rest of the site. I’ve been studying the art of CSS so I can eventually get rid of tables… but maybe I’ll get to that next summer….

The past few weeks have kept me pretty busy.  I’m at the Middle School teaching art until the end of the year, the track season just finished last week, and I’ve been trying to do some things around the house and throw some pots when I have time.

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It has been quite a while since I’ve updated anything but there is plenty to update.  The past month or two have been extremely busy.  I feel like I barely have time to check my email so I haven’t even thought about adding to the blog.  The big event that has been taking up most of the time is…..   OUR HOUSE!  The whole process hasn’t taken an extremely long time but be have been working hard at it just about every day.  We are in the “unpack and find a place for all this junk” stage right now.  And my “studio” is beginning to take shape!  The track season also began a few weeks ago so I’ve been putting in plenty of time there.  And the fun just keeps coming…  I will be heading to the Middle School soon to be the art teacher there for the rest of the year.  But not before I get the computer lab ready for testing at the Elementary.  So I’m busy now but it looks like I won’t get much of a break until the end of the school year.

Well, if you haven’t noticed, it has been about 2 months since I last posted here…  I’m sure you probably checked here every day for some new information or witty comments to get you through the day.  Please forgive me for my absence.  At least I can say that it has been more about being busy and less about being lazy.  Looking back, Christmas, New Year’s Day, the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Signing Day, Groundhog’s Day, Snow Days, and Valentine’s Day have all slipped by without one comment from this blog.  Since you can probably go anywhere to hear about those kind of things, I’ll give you a summary of the more important events that have been happening.

According to a previous post, I took over for a teacher on maternity leave.  She came back during the 1st week of February.  I went to Indy for a few days for the Indiana Track and Cross Country coaches conference.  When I got back to the computer lab it was time to start NWEA testing so I’ve been working on that…  until I took a few personal days and flew down to Texas with my wife.  In between all that we have been looking for a new place to live and watching our neices play basketball.  Of course I have been taking pictures at most of these events.  I hope to put up some pictures and elaborate on some of these topics in the very near future.  Check back again to read all about them!

This is my first post in over a month if you’re keeping score at home….  I guess that’s what happens when I get “promoted” and don’t have as much time to use the school computers.  I am currently filling in for a teacher that is on maternity leave.  I’m teaching the art classes at one elementary school and half of the P.E. classes at the other.  This is my third adventure in elementary art plus all the work I had to put in for my degree so I feel like I’ve got a pretty good idea what I’m doing this time.  Everything is going pretty well.  But then there is gym class.  The only training I’ve had for this is a little coaching and my own experience as a student in P.E.  Though I’m probably not the P.E. teacher of the year I’m having a good time.  I even get to jump into a dodgeball game once in a while. 

I also helped coach the girls 4th grade basketball team this year.  I had a lot of fun and I think I learned as much about basketball as some of the 4th grade girls.  (I’m more of a football, baseball and track guy…)  Of course the finale was the annual 4th Grade Girls vs. the LE Staff game.  It was a lot of fun and the staff pulled out another victory.  As I’m typing this I’m trying to test my new site.  It’s not even close to done but I think I’m going to put up what I have so I can make sure it works….

Last week the 5th Grade XC season finally came to an end.  It seems that whatever is in the water being consumed by the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade team at West Noble is also being guzzled down by the 5th grade girls as well.  Though the 5th grade season strangely outlasted the Middle School season by a few weeks, the results were equally impressive.  The girls team finished strong by winning the Ft. Wayne finals race held at Lakeside Middle School and placed 2 girls in the top 5.

 Here are a few pictures of the winning team.

My lawyer strongly cautioned me against using full names of young people on the internet so the nicknames of the athletes pictured: Speedy, Muscles, Smiley, L-train, Staples, The Quiet One, and Pajama Girl.

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I coached the 5^th grade cross country team this year at West Noble Middle School.  It was a fun experience but it is now drawing to an end.

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