I was told earlier today by my Pops that I should keep a blog of my student teaching experience. Well seeing as I have infinite time with lesson planning, teaching, coaching, game planning, and assignments for the ACU education department I have decided to do it. So here is post number one about every thing that has gone on.
Coming to Roscoe.
So I headed out on a Sunday evening. It was a little bit different this time around. When I got to Abilene it hit me, "I'm not done." I still had an hour to go. So I grabbed something to eat and got back on the road. After an hour more of driving I arrived in Roscoe. With no address and no cell service I started driving to find the house. And so I drove for another 15 minutes trying to find the house or cell service. Eventually I found the place that Tres had described to me and pulled into the driveway. I walked up to the house and met the couple that was hosting me. Coy and Sharlotte Roper, Tres's grandparents were the ones that decided to host me. Well I got the truck unloaded and then headed to bed, at around ten o'clock.
The Weeks Before School.
At five-thirty the next morning I got up and headed to practice. I got up to school and met all the coaches. Coach Haseloff, the head coach, gave me an overview of what he wanted me to do and introduced me to coach Cathy, the O-line and D-line coach. We then got busy setting up the field for practice. At around six-fifteen the guys started to arrive. We were on the field at seven o'clock and started practice. We split up into offensive groups and then went to team offense. We had a break and then did the same thing for defense. We were done with practice a little before ten-thirty and then headed inside to lift weights. After weights the coaches would get together for about thirty minutes. We would talk about practice and game plan about the next day's practice. After that I would head back to the house and cool off. After lunch I would just hang out playing COD, watching movies, or just chilling. This was the routine for week one. Friday was the only exception. On Friday, it was the first day of full pads so practice was a little bit shorter.
Saturday I slept in late and just hung out for the rest of the day at the house. On Sunday I got up and went to the C of C in Roscoe. It is a small church with what looks like a hundred or so regular members. The service wasn't quite what I expected. It was definitely old school. We were singing songs that I hadn't heard, or hadn't heard in a long time. It was actually kind of refreshing. After church I was invited to the Boren's for Sunday lunch. It was really good. Shannon, Mrs. Boren, told me that I was invited any time. I stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed back to the house. That evening I went to bed early so that I could wake up for practice the next morning.
Monday started the game all over again. This time, however, there was one difference, we were preparing for a scrimmage on Friday against Haskell. So during our defensive drills this week, we were preparing for the offense that we would be facing on Friday. Thursday night the school had their "Meet the Plowboys" night. It reminded me a lot of Crawford's "Meet the Pirates." The next morning it was the first day of inservice and so I got to sleep in an hour later. The morning sessions we listend to the administration speak about the goals and visions of the school and changes to policies and things. The board provided lunch for all the teachers and so we had a great meal. After lunch we shifted to a different room and started going over TAKS scores. We did that until around three o'clock and finally broke for the day. We met at the field at around four o'clock to get ready for the scrimmage. At four-thirty we were on the road. When we got to Haskell the JV went first. They started on offense first and then switched over to defense. Both teams showed signs of being green and there was no real clear winner. Still, we showed signs of promise. The varsity was next. It took us a few plays to get started, but it didn't look awful after that. There were rays of hope, but we still had a long way to go. After the scrimmage we headed back to Roscoe. On Saturday the coaching staff was at school at eight o'clock and the players reported at eleven. We watched film on the scrimmage and then broke for the day. Coach Haseloff didn't make us report on Sunday and so it was another lazy day.
The Second Scrimmage.
The next Monday I had to go to Abilene. The ACU Education department required that I be there for an orientation activity. So I got up at around five-thirty, the same time I had during two-a-days, and drove to Abilene. During the meeting it was basically like being in inservice again. We talked a lot about what was being required of us and what student teaching would look like. At around twelve we broke for lunch and so a group of us went to Sharky's to eat. I have to say, it had been a long time since I had been to Sharky's, and it was soooo nice to get to eat there. After lunch we headed back to campus to finish the day. Once we were done with our meeting I went and got some things from Rebekah that had been brought to her house. After that I went and visited with some friends and then headed back to Roscoe. By the time that I got back, it was later in the evening and so I got in and went to bed.
The next day I got up and went to inservice. I was lucky enough to get out of having to go back to ACU for day two of student teacher orientation and so it was really nice not to have to drive back into Abilene. Today was the day that Roscoe was doing training on a new program using data teams to aid in assessment and student achievement. They brought in a speaker by the name of Lyle Gates and he presented and trained us on the use of this method. On a side note, during the day I was told by one of the other coaches that the previous days practice had been one of the worst he had ever witnessed. In fact coach Cathy said that was one of the top five worst practices he had ever seen in his twenty six years of coaching. I was glad that I wasn't at that one. Anyway, after the sessions were over, we headed to the field house and got ready for practice. I made sure to address the O-linemen before we went out and told them to have a better practice, which we did.
This week the scrimmage was scheduled for Thursday night at home. So after a better week of practice, except for Monday, we felt ready for Thursday. That night we reported at four-thirty to get ready. Well this was the day that it decided to rain for the first time in a month. However, not only did it rain, but there was lightning to go along with it. So needless to say, our scrimmage was delayed. The coaches talked to the guys from Hawley and they said that they wanted to play, so we waited. After about an hour delay, the storm had moved far enough away so that we could start. Again the JV went before the Varsity. Both teams showed improvement, but were still not were they needed to be. The following day, the other new coaches and I went to Sweetwater to get our Frist Aid/CPR certification and then we headed to practice. After practice we went into the weekend following the same routine with one exception, the coaches now started to do work on Sundays. So we met up as a staff at two o'clock and worked until around four-thirty preparing for the week.
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