Today, I am grateful to be able to relax. I had lunch with my buddy Rob at a new place for me. I love trying new food! Ethiopian food is delicious! Then, we went to the pool to cool off! After dropping my son off with his mom, I picked up some flowers for my apartment! Today, was a good day!
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Today, I am thankful for spending time with TSEA and celebrating the end of the school year! WE have accomplished a lot in our first year under the leadership of President Rodrigo Palacios! WE have achieved MAJORITY STATUS!!! This means a majority of certified teachers teaching in Tempe Union High School District are members of TSEA. WE are getting organized and have big plans for next year, or making those plans at our leadership retreat coming up! OUR next goal is to start the hard journey towards SUPER MAJORITY STATUS which means 75% of all certified staff. WE GOT THIS! #unbreakablesolidarity #unionstrong Today, I am grateful for my Father and what his future looks like. My Father spent 36 years of his life in Education. He is a teacher, a coach and an administrator. He was my 5th grade teacher. One of my favorites :) I love my Father with all my heart. I was very sad that I was not able to be at his retirement party because of our school schedule. I know that we will party when I see him in a few weeks when I travel back to South Dakota this summer! I am thankful for my Mother who planned the party to celebrate. She does so much for our family and I am very appreciative of that. I am thankful for my brother and sister to attend and celebrate. I am thankful for my aunts, uncles and cousins that were there to laugh and celebrate! I am thankful for the former teacher and coaches that showed up to recognize how awesome my Father is. I am thankful for the family friends that chose to take time to say kind words to my Father. I am thankful for my STM coaching friends to come and be a positive part of the celebration. I can't wait to give my Father a hug and spend time with him. It cannot come soon enough! Today, I am grateful for being a teacher. Here are the reasons I am a teacher:
I can't believe I am almost done with my 10th year of teaching. Wild. Image from @nba_paint on Twitter
Today, I am grateful for being able to watch Devin Booker play basketball for my favorite basketball team. He is on an absolute streak that very few players have ever accomplished. Hearing the stats that put him in the company of Micheal Jordan is wild! Shooting 20-25 and scoring 45+ on two free attempts is wild! Booker is 26 and is playing like one of the best basketball players in the world. Yes, the Suns are down 2-1 but that will change on Sunday because of how Booker is playing. Just need a couple more guys to come with him on this streak! Go Suns! Today, I am grateful for spending time with my son. In the car on the way to the theater, Dayt says, "Dad, let's plan what snacks we are going to get." I love him with all my heart. Popcorn, duh. Sodas. And M&Ms. I love hearing my son giggle and make laugh at things that he sees and hears. Super Mario Bros was a cool reminder of the characters and games that I have spent hours playing through as I grew up and now my son gets to exerience the joy that these things brought me. I enjoy going to the movies because it feels like an unreal experience. The enormous screen with the loudness of the speakers transporting us to the different worlds. My son was all bubbly and excited to doing something that was out of our routine. I will continue to find things my son enjoys and do them with him to hear is joy! Today, I am grateful for being selected as the AEA representative in a three-year program called Leaders for Just Schools through NEA, National Education Association! Saturday, we had our virtual kick-off of the program that took us through the history of NEA and it Racial Justice path. I was interested in the learning of the 1966 merger between NEA and the American Teachers Association (ATA), an organization that was representing teachers of color during the time of legal segregation. Jim Crow, legal segregation, racism is not history, it is our present. We can feel it around us. Everywhere. We have many organizations that we know that found their beginnings during this time. Many of the laws that we know are meant to protect people against discrimination found their legal beginnings during the '50s-'60s-'70s and we are experiencing those laws trying to be weakened and replaced or ignored today. I am proud to be a member of an organization that says the following statements that were at the beginning of the training on implicit bias and stereotyping.
I am proud and grateful to be selected to represent Arizona Eduction Association and Tempe Secondary Education Association. I have a lot of learning to do to be an ally and co-conspirator and I want to use my privilege to play a role in fostering and growing our communities that benefit everyone and all of us win. "Never forget that Justice is what love looks like in public." - Cornel West Today, I am grateful to hang out with good friends and get whooped by the youngest person in this photo in Yahtzee. Having opportunities to hang with colleagues outside of the school setting is refreshing. Laughing together. Sharing food. Playing a game that brings joy, more so to the winner. The afternoon started on a downer with finding out the Book Fair had closed for a couple hours before the evening event. I thought we would go and get some food and hang out for a bit and then make our way back so Dayt could buy some books but we were having too much fun. I went to the bathroom and on the way back I saw the stack of games and Yahtzee is my all-time favorite game to play. I have many memories playing with my son, my brother, and my father late at night through the holidays and then during the summer. Dayt scored a 424 with three Yahtzees and the rest of us had zero. We got whooped. 424 is a great score but it is not even Dayt's best in his career, that is the 477 he rolled last Christmas. He got 2nd that game behind my 591! I can't find the picture of what my father rolled that game because he was right there too. We had nine Yahtzees rolled. I had 4. Dayt had 3. My father had 2. Just wild! This was fun! Today, I am grateful for picking up my daughter from volleyball practice and having dinner with her. Trinity Grace brings a smile to heart. I love her sense of humor and how she explains the world and how she is experiencing it. She was looking dope with my Suns gear. We went to Four Peaks and had nachos and garlic cheese beer bread. Delicious. I love when I am able to spend time with Trin because usually when I text, I get one or two word responses. When I call, it is quick. She says she does not like to text or talk on the phone. We laughed that this really limits how we communicate to just when we are in the same room together. I love her. Going through my divorce the hardest part has been that I am not around all the time. I am at the events. I am at the games. But being around in the in-between hours where I can throw a pillow that her or her sister and see what they are doing and talk about what they are doing or thinking or wanting to do. I love spending time with Trinity Grace and I am looking forward to the next time. It better be soon! Love you Trinity Grace!* *Trin was not impressed with me for sharing this photo :) |
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Header (above) - Black Hills, SD, 2013 Portrait (below) - Me! Compadre High School, 2021 Dylan WinceI am not a writer. Archives
April 2024
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