Getting there...

I am 35% of the way toward raising the funds for my book project, I have $750 left to go! Could you pass my link on to anyone that may want to make a donation supporting urban education and my efforts in Houston, TX?

Thanks guys!
Robert

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=147542

another student writes...

Last week, I was welcomed to school with the following story in my my email (please note, this was totally out of the blue and was not an assignment of any sort... and I have no idea why they are all of a sudden using email!)

The story of Mr.Street starts with him in a club ,there is a dude,so cool and bad.He was rocking the club with his guitar. His guitar was named,Guitar.He loved that guitar so much that he gave it a kiss to it.Mr.Street had long,dazzling ,blonde hair with highlights so big ,so long .He always ran and made his hair wave like a shampoo comercial.He had a black,fluffy jacket and blue shorts with diamonds on the pockets.His shoes were red .Every Saturday night, he went to Cici's Pizza to eat one-thousand pizzas to eat.He was fat , he weighed five-hundred pounds.Sometimes,when he was bored , he just layed on the couch eating all kinds of chocolate stuff.His favotite thing to do was to eat donuts,and jump on the trampoline at the same time,sometimes he would fall of.His friends were fat too. Their names were Jack weighted 500 pounds,Grease 600 pounds ,Jello-o 500 pounds ,and 700pounds.They called butter,butter ball.They always eat donuts. When they went to the club,they made a party that was called "The Big Fat Party".

They ordered a moonwalk, Butterball jumped in the moonwalk, and accidently ripped it and got stuck .Mr.Street lives in apartment full of rock&roll things. He sleeps on a waterbed.His girlfriend is named,Ms.Calle.Ms.Calle's favorite thing to do is to laugh at jokes that make her want to pee.Ms.Calle was also fat , check it out she weighted 303 pounds .They had to get two beds because when they had one bed , they would both fall off even though it was king size.What they loved doing was to play sumo, but without the giant diaper.They both made a race about who could eat the most donuts in 60 seconds . Butterball couldn't stand it ,so he ate all of them.He had to go to the hospital because he ate too much.

NOW THAT IS A STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

High Expectations

From one of my students (my brightest) who thinks she is not meeting my high expectations (I got this in my email about 5 minutes ago)

Hello Mr.Street,thank you for the extra homework that you gave me to accomplish.I hope that this that extra homework helps me get a 4 on my writing.I also hope that everybody gets a 4 on their writing assingment.I know that you were mad with me because I overused the word "said",but I hope that The work helps me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cruisin

I don't really have much to say but thought that I'd post anyway. Life continues to sail and I seem to be much happier than before. Two things have really allowed for this to occur, 1. ensuring that I work out 5 times a week and eat really healthily and 2. I developed a financial plan that will ensure better financial stability which has been the root of A LOT of stress. Once my tax returns come back I hope to put a cushion in the bank so that emergencies like wrecking my car won't out be in absolute financial turmoil. In addition, I need to trade in my car. I made a huge mistake and bought it when I should not have. Now, I am paying for it. I owe much more than it is worth. I am completely upside down. In order to rectify this problem, I am going to trade the car in and not get what I owe on it. But, I will take the loss, add it to the price to a cheap reliable car like a 2000 honda or toyota, so say I buy a car for $6000, I will add the $2000 loss from what I will owe on the volvo, so now i will finance $8,000 and take out a 48 month loan and I will be upside right within a few years... until then, I will owe more than any car I own is worth but I made this mistake and need to get out of it. It isn't worth keeping the Volvo because a. things are going wrong on it by the day, b. I am not able to pay it down because of the interest rate, and c. the depreciation on the volvo is horrible. Plus, my insurance rate will be lower, thus I will be saving more and more money.

I took the day off work on Friday and Saturday morning to go to state swimming championships with my high school team in San Antonio. They swam pretty well. Swimming State was not the same caliber from what I experienced in Oregon. I think it is simply because in Texas, private schools and public schools are separated athletically, whereas in Oregon we compete together. The private school league in Texas is simply not as competitive as anything I experienced in Oregon. I am glad swim season is over... with over 200 hours of what ended up being volunteer hours, I am ready to have some more time to spend at school, etc.

It's Super Bowl day, not sure what I am going to do, perhaps watch it with a couple of TFA teachers that I teach with. I want to go to church at 6 pm which will cut into the game... but I wonder now, will there even be a church service in the middle of the game... if there is, I wonder how many people will attend the service?

I am rambling, obviously, a bit bored. Time to go for a jog. I miss you guys.

Robert

Donorschoose

People have asked for the donorschoose website and ways to donate... there are two ways to donate you can either a. go to the donors choose website (http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=147542) and directly give to the project which will then allow you to write off your donation as a tax write off, or b. you can send me a check and I can personally apply it to the donorschoose project account using the already created profile.

I REALLY appreciate your help, my kids are thrilled that we are getting books in my classroom.

Much love,
Robert

Just busy teaching Saturday school... the students that are in the middle bracket of likliness of passing the state test come to school for 4 hours on Saturday... they're working on math word problems... I don't usually teach math so it is refreshing to. All is well. The weather is cold and wet, just like home.

My book project is 27% of the way funded, I am excited!

I hope all is well with everyone.

Much love,
Robert

A splendid outlook

Life is going well. I am actually happy in Houston for the first time and very satisfied. Everything seems to be going splendidly well. I have not been switched to a different placement (yet) and still teach 4th grade. I am loving 4th grade right now. My 4th graders are discovering how much fun learning can be... there is a lot of work to do with them but all seems to be going really well and gains are being made. I boosted reading in my classroom so that we are reading a lot more, a majority of my kids are going through this book obsession phase where they literally won't stop reading. I love this! We've been flying through the few books I have in my classroom.

I haven't found someone to take over my lease yet, but I am stopping the search process. A friend gave me a tv, so that has helped. The more I stay away from my apartment, the happier I seem to be. When at home, I have my little suite set up, the beauty of having the master bedroom.

I am making some really cool friends. This has been a huge blessing. Swimming is wrapping up in two weeks with a trip to San Antonio for State Championships. Our boys are swimming fast!

I have lost 11 pounds since I have been back from Christmas break and am training for a big triathalon in Dallas in April. I have been taking a cycling class 3-4 times a week and swimming. However, the biggest thing has been 6-7 mile runs a few times a week--this has helped the increase in happiness.

Thank you to all that have donated money to help buy my classroom books... the donations are adding up and I am so thankful for your generosity. I can't reiterate enough how much we need literature in my classroom!

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=147542

Much love to you all,
Robert