WHATS ONE TO DO?

What's one to do?

What's one to do when your voice is not heard?

When you try to teach, to coach, and you feel pretty sure

that everything being said 

is going straight through their head.

It's a different world I'm living in, 

so what's one to do?

What is one to do when you give it all you've got?

And it's thrown back at you, as if the food is too hot.

You pull them aside to become their only friend,

then you receive the only message they're trying to send.

I don't want to be here, I am not going to sit!

F you Mr. Shue, this class is bullshit!

What's one to do when you must give a grade, 

but all that I have is the empty folders I made?

Homework is missing, it never is done,

I can't give a grade when I've only received one,

grade that is, but thats just a test.

One thats an F because they won't do their best.

What's one to do?

What's one to do at the first parent night, 

when you sit at your desk, not a soul in sight.

Does no one care, for their young child's grade?

Or to even stop by and see the picture they made.

If their not worth the time, what message does that send

Would they even notice their kid, being blown, in the wind?

What's one to do?

What's one to do as you hear a kids story?

He sits in your class so his parents won't worry.

I'm his only option, I find out today,

to keep him in school and out of jails way.

Stealing a bike may seem kind of fun, 

but what is the fun without a loaded gun?

What's one to do to get them ahead,

as they do things that may get them hurt, or dead?

How do you get failure bred out of a soul,

when its been fed to them constantly on a spoon and a bowl?

You're not worth my time, get out of my life!

The words they hear their dad tell his one wife.

What's one to do for a poor hungry child?

Who refuses to learn, which now is the style.

It's cool not to learn, I'll just go sell drugs.

That'll get all the money and make me big bucks.

I don't need you teacher, you're nothing to me

I'd rather be home, please just let me be!

Do you buckle under pressure, 

and give up on this kid?

Believe what he says

just to get rid?

Make my life easier, my class has one less

or hit the next gear and take your own test?

Let a kid think, that their better than,

the system before them? Wow! What a man!

I don't need help, force or a gun

just me, a book, and a kid one-on-one!

I'm not giving up, I've got faith in you!

Your family may not, but listen! I DO!

I'll make these boys read, 

never giving up hope, 

They won't make their money,

 selling weed, or dope!

This isn't their future, but doctor's and such,

Yea, I dream big, but I'm not asking much!

Give me patience and grace,

I pray every night,

to help my three (now five) boys to open their eyes.

Make me an example.

This is my prayer.

And let my boys know, I WILL always care!

DAY AFTER A BREAK

School was not in session on Monday, as it was off for teacher planning day.  Like I said, these days are awesome to have away from the kids.  However, the penalties that follow does not make up for the hell they bring to class the next day.  This makes me almost happy I don't have to be here when they get back from a break such as Christmas.  If giving them one day off makes them this bad, then giving them several weeks of would be unbearable.  

Dear God, please be with the person who takes over my job in January.  I pray that you would start to prepare them at this very moment for the task they are going to be engaged in.  They know not what they are getting themselves in to.  

Thank you LORD.  

Your humble servant, 

Mistah Isaac

When class starts everyday, homework is the first thing addressed.  Everyone gets out their homework or they sit there ready to endure what is coming if they didn't do it.  Today, everyone just sat there.  That was, except for the two kids who usually do.  They pulled out there work.  I could not believe it.  The funny thing was, we didn't have homework for the weekend.  Not mandatory anyways.  I gave extra credit.  A chance for 50 points, or half of a test.  After everyone in the class flunked the test, these two were the only ones that came prepared to try and better their grades.  Will their parent teacher conferences be easier than the others?  Most likely.  Their grades still are low as they were turned in, but will change.  For the others, how do you not do a simple extra assignment to receive tons of points.  It is incredible!  I just can not figure this out.  Something the world will never know, is why students will not do extra credit, unless it is right when report cards are coming out and they want them better before mom and dad see them.

Then came football practice.  It is the day before a game.  Should be a good practice.  Everyone should be ready to get out there and get with it to win the game tomorrow (actually today now).  After being beat by 34 points, you think they would take things a little more serious.  I don't like coming back and telling the school how bad we got beat, and then having other students laugh as we walk into school the next day.  However, this was not the case in practice.  Everyone wanted to just mess around, forget their clothes for practice, complain that it was too hot, make excuses to go home, and ask every other minute to go to the bathroom.  They do not know it, but we are going to have a totally different lineup today when we take the field.  

My autistic boy that attends every practice, does what he can, and wants to play will be my starting center, even though he can not hike a ball properly.

Dear God, 

Please be with my boys today.  Please be with Alec as he tries to snap a ball.  I pray that you will just let his hands grasp the ball properly and get the ball to the quarterback every time.  Be with my other boys as they stand extremely mad on the sidelines wondering why they aren't playing today.  I ask that you will also be with the other coach, as he shows sympathy on us and doesn't run the scores up.

As your humble servant, I ask this,

Coach Isaac

Having a game on Wednesday, right in the middle of the week is a good way to break up the week for the boys.  Hopefully they will play good and learn something, even if it is how hot you can get when you run.  I hope they learn some sportsmanship as well.  

I do know one thing they are going to learn, and that is to be in shape.  If they lose like they did last game, they will know the real definition of a conditioning camp.

Then, come Thursday, we turn around and have another game.  What more could go wrong this week.  I never want another break in my schedule other than the typical weekend.  I have quickly learned it sets up a horrible week!

TEACHER WORK DAY

I remember back to the three day weekends we had as students due to inservice or planning day for the teachers.  These days were amazing for both the teachers and the students.  Still to this day, these days are awesome for everyone involved.  

Today I went in about 11 o'clock (an hour late).  It was a horrible morning.  I was supposed to be in about 10 o'clock, which meant I had to leave about 10:15.  At about 10, I decided my hair was getting long enough that me going bald was becoming very apparent.  (News flash everyone!  I take after my dad!  As if no one knew that.)  Therefore, I decided to shave it.  Of course it looked totally different, taking an inch off.  I felt like I looked so retarded, even though this is still longer than what it has been the past 4 years.  Oh well, it is just hair, and it will grow back, or be cut even shorter tonight.  Who knows.

Today I found out I had to have all my grades in tomorrow.  Had I had a normal class, this would have been horrible, but I have only the 3 boys, therefore, I was done in about 30 minutes.  While this seems easy to give progress reports, I never knew how hard it was to give someone an, "F" on a document that parents would see and would be stored forever in the metal cabinet at the front of the school.  One of the boys had very poor grades across the whole board.  I did not know how I was going to present this to him, as he tries very hard in class, just doesn't complete homework.  At this moment, I looked up and he was standing there with a HUGE smile on his face.  So glad to see me.  He is always glad to see someone who cares for him.  I found it the perfect moment to sit him down and talk.  This was very difficult, but he really understood everything I was telling him, and I could tell that he was really shocked to see that I actually would give him a low grade, and not just be the "cool" teacher that handed out A's.  I don't know how I am going to do it come the end of the marking term if their grades have not been improved.

The day was spent just talking with other teachers with their ideas about teaching strategies and class discipline.  I really found some helpful things that I think will really get the boys interested in learning and having more fun in the coming future.

When I returned home, it was instant lights out!  I took the best nap of my life, waking up about 8:17 this evening.  What an amazing nap!  I woke up to the smells of supper prepared by the ladies of the house, which proved to be quite a good meal.  

Tomorrow will be a good day full of learning and fun.  (I was always told to be optimistic, but I don't think this is working mom!)

THE DAY OF REST

Sunday.  The day our Creator rested.  A day set aside to remember the Sabbath Day.  What an awesome privilege!

Waking up and deciding on what church to go to is one of the coolest things that I think we are allowed to do.  Something I never have had to do, as I have always just walked 20 feet behind my house, found a pew and sat down to listen to several different men over my life.  However, being on your own, you have to chose to do this, and I am glad I live in a place that allows me to do just this.

Today I attended Coral Gables Congregational church for the second Sunday in a row.  I really do like this church.  It is the most like home, which can be a good thing or a bad.  Today, as we walked in, we were told it was "Green Sunday" as they practice things to save the environment such as not using paper bulletins and reducing light usage.  However, when we got there it bulletins were handed out and the lights were glowing.  It was a surprise service for the pastor, as it was the 30th anniversary for her ordination.  Her family, friends and past colleagues were all present to celebrate this occasion.  It was a great service, but I think it would have been even better had I known the pastor a bit better.  One of the speakers and her close friends was the President of the University of Miami.  She was the U.S. Secretary of Health with the Clinton administration.  It was cool to see someone with this power coming to church to recognize and celebrate such a great mark in this pastors life.  

After a longer service than normal and sitting through service with a broken flip-flop, I slid out of church because I could not walk normal.  The flip-flop "popped" during a hymn not allowing me to walk normal.  It was rather embarrassing to try and walk to great people, but I did what I had to do.

Our house, along with Miss Alicia, the other Caucasian at YLC, cooked lunch at our house.  Chicken Shishcabobs (or however you spell it).  It was an awesome lunch followed by an awesome afternoon at the beach.  Several of us spent the day in South Beach, walking through the city and laying on the beach while the others stayed back and watched the Dolphins game with some old friends.  The beach was awesome, as it was not hot enough to be miserable out.  Sometimes the sun is so direct there that you just fry.  It was a prefect day to lay out there though and watch people.  People such as the lesbian couple that was kissing, the homeless women laying on the sidewalk and calling the policeman that was trying to move her some profane words, and a man carrying a 5-foot albino python.  You always run into some different people in that part of the city, but it is awesome to see the different cultures and people represented in such a small area.  You never have any idea the stories or lives that have been lived that are now crossing paths with your life on the beach.

Right at sunset, I saw some dorsal fins swimming out in the water, telling my room mates to watch out for the sharks out there as they were taking off for the water.  Of course they didn't believe me, yet, when the people sitting around us started saying the same things, they watched for a bit.  Suddenly, groups of dolphins were jumping and swimming as they and the pelicans were feeding there close to the beach.  What an awesome night to see God's creation as the sun rays were coming over the buildings in the background and the lightning bolts were coming out of the heavens above the ocean.  All forms of natural light were just being illuminated over the water, and it was a spectacular view.  God is so good!

SERVICE

Saturday!  My day of rest.  Not so fast.........

This past Saturday, the house went down to Florida City where one of my room mates works at an after school program called "Branches."  Branches is in a very poor place where there seems to be lots of crime.  The whole town, while built full of big condos, is all government funded housing.  They were built to try and attract people to move there, but the opposite occurred.  No one moved down, and now these nice houses are all really part of the "hood."  It is funny to know you are in the ghetto, yet see all these nice houses!

Their program had a family service day for the kids in the program and their parents.  Wanting to see where our room mate worked, the ones available from our house went and helped.  They had many events or things planned for the people that showed up, however, it poured rain all day.  Therefore, I do not know how much got done that they wanted done and h

ow much improv they did at finding jobs.  However, I was assigned to paint murals all day since they knew I was an artist.  The first one was to continue or finish a mural of a tree that was already started.  It was very hard to do as it was not my style, didn't have the same paint colors (so I had to try and mix to match) and was painting in a small, very busy hallway.  Very packed with people at times.  Work seemed impossible there.  Finally, after that was done, I was put in the outside bathroom, trying to make it look a little nicer.  They lets kids loose

 in it one day with paint and brushes to make a mural, but they wanted something to almost cover it up.  I felt bad covering the work of the children, so I tried to fill in the blank spots with Hibiscus flowers.  They always said in painting class that you should paint things that interest you.  It makes the work look better and you have more fun doing it.  Well duh!  Let me 

tell you, hibiscus flowers are not my favorite thing in the world.  I kind of feel bad because I did not do that good of a job, and it was really hard to go back and try to fix them, as I knew they just weren't me.  (The two big flowers are the ones I did, over top of some of the little kids art.)

As the evening came to a close, we ate supper there with the locals and the people of Branches and then came home to reunite with our room mate JJ who had been in Pennsylvania with business the whole week.  It was good to finally have my room mate back and get a little bit of testosterone back in the house.  All the estrogen was starting to get to me I think.  We once again are a big (little) happy family!

THE DAY OF TESTS

I have never really known exactly what my boys have been learning.  It is always hard to really tell exactly what is going on in their heads.  Do they really do their own homework?  Well, when they turn it in.  I always hated tests growing up, but I knew that would have to be the way to tell.  I would offer the option of letting them write papers, but I know none of them would want that at all, therefore, I just wrote them tests.  Four of them to be exact.  English, Science, Social Studies and Spelling.  I thought this would really be an easy day, as I would just sit and work on things for next week.  Most teachers would know though, four tests on one day means grading four tests at the same time.  You can easily tell; I am a rookie teacher.  You only make these mistakes once.  It took all day and night to grade those things.  Especially english ones that do not have straight up yes and no answers.  These take forever to grade.

This aside, it was basically a good day.  There was some trouble with catching the boys attempting to cheat, but nothing too serious.  I good loud yell followed by threatening to rip their test in half gave them a good scare.  There is nothing they hate more than zeros.  Funny since they get at least one a day for not doing their homework.  

After school we had practice at the Little Haiti park, which is a very nice place.  It is a huge field that has lots of space.  It should since we have to pay to use it each time.  After we get there, warm up and start practice, a golf cart full of Haitian children and a leader showed up, moved one of the soccer goals in the middle of our field and were getting ready to leave.  Until the only 6' 8" white-man within a 5 mile or so radius started yelling.  "What are you guys doing on my practice field?"  The man acted like he didn't hear me and just started to walk away.  Remembering the beating we took the night before, I knew we needed the whole field to do sprints, and I was not going to have a soccer goal in the middle.  I tossed the balls to my boys and took off after the guy.  He got on his golf cart after seeing me coming and went to take off, but finally just waited to see what I was going to say.  I walked over and kindly asked him what was going on.  He stumbled around his words for a bit and then got very almost violent as he went off verbally on me.  He had orders to do that, and it was his park and he was going to do it, and I didn't need this huge field for such a little number of people.  He never would give me an answer to what he was doing.  Finally, after I told him I wasn't here to fight, but to just see why he was taking my field and if I was going to get half of my money back since I could only use half of the field, he said they were planting grass.  This proved to be a lie as we practice for two hours and never saw anyone again.

However, the local boys showed up to watch, so I went and talked to them assembled a team out of them to scrimmage us and put them on the field.  Didn't know that they were from a nearby High School that my boys don't like.  Lots of words were flying, but it was fun to finally see some enthusiasm to win in my boys.  I asked these guys to come back on Tuesdays and Fridays, so hopefully they will show.  It would be the best thing I know to get my boys fired up to finally win a game!!

FLAG FOOTBALL HALL-OF-FAME

"To get somewhere you've never been, you have to do something you've never done!"

-YLC EAGLES motto

Aren't people supposed to live and die by mottos? Well, today, I suppose we died by it, however, we didn't even try to live by it. How will we ever live by our motto if we don't even try.

As we load the bus to go to the game, there was a constant chant from the team. "Who we are? EAGLES! What we gunna do? FLY HIGH!" This went on over and over for about 30 minutes. As a coach, listening to the boys cheering each other up and getting pumped for the game is exactly what you want to see. Today could turn out to be a good day. Why do these boys fool me with EVERYTHING??? Of COURSE it wasn't going to turn out. I had seen them practice so I knew there was no chance of a win, especially knowing we were playing the champs from last year. But I went in with a big heart, hoping there was a way to pull out a win.

The boys run ahead to the field to maximize their time of warm-ups before starting. As I walk the half-mile to the field, it gives them about 10 minutes before I get there to stretch. However, when I get there, all that is stretching is their jaws. Of course they are yelling at each other, not even close to getting in proper lines. Everyday we ask for three men in front, with people lined up behind them. Each day we get closer and closer, but when you are still trying to start with 6 lines, it makes you want to scream. So we did just that. Lots of it!

After a pitiful warmup, we finally got the team in a huddle and talked a bit before the game. The only thing we won was the coin toss, and still about messed up that call. Good thing the coaches were there to confer with, otherwise, we would have won the coin toss and kicked off. Something NOT in our game plan.

As the game started, our first play ended up in an interception. Not our first possession and series of downs, not close to our first, but the first time we snapped the ball, we gave it right to the other team. Therefore, we did lose the coin toss. This is how the whole game went. That is, until, miraculously, we completed a 78-yard pass to my center and student, Mr. Jude. He made it to the (we will say around the) 2-yard line. Then, the other team caught him and got his flag, saving the touchdown. Do you think we scored? Absolutely not! Do you think we threw the next ball for a touchdown to the other team as they run it right through us and we walk with our heads down? Of course! So, this really is how the game went. 40 straight minutes of it.

In the fourth quarter, the other team finally put in their D squad. I wish I was making this up. Out of nowhere, we ran a play perfectly, selling the fake perfectly, and completing a pass for a touchdown to bring the score to 6-41 with no time. They let us run the conversion and we got that too, making the final 7-41. As a coach, my record really is 0-1, however, id consider saying I am like -5 and 1 after that performance.

So what do you do with a team of boys who won't run in a game, yells at each other, doesn't wear the proper uniform to games or school? Well, what we do is run them. A lot! Around an hour and a half lot! Right after the game! On the same field! In front of fans! They knew they had a sprint for every unanswered point we lost by. 41-7=34. We ran every single one of them, kinda. We jogged. So, we kept running, and doing up-downs and running. Were the boys mad? Of course, but do they understand? YES!!! They got the point of what we were doing. We had boys coming after practice to say they are done screwing around and are stepping it up. It is sad we have to do things like this to get them to look at reality a bit, but if it must be done, we will do it. Again and again until they have it pounded in their heads.

By the end of the season, I have a feeling my entire team is going to hate Joel Gerber and Vance Williams, the master-minds behind all the sprints and punishments they are doing!