Two Weeks to Go.... And Counting...

Summer vacation is so close I can taste it....

Although I only have 7 school days with students and 9 school days total left, the next two weeks may feel like an eternity. This is mainly due to the fact that I want to focus on the Nemo Room soooo badly and soon, very soon I will get to. I've been patiently waiting and slowly progressing on the Nemo Room for over a year and now its finally going to take priority.

As many of you know, I tend to be OCD when it comes to planning. I have always been a planner and I love being able to get into the middle of it all to make sure that the perfectionist side of my personality has a chance to be fulfilled. For that reason, I have mapped out a schedule on my 2 x3 foot whiteboard that specifies what tasks in the Nemo Room I plan on accomplishing each week. I have also set a completion goal date for the room in the hopes of sticking to my schedule. However, I have written into the schedule the ability to change the order of weekly tasks around in order to accommodate for the days where the characters just aren't coming together.

This afternoon I started to get the feeling that something needed to be done in the Nemo Room. So I decided that I needed to lay out the rest of the characters so that I would know where they needed to be drawn. Hopefully, a portion of them will be drawn before bed this evening. However, I also decided to take out the wire closet fixtures... not a good idea. The plan is to remove the wire fixtures, paint the closet a slightly dark blue than the walls to contrast the depth and then Ricky will build an organizational system we designed inside the closet that is made of melamine. Unfortunately, the individual who designed the anchor system for those wire fixtures was a very mean mean person. The screws that go into the anchors will not come loose from the anchor so that we can remove them from the wall. So although I did managed to remove the bottom brackets and the shelf, the anchor connections remain in the wall for the time being. I am very close to just yanking and hoping for the best.

Another tedious task that I managed to cross off the list today was finding a picture of Nigel. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the names of the Nemo characters, he is the pelican pictured at the beginning of this post. I found decent pictures of all of the Nemo characters online, but unfortunately, due to the odd shape of the one wall in the room, I need Nigel to be in a specific pose. For that reason, I had to watch Nemo in frame-by frame mode in order to take pictures with my cell phone that I could reference while I am drawing him... and yes I said take pictures with my cell phone. Unfortunately, the screen capture options do not work while a DVD is playing. I will say that watching a Pixar film in frame-by-frame really shows how many minute details they put into their work. In the end, I managed to capture some great images to use for the drawing and I can cross that task off the list.

Even with the closet fixture annoyance, I am still on schedule... (this is partially due to the fact that the schedule doesn't officially start until June 13th.) Any and all work completed prior to that date will just be added time for details in the end.

This is going to be such a great summer, I cannot wait for it to start... 9 days and counting...

Pixar, Pixar, and more PIXAR...

Jonas Rivera discussing the history of Pixar and how stories are developed

Jay Ward discussing the changes to the character design and character development for Cars 2

Jonas Rivera and Jay Ward

Jonas Rivera

Michael Giacchino discussing his methods for creating the music for films

Shawn Krause joins Jonas Rivera and Jay Ward on stage for a Q&A session at the end of the day

I think I may have gone into Pixar OD mode last weekend... and I loved every minute of it. Not only did we get to hear 4 of Pixar's own discuss different aspects of the company, but we also got to sit in the front row. It was such an amazing opportunity to actually hear the animators, musicians, producers, and the Cars Franchise Guardian discuss what its like to work for such a wonderful company and why they chose their path. They even asked Ricky's question to Michael Giacchino, which was extremely cool. (...and yes he is slated to do the music for the next Star Trek Movie)

It was such a great day and Ricky and I got to spend it together. I only wish my students could have heard them talk and to be able to hear the things I tell them from the actual source.

I certainly hope this event comes around again in the future.

What a long week...

This was a crazy week...

At the end of a school year, one would think that things start to wind down in anticipation for the summer, but this is not an accurate statement. Things not only start to pick up, but in actual fact, they start to get CRAZY...

Monday was a pretty normal day. I worked the average day and went to the gym in the evening. Let's consider this the calm before the storm...

Tuesday was the first of the crazy ones. After a full day at school, I went down to the auditorium foyer to help set up for the Edgewater Spring Arts Night. We had all of the groups represented from Guitar to Painting and Chorus to Computer Graphics. Unfortunately, Animation was left off of the party list this year. No screen to show my students work and no room to lay out all of their drawings. I feel bad that their work went unseen, but that just means that the morning announcements will be inundated with animation projects for most of next school year. Aside from the animation being left out, the night was a success. We had refreshments galore and it seems like everyone who attended had a good time.
Time of arrival to home... 8:30PM

Wednesday was another great day for the students at Edgewater. Wednesday night was the Senior Awards night where students are presented with scholarships and school based awards to recognize their achievements over their high school careers. After working a full day, I stayed at school to not only attend the ceremony, but I also presented the Departmental Award for the Visual Arts. It was such a lovely night as I watched many of my seniors walk across that stage to receive recognition. Two of my students received a scholarship for Art and Technology supplies and of course, most of them walked up for their Bright Futures Scholarship. I was very proud to see what they have accomplished and it just reminded me that they are leaving too soon.
Time of arrival at home... 9:15PM

Thursday night was the big one... the EHS Spring Football game against Wekiva. After working a full day, I went down to the partially renovated stadium to see our Eagles take on the Mustangs. When we first went out their, the sun was vicious and I thought that I was going to melt, however, it turned out to be a very lovely evening. At half time they retired Mike Sims-Walker's Jersey #21 and named him the first inductee of the Ring of Fire for Edgewater. Although I never taught him in high school (because I was still at UCF working on my degree), I was proud because he is also a UCF Alum. (Go Knights!)

Although the game started off badly with Wekiva scoring a touchdown right out of the gates, we ended up coming back and showing the Mustangs what we are made of with a solid win. I must say it is hard to keep track of the time and the score without a scoreboard, but it will be nice to see the new one installed.
Time of arrival at home... 10:45PM

After all of the festivities this week, I can honestly say that I haven't been this excited about a lazy weekend in a long time. Granted I loved being involved in all of the events and I was so proud of all of my students, I'm just glad I survived in one piece. I am truly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful opportunities and although I'm glad the weekend has arrived, I wouldn't have traded this week for anything.

A Motley Crew...

Kyle, Kevin Z, Sarge, Ricky, Tammy, KP, Me, & Eric after the 5K/10K Run, Walk, & Roll for Operation Giveback @ UCF on May 14th

Operation Giveback Run, Walk, & Roll

Yesterday we (Ricky, Me, Tammy, our Boot Camp Crew and about 1100 other people) participated in the Inaugural Run, Walk, & Roll 5k/10k for Operation Giveback at UCF. This organization was put together to help support the efforts of the Wounded Warrior Project which attempts to raise awareness and resources for wounded and disabled service
members.


Yesterday we participated in the Inaugural Run, Walk, & Roll 5k/10k for Operation Giveback at UCF. This organization was put together to help support the efforts of the Wounded Warrior Project which attempts to raise awareness and resources for wounded and disabled service members.


I finished in 43 minutes with a pace of 13:59. I finished 41st out of 50 in my age group and although it may not seem like an accomplishment, it s a considerable one. Normally, I average 15 minute miles, which is pretty slow. However, as you can see I managed to reduce my time by a minute... Now if we compare it to my pace in the half marathon that I did in February, I went from pacing a 17 minute mile to a 14 minute mile and that means I went faster by 3 minutes. I know that some of you may say, well the first half of your 1/2 marathon was probably the faster pace and the end averaged out your pace to be slower and you would be correct. But it just sounds nice to say that I dropped my pace time by 3 minutes.

Ricky was much braver than I was because he decided that he was going to do the 10k. He did very well and although I don't think he liked his time, he achieved his goal by finishing. This race also provided me with an interesting opportunity... I got to watch Ricky cross the finish line. Under normal circumstances, Ricky and I are running the same distance. Since he runs a faster pace than I do, he always finishes first. Fortunately, I decided that a 5k was enough for me, I finished before him and was able to watch him cross the line and cheer him on. It was definitely a cool experience.

Although I may not run fast, I participate in these events for my health and for the wonderful organizations they represent. I will never be a runner, but over the past 6 months I have proven to myself that I can run a half marathon, a 5k is a walk in the park, and no matter what your time ends up being, you are running, walking or rolling for a good cause.

If you are interested in more information you can check out their website at http://www.operation-giveback.com/ or check out their Facebook page.

News 13 Coverage of Operation Giveback Run, Walk & Roll

Now we wait... until July...

AP Portfolios have been officially submitted and are out of my hands and left to the powers that be. Can I just explain how much pressure has been lifted off my shoulders... if you need a visual its as if Oliver has jumped off my shoulders after pretending to be a parrot... its that awesome....

Now I know what you may be thinking... why do AP if its so much pressure and stress? Here's the thing, I love love love my AP students to death, the timeline can just be a bit of a crunch. Unlike other subjects, my students are working on their "exam" all year. Every piece of work is part of what they will be graded on and it can get frustrating for everyone involved. Fortunately, I am blessed with students who worked their butts off this year and managed to put together some good portfolios.

Now the waiting begins. I am hoping that I can find out my scores while I am at the AP Summer Institute in July, but it all depends on when the scores are ready. I have made my predictions, but I am not going to share because I do not want to jinx it. However, I will say that based on my predictions my pass rate could be anywhere from 40% to 100% depending on the year. Here's hoping for good things and a positive report in July.

Countdown Craziness...

Ok Ok...

So I may have gone a little overboard with the countdown tickers on the blog... but in my defense there is a lot going on this year that I am looking forward to. There are only 29 more days until my summer vacation begins and the Nemo Room extravaganza ensues. Not to mention the fact that we leave for a cruise in 56 days and in only 6 months we will be jet-setting toward Paradise Island in the Bahamas to see the Knights in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

Aside from all of those wonderful things we must also remember that I have combined all 3 of my blogs together so instead of having to peruse multiple blogs, anything and everything Currey is in one convenient location.... with that being said the weight loss ticker has just been justified as well. So there....