Grant Hill

Grant Hill was my favorite player during his four years at Duke. I even rocked the Blue Devils jersey in middle school. Hill was a high-flying, do-everything 6'8" small forward.

Coming into the NBA as the #3 pick to the Detroit Pistons, Hill won co-Rookie of the Year with Jason Kidd with a stat line of 19.9, 6.4 rbs, 5.0 assists and 1.8 steals. His PER for the first 6 seasons averaged 22.5 and even posted a win/share total of 14.6 in 1996-97.

He was the biggest basketball brand aside from His Airness #23.

Hill went down in a playoff game with an ankle injury that was devastating. He continued playing on it that series and effectively ruined the rest of his career. Despite the ankle injury, the Orlando Magic signed Hill and Tracy McGrady in free agency in 2000 to be the next Michael & Scottie. With Hill and McGrady running on the wings that team would have been scary good and athletic. The injury and subsequent rehab was so calamitous that he almost died from a staph infection.

Grant Hill had a brief resurgence under the care of the Phoenix Suns miraculous medical team and averaged 30 minutes per game over four full seasons; however, he never regained the dynamism and explosiveness pre-injury. For me, Grant Hill was the one player who would have been legendary without the injury.

The Arrow of Truth

By

Ryan Wheeler

February 23, 2017

As anyone who has been part of a dissolved marriage can attest: Divorce is exceptionally hard. The emotional and financial toll can strain even the most iron-strong of characters to the point of fracture. Divorce is akin to the destruction of a skyscraper: years to build and moments to obliterate into ruin & debris. Verily, no one is immune to the fallout including children, family, friends, acquaintances and coworkers.

This experience has taken me on an emotional rollercoaster like no other. I left to save my shriveling spirit and renew the gray lifeless soil eroding my soul. In the change I have been reborn and discovered more truths about myself, life and the universe  than I can communicate. As Khalil Gibran said in The Prophet, “Your Joy is your sorrow unmasked...The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”

With clear, hopeful eyes I see the light and hope in the world. Looking for signs like a Shakespearean soothsayer is part of my new vision. Recently, while writing poetry near a rippling water’s edge I observed the sun blazing behind a gauzy thick cloud. With its fire safely contained behind the cumulous cover, I watched the slow symphony of celestial movement. Patience and peace quelled my questing mind as I appreciated the tome of truth transpiring before my eyes. As the cloud slid away from the sun a single ray of sunlight lit upon the water and began coursing toward my resting spot. The light grew in length and narrowed to a piercing point while wending its way across the water. I watched in rapt awe at this flaming arrow-tip gliding directly at my position of repose. In this moment, I gained an understanding and reassurance that I had been desperately needing:

Yes, I am on the right path. Rediscovering my own luminous self. Leaner, humbled, and moving in the right direction. I am becoming me once again.

Accepting that the most difficult choices in life can yield the most rewarding results is paramount to personal growth. Routines and self-care have become important components of my once chaotic and neglected life. Mindfulness is a daily practice as I try to live and love intentionally.

Through these trials I have improved in nearly every way and emerged humbled, a bit wiser and possessing the ability to see the sunshine through the clouds.

My Toolkit of Behavior Tricks

Real Interventions that Really Work for Emotionally Reactive Students

Written by Ryan Wheeler, M.A.

For Edutopia.org

February 2017

Over my many years of working with emotionally reactive students I have learned a few tricks. Each time I acquire a new skill I say that it goes in my “toolkit.” This toolkit is my figurative database of different techniques to try in situations when students are in crisis. These students do not yet possess self-regulation strategies to help themselves so my job then becomes helping them out of the immediate moment. One technique does not work for every student; therefore, I take the pragmatic approach, in that if one doesn’t work, then I just keep rolling through my toolkit of tricks until I find one that is effective.

Presence

Oftentimes, students act out because they are not feeling seen or heard so if I give them my complete focus they are having that need met. I get the student’s attention first by using his or her name. When they know that I know their name that communicates that I am here to help. Eye contact is my first tool, I know this sounds basic but this simple element is essential. I’ve found that if I focus all of my attention on the student with my eyes and convey a real sense of empathy that begins to build a bridge of understanding. After saying their name and catching their eye I engage them in some dialogue.

The first strands of conversation are not particularly of consequence as I am merely trying to get their mind off being flooded with negative emotions. Sometimes, I ask a genuine question like, “What is the matter?” and other times I try to distract with a completely unrelated comment like, “Whoa! Is that the Millennium Falcon outside?” I have also been known to tell a silly joke as a means of shaking a student out of a frustrated mindset. Saying something that has absolutely nothing to do with the present moment may be enough to snap them out of their flooded state. I’ve used distraction in many ways to get student’s attention off of whatever or whoever made them furious and bring them back to a state of rational thinking. Once, I walked into a room where a student had a cadre of teachers pushed off to the side of the room while he was brandishing a shelf from a bookcase. After quickly surveying the scene I just said, “hey what is that?” while pointing away from me. That second of distraction was enough for the student to forget what he was doing, see my friendly face, and give me his would-be weapon and the crisis was resolved peaceably.

Rapport is the best remedy for any crisis situation. For this reason, I make a point of getting to know the students with histories of being highly reactive. I like to think of this as building equity in case such a need arises. One day I was walking out to the recess field with my football and passed the PE teacher. She politely asked what I was doing and I replied, “I’m going to have some positive experiences with kids.” She appreciated this response and understood immediately that my laying the groundwork with positive interactions can pay itself off exponentially later on...also, playing with the kids is just fun for them and me!

Tactile

A tactile approach can also be extremely useful. For a specific young autistic student, I bring a small squishy soccerball to any situation because simply handing him that ball is enough to quell his anger. For another student I use hand squeezes that count down from five. I put my thumb in his hand and count five hand squeezes, he then returns the five squeezes. We work our way down to zero in 30 seconds or less and the frustration abates. Trying these tactile techniques can give students a safe way to let out their negative energy in a safe and positive way.

Practice

My favorite technique from my toolkit involves only breathing. Teaching a student how to breath intentionally as a means of controlling emotions is one of the gifts I impart. I ask them to focus on my eyes and teach hand signals to reduce verbalization and focus first on the act of breathing. The hand signals are as follows: palms up to breathe in, palms out to hold the breath, palms down to breathe out. We do no more than 5 total breaths and the entire process takes about 40 seconds. I like teaching this technique because it can help emotional regulation and promote clear thinking in any situation. Intentional breathing can be used to alleviate test-taking anxieties, center oneself before giving a presentation, finding a second of peace before moving on from one thing to the next or just mindfully being present is this moment right now.

Emergency situations can be impactful for everyone involved: the student acting out, the staff trying to help and any student who witnesses the action. I arrive at these instances ready to use my toolkit and keep trying these as well as other techniques to help resolve it as quickly as possible. Remember that if one trick does not work keep rolling through your repertoire until you arrive at one that is of assistance; also, be cognizant of what worked this time and try that one first should the need arise with the same student. Our purpose is to help our students however they need and guiding them to get their emotions under control can be one of the most essential skills we teach.

Super Challenge Question or Homework Redefined

Super Challenge Question or Homework Redefined

Homework is a perpetual problem for teachers. We want to engage parents in their child’s education by providing materials to work on at home. Teachers also strive to make the activities more than busy work. Should homework be for a grade based simply on completion or be strictly for practice? While brainstorming with a 4th grade team about the plight of their homework situation, an idea began to organically bloom in my brain.

The problem is this case was that the English Language Arts teacher sends work home one week while the Math teacher sends it the next. Both teachers had about 30% of students never turn in a homework assignment. They tried positive rewards through Class Dojo, negative consequences tied to lunch and recess as well as parent phone calls home. Feeling like all they were doing was running into a wall repeatedly, they asked for help.

I said, “You integrate Social Studies with the ELA lesson. Can you integrate homework?”

“Yes...” replied the teacher.

This is an example of what we came up with during our brainstorming session.

An ultralight airplaine tracked monarch butterflies migrating to mexico. She found that they traveled about 45 miles a day. The month of september has 30 days. How many miles did the butterflies travell in September?

Math – Solve the problem and show all work

ELA – Find 5 grammatical errors in this word problem

Homework does have the benefit of engaging a parent with their child's education but also can get in the way of family activities. This new direction for homework can take away some of that stress for students, parents and teachers. Giving less work but asking for more thinking can give families more time together without the turmoil of excessive homework and give kids the chance to be kids after a hard day's work at school.

Tomato Schmear Poached Eggs

I tried a fantastic recipe of Tomato Schmear from Food52.com comprised of canned tomatoes, olive oil and herbs baked for two hours. This vibrant and flavorful condiment went perfectly with chicken, steak, lentils, beans, and especially white rice. After the 3rd day of enjoying my large container of roasted tomato goodness I had a moment of inspiration: poaching my morning eggs. I have a history of poaching eggs in different liquids so this is not out of the norm, but on this Wednesday morning I created some vibrant huevos!

The process is simple: ladle a heaping spoonful of tomato schmear into a small skillet. Add a small amount of water and muddle it with the schmear over low heat. Crack two or three eggs into the heating mixture and leave it alone for 5 minutes. After cinco minutos take a large spoon and gently flip the yoke over and back into the savory sauce. Three minutes later and the eggs are ready. Remove everything from the skillet into a bowl or onto a plate. Fork or spoon this delectable concoction into your watering mouth and enjoy an easy new way to make a healthy breakfast. Bon appetit!

This Summer's Reads

This summer I've been doing a ton of reading, a ton. Despite having read so many books I've done a lot too like a 10 day trip to Texas, a 3 week jaunt through Spain, 2 days in London and some good times with the awesome folks in St. Louis. Basically I mention those trips just so you all don't think I'm just a super nerd who spends all his summer time reading.

Now for the list:
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
At first I had no idea what this book was about and had a hard time getting into it but then I decided that it was absolutely hilarious and laughed my way through. Still not sure if it was supposed to be so funny but I just found all of the coincidences and strange occurrences impossible to be taken seriously so I cracked up. Read most of it on the beach in San Sebastian and thought the mostly sun-drenched imaginary town fit very nicely on the beach.

This book is the saga of the Buendia family and the rise and fall of a village in Mexico. Every male child born in the family is named either Aureliano or Jose Arcadio but it isn't really too difficult to follow who is who. Colonel Aureliano Buendia started 32 civil wars and fathered 17 sons all named Aureliano...if you can't laugh at that absurdity, c'mon! Marquez won a Nobel Prize for literature so you know he can write.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I really want to like Neil Gaiman. The dude writes books, screenplays, comic books, articles and whatever else he wants to do. I respect that. However, his stuff just isn't that great in my opinion. I liked American Gods where all the local gods came over with every settler who came to America over history. The main character, Shadow, is a mortal who is being exposed to this other world peopled by the gods of yore for the first time just as we are being exposed as well making our guide through the saga have the same fresh eyes as the reader. There is a lot going on in this book and seeing the gods you've heard of, and many you haven't, brought to life and seeing them exist in corporeal bodies in our world is fun but the story just wasn't all that interesting. Seems like Gaiman had one really great idea, to bring the gods to life, but had no idea what to do with them once they had that life breathed into them.

The Kite Runner, Kalied Hosseini
Read this one on a recommendation and thought it was brilliant! Probably the best book I've read in quite awhile. There is an excellent portrayal of a place that doesn't exist anymore, pre-Taliban Afghanistan, that is richly brought to life in a nostalgic, vibrant, sad-for-its-ruin kind of fashion.
The story migrates over to the United States for a time but eventually moves back to Afghanistan. There is some of the Power of One tossed in here, which I love, as well as a beautiful love story and the tale of the love and kinship of friendship. The sentence that hooked me within the first 10 pages was, "There is a way to be good again." Brilliant.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
I won't say anything about what happened because I will never intentionally play the spoiler. All I will say is that this was a fantastic ride that I was thrilled to be a part of and the end was worth the journey. If you aren't into the whole Potter thing, give it a shot. Let the wonderful characters enter your life, you'll be happier for their presence.

World War Z, Max Brooks
First off...I'm a huge fan of the Zombie genre. Seen as many zombie movies as possible but never read a zombie book before. Found out about this one because of a newspaper article and felt compelled to pick it up, wise move! This is the oral history of the Zombie War. Set 10 years after the end of the war for mankind's very existence there is no main character. Instead, there are myriad "interviews" trying to develop the human element of this cataclysmic period. The result is harrowing, terrifying, powerful, haunting, horrible, fantastic, uplifting and ultimately hopeful. It is a political and social commentary for contemporary times that resounds with terrible clarity. Not only is it a tale of the rise of the undead but it is also a tale of political ego and the power of the human spirit. There are some amazing characters brought to life in this novel that do exactly what it sets out to do: present the human element in a terrible tale of history.

Heart Shaped Box, Joe Hill
Aging rock star and collector of the occult buys a dead man's suit that is purported to contain the ghost of its former owner. Scary as shit and I can't get those scribbly eyes out of my head! This is Stephen King's son and I can say that the gift of tale-weaving has been passed down another generation. BTW Hill actually knows how to end a story.

The Dark Tower Series, Stephen King
Briefly mentioned this series in a past blog just as I was setting out on the long hard road. Now I've been done for about two months and feel that the saga is one of my favorites. Any time you invest that much time to read a hefty seven book series it becomes part of you. The story is brilliant, the character of Roland will never leave my mind and I spend time thinking of ways to bring the story to celluloid form and reading the new comic books based on it called The Gunslinger Born. Food for thought: wouldn't this series make an incredible HBO series or mini-series? They never run too long and it could be as brutal as it needs to be because it would be on cable. Besides, HBO makes incredible shows that are rich and alive. Just something for me to muse upon.

Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
Never read it before and I love Hemingway. Picked it up, finished it in a day and only further cemented Papa Hemingway into my list as one of the best ever. The guy was just so good, so good.

Brains!

First off, I love zombie movies. I could expand that universe to anything dealing with a post-apocalyptic vision because of the limitless ways to visualize and express a world that is out of our realm of reckoning but for purposes of specificity I'll limit to the zombie genre.

Starting with spectacular 28 days later in 1999 zombies have made an unprecedented reemergence into the American consciousness. A slew of zombie genre movies followed with a passable remake of Dawn of the Dead.


Model, cum musician, turned actress Milla Jovovich long ago jumped into the fray with her Resident Evil franchise movies as Alice. The third installment came out this weekend and we found the heroine in her own post-apocalyptic world that has been ravaged by the T-virus which reanimates the dead and turns them into flesh eating zombies.

This weekend the third installment came out. I made it a point to go see this movie on opening weekend because of my affinity for this genre. I wanted to show Hollywood my support in the hopes that they would keep making zombie type movie. Resident Evil: Extinction was pretty good. Not as great as #2, RE: Evolution, but certainly worth the viewing.