Hal Urban's Blog, page 3

Good Teachers Have Two Important Goals (Part 3)

I want to emphasize the positive results, rewards, and joys (for both teachers and students) of successful character programs in this post, but before doing that, two points need to Continue Reading →

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Good Teachers Have Two Important Goals (Part 2)

The disappearance and re-emergence of character education As I wrote in the previous post, character development was an integral part of education, both public and private, from the beginning. Ironically, Continue Reading →

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Good Teachers Have Two Important Goals (Part 1)

Every good teacher starts a school year with two important goals. If both can be attained it will be a good year for both the students and the teacher. Not Continue Reading →

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E-N-T-H-U-S-I-A-S-M Spelled Out

Although this is Blog #4, it would have been better as #2. The first one was about a good teacher’s most important quality – enthusiasm. If you missed that one, Continue Reading →

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The Most Important Thing I Did As A Teacher

Almost everything I did in the first two weeks of school was aimed at building good relationships with my students and helping them build good relationships with each other. The Continue Reading →

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If you can reach ‘em, you can teach ‘em

And it necessarily follows that if you can’t reach ‘em, you can’t teach ‘em. In my first blog piece I wrote about Dr. Tom McSweeney, a great professor of education Continue Reading →

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Good Teachers Share One Special Quality

They’re all a little crazy! Now before you leave this site and look for a more professional and positive blog for educators, please hear me out. Crazy has more than Continue Reading →

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The Author As Jock

Many people think authors spend most of their time reading and writing.  Not so.  We actually do other things, all of them a lot more fun than writing.  I’ve been asked to write about “something special that makes my heart sing.”  Playing softball does that for me.  In fact, I’ve already told my wife Cathy that after I die, I’d like my ashes to be spread at the softball field.  Well, not all of them.  I want some of them spread at Nordstrom so I know she’ll come to visit me at least once a week.


 


I was blessed with good size and some athletic ability, so sports have always been a big part of my life.  My two favorites growing up were baseball and basketball.  I was better at the latter, and it led to a four-year “full ride” basketball scholarship at the University of San Francisco.  As a result, I gave up baseball when I went away to college at age 17.


 


Twenty-three years later I rediscovered my first love – baseball – in another form.  It was called “Over 40 Softball.”  It was both competitive and FUN!
That went on for 10 years, and then I discovered “Senior Softball” when I was about to turn 50.  It’s even more competitive and more fun, and the rules allow you to be a rookie again every five years. The first age group is 50-54, the second group is 55-59, and so on.  Believe it or not, there’s an Over 80 Softball World Championship played every year.  What an incentive to keep in shape.  Alas, there is no 85-89 division – not enough players.


 


Please don’t conclude, “Oh, how cute, a bunch of grandpas playing a kids game.”  These are world-class athletes in their age brackets, no different than Senior Golf or Senior Tennis.  And the season is long.  In northern California, where I play, there’s a tournament every weekend from March 1 to the end of October.  Then we play “winter league” from November through February.


 


One of my goals is to be on a team that wins the Over 80 World Championship some day.  But that’s a ways off.  For now I have to keep playing with the youngsters.  And as I said, it’s a lot more fun than writing.


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