Welcome Back

                                                                                                       September 2, 2014
Welcome back

 It’s hard to believe were back for another school year! I feel like I was just saying good bye to many of you. I have been teaching for seven years, that thought in itself is scary.  Although I must admit I didn’t even acknowledge the word “teaching” until August 18th, I am now ready and determined to making this year great. We will make mistakes together. Mistakes are a part of life. Anyone who has grew as a person or athlete has failed.  It’s what we learn from our mistakes that is the important thing. A colleague once told me I don’t want my students to achieve good grades, I want them to IMPROVE! Welcome to grade 7.

 Since I am going to be learning so much about you, I thought that it would be only fair to share some information about myself. I was born in Woodstock, which is about 30 minutes east of London. At a very early age I moved to a rural town called Princeton. As crazy as this sounds, there are more students in this school then people residing in that miniscule municipality. The public school that I attended was located in the middle of the town. It looked vastly different from Highview. There was one hallway in the school and a gym that was so small the NBA three point line would have been one half of the gym. Although it was a tiny school, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and I have very fond memories of my fellow classmates and teachers. In grade 9, my parents decided to move back to Woodstock so that our house would be closer to Huron Park Secondary School, the high school I spent five years at.

 After five years of high school (Yes, I went to grade 13 which was called OAC), I was faced with one of the hardest decisions of my young life; where would I attend University? My options were Western or Brock. I chose Brock University and I still believe today, that was the best decision I ever made in my life. Not only did I meet my future wife there, I met a bunch of friends that I’m still very close with to this day. After receiving an Honours Bachelor of Physical Education, I decided that I was going to travel across the globe and pursue my Masters of Education in the land down under “AUSTRALIA”. After studying abroad, I completed my practise teaching in Ontario and applied for a position at the York Region District School Board. I was very fortunate to become a teacher at Highview in 2007 and have been happy ever since.

For most of my life I have been involved in sports in one form or another. My wife Ashlee says that I’m sports obsessed. It is true that the first thing I do in the morning is turn on the television and watch Sports Center. It is also true that I am known to sit on the couch and watch countless hours of sports. Sitting in my comfortable nest chair, it is very common for me to be surrounded by my iPhone, iPad, and sometimes even my computer as my eyes are glued to the big game.

As a child, I played numerous sports including rep hockey, baseball, basketball, golf, soccer and even karate for a couple of years. To be honest, I played almost every sport growing up in some facet or another.

Now in my older age, I play about 40 rounds of golf in a summer. It is one of those games that can be so frustrating but at the same time can be so rewarding when you hit a good shot.  The best way to describe my golf game would be like a roller coaster, hi's, low's, twists and turns.  Some days I contemplate golf retirement, and then I magically hit a shot that sucks me back for more turbulence.

Another activity you may be surprised that I love to do is read. In my opinion, reading is much more then novels. I like to read internet articles on my iPad, magazines, and newspapers. This summer I read several books including "Golf is not a perfect game", "The Lost Masters", "Tiger, meet my sister", and a few hockey books.  Can anyone guess what all these books have in common?  Currently I’m reading "Divergent".  I decided I was mentally ready to read other utopian novel.  Well actually, my wife wants to watch the movie.  Everyone knows you read the book before watching the movie.

The most exhilarating week of the summer was our trip to the Exuma's, which is an island east of the Bahamas.  Stat of the day.... Did you know there are 700 islands in the Bahamas.  The turquoise water, white sand, and steamy hot temperatures made this location so memorable. It was a week I will never forget.

Once I became a middle aged adult, thirty years of age, I frequently complained about aches and pains.  It's pretty simple, my body doesn't recover like it did when I was your age.  Left shoulder, right shoulder, hip flexor, ankle, index finger.....Let's say I'm keeping my physiotherapist in business.

We are all now back for another school year. Work hard, get involved, and have fun! I’m looking forward to spending another 200 days with you.

                                                                     Sincerely B. Kaufman