Don't Pump the Brakes

New Orleans. The Big Easy. N’awlins. NOLA. Whatever you would like to call it, New Orleans is high on the bucket for just about every American I know. When I found out that the NCTM conference was going to be held in New Orleans this year, a co-worker friend and I immediately knew that we needed to attend, and go down south to experience all of what New Orleans has to offer.

On our first day in New Orleans, we went to the National World War II Museum, which was unbelievable. Throughout the four building exhibit, they had so much memorabilia from the Second World War, and it was exhilarating to say the least. After going through the World War II Museum, we had lunch at Cochon (which I would highly recommend!) and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the conference. Afterwards, we took a quick trip down Bourbon Street, had some delectable Hand Grenades, and had a splendid dinner at The Court of Two Sisters.
On our second and third day, we had the conference for the greater part…

As Steve Politi of the Star-Ledger has pointed out, the group of high school students that made up the East Side High School Basketball team this year was “a group that decided that the road less traveled was the one to take, and that they would take it together to the old brick building on Van Buren Street in Newark,” instead of choosing to attend an exclusive private high school on a basketball scholarship. As such, we spent a lot of time in March driving all over the state watching our Red Raiders upset team after team, all the way through the state championship and to the final game of the Tournament of Champions.
Although we ended up coming up exactly two points short of being the first public school in nearly 20 years to win a tournament of champions trophy, you would be hard-pressed to find a Newarker that couldn’t be prouder of a team that worked so hard to get as far as they did. For as our own Jamar Gilbert has said, “growing up, you [would] only hear the bad things about New…

Last month, I had the absolute privilege of diving aboard the Turks & Caicos Aggressor II in the British West Indies with my friends Nick and Karina to issue in the New Year. Undoubtedly one of the best weeks of my life, I figured instead of talking about what made the trip so great, I would let this little video I put together tell the story. As we say in the scuba diving community, the pool is always open!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxg0dP9_zRi6VWk5bC1nZlZHTUU/edit


P.S. Here is a copy of the captains log for our trip, which can also be found

It is hard to believe that it has been a full year since I wrote last year’s ‘year in review.’ 2013 has gone by so incredibly fast, and since there have been so many great moments along the way, I sure hope I did not forget any here!
In January, I started off the year by attending the 2013 Presidential Inauguration with the East Side High School student council. It was so surreal to be standing on the national mall, listening to our president get sworn in and give his inaugural address. It was also great having higher level political conversations with some of our all-stars from East Side. Obama gave such a great speech, and I will never forgot when our students cheered like crazy when Obama mentioned immigration reform. Besides Obama, Kelly Clarkson perhaps unintentionally stole the show with her fantastic rendition of “My Country, Tis of Thee,” which is linked below. Attending the Inauguration was an experience I will undoubtedly never forget. 


In February, I officially started my mas…