This article about a security guard in Iraq who sent an email to his friends just before he died is just one more reminder that real people are dying over there.

Michael John Bloss, from Bridgend, south Wales, was shot while guarding electrical workers in the town of Hit.

In an e-mail sent to former colleagues at a skiing school in Colorado, the former paratrooper, 38, warned he was expecting to have to fight to safety.

He wrote: "We are expecting to be over-run tonight and we may have to fight our way to a safe haven."

But he added: "Unfortunately, all the safe havens are already under attack. I don’t wish to alarm you. We’ll probably be OK. I’ll e-mail when I’m safe."

The morning after sending the e-mail the security guard was dead.

At this point, how do we keep track of the casualities? We know how many American soldiers have died, but how many contractors? How many Iraqi children? How many civilians? And how many more have to die before this comes to some kind of conclusion?

What have we done?

Beacon Boys are going to Nationals!

The 2004 High School Ultimate National Championships, that is!

I cannot begin to say how exciting this is. These kids work their tails off. The team started training for the spring season in January, running through the halls of Beacon four days a week. We’ve been outside for about a month, climbing over the fence to get to our practice fields at 6:30 every morning.

Now, it’s fundraising time, time to plan next week’s practices, figure out how the hell we’re getting 21 kids plus parents and chaperones out there, and oh yeah, play some amazing Ultimate to get ready.

People who read this blog regularly might have noticed the high volume of posts this week. And yes, it’s Spring Break for Beacon. What’s nice is that while I’ve had a ton of things to do, and while I haven’t been anywhere near as productive as I could have / should have, I’ve enjoyed paying bills, reading the paper, cooking, getting apartment and nursery stuff done… even taking care of Kat more than I usually get to.

Now, this year is more insane than most years with soon to be parenting and grad school and all, but I look at the paucity of blog entries from Joe Luft and other teacher bloggers (including the Beacon teachers who very much want to blog), and I worry about the old "constructing a teaching life" problem. In urban schools, where do teachers find enough time to be reflective about their own practice, let alone enjoy the chance to read and talk and write about things other than their teaching?

I love blogging, I admit. I love the idea that I’m writing to an audience, no matter how small it may be. There’s something amazing about knowing your words are getting read that is, in my opinion, behind the whole blogging revolution. And it’s also the reason that so many educators see such promise in blogging. But it does take time… not just to write, but to think about having something to write. For me, that’s what always takes so much time. Yes, I read the blogosphere, looking for things to write about, but I’d like to start doing more original writing too.

Call it an optimistic Spring Break goal… now… back to that grad school paper.