Finishing up the Trip in Style.......

After the conference was over I took the chance to hang out with one of my childhood friends Jared Williams who now lives in Texas. Him and his wife took me out for a dinner at Gringo's, one of the best Mexican Restaurants I have ever been in, of course I ate what he requested.....seafood enchiladas, some of the best food I have ever eaten. We finished up the night playing Cornhole in the street in front of his house. Believe it or not many of his people and many of the people in the south have never seen the game of Cornhole....if they only knew what they were missing. Have a good 1!

Jared and I at dinner at Gringo's
Jared and his wife Leslie (just so happens it was her Birthday!!

Houston....We have a problem.....

Looks like the National Middle School Conference has come to an end, For all those that want to check it out NASA is located in Houston, a link is provided to the right if anyone is interested! Have a good 1!

90 MPH ESCALATOR..........

I went to a couple of different sessions today, one was about service learning projects! This is what I am wanting to get organized (a service learning project) with my social studies classes to get a new flag and flag pole put up at the African American Cemetery behind Wendy's. Also found out why all the news trucks and ambulances were at the conference yesterday, evidently one of the escalators (about two stories high) started going about 90 MPH while it was full of people, of course many people were injured. Luckily I was already out of the place, I am sure it wouldn't have felt good if I landed on someone! We have one more day of the conference, tomorrow I will be checking out of the hotel and going to stay with my friend and his wife that live in Houston, should have many more great pictures. Hope all is well back home! Have a good 1!

Another Sunny Day in Texas!

Here is another pic of the Houston Skyline.
The Texas State Flag (kind of hard to see with no wind)
We all ate Dinner at Pappas, they had a baked potato as big as my head.....no comments from the peanut gallery on that one!

Backstage at Minute Maid Park

This was in the Diamond Club, Nolan Ryan threw Seven no hitters (no Cy Young), Roger Clemons had seven Cy Young's (no No Hitters)
This is a pic from a luxury box at Minute Maid Park, Box costs 5,000 a game (that doesn't even include food for your guests!)

Mr. Wells Visits Minute Maid Park

SCMS ROCKS!!!!!! Me with Mrs. Haney and Mrs. Williams
Million Dollar Shot, Hong Kong Style

Houston at Night

As you can see...downtown Houston is no Hong Kong, but is still quite a big city, still haven't figured out how to take pictures with my camera at night. Everything looks so blurry, the Skyline in Houston is no bigger than what we see in Cincy.

I'm a genius.....not really

Just wanted to let everyone know I have arrived in Houston!!!! I took some great pictures today and was getting ready to post them, only to find out that i did not have the disk that saves the picture in my camera :( I even had a good picture of Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Haney! I went to two sessions today, both were GREAT! One session I learned about incorporating sports into my History Lessons effectively the other session I learned some new strategies on how to get you try to enjoy what I teach a little more! I am on my way to Minute Maid Park for a tour, will have pictures posted....I promise, Have a good 1-DTW

Looks like I was wrong.....

3rd Hour....The Lunch Class :)


I began thinking about my statement today about Koala Bears and the fact that the eucalyptus that the eat puts the Koala's in a trance.....I was wrong, find why Koalas sleep all but 8 hours a day below.......(information retrieved from wikipedia)



Koalas have a slow metabolic rate due to their high-fiber, low nutrient diet. Because they store little or no fat, koalas must adopt strategies that conserve energy. Sleeping is one of them.Koalas sleep for up to 16 hours per day in order to conserve energy.A very slow metabolic rate optimizes its energy requirements and allows koalas to retain food within their digestive system for a relatively long period of time, maximizing the amount of extracted energy.

Ok......I'm offically bored, I guess it's a good thing that they have free wireless internet in the Lexington Airport, looks like plans have changed, I'll be staying in Atlanta rather than Houston tonight, and will wake up and fly from Atlanta in the morning.....good thing I'm not in a hurry! The above picture is one that I took earlier today in first hour......sorry those in 2nd and 4th hour I didn't get to see you today. The bellringer was if you believed in reincarnation, what would you want to be reincarniated as and why......there were many interesting answers!!!!

A not so happy start.....

Looks like it is going to be a not so easy trip to Houston....the flight out of Lexington has been delayed , until 7:30 which is only going to allow me 20 minutes to catch my flight to Houston.......and to make matters worse I got searched by the airport security...looks as if ol' Mr. Wells was not smart enough to take his belt off and his keys out of his pocket before going through the metal screeners........let's just hope I get their in one piece :) Have a good 1

2007-2008 @ SCMS

In Florida with friends, enjoying whats left of the summer!!!!




The first day of school is just around the corner....Friday August 10th. Looks like we will get our first chance to meet our kiddos and their parents at the SCMS Orientation on August 7th, time TBA. Throughout the year I will be posting various class information on this website including the class syllabus as well as scoring rubrics for the projects that we will be doing this year. I am really looking forward to another great year at SCMS!!! Email me through the address above if you have any questions daniel.wells@scott.kyschools.us

Picks from the Airport

Stephen's Boy....

Wow...the airport in Hong Kong has free wireless internet......we are currently waiting on our flight that will be leaving in about an hour and a half....here are some pictures of our goodbyes...we are really going to miss our hong kong friends! See you in the states-DTW

Look at all those taxi's!

A group picture gone wrong.

The ladies in Hong Kong are beautiful people!

Tyler...you can explain this one...I hope!Here is a picture of Stephen and I saying our goodbyes.Deanna, Allie, and Einstein.

Allie working in her journal before departing.

Sliva debriefing the group.

Barber and his host mom.

The last Good Morning from Hong Kong

We just had our wake up calls and are trying to cram everything into are bags (dad the second bag was a good idea!). Our flight leaves Hong Kong at 12:45 AM Friday Night your time, we arrive into Chicago around 3:30 PM Saturday your time and then we have a lengthy lay over in Chicago (should be fun) before we arrive in Lexington around 9:00 PM Saturday Night. Please pray for us that we will have a safe and timely flight and that we will not miss any of our connections! I am sure that the 15 hour plane ride will include alot of napping (even though I had the best sleep of the entire week last night!) At dinner last night we were really treated like royalty as Dr. Peter Wong passed us out a huge bag of gift (one gift was crystal with Hong Kong's emblem on it). We had about 20 courses of food last night, I thought that southern hospitality was the best but I have found that the people we have been around in Hong Kong are really caring and giving people, this has been a first class trip for all! So long from Hong Kong!!!! We look forward to seeing everyone back home!-DTW

This is Dr. Peter Wong MC'ing the event!

Here is Dr. Peter Wong and Jen Patrick, Dr. Wong is filling Jen's Plate full of good food!

The view from the front door of our hotel room, check out what i s behind the glass.

Final Day in Hong Kong!

Today Dale and I departed out of the hotel around 8:00 for two school visits, today both visits were to primary schools. The first school that we visited was Ma On Shan Ling Liang Primary School, this school was located in what is called the New Territories of Hong Kong. This primary school has around 1000 students enrolled but because of the Easter Holiday they were not in session. Ma ON Shan Ling Liang is a religous affilated primary school but is still governemnt funded....that part of the Hong Kong Educational System I find quite interesting! From the minute we walked in the door of this school we were treated like royalty, we exchanged gifts with the princpal Sylvia and lets just say they showed us with gifts. We took a tour around the school (pictures posted), had a tea, and then completed our visit with a private showing of their famous play that was done in the traditional Chinese Language. After the visit we were treated to Shanghi style Chinese food and our bellys were full to the brim. These Hong Kong schools really do take Invitational Education to the limits, the school had pictures of each class blown up on the front door and all of the hallways and classrooms were adorned with students pictures and work (some even framed). This mornings experience is one that we will not soon forget! Here were our tour guides for the day, they did a great job...all in English!

A young student doing a head stand. Here is the adorable student that did a head stand for us!

Here was the view from the outside of the school, the teachers said this was the fourth highest point in Hong Kong, if you look closely they said it looks like the back of a horse.

Here are all of the actors and teachers from the school, the Chinese Checker was adorable! Here is Dale and I with the Chinese Checker and the Frog, this was a first class performance! Mrs. Jennings here are some parents and students barcoding books in this invitational library....quite impressive (expecially on Easter Break).Here we are at dinner with some of the staff from Ma On Shan Ling Liang Primary School.

After lunch the second school we visited was also a religous affilated school located in inner city Kowloon (the town our hotel is in), Holy Carpenter Primary School . This primary school was a bit smaller with only around 400 students, this school is in the process of applying for the 2008 Invitational Schools Award, they showed us many great things that that do with their underprivilged students and parents. They had many great ideas on how to create an environment to allow their students to understand success so that they may accomplish it in their own lives both inside and outside of school. Tonight we will be meeting at 6:30 to go and have our farewell dinner with the Hong Kong Invitational Educatoin Delegation, I will probably get up a short post tonight and another quick one before we leave the hotel tomorrow. I will also post a reflection when I get back with some pictures of the trip home, I hope all have enjoyed, I also hope that all that are interested may too also travel with the Exchange Program in the near future. Take Care!-DTW

Below is a picture of the US Delegation with the Holy Carpenter Primary School Group. This is a picture of Dale and I and the principal of the school, Ms. Cheng Sze Sze.Here is the teacher's work room at the school.This is a view of the Harbor from the outside window of the school, quite impressive!Here is another view of the Harbor from the school. This is a picture from the school you can see how close the school is located to the harbor as well as see their basketball courts, their basketball team won the primary championship!

Wrapping up Another Great Day!

Jason and I just got back from a night out with Stephen, Silva, and Peter. We ate some Japanese Sushi (i ate a small fried fish...head and all) which was a first for me. We had a great time getting to know the educators from Aw Boon School alot better....one thing is clear they do know how to put away the food! It seems as if it is in their culture here to eat, and eat, and eat. I think a Golden Corral Buffet would do great business here. Tomorrow I will be getting up at the crack of dawn and headed out to evaluate two schools until about 6:00 PM, directly after we get back we will be going out for a debriefing dinner with the IE executives here in Hong Kong. Unfortunately most of the SC educators will not be able to make it to the closing ceremonies at Aw Boon tomorrow with our students because we will be doing a school visit. The adminstration and educators of Aw Boon have gone out of their way this week to make this a memorable experience for everyone who came, we really appricate all that they have done. I will hopefully get one more post up tomorrow night before bed and possibly one up before we leave on Saturday morning. I have posted our return flight plans below, as you can see we have a long layover in Chicago which should give everyone enough time to call their rides to be ready for them in Lexington. I believe that all students and educators have had a great week and we really look forward to coming home to see our families! Take Care-DTW

Here are our flight plans for coming home on Saturday.
Saturday April 14th
Depart Hong Kong 12:45 PM
Arrive in Chicago 2:20 PM
Depart Chicago 7:15 PM
Arrive in Lexington 9:35 PM

Aw Boon Basketball Camp

This morning Dale and I rolled out of bed and headed directly for the basketball court before 8:00. We set out for a 45 minute trip to the Aw Boon Secondary School for a English speaking basketball camp. At the camp there were around thirty campers and the instructor Mono was from Canada. Mano played for the University of Waterloo and then some for Athletes in Action but now he tours the world giving motivational speaches and conducing basketball camps, he also runs his company The Point Guard Academy (www.pointguardacademy.com) and makes a couple of stops around the US each summer. This was the first day of a three day long camp and I have to say I was impressed with the skill of some of the athletes at the camp....but trust me none could even play on the same court with our girl Allie! Dale and myself stayed at the basketball camp until about noon when we got on the bus to come home dropping the kids off at aia amusement park (a kind of like big time county fair), if those kids ride some of those rides they are braver than I will ever be. Looks like tonight will be going out with Silva and Stephen for a dinner in Hong Kong and tomorrow is full of two school visits and then the closing ceremonies back at Aw Boon tomorrow night.....it seems like this week has flown by! I really enjoyed watching the Hong Kong kids at basketball camp and I was glad to see that the school brought in a top notch camp leader, I even learned some new drills for the boys of SCMS! I hope that all is well back in the County, I think we are all seeing the finish line as our trip comes to a close, no one is looking forward to the flight home or the jet lag that will follow. The kids have done a great job this week, this has been a great experience for all. Take Care-DTW

The kids before we left for AIA, Tyler has got his classic pose!

A picture of Deanna and the all time winningist coach in Scott County Basketball History.

I guess alot of people could watch the basketball game and you would never know....this is a great pic!

Allie and Mano the basketball camp instructor (she probably could not take him off the dribble).

Allie hooping it up with the Hong Kong Ballplayers.

Moves off the dribble Hong Kong style!

Allie and Mano talking hoops during a break, you can look in the background and see another school's basketball court and how close it is, I guess when they play they just open up the gates!

Allie and the best male 7th Grade Social Studies teacher at SCMS!

Allie, Deanna, and Nicole were getting ready for their trip to AIA.