Summer Projects

Since posting what one is up to seems to be par for the blogger course, here goes.  Three major projects this summer in addition to the usual curriculum work, tech integration testing, hardware/software updating, etc. My fabulous IT department tolerates my updating my classroom hardware and software.  The exercise helps me gain the skills I will need during the upcoming year to troubleshoot recalcitrant hardware.  I have long maintained that I am really not a genius when it comes to fixing problems, I just have a good memory and through sheer repetition have the necessary skills to appear far cleverer than I really am.

Last weekend, I participated in the 2010 Summer Teacher Institute presented by Oregon Humanities.  This year we studied "The Way We Work:  History Lessons for a New Economy.  The three day seminar was both engaging and challenging.  Right now, I'm working on a paper for Larry Lipin at Pacific University.  I am comparing the lives of working women in Israel to the lives of women/factory workers in the US.  This type of project helps me better understand what my 7th graders experience when they begin a project I shepherd them through.  It feels good to exercise the brain.

Dad turns 80 this year, so there is a project involved.  Since I think he reads this blog, I can't say anything more except that I am using a very old slide scanner and am learning VueScan software.  The program works as advertised and has made life easier.  See you in August, Dad.

Best procrastination for both of these projects is yardwork.  Hedges need trimming, there are unending weeds to pull or spray, plants, trees, and shrubs require pruning, etc.  It feels good to exercise the body.....and yardwork makes Pam happy.  A win-win for me!