Just Do It

With Microsoft trying out "Be What's Next," I thought it a good time to look back at a truly successful slogan which has become ubiquitous in today's vocabulary.  In 20 years, will we say to one another, "Be what's next?"  Sounds strange right now, but time will tell.  Today I spent time with two people who influence my life on a daily basis.  Both have Nike connections which explains the title of today's post.  John is quite possibly the most focused individual I know.  After our one hour meeting, I realized how much work I have to complete prior to the start of the next school year.  Yes, I know the units I will be teaching, but I haven't tried nearly hard enough to infuse my Israel experience into them.  Time to revisit Prezi, Animoto, and Wallwisher.  In many ways, John is my Livestrong bracelet personified.  Wearing the bracelet is easy, living the bracelet requires strength, discipline, and focus.

After meeting with John, I had lunch with my 87 year old friend Henry.  Henry works out for sixty minutes a day....two sessions of 30 minutes each.  That should be enough motivation.  An 87 year old is working out an hour a day.  What are you waiting for?  Two thirty minute workouts a day.  Just do it.....or you won't make it to "be what's next."

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!

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!

Recharging and reflecting

The most common question I am asked as a teacher during the summer months is, "Are you enjoying time off from work?"  Huh?  Time off?  Summer is when I recharge my batteries by NOT teaching, but it is certainly not time off.  There is a mountain of professional reading to be digested, curriculum to be evaluated and changed, and thinking to be done.  None of this is possible during the school year.  If I am lucky, I can decipher the notes I make during a unit about how to improve it.  Students also provide feedback about both units and teaching style.  This year, for example, my students wrote that I was overly sarcastic in class.  Upon reflection, this was probably true.  I was so focused on my Fulbright Israel experience that I probably wasn't as relaxed and caring as in past years.  We'll see how evaluations come in next year.  I'll work on the sarcasm.....seriously.  Right now, I am working on retooling two units, the beginning of the year oral history unit, and the Geography & The Human Experience unit.  While reworking the oral history unit, I read an interesting piece in the THE Journal.  It seems the folks at tomorrow.org conduct annual surveys.  This past year future teachers were surveyed and the results were not exactly encouraging (okay, that was sarcasm.)  Most future teachers are learning to use the technology tools their professors and mentor teachers use.  They are not being encouraged to develop uses for cutting edge tools such as mobile devices, games, etc. which an increasing number of students have access to.  Geoffrey Fletcher, the THE editor who wrote the article asked readers "what teacher education program prepared [me] for teaching?  When was the last time I provided the program feedback?

Lewis and Clark College in Portland Oregon prepared me for teaching.  Back in the mid-70's, computers were limited to Fortran cards, and slides set to music was considered cutting edge technology.  Bernie Wolff, the first of many fine mentors I would have in my early years of teaching encouraged us to be creative teachers who never stopped finding new ways to reach students, differentiate our instruction, collect and analyze data about students and ourselves, and stay current with brain research, teaching literature, and technology.  I began creating musical slide shows of children's books.  My current school continues to work with Lewis and Clark interns.  They continue to be superbly prepared and continue to inject new, creative thinking into our school.

Enough for now, back to re-tooling.  Trying to figure out how quickly my 7th graders can learn and produce quality work with Animoto....