No, I'm Not Dead

by Paul & Aline

Like the title says. I am not dead - just moving. No not this blog. First I moved my classroom and now I am moving house. Needless to say I have been quite busy. Once everything is all cleared up I will get back into posting here.

I am actually going through a little withdrawal.

On another note, the counter on the bottom of my website seems to have picked up about an extra 10,000 hits. Google analytics only recorded about 350 hits. No, I am not as popular as my counter shows. I don't know what happened.

Let me just leave you with a little question that came up from some time with my son.

Does anybody ever worry about the little piggy that ate roast beef?

The Centenial Man

Wow. This post makes 100 posts (and 3000 views). I never stick with anything this long. I want to thank both of my readers for taking part in the conversation. I guess that I am now obliged to review some of my best/favorite/most talked about posts.

It all started September 25, 2007 with this post. Donna DesRoches got me started at a PD session she put on. I decided to use my real grown up name on the internet. (Or as real and grown up as I could manage!) You can actually Google my name now.

While my first post was not very memorable here are some others that are remarkable either because I liked them or they generated some conversation.

Difficulties and Roadblocks Already?

This early post wasn't anything special but it did spark discussion. It showed me the possibilities of blogging. Did I mention that I love when people argue intellegently with me?

Mixcraft - Music Making for the Mac Challenged

According to Google Analytics this page still accounts for 20% of the traffic to my blog. Who would have figured?

Time Lapse Holiday Cheer

This post was about creating time lapse videos. I had initially posted the video directly from YouTube - then I went into Blogger to add more information. In the time between posting from YouTube and going back and editing the post (About 30 minutes) Dean Shareski had already found the post and commented. The really funny part is that I was going back into the post to add a link to his blog where he had done something similar.

Mine? Mine? Mine?

A post about copyright and education. I got some good responses with this one. I am still thinking about the issue and when I get time I will get back to it.

How to Engineer an Objective Pedagogy

This one was fun. The best part is that the people involved still haven't gotten the joke.

My Students are Screwed

I took a bit of a risk on this one. I talked about things that are usually swept under the table. I keep expecting to get in a little hot water over it. Nobody has been willing to touch it in the comments either.

The Value of Time

In lots of my posts you will find me complaining that teachers don't have enough time. Here I think I found part of the reason I don't have enough time.

My Rants

Turns out my carpool was right. I do rant a lot. Here are some of my favorites.

Twisting on the Internet Swings

Yep - got kinda mad here.

I want a New Job

No this post was not about quitting. I was just plain mad (again). This post is interesting because it was picked up and quoted out of context by Dan Meyer. Here was my response to him.

So What Have I Learned?

I have learned to complain a little less - (or at least a little more constructively).

I have learned to write more posts that actually add to the conversation - not to just repost what somebody else has said.

I find that part of the value of writing is just for me to make my thoughts just a little more concrete. Writing it down just helps me work through the ideas. This blog also helps me archive my writing.

I have also learned to just write. Many posts where I waited until I had the time to get them just right never got written. One paragraph just in time is way more valuable than an essay too late.

Lastly, I have learned that just because I think I have something worth saying doesn't mean people will read it. Damn. Because I do. Really. Honest.......

The Value of Time

I have been thinking about time. We always complain that we don't have enough time for collaboration. There is not enough time in the day to get together and work with other teachers.  We are to busy teaching. Administrators need to give us more time for collaboration. We need time to have those meaningful conversations with our peers. (complain, complain, complain)  Yes, I am part of that crowd.

I think I have found an hour a day of regularly uninterrupted collaboration time. Nobody is really going to like the answer.

It came to me when I thought about this past year in teaching. It had been my busiest yet. I am always feeling rushed. The only real reason I could come up with was the fact that I switched carpools. My new carpool always wants to leave right after school. Always. In fact they often call me on the intercom to hurry up. I knew this when I joined but I am too frugal (cheap) to drive myself every day.

I am sure you can see where I am going with this. How many of us are out the door shortly after the bell? We all use similar excuses - I need to get home to my family, I have prior engagements, I am to burnt out at the end of the day. How many other jobs do you get to put in 6 hour workdays? Oh but I do my work at home. Ya, so much for your argument about family.  Add in the fact that it is harder to collaborate with others from a distance.

One hour at the end of the day would give us lots of time to get things done (both together and alone). Think how much better we would do if we were not trying to squeeze in collaboration during time we are supposed to be focusing on actually teaching.

Do You Learn? (or do you just Teach?)

Are you a lifelong learner?  What is the last thing that you learned?  Was it an "ouch that hurt - no more touching the pokey thing" kind of learning or was it something that you went out learned on purpose?  What was the last thing that you learned on purpose - not because you had to but because you were curious?

Be careful how you answer that question because you might not like the answer.  I didn't really.  Yes I am a lifelong learner.  Yes I learn on purpose.  (Yes I also learn from the painful, pokey things too.)  But what fires me up and keeps me up at night researching and learning?  My hobbies and my projects.  That would be awesome - if I were retired - but I am not.  Don't get me wrong.  I do a lot of work related research/reading as well.  I love new ideas (well new to me is good enough).  But I can put work research down.  I can put it off until a little later.  When I get off on a new project/hobby tangent - look out.  I pour through everything I can find about it.  Why am I not quite as obsessed about my work?

I just got back from a PD day.  I did not go for myself.  I went as tech support for some of my coworkers.  Boy is it ever fun to watch other people excited about learning something!  In the days leading up to it they were worried about it and not too excited about the ideas (involving computers).  As the day went on they forgot their fears and got really involved in what they were learing.  And then they got overloaded.  Even overloaded they were rushing to see how quickly they could use what they learned in the classroom.  I really enjoyed being there in that environment.

So go out there and learn something.  Do it on purpose.

Photo credit Bill Mosely

7 Things Meme

Donna DesRoches invited me to join in on the 7 Things Meme. Here are 7 things you may or may not know about me.

1. Before going into Education I spent 3 years in the College of Engineering at the U of S. I finally decided that I wanted to spend more time working with people. It probably explains my fascination with technology. I don't regret any of the time or money I spent in Engineering.

2. I used to be quite involved in 4H. I did woodworking and electrical projects (which have really helped me with my current tinkering). I was even involved with the alumni through university. 4H is a very good organization. I think that once my son is old enough I will get involved again.

3. I took accordion lessons when I was a kid. I never really liked it.

4. I used to play the trumpet in high school. I did like the trumpet. Unfortunately during my grade 12 year I developed a spontaneous pneumothorax after a band festival (essentially I blew a hole in my lung). I spent 2 weeks in the hospital with some of that time in the intensive care ward. Never really played again.

5. I enjoy camping and the outdoors. My last four years of university were paid for through treeplanting. Even after spending all day out in the sun for 3 months at a time I never ever got a noticable tan.

6. My mom and dad were both born at the same hospital two days apart. My paternal grandmother (holding my dad) and my maternal grandfather (holding my mom) met in the lobby and both joked about trading babies. My grandmother already had a boy and my grandfather wanted boys. For the record neither got what they wanted until my parents got married.

7. Last of all I am afraid of heights. I took a job roofing for a couple of months just to try and get over it. I was the guy who got to clean out the gutters on the four story appartment buildings. I can now deal with heights but I am still not comfortable. That is actually how I try to deal with lots of my fears. Anybody want to help me out with my fear of having way too much money?

Buzy - zzzzzZZZZZZzzzzz

Why am I so busy? None of my classes are new this year. (Yes I am trying new things but the content and curriculum stays similar.) I have more preps than I did last year - (No preps at all first term last year). I even have one period set aside for tech. Why am I always so rushed?

At home time spent with my son is SPENT with my son. It is actually about the calmest part of my day because I try not to let other distractions creep in. It's all playtime! At home I have even cut wwwwaaaaayyyy back on the amount of TV I watch. I only really watch TV now while working on something else. I don't do any gaming any more either (no X-box, no Wii, no Playstation, and no gaming capeable laptop). Ok I tried to sneak back into World of Warcraft but I very, very quickly got bored.

So where does my time go? More importantly - am I more productive? I don't think so. Definately not at school. At home? Ya probably. Despite what my wife thinks I am getting projects done at home - at the cost of sleep. Maybe that is why I feel so busy. In fact maybe I should go to sleep instead of writing any more blog posts.

P.S. I have to thank the decision making part of the Technology Department for streamlining procedures and making them simpler - especially with respect to logins.

Oh Yeah - thanks to Daniel Morris for the Creative Commons picture.

In a Land Called Honali

My wife and I recently bought the book Puff the Magic Dragon for my son. The book is the words to the song drawn up as a childs book but the pictures caught my eye. I fondly remember the song from when I was a wee gaffer myself. It even came with a CD with 4 songs by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and his daughter.

I couldn't wait for bedtime so that I could read it to him. I popped in the CD and read the book to him (with the music). I was not disappointed but it also wasn't quite how I remembered it. I never realized just how sad the song is. Puff gets abandoned when his best friend grows up.

"Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,So Puff that mighty
dragon sadly slipped into his cave."

My son is 14 months old and a ton of fun. I really didn't need the reminder that he may grow up one day and lose his innocence.

As a child I think that I only focused on the first half of the song. Jacky Paper was cool - he had a dragon for a friend and had lots of adventures with pirates and stuff! Now as an adult my focus has changed and so has the song. I think I need to go back and revisit more of my childhood classics and see how they have changed. It is also time to share them with my son. I guess I will have to experience them again through him.

Until then I'm hoping that my son, (like his dad), never grows up completely.