Getting on with it.

Well, it is back to work tomorrow. While I still feel immense pain at the loss of Dad, I know that getting back to a normal routine will help. The expressions of sympathy from so many personal and professional friends have helped to ease the sense of loss and loneliness.

I will be going to Honolulu in December for a professional meeting. This is my first trip to Hawaii-- I wish it could be a real vacation, but I am happy for whatever time I will have to see the sites.

Thanksgiving is just about here, and I will be spending the day with family at Ron's house. Lots of turkey, traditional sides, desserts, and visiting. How wonderful to set aside time to reconnect with friends and family and to focus on the many blessings in our lives.

Back at my old desk and doing fine

Well, I am a week and a half back at WVPT, and all is well. Everyone has been so welcoming, and my little departure is generally referred to as my "vacation."

Now it is on to setting up Intel courses and preparing for our National Teacher Training Institute. So, it is hit the ground running and get busy. Since I like to busy, that suits me just fine.

Speaking of busy, it is time to get to work, so......

If it is Friday, I must be getting an oil change.

Over the past 10 years, it seems that I have spent a number of Friday mornings at Jim Price Chevrolet getting the oil changed in my car, taking care of car inspections, and other such mundane automotive tasks.

Since I will soon return to a 5-day, 40 hr. work week, I am trying to take care of those chores that require me to be someplace other than in the office. One of those is the car care as described above. The other is pet care. Ginger is having a spa day at the vet's office. It never ceases to amaze me that her haircuts cost about 7.5 times more than my own.

I did enjoy myself yesterday at Charles Town and had a decent day on the slots (at least for me). Of course, I didn't win the $20,000 drawing, but Dick, Katie, and I had a nice time. While there were no big winners among us, neither were there any big losers. So we could all go home fairly content.

Well my plans for working at home will come to an end on August 7.

I will be returning to my old position as education specialist for WVPT on August 10.

In the meantime, I will be helping with a Sunday-Thursday summer training camp at Virginia Tech the first week of August.

For someone as traditional and conservative as I am, the last three months have certainly been a roller-coaster ride for me. I think I am ready to get back to a more even flow of events.

Intel Training

Today was the first day of Intel Essentials training for Harrisonburg. As so often happens, the morning was spent getting everyone registered to use the online collaboration tools for the course. This never seems to go smoothly, but we finally got everyone access to the tools.

Tomorrow we get into the heart of the course, and the participants will begin to build their unit plan. Because of the time crunch (we are doing this in 5 days), I will have to monitor time spent on each activity so that we can move ahead at the required pace. I would love to do this as a semester course sometime. That would give everyone more time to work through the content.

In the meantime, I have other projects waiting for my attention-- not to mention the yard work that never seems to go away.

Preparing to Work

Now that I am back from the NECC Conference, I have been trying to create my workspace down in the basement. Sorting through miscellaneous items to determine what goes to the yard sale, what goes to the shop, and what needs to be stored is a monumental task. I think the more I work the more mess I create.

I did take time out yesterday to go treasure hunting with Dick. Wisely, I purchased nothing, but Dick did find some nice items, one of which was one of the Dalton ladies. We ended the day at the Peaks of Otter where we had a nice dinner before going home.

Monday, I begin working on special projects for the VDOE. It will be strange working from home after so many years of getting up and driving to a work location.

I am in Washinton D.C. at NECC. Right now I am in a session (workshop) on "Strategic Planning Using School 2.0" discussing the role of applications such as twitter. This seemingly silly application has served as a major communication tool in covering events in Iran.

Whether using traditional or social media, how do you trust the information you are receiving. In a world where we receive an enormous amount of raw data, how do we evaluate the quality of that data?

What skills do we need to survive in this environment? We need to be able to evaluate. We can no longer trust an information source implicitly. We need to apply a constructive skepticism of both old and new media and information sources.

We need to apply good search techniques to locate the information that we need. Wolfram Alpha answers questions you ask. It doesn't provide just a list of possible sources as does Google. Microsoft's Bing considers itself a decision-making tool; not a search engine.

Check out Google squared to get the "chunks" of information that you want. You can add or subtract search terms to change the quantify of answers you receive. We used to know how to use the right search terms; now we need to know how to ask the right questions.

While interactivity is increasing, costs are decreasing. But students are not necessarily given the same interactive options in school that they experience in their lives outside of the school. We have the opportunity to bring experts into classrooms to discuss curriculum topics. Students can be empowered by the feedback they receive from recognized experts in a field of study.

One problem dealing with professional development is that teachers cannot get out of the classroom to attend workshops, seminars, etc. One idea was for teachers to use Moodle or other online environments, Skype, online survey instruments like Survey Monkey, Facebook, and other technology applications that make interaction with students extend beyond the walls of a classroom.

Someone just mentioned an online collaboration tool called Ether Pad. The URL is http://etherpad.com/.

Resources to continue the conversation about School 2.0 at etoolkit.org.

Life at the Lake

Saturday was sunny, breezy, and beautiful, and I was lucky enough to spend the day at David and Heather Brubaker's beautiful home at Lake Anna. Yes, it was the annual Memorial Day weekend get together that has become a kickoff for the summer season.

Here is a beautiful view of the lake.

Of course, no day at Lake Anna is complete without a boat ride. Here is a picture of David's boat with passengers loading for a third tour of Lake Anna.

And no matter how wonderful your hair looked before the boat ride, you will have a whole "new look" when you get back. But it is definitely worth it!

What is a picnic without lots of good food and fun. Dick decided that a sampler of the desserts was the best way to go after the main course.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Hope you have a great time, but let us all remember the real meaning of this holiday and remember those who have sacrificed to preserve our country and way of life.

A Day Off to Mow the Grass

Somehow it is hard to get excited about taking a vacation day to mow the grass, but not doing so would have grim results.

It has been a pretty hectic week, and I am really looking forward to some home time. Four days to get some of the chores that have been piling up-- wonderful! Clutter is beginning-- or maybe continuiing-- to rule my life. I really think that having less stuff and proper placement of what one does possess is the secret to a less stressful life.

I was listening to Gayle King on Oprah radio, and she was interviewing the creator of the book and Web site, Do One Nice Thing. The url is http://www.doonenicething.com/. During the conversation, they discussed the idea that if you just choose one day to do one nice thing you can have a positive impact not only on the recipient of your kindness but also on your own well-being and happiness. I have to say I was reminded of my sister-in-law who is always thinking about others and going the extra mile to make someone else's life better. I think I am going to explore this site a bit further. Just think if everyone committed themselves to doing at least one nice thing a week for someone else. Wouldn't our world be a nicer place in which to live?

Workshops

I am cofacilitating a Share the Skies workshop right now. Share the Skies is a program funded by the Virginia Department of Education. A research grade telescope, located in Pingelly in Western Australia, is leased for K-12 student use. Several regional coordinators, of which I am one, train teachers to use the telescope to image celestial bodies in the southern hemisphere.

Welcome friends and family to my blog and follow my ramblings down life's highway. I hope you will find time to leave a comment or two.