This is a great exercise. I first did this at a workshop for Intergenerational service, for it works best at helping older people recollect some moments and skills...
These hands...
have shaken hands with presidents and senators
surprise me with creativity
are scarred and calloused
have built many model cars
once performed in a percussion ensemble
killed pets (in mercy)
visited the Atlantic and Pacific
have punched through walls in anger
grasped for meaning
shook many baby bottles
directed traffic
have applauded at over 50 concerts
have made beautiful music
have made armpit farts
are never idle
like to tickle the keyboard (computer, not piano)
built a pirate ship
helped sandbag against a flood
wrote award-winning grants
have pulled a calf
milked cows
cleaned rabbits
shot many, many guns
held hands with children and grandparents and all in between
win at rock, paper, scissors
wish they knew ASL
are good at building camp fires
know dirt and grease and work
have never failed me
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The pencil
SO, I recently attended a gala of techno-geek teachers and IT professionals from around the region. I was given the Innovative Teacher of the Year award (only my second trophy in my whole life). I also had to give a little presentation there to a full house crowd. It was altogether humbling and flattering and--well, it made me feel special.
I do a good deal with varied techniques and media in class. That's a fact. However, I have a little talisman on my desk, a touchstone to another reality...and it keeps me coming back to the basics.
In a little Altoids tin I have a two-inch pencil that has been sharpened down from both ends. I picked up the pencil in a grade school classroom in an impoverished part of Mexico back in 2000. (I was part of a Rotary, International, Group Study Exchange program, touring part of the nation on an exchange from my district and theirs....essentially an ambassador, even though I am not a member of Rotary.)
The pencil symbolizes how some people have such a hunger for knowledge and such an eagerness about them that any teacher would just love to encounter in the classroom. Those kids did not even have a steady stream of school supplies; they got the good out of every scrap, right down to the last inch of a pencil. It reminds me that education, learning, is not about all these bells and whistles, all these digital bangles and apps. Learning takes place when the learner is ripe for it, when s/he is receptive and the content is relevant. Anything else might be swapping knowledge, but it's not really transfer of meaning and significance.
I do a good deal with varied techniques and media in class. That's a fact. However, I have a little talisman on my desk, a touchstone to another reality...and it keeps me coming back to the basics.
In a little Altoids tin I have a two-inch pencil that has been sharpened down from both ends. I picked up the pencil in a grade school classroom in an impoverished part of Mexico back in 2000. (I was part of a Rotary, International, Group Study Exchange program, touring part of the nation on an exchange from my district and theirs....essentially an ambassador, even though I am not a member of Rotary.)
The pencil symbolizes how some people have such a hunger for knowledge and such an eagerness about them that any teacher would just love to encounter in the classroom. Those kids did not even have a steady stream of school supplies; they got the good out of every scrap, right down to the last inch of a pencil. It reminds me that education, learning, is not about all these bells and whistles, all these digital bangles and apps. Learning takes place when the learner is ripe for it, when s/he is receptive and the content is relevant. Anything else might be swapping knowledge, but it's not really transfer of meaning and significance.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Digital Hoarder
I am going to make a confession here: I am a digital hoarder. I discovered this yesterday, when I finally applied myself to an item that's been on my to-do list for years--tidy up digital files.
First, some context... I write, I teach writing, I spend lots of time online finding what I consider to be valuable content of every stripe (from composting toilets to social media in the classroom...sometimes these are much the same, I guess...from etymology to how to build a hen house). I have a shutterbug wife and thus several gig of digital pictures. I have five USB drives and a 500 gig external hard drive. I have thousands of mp3's of music and hundreds of podcasts I record for my online classes...
...and my desktop was something too much like my physical desk top, a catch all pile of clutter. It alone was the laughing stock of the computer staff where I work, for even those with decades of experience and exposure had not seen so much junk on the desktop.
In the past, when shifting from one machine to the next, from one classroom to the next, from one textbook to another...I would just bundle up files and shove them into some vaguely named folder (course files, oldlaptopstuff). Obviously, I've not done decent back ups, for they would simply take too long, be too inconvenient.
You'd think I'd know better, since at another job we had a data loss when my brother toasted a hard drive. Data recovery took days and would have cost thousands of dollars if done out of house.
To make a long story short (too late) I have so far purged over 20 gigabytes of digital diarrhea, and I'm not yet done. I have made many sensible folders and a good "tree" to mount all this new-found structure upon. I have a nifty synch feature that I am going to use, which will not only provide backup, it will also give me access to some of my classroom files "in the cloud" as they say.
Today I'm going to tackle the USB drives.
First, some context... I write, I teach writing, I spend lots of time online finding what I consider to be valuable content of every stripe (from composting toilets to social media in the classroom...sometimes these are much the same, I guess...from etymology to how to build a hen house). I have a shutterbug wife and thus several gig of digital pictures. I have five USB drives and a 500 gig external hard drive. I have thousands of mp3's of music and hundreds of podcasts I record for my online classes...
...and my desktop was something too much like my physical desk top, a catch all pile of clutter. It alone was the laughing stock of the computer staff where I work, for even those with decades of experience and exposure had not seen so much junk on the desktop.
In the past, when shifting from one machine to the next, from one classroom to the next, from one textbook to another...I would just bundle up files and shove them into some vaguely named folder (course files, oldlaptopstuff). Obviously, I've not done decent back ups, for they would simply take too long, be too inconvenient.
You'd think I'd know better, since at another job we had a data loss when my brother toasted a hard drive. Data recovery took days and would have cost thousands of dollars if done out of house.
To make a long story short (too late) I have so far purged over 20 gigabytes of digital diarrhea, and I'm not yet done. I have made many sensible folders and a good "tree" to mount all this new-found structure upon. I have a nifty synch feature that I am going to use, which will not only provide backup, it will also give me access to some of my classroom files "in the cloud" as they say.
Today I'm going to tackle the USB drives.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The King is dead. Long live the King.
Yes, you have probably heard by now, Burger King is retiring their creepy mascot King, planning to aim at a more mature audience than the King was supposedly reaching.
That's just sad.
It took me over a year to warm up to him, and now that I have a bobble head of him, several bookmarked sites of him, etc...he's gone. Like Elvis before him, the king has left the building.
*sigh*
Click here to review the 2009 Everyday King sightings. ...before they, too, evaporate.
Click here for the source story and some good Wake Up with the King video.
That's just sad.
It took me over a year to warm up to him, and now that I have a bobble head of him, several bookmarked sites of him, etc...he's gone. Like Elvis before him, the king has left the building.
*sigh*
Click here to review the 2009 Everyday King sightings. ...before they, too, evaporate.
Click here for the source story and some good Wake Up with the King video.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Seasteading
I heard on the radio that PayPal founder Peter Thiel has invested 1.25 million in seasteading, along with several other multi-millionaires. Wired ran the story here back in the 2008. Updated version here.
Stationed in International waters, sovereign colonies may some day feature:
While I worry that these will again just be resorts for the rich, I do hope for something more equitable. I admire such experimentation in social systems, and I just don't understand all the cynicism. I'm keeping a weather eye on this evolving concept, at any rate.
I wonder if they need a good wordsmith?
Stationed in International waters, sovereign colonies may some day feature:
- alternative energies
- abundant gardens
- unrestricted guns
- tiny houses (300 sq ft)
- no welfare
While I worry that these will again just be resorts for the rich, I do hope for something more equitable. I admire such experimentation in social systems, and I just don't understand all the cynicism. I'm keeping a weather eye on this evolving concept, at any rate.
I wonder if they need a good wordsmith?
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Not Comfortable
So, I consider myself friendly-enough. I am at least amicable, I think most would agree. I get along with people in elevators, meetings, classes. People report they are surprised to learn that I have a temper!
Yet, sadly, I do not have a close cadre of true friends. I can enumerate a broad count of acquaintances and associates. I can draw an impressive diagram of my extended social networks, and hey, I have 500 friends on Facebook...
I'd trade them all for one good friend (my wife excluded, as her friendship comes with the territory).
I like the way friends are portrayed in the movies and on television. I never had friends like on Friends. I suppose the most close I had was when I was forced into close quarters with fellows on my dorm floor. We would go to the lake, hang out, generally hob nob.
But I do not have any go-to guys that I can call up to just go for a ride. There's not a soul who I know I can just dump on. I haven't any one in my inner-most circles whom I can ask to, say, help me build my deck or move a piece of furniture or babysit my kids.
I used to be in a loop of students and others who joined together for "School of Thought," which was a cool taffy-pull of the imagination, just a bunch of yokels jawing over the edges of the universe and the meaning of consciousness and the affects of substances and the significance of eternity and the like. Alas, they were students, mostly, and I always felt something of an intruder.
There's something to be said for intruding, but it's not something I'm good at. I suppose this reluctance has held me back from making true friends. My wife says it's that I don't invest enough in others. It's hard to do, with family and farm and work all taking priority. It seems, for me at least, like there's little time left.
I think I need to do a reality check, review priorities a little.
What spawned all this was a study reported on NPR about how those with work-related friends saw a 2% increase in their overall longevity. Those who also were active in the lives of others, through church or service (or maybe even in education) saw even greater gains in life expectancy. The study cited lots of other benefits of friendships at work and at large.
Thinking about this makes me skeptical about the status of "friend" on Facebook.
*sigh*
Yet, sadly, I do not have a close cadre of true friends. I can enumerate a broad count of acquaintances and associates. I can draw an impressive diagram of my extended social networks, and hey, I have 500 friends on Facebook...
I'd trade them all for one good friend (my wife excluded, as her friendship comes with the territory).
I like the way friends are portrayed in the movies and on television. I never had friends like on Friends. I suppose the most close I had was when I was forced into close quarters with fellows on my dorm floor. We would go to the lake, hang out, generally hob nob.
But I do not have any go-to guys that I can call up to just go for a ride. There's not a soul who I know I can just dump on. I haven't any one in my inner-most circles whom I can ask to, say, help me build my deck or move a piece of furniture or babysit my kids.
I used to be in a loop of students and others who joined together for "School of Thought," which was a cool taffy-pull of the imagination, just a bunch of yokels jawing over the edges of the universe and the meaning of consciousness and the affects of substances and the significance of eternity and the like. Alas, they were students, mostly, and I always felt something of an intruder.
There's something to be said for intruding, but it's not something I'm good at. I suppose this reluctance has held me back from making true friends. My wife says it's that I don't invest enough in others. It's hard to do, with family and farm and work all taking priority. It seems, for me at least, like there's little time left.
I think I need to do a reality check, review priorities a little.
What spawned all this was a study reported on NPR about how those with work-related friends saw a 2% increase in their overall longevity. Those who also were active in the lives of others, through church or service (or maybe even in education) saw even greater gains in life expectancy. The study cited lots of other benefits of friendships at work and at large.
Thinking about this makes me skeptical about the status of "friend" on Facebook.
*sigh*
Friday, August 12, 2011
500
My dashboard reminds me that this is post #500. Jeepers, that's a lot of blogging. In truth, it's spread over five years, so it's not that impressive. I've done reviews before, so I will spare myself that (usually reserved for an end-of-the-year reflection). I could write about the Herculean effort or the unflagging dedication it has taken to get this far (but then, that would be hokum, for it's been easy).
500 posts, largely about me! I could turn a corner here, get excited about a focus or topic, turn this blog in a new and more constructive direction. I might change it up and make this a chronicle of something more important to the masses...but then, it likely wouldn't make it another 500 posts if I did.
I would like to make this blog more graphic, more multi-media, now that such things abound in this world of web 2.0. I could foresee an interactive, engaging environment, but maybe not on Blogger, maybe not even officially a blog, per se...On the other hand, maybe this blog has run its course, and I should retreat to my other private journals and blogs.
Regardless, 500 published posts is cause for pause.
500 posts, largely about me! I could turn a corner here, get excited about a focus or topic, turn this blog in a new and more constructive direction. I might change it up and make this a chronicle of something more important to the masses...but then, it likely wouldn't make it another 500 posts if I did.
I would like to make this blog more graphic, more multi-media, now that such things abound in this world of web 2.0. I could foresee an interactive, engaging environment, but maybe not on Blogger, maybe not even officially a blog, per se...On the other hand, maybe this blog has run its course, and I should retreat to my other private journals and blogs.
Regardless, 500 published posts is cause for pause.
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Days out with Dad
[another gushing parent post]
Roughly quarterly I get the rare opportunity to spend a day with each of my kids. Now, I'm happily married, very entrenched in family, an attachment parent, all that...so it's not like some divorcee visitation program. The day out with dad tradition has been picking up steam for a year or so now, and the guys [and I, myself] really look forward to every adventure.
Jaxson typically hoards all his time w/me, and as is his nature, talks constantly from the time we get in the vehicle until he falls asleep. It's a great running stream of ideas for movies, things he finds funny on television, etc. For our day we went to the mall (it was over 100 out, after all) where he was able to do a tethered bungee trampoline jump, then miniature golf under black lights, then round it out with his favorite food [Subway] and a trip to a unique toy store. Then we attended a meeting for work 50 miles away and back to the west side of town for a movie, Rio.
Carson, who could care less about indoor plumbing, air conditioning, or any other modern conveniences elected to spend his day out at the lake. [Last summer we toured regional lakes, but this summer he wanted to spend his time IN one....as previously stated, it was over 100 degrees out, even on his day.] After 2 hours in the lake, he wanted to fetch his brothers, so we slowed down for some Long John Silvers then fetched the boys and some sand tools, then returned to the lake for another 3 hours of fun.
Edison is only 4, I know, but he's always a hard one to figure out. We ate breakfast at his favorite place [McDonald's] where he was also able to play on the play place. Then we went to Botanica to see the butterfly house and to play on the new children's garden and such. He also wanted to go to do everything his brothers had done. Instead, once on site, he wanted his brothers at the gardens, so we called them in, along with grandma and papa. Altogether a beautiful morning, despite some showers. I forced my hand at lunch [no more McDonald's please!] and pushed the family into a local delight: the Old Mill Tasty Shop which features an old school soda fountain. Eddie loved his milk shake.
Surreal summaries:
Jaxson really does have crazy-good script ideas. I may steal them if he doesn't write them down first. He also amazes me in his ability to befriend people of any race, any background, as he demonstrated on Carson's day, sharing the sand tools and his castle making skills with several kids he'd never encountered before.
Carson delights in such simple pleasures and loves to share with his brothers. He's going to make a great park ranger some day, for the outdoors is his little slice of heaven.
Edison asked me, "Are you going to come here when you're dead?" when we were at the botanical gardens. I said, "I think so, Eddie, I do think so."
Roughly quarterly I get the rare opportunity to spend a day with each of my kids. Now, I'm happily married, very entrenched in family, an attachment parent, all that...so it's not like some divorcee visitation program. The day out with dad tradition has been picking up steam for a year or so now, and the guys [and I, myself] really look forward to every adventure.
Jaxson typically hoards all his time w/me, and as is his nature, talks constantly from the time we get in the vehicle until he falls asleep. It's a great running stream of ideas for movies, things he finds funny on television, etc. For our day we went to the mall (it was over 100 out, after all) where he was able to do a tethered bungee trampoline jump, then miniature golf under black lights, then round it out with his favorite food [Subway] and a trip to a unique toy store. Then we attended a meeting for work 50 miles away and back to the west side of town for a movie, Rio.
Carson, who could care less about indoor plumbing, air conditioning, or any other modern conveniences elected to spend his day out at the lake. [Last summer we toured regional lakes, but this summer he wanted to spend his time IN one....as previously stated, it was over 100 degrees out, even on his day.] After 2 hours in the lake, he wanted to fetch his brothers, so we slowed down for some Long John Silvers then fetched the boys and some sand tools, then returned to the lake for another 3 hours of fun.
Edison is only 4, I know, but he's always a hard one to figure out. We ate breakfast at his favorite place [McDonald's] where he was also able to play on the play place. Then we went to Botanica to see the butterfly house and to play on the new children's garden and such. He also wanted to go to do everything his brothers had done. Instead, once on site, he wanted his brothers at the gardens, so we called them in, along with grandma and papa. Altogether a beautiful morning, despite some showers. I forced my hand at lunch [no more McDonald's please!] and pushed the family into a local delight: the Old Mill Tasty Shop which features an old school soda fountain. Eddie loved his milk shake.
Surreal summaries:
Jaxson really does have crazy-good script ideas. I may steal them if he doesn't write them down first. He also amazes me in his ability to befriend people of any race, any background, as he demonstrated on Carson's day, sharing the sand tools and his castle making skills with several kids he'd never encountered before.
Carson delights in such simple pleasures and loves to share with his brothers. He's going to make a great park ranger some day, for the outdoors is his little slice of heaven.
Edison asked me, "Are you going to come here when you're dead?" when we were at the botanical gardens. I said, "I think so, Eddie, I do think so."
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