Not Something Ready Made

In the "things I never would have known without my PLN on Twitter" category:

@dirkjohnson

"By Tibetan tradition, today (new year's eve) is house-cleaning day..."

Along with the rest of the western world, I celebrated New Year's Eve more than a month ago. Since then, I've made progress on some, but by no means all, of my goals for 2010.

So after I do a bit of cleaning and tidying up in my physical space, I think I'll take a few minutes to reflect, adjust, refine, refocus.

"With the realization of ones own potential and self-confidence in ones ability, one can build a better world. According to my own experience, self-confidence is very important. That sort of confidence is not a blind one; it is an awareness of ones own potential. On that basis, human beings can transform themselves by increasing the good qualities and reducing the negative qualities...

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.” -Dalai Lama

"Ganden Gompa Tibet" by reurinkjan

Metamorphosis

"Change is the end result of all true learning. Change involves three things: First, a dissatisfaction with self -- a felt void or need; second, a decision to change to fill the void or need; and third, a conscious dedication to the process of growth and change -- the willful act of making the change, doing something." -Leo Buscaglia

As many bloggers post their end-of-the-year reflections and resolutions, my thoughts have been increasingly occupied with personal goals and aspirations.

My global colleagues have not shied away from asking difficult questions or advocating for change.

Clay Burell wondered "is school a good place for teachers who want to make a difference in the lives of their students, and to the future of the world?"

Sylvia Martinez stepped up to defend the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative from a journalist who sneeringly called the program "an insulting 'let them eat cake' sort of message to the world’s poor.” On the contrary, Martinez replies, "The least the “developed world” can do is give kids, their parents, and teachers access to the most powerful intellectual amplifier ever invented - the computer, and a connection to the world of information and expertise."

Doug Johnson discussed the necessity of "both an open mind and values firmly held by both the heart and the head" to achieve change in the educational sphere.

And so the questions I need to answer for myself are:

• what are my sources of dissatisfaction
• am I willing to take the steps necessary to address the problems
• how will I implement meaningful change

No easy questions, no easy answers: challenges and opportunities.

"Instead of looking at life as a narrowing funnel, we can see it ever widening to choose the things we want to do, to take the wisdom we've learned and create something." -Liz Carpenter

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." -Denis Waitley


"Golden metamorphosis" by cyrus_sj

That's a Big Ten-Four

Scott Elias's latest post uses NASA phrases to describe parental interaction with a tired child.

I thought it might be fun to use a similar technique and apply CB lingo to in my last posting of 2007.

Although I've read blogs by many good neighbors [fellow drivers/bloggers], I apologize for the times I've just been readin' the mail [just listening - not actively talking/commenting] and promise to be more interactive in 2008. I don't want to be an alligator station [all mouth and no ears: a person who likes to talk just to hear himself]. You are all ACEs [important] to me.

I'm also hoping to expand my technical skills, moving beyond being just an appliance operator [non technical person who knows how to turn the rig/computer on, and that’s about all].

NECC 2008 will be my chance to experience some bean house bull [trucker/blogger talk exchanged at truck stops/meetings & conferences, eyeball-to-eyeball/f2f] with many of the people who make my cyber universe so vital.

I wish everyone in my ever-expanding PLN all the good numbers [best wishes]. Have a great happy happy [New Year]!



"Hercules" by Cubwolf (Dave Smith)

Stars were with me most of all

“But stars were with me most of all. I heard them flame and break and fall.” -Fannie Stearns Davis

The quotes came first this time. They seemed melancholy to me, whispering of change, illusion, loss.

My life has been all about change this year, as I rush headlong into a series of new adventures: feverishly reinventing myself professionally, moving towards retirement from my current career, coping with the very real challenges of growing older in a world so different from the one into which I was born.

When I was a child there appeared to be more permanence in the world. The difference between good and evil was clear. If one followed some basic rules, life was safe and stable. People worked hard and progressed towards a comfortable old age.

Was all of that perceived permanence and safety illusory? Or are there still constants, a few remaining rock-bottom certainties in which to believe?

I am blessed in my family and friends. The choices that life offers seem diverse and exilherating. And yet I feel the tears behind the laughter as the year draws to a close and the cosmos reels in its crazy dance.

"The countless stars, which to our human eye
Are fixed and steadfast, each in proper place,
Forever bound to changeless points in space,
Rush with our sun and planets through the sky,
And like a flock of birds still onward fly;
Returning never whence began their race,
They speed their ceaseless way with gleaming face
As though God bade them win Infinity..."
-John Lancaster Spalding, The Starry Host

"Neutron Star 2004 by NASA (NASA)" by pingnews.com

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" -Genesis 2:16

"That was the birth of sin. Not doing it, but KNOWING about it. Before the apple, [Adam and Eve] had shut their eyes and their minds had gone dark. Now, they peeped and pried and imagined. They watched themselves." -D.H. Lawrence

Adam and Eve were tempted not by the Tree of Life, but by the Tree of Knowledge. Their desire to taste the "forbidden fruit" of this tree resulted in expulsion from Paradise.

Satan/Lucifer declared it "Better to reign in hell than serve in heav'n." (John Milton, Paradise Lost).

Another "light-bearer", Prometheus, risked the ire of Zeus to bring the secret of kindling fire to mortals - and suffered daily torment as a punishment.

The mythologies of many cultures warn men of the consequences of seeking to know that which is hidden or forbidden. Does the greater danger lie in recognizing evil or in being unaware of its existence?

Should we be innocent or armed?

Uploaded on February 13, 2007 by Lawrence OP

An Occasion for Reflection

“Leisure is not tied to work the way that recreation is—leisure is self-contained. The root of the word is the Latin 'licere' which means 'to be permitted,' suggesting that leisure is about freedom. But freedom for what? According to Chesterton’s cheerful view, leisure was above all an opportunity to do nothing. When he said 'doing nothing,' however, he was describing not emptiness but an occasion for reflection and contemplation, a chance to look inward rather than outward.”-Witold Rybczynski


A number of bloggers have been apologizing lately for infrequent or abbreviated postings. Dan Meyer has a laundry list of future topics but can't get to them right now (he is quick to assert that his love of blogging is still intact, in stark contrast to the unsettling comments by Will Richardson which seemed to indicate that, since "blogging is work these days", Will might be moving in the direction of more personalized communication venues, like Skype). Christian Long is seriously involved in family and career at the moment, but relies on cyber colleagues to keep his "radar tuned in." In Tim Stahmer's case, a scarcity of postings is "completely due to an overload of work."

Are apologies or clarifications necessary? Perhaps. A blog is more than a news article or casual "conversation". Bloggers speak directly to their audience, sharing their convictions, emotions, hopes and dreams. Personal relationships are established between people who might, probably won't, meet face to face yet who have connected in a very real sense. The more prominent the blogger, the more the audience becomes attached to, and reliant upon, his/her communications. An abrupt cessation of blogging might be seen as a betrayal of sorts.

Yet the blogger has the right to a balanced life, a time for professional and personal growth: the leisure to investigate, reflect, create.

Blogging is not a job. It's a medium of creative expression, an avocation.

"Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror. Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface ... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones."-Paul Klee

Anticipation

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning." - Joseph Priestly

Students return to school in two days.

"A great source of calamity lies in regret and anticipation; therefore a person is wise who thinks of the present alone, regardless of the past or future." - Oliver Goldsmith

It is a chance for all of us to start over, begin again.

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight." - Benjamin Franklin

Their success is our success.

"Children are our link to future generations that we will never see." - Louise Hart

The Lake Wobegon Effect

me·di·o·cre: of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance: ordinary, so-so

In his Eight Random Facts meme, Tim Stahmer tells us that "another of my dad’s relatives was Roman Hruska, who served as a senator from Nebraska. He was noted for defending a Nixon nominee to the Supreme Court who had been called a mediocre judge by declaring that the mediocre are 'entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?'. I’m so proud."

Intrigued, I followed the Wikipedia link to retrieve the entire quote:
"So what if he is mediocre? There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? We can't have all Brandeises, Cardozos, and Frankfurters and stuff like that there."

None of us want to be regarded as "mediocre", even though one of the synonyms is "ordinary". "So-so" is yet more damning in its suggestion of lukewarm blandness.

But can everyone be like the inhabitants of Lake Wobegon, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average"? John Cannell's "The Lake Wobegon Report: How Public Educators Cheat on Achievement Tests.", published in 1989, made public the statistically impossible finding that all states claimed average student test scores above the national norm. According to the entry on Word spy, "This effect is most often seen in educational test scores, where some teachers, schools, or school districts claim that all of their students score above average, a mathematical impossibility."

Is it possible for all students to be "above average"? NCLB is based on the belief that "high expectations and setting of goals will result in success for all worthy students". Success is one thing, but can everyone be "above average"? Is "superior" the new "average"?

"All human excellence is but comparative. There may be persons who excel us, as much as we fancy we excel the meanest." -Samuel Richardson (1689–1761), British novelist

Labels and Tags

"I consider any emblem or label a prejudice." -Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

Labels identify something or someone. They may designate origin, use or destination. They adhere; they are difficult to remove.

Tags, in information technology, are keywords or terms assigned to a piece of information. They are usually chosen informally and personally by the creator or user. They are flexible; a single item may have more than one tag.

Labels are limiting; tags permit infinite variation.

"The only sin is limitation. As soon as you once come up with a man’s limitations, it is all over with him." -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Reflections

“Study without reflection is a waste of time; reflection without study is dangerous.” Confucius

This summer I have been exploring - studying - some of the concepts, tools and applications of a world I came to late in my career, the world of Web 2.0. It's time to pause for a moment and reflect on what I've learned.

I understand that students are entitled to an education grounded in the 21st century, since that is the context of their lives. I know that it may be difficult for me to obtain access to many of the new technologies within the constraints of my school facility, but it's my responsibility to enrich my students' curriculum in any way that I can and to extend their experiences beyond the boundaries of their small town.

Learning must occur for them, for me, for us. I need to be their advocate, their guide, their partner, even their student.

And I realize that, after reflection, comes a time for action.

“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”
-Buddha

8 Random Things

Clay Burell tagged me for the 8 Random Things Meme:

First, the Rules:
1) Post these rules before you give your facts
2) List 8 random facts about yourself
3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged


Whoopee - I get to play!

1. My Dad graduated from RPI on the GI Bill, when I was two years old. To celebrate, he drove cross-country while my mother and I flew to California to meet him. One of my earliest memories is of the bears in the San Diego Zoo.

2. I belonged to our school/church choir from 6th through 12th grade. On Sundays, we sang hymns and Gregorian chant, and twice a year we gave concerts featuring popular and show tunes.

3. Although my Dad was Italian, my Mom is Irish - and hates cheese. The first time I tasted pizza was when I went out with friends after a high school basketball game.

4. I loved to take reading tests in elementary school and thought this would be a wonderful job when I grew up. (Yet another example of "be careful what you wish for")

5. One unforgettable summer, I lived and studied at Oxford University. In order to get a reader's card from the Bodleian, I had to take an oath "not to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame."

6. My son is a rabid Green Bay Packers football fan. I've accompanied him to Lambeau Field four times to see Brett Favre play (Scott's gone an additional nine or ten times on his own).

7. On November 15, 1969, I participated in the "Mobilization" peace demonstration in Washington, D.C. This protest against U.S. involvement in Vietnam drew an estimated 250,00 to 500,000 marchers, the largest single anti-war protest in U.S. history. My future husband was serving in the Navy at that time, under combat conditions (we didn't meet after until he had been discharged from service). We discuss those turbulent years occasionally, and I've managed to convince him that the vast majority of peace activists were anti-war but not anti-servicemen.

8. My daughter, Ellen, is getting married on 9-08-07 and has asked me to be her Mom-of-honor, to stand beside her as she takes her vows. We aren't sure how often this has been done before, but our family has never balked at tweaking tradition
My turn to tag:
1. Ethan Bodnar
2. Judy O'Connell
3. Meredith Farkas
4. Jennifer Macauley
5. Cheryl Klein
6. Abby Fisch
7. Tim Stahmer
8. Grandad

Gaining Control

cap·ture (kpchr)
tr.v. cap·tured, cap·tur·ing, cap·tures
1. To take captive, as by force or craft; seize
2. To gain possession or control of, as in a game or contest: capture the queen in chess; captured the liberal vote.
3. To attract and hold: tales of adventure that capture the imagination.
4. To succeed in preserving in lasting form: capture a likeness in a painting
-The Free Dictionary

Evidently I wasn't paying attention when GTD (Getting Things Done) and UCT (Ubiquitous Capture Tools) became buzzwords in time management. Or I forgot to write, photograph, skype, text or IM the terms to myself. Scott Elias, Leo Babauta and countless other bloggers have enlightened me. It seems that it is beneficial to record important data so that it won't be overlooked. Who could have known?

According to Scott, "It’s not important what tool or tools you decide on as your capture devices — analog, digital, a chisel and stone tablet — as long as you make it part of your routine to have it with you. A capture tool left in your office does no good."

I'm comforted that Leo appears to favor a small spiral notebook over some of the other popular devices (Hipster PDA, a PDA or smart phone, or a Moleskine notebook). It makes my wall calendar and refrigerator-magnet-held scraps of paper seem less a badge of Luddism (although I do like to knit) and more a matter of personal preference.

As one of those ever pertinent Chinese proverbs says "A good memory is not as good as a ragged pen."

A Primary Knowledge of Computers

"In September [1964], the General Electric Company sponsored a Digital Computer Course...Twenty-five students and seven faculty members attended the twelve weekly sessions of ninety minutes. Under the direction of E.D. Reilly, manager of the Digital Computer at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, participants gained a primary knowledge of computers and the field of programming."

Reading the caption under a yearbook photo, I am stunned to realize the opportunity that I had let slip by. Because of my aptitude for Math, I was among the students chosen to participate in this programming class, surely one of the first in our region. I remember being warned "garbage in, garbage out" as we worked in teams to construct a logical sequence of commands. I remember the cards with punched "slots" that recorded our instructions in a computer-readable format. I remember the computer, worth a million dollars or more, filling the entire basement of a building at Siena College. ONE computer!

I didn't touch a computer again for over twenty-five years. I wasn't ready, didn't understand the possibilities.

Over the past year, I've had an epiphany of sorts. Three decades later, I'm ready to "see something wonderful".

"I do not regret my not having seen this before, since I now saw it under circumstances so favorable. I was in just the frame of mind to see something wonderful, and this was a phenomenon adequate to my circumstances and expectation, and it put me on the alert to see more like it."
-Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist

Of Dryads and Beowulf

"That thou, light-wingèd Dryad of the trees,
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease."
-John Keats (1795-1821) Ode to a Nightengale

In Greek mythology, a dryad is a female tree spirit, more specifically, the nymph of an oak tree.

"Beowulf" is an Old English epic poem, in which the title character heroically battles three monsters, Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a dragon.

At least, that's what I was taught in college.

Now I find that these words have acquired new meanings in the digital age:
Dryad "is an infrastructure which allows a programmer to use the resources of a computer cluster or a data center for running data-parallel programs. A Dryad programmer can use thousands of machines, each of them with multiple processors or cores, without knowing anything about concurrent programming"
while Beowulf is "a design for high-performance parallel computing clusters on inexpensive personal computer hardware."

Will I ever use this knowledge; do I even need to be aware of these terms? Probably not. But it does remind me that language, society, technology, the world is constantly evolving.

"Change is the only constant. Hanging on is the only sin."
-Denise McCluggage (b. 1927), U.S. race car driver

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
-Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I "rediscovered" Wallace Stevens today, scribbled his name on a torn envelope to research later.

Ah, yes, the insurance salesman! What a tag for the complex man who sat quietly behind a desk composing poems that are characterized as "exotic, whimsical, infused with the light and color of an Impressionist painting."

In Of Modern Poetry Stevens writes:

...It has not always had
To find: the scene was set; it repeated what
Was in the script.
Then the theatre was changed
To something else. Its past was a souvenir.

It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place.
It has to face the men of the time and to meet
The women of the time. It has to think about war
And it has to find what will suffice. It has
To construct a new stage. It has to be on that stage...

It occurs to me that this description might serve as a metaphor for our education system, which could once "repeat what was in the script" but now needs to "construct a new stage" and to "find what will suffice".

If only we can.

The Bloggers

Abby
Bowllan
Christian Clay Colleen
David Deborah and Diane Diane Doug B. Doug J. Doug N.
Jo Joyce Judy
K.G Karl Konrad
Renee
Sarah Scott
Will

From Web to webs
strands of thought
drifting
in asynchronous harmony
settling
forming reforming
drifting
into infinite variations
touching mingling
altering
drifting

Nature's Peace

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."
John Muir US (Scottish-born) conservationist & naturalist (1838 - 1914)

Joyce Valenza writes of spending time in the Poconos "to get away, to think, to write, to plan, to veg." She then proceeds to list all of her interactions via the internet. Joyce is a gifted Teacher/Librarian, author and lecturer, and it would be a real loss if her "voice" were silenced for an extended period of time. However, I am no Joyce Valenza, and time away from the siren song of my trusty Mac is not only pleasant but necessary.


Yesterday I visited a small local park, Hovey Pond, to spend a few hours in the sun, enjoying a bit of natural beauty. The only twittering was from the birds, with counterpoint provided by the twanging of the green frogs. There was one family picnicking near the play area, a couple sharing an impromptu lunch al fresco, a few strollers in the botanical garden. No cellphones, no laptops; only the soft whir of my digital camera marked the occasional intrusion of technology.


A young bicyclist lazily dropped twigs from a footbridge into the quiet stream below. I wondered if his parents had ever read Winnie-the-Pooh to him as a child, if he knew the game of poohsticks. Perhaps all he cared about was the freedom of early July and the joy of a sunny day after a week of rain.



A particular delight at Hovey Pond is the 5-acre Wetland Restoration Project.
A 200' long wooden walkway allows visitors to closely observe the marsh aquatic life. A red-winged blackbird kept a sharp eye on my progress from the safety of a cattail perch. I avoided the dilemma of a road not taken by wandering down both forks of the walkway; my diligence was rewarded by exquisite views of a lily-lined pond worthy of Monet.


Halfway Brook ,which feeds Hovey Pond, was the site of ambushes, skirmishes, and massacres during the French and Indian War. There are no restless spirits here, just "Nature's peace".

I must confess that I took a few notes on a crumpled bit of paper, reminders to perhaps steer some of my students towards local projects like this one that might personalize global environmental concerns. As Barry, Carolyn, Doug, Clay, Sylvia, Scott, and so many others have pointed out, the Big Picture is more like a mosaic, with each person or group contributing a piece of the whole.

But lesson plans and RSS feeds are for later. Now belongs to sunlight and flowers, birdsong and frog chorus: a day in the park.

Anything You Want

"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant"
-Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant

"Anything you want, you got it; anything you need, you got; anything at all, you got it, Baby"
-Roy Orbison You Got It

The internet has added a whole new dimension to the art of searching for information. Yes, there is a lot of "junk" out there: untruths, half-truths, opinions, biases presented as fact. But it's amazing what you can find, if you know how to look...

A teaching assistant wanted to know the precise time of the Summer Solstice. Not a problem.

More challenging was the request of a principal who had received complaints from a parent that a mural in the music room showed the group KISS. Could I please verify that the acronym did NOT stand for "Kids in Service to Satan"? This was a bit trickier, since even the band members didn't agree on the origin of the name. We finally went with the statement from drummer Peter Criss, who flatly states that it means nothing. (But you can hold to the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" alternative, if that works better for you)

Search skills also come in handy in private life (if anything is truly private these days). When I spent a summer at Oxford, my Welsh-born college roommate advised me to bring home a sixpence for my wedding day. With all the changes in currency, these coins are no longer used in the UK, but I've managed to find a few to give as shower gifts, so that the new bride can carry:
Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

My younger brother used to play the tape of a baseball-themed song every night at supper time until the entire family had the lyrics memorized. He was quite impressed when I tracked down the words to "D-O-D-G-E-R-S (Oh Really? No, O'Malley)". To be fair, it was kind of catchy when sung by Danny Kaye!

A final, sweet success: my Irish mother rocked me as a baby to a little rhyme taught to her by my Italian father. I couldn't find information about it anywhere, until I came across a posting on a Fairy Tales Discussion Board. The author seemed to be familiar with Ya Ya Baccala, and after I finished reading her comments , I knew why. It was written by my own daughter, leaving a little memorial to a dearly loved grandfather.

In the words of the immortal Mick Jagger:
"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well you might find, you get what you need"
-Rolling Stones You Can't Always Get What You Want

Music and Libations

Seen on Broadway, Saratoga, NY, on July 6, 2007
Sign me up!

Fleeting Beauty

"The Greek had no need to journey into far countries to learn the vicissitudes of the seasons, to mark the fleeting beauty of the damask rose, the transient glory of the golden corn, the passing splendour of the purple grapes."
-Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). "The Golden Bough"

My daughter took this striking photo of a Luna Moth on a recent hike in Lake George, NY. Intrigued, I turned to the internet to discover more about the pale and lovely insect.

Named after Luna, the Roman goddess of the moon, the mature Luna moth has a lifespan of about one week and does not feed as an adult; it has no mouth.
Dried adults, live eggs, larvae, and pupae are highly prized but “unfortunately for collectors... this species is not as vibrant in death as it is in life. Dried specimens fade to a pale yellow, leaving only a faint shadow of what was once a dazzling, luminous green.”

In "Luna Moth", Cecily Parks muses
If only you could teach me
survival without sustenance, unworried
love, how to find oneself at a window
one morning and think nothing of what happens next.


Pulitzer prize-winner Mary Oliver observes in "Luna":
It was beautiful.
It was silent.
It didn’t even have a mouth.

But it wanted something,
it had a purpose
and a few precious hours
to find it,
and I suppose it did.