Blogging at NECC

So here I am finally at NECC in San Diego. There have been some challenges in getting in and getting registered since HUSD apparently dropped the ball in getting my registration in through the NCLB funds.

Anyway, first session
21st Century Skills and High School Reform



I am encouraged by looking at the 21st Century Skills framework and thinking about how close it is to Moreau's ESLRs and to our overarching mission and goals.


Core Subjects
Learning and Thinking Skills
ICT skills
21st Century Skills
Life Skills

Wish there was more about assessment tools. Will try to catch up with this group later on assessment tools.

Second Session:Planned Improvisation: Technology Supported Learning in the Social Studies Classroom

First of all, very cool that they are using live iChat to have a co-presenter who is in another part of the country waiting for his wife to go into labor.

Panic Attack in the PDR

So something happened to me this week that hasn't happened in a long time. I was in the middle of a meeting and I started to have a panic attack. We were discussing the moving schedule for the upcoming renovation of the school and even though nothing that was being said was really news to me, the actual verbalization of the dates when classrooms will have to be cleared so that the contents of the library can be moved into them sent me a little over the edge.

It wasn't really a full blown panic attack. I didn't start to hyperventilate or break into a sweat, but my vision did swim a little and it did feel like the room was pressing in on me in a very unpleasant way. I could hear the pitch of my voice rise when I spoke and I just really wanted to be out of there in a hurry.

Good news: I didn't actually dash for the door. Bad news: we still have to move that whole damn library into Garin in a hurry at the end of the year. Awcck!

This has been a very challenging year. We are asking a great deal of ourselves and one another. This makes it all very exciting and mostly I have been eager to get in on this excitement. I want to think that all of this tumult (the renovation, the 4oth anniversary, WASC, the laptop initiative) can be opportunities for me to help to really improve the school. I have a chance to be involved in making a difference that will last for at least a few years. But, oh my, on Tuesday, I so sincerely wanted to head for the hills.

Is it any wonder that some people hate change when even those of us who love it let it make us a little crazy from time to time.

Starting a Blog

A long time ago, my friend Becky and I were discussing how memory works. She asked how I managed to remember so many details that seemed inconsequential to her. I said that it was easy to remember things in context and that you just needed to find the way that everything connected. She asked how everything was connected, and I replied, "Well, you believe in God, right? So everything is connected."

Now, she seemed to find this a particularly unhelpful, if not inane, reply. And later it occurred to me that her observation about my memory for useless trivia did not imply that this was an ability that she wanted to emulate. Nevertheless, years later now, I often think about this conversation and about the ways that I try to create context in my life to facilitate my learning and teaching. Hopefully, as I use this blog to demo some educational uses of the blogosphere, I will be able to create some context for the colleagues with whom I work and help them remember more than just inconsequential details.