Never moon a werewolf

An entire weekend at home with no articles to write, columns to prepare or workshops to tweak. After a very hectic October and early November of travel and work, it's nice to veg. Well, sort of veg. Some random thoughts...

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The holiday catalogs are starting to arrive, and I am stealing from their offerings to add to my t-shirt slogan list. Some new ones:

• I'm currently away from desk.
• Of course I live in the past. It's cheaper there.
• Never moon a werewolf.
• Chemistry is just like cooking. Just don't lick the spoon.
• Paddle faster! I hear banjo music.
• Say NO to negative thinking.
• At my age I don't even buy green bananas.
• To err is human. To arrrr is pirate.
• Ask me about my vow of silence.
• I cannot resist the primal, demon rhythm of the polka.
• I used to be a millionaire. Then Mom threw away my baseball card collection.
• Being vague is as annoying as that other thing.
• I'm so far behind, I thought I was first!
• At what age am I old enough to know better?
• And my favorite:

signals.com

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I am always pleased when I get a suggestion for improving one of my workshops or presentation techniques. I got two good ones during the ISLMA conference this week.

At the beginning of most of my workshops, I advise people that they don't need to take notes since most of the material in the session is also in the online handouts. After a workshop last Thursday, a very nice lady came up afterwards and suggested that I give people "permission" to take notes. She says doing so helps her process and retain the information better. I sometimes forget the power of permission we "experts" exert.

Another thoughtful suggestion was that when I cite a graphic in my slides with a URL, that I run the address vertically rather than horizontally. "It's less distracting," the participant suggested. Good idea.

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This January for the first time, I will have a president who is younger than I am. I suspect as good a reason as any to do one's best as an educator is that eventually your dentist, your banker, your oncologist, your plumber, your grandchildren's teachers, and your president will all have once been your generation's students. If they are incompetent, you have no one but yourself to blame.

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I greatly enjoyed a recent post by Rob Rubis on his Edging Ahead blog. In it he asks:

So have our lives changed in fundamental, core ways [because of the Internet]? Do I interact, on a day-to-day, moment-by-moment basis with my family, friends and professional colleagues, in a way that is fundamentally different than I did before 1995? Are my daily life routines (getting up at 4:50 am, working from 7:00 - 4:00, spending from 6:00 - 9:00 with family, and awaiting “weekends away” from work) different in core ways from what they were “before”? Has the business of meeting work commitments, fulfilling family obligations and achieving personal goals changed become fundamentally different from what it was?

While I am still chewing on Rob's question, I believe that blogging has changed the way I look at the world. I often read, observe and reflect with an eye on a thing's "blog-worthiness" just as Seinfield's Elaine always vetted men on their "sponge-worthiness." Being a better "noticer" is not a bad thing.

Oh, my initial reaction to Rob's question was thinking about about the old cartoon that asked, 'What did we do to look busy before there were computers?" Indeed.

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This weekend's cold nasty weather makes it a good time to cook stew. Since it takes about 3 hours to cook, I only make this favorite recipe on the weekends. Give it a try. The paprika gives it a little zing and the rutabaga a little sweetness. And it's so good for you.

Two Harbors (MN) Beef Stew

Serves 8

Beef mixture
2 pounds beef round, cut in 1" cubes
1/4 c flour
3 T oil or margarine
2 c hot water
2 t instant beef boullion
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
1 clove garlic, diced
2 t paprika
1 t sugar
1/2 t black pepper
1/8 t allspice
2 bay leaves

Vegetables
4 medium carrots cut into chunks
3 medium tomatoes (I use a big can of whole tomatoes)
1 medium rutabaga, peeled and cut into 1/3 in chunks
1 green pepper cut into thin strips
1 16 oz can small white potatoes, drained

In Dutch oven, heat oil or margarine over medium-high heat. Place flour in paper bag; shake beef cubes in flour to coat. Brown floured beef cubes. Add remaining beef mixture ingredients. Simmer over low heat 1 1/2 hours. Add all vegetables except potatoes. Simmer 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add potatoes and cook until heath through, about 15 minutes.

Be advised that if you want a true Minnesota culinary experience, you'll need to add a can of Cream of Mushroom soup to the mix. And maybe sprinkle some crushed potato chips on top. But live dangerously and try it as it's written at least once...

Odds and Ends - Rainy Fall Sunday

After a very nice trip to do workshops and presentations at the Washington/Oregon Joint School Library Conference in Portland last week, it's great to be home to enjoy Minnesota's fall colors, muted by rains this quiet Sunday. Life is good.

A few things that caught my eye this past week and you might find interesting as well:

It's not what you know but who you know...
When my superintendent showed an interest in podcasting and asked for examples of other educational administrators who were creating these things, I turned to Scott McLeod who put the question to his readers of  Dangerously Irrelevant and they generated a nice list. Thanks, Scott and your groupies.

Another post of Scott's made me stop and think a bit. In Messianic arrogance, Scott asks "Passionate, visionary leadership or self-righteous, messianic arrogance?" Is there a difference? Hmmmmm... Do you you offer Kool-Aid to your guests?

In print
It's always fun to see one's article published in a print magazine, especially a magazine like School Library Journal. I'm kinda proud of ’Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad (c)?” - it's controversial and good for kids, teachers and librarians. The topic has been great fun in the conference presentations I've given about it these last two weeks. I'm pleased SLJ put it online. Illustration at right by Mark Tuchman from SLJ Oct 08

Are you willing to get fired for your beliefs?
I've extolled the humor of Librarian Wham on the Books, Bytes and Grocery Store Feet blog before. But this week his How Firm is Your Stand? post tells the story of the economic and career consequences of being a principled person - about standing up to one's supervisor and getting fired for it.

Most of us talk a good game about going to any length in upholding our ideals, acting in the best interest of our students, playing David against the administrative Goliaths. But I suspect that niggling self-doubt and mortgage payments combine to trump principle in all but the true heroes among us.

Oh, speaking as a supervisor, principled people can be scary to have working for you too.

A short list of technology competencies
Senator McCain has infamously admitted to his lack of Internet(s) savvy. Knowing how to send an e-mail probably isn't crucial to being the Leader of the Free World, but it does seem a bit anachronistic. Heck, my mom does e-mail and she's even older than McCain. But then she doesn't have an aide at her beck and call either. Except my brother.

Anyway, Seth Godin has a pretty good list of technology competencies in his post The growing productivity divide. David Pogue has some similar basic tech tips. How would your teachers do if given a test on these?

A good question
How would you answer this question that popped up in a workshop last week during a discussion on evaluating web resources:

But what do you do when you've steered your students to "authoritative" sites and the good sources don't all agree? I had students use three reliable sources to find the maximum speed of a cheetah and they came back with three different answers!

Average them? Give a range?

Hell, just use Wikipedia.

What gets tested, gets taught
By way of my friend Mary Mehsikomer:

ON THE WAY: NATION'S FIRST TECH-LITERACY EXAM, eSchool News
For the first time ever, technological literacy will become part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation's Report Card. Beginning in 2012, the test will measure students' proficiency with technology in addition to reading, math, science, history, writing, and other subjects. The new test will mark the first time students' technology literacy has been assessed on a national level.http://benton.org/node/17652

Is this what it will take to get schools to address the tech skills kids need? How sad.

Off to Montana this week
The LWW and I leave this Wednesday for Missoula in the great state of Montana. I'm working at a conference on Thursday, visiting with our friend Sally Brewer on Thursday evening, and then heading to Glacier Park for a long weekend.

I'll tell the grizzly bears you said hello.

Fall Odds and Ends

This was the perfect fall weekend here in God's Country - aka southern Minnesota. Highs in the 70s, blue skies, light breezes. Trees and shrubs are beginning to turn color. I had no writing assignments due nor presentations for which to prepare. So other than mowing the lawn and puttering a bit, I read, I napped and I ate.

Is this what retirement will be like one day?

Anyway, a few things caught my eye and here they are...

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Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a downloadable comic book, Bound by Law?, that tells the riveting tale of a documentary film maker tying to figure out the in's-and-out's of Fair Use and copyright in her work. The authors do a good job of presenting a balanced assessment of both the need for and excesses of copyright law from the views of both the consumer  and the creator. 

One of the problems they examine is the "permissions culture":

...the belief that copyright gives its owner the right to demand payment of every type of usage, no matter its length, or its purpose, or the context in which it is set.

and observes

One of the under-appreciated tragedies of the permissions culture is that many young artists only experience copyright as an impediment, a source of incomprehensible demands for payment, cease and desist letters, and legal transaction costs. Technology allows them to mix, to combine, to create collages. They see law as merely an obstacle.

Hmmmm, echos of The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy that shows the same impact in education.

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In working on a column on RSS feeds, I found this list of imaginative uses compiled by Christina Laun at VirtualHosting.com -  “Top 25 (Non-Obvious) Ways RSS Can Make Your Life Easier”.  She suggests tracking everything from job openings to overdue library books to television schedules. Go RSS!

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For other manly readers out there, Stephen King has a short essay on "manfiction" titled What a Guy Wants on the EW website.  King pays homage to Travis McGee, but writes "The best current manfiction writers? I'd say Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, and Lee Child." I concur - pretty much. But I'd add:

• John Burdett
• James Lee Burke
• Stephen Hunter
• Daniel Silva
• Martin Cruz Smith

Other manly writers?

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Jennifer McDaniel in her article The Case for PEDs in Teacher Magazine intriguingly begins:

For the first time this year, my entire 9th grade class is on task.

What miracle has Ms McDaniel used to create such a learning environment? She allowed students to use PEDs (personal electronic devices) - their MP3 players during Friday independent study time. It was against school rules, she has since conformed to the rules, and adult needs have been met.

Sigh.

When will educators learn to use these tools to meet instructional goals rather than simply give the knee-jerk response of banning them?

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Taken last evening, this is a photo of Pirates' Tree on the boat cut between Middle and Big Jefferson Lakes, about a quarter mile from our house. Pirates Tree is so named (by our family anyway) because we have always told the grandsons to keep a sharp eye out for pirates ready to leap from its limbs and commandeer any pontoon boat passing through the cut. So far we've been lucky. Very lucky.

The boys also know about Dinosaur Island which can be seen from our dock. Happily for humans, the dinosaurs that inhabit the island can't swim and hibernate in the winter so they can't walk across the ice.

I believe I once had my son fairly well-convinced of the presence of the nearby Lake Henry Monster whose tentacles could reach well onto the country road and drag unsuspecting cars (and small boys)  to Lake Henry's watery depths.

It is an important job for adults to impress a sense of fantasy on the children in their charge. I doubt either Frodo or Dumbledore would exist were this not the case.

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