What are you doing right now? What's on your list?

[Connie Weber]

Hi, Everyone. Busy enough?

This is a community check-in forum: please sketch out a list of your projects, activities, happenings (and mishaps!) of this current time, maybe what's going on from now until June. Come on--it'll be fun to see what everyone's doing.

What items are on your list right now? What fills your days? Is each day different from another, or are they the same? What's coming up shortly? What do you have to be done with by June? What are you really into? What are you dreading? What events are going on or upcoming?

[Ian Carmichael]

I'm limping towards the end of term. 3 weeks to go! Reports are written, parent teacher night coming up. Hanging out for our 3-week break. Garden. Tidy. Sleep. Selling a house. Reading. Refining this year's Science and Religion Unit.

Dreading more overwhelming busy-ness (there shouldn't be, but...), more paperwork, less time for reflection, less time to mentally amble around my educational demesnes.

Current intellectual interest - some more to learn on Spinoza with my interest piqued through Damasio's book and The Courtier and the Heretic -a very racy philosophical history and interpretation of the meeting between Leibniz and Spinoza - and its meaning and impact. Also reading David Hockney's work exploring the use of optics in paintings of the 15th/16th centuries. Fascinating exploration of the jump from flat painting (even with perspective) to near photographic quality of representation.

[Connie Weber]

Thanks, Ian--

I hope plenty of others take a few minutes to share what's up. Let's hear what people are up to--and Ian, it's great that you added what you're thinking about! I plan to start thinking soon, when I get a chance ;-)

Should our intellectual interests go beyond what's for lunch? That's on my mind right now.

Can't wait to share my list. But I have to do it later, off to the Art Museum now, to study ancient Korean pottery!

[Or-Tal Kiriati]

Well, I saw this question last week and I thought to myself - good, now I have to sort out the mess on my desk and make a proper organized list...
Well it's not organized yet. But, I do hope to advance with both my startup ventures. One of them I will leave for others to progress with. I am staying with my education related venture. It's tougher to crack, but it's in my soul. I must do it.
Aside from work there is the school year to finish with my kids. They keep me very much involved. And then prepare for the summer. Two full months of a summer vacation which I need to fill with at least some activities or summer camps (it's not a real camp here, it's only 5 hours a day in most cases).

[Ken Messersmith]

I am trying to keep focused on getting grades done. My electronic inbox is down to 59 projects to grade but I will be adding about 30 more in a couple of hours as my students complete their final exam activity.

I am finishing up a short term as department chair of a rather large department including 28 faculty members. This term was for one semester as our regular department chair spent a semester on sabbatical. Administrative work is not enjoyable to me but someone has to do it and I am willing to take my turn.

I have a manuscript for a research project on building community in online classes. I put it together rather quickly in the beginning and got it rejected. As soon as the semester is over I will rewrite it and submit it again.

Summer brings gardening, golf, fishing and time with family. My wife and I are going to visit our son and daughter-in-law in Virginia in a few weeks. They are both completing their first year as faculty members. It will be fun to talk shop a little with them.

I will also teach a section of a course called Technology Tools for Teachers. It is an online course that I created and enjoy teaching very much. The subject matter fits my short attention span because classroom technology changes rapidly and I can always learn something new with my students.

What am I dreading? We have our NCATE accreditation visit coming up next year and I dread all of the meetings necessary to pull together our report. In the process, we learn a lot about ourselves but it takes a major effort to put together the report for our program which includes several hundred teachers and a few thousand students.

[Connie Weber]

Ken, you are a busy person, indeed! It all sounds good. Hey, have you thought of some ways we can get the Fireside mentoring program started up this fall? I'm really excited about it. (Oops, just added to your list!)

[Catherine Menyhart]

Top priorities at the moment: job hunting, continuing courses in ESL, gardening and cherishing spring. I just completed my teacher training program so I'm keeping eyes and energy open for a job this fall. I also look forward to being more present in the Fireside Community now that my coursework is winding down...hooray!

[Connie Weber]

Catherine, it'll be a lucky school that gets you on staff.

Let us know about your ESL learning when you get a chance, OK? Also, anything else that's on your mind about education. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

[Liz Harvey]

I'll bite - here goes. I'm engaged in conversations with principals about partnering for next year with our program, Visual Thinking Strategies, and I'm hopeful that we'll launch six new partnerships next fall in the greater Bay Area. Even with the cuts this year, or perhaps because of them, school leaders are getting excited about looking at ways to bring VTS to their school communities to leverage their precious professional development monies for students to move forward in language development, communication skills, and critical thinking - as well as develop as aesthetic thinkers along the way.

I'm also coaching teachers at a small urban high school in East Oakland in one-on-one's and an all-day site visit to a neighboring similar school - focus is on arts integration. Teachers have been pouring out the love this week during testing as the school is dealing with Year 3 PI status & pressures to raise scores this year are more intense than ever. So far, they've danced the "CST Leg" at a CST Rally Monday; dressed in their Sunday best this week; and this morning they were making PB&J sandwiches at 7:30am for their students lunchtime today. I'm surveying teachers about the year's work with me and curious to see their thoughts in writing...so far, the refrain is, "we need more time!" I'm bracing for news of staff cuts at the school and sweating bullets researching grants and choosing one or two to crank out this month to try to make up for cuts for top arts priorities for next year: the art teacher, coaching, staff PD, and outside partnerships that bring music & drama to the school. I just put off a trip to see family to early June so I can put all of these projects to bed, then skedaddle for a weekend.

My art practice life: I'm working on a drawing dealing with things secret - an index really, to 40 or so secrets - and continuing a series of drawings that combine appropriations of illustrations for string play (cat's cradle) and substituting the string with other, right now chaotic, imagery.

Swim workouts and buddhist meditation keep everything in balance.

[Connie Weber]

Hi Liz,

You've got a lot of projects going--and we need to hear a lot more from you! I hope you tell us more about your Visible Thinking Strategies program. There are many people here who'd be interested. Let us know about your teacher-coaching work, and arts-integration as well--when you get a moment to come up for air!

[Nathan Lowell]

HEY! I'm still alive! :)

Grading. Needs to be turned in on Monday. My two courses PLUS a couple of comprehensive exam reviews.

Writing. Working on two articles about Second Life - one on 2d teaching in 3d spaces, and one on accessibility. Working on my 6th novel. Polishing up a short story that I'll be reading live at BaltiCon 43.

Developing. NCSSD is kicking off a new initiative (I put the video up here a little while ago) on helping get classroom teachers up to speed in a variety of tools -- many of them Web 2.0ish -- by having them USE Web 2.0 tools in order to learn about them. Any teachers who wanna come play are welcome to join us at http://theteachingplace.ning.com

So looking forward to: BaltiCon 43 - a conflagration of speculative fiction authors and producers sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society - Memorial Day weekend just outside Baltimore MD. I'm on 3 panels including a "Short Story Jam" with three other authors that I can't believe I get to talk to, let alone read beside. I'm going a day early and spending the extra night at the end just so I can go to the closing parties.

Summer: working on our "Teacher Bootcamps" and putting together an online "Second Life for Educators" course. Beginning the push to recruit teachers into The Teaching Place and establish the community based on the idea: "Professional Development should not be something that's done TO you, but rather something you do for yourself."

[Ian Carmichael]

Ah, Nathan the SF conventions - a lovely time - I remember with great fondness Aussicon 33 - actually getting to talk 1-1 with Ursula LeGuin, and Bob Silverberg - can't remember any others. And for its day the opening slide/music show was outstanding!

[Connie Weber]

Nathan,
I always find the updates about your work to be astonishing... You are out there really making a difference. Please share your articles on Fireside, ok? Also, give us news and links about your novels and stories. How DO you do so much? Really pleased and honored to be associated with you!