Arrive at 7:43am, far later than I like to arrive but about as early as I can these days. My night owl ways take a toll on arrival time.

From 8:13 to 2:45, my classes run like normal. Group survey presentations in Speech. A few Greek/Latin roots, STAR prep, and reading Richard Wright’s Black Boy in English 3.

3:00 to about 4:00, I work with my friend and colleague on department matters (which we never settle, by the bye). We also run through how to create an answer sheet using the district online data system. She’s a step closer to having the sophomore released STAR questions in the system – all neat, computerized, and aligned.

From 4:00 to roughly 5:00, my OCD kicks in and I work on typing someone else’s perfectly good speech outline organizer into my own Word document. I do this because I want to change a few references in the margin. The document will be mostly finished before I see how ridiculous this is. The absurdity is compounded by the stack of copies of the already-existing organizer sitting on the desk next to me, ready to go. I finally stop work on that Word document. The outline that already exists will do just fine. I acknowledge that it took me almost an hour to realize this with a shake of my head as I glance at the clock.

5 to 6 and the OCD is still strong. I print out at least six copies of this next handout as I work on the seventh iteration. Each of the six, no one can tell the difference between them, certainly not at first glance. Maybe not even at fourth glance. The tenth version is the one that goes to print.

It gets really dicey at about 6. My Speech class is working on impromptu speaking next. I need to improve the way I approached some of these ideas last semester. Organization is incredibly important in this style of speaking and I didn’t deliver that message well last time.

Begin Thought Stream

I’ll create lists of keywords, all of them ideas about a given topic. So pets is a good first topic. I’ll write a list of possible pets on the board and begin class by looking at that list, asking students what the topic of that speech would be. Yeah. Then a list of drinks right next to a list of vacation possibilities. This’ll be a nice way to talk about organization. This is a lot of writing.

Hmm… it would be better if those lists were each jumbled, requiring students to put the words in order as well as figure out the topic. But that’s a lot of writing. And what if one group has a good reason for keeping the list in this order, while the rest of the class wants it in that order?

So maybe write these words on index cards. But that’s a lot of writing. And I have to write these big enough so students can see from the back of the room. Or I could print out each word. Magnets would keep them on the whiteboard and let me move them around.

Wait! Type them up in Word and use the projector. Students call out the order and I just highlight-n-drag words around. That could work. And no writing. Still, I’m at the front leading the conversation. The same kids who always talk will contribute. And there’s no remnant of the conversation other than the Word document on my machine.

Hang on… I used this thing to help create the English master schedule last summer. The page had a bunch of boxes on it that I could click and drag around. That would be perfect here. It’d be the same as lists on the whiteboard, just lists on a Web page. Lots of boxes with keywords in them and students can move them around on any one of the computers in the room. Then we debrief with each group reading off their order. And if I put a textbox at the top of each set of keywords, groups can even type in a topic for each batch of words. That’s good. I like it.

Where did I put it? What was it called?

End Stream

I find it and put it to use, but it ends up costing me quite some time to arrange, debug, and write. I think I went overboard on this one.

The idea for this blog entry hits me, but it’s far too late to write it. It’ll wait.

It’s 8:13pm as I head out to my car. I have not eaten since lunch.

Evening highlight: walking into Cosentino’s, U2′s “Two Hearts Beat As One” is on. I love early U2.Similar Posts:

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January, February, and most of March saw me doing not much else other than stressing about work, fretting about the papers I had graded, and worrying about the ones I hadn’t. That’s a bad circuit to be in and I know that my teaching suffered. That kind of living never brings improvement.

I’m now near the end of my Spring Break and I’ve done a lot around my place. New bookcases, new chair, proper CD organization, better use of storage areas. I’m much happier with my place than I have been for a while. And all of this not working has gotten me thinking about work in a very different way. I haven’t stumbled upon any great innovation and I’m still not sure exactly what I’m doing on Monday. But there is this: if all you are is your work, you are one dimensional and likely don’t have much to say.

There are a few entries planned and some ideas that still need pounding out on the ol’ intellectual anvil. The final push of the school year is just about upon us, but there are miles to go, y’all, before any of us sleep. Here I am, with a focus on writing a few things about how I run my classes, how students respond, details of what I should be doing versus what I actually am doing, all with the purpose of making us both better teachers. But the only way any of those things are going to get written or read is if we both agree that a job is not the entire world.

You have to remember yourself and all of the varied interests you have. Sit down at the piano again. Pick up your watercolor brush. Take your camera out on a hike. Grab that book you’ve been meaning to read. Lift your pencil and begin that script. You’re more than your job. Remember?

P.S. Let’s just pretend I was never gone, eh?Similar Posts:

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Table Of Contents

1. Reading
2. Writing
3. Running
4. Watching

P.S. One of my favorite design blogs wrote a timely entry about a problem I experienced during this whole process. I got around the color shift by using Photoshop to adjust the Brightness/Contrast on the GIFs, but the resulting images just about tripled in file size. Not a problem for me here, but I shudder to think of what I’d have to go through if I needed these files to stick around their original 45 KB.Similar Posts:

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“Camera Phone? Bring It!” found its way inside Issues That Concern You: Electronic Devices in Schools. Thank you to the folks at Thompson Gale, specifically the Greenhaven Press imprint. It’s probably quite a risk to publish a blog entry from some random teacher who happens to write things down from time to time.

A mix of technology sites, newspapers, student papers, and education publications, here are the other sources used:

• Computer World
• ITWire
• Ars Technica
• The Washington Post
• The Bakersfield Californian
• Portsmouth Herald
• The Michigan Daily
• Western Courier
• Arizona Daily Wildcat
• BTHSnews.org
• Edutopia
• Education World
• Inside Higher Ed
• eSchool News

If you’re interested and the table of contents (PDF) looks like it might be up your alley, grab a copy.

For completists, I’m also honored to have been interviewed for two other books and an as-of-yet unreleased research project. Who knew it would happen this way?

Thank you for reading, ’cause it helps me write. I’m always open to other opportunities, so if I can help, feel free to contact me. Meanwhile, I’ll keep writing.Similar Posts:

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In the final stretch of the race, a guy appeared next to me. I kept pace with him and had a brief conversation.

“Don’t let me pass you. That’s how we both run faster,” I panted.

He chuckled. “OK. Sounds good to me.”

And we both trucked into the finish at a much quicker pace than we would have without each other. But after about 5 or 6 pumps, my left arm caught the wire of my headphones, pulling the ‘phones out of my Shuffle, bringing Ben Folds’s “Rockin’ The Suburbs” to an abrupt stop, and sending that Shuffle all the way over to the other lane, the one walkers were finishing the 5K walk in. It distracted me enough that I didn’t run as fast as I could have and that guy beat me through the gate. Just barely, but he beat me.

He probably would have anyway. I’m not a fast runner and never have been, but I’m pissed because I feel like I could have shaved off a second or so. To top off the feeling that I didn’t throw everything into the end of an otherwise successful run, I lost my $50 investment in a refurbished iPod Shuffle. I feel like I just threw a $50 bill on the ground and stomped all over it before I let someone else pick it up and spend it on whatever they want. A woman (“Blonde, pony tail, white shirt, pushing a blue stroller,” an appreciated description that didn’t narrow things down too much) apparently picked up the Shuffle, but I didn’t find her. The lost-and-found didn’t have a Shuffle. They now have my name and number scrawled on a random piece of scratch paper, but I only have the smallest sliver of hope that I’ll see that thing again.

I lost my Shuffle on the morning of my favorite of the holidays. Hope yours goes better than mine’s starting.

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