Category Archives: Uncategorized

Like most Sunday mornings I awoke at 6:30 to start making Blueberry Muffins. Maybe it is the coffee, or the quiet of the house, or the playlist I listen to, but I always find myself thinking about life as I get out the eggs, pour the milk, and get the muffin mix ready for the cupcake pans. I wish I could say that this post will be positive, but today the muffins were bittersweet.

As you know we have blueberry muffins every Sunday morning. We have added chocolate chips muffins (after trying out a few different kinds), scrambled eggs, and sausage or bacon to our breakfast routine. Time has forced some changes on our family.

So, let me take you back a few days. One evening my oldest son asked if I remembered this song:

This was a favorite song when he was younger. His younger brother was in the living room at the time and all three of us sang along. It was a reminder of a time when life was simpler. But now, as teenage boys, they have already learned some hard lessons about life. They have had their hearts broken, they have had their trust broken by adults. And sadly, through different avenues, they have learned that hard work alone doesn’t pay off. (That is for another blog.) Yet, for a few minutes we were back in time, riding in the minivan, singing along to Kids Place Live.

Jump to this morning…

As I was making breakfast my youngest daughter appears in the living room, ready to play My Little Pony. She scampers over to the kitchen, eyes wide, smile wider, a few My Little Ponies in her hand. She asks if I am making muffins. I answer yes. She replies, “I love muffins.” Then returns to the living room to play.

As I mix the batter for the chocolate chip muffins I consider how life changes for us. No matter how much I want to be Holden and keep my children from falling off the cliff in the middle of a rye field, I know that I am helpless to do that. Even our tradition of blueberry muffins has changed because our family has.

But I smile, too, as I place the pans into the oven. Blueberry next to chocolate chip. The heart of our tradition is still there. And that won’t change, no matter how much time passes.

What is the day?

What is the date?

Year?

We remember yesterday. We are living today. I can plan for tomorrow.

These are so easily marked off on a calendar…

But SOMEDAY?

Maybe the hardest day to understand and the most destructive word in our vocabulary.

I apologize, I can’t remember where I heard the quote by Steve Mazan posted above.  But it has been infecting my thinking the last couple of days.

SOMEDAY is defined by Merriam-Webster as:  at some time in the future.

The sentence example provided for students is: Someday I’ll travel.

And there is the problem, the destructive aspect of the word. And why it is so easy to use when we discuss our goals. Someday provides us a false sense of confidence. It sounds like we are working on our dreams. Someday I will write that book. Someday I will open that business. Someday I will visit my friend in Minneapolis (or any other place that fits your situation).

But let’s be honest, once we speak this ‘someday’ statement it is usually followed by our escape conjunction, ‘but,’ followed by an articulated excuse. An excuse that helps us rationalize our failure to achieve our goals. Sadly, the person whom we are speaking with will shake their head in agreement. And too many times, they will share their ‘someday’ goal followed with the escape conjunction and their own practiced excuse.

It’s a vicious cycle. It is hard to break. Steve Mazan has an idea built into his insight. He is correct, SOMEDAY is not found on a calendar. But your goal can be found on a calendar. Write it down on the day you want to accomplish it by. Simple. The hard part is to hold yourself accountable to that date. You have to let go of the false confidence of SOMEDAY and embrace the honest sense of pride you will gain by working on your goals.

You can make your life better, someday. Or you can mark your calendar for today.

Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comment section and share this post with others.

Holding Daughter’s Hand

I checked out the book This I Believe: On Love from my library a couple of weeks ago.  The book is a collection of essays written by everyday people.  The book is apart of the I Believe organization that fosters the sharing of our foundational beliefs through writing.  In the spirit of the book I wanted to share what I believe, on love.

Love takes strength, everyday.

Love is reflected in the daily grind of life, it is expressed in soothing a crying child at 1:30 in the morning, and the thirty minutes sitting next to their bed as they fall asleep (and not losing your cool when your knees pop awaking her so you have to sit for another ten minutes).

Love is reflected in making blueberry muffins every Sunday morning.  Sitting with the family at the table. Picking up shoes and coats in the entryway, everyday.

Love is seen in kissing your wife even though it is a bad day and things are not going right.  To show her that your marriage is more important than a bad day. Love drives us to be better next time, and the next time, and to be even better the next time after that.

Love calls us to live with an open heart.  To be strong enough to know your heart will break, because life will break your heart with joy and sorrow.  But love will put your heart back together.

Love calls us to be honest, to have the strength to do what is right in this world.  To stand alone sometimes and hold a candle size light in the dark until others find their way to you.

Love takes strength.  Love takes courage. Love takes everything you have.  And I believe that is the way it should be.

Overview:

SCVNGR is the type of app that highlights the power of being mobile.  The main goal of SCVNGR is going places, doing challenges, and earning points.  You can do other people’s challenges or create your own.  The heart of the program is connecting the challenge to a physical place that then turns into a social experience.  The website also allows you to create Treks.  Treks are a collection of challenges that can take place at one site or cover different places to travel to.

SCVNGR has done a great job in the design of their app.  Every challenge has the same four parts to it: Check-in, Social Check-in, Say something, and Snap a picture. When a place has been tagged in a challenge, every player has these options.  The fun comes in the unique challenge you create at that location.  There are two ways to create a challenge.  The first is by gaining enough points at that location and unlocking the bonus Create a challenge option.  The second is to make an account on SCVNGR’s website and build challenges or treks through the site.  You get four challenges with your account; you can email SCVNGR to ask for more challenges.  There is also a reward option you can unlock by contacting SCVNGR (click here for more info).

Why I like it:

It is fun.  It represents how mobile technology can be used to create a social and engaging experience.  Each Challenge or Trek has an activity feed that allows you to see how you stack up with other players. I used SCVNGR as the backbone of my Creative Apps workshop.  I built a Trek that introduced SCVNGR and then used it to enhance the workshop.

The first part of the Trek was a photo challenge.  The participants had to find a specific plant.  I uploaded my picture of the plant, and they had to take their own picture once they found it.  Next, I had two trivia questions they had to answer by asking specific colleagues during breaks in the workshop.  If you were wondering, no, their answers were not on the activity feed, just their points.  I then incorporated three discussion questions around other parts of the workshop.  These challenges were added to the four template aspects mentioned above.

One aspect I enjoyed was adding media to the challenges.  You can add movie files, pictures, or audio to your challenges to create even more personal touches.  I filmed the instructions for one of the challenges and attached them to the game.

Use in the classroom:

I think this app has great potential for schools. Below are some ideas.

Create Treks for athletic teams, band concerts, or the speech team.  Time is not a factor for SCVNGR, so a Trek can be active for as long as you want.  For example, to get fans to follow your team, create a season Trek that has each game as a challenge.

Create a reading Trek for a semester.  The location would be the classroom, but each book can have its own challenge.

Visit historical sites, or set up a Trek before a field trip allowing you to ask trivia questions, gather photos, and just create a more engaging trip.

Collect samples of plants for science class.

SCVNGR is one of those apps that reveals the power mobile technology has to enhance our everyday life, let alone what it can do for the classroom.  I think you will find SCVNGR to be a great resource. Share your SCVNGR successes with me via Twitter (jdog90).

In case you are ever in Kearney, NE, and enjoy coffee, I have a Trek, “Better Latte Than Never” you might enjoy.

I think it has happened.  I am a grumpy teacher.  Many of my phrases start with “Back in my day,” or “Kids these days.”  To be honest, some days I feel drained after teaching instead of energized.  I get grumpy grading papers.  I am becoming that teacher.

How did I get here?  The answer is not easy to write, but I think it reveals some important aspects of education.

My Classroom

I teach all my classes over a DL (distance learning) system.  I juggle different start and end times for periods, 14 different school calendars, and one period with six different schools on the screen.  Not to mention technological issues or other factors that affect the environment of the class: lighting, all students on screen, and even just trying to answer a question from their computer screen.

I have, at best, shallow relationships with my students. I’m on line with them three days a week for 45 minutes.  I don’t get to have those conversations in the hall or at lunch.  They cannot ask for help in the morning.  I do not get to see the light bulb moments.  Learning is about moving to higher levels of understanding and articulation of that understanding.  It is scary to make that jump sometimes, but a teacher is that foundation that gives students the courage to make it.  I don’t seem to be building that foundation, and that is hard to live with because that is what a teacher does.

Connected to the environment is my approach to grades.  Lessons are just as much a part of the culture of a classroom as the desks and paint on the wall.  And with lessons comes grades.  I have tried to create a more project-based environment for both of my classes.  To create activities that builds the students’ skills without worrying about the grade.

Animal masks from when I taught in a classroom.

Here again I get tired of battling all the different grading issues, from the student cliché. “How long is it suppose to be?” to justifying every assignment that is not “graded” to schools.  In some ways I have made it even harder on myself because I’ve tried to run my DL classes as if it was a normal classroom.  So, I have kids go outside to write and take pictures.  Students hand in homework by taping it to the walls in their classroom.  But it is not so simple to correlate these activities with six other schools for that period.  Or to make sure all students post their work on the wall.

Grades are important, but I feel that improving their skills is more important.  Life doesn’t give us a midterm report.  We don’t get a grade for how well I did as a parent, or as a friend.  Yes, we do get evaluated for those things, but it is reveled in our sense of pride, the smiles and laughter at the dinner table.  Our skills help us create a life filled with love and strength to handle rough times.  I know a single classroom cannot measure up to life, but it can be a place to build the work ethic for students to strengthen the skills that will be needed in life.  I would rather see them work hard on an essay then filled a page requirement, but to create that freedom takes a relationship that is built throughout a school experience.  And I’m just some guy on a screen…

So I get tired, I get grumpy, I feel like a failure. But this feeling highlights what matters most in education and in life: the relationships we construct with students to help them reach their highest expression of talents and skills.  I might still be grumpy, but I know that all I can do is keeping trying.  Because I won’t get a grade for this moment in life, but will know how I’m doing by the smiles and pride my students express in their own life.