Thanksgiving thanks

I am sitting here with a full stomach at a laptop in a warm house. Two kids and a great wife fill my life with joy and wonder (ok sometimes stress as well). I know there are more than a few who aren't as fortunate.
Why does it take a holiday season to make me realize this? Sometimes the petty things get in the way and cloud what is really important in life. We get going in our daily life and the routine and we do lose sight of the worthwhile things.
So it does take holidays to make us stop and think sometimes. The trick in life is to think about these important things more often. Put them in the forefront of our lives and guide our decision making. Guide our lives and decisions with this knowledge and focus.
So it is true, I have a great many things to be thankful for in my life. I hope I don't lose focus of that after today.

Food For Many

I walked in my office and stepped over the box of Cheerios and the cans of chicken noodle soup this morning. The goal to fill my office with food for the local food pantry was definitely having an impact on my life.

I have been fortunate to never need assistance to put food on the table in my house. Neither did my parents or grandparents. My grandparents went weeks without paychecks during the Great Depression and still managed. What would it be like? I hope I never have to find out.

As a parent, you take on tremendous responsibility for you children. They are entirely dependent on you to put food on the table and care for them. We make sacrifices everyday for them, whether it be with a ride to practice, caring for them when they are sick, helping with homework, or just listening to their challenges. Kids shouldn't have to worry about whether or not they are going to eat that day.

Yet there are too many kids who are facing that issue. This should not be. The tremendous wealth that exists in this country is amazing and yet there are still households that struggle mightily. I am not a socialist promoting redistribution of wealth but it does seem ridiculous that we see the disparity we do. When pro athletes with tremendous physical ability and great agents are quibbling over the question whether they will make 18 or 20 million dollars for three or four years with teams that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, it doesn't seem right.

So, my challenge is stepping over the donations in my office for another week. I know I can handle it. I can only hope my office becomes to filled to work in and that kids don't face an empty dinner table at this time of year or any for that matter.

Football in America and the loss of "the event"

I remember being a kid and loving Monday Night Football. Howard Cosell, Don Meredith, and Frank Gifford were in the broadcast booth and I couldn't wait to see it. If I was lucky, my parents would let me stay up late (10:00 pm) and watch a half or so. The Pittsburgh Steelers were the team and I, of course, loved the underdog (Minnesota Vikings). I would always hope that the Vikings would be on that Monday night game.

The anticipation of one game during the week and two on the weekend was great and limited at the same time. That anticipation made the game an event. There was something about it.

Today, we are inundated with sports. ESPN has made it possible to see every highlight from every game. There are Sunday afternoon games, Sunday night games, Monday night games and now Thursday night games. I can see teams I don't really care about and the games mean nothing. There is not an event to be found. Even the Super Bowl has become more of a spectacle than a game. We could feed a country for the money spent on a 30 second commercial.

This is the world kids are growing up in and to share my fond memories of the anticipation of Monday Night Football must seem absurd to them. They don't have a clue about the waiting for the "big game." It seems a shame from an old Monday Night Football stalwart.

That's enough reminiscing. I have to go and adjust my Fantasy Football roster. I have to see who is matched up against the awful Detroit Lions.

Winter Approaches

Did you spend any time outside today? Winter is not too far away.

Yes, I admitted it. I was hoping that I could fend the cold weather for a month or so that I could still play golf or run without three layers on or even shovel snow. But I could feel it today.

The air has a different feel and smell as it comes out of the North. It creates images of snowflakes and skiing in your head. Even as you look at green grass and the last leaves on the trees, you see the winter images in your head.

It is inevitable, I know. I wish it wasn't because there is so much left to do. But I have resigned myself to the fact we are almost there. Is it time for a trip South?

Veteran's Day and my father

My dad was a veteran. Never saw any combat but served during the Suez Crisis in the 1950's. My father was straight forward and easy going and didn't strike me as a military man. It was the coolest thing that he was in the armed services because if you knew him, the rest of his life was far from the military life.
My dad pointed to his years in the military as the years that turned him around. Left UConn to enter the Army with "C's" and came back to get "A's". I am sure that has been the case for many people but it seemed to mean more coming from my father. It was a real and uncomplicated answer; a dramatic change in his performance due to that one experience. I sometimes wish I could point to an event like that in my life. But actually, it was the time he spent learning about himself that changed his direction and effort.
So I will think about different people on this Veteran's Day but first and foremost my father. Veteran's Day is a day to be thankful for the men/women who changed the world for the better and I am thankful for the world that changed my father.

Students for the 21st Century (Kids or Us?)

In his recent article "Footprints in the Digital Age" for Educational Leadership (ASCD, November 2008), Will Richardson said "our students must be nomadic, flexible, mobile learners who depend on their ability to connect with people and resources." He drew an image of a bus with "students standing in the front, most of the teachers are in the back, hanging on to the seat straps as the bus careens down the road under the guidance of kids who have never been taught to steer who are figuring it out as they go." Is that really where we are?

There is a level of communication between students that we adults very rarely attempt to get to in our lives. Kids are still talking, albeit underground at times. We have to first be willing to listen and then secondly listen to them in the way they are talking to us. Be it blogs or UTube videos, students have unique ways to talk to us and they are saying a lot.

For students, we have to help empower them in the most important technology for learning that has ever existed. How do we help students to navigate their way through individual networks? How am I supposed to help with this when I am a novice myself? There is so much changing at a rate that is unprecedented that I question whether I can keep up.

There is also the part of me that doesn't want to keep up. I want to keep it the way it was when I was young and it was simple. Communication was face to face or over the phone. You actually hand wrote letters and notes. Come to think of it, I have changed. It was a long time ago that I wrote a letter with a pen as the tool.

I also worry about the lack of balance in our lives. we need to take this challenge on in earnest. Help students appropriately network with friends and peers. Empower their positive communication and willingness to do good things. But also, students need to enjoy the world around them and the human/natural world. Have the ability to slow down and catch their breath just like we need to at times.

Where does it all fit and how do we keep moving forward with information and knowledge? How do we find the time, the energy and sometimes the desire? I will let you know if I ever figure it out.

Fatigue

When did I get so tired? Was it when I woke up this morning? Was it after a day of work? When I ate dinner and then sat down? I just can't remember.

I used to be able to stay up late but here it is 9:15 and I am ready for bed. Not even an election can keep my eyes open. I am getting old or I already got old and missed it.

It must be daylight savings time that did this to me.....

Election Day

The election looms but a day away. I remember being a kid and wanting to stay up and see how the colors filled in the US map as states' votes were tabulated. The commentators were so serious and it seemed so important to a much younger version of me. In today's technological world, it almost seems that the decision is made earlier. But if the last two elections are any indication, it can come down to a small number of voters. So once again, I will stay up to see how the results come in.

Do kids have any insight into the election? Students around the State of New Hampshire have been voting in their schools and at the State Visitors Center. I would love to know over the years how the student vote as it relates to the actual vote. I would venture a guess they have a pretty good record.