Reflections from Hog Hill

How did I get to this place?

2012-01-14T22:11:00.000-05:00

I wonder sometimes about livingin this house that’s glued so firmly to my back that I might as well be aturtle. I love living in an old houseand I love that it’s been in my family for such a long time. My childhood was nomadic and I knew verylittle about my extended family until I was an adult. It means a lot to me to live where myancestors lived even though I never knew them.

On the other hand, living in an oldhouse is not an easy lifestyle. Thehouse was unoccupied for many years. Maintenance and repairs have been deferred for far too long and countryliving requires a roll-up-your-sleeves can-do attitude. I’ve never been afraid of theroll-up-your-sleeves part – in fact, I rather enjoy it. My struggle is with the can-do part, abyproduct of living for so many years in verbally and emotionally destructiverelationships.

I’ve worked at many jobs in mylife – I’ve managed a swimming pool maintenance and repair company; managed apool supply retail store; managed rental properties; been sales clerk in ajewelry and watch repair shop; worked on design and analysis of public opinionresearch polls; processed, filled and packed orders at a mail order company; donebookkeeping for a temp agency; worked as a small theater go-fer; looked after mice in a biologylab; been administrative assistant for a church; worked as localstringer for a newspaper; and worked in several academic libraries.

The jobs haven’t had much in common with eachother, but I’ve worked hard and done them well. Except, perhaps, when I was 18 and did a very short and unfortunatestint as a bookkeeper at a tire store somewhere in Maryland,the first and only time I was fired from a job. Hard to believe, but I was even better at vacation home telesales than Iwas at the tire store. Well, maybe Iwasn’t all that good at the telesales, but I didn’t get fired. I did, however, give many telephone salespitches to the lady of the recorded weather reports and the one who reportedthe time. They didn’t earn me much inthe way of bonuses for sales leads, but at least they didn’t hang up on me.

I’ve also done volunteer work with a number of nonprofit groups. I’ve taught swimming, first aid and lifesaving; developed and run fund-raising efforts for fire and rescue departments, schools andopen space protection efforts; presented workshops in genealogy research andnatural history; worked as a tutor in a variety of subjects; served on an urbanplanning board and on a rural conservation commission; edited a newsletter andfought community zoning battles. Ididn’t set out to join all those causes, I just saw gaps and stepped in tofill them. I never stopped first to thinkabout whether it would be beyond my abilities nor did I hesitate to take thelead when it was needed.

I started working my first paid jobat the age of fourteen, I’m now 58. Why is it that even though I’ve been proving myself successfully for the past 44 years Istill don’t have confidence in my own abilities? Stepping out of my well-worn tracks is soeasy when it’s to fill someone else’s need – why is it so difficult when it’sfor myself?

I have a birdwatching friend who isvery knowledgeable about all matters avian and supremely confident in hisknowledge. I don’t have either the yearsof experience or the depth of knowledge that he does, but I have learned a lot. Despite what I know, though, I remainuncertain and hesitant in my identifications. While he says his motto is “Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt”-- mine wouldhave to be “Frequently right, but always in doubt.”

How did this happen and how canI change it?

Those are the questions ofthe moment.

What happened to the colors?

2011-10-23T22:00:00.002-04:00

Well, somehow we seem to have rocketed straight from January (see my last post) to October. Sheesh!

Every year at this time I find myself wandering around with my camera in a bit of a daze. There are so many photogenic scenes around here in the fall.

This afternoon I was browsing through some of my favorite blogs, clicking on links now and again. I came across a new one, The Fall Color Project, that gives links to blog posts with photos from all around the country. So I took my camera and went wandering around the yard trying to find some color to photograph so I could join the project. I found very little - and, sadly, the brightest of what I did find was from invasive species like Evonymus and Oriental Bittersweet that are flourishing despite my best attempts to control them.

This fall has undoubtedly been a bit odd. A month ago the green leaves on some trees (including my biggest sugar maple) just started withering up and dropping...

Two weeks ago today the trees that still had leaves were green. The next day colors had appeared here and there - in this photo you can see just a bit in the trees across the lake over in Kingston....

This single branch on the big driveway oak has turned red, though the rest of the tree is still quite green...

Across the driveway is a completely overgrown crabapple that is just beginning to show a few hints of color, mostly in the fruit...

I found this little splash behind the carriage house - pretty colors but that purply-red comes from the dreaded Burning Bush...

Wandered down to the field but found very little there. You can see the white trunks of the popples (the local name for poplars, known also in other parts as aspens), which have already lost their leaves. The rest are showing just a few hints of color...

There was one straggly bit of staghorn sumac growing where it shouldn't be, nestled between the smoky green of the Butterfly Bush and the still-bright leaves of the lilacs. Another sugar maple, one that's usually quite majestic, is looking pretty thin this year...

I have heard it speculated that the maples are showing delayed damage from our late August visitor, Hurricane Irene. We didn't get the winds or torrential rains that lashed Vermont, and thought we'd seen it go by with little effect. We're only about ten miles from the ocean, though, and some are saying now that the rain we did get was saturated with salt and that's what's caused our troubles. I lost one of my sugar maples three years ago to some unidentified and fast-acting lethal agent. I sure hope that this time salt is really all it is!

Straight No Chaser "Auld Lang Syne"

2011-01-22T09:38:00.002-05:00

I guess it's a bit late in the month for this (or, perhaps, early in the year?), but I just found it on the blog of a fellow Craftster-er, Belladune, and wanted to share its loveliness!

Water, the currency of kings...

2011-01-15T20:45:00.007-05:00

As I shoveled my way to the garage this afternoon, I enjoyed this view down through the orchard. The snow fell four days ago but the tracks of a squirrel are still the only ones in sight.

There's no question that winter in New England can be beautiful but there's also no question that winter in New England can be awkward and irksome, especially for those of us blessed with old house living.

As I stood at the kitchen sink washing dishes this evening I suddenly became aware of water dripping on my arm.

From above.

From the ceiling.

Dam!

Ice dam, that is. Warmth from inside the house works its way up and out. The snow melts where it is in contact with the roof. The water runs down to the edge of the roof. The underside of the eaves is exposed, so there's no heat coming through and the water promptly freezes up again. The edge of the roof builds up a dam of ice. Now the water has nowhere to go, so it makes a little pond that backs up under the shingles.

Et voila! Drip, drip, drip!! The same water that created that picture postcard orchard scene is now working its way through the inner spaces of my house, carrying rot and destruction along with it.

When I was a teenager I worked as a lifeguard at a community swimming pool where I also taught swimming lessons. I remember one reluctant beginner who, when urged to jump in the pool, would say to me with all the intensity of his age, "The water is my enemy."

At the time I thought it was a gross exaggeration, but now I know better. Water may seem insipid - colorless, tasteless, and unable to hold its own shape - but it is truly powerful and insidious.

The one good thing is that the place where the water most commonly works its way through is directly over the kitchen sink. By coincidence or by design? Given the practicality of our Yankee ancestors, I suspect it was by design.

Welcome to my world!

Best holiday wishes to all...

2010-12-27T11:42:00.004-05:00

Perhaps not a white Christmas this year,
but at least we got a white Boxing Day!!

Back to my roots...

2010-11-24T15:49:00.005-05:00

I'm staying more than busy these days between family and work and school, but I've been trying to squeeze in a few minutes for myself here and there. I've recently discovered a website called Craftster where I've met lots of very nice people who are just as crazy about crafting as I used to be in the dim past. I've been breaking out my needles and hoops and embroidery thread and having a great time designing and making and swapping. Swapping is the best! Making things for yourself can be pretty unexciting, but sending something off to someone who will appreciate what's gone into it and receiving one back from them adds a whole new dimension.

My most recent swap involved this winter tree made by me and sent away to Georgia...

And, in return I have this lovely redwork hoop....

Yayy for hoops!!!

My own private Maginot...

2010-11-06T11:57:00.009-04:00

Have you heard of the movie, My own private Idaho? I love the title, but I could never bring myself to watch it. It's one I would have loved in my twenties, but now? Not so much. There's far too much bleak in the world already for me to want to watch more of it in living technicolor.

Hold that thought - and follow me now, on an entirely different but not unrelated path...

I love living in New England, and I love the fall. In fact, I gave up the year-round sunshine of life in San Diego largely because I missed the rhythms of the seasons.

Every spring I anxiously await the appearance of the pussy willow catkins and the rosy haze of the budding red maples. I marvel at the coral quince blossoms at the front doorstep, just as my grandmother, her mother, and her grandmother did before me.

I forgive the squirrels their mighty depredations of the winter bird feeders as I watch them eagerly sipping sap from the snow-snapped twig ends of the sugar maples.

I bathe in the falls of petals from the fruit trees as the glowing orioles search for bugs and nectar.

I peer anxiously at the distant branches of our mighty oak tree, trying to judge the size of the new leaves. The size of a mouse's ear is the time to put in the first planting of peas, but I can tell you that this is not a size easy to judge with binoculars. My farming forbears lived here when the branches were more likely fifteen feet overhead, rather than the present sixty or so. If the attic windows faced that direction I could use the height of the house to my advantage, but they don't. The best I can hope for is a perching titmouse or chickadee to provide some point of reference.

The fringe tree perfumes the night air in early June. Not as completely as it did before being cut to the ground during a misguided tree surgery foray, a case of mistaken identity. Happily though, it's since grown back to be a full contributing member of the choir.

The flowering dogwood, spared by the fringe tree's trauma, has defied all predictions and continues to be lovely despite a case of dogwood blight and the loss of its top in the hideous early December ice storm of a few years ago.

Into the summer the Kousa dogwoods are blanketed in drifts of blossoms, the leaves hardly even seen till later, sporting their crop of nubbly fruit.

And so it goes, until suddenly one day the only thing between me and the sky is the tracery of bare branches brought once more into view.

And on the ground in front of me lies my own private Maginot Line...

Here we go again!

2010-09-09T19:31:00.002-04:00

It's a wonderful thing about life....what goes around, comes around. And then it comes around again. And then again!

The text below is a re-posting from last year, but it's just as true now as it ever was. The students are a year older and there's a group of new faces to learn to recognize and get to know. For all the parents everywhere - thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to work with your children. I think I have just about the best job in the world!

The best news is that the students will be back in just a few days!

Next week is my favorite of the year, bar none. The cars and coaches pull up and the kids spill out, eager and overflowing with energy, squealing with delight as they connect and reconnect with each other and with the community. Opening day assembly will be on Friday morning, with all the students and all the faculty in attendance. The principal will talk about some aspect of the founding deed of gift, the topic for every opening day assembly since 1783. I'll sit on a bench in the assembly hall, listening, and trying very hard to actually see the students all around the room. It's surprisingly difficult with the shadows of so many other generations crowding in alongside them.

Some people only sing hymns at Christmas - for me, it's at opening day assembly. The school minister will lead us in singing For the Splendor of Creation with his great booming voice.....

"For the splendor of creation that draws us to inquire, for the mysteries of knowledge to which our hearts aspire,....for the unexplained remainder, for the puzzling and the odd: for the joy and pain of learning, we give you thanks, O God.......for the common life that binds us through days that soar or plod: for this place and for these people, we give you thanks, O God."

The bells have been silent all summer except to tell the hours, but they'll take up their second job now, calling students to their classes again.

Vacations are all about making new friends...right?

2010-09-04T23:05:00.003-04:00

Book #14 for 2010...

2010-06-25T11:23:00.001-04:00

Catching up on past reading from earlier this year...

Book 14
New Hampshire in history or the contribution of the Granite State to the development of the nation - Henry Harrison Metcalf

Written in 1922 by a former State Historian, this fascinating little volume is full of information about the many native sons and daughters of New Hampshire who gained prominence in some way during their lives. Examples range from the well-known newspaperman Horace Greeley, and statesman and orator Daniel Webster, to lesser-known luminaries such as John Pierce, who was responsible for the development of the University of Michigan which was the first of the state universities in the US, and Henry Wood, who "established the first Protestant Mission in Japan and preached the first sermon in English in that country." Who knew? I surely never did!

The one thing that would be helpful in the book is an index, but perhaps one will be added if it is reprinted some day.

2010-05-31T11:35:00.005-04:00

One of my favorite places....Monhegan Island, Maine.

Spring flowers continue apace...and way ahead of schedule!

2010-05-22T19:50:00.006-04:00

Crabapple in bloom - and long since gone by

Rhododendron - this variety is often blooming on the Fourth of July, rarely in mid-May

The Great Sea of Chives

A surprise visitor at the bird feeders today...Wild Turkey!

2010-04-11T13:55:00.003-04:00

I know, I know - I'm supposed to be writing a paper, but honestly, could you just let this walk by your window unnoticed?

Hmmm...who ate lunch here?

2010-04-10T11:05:00.004-04:00

Skunk cabbages!

2010-04-04T21:55:00.002-04:00

All that rain isn't so good for the cellar, but it sure makes the plants happy!

Book 13 for 2010

2010-03-06T09:28:00.003-05:00

13. Paper Towns by John Green -

What a wonderful book this was! Anyone who has ever been a teenager, or known one; anyone who has ever had a crush on the girl- or boy-next-door; anyone who has ever lived through high school and graduation and come out the other side; in short, pretty much anyone, will find some point of recognition in this book. And, even more than recognition, will find food for thought: thoughts about who we really are, thoughts about who our friends really are, and thoughts about what it takes to spin and weave and stitch together the threads that form the fabrics of our lives.

No spoilers here because I couldn’t bear to ruin the book for anyone. I will say that there were one or two points at which I nearly stopped reading because I had grown to like the characters so much and wasn’t sure I could trust the author to treat them well in the end. I persevered, though, and I’m pleased to report that John Green is entirely trustworthy. I can also quite honestly say that my seventeen-year-old son liked the book just as much as I did – high praise, indeed!

Spring is coming...

2010-03-05T22:03:00.004-05:00

They're baaaaack!

The Myth of the Cave

2010-03-05T21:55:00.002-05:00

For class this week we read and discussed Plato’s “Myth of the Cave” from Book 7, Section 7 of The Republic, which can be read here with a helpful illustration for first-time readers, or here for a plain text version.

Plato talks about two types of bewilderment or confusion, one caused by coming out of strong light and the other caused by going into strong light. Strong physical light, such as the sun on a clear day, can easily bewilder our physical eyes and, by metaphorical extension, the bright light of knowledge growing from intellectual pursuits can easily bewilder our mind's eyes.

Each of us has our own beliefs based on our own personal and cultural perceptions. It is not always easy to accept or be tolerant of other points of view when we are so certain of our own. Plato's "conversation" is mindful of the fact that no point of view is fundamentally right or wrong. Each is a reflection of the reality of the "viewer," which means that although they're different from each other they are no less real.

With effort we can develop a more sophisticated degree of understanding the complex layers of what we view (which might be thought of as going towards the greater light) but the initial simpler level of understanding isn't wrong; it's different, less well-informed.

It seems to me that an educator's greatest responsibility to a student is to facilitate and encourage the student's own personal development of a deeper understanding. That new understanding may result in a change of views for the student, but it's a result of an internal process of growth, rather than some piece of wisdom we've given to them.

I think the hardest part is to retain enough memory of our own time in the darkness to be able to identify with the student who stands at the beginning of a path we've already walked. It's important for teachers to continue to put themselves in new learning situations in order to keep that memory alive. We may not be in the same "darkness" as our students, but continuing to experience the process of moving from the dark to the light will help us to be tolerant and supportive as we remember the struggles, the frustrations, and the ultimate satisfactions of learning.

My life as a student continues...

2010-03-04T10:51:00.004-05:00

A new school term has started for me. My new class is Philosophy and Ethics of Education, which promises to be very interesting. I’ve had a recent change of major – not my choice, for once :o) Turns out I’ve taken too many education courses to pursue my intended Master of Education in Heritage Studies. It requires many more courses about subject matter and many fewer about the process of teaching and, unfortunately for my degree, I guess, the process courses are the ones I keep taking because they're the ones from which I’m learning so much. The suggestion was made that I should switch to a Master of Education in Secondary Education, with which I happily complied. The upshot is that I have only four more courses to take to complete my degree……woooo hoooo! o_0

Catching up on my reading this year...

2010-03-02T03:29:00.004-05:00

12. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers

11. Return to Hawk's Hill - Allan W. Eckert

Book 11 - Return to Hawk's Hill by Allan W. Eckert, my second contribution to the February TIOLI red-spined book challenge. I didn't enjoy it quite so much as I recall enjoying the first in the set, Incident at Hawk's Hill, but they're written for a younger audience (probably middle school-ish) and I'm somewhat older now than I was in 1970 or so when I read the first one ;o)

The book provides an interesting look at family life on the Manitoba frontier in the 1870s, but even more, it provides a considered look at some of the issues of lifestyle and cultural differences between the frontier settlers, largely of white European extraction, and the local Metis population, who were descended from local indigenous peoples mixed with much earlier French fur-trapper influence. The biggest difference lay in the attitudes toward nature...whether to respect and honor the natural world, taking only what we need and fully utilizing what we take or whether to take whatever we want with a view to subjugating the natural world to our whim of the moment. An issue we're still grappling with today, and a worthwhile read for any young person interested in environmental issues. I'd definitely recommend reading the two books in order, though.

10. The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff

Book 10 - The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Read this one for the February Red-spined Book TIOLI Challenge. Not only that, but it came off my shelves, too! I feel like the tailor's apprentice with his "seven with one blow"!

9. New Hampshire Then and Now: Historical and Contemporary Photographs of the Granite State from 1840-2005 - Peter Randall

Book 9 - New Hampshire Then and Now: Historical and Contemporary Photographs of the Granite State from 1840 to 2005 by Peter E. Randall

This book was a fascinating photo-essay of our state and the changes (or in some cases, lack of changes) that have been recorded in photographs over a period of 165 years. The author/photographer has put together a collection of 80 photographs from the state historical archives and various local collections along with contemporary photographs of the same views.

Included are picture postcard views, homes of the famous and not-so-famous, mills, dams, scenic overlooks. Particularly striking to me were some of the less traditional and unexpected interior views - duck-decoy carvers' workshops, shoe shops, clothing shops - not the same shops but the same callings, and little changed in many ways.

8. One Hundred Demons - Lynda Barry

Book 8 - At last, a book again! This one's a graphic novel, One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry.

The book's title is based on an Oriental painting exercise, which seems to involve exorcising one's personal demons by creating illustrations of their significance. The book is a collection of the author's own demons, though perhaps not quite as many as one hundred.

The book is biographical in many ways as the demons were all part of her past; but also fiction in many ways as each of us hold memories that are colored by our own perceptions and the distance from which we look back on them.

An entertaining and thought-provoking reflection on one woman's coming-of-age with hints of the adult she has since become.

Rated 4/5.

7. "History from 'The Bottom' Up: A Research Design for Participatory Archaeology in Hampden-Woodberry, Baltimore, Maryland."

More articles, another case study, same class.

6. New Philadelphia Archaeology: Race, Community and the Illinois Frontier, report on the 2004-06 excavations

A collection of case-study articles read for a class, Heritage Studies Foundations.

5. My Darling, My Hamburger, Paul Zindel

Book 5
My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel whose best known title might have been The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, which I have not yet read.

A quiet little book about four teenagers in their senior year in high school and the choices they make to get them through. It was surely true of its day; it was first published in 1969, I graduated from high school a year later. I found it very easy to identify and connect with the characters.

I wonder, though, if the book might seem a bit dated today, mainly as a result of advancing technology. Narrative sections are interspersed with notes written by one or another of the protagonists - but it seems more likely that most of those would be text messages in today's world. The situations faced by the characters are pretty universal, but American society is considerably changed from what it was then.

Worth reading, if only to find out the relevance of the title!

4. Researching the Old House, Greater Portland (ME) Landmarks, Inc.

Book 4
Researching the Old House, from Greater Portland (ME) Landmarks, Inc.

A very useful handbook that outlines the many possibilities for finding information to document the history of an old house.

Reading update...

2010-01-15T20:33:00.003-05:00

Book 3
Vital Records of South Hampton, New Hampshire 1743-1886, put together by The Historical Committee of the South Hampton Friends of the Library

Pretty dry and not one to put me on the edge of my seat, but I did find a relative I wasn't expecting, so it was a worthwhile read!

The Graveyard Book, at last!

2010-01-02T21:19:00.002-05:00

Book 2
Another book easy to read but fraught with many-layered food for thought...The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. As with most of the rest of the world, this one touched my heart. Enjoyed it very much, even if it does give us reason to be uneasy around local history buffs!

With a birthday early next week, the nearly seventeen-year-old at my house is teetering on Bod's threshhold, though, so it also brought its own bit of melancholy. Our family spirits haven't been much in evidence since he was five or so - I often wonder if they'll be back when there's another in the house of the right age and willing to listen?

"Second to the right, and straight on till morning...",

And now, for something completely different in 2010...

2010-01-02T14:47:00.003-05:00

Book 1
An easy start to 2010 with Love, loss and what I wore by Ilene Beckerman. The story of a life, fondly but honestly told in a series of vignettes of particular clothes the author recalls from her past, each with its own brief narrative caption.

Nonfiction chick lit~ no great weight, but fun to read and easily worth an hour of one's time!

Books I read in 2009....

2010-01-01T23:09:00.005-05:00

From my LibraryThing discussion thread muddy21 -- books for 2009

1. Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer - Bruce Holland Rogers
2. Beard on Pasta - James Beard
3. Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms & Communities by David Sobel
4. A Late Chrysanthemum 21 short stories from the Japanese, translated by Lane Dunlop
5. The Four Agreements: a practical guide to personal freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)
6. Japanese Lessons : A year in a Japanese school through the eyes of an American anthropologist and her children by Gail R. Benjamin
7. Start with a Scan: a guide to transforming scanned photos and objects into high quality art
8. Exeter Historically Speaking, Barbara Rimkunas
9. Mainspring, Jay Lake
10. American Nerd: the Story of My People - Benjamin Nugent
11. Spiritual Evolution: a Scientific Defense of Faith - George Vaillant
12. Mr. Popper's Penguins - Richard and Florence Atwater
13. web 2.0: new tools, new schools - Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum
14. Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society - Donna Gollnick & Philip Chinn
15. Student Successes with Thinking Maps - David Hyerle (ed.)
16. Peeking through the keyhole: the evolution of North American homes - Avi Friedman & David Krawitz
17. blink: the power of thinking without thinking - Malcolm Gladwell
18. Superparenting for ADD: an innovative approach to raising your distracted child - Edward Hallowell & Peter Jensen
19. Number One Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
20. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
21. How the Brain Learns - David Sousa
22. Invitation to Vernacular Architecture: a guide to the study of ordinary buildings and landscapes - Thomas Carter and Elizabeth Collins Cromley
23. American Barns and Covered Bridges - Eric Sloane
24. Social Intelligence: the new science of human relationships - Daniel Goleman
25. Landscape in Sight: looking at America - John Brinckerhoff Jackson
26. With Heritage So Rich from the National Trust for Historic Preservation
27. New Hampshire: from farm to kitchen - Helen Brody
28. I and my chimney - Herman Melville
29. The Ten Minute Activist: Easy Ways to Take Back the Planet - The Mission Collective
30. Deer Camp : Last light in the Northeast Kingdom - John M. Miller
31. The best of the best: becoming elite at an American boarding school - Ruben A. Gaztambide-Fernandez
32. Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and their food, at sea and ashore, in the nineteenth century - Sandra L. Oliver
33. Military Brats: legacies of childhood inside the fortress - Mary Edwards Wertsch
34. Beyond New England Thresholds - Samuel Chamberlain
35. Eating New England: A Food Lover's Guide to Eating Locally (from the traditional to the unexpected) - Juliette Rogers & Barbara Radcliffe Rogers
36. American House Styles: a concise guide - John Milnes Baker
37. Historic Preservation: an introduction to its history, principles, and practice - Norman Tyler
38. No Plot? No Problem: a low-stress, high-velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days - Chris Baty
39. Good Fences: a pictorial history of New England's Stone Walls - William Hubbell
40. East Kingston 1738-1800 - East Kingston Bicentennial Committee
41. New Hampshire in the Civil War - Bruce D. Heald
42. The Land Has Many Lives: the natural history of the house on Quaker Hill - Allan Shope
43. Creating Great Web Graphics - Laurie McCanna
44. Lechuguilla: jewel of the underground
45. Hidden History of New Hampshire - D. Quincy Whitney
46. Hometown Diners - Robert O. Williams
47. The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory - Torkel Klingberg
48. Test Better, Teach Better: the Instructional Role of Assessment - W. James Popham
49. Knowing What Students Know: the Science and Design of Instructional Assessment - Committee on the Foundations of Assessment, National Research Council
50. The Mismeasure of Man - Stephen Jay Gould
51. Reading the Forested Landscape: a Natural History of New England - Tom Wessels
52. Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You - David Kyvig
53. On Doing Local History - Carol Kammen
54. A Painter's Paradise: Monhegan's Nineteenth-Century Artists - Emily Grey
55. Monhegan Island: Images of America - Margot Sullivan

Books I read in 2008...

2010-01-01T23:08:00.003-05:00

Books read during 2008....

1. Sylvia's farm: the journal of an improbable shepherd, Sylvia Jorrin
2. Running for the hills: growing up on my mother's sheep farm in Wales, Horatio Clare
3. Information ecologies: using technology with heart, Bonnie Nardi and Vicki O'Day
4. Geeks : how two lost boys rode the Internet out of Idaho, Jon Katz
5. A perfect mess : the hidden benefits of disorder, Eric Abrahamson & David Freedman
6. The 250 job interview questions you'll most likely be asked, Peter Veruki
7. Arcadia : a play in two acts, Tom Stoppard
8. When generations collide, Lynne Lancaster & David Stillman
9. Environment : the science behind the stories, Jay Withgott & Scott Brennan
10. Office 2003 : advanced concepts and techniques, Shelly, Cashman & Vermaat
11. Drift House Chronicles : Drift House, the first voyage, Dale Peck
12. Got Sun? Go Solar, Rex Ewing & Doug Pratt
13. The Art of possibility : transforming professional and personal life, Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander
14. Train your mind, change your brain, Sharon Begley
15. Connect, Edward Hallowell, M. D.
16. The power of full engagement, Jim Loehr & Tony Schwartz
17. The disorganized mind: coaching your ADHD brain to take control of your time, tasks, and talents, Nancy Ratey
18. Do what you are: discover the perfect career for you through the secrets of personality type, Paul Tieger
19. Finding the heart of the child: essays on children, families, and schools, Edward Hallowell and Michael Thompson
20. Horses never lie: the art of passive leadership, Mark Rashid
21. Punished by rewards: the trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise and other bribes, Alfie Kohn
22. Letters to a Young Mathematician, Ian Stewart

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T22:47:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm not sure I managed to list all my books for 2009, but I think I was close. Any stragglers will just get added in for this year, I guess. My big resolution for the year is to try to keep up with my LibraryThing discussions more consistently (mostly because the people are so nice and the conversations are so interesting), to list my completed reads more promptly so they don't get lost in the shuffle, to share more of my photos online and to try to find a little more time for me!

What are your resolutions?

Still catching up...

2009-12-30T10:19:00.003-05:00

54. A Painter's Paradise: Monhegan's Nineteenth-Century Artists - Emily Grey An exhibit catalogue from Monhegan Museum with many fine reproductions of paintings from the exhibit along with a brief narrative history of artists and their time on island.

55. Monhegan Island: Images of America - Margot Sullivan A delightful photographic journey through time, meandering through the village, meeting up with people and houses that once were or that live on in slightly altered states.

And that's it for 2009!

And more...

2009-12-30T10:01:00.002-05:00

48. Test Better, Teach Better: the Instructional Role of Assessment - W. James Popham A highly readable review of the topic of tests, what they can and can't tell us, and how we can best interpret and utilize the information gained from their use. Should be standard issue for teachers and parents everywhere!

49. Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment - Committee on the Foundations of Assessment, National Research Council. A review of where we've come from in terms of both small and large scale assessments and twelve recommendations about where we should be headed.

50. The Mismeasure of Man - Stephen Jay Gould. Considered to be a classic work refuting "scientific" claims of superior mental abilities based on race divisions. I'm sure it served its purpose well, but seems pompous, long-winded, and tedious to me.

51. Reading the Forested Landscape: a Natural History of New England - Tom Wessels I can lose myself in this book for hours on end - and start re-reading it as soon as I finish. It's like taking a leisurely walk in the woods with a good friend, one who knows the "language" of the natural world and can help interpret the signs that are all around us.

52. Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You - David E. Kyvig A discussion of the broader importance that can evolve from looking at history with a fine focus, either at a local geographic level or a genealogic family level. The small scale allows us to develop a much clearer understanding of community connections and details of daily living that can then be extrapolated to increase our grasp of the workings of the greater cultural whole.

53. On Doing Local History - Carol Kammen A book about what it means to be a historian in general terms, and more specifically, how to work with local history in ways that are inclusive, respectful and accessible to all.

More books for the year...

2009-12-30T08:41:00.002-05:00

45. Hidden History of New Hampshire - D. Quincy Whitney A fascinating collection of short vignettes showcasing the "...resourcefulness of Granite Staters in their efforts to innovate and improvise..." The names are often familiar but now I certainly have a clearer understanding of what they did and where it led.

46. Hometown Diners - Robert O. Williams A very enjoyable photo-journey to visit some of the finest examples of diner architecture in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. Definitely needs a cup of coffee and a piece of pie to go with it!

47. The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload the the Limits of Working Memory - Torkel Klingberg The author reviews much of the research that has been done on understanding working memory and follows up with some suggestions for understanding the reasons for our burgeoning lack of ability to bring focused attention to bear on problems at hand. He posits that the rapidly rising levels of attention deficit issues we're seeing can be largely attributed to our difficulties in reconciling the physical constraints of our working memory capacity with the mental processing demands of our current world.

Book #44

2009-12-14T21:39:00.003-05:00

Book #44 Lechuguilla: jewel of the underground

Hidden in the depths of New Mexico's Guadalupe Mountains lie some of the US's greatest caves. The first known views of Carlsbad Cavern were in 1901, the discovery went public in the 1920s.

Over the years many curious visitors have explored other sections of the Guadalupes in hopes of finding another cave system of the majesty of Carlsbad. Beginning in 1984 explorers began to open the way into a new system known as Lechuguilla Cave.

This book is written by various members of the Lechuguilla Cave Project, a group organized by the National Park Service to explore the caves, and is filled with photographs of some of the most astounding cave views I've ever seen.

Expeditions to date have revealed a cave that is over 90 km long and 475 m deep, as compared with Carlsbad Cavern's 32 km length and 316 m depth. Concerns for both the safety of the expedition members and for the physical integrity of the cave itself have led the National Park Service onto new ground in developing a management plan for the site. Exploration is limited to certain "expedition periods" and result in a steady flow of cavers in and out, in a style now known as "tag-team caving."

The photographs are stunning and the text is fascinating. It is hard to believe that there are still places of this magnitude that have yet to be discovered!

2009-12-08T23:34:00.008-05:00

An amazing weekend awaits us...

The world gathers in Copenhagen in defense of the global environment and the US Women & Girls' agenda-setting kick-off conference is THIS SUNDAY, Dec 13 at Exeter.

http://women2girls.wordpress.com/

The report created at this conference will be sent to the White House and announced at the 54th Session of United Nations in March 2010. Congressional Delegates and attendees of the UN's 53rd Session on the Status of Women will be attending. The original attendees of the ground breaking 4th UN World Conference on Women in Beijing will also be there.

Redefine the future of women and girls in the US. Act now and register today. Make your voice heard.

Please contact the Co-Chair for more information: junkokim@gmail.com

Book #41

2009-12-03T21:16:00.002-05:00

41. New Hampshire in the Civil War - Bruce D. Heald

More books for 2009...

2009-11-30T22:06:00.004-05:00

38. No Plot? No Problem: a low-stress, high-velocity guide to writing a novel in 30 days - Chris Baty (the NaNoWriMo guy)

39. Good Fences: a pictorial history of New England's Stone Walls - William Hubbell

40. East Kingston 1738-1800 - East Kingston Bicentennial Committee

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T11:59:00.005-05:00

Had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and went for a drive along the coast...

...and came home through Portsmouth, where all is ready for Christmas shoppers!

Books 32 & 33 for the year

2009-11-12T22:43:00.001-05:00

32. Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and their food, at sea and ashore, in the nineteenth century - Sandra L. Oliver A fascinating look back at the kitchens and galleys of early New England and a selection of recipes to enjoy, as well.

33. Military Brats: legacies of childhood inside the fortress - Mary Edwards Wertsch A million thanks to Mary Edwards Wertsch for writing this book. The story of my childhood - but who knew it was the story of so many others as well??

From the final page of the book, "...'Home' for a rooted civilian is a place to return to so that love and values and memories and a sense of continuity can be replenished. What I found is that we military brats have a home like that too, a home that we all share, that lives in each of us, that we can visit in one another.

"...The sharing of stories, I learned, is what roots are all about. Subtract the sharing, and what do you have? Only a bit of dry knowledge fit to be filed in a dusty folder somewhere. Real roots are about connection - the bonding with others who share a similar lived experience - and the recognition that who we are individually is due in large part to that lived experience."

It would be very hard to explain the emotional impact of this book to anyone who did not grow up as a military brat, and impossible to overstate its relevance to one who did!

Book 31 for 2009...

2009-10-24T21:29:00.002-04:00

31. The best of the best: becoming elite at an American boarding school - Ruben A. Gaztambide-Fernandez. The book relates the results of an ethnographic study of the students at a New England prep school. In particular, it looks at social inequalities (race, class, gender) and how students from a wide variety of backgrounds and outlooks on life are able to find common ground and form a cohesive community. The formation of those bonds depends in no small part on each student's ability to internalize, validate and accept the part they each play in the community as a whole.

Book #30 for 2009...

2009-10-22T22:33:00.001-04:00

30. Deer Camp : Last light in the Northeast Kingdom - by John M. Miller. Miller is a Vermont native who returned as an adult to spend three weeks each November for five years documenting the deer season in the family hunting camps dotted around the mountains of his home range. The book interweaves the author's own reflections and memories along with quotes from oral history interviews and a wonderful collection of photographs taken in the camps.

Mirroring my own internal conflict every time this season comes around, the book eloquently portrays the paradox of those who so love the outdoors and the creatures that inhabit it yet whose sparse lifestyles and cultural heritage revolves so deeply around the conquest of those magnificent animals, the white-tailed deer.

Is it autumn or is it fall?

2009-10-09T17:27:00.004-04:00

Do you suppose they call it fall because everything ends up on the ground?

It's time for Deerfield Fair!

2009-10-04T19:27:00.016-04:00

I'd noticed the trees were changing colors, but it was going to Deerfield Fair that made me realize that fall is truly here...

We stopped by to check out the club display in the 4-H barn...

There were some outstanding entries in the Arts and Crafts barn, as always. These were a few favorites...
We ducked into the Farm Museum, just in the nick of time - they locked the doors behind us as we left!

And then we were homeward bound...

They're coming back again!

2009-09-09T19:46:00.005-04:00

The golden glow of summer...

2009-09-05T10:23:00.009-04:00

There's a heavy crop of pears on the old lichen-covered trees this year

The late afternoon summer sun lights up the side of Hog Hill.

The sunny faces of Black-eyed Susans, glowing in the twilight

A thing of beauty...

2009-08-29T19:21:00.006-04:00

This amazing fungus is growing on a tree right along the road near here. My neighbor says it's a Sulphur Shelf Fungus, though the pictures I've found on the internet don't really seem to resemble this one so much. Perhaps someone out there is more familiar with fungi than I am and knows?

I wanted to take a picture with my son standing near it for scale, but it'd have to be on the house side of the tree which is in someone's yard. He's fourteen and nearly six feet tall, a big kid, and the fungus body is just about the size of his torso, we figured.

I drive by it at least two or three times a day, but I only just noticed it recently, even though it must have been there through the summer. It's an astoundingly beautiful thing. Just goes to show how selective is our mind's eye...

Add a little spice to life...

2009-08-14T21:52:00.002-04:00

In one of my classes, Theories of Learning and Cognitive Development, we recently read Daniel Goleman's book, Social Intelligence: the revolutionary new science of human relationships. The book is all about recent findings in neuroscience research and what we're learning about the brain, how it works and how we learn. One important point is that human emotions are contagious.

Last night I'd been doing classwork on the computer for an hour or two when the phone rang. It was an unidentified number and I answered with some uneasiness. I really dislike phone sales calls. A woman's voice asked for the man or lady of the house. My hackles went up. I asked who was calling. She said she was doing an opinion poll about food-related items. I reluctantly agreed to participate. She nervously started with her questions.

But then, I relaxed. I thought to myself it really wasn't so bad to take a break from school work and I do like food, after all. I made a half-hearted joke in response to one of her questions. She sort of coughed like she was swallowing a chuckle. Feeling bolder, I made another joke as I answered another question. That one got a definite giggle.

Synchrony!

Her questions went on. Turned out they were more to do with how much I cooked at home - whether it had been affected by the economy, that sort of thing. I *hate* cooking...it uses up so much time for so little gain. The more questions she asked, the more I played it up and the more she laughed.

Looping!

By the end we were both howling with laughter - her in Georgia, making calls on behalf of the McIlhenny Tabasco Company and me in New Hampshire working on my discussion boards.

She sounded young. Before she finished, she said how much she appreciated having had such a pleasant conversation. I'm hoping the memory of it will help see her through a lot of other less than pleasant calls. I've felt great about it all day...even though I still don't like to cook, I still don't use Tabasco sauce, and I still don't like telephone sales calls. >-<

How to measure a building...it would be so much easier if they'd just stand still!

2009-08-05T22:28:00.004-04:00

Class readings for the third week dealt much more with the practical than the theoretical. The essays of Invitation to Vernacular Architecture described methods of carrying out an architectural survey and points of discussion ranged from how to decide on target buildings to measurement techniques and methods of recording and presenting the resulting data.

Elaborating on the concepts of type and style, the authors presented a variety of factors to consider in balancing interpretations of building forms and functions. Various types of documents, both primary and secondary, were described, along with comments about their relative strengths in providing further background support for an analysis of the investigation's findings.

An in-depth study of a single building produces a significant amount of detailed information about the building's owners over time. A wider, but more superficial, study of a group of structures results in a variety of findings that can be broadly interpreted to generate analysis at a regional level. Chapter 15 of Gender, Class and Shelter provides a regional-level interpretation of the frequency and distribution of stone houses in the southwestern section of Pennsylvania.

It's clear that a great deal can be interpreted from the data resulting from a carefully designed and executed architectural investigation. A thorough investigation will include as much detail as is feasible. Even if all the information is not of immediate use, it may well combine with other studies to provide a sturdier foundation for future analysis and interpretation.

There is a certain fascination with historic structures that makes them quite appealing as subjects for architectural investigation. With our ever-increasing culture of renovation and remodeling, though, it becomes even more important to record the details of modern vernacular structures in their original forms. This sort of background information will be invaluable to future investigators, allowing cultural comparisons across both time and space.

Shared history? Or not?

2009-08-02T01:43:00.003-04:00

The second week's readings for the Landscape and Architecture class focused on fostering an awareness of various cultural stereotypes of gender, race, and socioeconomic class and how they have changed over time; and understanding how those assumptions affect our interpretations of the built environment. The additional readings discussed ways in which idealized regional or national landscape concepts take root, as well as some of the origins of the values we assign to physical places and an attempt to define and understand the implications of the concept of "the community."

When I was growing up my father was in the Navy and we moved (usually from coast to coast) every year or two, so I was always the new kid at school until my last two years of high school. My older brother and I were very much a part of the "military brat" culture. We remember when events in our childhood happened by reference to which house we were living in or which school we were attending at the time. In fact, it's hard for me to imagine how people who grew up living in a single place can ever remember what happened when.

It was only fairly recently that I realized in conversation with my two younger brothers that they have an entirely different view of what life was like in our family. We moved for the last time when my older brother and I were 18 and 14 years old and my younger brothers were 8 and 9 years old. They were young enough then that they have very little memory at all of growing up mobile. In fact, you'd think we grew up in two totally different families. With hindsight, it's easy to understand the dynamics that created the two points of view, but before we had that conversation it had never occurred to any of us that we didn't all share the same basic family culture.

If it takes as little difference as this to create such widely different perspectives of a shared history, it's not hard to imagine the differences in perspective from generations separated sufficiently by time that they have no direct first-hand knowledge of each other's daily lives or cultural assumptions.

A new class...

2009-07-23T21:36:00.003-04:00

One of my new classes is "The Rural Cultural Environment: Architecture and Landscape." The readings for the first week gave an introduction to the topic of vernacular architecture: what it is, what messages it can convey, how to see and translate those messages, and why it's important for us to make the effort to understand them. By taking a broad, multidisciplinary view we begin to see connections between our cultural, economic and technological systems and how they relate to the physical, social, and psychological frameworks we've constructed for the world we live in.

The phrase "vernacular architecture" refers to the buildings and surrounds that are found wherever people live. It considers equally the dwelling places of rich and poor; commercial districts and workplaces, whether urban, suburban, or rural; and transportation corridors and open spaces of whatever size and situation.

I understand they all have value in our understanding of the built and adapted landscape, but I admit that I find it difficult to embrace all features equally as welcome evidence of man's attempts to "re-create Heaven on earth." Strip malls, miles of used car sales lots, and Jackson's "suitcase [non-resident] farmers" (Landscape in Sight, John Brinckerhoff Jackson, p.337) are all factors of cultural change in our environment, but it's hard for me to view them objectively. The culture they represent is largely commercial and opportunistic and I feel little connection to it.

Jackson says that with our new understanding of the contributing forces, "There is no longer any need for putting up with anarchy and ugliness in our environment; we do not have to watch helplessly the destruction of cultural values. It can be made to include those features of the old and new that we like, and it can leave out the others" (p.338).

But this is where it all begins to unravel, at least in today's world. How many community master plans and zoning ordinances refer to a goal of "maintaining the character of the neighborhood?" That phrase may have worked in the days when there were fewer people, when the people who were there shared uniform cultural sensibilities, when top dollar profit didn't rule most social interactions, and when most building projects were undertaken by members of the local community.

Now, though, with our American emphasis on personal freedoms and legal entitlements, how can it be enforced? Who determines the details of the actual nature of "community character?" Who determines what does or doesn't maintain that character? It is much easier for the courts to uphold personal property rights than it is for them to uphold community claims to vague and poorly articulated aesthetic values.

We may better understand the messages of our built environment than we did before, but it's hard to know where we go from here.

2009-07-02T07:43:00.004-04:00

Took some time off to recoup from spring classes, but I'm back again. Here's a review of my latest for a Polar Regions theme read with the LibraryThing group Reading Globally...

Thought I’d start with a quick read to ease back into the swing of things…so I started the Polar month with Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, a children’s book published in 1938 and a Newbery Honor winner of 1939.

The setting for the story is actually a town called Stillwater in some unspecified state in mid-US, where Mr. & Mrs. Popper live with their two children. Mr. Popper paints houses and spends his free time absorbed in stories about the far-away places of the world that he’s never seen.

Mr. Popper is particularly taken with the Polar regions and writes a letter to Admiral Drake, Antarctic explorer. To everyone’s surprise a large crate arrives by return post, the contents of which turn out to be a live penguin sent by the Admiral himself.

Various adventures and merriment ensue. Eventually the Poppers are proud owners of a traveling road troupe of twelve penguins. The act is so successful that the penguins are offered a lucrative movie contract by a Hollywood mogul, but Mr. Popper sorrowfully decides that it is best for the penguins to be returned to their proper icebound surroundings.

Admiral Drake intercedes, though, to say that the US government is concerned about the unfortunate Arctic explorers who must go about their lonely expeditions without the benefit of penguins for company. The Admiral proposes to take the Popper penguins north to the Arctic, with the intention of establishing a breeding colony there. Mr. Popper is invited to accompany the expedition as penguin-keeper.

“Mamma,” shouted Mr. Popper to Mrs. Popper…”I’m going, too! I’m going, too! Admiral Drake says he needs me. Mamma, do you mind if I don’t come home for a year or two?” This passage brought to mind one of the titles timjones recommended...I may be some time: ice and the English imagination, though I suspect that one has a bit more of a firm purchase on reality than does Mr. Popper's Penguins!

Silly and somewhat dated, but still quite an enjoyable read. 3.5/5

Where I am and how I got there

2009-05-26T22:04:00.004-04:00

What a wonderful time I've had with this class, Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom! I've particularly appreciated the independent nature of the class. Most of what we've been learning about and experimenting with requires a substantial investment of time. It would have been difficult to manage the traditional online discussion boards if they had been required in addition to the blogging. It was a pleasure to be able to indulge myself with time on the computer with a clear conscience!

Although I started my blog a year ago, I had never posted very regularly. Now that I've pushed myself to meet the course requirements of two blogs a week (more or less), I'm hoping that I'll be able to maintain a similar schedule of my own volition. Looking at the blogs of students from previous classes gives me pause, though, because only a very few of them have continued to blog since their classes ended. I like to think that perhaps they've started new ones somewhere else...

The RSS feed, Google Docs, podcasts, all were things I knew about but had never really taken the time to work with much. Now that they're familiar I'm pretty sure they'll stay at the top of my list. There are so many new ideas for ways to utilize the tools in classrooms and other educational settings. It was a small class but I've very much appreciated my conversations with the other members of the class. I do feel I need to do some more work with wikis, but at least I've made a start on it.

I've been encouraged to learn that there are so many people out there talking about the issues and looking for ways to connect and share with others. Now, if we can just keep in mind the words of a Hebrew proverb...Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time. How I would love to hear more conversations in that vein than the ones so frequently taking place among the members of the Doom'n'Gloom Brigade.

New news from the video game world!

2009-05-20T23:25:00.003-04:00

I received an email today announcing a new endeavor:

"...the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) is now trying out the possibility of teaching a course that is open to both students and the public via the online video platform, YouTube. Throughout the month of June, iSchool Professor Scott Nicholson will teach IST 600 Gaming in Libraries in three online spaces:

· The Syracuse University YouTube channel, where video lectures and
guest speakers will be posted, and where students enrolled in the class will
be required to post weekly video responses
· American Library Association (ALA) Connect >http://connect.ala.org/forum/10310>, a social networking site for the ALA that will host the discussion of students, speakers, librarians, and other participants from the general public
· The iSchool's online learning management system, a private space for enrolled students to ask questions and submit their assignments

...."Anyone interested in participating in "Gaming in Libraries" course can learn more at: http://gamesinlibraries.org/course."

Free access to university classes - more and more schools are trying it out and we all reap the benefits!

"You'll never regret a kindness"

2009-05-20T23:06:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine once said, "You often regret words said in anger, but you'll never regret a kindness." Treating people with kindness and respect requires so little of us and means so much to them...why is it so hard for us to do?

Watching the Bill Strickland video was a real eye-opener. It's truly amazing to see how far one man with a dream can go and how much he can accomplish. The sad thing is that it's such an unusual occurrence.

A strong reminder, though, that students frequently live up (or down) to our expectations.

Safe and secure? Or open and exciting?

2009-05-20T21:06:00.004-04:00

Just finished reading the chapter on "online safety and security" in our textbook, Web 2.0: new tools, new schools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum. I have to admit that I had no idea that filtering and blocking were such big issues in so many public schools. I really think it's unfortunate that so many schools struggle with so few options.

We hear so much about cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying and online predators...but I read recently that there have been many more articles written about the incidents than there have been incidents themselves. Is it true?

I want children to be safe, but I also want children to learn and it's hard to see how limiting the tools we have available is in anyone's best interests. Children do need to learn about safe internet and social network use, but it's not happening if they're only using them in the privacy of their bedrooms. Seems like we're all missing out on a lot of teachable moments.

Today's teenagers have a much different view of privacy than earlier generations, and I can't say that's entirely a bad thing. I think we could all do with fewer walls and divisions and more connections and communication. My concern really is that the interests of safety and security can be such a convenient excuse to avoid dealing with the disruptive change that is happening all around us. I think we stand to lose an awful lot more than we gain anytime we take on the mantle of gate-keeper.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop...

2009-05-19T22:41:00.005-04:00

Two years ago I saw a paragraph in the local paper announcing an open house at our local charter school. Hmmm, I thought, wonder what that's all about? So, I went. I listened. I heard about project-based learning, about alternative assessments, about lots of terms that were new to me but that were used to describe philosophies and techniques that seemed to be just common sense. I thought how interesting it all was. But my son was doing battle in sixth grade and I was hoping to find some alternative for him. The charter school was grades 9-12, though, so not a good fit.

He progressed to seventh grade and continued his battle. I continued to think about what I'd heard at the charter school. I also heard comments about the charter school, about how it was a place for the kids who "couldn't make it" at the high school, about how marginal it was in terms of academics.

It's true the charter school doesn't give letter grades - they give proficiency ratings and narrative comments, instead. Seems like much more valuable information to me. I heard questions, such as how will the charter kids ever get into college without a GPA? But, home-schooled kids seem to do OK with college, I thought. Turns out the charter school actually requires every senior to apply to college. They can't make them go once they've graduated, but they make sure that every student understands that it's expected of them. Does the high school have the same policy? No. Also turns out that last year's charter school twelfth grade (the first graduating class) had every member accepted to a college of their choice. Can the high school say the same? I don't think so.

Other critics said the charter kids wouldn't be able to make the grade on the standardized tests since they weren't having standardized instruction...but, guess what? The charter kids did better!

This was all of great interest to me, but the fact remained that my son still had to make it through eighth grade. Then, wonder of wonders, last March we received a letter announcing that the charter school was expanding to include grade 8! We went to another open house, he went for a shadow day. It was sounding better and better. It turned out that five or six of his good friends were also applying.

There are now six weeks left in his eighth grade school year and I have never seen my son as happy and confident as he is this year. He's a bright kid with some learning differences - not severe and not anything that ever really should have been a big problem, except that he didn't fit the mold and the teachers weren't willing to adapt at all. Despite the fact that he's always gotten good grades he has asked me at least once a year, every year (until this year), in all seriousness, whether I thought he would be held back. It broke my heart to see this kid who used to be so curious and eager to learn about the world become so insecure and ill at ease in school.

It doesn't seem like it can get much better than this year at the charter school...I sometimes wondered if I was missing something, if it was too good to be true. I felt like I was waiting, as they say, for the other shoe to drop. But it hasn't. And you know what? I don't think it will. This is just about as good as it gets, for us at least!

Are we there yet?

2009-05-18T08:12:00.006-04:00

Humans sure can be funny people.

I read an article recently for another class, "Voices of the Teenage Diasporas," by Lee Gunderson. One of the things the author observed was that many immigrant students and their parents were very uneasy about their new schools in Canada. Were they uneasy because the kids were facing too great a challenge with attending English-only schools? No. Were they uneasy because the teachers were unable to engage the students in learning? No. Were they uneasy because the course work wasn't sufficiently rigourous? No.

Many parents and students agreed that the course work in the new schools was considerably beyond what they had been studying at their old schools. Many parents and students also agreed that the students were learning more effectively and in more depth than they had done previously.

Despite those observations, many of them also felt the students were being cheated out of a quality education. The "problem" they saw with the new schools was that the teachers wouldn't tell the students what to learn. There were no worksheets sent home at the end of the day, and worst of all, in their eyes, was that there was no memorizing.

So, even when it works, sometimes it's not working. Our cultural backgrounds are the basis for many of our perceptions, and our perceptions are largely responsible for our reality. Cross cultural understanding can be an invaluable tool - whoever dreamed there were so many ways to look at the world?

"On the Road" via the ethernet?

2009-05-14T00:07:00.005-04:00

I think one of the hardest things about teaching in the new networked classrooms is finding (making? taking?) time to reflect on the changes that are happening around us and what they might mean. One of the things I appreciate most about my Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom course is that it's pushing me to make regular blog posts. The more posts I make, the more I find myself thinking in reflective ways about things both past and present.

The funny thing is that even with an assigned topic, I rarely start these posts with a specific plan in mind. Blogging as stream of consciousness, I guess. Jack Kerouac was definitely ahead of his time -- think what he could have done with this! For instance, this evening I was responding to a classmate's blogpost on the topic of computerized standardized testing in schools. Reading her post triggered a memory of an incident from a few years ago. As I wrote out my comment I realized I had much more than a comment to make -- so here I am with a new blogpost of my own.

My older son is 16 years old now and in 10th grade (my computer consultant from an earlier post). I remembered when he came home from a day of testing in sixth grade (or maybe seventh?). It was his second round of computer-adaptive tests where the tests are adjusted according to the ability of the test-taker -- the questions get harder as you make more correct responses or easier as you make incorrect responses. He told me he'd had the test on the math section that day (math being his really strong suit) and he said quite casually, "By the end of the test I had no idea what the questions were about, so I guess that meant I was doing pretty well!"

Now that comment really surprised me, since it went contrary to just about everything I had taken away from my own high school experience. I thought about how I would have felt if I'd been taking a standardized test in English (my own strong suit) and reached a point where I had no idea what the test questions were talking about. I'm pretty sure that I would have been a basket case by then, figuring that I was hopelessly over my head. It's likely that I would have just given up answering, under the assumption that I couldn't possibly get the answers right if I didn't understand the questions. Even if the adaptive part of the testing equation had been explained beforehand, I wonder if I'd have had the presence of mind to see it in his terms in the heat of the moment?

In my day (in my schools, at least, and they were legion since my father was in the Navy and we moved pretty much constantly) tests were intimidating instruments designed to winkle out our deficiencies in a subject, tools for judging inadequacies or gaps in our grasp of facts and specific information. This new generation of digital natives seems to have a more balanced view, seeing these tests as neutral tools for evaluating their ability to answer questions of differing levels of difficulty. Gauging perhaps their skills in knowing how to answer (with CAT), rather than what to answer (before CAT)?

The tricky bit now is for educators to find ways to capitalize on the new levels of information these tests make available -- to avoid pigeonholing them in the same ways we would have treated results from more traditional types of tests.

It's also important for us not to color today's students with our perceptions from an earlier time. I remember that when my boys were in elementary school a letter was sent home a week or so ahead of each set of testing. Each time the letter would exhort parents to remember the importance of a good breakfast, a good night's sleep, and a positive attitude toward trying hard on the tests. Now, it always seemed to me that these were all things that most parents try to instill in their children every day, not just on test day. Then the letter would go on to say that whatever else we did, we should be careful not to stress the kids out over the testing, something they seemed to be doing quite effectively already with their letters. Do most kids really approach testing with fear and trepidation? Or does this cautionary approach simply set up a self-fulfilling prophecy?

I do know one thing -- when I arrived at the GRE test center last year and found that I'd be taking a computer-adaptive test, I was very happy that I recalled that earlier conversation with my son. It certainly gave me a lot more confidence to carry on cheerfully as the questions became more and more inscrutable! And, as it turned out, I did do quite well on the verbal part of the test...he was very proud of me *grin*

The Red Queen Theory of Professional Development

2009-05-09T12:36:00.013-04:00

Alice never could quite make out, in thinking it over afterwards, how it was that they began. All she remembers is, that they were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all she could do to keep up with her and still the Queen kept crying "Faster! Faster!" but Alice felt she could not go faster, though she had not breath left to say so.
The most curious part of the thing was, that the trees and other things round them never changed their places at all: however fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything. "I wonder if all the things move along with us?" thought poor puzzled Alice. And the Queen seemed to guess her thoughts, for she cried, "Faster! Don't try to talk!"
Not that Alice had any idea of doing that. She felt as if she would never be able to talk again, she was getting so much out of breath, and still the Queen cried "Faster! Faster!" and dragged her along. "Are we nearly there?" Alice managed to pant out at last.
"Nearly there!" the Queen repeated. "Why, we passed it ten minutes ago! Faster!" And they ran on for a time in silence, with the wind whistling in Alice's ears, and almost blowing her hair off her head, she fancied.
"Now! Now!" cried the Queen. "Faster! Faster!" And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through the air, hardly touching the ground with their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice was getting quite exhausted, they stopped, and she found herself sitting on the ground, breathless and giddy.
The Queen propped her up against a tree, and said kindly, "You may rest a little now."
Alice looked round her in great surprise. "Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!"
"Of course it is," said the Queen, "what would you have it?"
"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, you'd generally get to somewhere else -- if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.
If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

~~from "Through the looking-glass, and what Alice found there," by Lewis Carroll

Working in a school library means working with education, information and technology - areas that all seem to be changing almost hourly these days. Wise leaders see institutional value in offering community members the time and resources to evaluate and develop their skills and knowledge.

Unfortunately, in many places the Red Queen rules. Like Alice, we run faster and faster, attempting to keep up with changes that are continually confronting us, springing out of the path like so many jacks-in-boxes. It's rare that time is taken out for reflection on the underlying philosophical shifts that are happening and on finding ways to capitalize on them, rather than looking for ways to keep them from disrupting business as usual. The institutions that do spend time this way may be incurring short-term costs, but they will undoubtedly reap long-term benefits in their abilities to weather the storms of progress.

The good news is that today's personal learning options increasingly allow for self-directed professional development. There are many outstanding resources that are freely available on the internet. But, is it fair for the Red Queens to depend on an employee's self-direction and use of personal time to fill the gaps that have been left in the wake of institutional policy (or lack thereof)? This is what I wrestle with, personally.

Take the case of a person who loves the new 2.0 technology - they read about it, talk about it and frequently play around with it for hours, which is really the only way to become familiar enough with it to fully understand its potential and to find ways to incorporate its use. But, because that person is doing all this on their own, the time they spend on learning (on developing themselves professionally) is time they're taking away from housework, from homework, from yardwork and even from their families. There are some easy answers, of course - hire a house cleaner, hire a yard service, hire a baby-sitter...but these luxuries are not an affordable option for everyone.

So, say this person is not in what the institution considers to be a "professional" position and therefore is not eligible for an institutional investment in their "professional development." But they're interested, they're dedicated to improvement, they like to learn and use new things, and they carry all this new knowledge to work with them every day. Is it right - is it socially just - for an institutuion to willingly take advantage of the personal passions of these employees, who are most likely among its least compensated members, in terms of both money and personal time? While its more highly compensated "professional" members can afford to spend their much more generous allowance of pay and personal time on travel and costly leisure activities that are purely for their own personal enjoyment?

Am I wrong or are there some ethical issues here that are not being addressed?

Oooh, shiny....

2009-05-02T22:45:00.007-04:00

This is me with a personal learning network! I despair of ever achieving that sense of balance that sounds so appealing in stage five of Jeff Utecht's outline of the stages of development of a personal learning network.
Immersion - yes, I can do that very well;
Evaluation - yes, I'm getting better and better at that;
Know it all - well, perhaps not all, but safe to say "quite knowledgeable" and, sometimes even,
Perspective..but
Balance?
It's so hard to find that balance, especially knowing there's always the possibility of that one terrific bit of information just around the next corner (or click, as the case may be).

The wonderful thing about current PLNs is that they can be so diverse in so many ways. Geography, experience, skills, education, connection, can all be completely different but can all be just what's needed at the right time and in the right context. And it's so much easier to find people to connect with now that the internet opens so many doors so easily.

The really exciting thing is that our PLNs today are ones that we can contribute to as well as learn from. It makes it that much more valuable knowing that the learning is often reciprocal, that we're able to give as well as take, to teach as well as learn.

*artwork from Facebook Bumper Stickers application

From theories to tools...but not the easy way!

2009-04-28T12:13:00.008-04:00

Well, in the last few days I've traveled from the clouds of Eureka to the stony fields of podcasting.

After my great revelation the other day about the evolutionary theory of technology, I was feeling like a real techno-wiz. I moved on with great confidence to the next step - making my first podcast.

All went well at first. I had recorded some video at the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park in Florida while we were on vacation in March, precisely for the purpose of making this podcast, so I was set to go.

Shortly after I first downloaded Audacity some weeks ago, we had a meltdown that put the computer in the shop for a week or so. I'm quite certain it was unrelated, but I went to re-load Audacity with more than just a little trepidation.

Nevertheless, I loaded it and all seemed well. Then I went looking for the camera to download the video. Couldn't find it anywhere. Hmmm, what to do? Not feeling terribly creative about tutorials or interviews, so I decided to try a story. Found a book, one I knew very, very well from days when my boys were young. I read and recorded it, all was going very smoothly. Played it back and it sounded good. Whew!

Went online, found Pod-o-matic (how could I choose any other hosting service when they have such a terrific name? - anyone remember the "Bass-o-matic" from the early days of Saturday Night Live?) Set up an account, tried to upload my recording...roadblock! Went round and round, looking for why. Tried Google, tried YouTube, tried Blogger help. Read about enclosure links and found various other bits of information but nothing seemed to fix it. Figured out I needed to export the file in some converted form. Tried MP3, said it needed lame. Couldn't figure out how to get it so tried WAV instead. That worked but when I uploaded it to Pod-o-matic it said it needed conversion.

Hmmm. Decided to go to bed and sleep on it.

Next evening, conferred with my computer-consultant 16-year-old son. He figured out how to get lame, then we converted the Audacity file to MP3 and I posted it to my blog. Moderate success...the podcast button is there and the podcast plays if you click it, but it seems like I should be able to embed it with the photo as it shows up on the Pod-o-matic page. Tried and tried but never did figure that one out.

Still, there it is on my blog!

My first podcast!

2009-04-26T20:52:00.003-04:00

So many theories, so little time!

2009-04-25T09:54:00.014-04:00

There are so many interesting books to read and there's just never enough time. It's one of the frustrating things about being increasingly networked: I come across more and more valuable information every day, but there aren't nearly enough hours in my days to absorb it all.

Since mentioning Marshall McLuhan and his theories a few posts ago, I have seen his name mentioned in a number of blogs. I feel like I definitely need to read his books - but when? The whole concept of network theories is fascinating to me and there are new books coming out almost daily on the subject. But when will I have time to find out what they have to say?

I'm taking a second course through Plymouth State University, titled Intercultural Communication in Multicultural Classrooms. A couple of weeks ago the assigned textbook chapter was on the topic of religion. One of the "what if?" examples (What if this happened in your classroom/school? What would you do? How would you go about it?) was on the topic of Intelligent Design and what if your school board directed you to present it in science classes as an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution?

My comments included this..."There are two factions of evolutionary theorists - the gradualists, who believe evolution has been proceeding at a generally uniform pace through the millenia and the catastrophists, who believe evolution proceeds slowly but then makes sudden leaps when catastrophic natural events cause mass extinctions and new species evolve rapidly to take advantage of resources that are newly made available in the process."

It was at that point that I had one of those "Eureka!" moments. I'm sure it's not news to lots of other people, but I suddenly realized that we're seeing the whole catastrophist vs. gradualist view of evolutionary theory happening in the realm of information! It seems crystal clear that the development of the medium of the internet is one of those "sudden catastrophic natural events." I guess that puts me pretty firmly in the catastrophism camp, seeing the newly available resources as things like access to information, ways of storing and processing information, abilities to share information, all of that.

The gradualists are the ones who see all this change as technological fluff and don't see any need to change their ways of doing things. Their considered opinion is that the ways that have served us well for so long will continue to serve us just as well in the future.

Historically the fossil records have indicated that at physical catastrophe points the surviving species are those that are most flexible and opportunistic. As a result, they are able to adapt to and benefit from the rapid and unanticipated changes that are occurring.

What does that tell us about the importance of attitude and an open mind?

What does that tell us about the importance of teaching students how to learn instead of what to learn?

What does that tell us about the importance of teaching students how to find information rather than what information to find?

What does that tell us about the current difficulties of The Boston Globe and other traditional news and information providers?

Blogging....navel-gazing or connecting?

2009-04-22T19:18:00.005-04:00

A year ago I knew vaguely that a blog was sort of like a personal on-line journal, but that's about as far as it went. I didn't know anyone who was blogging or even reading blogs regularly. I can't tell you how often I saw or heard the term "navel-gazing" used in the same sentence with "blog." "Inane drivel" is another phrase that was in the running for most popular descriptions. I guess it's not surprising that I had little interest in having anything to do with either blogs or bloggers!

But one day for one reason or another (long since lost in the mists of time - but I suspect it was because I was avoiding a homework assignment), I decided that I'd like to know how to blog. So, I tried it. I read a book or two, I browsed around a bit, and I set up my own blog. It was a while before I made my first post, partly because it seemed like the first entry should be profound, or at least deeply reflective, rather than simply a pedestrian commentary on my life. Well, profound doesn't respond well to demand, so I finally decided to just dive in. Which I did.

I tried Live Journal, which I enjoyed for the interest groups I found, and I tried Blogger, which I enjoyed for its ease of use. I found a variety of blogs to follow. I also found a whole lot of blogs that could fall into the "inane drivel and navel-gazing" category. The thing is, though, that it seemed pretty clear to me that nearly all the blogs of that sort were intended for an audience of friends and family, of whom I was not one.

Reading one of those blogs is a bit like listening in on a party-line telephone call or, as Clay Shirky puts it in his book Here Comes Everybody: the power of organizing without organizations, it's a bit like eavesdropping on the conversation of the teenagers sitting at the table next to mine in the food court at the local mall. They're not talking about anything that particularly needs to be kept private, so they're chatting in a public space. Just because I can hear it doesn't mean it's intended for me and if it's not intended for me then there's no reason I should expect it to be a discussion that holds any particular value or interest for me.

That sort of blog is doing exactly what it's intended to do - helping to build and maintain a community by providing a means of connection between kith and kin, however near or far-away from each other they may be. That's not the sort of blog I generally choose to read. I'm not a part of those groups and I don't have any particular interest in what they have to say to each other. But connections and community are the most important things in life, and any tool that makes them easier to build and maintain is a valuable one in my eyes.

The blogs I read are different in content, but they serve precisely the same purpose. The difference is that the ones I read are not for communities based on kinship, but rather for communities of practice. The internet and its blogs have made it so much easier for each of us to find others with similar interests. Looking back to life before blogs is like trying to remember what life was like before the touch-tone telephone or the pocket calculator. In the past year I have learned a lot, heard and considered a lot of new opinions and made connections with lots of nice people. It's sad to think about how much is being missed by so many people who still think of blogs as a waste of time.

Finding ways to wiki...

2009-04-17T17:17:00.006-04:00

Who knew there could be so many ways to wiki?

The first possibility that leaps to mind is that it's an ideal way to handle collaborative projects. I remember struggling with so many group projects on Blackboard - way too much time spent trying to read the "track changes" notes, trying to figure out which version had been posted most recently and whether the changes in one version pre- or post-dated the changes in another one. Makes my head ache just to think about it.

Another idea, and one I'm planning to try, is to run my student work schedule in a wiki. With 25-30 students, each working not more than 3-4 hours per week, the schedule gets quite complicated. Added to that are the frequent schedule shifts due to special events, sports requirements, music lessons and concerts...the potential for upheaval is just about endless. Presently we're using a Blackboard list to communicate about schedule changes, which is working far better than the old telephone call system, but it still requires someone (supposed to be me) to update the paper schedule on the counter at the desk. I think it would be much more helpful to have the schedule itself on a wiki so that anyone could update it as needed.

From TeachersFirst and their Wiki Ideas for the Classroom come several great ideas. One is a "What I Think Will be on the Test" Wiki - an ongoing cumulative study guide for class tests or even for likely SAT topics covered during the school year. Another idea I liked a lot is to have students run a wiki when they're away from school for a family trip, with an ultimate goal of connecting what they're seeing and doing with the topics that were recently studied in classes or are being covered in their absence.

Or, maybe I'll just sign up as an editor on Wikipedia! I love that place...one of the first groups I joined on Facebook was "Wikipedia is my crack Cocaine," with discussions centered largely on the hours of mindless pleasure clicking from link to link on Wikipedia. I'm afraid I'm hooked >_<

Connectivism and constructivism

2009-04-12T15:21:00.005-04:00

After reading and re-reading Chapter 2, "Students and Learning," from the book web 2.0: new tools, new schools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum, I think the two major take-away points for me were the discussions of connectivism and constructivism.

The potential for not just making connections, but also for finding connections, has increased dramatically in the last few years. The much-vaunted ability to "think outside the box" can also be thought of as a facility for seeing connections that most others miss or, equally, as a facility for understanding when preconceived connections are not truly the limits that others consider them to be. What a valuable life-skill this is!

Equally important is the concept of constructivism, a sort of building blocks approach to education, as opposed to the idea of presenting students with a discrete set of facts and information to be memorized and regurgitated, with information and topics neatly packaged by school grade and student's age.

The ability to connect students with distant learning partners is exciting. And there are so many options to choose from - other students; other teachers; professionals in the field, allowing students to learn about a topic from varied points of view; people who know less, allowing the student to become the professional and the teacher. The other thing I find particularly exciting about these sorts of projects is that the possibilities for intercultural exchange are nearly as endless. Without traditional visual stereotypes to guide us it can be much easier to be tolerant of differences and perhaps more appreciative of the benefits of a more varied and diverse setting - whether it's in school, on the job, or at home.

I was also pleased to see the refinement of Bloom's taxonomy with its inclusion of "creating" at the top of the pyramid and with its slight change of focus from thought to action. Using labels that are verbs rather than nouns really does seem to reflect some of the changes that have developed in the last few years. There are many more changes hovering just out of view - it's exciting to be looking at so many new ways of bringing this sort of learning into the classroom.

Social media - is the medium still the message?

2009-04-08T12:44:00.007-04:00

I haven't used media-sharing much (at all) and I was having a hard time coming up with something to say for this post. I thought back to my initial introducation to YouTube, by my then-middle school-aged son. I never went on it much myself - I just depended on him sharing his discoveries with me. As a result, I saw a lot of music videos, urban ninja videos, and monkey food diary entries which were amusing but didn't exactly knock me out with their potential.

Then one day he needed to change the strings on his guitar. The trouble was he hadn't done it before and the strings on an electric guitar are not quite as accessible as the ones on an acoustic guitar. My suggestion was to wait until his next lesson (a week away) and ask his guitar teacher to show him how to do it. His solution was to look at YouTube. Within minutes he had a video demonstration (well, several actually) by an accomplished guitarist demonstrating quite clearly and precisely how to do the job. I was pretty impressed!

I still haven't used it much, mostly because I haven't had a need for it. The trouble, though, is that unless I do use it enough to be familiar with it, I won't recognize the need when it walks in front of me. That's what makes some of this so difficult - finding the time to learn about new technology is difficult unless you actively make the time, knowing that once you've made the time and learned it you'll find all sorts of interesting things to do with it.

But if you're the sort who gets excited about all the new possibilities (and you probably are, or you wouldn't be spending all this time on your own just to learn how it works) and you're not in a position to be able to put what you learn to some productive use, it can easily lead to discouragement and frustration.

Anyway, I was pondering and pondering about what to write for this post and the thought suddenly came to me of Marshall McLuhan. Now, the only thing I actually remember about Marshall McLuhan was a four-part (I think) article that he wrote for The Mother Earth News, probably in the early 1970s on the topic of television and what it might all mean for us.

So, I jumped to Wikipedia and had a look for Marshall McLuhan and, sure enough, I found him there. The really interesting thing that I found in the article was this:

McLuhan's theory was that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. McLuhan pointed to the light bulb as a clear demonstration of this concept. A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness. He describes the light bulb as a medium without any content. McLuhan states that "a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence."[38] More controversially, he postulated that content had little effect on society –- in other words, it did not matter if television broadcasts children's shows or violent programming, to illustrate one example -– the effect of television on society would be identical. He noted that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways; for instance, a passage in a book could be reread at will, but a movie had to be screened again in its entirety to study any individual part of it.

Well, this is truly fascinating, especially when you consider that it was written in 1964! I read on to find that in a later book he went further to say:

Finally, McLuhan described key points of change in how man has viewed the world and how these views were changed by the adoption of new media. "The technique of invention was the discovery of the nineteenth [century]", brought on by the adoption of fixed points of view and perspective by typography, while "[t]he technique of the suspended judgment is the discovery of the twentieth century", brought on by the bard abilities of radio, movies and television.[42]

I haven't got any farther ahead in using social media-sharing, but I've sure added something to my to-be-read pile!

My favorites...

2009-04-04T09:18:00.009-04:00

Last year I was seeing buttons with the term de.licio.us everywhere in my online cruising, but I really had no idea what it was about and hadn't taken the time to find out...my bad!

I'm a logical thinker - not to say I'm not emotional, just that my preferred style of thinking is orderly. I like to proceed from one thing to the next. I never really considered the implications until I read a book last spring titled Everything is miscellaneous: the power of the new digital disorder, by David Weinberger.

I've worked in libraries for some years and my undergraduate degree is in biology, two fields that depend heavily on systematics and taxonomic structure as a means of organizing information. Carl Linnaeus and Melvil Dewey respectively were instrumental in the development of two of our major systems of classification, binomial nomenclature and Dewey Decimal Classification.

Weinberger had a lot of interesting things to say on the subject, but the part that really grabbed me was the discussion about classification systems. Ever since people started recording information we've been developing ways to sort and store the physical artifacts that have been created. We were dealing with tangible objects that took up a lot of space, so finding ways to store them was very important. The primary purpose of the storage was to make sure the information could be kept and made available to others in the future. This meant that other important factors were finding ways to allow potential users to learn of the existence of the information, and providing a means of locating the artefacts when they were wanted.

And then, along came the relatively ethereal and intangible internet and the practice of community tagging.

The possibilities that are growing out of large-scale social collaboration combined with functional miscellany (as opposed to our earlier obligate taxonomy) was a revelation. Before this I hadn't really understood much of what tagging was all about, but now it appears to me that we're teetering on the brink of some truly fundamental changes.

So, did I dive right in to social bookmarking? No, but I did try out LibraryThing for the tagging and stayed for the book discussions and sociability. Now, though, (thanks, Jeff!) I have finally set up a de.licio.us account and I'm ready for business.

Only trouble at the moment is that my computer froze up, I can't find the admin password and I'm working with limited access to a borrowed computer. I can't imagine I'm the first person ever to have forgotten their admin password...am I? How disorderly is that?

Feed Burner or Custard the Dragon?

2009-04-02T00:18:00.003-04:00

For the first time in a very long time we went on a realio, trulio [with apologies to Ogden Nash and Custard the Dragon, whose poem I memorized and recited in sixth grade and the tag line of which remains with me even though it is lo, these many years later] vacation! My boys and I spent a week in sunny, breezy, lovely, palm tree-, alligator-, and vulture-filled southern Florida. We had a wonderful time except for one thing - three of us, zero computers!

On our return home I was very much behind schedule with my two online classes. I was particularly grateful for the earlier class assignment that had required me to set up a Google Reader account. It was such a welcome treat to have just one place to go to check on new news and blog entries.

I'd made a half-hearted attempt at setting up a Feed Demon account some months ago, but I never could remember to look at it, so half-hearted is what it remained. I'm very much a creature of habit and I was quite content with the six blogs I'd put on my Blogspot blog list. It was rare that any of them posted more often than once every two or three days and I could comfortably keep pace.

I have to admit that I've gone a bit overboard with my Google Reader subscriptions. It's a bit off-putting to open the page and find 100 new posts here and 320 new posts there. I think a bit of house-keeping is in order to reduce things to a slightly more manageable level of activity.

But it sure is a lot of fun!

School 2.0 with Internet 1.0? Not!

2009-03-18T20:13:00.010-04:00

For my new course (Teaching & Learning in a Networked Environment), I've been browsing around a couple of websites, Department of Education School 2.0, and Partnership for 21st Century Learning.

The Dept of Education site left me pretty cold. There are lots of clever maps and differently colored blinking lights to say "You are here," but there is little of real interest that I could see. The introduction says, "By encouraging a discussion of community-based next-generation schools, we hope communities will be inspired to think creatively about teaching, learning, and management and then explore how technology can help meet those goals." They may be talking about School 2.0, but they're only talking about using Internet 1.0 when they get there.

The website is a collection of dead-end pages with very little connection to anything else. The only links go to other pages on the same site and I spent lots of time clicking the "Back" button. There's only a single style of presentation and little, if any, opportunity for the readers to get involved - either by asking questions, making comments or deciding what's relevant to them. Perhaps I didn't spend enough time on it to give it a fair shake (correct me if I'm wrong, here) but I lost interest pretty quickly.

The Partnership for 21st Century Learning site was much more lively and interesting. On the home page there are a variety of options - a video clip, a section with links to articles on related topics, an option to subscribe for email updates, and access to their on-line program cleverly branded "Route 21." The site provides a lot of specific detail about curriculum frameworks and the skills they support and provides opportunities for feedback and discussion. What a difference between the two sites!

Well, we do have a new administration now in Washington. Perhaps the Dept of Education could get in touch with rapper MC Hammer for some ideas about the benefits of social networking...

Did You Know? 2.0

2009-03-15T17:07:00.009-04:00

There's a short little You Tube clip titled Did You Know 2.0 that really gives us something to think about. It is very frustrating to be living in a time of such great change and rapid innovation but to be unable to use it for anything more than something to fool around with in the evenings.

The technology is out there and young people certainly have the interest, but so many adults are self-righteously content to let it just drift by. Schools finally allow the internet to be used for information retrieval, but in the meantime the wired world has blown past us to a whole new level.

How many teachers and librarians are still grumbling about the unreliability of Wikipedia and its "come one, come all" approach? How many of them really understand what it is and how it works? Or, at a deeper level, the theories about why it works the way it does and what those theories can tell us about connections and groups and education?

In the meanwhile, time is marching on. Remember physics class? Every student passing through the door of a classroom is a bundle of potential energy and it's important for us to serve as a force that can set loose the kinetic energy stored inside. Each one we set in motion makes their own contribution to the positive feedback loop, and has the potential to pass it along to everyone they study with, work with or live with throughout their lives. The chain reaction starts here!

School 2.0

2009-03-15T17:07:00.008-04:00

There's a short little You Tube clip titled Did You Know 2.0 that really gives us something to think about. It's too bad that the people who most need it would only see it if it was sent in the mail - postal service mail, that is.

It is very frustrating to be living in a time of such great change and rapid innovation but to be unable to put it to use other than as something to fool around with in the evenings. I think it's one of the big reasons I've decided to go into teaching.

The technology is out there and young people certainly have the interest, but so many adults are content to let it just drift by. Many even feel quite self-righteous about letting it drift by. Schools begrudgingly allow the internet to be used for information retrieval, but in the meantime the wired world has blown on by to a whole new level. Now the focus is on collaboration and connection, on finding new ways to share information with as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible, and with the greatest social benefit possible.

How many teachers and librarians are still grumbling about the unreliability of Wikipedia and its "come one, come all" approach? How many of them really understand what it is and how it works? Or, at a deeper level, the theories about why it works the way it does and what those theories can tell us about connections and groups and education?

In the meanwhile, time is marching on. Remember physics class? Every student passing through the door of a classroom is a bundle of potential energy and the sad thing is how infrequently we serve as the restoring force that sets loose the kinetic energy stored inside. Each student set in motion makes their own contribution to the positive feedback loop, and has the potential to pass it on to everyone they study with, work with or live with throughout their lives: the chain reaction starts here.

My new class

2009-03-12T22:10:00.007-04:00

Well, a new adventure is beginning. Last summer I shared the news that I had started in the online MSLIS program at Syracuse University. I attended the residency part of the program in July but then got hung up a bit on some life issues that needed my attention. I enjoyed the classes I took but I began to realize that the emphasis of the program is clearly on library and information management - sort of an MBA for libraries. The trouble is that management is not at all what I'm looking for. I've worked at management and administration and it's not what I want to be doing.

The impetus for graduate school was my desire to be in a position where I could work more closely with students. I began to realize that what I really want to be doing is teaching and that I would probably be much happier pursuing a degree in education than in library and information science. It doesn't seem like it should have been quite so difficult to figure this out, does it? My solution was to try out a few courses at Plymouth State University in the M.Ed. program. I think I'm most likely to pursue a focus on either General Science Teaching or Heritage Studies.

I've recently started my first two courses - Teaching in a Networked Classroom and Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society and I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place. I find the material very interesting, I enjoy the online discussion groups and I'm particularly looking forward to finding ways to put my interest in technology "toys" to good use.

Stay tuned for future developments!

What happened to February?

2009-02-28T23:33:00.006-05:00

Well, I was quite proud of myself in January when I managed to make more posts than ever before. I just realized, though, that it's only half an hour away from March and I very nearly missed an entire month. Oh, dear!

It was warm here yesterday - nearly 50F - and much of our snow melted away. I wandered around the house this afternoon and was very pleased to see snowdrop buds well above the ground. They're at the front of the house, which faces due south, and get lots of reflected heat from the house, so they're always up early once the snow goes. We're supposed to have more snow tomorrow, though. If Punxatawney Phil said six more weeks of winter on February 2, it must mean we're nearly done, mustn't it?

It was a lovely sunny day today, though colder than it had been. I took my mother for a drive from Hampton up Routes 1-A and 1-B along the coast to Portsmouth. New Hampshire only has a total of 18 miles of coastline, so it's not a long drive when you start in the middle, as we did. It's sad that for long stretches you can't see the ocean at all from the car because the sea wall is above eye level, and we had to detour round the Witch Creek bridge reconstruction project so we missed most of the Rye coast, but it was still a nice drive. Thought we ought to go driving today because NOAA.gov says 3-5" of snow tomorrow night and they're not even guessing how much more we'll get on Monday. Sounds as if last week's school vacation is going to have an extension!

I'm starting classes again as of tomorrow. One of them requires lots of blog posts...I'm hoping it's a habit I'll keep up when the course is done. I'd better post this now or I'll miss out on February altogether. Stay warm!

Book 6 for 2009

2009-01-30T22:25:00.007-05:00

Book #6

Japanese Lessons : A year in a Japanese school through the eyes of an American anthropologist and her children by Gail R. Benjamin. This was a very interesting book that aimed to provide some insight into the Japanese education system from an American perspective. The author’s stated intention was to “…find out what really happens in Japanese schools that is different from what happens in American schools and how those differences in practice affect differences in outcomes…to find paths for improvement in American education.” The author combines her professional analysis of the cultural bases for Japan’s educational structure with anecdotes and observations from the daily experiences of her children, who were attending Japanese schools for the year (one in fifth grade, the other in first grade). There was a lot of thought-provoking material presented in a way that was easy to follow and enjoyable to read.

As Benjamin describes it, the American view of child development is that children begin as helpless dependents and schools need to encourage students to learn about themselves through introspection, to learn to recognize their own individual strengths, and to form personal individual values that will allow them to withstand dangerous peer group and social pressures. The Japanese view is that children begin life as isolated individuals and that it is only when they learn to function well as group members that they will be able to successfully avoid the selfish inclinations of the individual and will live a more complete life filled with the social interaction that is such an important human trait.

Overall, the Japanese system sounds like it is much more deliberate and mindful of intended educational goals, which makes for a much more cohesive and equitable system. The differences between the two national educational philosophies seem to be largely a reiteration of the “nature vs. nurture” debates. American schools assume our personal qualities are inborn; that their goal is to help children discover who they were born to be. Japanese schools assume that it is our experiences that make us who we are as adults; that ensuring that all children have similar educational experiences will ensure that all children have the same opportunities to succeed in school and in later life.

Thirty years ago many scientists were agreed that after the relatively short period of infancy Nature was a much more significant force than nurture, so our American educational assumptions seemed sensible. Recent advances in neuro-cognitive science are indicating that nurture has a much greater effect than was previously believed throughout our childhood and adult lives . Hmmmm….

4.5 out of 5 stars

Book 5 for 2009

2009-01-29T11:02:00.007-05:00

The Four Agreements: a practical guide to personal freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz. The author, from a family of healers and shamans in rural Mexico, chose medical school and a career as a surgeon. A near-fatal accident caused him to rethink his career choice and he eventually returned to the traditional Toltec ways. He serves now as a Toltec nagual, or shaman, and argues that each of us lives a life inextricably tied to our perceptions of the external world, both people and events.

Ruiz's guidance is to make four agreements with ourselves:
1) Be Impeccable with Your Word
2) Don't Take Anything Personally
3) Don't Make Assumptions
4) Always Do Your Best

There is also a chapter titled Breaking Old Agreements addressing ways to break free from our old perceptions, allowing us to develop and live in a new reality.

There were some very good insights in this book. It's a little awkward to read in the beginning because the author assigns quite specific meanings to words that have more general connotations in common use. Once his vocabulary is familiar, the going is much easier. I think a re-reading will be valuable.

Information contained: 4 out 5 stars
Delivery: 3 out 5 stars

Book 4 for 2009

2009-01-25T14:13:00.009-05:00

Icarus at the Edge of Time by Brian Greene, a physicist and author of The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos, is very quick (ten minutes?) to read and absolutely delightful.

The story is a retelling of the Greek myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun on wings made with wax, this time told in an outer-spacey sort of way and illustrating Einstein's Theory of Relativity. I suppose it's considered a short story - done in a boardbook format and illustrated throughout with stunning images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Four and a half stars - do yourself a favor and find this book!

Book 3 for 2009

2009-01-25T14:02:00.009-05:00

The Reading Globally group on LibraryThing is reading books from Japan this month with a focus on fiction. I'm not much of a fiction reader and I hoped the short story format would make for easier reading. Sadly, I was wrong.

I chose A Late Chrysanthemum – 21 short stories by seven writers from the first half of the twentieth century, translated by Lane Dunlop.
I read the first four stories by Shiga Naoya and was singularly unimpressed. With guarded encouragement from another group member, I continued on to try other authors. I read two stories by Yasunari Kawabata, which were minimally better, and the tale by Hayashi Fumiko from which the collection took its title.

The last story relates the musings of a middle-aged Geisha-type as she mulls over love affairs from earlier days while preparing for a visit from one of the former lovers. I enjoyed this story more than the others, but not enough to finish the book, I'm afraid.

I'm feeling mired in the mud with this book. I echo the sentiments of another Reading Globally member in feeling that Japanese works are perhaps "too subtle" for me. And the sentiments of another 75 Book Challenge member who talked about a tendency to read literally, not always picking up on the hidden symbolism. The understatement and the focus on interior thoughts just moves too slowly to keep my attention. Perhaps this is a result of my mostly having read nonfiction for many years, or perhaps my liking for nonfiction is a result of this inclination – hard to tell which came first!

I think I'd give it about 2-1/2 stars. Certainly they weren't poorly written, just not my cup of tea.

It's cold!

2009-01-17T08:48:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note - to be added to later. At 8 am today the temperature was -7F! That, though was a considerable improvement over yesterday morning when, at 7 am it was -18F! I'm very pleased that we were able to find a multi-animal home for our solitary hen before this weather descended on us. It's way too cold to be hanging out all be yourself in the henhouse!

Still trying to finish my paper...oh, dear. I am going to work on it this afternoon. After I get going on that for a while, I'll add to this posting as my reward. First, I have to take my mother grocery shopping, have pancakes at a fundraiser for the teen center, and go to get a haircut - have to get all this done today because I'm working tomorrow and they're predicting another 4-8 inches of snow...exciting life!

The New Year

2009-01-04T10:25:00.009-05:00

It's 2009! Hard to believe, but here we are, nonetheless. Also hard to believe that two months went by without a blog post. Oh, dear...

I came across this quotation the other day on the LibraryThing profile of devenish :

"I often stand in the centre of the Library here and think despairingly how impossible it is ever to become possessed of all the wealth of facts and ideas contained in the books surrounding me on every hand. I pull out one volume from its place and feel as if I were no more than giving one dig with a pick in an enormous quarry. The Porter spends his days in the Library keeping strict vigil over this catacomb of books, passing along between the shelves and yet never paying heed to the almost audible susurrus of desire - the desire every book has to be taken down and read, to live, to come into being in somebody's mind. He even hands the volumes over the counter, seeks them out in their proper places or returns them there without once realising that a Book is a Person and not a Thing." --From 'The Journal of a Disappointed Man' by W.N.P. Barbellion

My job is sort of like the Porter's; the problem is that unlike him, I do hear that "susurrus of desire" every time I take books upstairs to put them back on the shelves. It's very hard to ignore sometimes, and it's why I have such a huge stack of books checked out from the library, waiting patiently to be read. Perhaps the Porter's wife put her foot down?

To help keep me on track with working my way through this mountain of "to-be-reads" I've joined the 75 Books Challenge for 2009 group on LibraryThing. The discussions are friendly and the reading tastes range wide.

The only trouble is that out of all these discussions, new titles of interest come up every day to join my wait list. I'm trying to take notes on the new ones and stay focused on what's already queued up, but sometimes the new ones just barge in and cut the line. For instance, this Journal of a Disappointed Man is one I'll need to watch for. We don't have it at our library, but perhaps on Interlibrary Loan I'll find it. You'll find my LibraryThing reading lists here and my library by clicking on the "ThingamaBrarian" button at the top of my blog.

Reviews for my first two books of the year are
Word Work: Surviving and Thriving As a Writer… by Bruce Holland Rogers
My first book for the year [2009] is Word Work: surviving and thriving as a writer by Bruce Holland Rogers. The book is a collection of essays in which the author shares some of his writing techniques and philosophy. Rather than giving advice, the author presents some of the common pitfalls and stumbling blocks that writers encounter and then explains how he deals with them and why his techniques work for him. He also explains different techniques that have worked for friends and fellow writers.

The emphasis throughout the book is on the need for self-reflection to identify the issues and for mindful awareness to keep oneself on course. This was an excellent book, filled with helpful information. My only regret is that it's a library book so I couldn't mark it up and I can't keep it at hand. Perhaps it will go on my birthday wishlist! Definitely 5/5.

Beard on Pasta by James Beard
I never meant to read this, I was just looking for ideas for dinner. In the end, thouigh, I read pretty much the whole thing. Some of the recipes seemed likely, many would require far more time and attention than I'm willing to devote to cooking. I'm quite certain, for instance, that I'll never make my own pasta from scratch, but Spinach-Anchovy Sauce or Pasta Primavera are easily within my reach. Beard writes in a friendly, down to earth way that makes the reading enjoyable. 3.5/5.

Some good books

2008-10-24T22:38:00.012-04:00

I don't know if I've said, but I work in the library (circulation coordinator) at a private school for grades 9-12. Part of my job is to make recommendations about YA (Young Adult) and general fiction, but it's harder than it seems. We're an academic library, but we have a largely residential (boarding school) population of 1,000 highly literate students aged 14-18, as well as younger children in faculty families and adult faculty and staff. How much of our resources should be addressing reading needs for the whole community, rather than just the classroom student? The developmental difference between 14 and 18 can be enormous at times, minimal at others. The publishers give age recommendations their best guess, but it's hard to tell...do the Harry Potter books really only appeal to grades 6-9 (ages 11-14)? :-)

I used to excuse my YA reading by saying I was reading books with my sons, now I can say it's for my job! The truth is I truly enjoy YA books for my own sake. The books are generally quick reading (great when you're very busy and/or get sidetracked easily); they address relevant topics, often from creative viewpoints; and, they tend to be much less long-winded and more to the point than traditional adult literature.

Some that we've enjoyed are...

Among the Hidden (first of The Shadow Children series) by Margaret Peterson Haddix, a futuristic society seen through the eyes of illegal "third children" in a society where the Population Police enforce the "two children per family" law

Castaways of the Flying Dutchman (and sequels) by Brian Jacques (of Redwall fame), about a boy and his dog who are given immortality and wander through the centuries helping those in need

The Last Treasure by Janet Anderson, about two cousins who meet for the first time, working through strained family relationships, coming of age, and some terrific puzzle solving

The Drift House: the First Voyage, by Dale Peck, sort of like Narnia, except it's post-9/11 and instead of a wardrobe leading into the woods the whole house sets sail on the Sea of Time, with pirates, mermaids, a sentient dumbwaiter and lots of excitement. There's also a fairly recent sequel that I haven't read yet.

Favorites from my own YA days include Gene Stratton Porter's Girl of the Limberlost series and the Mushroom Planet books by Eleanor Cameron. I don't know if they qualify as YA, but at the same time I was loving I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, I was also loving Christopher Morley's Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop about a traveling book seller in early 20th century New England.

For creepy, try Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, though perhaps terrifying would be a better word! And Jean Plaidy (aka Victoria Holt) for historical romance.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste...

2008-10-19T09:28:00.005-04:00

I've just finished reading The Disorganized Mind by Nancy Ratey. It's filled with practical suggestions for living with ADD/ADHD based on the author's years of experience with the condition, both in her own life and in the lives of her clients.

The best part about the book is that it's filled with ideas that are explained in detail, based on actual people and the strategies they've developed for living successfully in a non-ADHD world. Ratey's advice is, above all, realistic and clearly stresses the importance of developing an awareness and understanding of one's own individual issues. Once we understand our own needs, we can each consider, choose, and adapt from the strategies Ratey outlines for us.

I wish I'd said it first, but as one Amazon reviewer said, "Nancy Ratey rocks!" The book is kind and compassionate, but also firm about the need for taking personal responsibility. It is well-written and easy to read, but filled with useful information.

This book is helpful for people living with ADHD, either in themselves or someone they love, but it could be just as helpful for anyone dealing with the daily stresses and demands of living in modern society. Each of you should read this book!

Boy, did I get behind!

2008-09-30T21:12:00.004-04:00

Eeek! It's been a month since my last post! It's hard to say what happened, except that life does get in the way of our plans, doesn't it?

It seemed important to post something this evening, though, so I have at least one post for the month of September. I'm afraid that if I let that go by it'll be two months or three months next time.

Have I said I've started a Master's Degree program at Syracuse University? It's for an MS in Library and Information Science. I have a definite leaning toward the Information Science part of it, but I do love the Library part of it, as well. It shouldn't be too difficult to find a way to combine the two. It's an online program, so I'm able to take classes from right here in New Hampshire. The time flexibility with online classes makes it a bit easier to work around family and home and work and all the other thousand and one responsibilities that fill our lives. There are a lot of on-campus activities that distance students miss out on, but there are still lots of things we can be involved with.

I went to the Syracuse campus in July for an eight day residency to start the program. I've taken a number of online classes before but the residency was a new aspect. I'm glad I chose a program with a residency though, because having a chance to meet my future classmates face-to-face gives a whole new aspect to the courses. It was also a treat to be able to focus just on schoolwork. It's been a long, long time since I've been able to do that.

Well, there's a little bit for September and maybe a bit of momentum to keep me going through October...

New insects this week

2008-08-31T11:52:00.006-04:00

Common Green Darner

in the cool of the morning

a lifer for me....
Nebraska Conehead

(honestly, it is!...where are Chevy Chase and Bill Murray when you need them???)

They're coming back!

2008-08-29T22:33:00.012-04:00

The best news is that the students will be back in just a few days!

Next week is my favorite of the year, bar none. The cars and coaches pull up and the kids spill out, eager and overflowing with energy, squealing with delight as they connect and reconnect with each other and with the community. Opening day assembly will be on Friday morning, with all the students and all the faculty in attendance. The principal will talk about some aspect of the founding deed of gift, the topic for every opening day assembly since 1783. I'll sit on a bench in the assembly hall, listening, and trying very hard to actually see the students all around the room. It's surprisingly difficult with the shadows of so many other generations crowding in alongside them.

Some people only sing hymns at Christmas - for me, it's at opening day assembly. The school minister will lead us in singing For the Splendor of Creation with his great booming voice.....

"For the splendor of creation that draws us to inquire, for the mysteries of knowledge to which our hearts aspire,....for the unexplained remainder, for the puzzling and the odd: for the joy and pain of learning, we give you thanks, O God.......for the common life that binds us through days that soar or plod: for this place and for these people, we give you thanks, O God."

The bells have been silent all summer except to tell the hours, but they'll take up their second job now, calling students to their classes again.

Woot woot! O_o

2008-07-05T09:04:00.005-04:00

It seems like weeks since I’ve posted here – most likely because it has been.

I’ve been focusing all my energy and attention (sorry, kids, cats & garden!) on finishing the paper for my final project for school. It’s now complete (!!?!...except that I’m still casting about for an appropriate title) and in the hands of my faculty advisor for a grade. I’m awaiting comments from him and I'm so hoping that he doesn’t want rewrites: for the first time in my life, I think I'll be totally satisfied with a C. Or, at least I won't worry about it too much!

It’s hard to take in the fact that I’m about to be a college graduate. Actually, I guess I already am one, since the graduation ceremony was at the beginning of June. I started this process the fall after I graduated from high school in 1970. Who knew then that my undergraduate career would encompass six schools (seven with name changes included), several coast-to-coast moves, marriage, divorce, two children and 38 years of my life?

Figuring I’m on a roll, I start a master’s program in two weeks. I’m hoping this one will be a bit more straightforward!

Yard birds this week

2008-06-19T19:33:00.004-04:00

Lots of the usual birds this week, especially Gray Catbirds! Also, Louisiana Waterthrush, Yellow-throated Vireo, American Redstart, Yellow Warbler and, today, Prairie Warbler!

Puffins & snails!

2008-06-19T08:59:00.009-04:00

Boy, regular posting is not easy, is it? When there's time, there isn't always energy and vice versa. I have great respect for those who manage it more regularly than I do!

We went to Maine over the weekend for a quick visit. We stayed at the Flying Cloud Bed and Breakfast in Newcastle, right next door to Dam ariscotta. We had a lovely suite with a view (between the tree branches) right down the Damariscotta River.

On Saturday evening we joined a group from the Seacoast Chapter of NH Audubon and cruised out to see the Puffins on Eastern Egg Rock, the southernmost breeding colony of Puffins. We went out on the Hardy III, of Hardy Boat Cruises in New Harbor, Maine. The Hardy III is a terrific boat and the Captain and mates are all quite knowledgeable about the area and about local natural history. There was also a naturalist aboard from National Audubon who gave us a lot of information about the birds we were seeing and about Project Puffin.

After the cruise we joined friends at the Damariscotta River Grill for a late dinner. It happened to be the day of the Pirate Rendezvous and, although we’d missed the day’s main activities, there were still a number of pirates wandering around town!

Sunday started out damp and turned positively wet, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Here’s where the “snails” part of the title comes in, but I’ll talk about that next time…

Find of the Day

2008-06-10T21:46:00.003-04:00

At my neighbor's house - Laurel Sphinx Moth!

Yard birds

2008-06-09T21:46:00.003-04:00

Yesterday in the bird bath was an Eastern Bluebird (gorgeous adult male), which was the first I've seen in the yard this year and the usual steady procession of Chipping Sparrows and Mourning Doves. This morning, a Yellow-billed Cuckoo calling, along with an Indigo Bunting and Scarlet Tanager. Also a Chestnut-sided Warbler singing and singing - maybe nesting here this year? Caught the House Wren in the Hav-a-Heart trap the other day. Didn't seem to upset him any; he's still singing his heart out, looking for a mate to share his lovely house - "For wrent - for a song!"

Do things ever go according to plan?

2008-06-07T20:10:00.014-04:00

A lot happened today, but very little of it was according to plan.

The first bit went OK. I went up into the attic to open the storm windows. It does make a big difference in the bedrooms if there's a way for the hot air to keep rising. Didn't see any bats, which was fine by me, but did see plenty of signs that they were there. Means it's Big Brown Bats, since they're the ones who hibernate in buildings through the winter.

Then, I started out to do some mowing, desperately needed after the rain of the last few days and the current heat wave. Managed to make about three passes to the end of the field and back before I ran out of gas. Retrieved the gas can and filled the tank. Straightforward, yes? No, not. Mower wouldn't start, wouldn't start, wouldn't start.

So, I decided to do something else and give the mower a chance to cool off. Walked back up to the house to get the pruning saw with the intention of trimming some pine branches that have grown out around the beehive. On the way past, I looked over and realized the beehive had tipped over. All the supers were upside down on the ground. No damage to the boxes or frames, but it's hard to know what could have done it besides a bear. Still, I guess it's a good thing the mower ran out of gas, or I might not have gone specifically to check the beehive and wouldn't have known they needed help.

So, back to the house. I called a friend of a friend who used to keep bees to ask for help. He was out of town till Wednesday. Called someone else who I don't really know but I do know keeps bees. He was out but due back shortly. Left a message.

So, then I tried the computer. What I really should have been doing all along was writing my paper! Some program on the computer was running in the background (I never did figure out what) and the computer was running so slowly I couldn't do anything on it. Gave that up.

So, then I decided to put away some of the winter clothes that were still cluttering up the kitchen. Took a load of snow boots out to the garage and tucked them carefully into one of the plastic storage bins my sister-in-law picked up at WalMart for me last time she was here. Perfect! Reached for the lid of the bin and discovered that the lids are not the right ones for the bins. $95 worth of storage bins with no lids. Oh, well -- I expect I'll be able to trade the lids at the store, but I hadn't counted on an expedition.

By this time the temperature had risen to about 95 degrees and humidity must have been about 85%. Kept trying the mower periodically with no success. Called a friend who knows about mowers and left a message pleading for help. Decided to go to Sam's Club to get an air conditioner - one that rolls around on the floor and doesn't have to go in the window. Finally, success! They had the air conditioners in stock. Bought one & brought it home. Got a friend to help haul it up the stairs.

Had a phone call from the beekeeper to say he was home and would be happy to come over and help me evaluate the situation. More success! Went out to the carriage house and dug around till I found the bee suit and equipment. More success - not only found them, but they hadn't been chewed on by mice! Spent two hours on the hottest day of the year so far all dressed up for bees - suit, boots, long gloves, hat with net. Beastly uncomfortable, but we did get them sorted out and tidied up. Never did see the queen, so now I have to decide whether to get a new queen for them or hope that I just missed seeing her and let them try to make it on their own. They came to me two years ago - just moved into an empty hive one day. They're very good-natured, hardly needed to use the smoker today - I'd rather not lose them. On the other hand, I don't have a lot of time or money to put into them. I hate to just ignore them and let them die. What to do? What to do?

Came in from the bees and found a message from the friend who knows mowers. He'd been by to check on mine while I was at Sam's Club. He said I should plan to relax this weekend. Translation: the head gasket's shot, the tractor is thirty years old and I need to buy a new one. Oh, dear.

Computer's working OK now. Two loads of laundry are done and a third is in the washer. We've had dinner. I was just about to say things were looking up - but, as I was typing this, there was suddenly a horrendous sound from the fan across the room. A lovely chrome retro style standing fan that I splurged on at the end of last summer. The blade just dropped off the spindle in mid-spin...I'm sure it's fixable, but there I go with one more project....

It's not all that surprising, I guess, that I sometimes feel as if I never finish anything I start around here. But even though it's not easy, I sure do love this place. And there were a lot of little things I'd have missed if everything had gone according to plan, so it's not all bad.

I saw two garter snakes today that I wouldn't have seen if I hadn't been prowling around the old bee equipment. Saw the Eastern Towhee down at the brush pile on one of my trips to the mower. He hadn't been heard for a couple of days and I wondered if he'd left, but apparently not. I went down to close up the hen and saw a painted turtle who'd come to lay her eggs on the knoll by the house. They always do come about this time of year, so I shouldn't be mowing at all for the next few days, anyway. Heard a Great Horned Owl calling a few minutes ago when I walked down to check on the bees before it got too dark; also heard an amazing chorus of Gray Tree Frogs.

It's going to be just as hot or hotter tomorrow - far too hot to be healthy for mowing. Good thing I'm planning to relax!

Muddy

Who I am...

2008-06-02T22:12:00.002-04:00

I live in southeastern New Hampshire in a house built around 1776 that my great-great-grandparents bought in 1864 when they moved here from England. I have two sons (13 & 15 years old), two cats (Peachy and MooShu Cat), and two hens (can you tell I like things to be symmetrical?). We did have two lovely pigs, but they're in the freezer now.

I grew up in the Navy and went to a different school nearly every year until high school. I started college in 1970 and I'm finally (whew!) about to finish my undergraduate degree in Biology/Environmental Studies, the best part of which was that I learned I liked calculus and physics. I'm starting the Master's Program in Library & Information Science at Syracuse University in July. I work in a library at a private boarding school for grades 9-12 and I adore it. I wish we were a bit more progressive about our use of technology, though - if the library won't do it, who will? I enjoy writing and I'm hoping this journal will help me keep at it.

Muddy

So it begins!

2008-05-18T20:09:00.007-04:00

After taking the time to set up a blog, I find it's hard to start posting. I feel as if I should have something profound to say in my first post. Trouble is, if I wait for profound I'll never get started.

I've been thinking lately that it would be easier to follow through and actually accomplish things if I had someone checking in on me - a coach, of sorts. But I don't have one, so I'm thinking that perhaps this blog can stand in.

With a handwritten journal I'd know I was the only one reading it, so it wouldn't be a very effective motivator. With a blog there's always the possibility (however remote :-) that someone out there will be following along and I need to keep current so as not to disappoint.

Do you think it will work? I have great hopes!

Wish me well...
Muddy