What better way to get me around my writing embargo then a little post dedicated to just me, about me, and not about anything else but me   Well, actually I’m going to dedicate this to Beth Still and Adina Sullivan who both tagged me with this meme within a couple days so now I feel obligated to respond.  As a few of you know, I haven’t written much this school year so far, but I hope that can change.  As for now, lets try to uncover a little more of who I am.  Wow, that sounds strange to say outloud (or even in my head).

Here are the rules to participating in the 7 things meme:

• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter and/or Plurk.

Here we go:

1.  I have lived in 37 houses and 21 towns/cities/municipalities in my 33 years.  I was not an air force brat, but moved alot nonetheless.  Wish I could tell you more about that one but I will have to leave it to imaginations.

2. I have neck, back, wrist, elbow, knee, and hip problems.  I think its from all the sports I played growing up, or all the time I spend on the computer, or I guess it could be that degenerative spine issue my ortho talks so highly of.  From what I understand it’s common but the doctor says I should probably avoid picking up my 17 month old son anymore if I want to be able to walk when I’m older.  That sounds depressing, really, its not so bad.

3.  I believe in sarcasm.  Some say its for the weak.  Others say it just masks insecurities.  For me, I just use it as another way to critique what I see as wrong in the world so its more of an analytical tool.

4.  I actually liked High School even though I almost didn’t graduate.  Well, let me be clear.  I hated most of my classes, disliked most of my teachers, couldn’t stand the emotional ups and downs, but all in all, I have fond memories.  I wonder if thats just time dilluting the experience.  When I decided to become a teacher, it was because I wanted to help kids who weren’t going to make it through unless someone took an interest in them.  I don’t think anyone ever took an interest in my future so I want to be that person for a few.  I’m not sure how this all adds up to me liking HS, but I can tell you I certainly didn’t hate it as much as most of my students do.

5.  I looooooooooooooooooovvvvvvve movies.  Watching them is my favorite hobby.  My other favorite hobbies include playing on the computer, playing with my Nintendo Wii, and eating brownies.  All of which add up to me not leaving the house very much.  Maybe I should find some new hobbies?

6.  If I could go anywhere in the world right now it would be Ireland.  That probably has to do with the fact that I was born on St. Patricks Day, have freckles, auburn hair, and no living relative who can definitively tell me if I have Irish in my blood.  There is something alluring about the possibility so I will just believe my grandma when she says “I think you have a little, sure.”

7.  I long to be led or to lead by goodness, intelligence, openness, and collaboration.

Tag, you’re it:  Oh, and since I haven’t been reading too many blogs recently, sorry if you were already tagged but just know I was thinking about you.

@teachakidd – she is funny
@michellek107 – she is funny too
@mkbwsu – leader in online education
@robinellis-  I wish I had her job, I think
@stonyriver – so generous with his knowledge
@robletcher – great ideas about online education
@kdumont – Mr. Mac

While I was in the backchannel chat today, I thought “wow, everyone in here is ahead of the curve and is pretty sold on what this conference is promoting,” which happened to be Web 2.0 tools.  The theme of the conference isn’t the point, but the fact that we were all chatting away in a gigantic Echo Chamber started to bother me.  There wasn’t anyone on that chat that was disagreeing with anything that was being said, even when prompted to.

The point is, most of us really want to change education.  We aren’t going to do that until we get more teachers, administrators, district personnel, lawmakers, and politicians involved.  To do that, we should invite them places. Get them to witness what we are trying to do.  Get them to argue with us and make us justify why we are changing education in this particular vision.

So, for all the conferences we are planning on going to this upcoming year, let’s either make sure we bring a person that doesn’t agree with us or might not understand what we are doing, or if money is an issue, have them REPLACE us at that conference.  You know they will get more out of it anyway.

This will take some work.  We will have to be unselfish, almost altruistic in some cases.  In other cases we will have to work hard to convince colleagues they should attend and will have to hound them to say yes when they don’t want to work over the summer or write extra lesson plans for a sub.  Whatever it takes. This is easy in the scheme of changing education!

Conferences in the next year that I really want to go to and will make PLUS 1 a reality in: K12 Online Conference,  Virtual Schools Symposium, Educon 2.1, NCCE 2009 , and NECC 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership recently, largely due to Influencer: the Power to Change Anything, and despite not having any ‘power’ at my job, am trying to influence change.  Thats where printing this idea comes to play.  In the past, I might of just kept it to myself but am trying to influence public discourse in some small fashion.

So how do I stop it? How do I not be so serious?

Which one of these is stopping you from having more fun?

Don’t despair even though the numbers aren’t there. This is still going to be the best year ever. Okay, what do I mean? Well last Friday we submitted unsats for each of our classes. Any students with a ‘d’ or ‘f’ in any course would receive an unsatisfactory notice home. Our Assiss. Principal ran the numbers today and here is what we got. 726 students, 650 receiving at least one unsat, 76 with none. That means, hold on let me get out my trusty windows calculator, 89.5% are not passing at least one class 6 weeks into the school year. I like to think of it this way, 10% are passing every one of their courses, yayyyy!

Pretty disparaging. So why am I optimistic? Change takes time. We have implemented drastic changes to our school from the way we deliver our content to the methods we communicate with our kids. Its a HUGE change and we are only 6 weeks into the year. I know that I’m doing more than Ive ever done before, and I trust that is going to save more kids from dropping and failing out than Ive saved in previous years. There are a couple of us doing this, we will make a big difference to our students. Other teachers will begin to make the necessary changes, jump on the bandwagon so to speak, as we get into the school year further. They just need a little time, but not too much time because students drop like flies at our school. Also, they may need some not so gentle nudging from admin. I know some of us who are maxed out would like to see some swift kicks to those who waste sooooooooo much time. It’s obvious to us admin, just ask.