A little more than two weeks ago, when I was looking forward to breaking away from the hectic routine of school and settle into the relaxed routine of an extended break, I anticipated being able to catch up with projects, spending time blogging, and wrapping up and reporting on many of the projects which were initiated and completed during the winter. However, personal issues arose which kept me from fulfilling my goal of getting back to blogging. The day that break was to begin, my father was hospitalized for a six day period. We just returned from having Easter dinner with him and I am happy to report that he is doing well.  I also had to deal with my furnace, which decided to quit working as winter weather returned last week. Two days later and a trip from the heating and cooling guys, I am happy to report I am no longer needing to wear layers and go outside to warm up. I also took care of important items such as filing my taxes. This year, I also spent time helping my wife with various tasks as she directs the first musical she as done in the past eleven years as she transitions back in her first full year of teaching. She has experienced several major obstacles which have added stress and tension.

I did manage to get some down time. I was able to catch up on some reading, completing or nearly completing Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich by Mark Kriegel,   The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch Rickey, Pepper Martin, and Their Colorful, Come-from-Behind Ball Club Won the World Series and America’s Heart During the Great Depression by John Heidenry, Reading Judas: The Gospil of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity  by Elaine Pagels and Karen King,  Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, and  High Noon by J.F. Rischard.  I also indulged myself watching the free preview of Major League Baseball Extra Innings on DirecTV. I am a huge baseball fan and I indulge myself by watching parts of 5 – 6 games each day and evening, often as background noise while reading or catching up on correspondence.

I am looking forward to the upcoming nine weeks remaining in the academic year.  I love the challenges of this time of the school cycle, as we transition, winding down this year’s projects and beginning to plan for next year. There are several exciting projects in the discussion phase, we are planning for our new acquisitions, I will be creating a new master schedule for our high school for the second year in a row. I look forward to throwing myself into each of these challenges. I am already excited about the possibilities that next year will bring as I collaborate with more teachers to shift their use of technology in the classrooms from simple skill building towards using technology as a basis to communicate and collaborate with others.

I have also began to pull materials together for an experience that I will be participating in tomorrow. At 2:30 p.m. CDT, I will be addressing the students in Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s  course at William and Mary. I will be using Elluminate to facilitate the conversation. I am tentatively titling the conversation Telling a New Story: Guiding Students (and Teachers as Students) to help develop their voice via technology. I will share my thoughts on reflections about my experience in the next few days. As always, I am coming up with great ideas at the last minute that I am scrambling to put together before the presentation. I will work for a bit on this tonight and will be waking up early tomorrow to wrap up my materials. So back to the grindstone I go.