Finishing my undergraduate degree is one of my greatest accomplishments, but it almost didn’t happen. Being the first in my family expected to graduate, the pressure was on. Yet, in my rush to kickstart my adulthood, I nearly threw it all away—and learned a brutal lesson about corporate loyalty along the way.…
Tag Archives: Education
You Said I Could Take It Apart!
I believe that as we grow up, life gives us signals about what we should be doing. The key is to pay attention. Sometimes, those signals come later in life. My last fifteen years of teaching were spent in computer science, cybersecurity, and engineering.…
The Lost Backbone of Education
At every staff development day in my thirty years of teaching, we were asked to connect the curriculum to the students or the real world. Over the last few years, however, I believe we have lost focus and forcefully removed the backbone of these ideas, using words like frivolous, childish, silly, and trivial.…
Perpetuate The Non-Fiction
The following excerpt is from Seymour Papert’s book Mindstorms, published in 1980, yet its relevance to current classroom practices persists. The book is over forty years old and is still as important today as it was in 1980. The passage below speaks to a project by students using “Turtle” programming to create a holiday sign.…
Day 176 May 22, 2023 No PDA’s Allowed
One of the hallmarks of my business classes was bringing them real-world situations. I told a lot of stories about me and my friends and so I had a series of law stories based on Lakewood. This was not my idea.…
Day 158 April 27, 2023 WordPerfect 9.1
I have spent my career being at the forefront of technology I have used some great products over the years. PowerPoint is a case in point. I started using PowerPoint for MAC in the early 90s. It didn’t start out as a Microsoft product but they were bought in the late 80s.…
Week 29 Musical Interlude
A sad look at nostalgia from Bruce Springsteen. I don’t visit Lakewood much but it has changed so much that I wouldn’t recognize it. It does remind me of something I said as we were planning the 30-year high school reunion.…
Day 132 March 21, 2023 – Exchange Relationships
This will be my last post about the German Exchange for a while. This one I am writing this one now instead of using a previously published story.
Relationships are the most cherished memories from the exchange. The friends I have made make me long for a return visit.…
Day 131 Spring Break Extra – Match 20, 2023 – Final Thoughts
This was the final post from 2009. I will have a couple of more later in the year but this covers the serious and important stuff. I will talk about an American Consulate Guard almost shooting me and a French Monkey later!…
Week 28 Musical Interlude
I have been a Billy Joel fan and this is a look back at high school for both of us.
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Day 130 Spring Break Extra – March 17, 2023 Farewell Dinner
This is the post after visiting the Graduation Ceremony for the Heimschule Lender.
June 28, 2009
Last night we had the chance to see the ceremony for the students that have successfully completed the Arbitur. It is the test for school completion in Germany.…
Day 128 Spring Break Extra March 15, 2023 Travel & Leipzig
Another post from our trip in 2009. Leipzig was a great adventure and our time there was memorable beyond belief. To walk in the steps of history was humbling.
July 03, 2009
Our next adventure was to get from Achern to Leipzig and to our next destination.…
Day 126 March 13, 2023 – Spring Break Bonus Berlin
Berlin – 2009
I am doing some blogs from our German Exchange. Here is our first trip to Berlin.
The next day we tried again with the train and it worked perfectly. Well almost! The trip there was perfect but on the way back the next adventure began.…
Week 25 Musical Interlude
This is one of my favorites. Charlie Brown by the Coasters. This was my life in school.
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Week 23 Musical Interlude
This song doesn’t talk about school specifically but does talk about the joy of September when school started. It also speaks to aging and I know that in the December of my career I am enjoying the return to earlier times.…
Day 107 February 10, 2023 – CyberPatriot 2010
CyberPatriot changed my career in many ways. That first group was an amazing year. None of us knew what we were doing. The students, mentor, and I were not sure how to train. We did it every Wednesday afternoon for a couple of hours.…
Week 22 Musical Interlude
A little advice from James Brown in 1967.
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Day 102 February 3, 2023 – Toilet Paper
BRING TOILET PAPER AND HAND WARMERS. It is not often that you see a headline like this. In 2009 we had a group of students attending the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC. The trip had been planned for many months without regard to who the winner would be.…
Week 18 Musical Interlude
I am now going to do some songs that are not the most wholesome. These are some fun songs but not the best influences but most of us have heard these and enjoy them. The first is a J. Geils Band song.…
Day 80 December 15, 2022 – Winter Break
Last day before break. This is a bittersweet day. I am tired and need the break but I know that after three days I will be chomping at the bit. Vacations are a time to evaluate and prepare. The one lesson I have learned in thirty years is that no matter the planning, there will be things that change it and shuffle things.…
Day 78, December 13, 2022 Wifi Highjacking
Being a computer teacher has its advantages. I often will get things before anyone else and get to try them out for others. Earlier in the blog, I spoke about the introduction of laptops to our itinerant staff and how we were unprepared for them as a district.…
Day 76 December 9, 2022 Student Assessment
Teachers feel judged daily by students, parents, administrators, district administrators, the state board of education, state legislatures, and society as a whole. Nothing about that system is going to change. Teachers who spend countless hours railing against this are doing themselves and their students a disservice.…
Week 11 Musical Interlude
Some good old Folk music. It is a part of my war protest music and is a very fun song with a serious message. It sometimes gets lost on people who don’t understand satire but I hope you enjoy it.
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Week 7 Musical Interlude
A little upbeat Chuck Berry as we get into the rhythm of school for this year.
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Day 1 – August 9, 2022 First Day
A hot day in July 1993 was my first day as a teacher in my own classroom. I was teaching at Montview Elementary in Aurora, Colorado. It was a year-round school in the northern part of the city. It was the oldest portion of the city and had a high transiency rate. …
German Exchange – June 17, 2009
Monday June 15th found us in Strasbourg, France. It is a unique town on the Rhine River and has alternated between France and Germany for centuries. Again we had the chance to ride the trains into France. It was a short hop and didn’t take much time at all.…
DOCUMENT CAMERAS – THE MODERN OPAQUE PROJECTOR
Mr. Price Owen, who was my History teacher, loved his opaque projector at Lakewood High School in the 1970s. I enjoyed it when he would put something on there and we would all squint and try to read the information from a book or document.