Humble Thanks

Tonight I was treated to a delicious dinner and kind words at the Weaver Ridge Country club by the IEA Region 13 and 16 districts. I was nominated for the Silver Apple Award in our local the Pekin Education Alliance. It is quite an honor to receive the award for work that I simply feel called to do. It is nice to be recognized, but also I was humbled by the work others winning the award had done. I am small in comparison to the time and commitment others have put in to improving the education of young people. I work with some terrific people who are dedicated, knowledgeable, caring and persistent, and they all deserve the recognition I received tonight. Thanks

Still waiting

Still waiting on the birds. They are really missing out on some great grub!! Oh, the morning doves, or as I call them the slacker bums, have come around, but they don't count.

Chapel in the Sky

I met the author of the book Chapel in the Sky last evening. This book looks very interesting, here is an abridged description from the book cover,

"Knox College's Old Main - a national landmark and the only extant building that was a site of the Lincoln-Douglas debates - is a campus treasure with a secret. Built in 1857, Old Main was designed by Charles Ulricson, a Swedish-born immigrant who was trained by the Freemasons. In Chapel in the Sky, Knox faculty member Lance Factor decodes the symbols of this beloved building and explores how an ardently Anti-Mason administration came to hire Ulricson. The mysterious Masonic architect left his legacy on both Knox's Old Main and the Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois."

In my conversation with Mr. Factor, he told of how he just started noticing little details in the building and making mental notes about their oddities, then one day he started measuring windows and angles, counting tiles and steps and everything started coming into place as he began his research. He also shared stories about how even though there was a temperance movement in the college community, they would brew homemade wines on campus.

My conversation only reinforced in my mind that we all need to keep our eyes open. Mr. Factor worked in the Old Main building 40 years and through his observations of "ordinary settings" he discovered an amazing secret. We need to stop droning our way through life and we need to start looking at the wonders out there, even if they are the wonders we see everyday. When I finish reading this book, I will post my thoughts. Thank you Mr. Factor for seeing the world and stopping to tell the story of this very interesting building.

Lost in 2.0land

Blabborize, Audacity, Glogster, Wordle, Shelfari, Blogger, Wiki-everything, Pandora, Googledocs, iGoogle, Ning, Facebook, DimDim, Flickr, Wallwisher, Delicious, Zoteri, Jogtheweb, Screencast, Evernote, Diigo, Jing, Slideshare, Penzu, Surveymonkey...just to name a few. The 2.0 world has changed the way I do things, create, and communicate, but when does it stop? I find that I never get to really learn all the things these applications can do, before something else "betters" it or creates a new way of doing "it." Progress is one thing, inundating us is another. How about this little piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXFEBbPIEOI

Still Waiting

It has been a while since I have filled the bird feeder outside our front window, but I saw a few finches checking it out last week. So, Kaleigh and I filled it Saturday evening. We are still waiting for the finches and chickadees to return.

Scratch Beginnings

I read Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the search for the American Dream this past week. I was drawn to the book because of Adam Shepard's statement on the back. He says:






"Mine is the story of rags-to-fancier-rags. I'm not an extraordinary person performing
extraordinary feats. I don't have some special talent that I can use to 'wow' prospective
employers. I'm average. My story is very basic, simple. My story is about the attitude of
success. My goal is to better my lot and to provide a stepping-stone over the next 365 days for
everything else I want to accomplish in my life. I aim to find out if the American Dream is still
alive, or if it has, in fact, been drowned out by the greed of the upper class coupled with apathy
of the lower class."

I enjoyed the book, even though it had some stories that carried on with no seeming point until the end of the chapter, but my favorite part is when he writes a letter to the morning bus driver. He reports that this bus driver was always positive, had a smile and something nice to say. Shepard writes the bus driver a letter that essentially says that even people who have seemingly insignificant jobs (bus driver, plumber, mover, drive through attendant) can be significant. The bus driver's attitude always put Shepard in a good mood. And he makes the realization that even insignificant, ordinary people can make a difference in the world. We don't all have to be the doctor, astronaut, race car driver, Donald Trump, to make a difference. He tells the bus driver, "there are people like you, who wake up with the purpose of making a difference in somebody's day."

Do we do that? Do we wake up and decide that we are going to make a difference? I don't know that I think that daily, but it is what I try to do every day, make a difference. Maybe we should wake up each day and decide, "what kind of difference will I make today?" And then we look for those opportunities. Smile at that stranger or co-worker (maybe the same person). Open the door for someone who has his or her hands full. I don't think it is the answer for the American Dream, but it certainly is a part of it. Shepard's point is that anyone CAN achieve the American Dream.