Although I have only worked with Ryan for about 7 months, it has been an incredibly productive 7 months. He has pushed me to think about my role in the classroom, in the building, and in the district. And, despite it being winter break, he has kept me thinking.
11 random facts about me:
- I tried playing guitar twice in my life--when I was 10 and when I was 19. I quit both times. When I was 38, I told my wife and friends I would know how to play guitar by the time I was 40. Four years later, it is my favorite hobby. I try to pick it up every day, even if it's only for 10 minutes.
- We named our son, Inman, after the character from the novel Cold Mountain.
- I lived in Minneapolis for 3 years while going to grad school for education. A great little city.
- Da Boss, Richard J. Daley, eulogized my great-grandfather, a longtime precinct captain.
- Like Richard Pryor, my hometown is Peoria, Il.
- My favorite spot in the world is my good friend's place in northern Wisconsin. It's in the middle of Nicolet National Forest. I've been going there for almost 30 years, and it's where my wife and I had our wedding. Specifically, there's nothing quite like sitting on their dock, watching the water, the trees, the sky.
- We found our daughter's name, Brin, on a headstone while walking through Rosehill cemetery in Chicago.
- I've been working on a second masters degree, this one in Literature, at Northeastern Illinois University, in Chicago, for about 7 years. Getting close to needing an extension.
- Larry Lessig's book, "Remix," and ted talk, "laws that choke creativity," changed the way I thought about creativity and ignited my interest in the ways we use technology to create.
- My favorite bird is the blue heron. We have them on our lake in the summer, and I can watch them for hours.
- I spent 9 years proposing a course on media literacy at Glenbrook South H.S. By the time the course was finally approved, it had morphed into an examination of how we use our devices to learn, create, and collaborate. Hopefully I can keep it going. Here's to grit.
11 Questions Ryan wants me to answer:
- Favorite Color Crayon: something in the blue family.
- Favorite children's lit: Harold and the Purple Crayon even though it freaked me out as a kid. Where were Harold's parents? Now I've used it class when talking about existentialism: Harold creates his life.
- Favorite video game ever: Techmo Super Bowl for Nintendo (1991 version).
- "Believe" in the big guy in the red suit?: I do not "believe" or believe in the big guy in the red suit.
- What would I sing on the way to work and what are my presets: It's hard to say what I might be singing on my way to work because it probably depends on what I was listening to while making/eating dinner the night before. Lately it would probably be something by Elliott Smith. My presets on the radio: npr, XRT (in the morning I need my Lin Brehmer. Best. DJ. Ever. Don't live in Chicago? Google him), and ESPN AM 1000.
- Time I laughed with students instead of keeping a straight face: Pre-internet I used to show artwork in Humanities on a big opaque projector. One time I was showing a work by Fred Tomaselli in which he used the Adam and Eve figures from Masaccio's "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden." I zoomed in on Tomaselli's painting to show how he used mixed media on his canvas, forgetting that I had the Mosaccio placed underneath. When I pulled away the Tomaselli image, the camera was zoomed in for a perfect money shot: Adam exiting in all his glory, his manhood taking up the majority of the screen. I think I said something like, "Whoa, Adam!"
- Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner? Last meal--what am I having: Definitely a dinner person. I've had to work at making breakfast a part of my routine. For a last meal. . .that's as tough as the song I would be singing. Maybe slow braised shortribs over garlic mashed potatoes and spinach. Or a burrito.
- What one literary figure am I like: Honestly, I have no idea. Here are a few I wish I was like: Randall McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Huck Finn; Katniss Everdeen. Asskickers.
- How do I keep the spirit and play of a child alive for myself: In the winter, I skate as much as possible on the lake. It's like being in 8th grade all over again: come home, throw on my skates and walk down to the ice. I wrestle with my kids, rock out with them playing Band Hero, and try to remind myself as often as possible Emerson's statement that "the sun illuminates only the eye of man but shines into the eye and heart of the child."
- What's disturbing me about education and how I am working to change it: At the exact time we need to help foster creativity and curiosity in our kids so that they can live fulfilling lives regardless of what the future holds, we seem to be embracing the idea that what we need is standardization and testing. As much as possible, I seek to subvert this in my classroom. And it helps to read and see on Twitter what really forward-thinking educators are doing to resist this distressing trend.
- Where I would want to teach for a week: Somewhere in Hawaii? Italy? Ok, so those have less to do with the classroom and more to do with the location. How about Singapore? I can't read an article about the sorry state of American education without reading about their incredibleness.
"11" Bloggers/Tweeters I find endlessly thoughtful and interesting and whom I would love to learn more about. I would list 11, but it seems this challenge has been making the rounds and a number I would choose have already been tagged:
11 Questions for my 5:
- Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall: which are you?
- One book or film you wish you could experience again for the first time?
- First album (cd, tape) you purchased with your own money?
- What advice would you give to somebody entering your profession now?
- Are you a napper?
- Favorite dessert?
- What gets you out of bed in the morning?
- What amazes you?
- Best advice somebody has given you?
- If Arne Duncan gave you the power to enact a mandate, what would it be?
- What's a question you wished I would have asked?
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