Here I sit in the Rochester Airport once again typing another blog post. Sometimes it seems that the only time i get to write on my blog is while I am traveling. Lately, the only time I slow down is when i am waiting for transport or sitting in an office waiting to be called. Otherwise, I can honestly say that I could not fill in another thing. I have started turning down opportunities – something I have never done. It is during these infrequent slow times that i sit and review my life. It’s either that or catch a power nap – and reviewing is much more enjoyable recently. It seems that I am riding a wave, and that wave is taking me places I thought i could only dream about. The past two years has been incredible, and yet it still is getting better. Today I am about to get on a plane to DC where I will take part in the first-ever International Space Station Tweetup. Only 35 people from around the world were asked to come and I am one of them! How do I rate? The real answer is that I don’t. I am an average teacher who is just taking the time to apply for these opportunities. If you are a teacher reading this, realize that you can do these things. All you need to do is set aside a small amount of time each week to try for these things. If you spend a few minutes each week attempting to reach your goals, eventually you will.

A bit of advice though. Start small. Just like an athlete training for the big event, you must start with small goals. Not only do these small goals provide small bursts of pride(I did that?!!) they also show you what your weaknesses are. That way you can fix them and go for the next one. It’s like that with lesson plans. A teacher would never start the year with a major project with all new materials and tasks. They show students what they are capable of over a stretch of time with small tasks, eventually getting to the major project. So do this with yourself. Try for a $500 grant before the $10K grant. Become a local rep for your state organization before trying for the state position. If you pace yourself and learn from your stumbles, you will build your resume and prepare yourself for the bigger and harder challenges. And that is what it is all about. Those dreams you have of talking with astronauts or doing Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre.  Go and do research in your favorite field or do a summer internship with the sports team of your choice. The opportunities are out there and if you don’t do them, someone else will.  The only reason you won’t get the chance is because you won’t put aside a few minutes a week.

Chase your dreams.

And if you don’t have dreams like that, then get some. Why else are you on this Earth if not to dream and chase after them.

That is why you dream at night. Your brain is asking “What if?”

So ask yourself…

“What if?”

Well here it is two weeks after the MESSENGER Flyby Event that I attended. I have to ask myself if it was all worth it. If you are a teacher, I will ask you something first:

How important would something have to be to take you out of the classroom after only 13 class days into the school year. That something would take you away for 5 class days. That means, in addition to the normal start of the year routines(getting to know your new students, lesson planning, etc) you have to create substitute lesson plans for a sub who might not be from your subject. You also have to help your district find funding to pay for the entire trip. you then have to grade all the missed work when you get back since 5-week grades are due by end of the week.

So what do you say?  Is there anything worth that? I did not think so.  I was wrong. An hour ago I was tweeted(don’t ask if you have to ask) by @cbrannon “I am looking at the NASA MESSENGER program. Are you still enjoying the benefits and satisfied with the program? AND Why?”  I think I may have broken the record for continued tweets in answering him. I won’t bore you with all that i replied.  Let me say that now that I am almost caught up(and on yet another weekend trip as part of my role with STANYS) and overcoming the cold I caught. I can safely say that there is nothing I have done as a science teacher that has helped me bring more excitement to my class and school. The students think the whole experience is awesome. Now they have caught my excitement for all things space related. Cafeteria workers and secretaries and custodians ask me how NASA is.  I get teased all the time by my fellow teachers about when I am going to space – all with love and excitement. People of all ages love having a connection, no matter how many degrees away it is, to NASA.  While I was at the MESSENGER Flyby, I had a conversation with Dr. Jeff Goldstein about how NASA is the only Government Agency that inspires awe and excitement anymore. He kinda agreed with my position but defended a few other agencies and departments. However, I really feel that, in my experience as a common person, nobody gets excited positively about anything government related except for NASA. Some people, like president Obama inspire and excite, but that is the person, not the office. We have lost that excitement for everything the government touches – except NASA.

They tried to tarnish it, but the space lovers at NASA brought it back.

Bit by Bit.

Hubble.       The Rovers.         The Mars Phoenix Mission.       Hubble again!

MESSENGER

The Flyby is over but I can’t say that I will stop doing these events.  Heck, if it was up to me, this would only be the beginning. I want to personally spread the word to everyone in the world. Starting with students and teachers.

Get excited.

Get involved.

I can’t stop and my students don’t want me to.

They won’t want you to either.

Here I sit at 11pm on September 29th 2009 in my hotel room in Columbia Maryland.Tired, restless, a bottle of Coke next to my computer, I am still trying to wind down from a crazy day. Since noon today I, along with four other MESSENGER Fellows(“master teachers” from across the US), have been tweeting about the MESSENGER spacecraft as it approached and flew by the planet Mercury. It has been an interesting experience – far different from last year’s low key flyby.  But we were making history today. Never before has there been a group of teachers broadcasting live from Mission Operations Center to anyone anywhere that wanted to know about NASA’s mission to the smallest planet. Just thinking about what happened today gets my stomach going again. Here is a taste of what I experienced…

A crowded room room filled with a large center table. MESSENGER Fellows occupy that table looking at their laptops. People surrounding them eating and talking with each other. The Fellows are introduced to everyone as they come in – and their role in this event is explained.”To broadcast to the world what is happening here at the flyby.” It is interesting  watching the reactions of the people  and listening to their comments – especially when the word “Twitter” was mentioned.  There is the knowing half-smile/smirk and  a quick comment. Never outright negative, comments like these are made by people who don’t yet see the big picture.  Some begin to see it when the Fellows ask questions and then furiously type their  answers to the Twitterverse. You see, no one truly appreciates the power of these social media outlets yet. Even a lot of the people using them.  NASA  wanted us broadcasting however, and so we broadcast. We answer questions from students and others interested in space science. We let everyone know  what is happening as it happens.

The power of what we are doing was intense. The chuckles die down as people watch us answer question after question. They watch over our shoulders as the time of the flyby grows near. They wonder who we are talking to.  Our room is packed with people.   As the time of the flyby grows near, the volume in the room becomes deafening. Suddenly though I realize the room has grown deathly quiet. I have been so absorbed in writing online, that I have not noticed that almost all the scientists have left. Up on the video screen it shows many of them in the actual ops center centered around a computer. I look up at the live doppler data and see that it has disappeared. Something has happened and it is not good.

I tweet throughout this. Several minutes after the drop in signal, MESSENGER goes behind Mercury. For the next 51 minutes there is no way to hear or talk to MESSENGER. People are nervously, and quietly talking to each other. A few minutes into the occultation of the spacecraft Sean Solomon,PI for MESSENGER, walks slowly into our room and tells us that the science team thinks that MESSENGER may have switched antennae for some reason, but the team did not want to try anything before the known blackout.  We have to wait. Sean does not have the great smile on that he did a little while earlier. it is obvious that he was nervous. The Fellows tweet to the world what we are watching. A swollen lump in our stomaches replacing the excited butterflies that we have had all day.

7pm comes way too slowly and suddenly we see that the Live Doppler Shift video suddenly has a signal. No scientists are in the room. they are all in the ops room. we can see them on the tv screen. The fellows are all speculating “Is that it? Do we have a signal?” Sean comes in this time with a quicker step and says “Yes” we have signal. The room suddenly springs a leak as it is filled with the sound of many people letting out their collective breaths. A small cheer goes up. Then furious typing as we tell the world. “YAY we have contact with MESSENGER!!!” I tweet to the world. The part of the world that follows me hears this great news.

Later we find that we lost some of the Doppler data that would have given us more information on Mercury’s gravity. Also that MESSENGER, for some reason, was not in its normal operating mode. the data link is slow and scientists are not sure what is happening. What is known is that data download will be delayed.More will be known tomorrow.

This is science.

This is real life.

I am a teacher who was there and witnessed it.

I will tell the world.

My students will be better for this.

Update: Corrected Sean Solomon’s name. I incorrectly named him last nite since I was so tired.

Today I am sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Baltimore. I am about to miss a week of class – a point sorely brought home by the exhaustion I feel after a previous week of preparing subplans for the entire previous two weeks, I pulled no fewer than three 12 hour days and two 15 hour days. That is time spent at school doing work – it does not include time spent preparing work stuff at home. Even with all that time spent preparing, I am not happy with the product. I guess I never am. I despise time spent away from my class. I don’t think I would be a good teacher if I did.
So why am I not in class this week?  This week is the final MESSENGER Flyby of Mercury before orbital insertion in 2011. Since I am a MESSENGER Fellow, I was invited to the event and I am going to connect my classes and others from around the country to the science and people surrounding MESSENGER. I could not be happier.

But even saying all that, I still had a niggling sense of doubt in my head about whether i was doing right by my students. That doubt was erased on Friday when I asked my students a question I was asked by a reporter. I was asked”How do your students feel about you going away for a week to do this?” I could not answer this and would not put words in their mouths,so I asked my students this question. I was pleasantly surprised by their responses. It was almost entirely positive.  The only negative reactions were immediately tempered by comments like “While it is not great you will be away – we will eventually get more out of this class because of your personal experience at the MESSENGER Flyby.”  The students comments actually surprised me in some cases. “Being selected to be a part of the Flyby and work with NASA means that you know your stuff. That is important to me!”  This comment was made and followed by many of the students classmates nodding their heads in agreement with the student. When asked why this was important to them, the general response I received was ” teachers who live their subject are better teachers in the long run.” These were the students words, not mine  I was floored by the overwhelming response. Not only did I think they were not as excited by this event, but I never thought that they cared about what I did outside of school. One student said “College professors are required to work in their field. It not only keeps them up to date but it keeps them excited about their subject. High School teachers should also.”

Interesting ideas from interested students.

Definitely something to chew on.

Meanwhile I will go live my dream.

Follow me at the Flyby!

This past weekend I went back to my Alma Mater, Alfred University, for only the third time in 25 years. It was a bittersweet occasion since I was not there for a happy occasion. I was attending the Remembrance for a professor who had recently passed away. The professor, Dr. J. Scott Weaver, had started at Alfred the last couple of years I attend Alfred, but he hada significant impact on me. Luckily, I had a chance to tell him that during the year previously through a recent connection with his wife at a STANYS conference. During the conference, Dr. Weaver’s wife attended a session in which I was presenting on NASA’s MESSENGER mission. I’ll never forget the smile on her face afterwards when she asked me if I remembered her from Alfred. She told me that Dr. Weaver had proudly followed my career and that he would be ecstatic at my recent appointment as a MESSENGER Fellow. We connected many times after that conference. The most important message though was something I felt to my core – my career would have been less without the benefit of teachers like Dr. Weaver and other teachers at Alfred such as Dr. Stull, Dr. Webb, Dr. Mueller, and Dr. Nebel. They taught a wild, young, unfocused student how to focus his energies and passions into a drive that has lasted me 25 years. I may not have been the best student, but they were the best teachers – and not just of physics. They had the patience to wait out my eccentricities and see through the facade I put up. College was a hard time for me since I was using it to escape from my past. Alfred provided me a new home and family I needed to get through each day. These professors were my surrogate family. I cannot think back to my 5 years (and 2 degrees) at Alfred without fondness and a knowledge that if I had teachers with less skill and heart than these, I would not have achieved all that I have.

As a teacher, I cannot tell you how much it means to hear back from your old students. An email arrived this past summer from a student I had over 5 years ago. She was sitting on her deck at 2AM and thought about my astronomy class. She remembered that i told her about astrophotography and she decided to try it. She emailed those pics and thanked me for changing her. I had tears in my eyes reading the email. I recently read a friend’s blog, Dr. Jeff’s Blog on the Universe about contacting teachers, and it says everything I haven’t. The thing that keeps teachers going through the tough times is hearing they made a difference. Can you remember a teacher that helped shape you? One that you can credit for you being where you are? It does not matter if they are K-12 teachers or college profs – It means something if you take your time to contact them and tell them how you feel. There is no excuse in this day of google and social media. It has never been easier.

Do it now…

What are you waiting for?

It’s all the rage nowadays to write about Twitter. All the cool kids are doing it so I think I will chime in. It’s been a year since I have been on Twitter and during that year I rode a roller-coaster of feelings about Twitter’s usefulness. But in January I started sensing something emerging from my (relatively) small following or (in eduspeak) my PLN (Personal Learning Network). Twitter was fast replacing Google as my place of choice for finding out stuff. Don’t get me wrong. Google is where I went to find out mere facts, but Twitter was the go-to place to research concepts and ideas.

Remember, I am an Inquiry-Science teacher. I learned in my junior year of college that facts could (and should) be looked up in a CRC(ask your old science teacher what that is). But ideas had to be in your brain if you wanted to succeed @ tests or anything worthwhile(not that i am saying tests are worthwhile). I drive my students batty with my mantra that facts are not as important as concepts. Google is all about facts. Twitter is about concepts and ideas. Perhaps, this is why the media has a problem with Twitter. It used to be their place to transmit ideas through society. When they opted out of being an unbiased sources of ideas, something had to eventually replace them. Transmitting ideas is much more difficult than transmitting facts and it took a while for the Internet to fill the void. I think Twitter has started that replacement.

When listening to the prognosticators of the the web’s future, like Nova Spivak (see his video) ,words like “Singularity” and “Semantic Web” are bandied around. Educators like Karl Fisch(see his video) have used these predictions to wow people with visions of the future. Prediction are cool and get people excited but what about looking at what is currently here, in the present. I don’t think that many of these prognosticators are looking at the current connection between people and the Internet. Twitter has combined the best parts of Internet mainstays like Google and Amazon.com. Google succeeded because it was simple to use. Amazon.com succeeded not because it was simple, it flourished because it provided people with a sense of community at an Internet store. you went to Amazon because you got people’s opinions and ideas – not because it was cheaper or better or easier to use. Twitter has done exactly that with ideas – provided a way to pass along ideas simply, efficiently, and with a sense of fun and community. I feel that it has become the first edition of the Semantic Web.

If you don’t know what Semantic Web means – basically it is a web that understands what you mean – not what you type. Computers cannot understand your meaning without a lot more power and programming (and probably an Artificial intelligence.) But people can understand (usually) the idea behind statements and typos. We are built(aka programmed) to be able to tell the meaning between two seeming similar statements. If nothing else, that is what parents and school are for, aren’t they? However school can only teach you so much about understanding meaning. Meaning comes from the interaction between people and ideas. Twitter has provided just that – an access to a community to help understand and define the meaning between ideas, concepts, events and themselves. While many eschew computers and the internet for degrading relationships, others are finding ways to use it to replace faulty “real-life” communication. I know that the correspondence I have with my Twitter community has helped my teaching pedagogy and knowledge base. Being able to speak daily with members of NASA and other parts of the science community AND bring it into my classroom in real time cannot be compared with any communication I have done in 20+ years of teaching about space and physics.

People who think that the Semantic Web will exist w/o the human socialization are being narrow minded in their view of the web. They want a web AI or artificial intelligence. An AI is not needed though for a social or “hive mind” which is what twitter communities are really becoming with the addition to all the other tools that these communities are adding to their handyman’s belt. Why not think of the interaction of people and the internet as more of a communal mind that harvests the fruit of human endeavor and thought?

So the next time you ask a question or make a comment on Twitter, think about the stream of consciousness that will proceed over the web as others read, interpret, make connections, comment, answer, and even then go into real person to person conversations and then back to the net. It is that dang butterfly causing hurricanes all over again.

Sometimes you get what you ask for.  Having been a TED video evangelist for over a year,  I eagerly waited for this year’s crop of TED news; to the point that I set up Twitter #TED follows and RSS feeds.  Really, I am not a TED stalker– I just think that what happens at TED is important to education. Gee–new ideas and education can be mixed?  Who would have thought?

So, when I heard that Matt Harding was doing a TED talk and then Bill Gates was scheduled on the first day, I could not contain myself.  Who would have put these two people in the same conference?  Matt’s video is one of the most beautiful things on the Internet.  If you have not seen his video, stop right now and watch this:

I hope he makes a new video with the people at TED dancing with him. This video should be shown in every social studies class on earth.  It shows that people everywhere love dance and fun.  How could someone not smile seeing all those children laughing and dancing?

Now for my request.  I need your help. But first I want you to watch Bill Gate’s TED Talk.  The part about the mosquitoes is pure genius.  Listen to the nervous laughter when he <snip> (you’ll know when.)  It made headlines everywhere.  You achieved your PR stunt, good job Bill.  It’s the second half of the video that I am concerned about however.  Watch the whole video here.

The second half of the video has not made headlines anywhere.  Many have viewed the video, those inside the field of education and out.  Teachers in our school saw the video–excellent teachers–and their hearts fell. How could Bill Gates disrespect teachers like that? And at TED? Bill can have any opinion he wants, but the problem lies in the venue at which he decided to shared his ideas. TED talks are filled with the current (and future) movers and shakers of  the world and his opinions may act as the very virulent plague of malaria he is working so hard to destroy. Unfortunately, the good aspects as well as the bad aspects of education will be attacked by those who will use Mr. Gates’ words as a platform to thrust needless changes upon a system already burdened by political and corporate whims.

I am concerned.

Not angry.

Not mad.

Concerned

I need to talk to Mr. Gates and I think you can help me.  I am nervous about asking this because it may seem like I am exploiting you for personal gain.  I am not.  I want one thing.  I want to improve the current state of education in America and I know that Bill and Melinda Gates can and will change education.  I have visited and talked to people at the schools that they have helped.  They are doing the right thing.  The current state of American education is in disrepair.  I agree with him on that.  Something must be done.  I agree with that. We must somehow show teachers best practices.   I agree with that.  Bill is right on point with many of his ideas, but towards about 17 minutes into the video things start going astray.

I want to say at this point that I am not a union stooge.  I think that at times our teacher unions do us a disservice. Like many unions, they may have had their time in the sun.  I don’t believe pay strictly for seniority is correct.  But I don’t think that Bill paid incoming new workers top dollar, no matter how amazing they were.  People with 10 years experience probably made more than the best new recruits.  But something must be done about paying teachers.

Bill, would Windows Millennium have been a better product if you had showed your engineers a video of the best thinkers in your company at work?  So why are cameras in the classroom 24/7 a good idea?

Come on, you can do better than that. And you will–I am sure of that.  You are dedicated.  I have seen the results of your efforts and they are amazing.

But I need to talk to you Mr. Gates.  Seriously.  Face to Face.  For 30 minutes.

I can guarantee you that you will hear something different from me.  If not, I will pay you for your time.  I can’t afford your salary but I will pay you what I make per hour for 30 minutes of you time.  This is not a joke.  You will hear the musings of a dedicated and passionate teacher.  Good teachers don’t have time to complain. They are too busy knocking down the barriers to their teaching.  You will not hear one negative comment from me.  No blaming problems on others.  I will not tell you to change something other than teachers, because I believe that teachers can and will change the system.  With your help, we can do it faster.  If I cannot give you at least one idea that you can and will use immediately then I should not be a teacher.  How about helping the good teachers get their word out in their districts?  Buy them time to personally show their best practices locally, state-wide and nationally?  How about creating an earmarked fund for districts to spend in addition to whatever they are currently spending on professional development? How about grants to teacher education programs that hire the best teachers in each field to help train young new professionals before they are start teaching?  Those three ideas were off the top of my head, brainstorming at this very moment.  Each has some problems but so does every idea.  I promise you much, much more.

So please, meet with me.  You will not regret it.

Teachers, this is where you come in. I need your help to get this message to Bill Gates.  I know in my heart that I can say something to him that will move him.  Please get others to read this and spread the word.  We can have an effect on our profession if we do something proactive.  I know Mr. Gates believes teachers are the answer.  I know that he believes that he can help us.  Let us show him what is needed.  We are the experts and We have the answers.  Now let us help Bill Gates help us make schools better.  No whining or complaining. Let us shine, just as we do in the classroom.

So forward this post.

Retweet it.

Delicious it.

Tell others.

Facebook it

Hey, if you have his number, call him    :^)

In the meantime, write a comment below about ONE thing you would ask Mr. Gates to help you become a better teacher.  I doubt this post will really achieve a face to face meeting with Mr. Gates, but if we can get a positive dialog going about how We can improve ourselves, maybe, just maybe he will read it and he will make your thoughts a reality.  So teachers, say something about how we can improve ourselves (not others).  Go ahead make a comment below, only one rule–no negatives!

WE need to bend Bill’s ear a bit– for 30 minutes

Mr. Gates, you won’t regret it.

Addendum: On February 16th. TED posted another new video by Barry Schwartz. What Mr Schwartz says  about rules is part of what I want to say to Mr Gates.  It is another example of why teachers should take 15 minutes a day to watch one TED talk. What Mr. Schwartz says about teachers is significant and important. Hopefully Bill was watching.

The video is not up on YouTube yet and WordPress does not allow video from TED so just click on this link to see Barry Schwartz’s video.

Are you @ the party?

It is now the end of a weekend that found me flat on my back all day Saturday and still sick today (Sunday.) I had planned on grading this weekend but my head and body had other plans.  With that said, I ended up learning a lot this weekend. As I lay sick in bed, I had my laptop near me with the social networking tool Twitter running.  While I did not feel up to net surfing or doing much thinking whatsoever I was always aware of what the people in my Twitterverse were up to.  And they were up to a lot – from the group that was at Educon, to the group that was chatting with Thomas Friedman, and so forth.  Some were just at home with their families.  I was living vicariously through and with them while I lay in bed coughing up a lung.

I planned on writing my next post on social media and this weekend proved to me how important it was becoming.  I actively (while I was awake that is) following people as they were attending conferences and living vicariously through them.  This was an entirely new usage of the social networking software that I had been using during the past year.  Normally when I am sick, I do the typical guy thing and groan and grunt and watch TV for hours.  This time people were sending me links to live video feeds from Educon and the audio feed of Thomas Friedman as he talked about education and a flat earth.  I was not just a slug.

For those new to social medial and networking in education, it is a daunting thing – one that does not have an immediately obvious educational purpose.  Or so I thought.  I now think about the time I wasted a year ago as I lurked some of the sites (lurking is a web verb for checking out social web things like blogs and never participating.)  I had a few blogs that I read regularly but never added my own thoughts – and I had plenty of thoughts, I am VERY opinionated.  I just felt uncomfortable doing anything.  That all changed last year when I became a NASA MESSENGER Fellow. Here was a group of people I wanted to stay in touch with.  One of the fellows and I talked about a web tool called Twitter.  I had been using it to follow the Mars polar Lander and thought the tool was great.  Little did I know its power or lure.  We exchanged user names and started following each other.  Then came the opportunity of a lifetime, as I was invited to attend the Mercury flyby of the MESSENGER spacecraft at the mission SOC, along with the other MESSENGER Fellows.  I needed a way for people to follow me live and social media came to the rescue.  Twitter is like texting but anyone who follows you gets each message.  Some call it micro-blogging since you are limited to 140 characters.  I had k-12 students following me as well as teachers and staff and administrators.  I had found a great way to reach a lot of people – and have them comment back.  A dialogue was started.  Then I learned about Ustream with its interactive video capabilities and was able to answer elementary students questions live with scientists at MESSENGER headquarters.  The results were amazing as children heard me answer their questions live on “TV.”

I thought I had learned all there was to learn about how useful Twitter and other social media tools were when one day as a I was checking my email, someone “tweeted” (sent a message through Twitter” NASA-Colab meeting in Second Life at 4pm.”  I had heard about 2nd life but never considered it useful, but I had a few minutes and so I checked it out.  I was able to attend the meeting and add knowledge that I had to the discussion.  Now things are getting interesting.

Within the past month, I went from about 30 people following me on Twitter to 160 and growing.  How did that happen?  I stopped being a wallflower and “lurking.”  I started putting my opinion out there. I started posting sites that I thought were interesting.  I started making myself open to criticism and judgment.  And you know what happened?  People liked me!  They really liked me! (Shades of Sally Field, anyone?)  Like anything worth doing, you have to take a risk to get anything of value back.  That is what every social networking tool is about.  If you don’t add anything, you are not worth anything to anyone.  Don’t lurk and just watch. Don’t be a leech and just take what is offered. Throw something out into the group and see what people say.  Join the Party.  The water is warm.

I was going to post a bunch of stuff that I do online but I thought I would let you tell others what you do.  Please comment on this post and tell us one way you use social media in education.

I use Twitter to connect with my Personal Learning Network

I use Delicious to send/receive the best links with my PLN

I use Facebook to keep track of NASA and space science media and events

I use Youtube videos to teach physics and astronomy

I use Flickr to have my students show off their work and activity

I use a wiki for teaching, student work, labs, and student collaborative projects

Etc.

What do you do with social media?  Add a comment with how you use social media in your classroom.

Addendum: TEACHMEET INFO: As of February 1st, @AngelaStockman @Turrean and I have decided to try to have Western New York’s first TeachMeet.  A TeachMeet is an “unconference” where teacher can get together and build relationships and learn a little more. “A little more what?” You may ask.  A little more of whatever anyone has to offer.  Each session is either 7 or 2 minutes long. No Power Points allowed and everyone is wired to the net.  This is a developing new social event for teachers which started in Britain.  Goto TeachMeet to find out more.  The tentative date is in May, so stay tuned!

Well, it had to happen sooner or later but I just got hit with the blog world’s version of a chain letter.  And while I would delete a chain letter email without thinking (I cannot begin to describe my hate for the things.)  I will not do that to this Meme.  The reason is that this meme actually has a real purpose for anyone who is joining or already a part of the whole social networking ‘verse that is currently exploding on the intrawebs.  For the past month I have watched this meme as it showed up on more and more of the blogs I read.  I know, I know, I was a lurker and did not take part in commenting and such to become a part of the whole networking scene.  (Bad Gene, no biscuit!) I just watched by the sidelines as this new culture tried its training wheels.  I wanted to know about and talk about it, but not dive in.  Well now I have belly-flopped my way into the pool and its time try out my swimming techniques.

I had meant for my next post to be about social media and education so this meme is a perfect way to do it. The meme is called “Seven things you did not know about me.” The reason I did not delete it is because if you are going to take part in this new world, you have to have ways of understanding more about the people you are working with.  You get together with friends at parties, coworkers at functions and the water cooler, families at the holidays, but how do you get to know about a person who teaches at a school in Scotland if you live in upstate NY, in the USA?  You can read their tweets, email, chat, or read what they write.  But no one ever asks, “What don’t I know about you?” It’s these little things that really make you a real person to others.  Think about it, simple bits of useless trivia about people makes them more real.  If you don’t believe me, pick two of your friends who barely know each other.  Then think of the simple stuff (nothing deep) they don’t know about each other.  How would one act if they knew what you know?  It’s these little things that make friendships (and a lot of the time the big things that break them.)

After getting the Meme from Neil Winton, I talked with my family and we realized that I have been social networking on the web since the 90’s when I played the web game Acrophobia.  The game had a number of rooms which had names like “the backyard” or “the den.”   One group of people met every night on “The Porch”.   We had a group of 20+ adults who were regulars and even eventually we got to know all kinds of personal info about each other.  I created a web page and we built up a whole mythos about “The Porch.”  It was wonderful.  At one point, we decided to meet in person, but we were from all over the US and Canada, so we met at Niagara Falls and went to Toronto Canada for the weekend.   At the time, with the Internet being so young, there were many articles about Internet people meeting up and being murdered by psychos who stalked the net.  My wife and I were scolded by so many people about meeting up with “strangers” but we went and had a blast.  Eventually, Acrophobia died and we all kind of drifted off back into our little worlds, except for one person who lived in Saskatchewan Canada.  When I drove across the US the second time she brought her family to one of the most beautiful places on earth, Glacier National Park.  Many years later, we had drifted apart again, until I joined Facebook and she was one of the first people who found me.  Social Networking on the web may be new, but they can build friendships that last for a long time.

So let’s see, the FIRST thing I just told you about myself was that I have been on the internet a long time.  But I have been on longer than that.  I got on my first computer in 1979 and wrote my first code the same year on TRS-80’s.  I went to college in ‘81 and sent my first “email” at the same time.  I don’t know what email was called then, but I wrote messages that were sent to other computer systems and bbs’s and therefore avoided phone charges.   I still remember going back home and telling people about this new thing and they all said “Who would want to talk over a computer?”

The SECOND thing about me that you don’t know is that I went into teaching because of a joke.  I went to college to become an astrophysicist, but had a mental crisis my senior year.  I decided that I could not handle going to school much longer to get my doctorate.  My friends could not believe that I ripped up my grad school letters, so when they saw an ad in the paper for a teacher at an all girl’s school they cut it out and put it on my door. (I lived in a fraternity house – this would have been a dream job for some of my friends)  However when I saw the ad, I started thinking about teaching.  The rest is history.  I could not think of doing anything more fun or important.

This brings me to the THIRD thing.  Why teaching was important to me at that age?  Well, I was a pretty bad teenager.  Lots of pent up hostility and stuff.  A couple teachers saw through that face and realized I could make something of my life.  They took time out of their lives to help me with mine.  When I saw that ad in college, it made me think of those wonderful people and then nothing could stop me from paying them back by paying it forward.  BTW, I went back and talked to one of those teachers many years after I became a teacher.  I was never so happy when we talked later and he told me that he was so proud to go back to the (get this) Men’s Faculty room (yup they still had them) and he got to say “I told you so!” to a couple of other teachers who thought I would amount to nothing.

The FOURTH thing about me is not news to anyone who has met me personally but I have a pretty amazing medical history which includes being near death more times than I want to remember.  I have survived incurable cancer, two broken backs, a broken neck(not related to the back injuries) , multiple heart problems leading to major chest reconstruction and an ungodly number of pneumonia attacks (the last one had me break a rib by coughing.)  Thos are just the major things, I won’t go into the things that kept me in the hospital for less than 3 days, LOL!

The FIFTH thing about me is that I have driven across country 4 times. I mentioned one of the trips above. Fastest time: 50 hours.  Longest time: 6 weeks.  I love this country and the people and places in it.  You are missing out on the best times of your life if you don’t get into a car your next vacation and drive.  Grab a tent and sleeping bag and have fun. I think I am up to 42 states visited and several hundreds nation parks.  I will eventually blog about them I think.

The SIXTH thing that makes me me, is that I love games.  If I can make a game of something I will.  In the class or out.  If it is fun I want to do it.  I actually collect all sorts of games and won a couple of competition at Gen Con, which is billed as the world’s largest gaming convention.  I like to call it “Geek Week.”

The SEVENTH thing about me is how I got my name “Porch Dragon.”  Had you guessed that there might be a relationship between the Acrophobia Room called Porch and my name?  If you had you are right.  On The Porch, I quickly gained a rep, or shall I say “online persona”  which not only included laughing all the time but being very protective of the regulars from random wandering (usually) teens who would use vulgarity and rudeness as their persona’s.  At the time I had been teaching in the inner city for almost a decade and was very fast with a comeback which was always sharp and just borderline acceptable(we called it “playing the dozens”.  I liked to chase nasty people away and so with my game name of “Dragon” (came from a bad anagram of my last name which I used as my first computer password back in ‘79) and my flames I acquired my first online persona.  When I decided to have an online avatar over a decade later, I took up the name PorchDragon, to remind me of a wonderful time online.

Well I am done with this meme, although it went in a direction I was not planning.  I had fun with it and hopefully you all will learn a little more about me from it.  That is the important thing.  And on my next post I will talk about my current discussions with teachers about social media and the web.  Hopefully you can get something more interesting than my life story from my wonderful wife and teacher, Anne-Marie Gordon.  She will be the only person I tag with this since I asked a few people but will not send something along without asking.  I still have six tags left if you want to write your own “7 Things” story.

The  photo on the right is from a Christmas card I received from a friend and colleague.  I don’t know why, but the quote has had quite the effect on me.  What I find interesting is that although the quote is from a wise Hindu man, it is probably one of the most Christian sayings I have ever heard. (Actually it probably spans all religions…don’t you think?) I even like the visual, which is why I scanned the card to show it instead of just typing the quote.

Why does the quote intrigue me so much?   Probably because I am on a personal quest to help change the face of science education forever.  I have spent over 20 years learning how to teach science to our children.  And I have dedicated myself to spend the next 20 helping others do the same.

I see a revolution coming.  A revolution that our children can take part in and thrive , or be left behind as the rest of the world leaves us in their dust.  I started thinking about this a few years ago when I read “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman.  The book made so much sense, especially after reading “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell.  I could see the tipping point in the not-so-distant-future.  Then I was linked to a wonderful Powerpoint/video called “Shift Happens” by a technology teacher Karl Fisch.  I have shown that video to everyone of my students since it came out.  Karl has made a couple changes to the original but I still like the first.  It is interesting to me that all of things came together for me around the time that I had made the decision to not just be a teacher but to help other teachers.  I had decided to make an impact outside my little pond.  I have taken some heat from teachers saying “What’s wrong with just teaching?”  and my response has always been “Nothing’s wrong.  Teaching is the most important job in the world.”  I love teaching.  There is nothing better than seeing the light come on inside a student’s eyes.  However I knew that I could help even more students by helping other teachers.

So I say to you,  what have you done to help other teachers?  Have you come up with an amazing lesson and not shared it with others?  Why?  One friend of mine honestly feels that other  teachers  should not benefit from her hard work.    Is that your reason?  Or are you the only teacher of your subject in your school?  Many friends of mine say that they have no one to share ideas with because they are the only person of that subject/level.  Do you feel that you should be compensated more for your work?  I know teachers who are stockpiling lessons so that they can write a book and try to sell their ideas.There are hundreds of reasons for not sharing your work and only one for doing it.

If just one student benefits from your work, isn’t that worth it?

Isn’t that why you went into teaching?

There is an even more important reason to share what you do.  When you share with others, they share with you.  You will gain from the exchange.  And you cannot use “I don’t have anyone to exchange ideas with” cop out anymore.  With every social web applications (next blog post will be on these) out there, you have no excuse.  I would also encourage you to contact neighboring school districts, or if you are an administrator reading this, how about using one of those “district meeting days” or whatever your district calls them to have your teachers meet with teachers from other districts?  Or teachers can go to local workshops, join organizations like STANYS or AAPT where you can find all sorts of materials and people to share with.

In short,  don’t you wish people would share their great ideas with you?  If you do, you must be a part of that exchange.  Start showing people what you do and ask others what they do.  Once the dialogue starts, I don’t think anything can stop it – and the children will benefit.