A Visit to Hawaii.

We decided since Daryl couldn't come home for Hanukkah and New Year's, what better way to end the year than for all of us (Bonnie, Stuart & Sheryl) to visit him. Besides a week in Hawaii sounded pretty good with the cold weather quickly approaching California. Below are a few pictures and some narration. There is a full slide show at the end as well as an Animoto with music and effects. (Animoto's are soooo fun)

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Our flight left San Francisco at 9AM, however we received a call from AA at 6:45AM (just as we were getting ready to go) that our flight had been canceled and we had been re-booked later in the day (through LA with a 4 hour layover). NOT OK. The agent was very helpful and after 30 minutes on the phone had us booked on a United flight leaving at 9AM. Unfortunately it left us little time to get there and make the flight. 

With heavy rain it was close but as we drove we saw an awesome rainbow and knew all would be fine.

Sheryl and I dashed through the airport after an extra security screen (Thanks to Homeland Security) and we made the flight with a few minutes to spare.

When we arrived, it was off to the condo. Bonnie had spent untold hours checking out every possibility in the Waikiki area for the best view.  She knows I love to just look out at the Ocean. Well as you can see below, she succeeded. The 2 walls of our corner unit were all glass and these were the day and night views. AMAZING.

We spent a few days just hanging out  in Waikiki, enjoying the evenings and beach before we set out on our adventures. Daryl had 5 days scheduled off, so we had lots of family time.

After resting up, we headed for our first hike, to the top of Diamondhead (pictured below), it was a decent walk up with over 200 stairs and a scary tunnel just before coming out at the top. The views back to Honolulu and Waikiki as well as toward Kaniheo were magnificent.

After such a strenuous hike, we needed a day of relaxing before our next "adventure". Off to the North Shore, famous for home-made ice cream, Macky's famous shrimp truck , and some great beach time at Waimeha beach. We had a chance to visit the beach where Daryl volunteers to protect the turtles, can you tell which one is Daryl and which one is the turtle?

Well rested and ready, we set off bright and early (at least for us) at 11am for a hike to a hidden waterfall and pool. It was 1.5 miles each way. Because of recent rains the path was just one long length of slippery, slimy, gooey and sticky mud. After a couple of hours of sliding around the path we found the pool, swam around and headed back. Everyone enjoyed it, although I think next time, Bonnie might wait in the car.

Unfortunately, there was one problem; insect bites. They were drawn to Sheryl like bees to honey. By the time we returned to our hotel (after great burgers and onion rings at Teddy's), her legs were covered. She was on benadryl and cortisone cream for the next 2 days. We felt so bad for her, but it was still an awesome hike.

The rest of our trip was just relaxing, basking in the sun and enjoying the views from our Condo. We will definitely come back soon.

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Below is our Slideshow and Animoto (same pictures), or just click on the links to see full screen versions of our trip. For Animoto, you have to click on the full screen icon to the left of the volume icon.

Problem viewing photo's-shout out

I was just getting ready to work on a new post and identified a problem. I am working on my Dad's computer in Arizona which is set at 1024 x 768 and noticed that some of the pictures from my "An Amazing 30 hours" post don't show up. Seems that they show fine if the screen is set to 1280 x 1024. I'm not sure the reason or why it seems to only effect that post. I'll work on it, but feel free to drop me a note if its a problem for you. My apologies to my faithful readers.

HAPPY 2009. I AM SURE IT WILL BE A GREAT YEAR FOR EVERYONE

Visiting the Googleplex

I know its been a while since I have blogged but I am excited to have a few weeks of R & R in front of me and plan to catch up on my musings. The first one is some thoughts from a recent trip to the GooglePlex, beyond that, we will see what comes forth.

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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Google (called the Googleplex) in Mountain View, CA. With my background in hi-tech from 1974-1999, the opportunity to visit the heart of one of the premier hi-tech companies sent shivers up my spine. During my stint at Intel, I had the opportunity to visit a number of leading edge companies, but over the last 10 years, more has been written about the innovative culture and work environment at Google than any other. I was really stoked to find out more about it.

The visit started with a tour of the Googleplex by one of the Googlers. Yes, they do call themselves Googlers, how cute. Wen-I was our tour guide and she normally worked int he Google Calendar group. It turned out great, because I was having some issues synching an iCal with a Google Calendar for a school project (Staff Web Page) and she gave me a number of helpful hints to fix it. Talk about getting advice from the source. I guess doing these tours is kind of an "extra thing" but she seemed to really enjoy it. The place was filled with cool things that the founders find interesting, such as a replica of the X-Prize ship (Google it if you want to see it), a bronze set of dinosaur bones (T-Rex) and a set of doors that go nowhere. (What's that about- just a reminder of the past according to Wen-I.

The perks of working there are amazing and just what you read about. Three meals a day (free) if you like, subsidized cars if you buy a hybrid, shuttle transportation, on-site services such as laundry etc. I'm sure these people all work hard and are very productive, but Google sure makes it easy to stay there if you like.

On to lunch at Charlie's- the first cafeteria they opened. (Pictures not allowed, so I pulled this one off the net via a Google Image search- how appropriate). According to Wen-I, they now have 19 eating choices at the Googleplex and there are espresso and snack stations all over the place. (free of course). This is definitely not like Intel was, maybe if I had worked at Google, I would never have left for teaching. Good thing I didn't, because I love what I do now.

 

The final activity was the meeting- of course that was the main reason for coming. Although I am not free to comment on the meeting, suffice to say that all the Googlers were open, friendly, easy to talk with, cooperative and anxious to help move things forward. I can see how these people have become so successful. They make you feel like they really WANT to do business with you and they want to help you succeed. I think it must be something they put in the water.

I left feeling that I had seen a unique situation, one that has created success in a way that few others could have imagined. Its exactly the opposite of the "Robber Barons" of the early 1900's that I had studied so many years ago and is probably more like what a company formed and run by Karl Marx might have been like if he had ever had the chance. What a difference a 100 years makes.

I will certainly remember my visit for a long time and I hope I have the opportunity to work with some of these Googlers over the next few years. Its inspiring, to say the least.

An amazing 30 hours

As Thanksgiving drew near this year and we were getting excited about the family (Mark & Joyce, Daryl, Sheryl and Grandpa Bob) gathering at our house, we were also missing my Aunt and Uncle in Utah. Bonnie and I realized we hadn't seem them since July- just too long so on Friday afternoon, we decided to remedy the situation.

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Friday evening Bonnie prepared a lasagna feast and I called my dad to prepare some of my Grandma Mary's famous Apple Slices, which he and my brother Mark had raised from an old recipe.

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On Saturday at 1:00pm we headed to the airport, jumped in the plane and headed to Scottsdale to pick up my Dad.

As long as we were there we had dinner with Bonnie's brother Barry and our sister-in-law Diane. Our good friends Harry and Pat also joined us.

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Sunday morning we packed up the Lasagna and Apple Slices, left Scottsdale, flew over the Grand Canyon and landed in St. George.

Bonnie Guarding the Food in the back of the plane

Over the Canyon

Pilot and Co-Pilot(?)

Once at Auntie Lynn and Uncle Tony's place, the feast began.

Veggies and fruit for an appetizer while the lasagna was heated, Caeser salad prepared and garlic toast was cooked to perfection. Yummmm. Some fudge, eclairs and of course the Apple slices were brought out for desert.

Just enough time for some catching up on the patio, a quick nap and then back to the airport to fly home into the sunset. We passed over the lights of Vegas, headed across the Sierra's and by 7pm Sunday night we were back on the ground in San Jose. You can see larger versions of the pictures by clicking on them or if you want to see all the pictures from the trip, check them out by clicking here.

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Check out the Animoto (new favorite on-line toy) from our trip:

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Can't believe it was only 30 hours since we had left, but what a great way to spend the weekend before Thanksgiving, visiting my favorite Aunt and Uncle in Utah. Bonnie and I vowed to never let 5 months pass again without seeing them.

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Teaching Teachers about Technology

WOW- The alliteration just rolls out. Nothing like a long 4-day weekend to charge up the brain, so I thought what better than to add another blog post about my busy last 6 weeks. Here goes...

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As many of my readers already know, in addition to teaching my wonderful 5th Grade students this year, I agreed to continue to be an advocate and resource for technology at our school. This is a continuation of a role I took on last year and I was so inspired with new ideas from my June classes I just had to find a way to introduce them to our staff. If you haven't read my posts from this summer showcasing some of the new technologies I learned about, just stroll back through the blog. In fact, this blog is one of my major opportunities to learn new ideas which I hope to introduce to my students this year.

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As I thought about what I wanted to achieve this year, two things really influenced me. The first were some of the inspirational videos I have seen on how our world has changed (and is changing) and that the pedagogy (teaching technique) needs to change along with it for our students to be successful. There are many I watched, but I thought I would put one here for you to get a flavor of what I mean.

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The other was a series of conversations I had with my good friend Stacy (Red to those that read the comments on my blog). She helped me crystallize my thoughts on how to have our teachers and our school see technology in a new way. After talking with her it was clear to us that in order to have the teachers embrace the use of technology, it had to move from "cool stuff" to another tool for teachers to improve their lessons. Technology had to become part of the classroom activities, not an extra-curricular activity like PE & Music. Another important part of our discussion was that everyone is at a different place on the technology curve and delivering technology at only one level leaves some bored, some overwhelmed and only a few satisfied.

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With all that in mind, I took on a challenge to organize technology training at our Teacher Learning Day on October 27th. I first used Google Docs Survey's (what a cool tool- ha ha) to get input from the teachers on what they wanted to know more about in the area of technology. Next with the help of some teachers at our school I brainstormed a list of 9 possible classes to be taught. Another Google Survey (I suspect the teachers were getting tired of these) to see who wanted which class and ended up with 7 possibilities ranging from the basics of pictures on your computer, to building webquests with frames for student activities. Other classes included teaching lessons in the lab, digital storytelling, classroom websites, internet resources and using computer games and quizzes with your class. WOW ! I didn't realize what I had taken on.

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The biggest job was finding instructors and designing each class to be at the right level, impart knowledge and lead teachers to think about using these ideas in their classroom. I ended up with a cadre of super instructors from Garden Gate and the District Office. Jamie, Stacy, Donna, Sandra, Cris, Laurel and I all put in tons of time getting the class material organized and prepared. Sandra even learned a new classroom website tool, just so she could teach it to our staff. Stacy taught two classes in addition to being a lead for the math portion of the day - what a trooper!

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Not all our teachers have laptops, but to make the classes effective I had to borrow some from the district so as many of the classes as possible could be "hands on". Scott C let be borrow 5 laptops and the weekend before I had them all spread out in my dining room configuring thm and upgrading the software so teachers could use them. Bonnie was so understanding, she didn't even yell at me.

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I must admit that organizing and executing this was probably one of the most exhausting things I have done in many years and without the help of all the other instructors, I would never have been able to pull it off. Bonnie will tell you that I was a maniac on the computer for nearly a month pulling together ideas and grouping the teachers to get the most out of the day. The weekend before the training we were in Orange visiting Sheryl and Del Mar for a Wavecrest owners board meeting and I spent hours and hours in the hotel room finishing all my presentations.

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Was it worth it?

The feedback at the end of the day and since then has been fantastic. The teachers really appreciated that the material was designed for what they wanted, not just something someone was pushing on them. I have already seen many of the them starting to use ideas from the classes. The next step will be to do some follow-up activities and sessions to take the initial training into full blown classroom activities for as many teachers as possible. Our newly formed tech team will be our SWAT team to accomplish this.



I'll definitely do it again, but next time, I'll know what I am getting myself in for.

Catching up- Doggy Halloween

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So much to catch up on as I have not blogged in over 6 weeks. Our trip to SoCal, Halloween, setting up tech training for the teachers and the recent drama with Dakota- no worries, he's fine now. I'll try and tackle all of these this week. First on the platter- Doggy Halloween.

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It was a dark and scary Halloween at our house this year. Sunset had come early, the skies were cloud-covered and an eerie breeze had started around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It was strange that we had almost no trick-or-treaters this year. As the witching hour drew nearer (what is a witching hour anyway), a pumpkin suddenly appeared in my kitchen.




I had no idea where it might have come from, but it looked strangely like Dakota, the newest member of our household. He wandered around looking for children to join with him in his quest for candy, but alas, none were to be found. One in Hawaii and the other in SoCal left him alone and dejected. Poor Dakota.








As the evening progressed a few unsuspecting children arrived at our door for a helping of Almond Joy or Kit Kat (no healthy treats here, that's for sure), but they were certainly few and far between. Then a noise from the back yard startled us; lo and behold (I always wanted to write lo and behold) Marty, Dakota's mother, had arrived from next door, in full princess attire.










The evening turned out just fine and although we had very few children, our dressed up dogs entertained us well into the night,begging for candy and looking cute as ever.

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Postscript : After using other tools the last 6 weeks such as Google Sites (a wiki) and Teacherweb blog, I am finding working with Blogger to be very limiting. Placing pictures, inserting tables for formatting, adding background colors and generally doing any formatting other than simple text seems very difficult. Even to insert the horizontal lines, I had to use HTML code. There must be a better way.

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Postscript 2. For anyone interested; in order to have the pictures of Dakota and Marty facing each other, I had to "flip" one of them horizontally. iPhoto does not allow you to do this, however if you open the picture in Preview, there is a flip command and you can use that instead. Sweet :)

Happy Birthday to Me

WOW! I can't believe its been a month since my last post. I thought this would be a slow year, with time to catch up and do lots of things- Not yet! School has been busy, even for a part-timer like me. I thought I would try and get back into blogging by wishing myself a Happy Birthday. Check out my birthday present .



His name is Dakota, he's 4 years old and although he is a pure-bread Labrador Retriever, he is HUGE. One good piece of news is his mother lives next door, so living at my house is pretty cool for him.

In addition to one great dog for a present, I had 2 of my favorite home-made dinners; Tuna Casserole and Pepper Steak. I also went for a great lunch with our good friends. Not bad for celebrating my 56th Birthday.

Found out today that I have one more AWESOME present to come. We will have a full family dinner next Thursday to celebrate. Daryl will be here from Hawaii and Sheryl will be home from college. That will be the best of all. Family dinner at Maggiano's. Yummmm.