Heading for Retirement

I have less than ten weeks to put in my retirement letter, set up the financial arrangements, pack both at work and at home. Luckily, our son is buying the house, so that means we can leave some things belong which he can continue to use. Surprisingly, the hardest thing to cull are books!

We don't want clutter in our new house, and our tastes have changed in terms of style. So, I'd rather do with less, than more.

My friend, Tracy shared an interesting exercise. We actually only use about 1000 things. So, what are they? Try making your list. We aren't sure of the rules, so we can make them up as we go along. For instance, is makeup one thing or 10 . . . depending on what you need? Mascara, moisturizer, blush, eyebrow pencil, eye shadow, brushes, lipstick, nail polish?  How does it count? (I say 1 thing!)

Rainy Summer Day

Today is a typical rainy summer day, and I realize how much I enjoy the sound of rain. (Hopefully, it isn't leaking through the roof, which needs reshingling!) The doors and windows are all open, so the sound of the rain is a gentle background. I have turned off the radio and am working quietly, so I can hear the rhythms as the clouds release their burden. There is a clean smell in the air, but also the odour of wet earth and cedar from the yard. The visiting cardinals are quiet in the rain. Usually, the male twitters away, calling back the female. Perhaps, they are cozy in their nest awaiting for a break in the weather to search for the next meal.

Resuming the Blog

So much for keeping this blog up to date! Is August the only time I  spend  on learning the technology? My great friend and colleague, Tracy and I went to OTF's conference on Teaching in the 21st Century. It stressed the importance of technology as a means of accessing a network of people online who will mentor, challenge your thinking and allow you to follow your passions.
Will Richardson certainly challenged our thinking. Allowing our students access to the world will take a shift in thinking. It will require a vigilance on the part of teachers and parents, as well as alternative products for students who are not allowed access to the net.

Equity of access, computer tools and time to work with these is a huge issue that I think about.


Garfield Gini-Newman was another featured speaker. I am a fan of his critical thinking consortium site, and often refer to it for lesson ideas. He spoke on the first day, and it was a review and consolidation of a previous conference I attended sponsored by OTF last year: Critical Thinking.


One thing that is very clear, is that I need to continue to learn how to use the tools. For one thing, rather than create our pages in Dreamweaver, I will suggest to teachers that they learn how to create a class web page on a site like this: Blogger, WordPress, or Edublogs.