Practicum, Web, and Reading

I'm finalizing the details of my practicum this semester in educational leadership. I hope to be hosting a round-table discussion on classroom management, doing some innovate observations, shadowing principals, and other cool stuff.

Also, neat things happening on the development site for my web projects at North Chicago. I can't disclose URL's, yet, but the new site will be pretty sweet. I'll upload some screen shots soon. Lots of interaction on a relatively flat site.

I'm pretty stressed right now, too. Lots in my head. I've been reading about eastern religions lately to counter my bible reading that always occurs in January and February.

Eric is rocking out on his novel, and Zac is dreaming up an awesome field show for the fall. Good talking to you guys!

Substitute Teaching

A few times a year, I am asked to substitute teach because we run short of classroom teachers. These days are always extremely tiring, because as a music teacher, I teach in intense 30 minute sessions. As a homeroom teacher, you need to pace your instructional momentum, pacing, provisioning, and overlapping techniques for an entire day-6 hours of instruction. This is incredibly difficult and all elementary school general teachers should be applauded. I look forward to learning more about their experiences.

I'm on week 3 of Yoga instruction.

The snow piles are almost up to the windows! 

Snow covering our back fence. 

7" of snow and counting...

The years 2001-2004 were dry, snowless years, and now, we've seen the exception again. Last night, seven plus inches fell in skokie as a powerdery, feathered, glistening snow. This marks the first wave of attack from the oncoming wintry forces set to assail the midwest this weekend with bluster.

The snowfall faded this morning, winds changed, and the northeast winds have picked up, kicking the Lake Michigan snow making machine into full gear. Welcome to the time of big, fat, hungry snowflakes. Snowflakes that make you want to shovel, then go pile buttermilk pancakes, eggs, and hash browns onto your plate to make up for the work of shoveling.

But, no complaints (other than: Oh! My achin' back) for the winter wonderland. The past years haven't seemed like winter. Snow us in. Let us get anxious inside for a bit, then "spring" us loose come April, even more thankful for the change of seasons.

Long siesta...

It's been a while since I've posted to my blog. In the mean time, Consider It Blogged went off-line, Matthew purchased a new car and found himself a new job, and we've turned a new year. Wow. It's been busy for all.

Are blogs egotistical? Perhaps, but I don't prefer to look at it that way. Blogs are the literary equivalent of reality t.v, which are also so popular among people these days. The mundane parts of life have value. Not great value, but value from daily, reshaping experiences.

A famous writer (the name alludes me) once said that books offer a glimpse into worlds we can never expect to visit. And similarly, a christian proverb extols the virtues of "walking a mile in another man's shoes." Both of these authors allude to the true value of a blog: we gain insight into the life of another in order to have an outside perspective on our own that we couldn't otherwise gain through reflection. We need actually live in another's shoes to get this new sense of awareness.