Food (and school) Revolution

There were two great stories on ABC this week that everyone in education or who cares about kids should watch. The first segment was on education reform and the moderator interviewed Arne Duncan (Secretary of Education), Rande Weinburger (National Teacher's Federation President) and Michelle Rhee (Chancellor of DC Public Schools) where they all stayed very civil!
We all have different stances on education reform. If you find the topic interesting, you may want to check out the upcoming film Waiting for Superman. I believe that it will be shown in Idaho Falls around the end of September. Regardless of where you stand on the debate, isn't it great that we can discuss it openly and rationally and then choose for ourselves?
The second segment was about the show Food Revolution. I think that full episodes may be hard to find now, but search around because it's worth a view. It spotlights chef Jamie Oliver's attempt to revamp the school lunch program in the "nation's most unhealthy city".

Even the impossible can be broken down into possibilities . . .

I was trying to focus on the subject of change for the month of August. August is almost like a "do over" month for families. You get to try to be super organized and at my house it lasts about a day. I found out that my kids could send me online "notes" through our web based job chart. I got a note from my 13 year old that said "Get a life". Sigh. Anyway, I'm really into technology lately since listening to the super cool expert who spoke for our school district. I can't remember her name, but I remember a lot of things she said! I decided that I am a "digital immigrant" but I am trying hard! For all you other educators who are also immigrants (virtually speaking), check out this website. It's a tutorial where you get to learn all about wikis, podcasts, tagging, etc. No, tagging is not just a recess game, and no, you don't need an IPod or any other gadget to listen to podcasts. Check it out!

Don't think

This week I rode my bike 60 miles. Too bad that most of it was done in pitch black and about 40 degree temperature. I have found that in those moments at 5:00 am it makes sense to take some advice I learned long ago -- don't think. That may sound counterintuitive, but thinking will bring up many reasons I should not ride (too cold, bad lighting). The same can be applied to working with kids who are sometimes challenging -- don't think. Have a one liner in your mind that is your go to instead.

Changing when change is hard

"In all affairs, it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."

                                                                  -Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)


I love this quote! Change sometimes really stinks. Sometimes you have to try to "influence" others to want to change -- bottom line is -- you can only change yourself. With this mind, one of the best books on change in the history of mankind is "Switch" by Dan and Chip Heath, brothers who also wrote "Made to Stick", another awesome book with huge implications for educators. In Switch, the Heath brothers use an analogy of an elephant and a rider to represent what we need to do and what we want to do. The rider is the "Type A" part of our personality -- the one that gets your butt out of bed and to the gym, to work, etc. The elephant represents your desires to sit still, eat chips, basically "eat, drink and be merry". You can learn more about this analogy by clicking here. They have tons of freebies, scroll down and check out the right hand column. 

Thought of the day

"All the King's horses and all the King's men, can't put the past back together again. So let's stop sawing sawdust!" I got this quote from one of my favorite parenting websites, Screamfree Parenting. This site also has tons of resources for schools, coaches, etc. Although I usually don't like daily emails, the ones from his site are actually relevant and helpful.

Website spotlight of the week

I've found that with motivating my 4 kids to do their daily chores in the summer can seem pointless. One kid can finish jobs faster than most adults to see if he can "earn" extra computer time, while another fakes amnesia about the idea that chores were even assigned. I ran across a great website called my job chart. It's easy to set up, you can add as many kiddos as you want, add your own chores or choose from theirs and then give rewards at the end of the week (or whenever). Rewards are not necessarily cash -- they include things like playing a board game, spending time with a parent, a favorite activity, etc. Best of all, it's free. I have it set up for back to school, so I'll keep you posted, but it may help your family too!

Why Evernote will save the world . . .

This year my employer, School District 93 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, is focusing on implementing technology in the classroom. In my role as a school psychologist, I would also like to better utilize technology. I feel like I often have a surplus of information but a lack of knowledge! 
This past summer I developed online "notebooks" through Evernote. Evernote creates notebooks that are stored on everywhere -- online, your desktop, your smart phone, etc. I decided to use Evernote as a way to organize all the documents related to education and psychology that I have received through the years -- a total of nearly 2,000 documents! Whew! My oldest son, Craig, helped me and now everything is in one spot! 
If you haven't used Evernote, check it out ASAP by clicking here. If you are like me and transitioning from being a paper junkie, imagine Evernote as a huge filing cabinet in your colleague's office: you can waltz in, look at the whatever you like, keep what you like and ignore what you don't! You can download Evernote for your desktop or phone, but if you don't feel the need to do that, you can still download my notes! 
My goal is to use this blog and Evernote as a resource for students, parents and educators. For example, I attended an RtI conference in Boise this past April. This notebook contains all the handouts from that conference. When Evernote appears on your screen, each document will look like a little box with a title below. Click on a box that looks interesting. Evernote will then call up a document  title with a paperclip graphic. Click on this graphic. The document is then loaded to your machine for you save, review, etc. 
Evernote also makes searching for information super simple. Let's say you want to only look for notes that contain the phrase "progress monitoring". Type these in the search box in the upper right hand corner and only notes that contain that phrase will appear. 
I have more than 100 notebooks which I will be adding. If you find a notebook you like, simply save the address to the your bookmarks. Whenever I add notes the website will be updated as well! Whee!