Practical Theory

Spent Saturday night and Sunday day at the U.S. Open. I can now say I've seen Agassi, Davenport and Roddick live. I got to see Martina Navratalova play doubles again... and, thanks to Kat, I got some unreal seats. Sitting in the first few rows at Arthur Ashe is incredible, and I got to do that two sessions in a row. The best match I saw was a five-set match between Younes El Aynaoui and Jiri Novak. We managed to sit in the second row of the grandstand court for the last two sets, and it was amazing. El Aynaoui won the fifth set in a tie-breaker. Great stuff. Not a bad way to end the summer.

So... this is one of those weeks where the philosophy of open source makes me happy. First, Tom Hoffman is a tech coordinator who I've corresponded with off and on about edu-tech stuff for going on three or four years now. He wrote a lovely note about me on his blog (linked above) and it just reminded me why ideas need to be open-source. I'm thrilled to have had an impact on him, especially since his ideas always sounded so cool when we talked... sharing of code, sharing of ideas, sharing of energy... and big surprise, everyone benefits. Open source philosophy at its best.

Found this one blogged at The Nation. Seventy-one year old Sally Baron passed away in Wisconson last week. Apparently, her children all agreed on what would be a fitting tribute in her obituary. I'll leave it to you to read what they did. I rather think Sally would be pleased.

Just read this quote by Anne Lamott in Salon.

My priest friend Tom said once that there are always two points of view about yourself -- yours, and the opinion of people who love you. Our opinion is that we're a mess, a fraud, maybe vaguely disgusting. But others seem to love us, to feel great relief that we are in their lives. So one of these opinions is wrong, and you get to choose which one to believe. Over the years, Tom and I have encouraged each other to believe the opinion of those who love us....

It pretty much stopped me in my tracks. I admit that part... probably much... of what drives me... is that too often I look at myself and see every flaw, every hole, every thing I don't get to, every way I could have handled a situation better, every kid I don't reach, every thing I could have been if only I had (insert neurosis here, usually 'worked a little harder' fits along with whatever else goes there).

But I've been unbelievably lucky in my life, both at Beacon and otherwise, that I've had people who have let me know that they feel lucky that I'm in their life. And I'm trying to believe that version of myself, while never forgetting that I, too, am lucky that they all are in my life... and that, in all probability, what really makes us lucky is the intersection of our lives.

Lawrence Lessig, on his blog site, has an interview with Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's campaign manager. It's a fascinating insight into what might be the first "Open Source Campaign."

We get "The Sun" literary magazine at home, and on the back page of every issue, they have "Sunbeams" -- a selection of quotes around a theme -- this month seems to focus on mysticism, God, the unknown... and some of the quotes struck me as rather beautiful and, moreover, thought-provoking. This strikes me as the kind of thing a blog could be wonderful for in an English class... responses to quotes... what could these generate in a student's thoughts?

"At the moment you are most in awe of all there is about life that you don't understand, you are closer to it all than at any other time."
-- Jane Wagner

"I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it."
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick

"O you who love clear edges more than anything... watch the edges that blur..."
-- Adrienne Rich

(hmmm... I think I'm seeing some really fun ways to start my senior class this year...)

Can't resist a few fun photos from the summertime... Probably should remember that there was a summer before the school year really kicks into gear...

Here is the graduation picture of the basketball girls...

Chichenitza... I was at the top of a Mayan Pyramid when I took this picture.

And here's the Void gang playing bingo at the Wayne County State Fair

So it's the 27th. That time of the school year when teachers are stopping by, writing curriculum, checking in, meeting... and I'm running like a chicken with my head cut-off.

There's always that dual feeling for me of excitement to see the kids, trepidation that there are 400 things to do before they get here, and an overwhelming desire for them to be here already because being in school without them always feels a bit weird, no matter how many summer days I spend here.

So Jessie went off to college. She's at Oberlin this fall. I'll miss Jess, Nice, Gaby and Dori. They were about as much fun to coach as I can imagine any group being. I'll get the pics of all four of them from graduation up here ASAP.

I'm just showing this to Mary... I'm probably going to do this a lot over the next week or two... but there's all sorts of ways to use this in education. For example, my friend Joe uses this in his class.

Imagine kids putting their homeworks up on the web, instead of in journals... then kids could share, etc...

Or they could post essays this way and all sorts of fun stuff could happen...

Or Keith could use this for "Photo Web Logs" and then they'd have online digital portfolios.

Actually... you can imagine all sorts of digital portfolio ramifications for this stuff.