2009 Sabbatical Time - Dr Neal`s Media center

Neal Shambaugh
Sabbatical Time Fall 2009
and what I found there
profusely illustrated
Neal Shambaugh
Sabbatical Time
Fall 2009 1
Neal Shambaugh
Sabbatical Time and what I found there
Written Fall 2009
What is this? This is a screen capture of the center of a digital artwork (“Recon Mission”) I did some years ago. I always
like to add some iconic image to my personal work. Sabbatical Time is a reflective document and I didn’t have to do it,
so I can add whatever visual elements I desire. It’s the rebel in me, I guess. I like to do stuff ‘cause I want to.
You are like Rilke’s swan in his awkward waddling across the
ground; the swan doesn’t cure his awkwardness by beating himself
on the back, by moving faster, or by trying to organize himself better. He does it by moving toward the elemental water, where he
belongs. It is the simple contact with the water that gives him
grace and presence. You only have to touch the elemental waters
in your own life, and it will transform everything. But you have to let
yourself down into those waters from the ground on which you
stand and that can be hard.
Let yourself down, however awkwardly, into the waters of the work
you want for yourself.
D. Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea, p. 133.
Layed out in Apple’s Pages program.
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Dedications
These young teachers have stayed with me over the years. I asked them to trust me and they did. I learned much from
them, mostly about “having a life.” I’m still learning that one.
Courtney, Class of 2006, who’s
Jennifer and Erin, Class of 2008, that I
stayed in touch and represents as a
never tire of seeing and being in their
person and teacher what the 5-year
company. Graduates who stayed in the
teacher education program is all
area.
about.
Megan, Natalie, and Kayla, Class of
Megan and Katie, Class of 2011. My
2010, alumni of my Fall 2008 section of
two Participants from Rivesville - spend-
EDUC 400. Surviving their 5th year,
ing more time with these two than any
desperate for real life, but already good
other Rivesville Year 3, now Year 4
teachers.
teacher education students.
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There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice.
U. S. Grant, from Memoirs, Preface, page 5
Sabbatical Time is the fourth in my series of visually depicting my working life. The Sabbatical lasted from mid-August
through December. The sabbatical, which is really a professional work leave, is not an entitlement, but an opportunity to
tackle work that could not be completed under the traditional workload of teaching and service activities.
Producing these is a combination of thinking tool and expressive outlet. I think by writing and increasingly I think by going
visual and writing to the pictures. As I teach a Visual Literacy course, I try to model the visual approach and raise
students’ awareness to the power of the visual image.
The sabbatical is an island of activity, speaking spatially. The sabbatical is also going “middle,” somewhere the beginning/
birth and the end/death. Whyte comments on the middle:
The depth of our identity is dependent upon the
depth of our attention. Real attention to our work
opens up all the births and deaths constantly
attendant on its doing and undoing. Middle may
seem real, but middles are fleeting, modestly illusory,
a form of defense. Life arrives and departs in the
middle.... But the illusion of middle is comfort; middle
can be wonderful insulation; middle is good - until it
comes to an end, which is always sooner than we
hoped. p. 115
I can imagine my Mother commenting: “Neal, you’re thinking way too hard. Just live your life.”
I wrote this for me. Again, if anyone finds it interesting, great.
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Sabbatical Time Fall 2009
and what I found there
The risks of journal-keeping! Once the journal is read by others, it loses its own
original identity: the (secret) place in which you write to yourself about yourself
without regard for any other.....We must gamely maintain, through the years,
an abiding faith in it. The Journals of Joyce Carol Oates, xii
September 3 Thursday
Week 2 of the semester. During the sabbatical I have to keep track of that academic world. I’m just operating from the
porch and a great place it is, too. Week 2 has blessed us with fabulous weather, not quire Fall but upper 70’s and low
humidity, perfect for moving between a few outside chores, cooking and other household duties, as well as working up in
the attic office or downstairs from the leather chair or on the front porch. Sounds like a great gig and it is. I feel no guilt in
this activity whatsoever, my reward for ten years of academia.
I proposed the sabbatical back in November 2008 and had it approved February 2009, which gave me the spring to get
some things in place, such as three conference proposals and acceptances, part of my sabbatical contract. I emailed
Terry Wildman from Virginia Tech my “starting point” for the sabbatical, believing that a good starting point is always a
definition. This is what I emailed him as he had just completed a sabbatical last Fall.
A sabbatical (from the Latin sabbaticus, from the Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbat, i.e., Sabbath, literally a
"ceasing") is a rest from work, a hiatus, sometimes lasting two or more months. The concept of a sabbatical has a
source in several places in the Bible (Leviticus 25, for example), where there is a commandment to desist from working the fields in the seventh year. In the strict sense therefore, a sabbatical lasts a year. The foundational Bible passage is Genesis 2:2 and 3, in which God rested (literally, "ceased" from his labor) after creating the universe.
I would think that the common man’s take on the sabbatical is “nice work if you can get it,” but probably a belief that one
takes stock, stops, or re-charges one’s batteries, and probably lives on the frontier somewhere. Or looks for another job;
however, that point is addressed in the sabbatical policies by requiring one to stay another full academic year or pay back
one’s salary; in my case, half a 9-month appointment, or $36,000. The notion of a “ceasing” or stopping is not to be, but
a negotiation over work that could not be accomplished with one’s present duties; in other words, you have to make a
case that the State will benefit from granting this release from teaching and other duties.
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The key, of course, is staying clear of the building, one’s academic building, or it’s all over. Then there’s the incessant
email that welcomes one back to another academic year, much of it administrivia for attending this meeting or that.
Another barbed level is advising. I emailed my 11 doctoral students to give them the rules of the road, that I would be
available to review physical progress, but not to attend meetings in the building. At least two EDLS doc students
dropped me as a committee member, which is two out of about a dozen EDLS students that I have on my list as a
committee member. Now if some of the 11 would drop out, would send me an email that “real life” has taken precedence
and that they needed to withdraw from the program. This has happened once, a good student who sawn the challenge
of it all not valuable enough to complete.
Bottom-line. So, my sabbatical contract is simply this: write 4 papers (2 conference handouts, which turn into
Proceedings papers, 2 journal articles), and attend 3 conferences (although one is actually spring 2010). All three are on
the calendar, although the second is actually held in March 2010. This week I blocked out 3 papers with subheadings on
Tuesday, expanded them on Wednesday, and today expanded the AECT handout to 5 pages. What’s left is the Activity
Theory Worksheet, or page 6. This weekend Cindy and I will discuss the IVLA conference handout, scheduled for the first
week of October, as well as an outside article proposal for Nova Science Publishers on design thinking. These are my
official and contracted for duties. The 4th article for my major journal, regarding the next step for the instructional design
models, remains the real challenge. I have some handwritten notes from this spring in my Sabbatical Journal about a
possible approach, but it’s still not clear to me. The focus, unknown, provides the first challenge, and then analyzing 15
years of student ID models would be the next.
Of course, I have other projects on my plate. Tempered a bit from the ten years of experience that only so much can be
accomplished during a summer, there are personal projects. Some are basic home improvement projects like cleaning
the back deck and the garage, while others involve personal writing projects like 1-2 novellas in November. And I’m
always motivated to journal the experience, both in the sabbatical journal which is really about the thinking needed for the
4 papers/3 conferences and in Sabbatical Time, which is a reflective document. I am a high level archivist, I’m afraid, as
“Sabbatical Time” will join “Teaching Time,” a visual chronicle of my teaching Fall 2007, and “Leadership Time,” a similar
take on 2008-2009. Somewhere there is also “Summer Time,” or what we did on our summer vacation, so if any teacher
asks I have my response ready.
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Having lived a full, busy day, one doesn’t really wish to repeat it by
recording it; one turns with relief to the subjective mode.... So a
Neal Shambaugh
journal by its very nature is not representative of its author’s life. It
represents its author’s thoughts-the process of thinking itself.
The Journals of Joyce Carol Oates,138
The Journals of Joyce Carol Oates 1973-1982 Edited by Greg Johnson 2007. New York: Ecco: HarperCollins Publishers
September 4 Friday
Real life is really what we yearn for but can’t quite get there. It’s common to hear teachers say in the summer, “time to get
back to reality.” The world we live in, which gets explored usually in the summer is what real life is about. Modern society
pulls us out of the real world early in our lives, and we spend less and less time directly experiencing dirt, water, air, sky,
and bugs. We magnify the problem by working in fields or endeavors we don’t really like but that culture, tradition, or
some fork in the road leads us down. Like a change in relationships, a change in occupation takes great courage and it’s
usually only when we’re forced to seek a new job that the courage is actually tested. What we have, whether a current
relationship or job, is just too safe or convenient or necessary, we tell ourselves.
September 6 Sunday
Harvested tomatoes, potatoes, and grapes. Finished the second book of the fall semester, a grim story, but I learned a
lot about the battle of Okinawa, another example of my desire to read history and get some depth of understanding.
Many of the 80 year-old veterans of this battle keep their memories to themselves. A 70-day battle, 20,000+ American
casualties, 100,000+ Japanese dead, over 100,000 (1 out of every 3) Okinawans dead. The battle that persuaded
President Truman to drop the bomb.
The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945 - The Last Epic Struggle of World War II Bill Sloan 2007. New
York: Simon & Schuster.
While at Borders yesterday I purchased a book on the Byzantine
Empire. What do you know about the Byzantine Empire? What does
anyone really know. My point, exactly.
The success to any academic year is planning some fun travel to
celebrate its end. You have something to look forward to. Try it. We
made some tentative travel plans for post spring semester 2010. It’s
worth a picture:
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September 7 Monday Labor Day
Papers 1, 2, 3. We probably needed a rainy day. Morning saw Cindy and I evolve the IVLA handout for “Translating
Design Thinking for the Layperson,” the Design Journal submission in terms of its synthesis strategy (i.e., using Barb’s
PRSM model), and the NOVA “Psychology of Thinking” abstract proposal, “Translating Design Thinking for the
Scientists.” 90 minutes of work, about right, given our professional stage of development.
There is just never enough time for work like this, as most of our time is taken up by teaching and administrivia. The
administrivia has to get done but you learn once hired as a new faculty member that the “work of the college” is
necessary and somebody has to do it. Sometimes I thought that the same 6.5 faculty attended the same meetings and
got most of the work done while everyone else found a way to avoid it, either physically or metaphysically.
Periodic Monday’s like this would help everyone. The rainy day gave us time for reading, another luxury you have to fight
and claw for. Labor Day does the work for you. Finished reading another book:
Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
Colin Wells 2006. New York: Dell/Random House.
The 1000 year Byzantium empire pretty much saved Greek thinking for
the Western world and held off Moslem expansion. This Orthodox
difference from the Latin view of Christianity was continually caught
between Western Europe, the Slavs to the North, and the Turks, and
later the Moslems, to the East. Here’s a period of history no school child
has been exposed to, another book in my attempt to fill in my many
gaps and to provide some depth to my understanding.
September 8 Tuesday
Paper #2. Finished the AECT handout and roundtable worksheet. Set up a time with Cindy Hart to meet off-campus and
discuss the Memorandum of Understanding needed for the Extended Learning support of converting EDP 640
Instructional Design to a 100% online course. We’ll meet next Monday. Updated my vita, which I try to do each month.
Yes, each month has been my metric for many years. I maintain a section in the vita called “Works in Progress,” enables
a monthly update to successfully occur.
Today is the first day of school for graduates who teach in Virginia, thanks to the resorts of Virginia who squawked over
the loss of cheap labor before Labor Day. I pay particular attention to new graduates who assume responsibility for their
first classes, the first first day, I call it. I remind some of them that they’ll never have a day like this in their life.
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Two books and a CD arrived in the mail: Ethical Theory from Hobbes to Kant, a book I used to have years ago, so I
was re-buying this title and maybe reading some of the chapters, especially Hobbes, Spinoza, and Hume. Only I would
order such a book. I found out this afternoon, in looking for a review of the book, that this title was scanned and is
available as a PDF file. I’d prefer the physical book, however. I’d hate to print it out. The second book, A Writer’s Diary
by Virginia Woolf, was referred to in the Oates Journal book as one of the classic books on the writer’s life. I hadn’t read
this 27-year edit of the writing life, so I found it on Amazon for 1 cent plus $4 shipping. The CD was the latest (2009)
work by Robin Trower, the original guitarist for Procal Harum. Very deep blues with segued cuts, a conceptual work and
perfect for today’s cloudy Tuesday. Can potato soap be far behind? The liner notes include a reflective timeline on the
making of the CD. I’ve always been interested in how people do what they do, part of the reason for the Amazon
purchases of biographies.
I try to schedule in the afternoons for leather chair time to catch up on old LPs or new CDs, while I type in this document
or read through the books I’ve ordered, an afternoon of browsing. My Mom used to practice the same routine when she
was a young housewife: finish the housework in the morning and read in the afternoon. Seems like the same plan would
work for me. Concentrate on steady progress on the papers, then have the afternoon to myself. There are also the
personal writing projects I’m trying to sneak in to this Fall.
September 9 Wednesday
Drafted a memorandum to a doctoral student’s committee on a request for extension after the 5-year period past the
candidacy examination. Took over an hour. Filled in and printed out the renewal application for my passport. That took an
hour, inspecting all of the information on the official site. Found my passport, which always seems to elude me for some
reason. Despite my organizational habits, I still lose things. Why is this? Also, made suggestions on the revised Program
of Study form for the IDT doctoral program, another hour. There went the morning. At lunch early due to a Lifeline
examination at 3 pm.
September 10 Thursday
Paper #4 ETR&D. 9 am Starbucks thinking morning. Working on the ETR&D paper still thinking through the purpose for
the paper. My last concentrated time thinking about this paper was in late April 2009. So I take up the challenge again.
The idea was to move forward somehow with the ID models from the instructional design course, maybe around 400
student models developed from 1994-2008. 18 deliveries of the course. Is there anything worthwhile from these and this
task of having students in the course draw their own ID model? I kept asking the question, “What good is this?”
Pedagogically, the ID model task revealed their initial and modified understandings of the process, both in its component
parts and the relationships between the parts. We had analyzed the models in at least two different ways, so wasn’t this
enough? I had read about conceptual blending or conceptual integration, and thought that perhaps this emergent
representation was more about what was occurring in student models than just identifying a metaphor. I had read
Fauconnier and Turner (2002) introducing me to conceptual blending and thought this construct had merit looking further
at the ID models. Subsequently, I picked up a copy of Designing with Blends by Imaz and Benyon (2007), a look at how
conceptual blending could be used in the HCI (human-computer interaction) field. As digital objects were the object, so
to speak, of design, why couldn’t designed ID models be scrutinized/analyzed via conceptual blends? The insight of the
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morning, however, was seeing conceptual blends as a developmental research strategy. I had been studying the ID
course since 1994 and in various ways. It occurred to me that the ID course was, of course, a designed object, an
instructional intervention, the goal of my own instructional design approach. So the question could remain pedagogical
and help to answer my pragmatic question, “What good is this study?” As another inquiry approach to my study of
teaching instructional design, i could then analyze the course using conceptual blends; specifically, using a number of
governing principles for conceptual blends. I could use these principles to analyze students’ ID models, both initial
models at the beginning of the course and revised models at the end of the course. The question I asked myself this
morning was could these principles be used to examine the designed object in this course: an ID project, a paper
describing their response to an instructional problem, which was organized by the ID process. The ID models seemed
amenable to such an analysis, but how could this be done with ID projects? I recorded the need to summarize the
governing principles, which would be my analysis categories, and use them to analyze several ID projects and see if were
possible to do so. My thoughts were to look at the Preliminary Intent Statement, the Scenario Description (employed
during needs assessment), and the Revised Intent Statement, followed by the actual ID Project Document. Could be that
I map student activities against the types of scenarios, as a scenario description is a form of conceptual integration. The
scenario types move from a less formal approach, such as a user story to a use case, which would be the ID project
document, a more formal approach, but just short of what software designers would call a requirements model. Again,
the question I need to answer is “Can the ID projects be analyzed using the governing principles of conceptual
blending?” What one is doing in “unpacking the blend” and seeing the web of relations that it originated from.
As teaching moves to the digital landscape, then teaching decisions (design decisions) become digital creations (i.e.,
objects?), and can be analyzed as in the HCI field using conceptual blending. The overriding goal is “design to achieve
human scale: to make things understandable to people and enable people to express meaning through the new medium
of digital technologies” (Imaz & Benyon, 2007, 36). See Sabbatical Log entry of 9-10-09.
Today, I recorded 6 pages of notes at Starbucks, then began an ETR&D-Notes.doc organized by a journal format. So,
I’ve begun officially to move on article #4. Next step is to summarize the governing principles and add how these might
be analyzed in an ID model and ID project, then try out some samples models and projects.
Other. Today I also mowed the yard and got 1.01 miles in on the walker in 20 minutes. This is
just over 3 mph. Better than other days. I’ve managed 6 weeks of steady MWF-Bowflex and
TTH-Walker routines. Cooked a salmon-red potatoes dinner. Also, listening to a 1996 solo CD by
Richard Wright, the keyboardist from Pink Floyd: Broken China is a “16-song cycle is a semiconceptual piece dealing with the state of depression, something Wright's music expresses
without flaws; his glistening musical arrangements blend together in a surreal flow, with the
classic electronic touch” (Amazon.com reviewer).
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September 11 Friday
ETR&D Paper 4. Occurred to me on the back desk that the ETR&D article could document the use of developmental
research to study the development of a course and down the road the development of a program. Titles could be:
“Using Developmental Research for Course Development: A Case Study 1994-2008”
“Using Developmental Research for Program Development: A Case Study 2008-2010”
I realized that I was “pushing too hard” the idea of using conceptual integration to analyze ID models and ID project.
While conceptual blends are going on in the development of student ID models, trying to analyze these using the
governing principles established by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) appeared impractical. One could think about using
conceptual integration top-down, as a means to guide design, or bottom-up, as a means I had envisioned here, to
analyze what occurred. Still, a number of insights occurred during this think-through, particularly that scenarios are forms
of conceptual blends that can be used across the design and development cycle. This I have done at least through
needs assessment and am considering the use of scenario descriptions when I teach instructional deal 100% online in
the Fall of 2010.
ETR&D Development Section: Long-Term Development Addressed? The Developmental Research section of
ETR&D includes snapshot articles that are developmental but they do not address long-term development or they are
rarely situated within a developmental history that is made clear. I do not find in the reading of the articles or in the review
of manuscripts (I am a reviewer for the Developmental Research section of ETR&D) where in the development process
these studies are. This may be my perception. I need to check the ETR&D online archive and my copies and do a quick
review of the articles to see if they address long-term development and explain where the project is at in the development
process. I also don’t see course development or academic program development topics within these studies. I scanned
through the Design and Development Research book by Richey and Klein (2007) to see how they categorized such
projects. Perhaps my quick-and-dirty ETR&D review might use these without getting too far out of hand in terms of
scope and time requirements. I need to get a sense for long-term development in the published articles.
ETR&D readers do not have long-term development examples to study if they are considering such a study or
commitment. It is true that in dissertations and tenure-track submissions, developmental research takes too long owing
to the long time-frames of studying product or model or tool development over time. I could discuss these issues with
Michael Spector at AECT.
AECT Roundtable - Proceedings Paper 2. I need to construct a historical visual of events and replace or add to the
5-page handout. I also scanned through two books to add to the Readings list: Activity-Centered Design (2004) by Gay
and Hembrooke, and Acting with Technology (2006) by Kaptelinin and Nardi.
Next steps listed in sabbatical journal, important moving into mid-september. Tomorrow, is game-day and I’ll attend tailgate activities as the College is hosting a tent. Sunday I visit Rivesville from 2 - 4 pm for the annual orientation of tutors,
participants, and interns.
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Project Status
Paper 1: IVLA: Handout to Proceeding: conference handout just needs updated and annotated reference list. Flight
secured.
Paper 2: AECT: Handout to Book of Readings: handout needs updated visual and 2 additions to reading list. Confirmed
attendance to Wednesday AM session on Teaching Instructional Design.
Paper 3: Design Journal: outline completed in journal article format. IVLA feeds into this manuscript. “Translating
Design Thinking for Lay People”
Paper 4: ETR&D: topic thought through and title determined as “Using Developmental Research for Course
Development: A Case Study 1994-2008”. Need to conduct quick analysis of ETR&D Developmental Research section.
Then begin paper outline.
Paper 5: NOVA Science Publishers: paragraph abstract drafted; needs revision and submitted by September 20.
“Translating Design Thinking for Scientists”
Conferences: 1 IVLA (October), 2 AECT (October), 3 Design (March), 4 IDEC (March), 5 AERA (April)
Presentation 4: IDEC, Atlanta: “Translating Design Thinking for Design Professionals”
September 12 Saturday
College Tent: WVU win over ECU
1-John Oughton’s daughter insisted that I take her flower, that I put it on my head, and that we take a picture together
2-Maria (cancer survivor, fearless, the most honest person i’ve ever met 08 graduate) and sweet Mallory (07 graduate)
3-ESGA Leadership team from 2007
4-Shay (2007 graduate from our PDS)
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September 13 Sunday
Every September I visit Rivesville Elementary-Middle School for the annual orientation of the Benedum students. This
year those students included 3 tutors (year 3), 2 participants (year 4), and 3 interns (year 5). I know everybody except the
new Tutors. Rivesville is known as a family PDS, meaning everyone takes care of everyone, and these students are
valued members of the teaching faculty at this school. My 11th year at this rural school.
Left-to-right:
Tutors, Participants, Interns, Tutors & Participants with 2 teachers and the principal
September 14 Monday
Days of teaching; meeting with students; talking with colleagues. The irresistible
pull of the external world. One could very easily lose oneself within it.... “Keeping
busy” is the remedy for all ills in America. It’s also the means by which the creative
impulse is destroyed. Journals of Joyce Carol Oates 7
IDT Program Development. Met Cindy Hart of Extended Learning at 8.30 at Starbucks to discuss “branding” issues
for the IDT Online Master’s Program. So my task is to develop an informational brochure and some key-word guidance
for the two graphic artists who will be working on the eCampus banner visual.
Advising. Emailed to doctoral committee members a 1-page document requesting an extension for a Tech Ed doctoral
student, who has had severe health issues over the past 5 years since he passed his candidacy examination. A 5-year
limit is imposed, but policy allows for two 1-year extensions with approval of a student’s committee.
Ah, getting to the real work is what Oates is referring to in her journal entry. A lot of this external work is necessary for
today’s faculty member, but for those motivated by a principal focus, such obligations will be necessary evils. Much of the
advising, teaching, program coordination is part of my real work but all of these obligations can indeed snuff out any time
for the research and writing activities we thought we’d be doing when we left graduate school.
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The sabbatical is supposed to be a time period when the research and writing are undertaken. I have already been given
the cautionary tone from others when they hear that I continue to advise and visit public schools. For those who know
me, know that if I say I can handle it and still complete my sabbatical requirements, they know that I can.
September 15 Tuesday
Drafted up an IDT flyer for the IDT Online Master’s Program, so that a graphic artist can begin working on a banner for
eCampus, this flyer, web pages, and other materials.
Worked on a more strategic agenda list bringing together the publications and major activities demonstrating my
teaching, research, and service foci for the time between associate professor and future full professor review. While the
sabbatical contracts me to do 3 papers/3 conferences, it’s also a time when I develop a plan for the full professor review
and more importantly really is a clear view or some view of my agendas. For research I identified Design Thinking as one
avenue while IDT course and Online Program Development as the second. I’ve been examining course and program
development as inquiry, which is what developmental research has been about. I just don’t see much long-term work
documented in publications.
Nobody showed up for Teacher Tuesday Treats tonight. Everyone has things to do. Tired. Sick. Disappointing, of course,
but it is still a good idea - to take time away from “lesson plans” and enjoy some time with friends. It’s a hard lesson to
learn.
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September 16 Wednesday Homebody
Cleaning out day and getting away from the work, both IDT coordination and papers. Figuring that less clutter (2 black
bags in the morning) would help my disposition which is clearly “turned inwards” and away from others for the day. I’m
awaiting the mental programming to kick in that would facilitate the removal of dozens of black bags and show some
major difference in the house and my home office.
In the mail the latest Esquire magazine and a CD from the group GTR, a union of Steve Hackett and Steve Howe. I don’t
expect anyone to know who this is. Their only studio album is on it’s way as well. Wednesday is date night for us, so
eating out will be a nice break from cooking and getting our bearings. Cindy has been productive getting her program’s
exhibit materials out to the reviewers for an accreditation meeting in November. Somehow she’s done this early in the
semester along with getting her courses underway. Reading Esquire used to be interesting. Years ago the columns were
memorable. Now the ads for cool guys dominate,
and each issue is iffy in terms of readability.
Maybe I’m too old, definitely not as hip as the ad
models. I threw the magazine out in the recycling
bin as soon as I had flipped the pages. I had
removed the perfume pages earlier. I threw out
the renewal notice.
Probably the most important long-term
accomplishment for the week was getting my
passport renewal in the mail. Takes an incredibly
anal and overly sober person to manage the
specific requirements to get this in the mail. Staple
on of the photos to the form?
Other minor things today: cut up pruned limbs
outside, processed a re-take candidacy exam
question for a doctoral student, registered for a
statewide technology conference at the end of
September, and set up my BestThinking site.
http://www.bestthinking.com/thinkers/neal-shambaugh
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September 17 Thursday
Another day to slow down. Feeling a little “iffy” and a little tired today. We were out at the mall yesterday. Might be
nothing. Removed a table from the attic office and converted the space into a sitting area. Trying to pull down the overall
feel of the place from one of archive to working area. Cindy and I met at Barnes & Noble during the afternoon to recharge
a bit. Both of us are pushing hard and we need to slow down a bit. Picked up a copy of two magazines for diversion
(Classic Rock: Prog Edition 3) and world view (Monocle), both published in Britain). Despite Wednesday - Friday feeling
like a slacker and falling back to cleaning up my office, Week 4 was still productive:
September 18 Friday Week 4 Slacker Report
More of the same Wednesday-Thursday clean out routines. Two more bags of
paper. Still didn’t make an obvious dent, as most of this paper left the file cabinets
in the attic office closet. Some items moved to the garage. Thought about mowing
the yard, but it will keep a few days. Tomorrow I’m working from 8 am to 1 pm for
what I bill as my “last Benedum meeting.” Threw out a lot of Benedum files. I’m
done with them. A good question might be “What did i accomplish this week?”
Long-range activities: two research avenues: design thinking and IDT course and
program development, registered for Bestthinkers.com site and uploaded Future
Design paper.
Short-range sabbatical activities: book chapter proposal accepted by NOVA
Science and the Action Research book chapter editor requested minor page one changes and to field test chapter. I’m
on target this fall for 2 proceedings papers, 2 papers, 2 book chapters, 3 conferences, and 1 paper
submission. IVLA plane reservations made.
College stuff: met with Cindy Hart of Extended Learning on online grant, developed 2-page flyer to give graphic artist
text material to work out a banner design. Timed-out doc student with health issues now has 2 week re-exam question.
EDUC 400 will be moved to year 3, spring course. Likely I will pass on teaching this course again as there is not enough
public school activity to warrant this course, in my opinion. I’ve been eying returning to 100% graduate course teaching.
This spring will be the last year for my 2 courses as teacher ed electives. A new provost named earlier this week, a
woman from Wright State. Looks like a solid choice. Now we have a President and a Provost.
House Life: cleaning out paper and clearing out attic office for sitting area; big objects moved to basement. June 2010
cruise reservations underway. Pella Windows rep arrives Tuesday to measure ground floor windows and schedule
installation probably/hopefully in November.
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September 19 Saturday Time with Teachers
From 8 am through 12.30 pm time with PDS teachers on responding to 5
issues and brain-storming creative ideas. Front-end thinking to the renewal
letter and 2009-2010 professional development priorities by each school.
For me, it’s enjoyable to see teachers, many old friends now. There were at
least 3 5-year graduates in the audience, now working in schools from the 5
county area. This part of teacher education I like. It’s the political control
issues from the College that I really hate - so much wasted energy and
reluctance to share control with public school teachers. The success of the
Collaborative has always been based on the trust of public school teachers. It’s taken me years to earn their trust, but I
do have it. Very satisfying. And I can engage in teacher talk and understand what they’re talking about. But that trust
embedded in the structure and the way we do things is eroding from different directions, consciously and unconsciously.
I love teachers but I’m less enamored of teacher education in general.
Beautiful afternoon, 70’s, football game on ESPN2 at night. There’s the Mason-Dixon
Festival downtown and a wine and jazz festival a few exits down the interstate. Cindy is
working on her college presentation for Wednesday. I’m reading The Star Cafe, a set of
stories by Mary Caponegro. Preparing for my November Novel Writing Month (see
nanowrimo.org). I participated in 2008, having completed a 50,000 short novel in November
(actually 11 days as I started 7 days late and finished before Thanksgiving). Nothing like
being able to say you did it - during the semester. One generally has to write 1667 words a
day - about 3-5 pages. I’m thinking of writing two simultaneously, as I have two ideas. Plus I
want to see if I can do it.
Nice to slow down, ease back, turn off the TV, sit on the back deck or the front porch. The lawn can get mowed in a few
days. I ordered a book about the artist Joseph Cornell who provided the cover image to The Star Cafe book.
IDEA: I keep thinking that faculty need to go beyond a workload document (pre) and a productivity document (post) by
thinking through a personal marketing plan, which can be both individual and working group/department/program. One’s
branding and professional identity need more thinking and decision-making. This also be accompanied by a long-term
research/teaching/service agenda, I suppose, a big picture look down the road. 5 years can go fast and in that time one
must find the motivation and decisions to get promoted.
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September 20 Sunday Reading
If you want to meet terrifying silence, tell the world you are going full-time as a poet. David Whyte, Crossing the
Unknown Sea, p. 123
Finished reading The Star Cafe by Mary Caponegro, three stories and a novella. Experimental writing, mostly narrative,
little dialogue. One can get lost in the dream-like atmosphere. A rainy-day gives one permission to read such a book. Or
a sabbatical. While reading the novella a long-standing question came to the forefront: what actions or feelings or
thoughts prompt the arrival of an angel on your behalf? What would awaken God? Serious offense or sacrifice?
Something novel, perhaps? The question floated on top of my reading. In respect and penance I ordered two of her other
short story books. Pushed the Amazon button again. More self-study in preparation for the November writing. I am also
interested in how people do what they do, not just creative types but plumbers and electricians, and motorcycle builders.
Mary Caponegro, assistant professor of English at Hobart and William
Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
For years I needed an audience to create something. The idea of audience, of course, stems from my 14 years as a radio
announcer where a “sense of audience” played well in my college teaching, and in fact, awareness of your audience,
your students, enables one to technically make responsive teaching decisions but also more humanely enables you to be
where the students are, not where you are, the most common position for a college teacher, a bit aloof and overly
technical and frequently self-absorbed even more so than one’s younger students. When I painted pictures I could only
do so with someone, always a girl, in mind. I have only 2 or 3 pictures left - they were painted for me, rarely a successful
approach. But in the last few years I have created things for me, taken the audience out of the decision-making, and
written mostly for me. I might have someone in mind, of course, as with a poem, but I wrote, I transcribed, I archived for
me. In transcribing my 1970s poems this summer I only rarely identified a person behind the poem. Almost always I was
writing about someone, always a girl. I’m a guy for heavens’ sake. But 40 years later I cannot identify the person. I could
suggest one of several candidates, of course. Who forgets those? Is this audience of one a good thing? I am my own
hobby.
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Finished a second book today, Decision at Sea, about 5 U. S. naval battles. History is
a nice break and I can usually read it fast. Also, my intent with reading more history
than usual is to fill in the gaps we all have. Most of us have only the thinnest of
historical knowledge. Oh, so thin. What I learned from this book was these events,
some small, some large, were in fact pivotal historically. Despite the changes
technologically, politics, and decision-making were crucial. Another book like this was
about the history of the British Navy and how it impacted British and world history.
blogs: another routine of the week is blogging activity on Sunday’s. I guess I have 5
interns in the teacher ed program - each are required to post a blog reflecting on their
action research and their weekly teaching. Blog participants include the intern, host
teacher, and liaison at the very least. I’ve managed to stay up on these as of week 4.
I’ve never kept up with them across the entire semester. We’ve been doing this about 4
years now. During the sabbatical I might just manage it.
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September 21 Monday Week 5 of the Semester: A Daily Log
6.30 am: didn’t sleep well last night, thought about graduation in May, for some unknown reason.
7.00 am: breakfast with Cindy
8.00 am: Cindy heads to campus. She routinely goes in every day. Her teaching falls on M-W-F. She has to lead her
college’s Faculty Executive Committee today. A woman has never led her college’s FEC. I respond to a Participant’s (4th
year teacher ed) query on video taping in the schools. The 31 schools have a blanket media permission form that is
used. Upgrade my MAC’s to the latest software.
9.00 - 11.00: write the AECT paper, pulling from the proposal and the handout. A 6-page single-spaced paper for the
conference proceedings, due October 24 a week before the conference. This is what I call paper 2.
PAPERS: paper 1 = IVLA proceedings, paper 2 = AECT proceedings, paper 3 = Design
conference/journal, paper 4 = ETR&D submission, paper 5 = NOVA book chapter
11.00 - 12.30: Misc: 20 minutes on the BowFlex, then haul the trash out to the curb, pay
attention to the dogs, check email again, and fill in this Sabbatical Time document. Doublecheck ingredients for dinner: burritos.
12.30 - 1.00: insert IVLA proposal and handout text into the IVLA Book of Readings format.
Only the top and References of the document can be inserted, so Paper 1 as I refer to this
paper for the sabbatical, is only in template form.
1.00 - 4.00: edit the action research book chapter in terms of usefulness for students and how they might react to
each sentence, and cutting down 23 page single-spaced document for submission to the editor. The first page took 20
minutes - it was a mess and I wasted a lot of words. I spent 3 hours editing 5 pages. The audience for this book are preservice teachers who have no idea about how to conduct an action research study. My chapter is about how to “frame”
such a study, a topic I’ve written on for several years. For maybe 7 years I’ve been around the AR requirement in the 5year teacher education program and co-coordinated the seminars for this project. I know the audience pretty well, so
much of my editing is getting rid of extraneous sentences, words, and bla-bla that the reader doesn’t need or want. The
chapter, and hopefully the overall book, is a pragmatic tool for the student. I’ve been given signals from the editor that my
chapter has provided a model for content and style. This level of editing is pain staking and I can only manage a few
pages at a sitting; otherwise, my scrutiny will relax. Once edited, I’ll hand off to some students to review.
I have 2 book chapters for this text, a second with a research methods faculty member. He is, no doubt, making similar
changes to his document. These book chapters could be considered papers 6 and 7 as these have not been officially
accepted by a book publisher as of yet; however, the editor has received a book offer/contract from University Press.
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4.00:: I take a break from the editing. Let out the dogs and assemble the ingredients on the counter for burritos, a pretty
easy assembly meal for a Monday. It’s been cloudy so I didn’t have the opportunity to sit out on the back deck and enjoy
some afternoon sun. We need the rain. I need to get some work done. Not a bad Monday, but I still feel uneasy. Maybe it
was the Frappuchino I had. Finally, the rain begins. Nothing heavy but an issue at 5 pm most likely.
4.10 - 5.00: Edit another few pages, for a total of 11 pages out of 23 edited. Added some text here and there to add
some clarity to the example I used in the chapter. Editing is definitely needed. The chapter is already better. The key is
getting the chapter into the hands of a student facing the prospect of action research.
So the working accomplishments today have been:
• AECT Proceedings paper finished, IVLA Proceedings paper template started, and the AR chapter edited half-way
through.
Evening: deleted around 1000 photos from my iPhoto library one of my two MacBook Pro’s. Started out with almost
15,000 photos. Time-consuming process, but I have to pare down.
September 22 Tuesday Writing Day
Spent last evening thinking about the meaning of serious work but such thinking leads
sleep. One benefit of the sabbatical is that there is time for such ideas to percolate, time to
step back and practice my oft-promoted idea of “zooming out” to see the Big Picture, to
see that the poo can turn to blue. The sabbatical allows you to slow down and to move, at
least temporarily, to move away from efficiency. “... identities built on speed almost
immediately fall apart and disintegrate. We find ourselves suddenly alone and friendless,
strangers even to ourselves” (Whyte, p. 119). Graduate school, for example, exacts a
terrible toll. Marriages fall apart, friends drift apart for good. In my case, both of these occurred but even worse, my
creativity left me during graduate school. The uniqueness of past experience gets eroded or even dismissed by the
development of expertise in a new field. I’ve think I’ve got that creative piece back, but it took years after 1999, when I
graduated. The creativity hasn’t entered my new discipline, however, except in teaching to some extent. The creativity lies
mostly outside academia. At the present I see my creative endeavors as therapy and possibly a Plan B to a new
direction, a new discipline.
Finished up editing the action research book chapter. Reduced the document by one page, which is typical of editing.
You think you can reduce its size, but you need the right mental program in your head to make the reduction. Letting
students tell me what to do get rid of is probably the best approach.
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Browsing Time
I ordered $38 worth of books from Daedalus. Three were gifts for others, two for Cindy, and the rest for my browsing
pleasure. We just ordered $12,200 worth of Pella Windows today, so I had better stop this random ordering, cheaper
than shoes or cars, though. We visited a Daedalus outlet near Baltimore a few years ago.
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Browsing is a life pleasure. Book browsing or CD purchases or magazines provide more than a break for me, but
stimulation of ideas, shapes, colors, places, possibilities. Browsing is a thinking strategy. Travel is also a thinking strategy,
although the cruises have been a relaxation strategy. The Alaskan cruise provided me the most relaxation since I can’t
remember when. I sometimes buy books for how they are designed. Some titles inspire me to sit down and write a book
using that format. I get those urges. I am right now really wanting to write those two novellas, scheduled for November. I
should sit down and plan them out more than I have.
Browsing the book, How Are Things: A Philosophical Experiment, my first reaction is “why didn’t I think of that?”
Encounters with inanimate objects.
Thinking objects: pen/paper, journals (working/personal), browsing
books/magazines, movies, pictures, travel, laptop, dreams, music. Are
all of these objects?
Pleasure objects: dreams, food, what i touch, books that open and
with high quality paper, my BMW, newly cut lawn, rainy days,
backdeck sitting, spring dirt, 100% cotton, well-balanced hammer,
grilled food, showers/fresh towels, iPod Touch, LP/CD collection,
passport, Christmas trees/decorations.
Objects that I don’t like: telephone, cell phone (except when
traveling), pills, trash on the side of the road, email (most of it), cooked spinach, the post office, tax forms, excessive
product packaging.
September 23 Wednesday First Day of Fall
Morning time at Starbucks working on AECT Proceedings paper. Revised at home. Modified paper, handout, worksheet
for AECT for 2 hours during the afternoon. Everything is clearer, better.
Listened to a 30 minute NPR audio file on the trend towards undergraduate online programs. I think about this a lot of
the time, but mostly at the graduate level. I’ve thought the teacher ed program ought to be helping its secondary majors
learn how to teach online.
Sent Cindy a good-luck email on her 5 pm presentation today. Thought of adding a student to the authors of the action
research chapter and to invite one in the spring to edit the chapter, if I can wait that long for the editor. The interns are
teaching full-time now and they don’t need one more thing to do.
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Attended Cindy’s presentation on creative ideas for teaching. I
called this the $5000 PPT as that’s what it was worth each
year for 5 years!
"Cindy Beacham, associate professor and program chair of
interior design in WVU’s Davis College, will ask the question,
“What's the Big IDIDEA? Five Strategies for More Creative
Course Design” in her presentation for the Davis-Michael
Seminar Series at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23 in Room
1001 at the Agricultural Sciences Building. Beacham will examine how educators can move from just teaching to excellent
teaching and other methods of how to improve teaching skills.
This interactive presentation will provide five strategies for designing courses that engage students, reflect passions and
strengths, and ultimately provide superior learning
experiences for everyone involved.”
September 24 Thursday Not Feeling Well
Acid-reflux bout last night, so feeling sluggish and tired. Kicking back and trying to regain my energy. Actually took a nap
that may have lasted more than an hour. Cleaned out 3000 photos from my iPhoto list on my laptop. Wrote a reference
letter, but that’s about it.
A late dinner at Panera with my two Rivesville participants
Megan and Katie. I really like these 2. Year 4 of the 5-year
teacher ed program is a very difficult time for these seniors
who don’t graduate until year 5 with 2 degrees. Right now
they’re just trying to stay caught up. Megan, on the left, just
decided to run for Homecoming Queen, probably the only
non-Greek candidate. What courage. Katie, on the right, is
carrying 21 hours! Plus both spend the mornings at Rivesville
Elementary-Middle School trying to get some teaching in. I
gave them copies of “Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire.” It is
discouraging to hear stories of poor college teaching. You
usually don’t hear stories of good college teaching, which do
exist here. Still, I can’t believe that what I preach about even has
to be discussed. Shouldn’t college faculty know these things?
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September 25 Friday Glorious (Fiction) Friday
Most days feel good while on sabbatical, but Friday still feels even better.
Working at Starbucks during the morning. Friday Fiction as I’ve come to regard Friday’s. Taking a day off from the
Sabbatical Work. Katie last night asked me “Why do you work so hard on your sabbatical?” Mostly because there’s a
farmer in me, having descended from Pennsylvania farmers. But she’s right. I could take off wed-fri and still get my
sabbatical work done. So today I turned my attention to fiction, specifically, the two novella book projects I’ve scheduled
for November. “Road Trip” is me revisiting physically the 10 towns I have lived in, while remembering and encountering
memories from that time. This project has been planned out: 10 town = 5,000 words/town-chapter = 3 days per chapter.
“Last Summer,” meanwhile is the real writing challenge, about 4 adolescents, 2 boys and 2 girls, lifelong friends who
spend their last summer together before high school. This typic has been done before but the issues of friendship and
change are major ones for adolescents. How do i tell this story differently? The insight I had today was randomly
matching the four characters against four outcomes. I’m clear as to who the 4 characters are, based loosely on 4
graduates from 2009. The outcomes are taken from Michael Chabon’s essay on writing for children. The four outcomes
are these: the impossible can come true, the world is vaster, more marvelous and malevolent, everything is connected or
everything is wrong, and one can be the center of the universe or just a speck. What I’m thinking through now is a trigger
event to move the story forward. My first thought about setting was the typical summer outdoorsy location, not exactly
summer camp, but maybe summer “camp” for four. Matching characters with outcomes was a major step forward. The
trigger event will dictate setting and sequence, so this was a good morning, triggered itself by caffeination. I’m guarding
the caffeine intake because of the reflux event of wednesday night.
Reading up on Chabon’s works on Wikipedia, the idea of alternate universe or alternate history caught my attention as a
triggering idea. I should have lunch.
And I did have lunch. Then mowed the yard. Startled when my passport renewal showed up after only 10 days! Of
course, I did pay bucks to have it express-handled. Amazed. Ordered two of Mary Caponegro’s books, which have now
arrived. Moving into fiction mode. I don’t see her style as being adopted, but I do value the short stories and novellas she
has written and the way she has written them. The collection “All Fall Down” seems to be about middle age. I was
thinking this afternoon if we in mid-life have to struggle until we manage some form of epiphany. Is moving forward in life
a hurky-jerky thing, stop and start. Can it ever be an onward and upward or are we on some form of trajectory. My Mom
might suggest not to think too hard about this. Reading or writing stories might be a better way to explore this idea. Can
we survive an epiphany?
What did I accomplish this week: Sabbatical: the AECT Proceedings paper completed and AR book chapter edited.
Real life accomplishments this week: Cindy’s faculty presentation, meeting with 2 Participants, slowed down on
thursday, passport arrived, lawn mowed, fiction projects outlined better.
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September 26 Saturday Rainy Day
Took a morning nap. Rarely do that, but still recovering from
something plus it’s raining all day. Afternoon TV and some newspaper
reading, last week’s NY Times. I’m reading the Whyte book and
coming across a moment in the author’s life when his exhaustion is
explained by a friend as “inner fermentation,” and that he is beginning
to “rot on the vine.” The antidote to exhaustion, said the friend to
Whyte, was “wholeheartedness.” Are you doing the work you need to
be doing. Sometimes I think that there are two research questions for
us in academia; namely, (1) how to have a life, and (2) how to get to
the real world. Half of me may be spent in the wrong work or the
wrong place. It’s a thought I’ve been pondering since last October
when I realized I needed to pull away from teacher education and that
the sabbatical was just one way to begin to do that. Still, I know more
thinking and turning thoughts to action are needed.
Both Cindy and I are surprisingly at the same place in our work. Both of us are moving away from respective fields,
interior design and instructional design, and moving towards broader design topics, such as design studies. We have
three papers and a book project on design thinking. Cindy is actively working towards a public speaking approach to the
topic while for me it’s more writings than anything. I’ve written about what I call Future Design, that we have the
motivation, the human cognitive capacity, and the technological tools to directly take charge of what we want our future
to be about by designing in the present. I have one journal article on the topic and it’s the featured paper on the Best
Thinking site, but I need to tend to this topic. I’ve dabbled with the idea of proposing an MIT Press book title.
Each of us has an equivalent core in our work, whether it is the path of the artist or the explorations of the engineer. Even
if we already possess the work of our dreams, there is a way of doing that work that will deepen and enliven it, a way that
begs for a daily disciplined conversation. D. Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea, p. 135
Imagine being asked to speak at the last minute to a gathering. They don’t know you or your work. What
would you say to them?
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September 27 Sunday Errands and Resting
Thinking day, actually. Cindy works on IVLA handout, while I read Sunday Times and some fiction. We stop into the office
to pick up mail and make a Sam’s run. Reading The Gargoyle, a novel.
September 28 Monday
Morning: commented on a dissertation. I don’t go in to sit in on the defense, but I do comment on the document. I also
talk with Terry Morris at Rivesville Elementary-Middle School on their professional development plan.
Afternoon: tired, dealing with heartburn. Taking some Zantac generic. Did some online reading about diet. Have to cut
back on acid-producing foods. Fixed dinner. Windy today, cool.
September 29 Tuesday “Dangerous again and glad to be so”
Windy, cooler, 56 for a high. Leaves now turning. Hauled in the outdoor lawn hoses and garden fences and chairs. Yes,
fall arriving. Had Gail order 2 handbooks and spend some of my professional development fund, which has built up over
the years. Mailed Paper #2 of 5. #2 is the AECT Proceedings paper. #1 is the IVLA Book of Readings paper, which can
be written after we return from Chicago next Saturday.
I don’t work steady, although I claim that I work all the time. I work in spurts and suffer minor depression when I finish
courses and major projects. I don’t like long-term projects. Books are borderline and I try to write them as fast as
possible. I believe I could send out more work than I do, but my crashes would be worse. I’m looking for a more even
keel in the work activity. A lot of the instructional technology writing has never been as interesting as bigger ideas,
although the ID pedagogy is a steady output for me, as ID pedagogy is a major research activity. In the last year my head
has shared space with fiction and visual projects.
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These days pass, and are exquisitely beautiful. I can’t believe that I have every been so
happy. The vastness of the day, the promise, the solitude, the hours of work in the
morning; luncheon on the terrace; a bicycle ride or a walk.... sometimes we read in the
afternoon.... It seems a marvelous gift, the possibility of my preparing our own dinner....
To do anything, however, menial, for oneself..... To be home, to be responsible, to have
an identity, to be an adult. Not waited on, made much of, driven about in limousines
and vans, honored, toasted, flattered, admired.... 375
Joyce Carol Oates in “The Strange Real Word, John Gardner, New York Times Book
Review, July 20, 1980
The key to productive work is not in the taking of the sabbatical, but in realizing perhaps during a sabbatical, that one
needs to live within the organization but also work outside of it, that not all one’s time should be devoted to the Man, that
one must learn to assign time to one’s own work where one sets one’s own rules and metrics, and nurtures this work
continuously. We are, according to Whyte, outside the laws of cause and effect, and predictability and within the cycles
of creativity.
Part of the sabbatical is finding that outside person and to inhabit that person, so that when I return to my original
responsibilities, I have an image, a purpose, and meaningful work that contributes to my own sense of worth, but
radiates forward to colleagues and students by my presence and actions. “We are dangerous again, and glad to be
so” (Whyte, p. 172).
College Teaching: both Cindy and I have this topic as part of our service activities. The mentoring book was designed
more broadly in terms of faculty success, but teaching well is a large part of that success. Looks like both of us might
have more activity in courses/workshops for GTAs. This topic has been in my mix for 2 years, but nothing has fallen out
from the provost’s office yet. Cindy met today with a spousal hire, so maybe something will happen. We could easily write
a GTA version of the mentoring book and concentrate on the teaching part.
I received in the mail a book I ordered from Jossey-Bass: Creating Significant Learning Experiences. The design process
seems straightforward and nothing revolutionary, just the specifics of the process for college teachers prescribed. I find
the process very similar to what we laid out in Book 2. The major difference was concentrating on the students for the
contextual piece. I have to look at this in more detail - still looks like a fine title. Wish I had written it. See images on next
page:
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September 30 Wednesday Week 6 of the Semester
Rainy and cool, pretty much the second day of Fall, although not
officially. Nursing the heartburn problem and optimistic that food
changes will do the trick. Hoping not to have to take the Zantac
generic. Last night finished reading The Gargoyle, my motivation
mostly to prime the pump for the November fiction writing projects.
To the right is my daily writing progress last November. You can see
that I started late, November 7 and finished November 20. 50,000
words are the monthly goal. I just went over that, about 100 singlespaced pages, novella-length. Tomorrow, October 1 the
nanowrimo.org site clears out 2008 files and prepares the masses
for the 2009 contest. I’m still mulling over the planning for “Last
Summer.”
Malaise
Yes, it’s true. I can’t work all the time, although I say that. While Cindy and most other sane people “work to deadlines,” I
work all the time. That’s what I say. More in fits and starts. The heartburn has knocked me down a notch, but like millions
of others who have reflux, etc., I’m gonna have to find a way to work through it. It is a blessing in the sabbatical to stay
home when the seasons turn, as many of us just want to sleep in and eat comfort food. Today, my malaise is particularly
bad, so I order a few books on Amazon, one on dialogue and two on writing. Chuckle, yes. I’m putting off the work. The
ETR&D paper needs outlining. The logic of priority stares you in the face, but I
find something else to do, like writing in this document or checking
Facebook. I have come to really hate email. A good day would be no email.
This only happens on weekends and maybe on a Friday. I keep in touch with
grad’s mostly on Facebook, now with about 150 friends, most of them grad’s
from 02-09.
I decided to crank up the comfort space. Leaving the TV is not difficult during
the time, as I move to the sitting room where the leather chairs are and the
stereo. Upstairs in my attic office I fetch some Moody Blues CDs, reliable
sources of comfort and inspiration, and the Stephen King book “On Writing,”
which my older sister bought for me a few years ago. I turn on the furnace for the first time in many months, so take note
September 30 the furnace was turned on, as 64 degrees is probably too cold. Yesterday I donned the long-sleeved
brown shirt. Yesterday I wore pants the entire day. It’s rained for two days. So I’ll try to build up myself to the work again.
In addition, Cindy has an anxious day, waiting for her appointment with a specialist about some images on her thyroid
from a recent medical screenings we each had recently. So I’m a little anxious myself, or maybe it’s the heartburn. A little
coffee this morning triggered the reflux, so i downed the Zantac generic and feel a bit better. The morning is about
reshaping myself as the leaves fall, and we deal anxiously with the uncertainties of the afternoon
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It is the hidden in our work that always holds the treasure.... Good work is grateful surprise. Whyte, p. 222.
We’ve talked about a covered porch effectively increasing the use of the outside 1-2 months. Today might be one of
those days, although some heat would be necessary, a stove or something, as the temp’s are in the 50s and 60s. The
second Pella Windows man stopped by yesterday to confirm measurements and the order for the downstairs windows
and patio door. Another $12,200, but worth every cent. To be able to open a window, to be warmer. One more step to
make this house our own.
[ a pause for the reader while I ponder lunch ]
Muses and Memory and Creativity
The Nine Muses http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0881991.html
The Nine Muses were Greek goddesses who ruled over the arts and sciences and offered inspiration in those subjects.
They were the daughters of Zeus, lord of all gods, and Mnemosyne, who represented memory [deep memory of what it
means to be human, Whyte, p. 165]. Memory was important for the Muses because in ancient times, when there were
no books, poets had to carry their work in their memories. Mnemosyne (nēmos'inē, nēmoz'–) [key], in Greek mythology,
the personification of memory. She was a Titan, daughter of Uranus and Gaea. The Muses were her daughters by Zeus.
Calliope was the muse of epic poetry.
Clio was the muse of history.
Erato was the muse of love poetry.
Euterpe was the muse of music.
Melpomene was the muse of tragedy.
Polyhymnia was the muse of sacred poetry.
Terpsichore was the muse of dance.
Thalia was the muse of comedy.
Urania was the muse of astronomy.
Natural Remedies for Heartburn
sherbet, gum, unsalted almonds, apple cider vinegar, apples, potatoes, aciphilus capsules, celery, cabbage, mustard,
lifesavers, milk, pretzels and water, buttermilk, aloe vera juice, carrots, cottage cheese, saltine crackers, brown sugar,
water, root-beer, banana
I’m trying the apple slices. I had some yesterday and felt better.
After lunch and two apple slices, I began outlining the ETR&D paper, rethinking some of the past uses of terminology,
believing that the reviewers’ views of those words, such as developmental research, influence the review. It’s a start. A
thought occurred to me that I might just self-publish this as an example of systematic course development and it might
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Neal Shambaugh
be more useful in my professional development activities with college
faculty. My next step on this paper is to look at some of the designdevelopment research handbook articles and the like, as a check
against my organization. I sense I could re-think this organization along
issues cited in these foundational sources.
“Last Summer” Think Aloud
For me, not working is the real work. Stephen King, 153
So, King prompts the writer with the first question to ask in a new
project: What is the situation? What if ...? OK, I’ve got 4 adolescents.
King took this idea himself and asked what happens to four boys who
discover a dead body? Do my four about to enter high school geeks
discover a body? Why geeks? Because I believe in the idea that geeks
get their revenge. Do my geeks seek revenge? For what? Hmmm. King
would applaud my thinking, because he would say that my inner
dialogue is conjuring up a real, honest situation that characters have to
work their way out of. An authentic event is hazing. Bullying, it’s also
called. Geeks are hazing magnets. And maybe one or more characters are sick of it. Is there one person that’s the focus
of the four? Or just one boy or girl, and the rest are drawn into it. This sounds better. Sadistic teacher? Bully down the
street? Secret kid organization? Daughters of the devil, perhaps? So much for the sweet story I was considering. Who
would want to read it. The very painful dilemmas of adolescence can still come out in a situation that’s more charged
than talking about the changes they’ll experience in high school and whatever they’re thinking about now. Do the four
become infected with something? Is there a hidden menace out there that only they as geeks know about? Hidden
meaning person or disease? Are hormones wrecking havoc in unexpected ways? This situation is frightening enough, but
how would one extend these fears and symptoms? Do the kids change? Or does the world change? Or does the
changing world change the kids somehow? My original thought was to put the kids in a typical summer setting, the
natural environment, something like summer camp, but a summer house or cabin owned by one of the parents, and the
kids convince their parents they need this time. Would parents go for that? Or do the parents disappear? Kids go looking
for the parents? Ahhhhhh. Here’s a situation then: What if four adolescent friends discover their parents are missing from
their summer cabin? Maybe this summer IS their last. But I also like the hazing and the revenge. Don’t we all, really, want
to get back at the bully, the beast? Don’t we want to believe that there is justice in this world?
Another what-if question that occurred to me is: “What happens when
humus continues to build up, layer upon layer, and what happens to these
layers when things are buried in it?”
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I thought of a story about a girl who is forbidden to use her cellphone. Or if she uses it, there
would be consequences. It’s a short story, I think, and I would title it: “... Because” or “I Will Never
Leave You.”
Wednesday progress: ETR&D outline and started, “Last Summer” situation thought through,
and Cindy finding out she doesn’t have thyroid cancer. There you go. A productive day, after all.
October 1 Thursday Game Day
AM: drew up a memo and commented on a candidacy exam re-take for a time-out doc student; sorted and re-organized
college, department, and program files at the house; commented to the ESGA intern on program changes. Printing out
some reference chapters for the ETR&D paper.
PM: doing some quiet reading before Cindy comes home. It’s a Thursday football game, so everything gets routed
around that event. It’s best to stay for the game or get out of the area. The sun is out today and a tad warmer than
yesterday’s 56 degrees. I feel better than last night. Reading Stephen King’s “On Writing” and checking the
nanowrimo.org site to come up for the 30 day prelude to National Novel Writing Month. WVU 35 Colorado 24
October 2 Friday Day After Game Day
AM: More sorting of work piles and labeling the folders. This is an ongoing activity - trying to
organize the information needed on college/department issues, and the IDT program. The folder
management is done, and now I have to go back and edit the folder’s contents. Sent out
doctoral memo to a student’s committee first thing. This still took an hour. Logged on to the
nanowrimo.org site, 30 days away from the 50,000 word novel writing. Added some buddies
this time - make it more interesting, giving and taking advice and encouragement.
PM: Sitting in the leather chair and thinking that it’s Friday and I’m doing any more work. I set up
page formats for the two November books and it’s scary - a blank page. OMG. And this year I have two ideas, one
emergent writing on four adolescent geek friends who find their parents are missing and the second plotted across
imaginary visits to the ten towns I’ve lived in. Try it. It’s the scariest thing you’ll ever see. A blank page. Oh shit what am I
going to be doing to myself? Maybe one of the secrets to productive work is scaring the shit out of oneself. Like living IN
a Stephen King novel. I had an idea like this some years ago, when a new author is close to finishing his first novel, and
taking a break, he walks the cite streets and finds in a book shelf window a copy of his book already published. This idea
was about madness, I think, and trying to unravel an absurd event and keep it at a distance from one’s real life. What
happens when your reality bumps into something absurd? Got a flu shot.
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My gig, my brand: I’m a moderately productive faculty member in terms of
papers, books, and presentations, and I had to “keep my head down” during my
tenure-track years. I’m less visible because I don’t do the grant deal as others
do. My “brand” here at WVU at least in the 5-year teacher education program is
as a personal advocate for those students. I have built good and trusting
relationships with new and experienced teachers. I’m a decent graduate advisor
and am just now coming into my own in that area, having taken a more hands-on
approach and finishing up 4 last May. And, my teaching is respectable, probably
better than average in terms of student evaluations. I’m being modest here. I also
consider myself a helpful faculty member. I do my share of committee
involvement and volunteering for this and that, and overall helping to do the
business of the College. But what I want on my tombstone is probably not on my
workload report. “He was there for us.” Where would I fit into an annual report?
See this picture? This is what I do.
Evening: Had my third Friday meeting with Lee Silverman, future doctoral student. Lee
got his master’s IDT degree last May and he would be perfect for the doctoral program.
We get together at Starbucks or this time at Barnes and Noble to talk about this and
that. This time his Caribbean cruise, his trip to Paul Reed Smith Guitars, and his
upcoming voice-over workshop. Lee, a Pittsburgh native, has lived in Morgantown for
over 20 years, and is a technology support person for WVU and also teaches Computer
Science 101, F2F and online, so we talk about teaching a lot, as well as Rush music
and media topics. Last night we talked for 3 hours. We each met people we know at
Barnes and Noble. For me I met a 2004 graduate of the 5-year teacher ed program,
who still teaches in the 5-county PDS network and is involved in governance at a high
school.
Paul Reed Smith (left) after
signing Lee’s newly purchased PRS guitar, his 4th!
A sign of Real Life
Progress during Week 6:
Sabbatical: AECT proceedings paper mailed, conference materials uploaded to my archive site. IVLA handout
completed. ETR&D paper outline began. Future course/workshop GTA topic now in play.
Real Life: Cindy doesn’t have thyroid cancer. I’m managing my heartburn. Diet changes in our future. First floor windows
are getting ordered. Some good thinking on the november book projects.
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October 3 Saturday
I found a runner for our foyer this morning, so we bought it as our 12th anniversary gift to each other. Saturday errands
included a recycling run, lunch at Chili’s, then driving around town looking at the latest construction. Minor pruning of
dead flowers out front. Mowed the yard, which is still green, very green. Got an idea of moving the small garden plot
West a few feet to make room for more border plantings. Sat on the porch and read some books, moving between
history and writing. Any physical sun exposure on the porch is valuable in early October. Three more books in the mail:
one on poetry, one on wiki’s, and one on managing relationships, self, and work. Comfort food in some ways, but a
steady stream of ideas and prompts to attend to new thinking, feelings, and action.
October 4 Sunday Reading and Trying to Find the Autumn Sun on the Back Deck
I was watching The Sandlot movie on TV last night, about a young group of boys playing baseball in the summer. An
older boy takes them under his wing. A story of a summer and especially trying to retrieve a step-father’s signed baseball
from the yard of a mean old man with his killer dog. Watching this show got me to re-think my Stephen King story idea
for “Last Summer” about 4 geek adolescents. I don’t think a dark story is really my gig. An edgy story, sure. I’d rather
write two 50,000 word short novels in November that make me chuckle during the day. And both are part of a 4-series
set of books about my fictional life, part true, part made up. I spent a few minutes on the couch with my eyes closed
trying to imagine a different approach. Usually I write to think. A graduate student in a course asked what would I do if I
couldn’t write. I said, I couldn’t think. Writing is my principal thinking tool. So I was trying something new. It will take a few
sessions to identify a new situation to place in front of these four adolescents.
Cindy finished the IVLA handout, so we have to make copies. We leave on Wednesday’s. Conferences are always hard
to fit into our schedules, more hers than mine this fall, as she has an accreditation meeting in mid-November, and when
she returns from Chicago this coming Saturday, she’ll be in the thick of those preparations. I’ll take a break of sorts and
get in 7 observations of interns in the following two weeks after IVLA.
Quickly read another book on the founding fathers or in this case Founding
Brothers by Joseph Ellis. Six stories provided more depth to the politics and the
passions of the time. The current nasty rhetoric finds similarities in the 50 years
between Independence and the passing of Adams and Jefferson.
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October 5, Monday Week 7 and IVLA and some story thinking
Reality check: I’m 56 and at the age when people begin to die. Once you face this reality, you begin to sharpen your
agenda, filtering out what’s really low priority, and concentrating on how to make a difference today. This week this
means encouraging Megan in her homecoming queen interview, getting a paper out the door, and enjoying my time with
Cindy in Chicago. And thinking of the stories for November. Looking forward to the challenge of writing two 50,000 word
short novels. Ah, the challenge.
AM: Sent out action research book chapter, double-spaced, two-page shorter version. Asked the editor if I could add a
student as a co-author. Depends on publishing deadlines. Sent out email to next week’s 4 interns I will be observing
letting them known what to expect and do. The usual email maintenance time. Starting to pack for a Wednesday
departure. Will be in the 50’s in Chicago. Need to dig up some clothing for layers.
PM: thinking through “Last Summer” with the help of the book, Immediate
Fiction by Jerry Cleaver. Keeping the four characters but the do-or-die needs,
obstacles, and some action have been determined. Cleaver has you ask: who
wants what, what’s the obstacle, what’s the action, and what’s the resolution.
I have tentatively identified 12 chapters and story flow, and some secondary
characters. So this was progress, all from the back deck trying to find the last
sunshine of the season, as the sun’s trajectory is much below and
approaching the roof of the house. Soon I will have to sit in the middle of the
garden plot for any sun at all. Listening to Porcupine Tree’s latest CD, The
Incident, really loud to get a sonic blast, like a frappuchino in the afternoon.
Yes, I had one of those. These will be key through the November writing.
Working out features and characters to “Last Summer”
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October 6 Tuesday Pre-Trip Day
Packing light and picking up the house. Leaving Wednesday at 7.30. That’s the plan. A few minutes on the back deck.
The sun was out for about 20 minutes. The day before travel is mostly anxiety. Glad Cindy is traveling with me. I’m tired
of conferences in general and going by myself just isn’t interesting or productive anymore. I’d rather hang out in some
location just for that purpose. I’ve done about 70 conferences. I say to myself that I don’t need the practice, but these
places are important really. It’s just that I rail against the choir practice of conferences. Read “Small World.”
I’m more concerned about Megan, my year 4 teacher ed student who found out she made the top 5 homecoming queen
candidates. She’s one of my two Participants from Rivesville Elementary/Middle School. Gutsy decision, but it paid off
and now she’s scrambling to figure out the publicity next week. I’ll see her next Tuesday when I go out there to observe 3
interns. She would say, “Eeek.” She’s more important to me than a conference, although Cindy and I will use these days
to work on 3 other Design Thinking papers or proposals. This away-time will allow us the focus to address these very
efficiently in 1 or 2 days. Also, our 12th anniversary is on the 12th, a week away. So Chicago is kind
of an anniversary trip.
I spent part of the afternoon thinking about the spring 2010 course: Visual
Literacy and maybe having the students contribute their own visual
contribution in a blog. I started one up on Wordpress.com to see how
difficult it would be to use. Most of the students will be last-semester
interns from the teacher ed program,
and they’ve had to submit a weekly
blog (blogger.com). Nuts, I forgot to
blog this sunday. So they might hurl at
the thought, but this blog will be visual
and not heavy-text. So, I’m fiddling
with the site and seeing if it’s a good
idea or not.
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October 7 - 10 Wednesday - Saturday International Visual Literacy Association Conference
My 6th IVLA: Tempe 94, Jackson 99, Athens 00, Breckinridge 03, Blacksburg 08, Chicago 09. Spent Thursday at the
conference, seeing fewer people I know than usual. Saw Ana and Sharon from Northern Iowa and Northern Illinois, and
David Moore, VT alum. We had lunch with David and one of his doc students. Also saw Sharon and Frances, WVU doc
graduates, who make IVLA a regular conference. We heard next year might be in Cyprus. These two will find a way to
attend. Also, saw Karen from Wisconsin again - met her last year in Blacksburg.
We have 5 show up for our Roundtable, “How do you teach design thinking?” I was surprised at the good attendance
and probably the best attendance for the roundtable session. We had a landscape designer, an architect, a multimedia
designer, a graphic designer, and
an interior design/instructional
designer. What a nice mix, typical
of what you might find at IVLA.
Just wasn’t sure we would get any
attendance.
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Friday Cindy and I worked at Borders on Michigan Avenue. We
managed to make sense out of our roundtable notes and laid
out the Selected Readings paper. We also drafted up another
conference proposal which was due today/Monday. During our
3-hour stay there we talked about Future Design. IVLA’s
roundtable helped me think of another feature to FD’s main
ideas, that a metaview of Design Thinking is one thinking tool
for Future Design. Later in the day I outlined the Future Design
book title for MIT Press (see working long 46-7071). So that
was a good working session and needed. Conference
attendance can provide some concentrated work time if you
can manage to be motivated to do so. That 3-hour was more
productive than the roundtable, although that 1-hour session
gave us real data for the IVLA Selected Readings, as well as
input material for the subsequent 2-3 papers we have in mind
for Design Thinking. Later that day we had an anniversary
dinner at The Cheesecake Factory restaurant nearby.
October 12 Sunday 12th Anniversary
We returned Saturday and although the flight was only 90
minutes, travel still took the entire day. It’s always good to be
home. IVLA is probably the easiest conference to do and
Chicago is one of the better locations to attend. Sunday we
got in the car and drove out to Cooper’s Rock, but the trees
hadn’t turned to peak as of yet. To mark our anniversary in we
attended a movie, Zombieland. HAHAHAHA. Had to no
redeeming qualities whatsoever. Then we made a quick run to
Sam’s for supplies (including a colon cleanse, so more than
you wanted to read here). Ate crab-legs for dinner.
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SABBATICAL BOTTOM-LINE: Accomplishments from this conference include the following:
1. Seeing people
2. Roundtable, 1 hour, Design Thinking, obtaining good feedback on the topic
3. Notes for Selected Readings due in November
4. IDEC proposal drafted
5. Future Design book outline
October 12 Monday Week 8 Back to It
Straightened out spring course online schedule detail. Cleaned out email, printed out files and filed them. Emailed photos
to Karen. Megan’s Wednesday observation cancelled due to a school field trip. Administrivia for work and home took the
morning. Afternoon managed to insert my conference notes into the conference paper template. So draft 1 is done,
about 80% there. cindy submitted another conference proposal. Also doing wash, housework, and making potato soup.
That’s Monday.
October 13 Tuesday Intern Observations
8.00 am - 1.30 pm Observations of 5th year Interns at Rivesville Elementary-Middle School. Each observation runs
around an hour, including written comments, video clips, and stills. It’s always a pleasure observing interns who become
pretty good teachers by their third year in a public school. Processing the video and images in a MAC and PC took the
rest of the afternoon.
Breanna, 2nd grade multiple activi-
Katie, Kindergarten, preliminary
Kelly, 6th grade, voice and unity in
ties on r-sounds, during Reading
reading before reading stations
paragraph writing practice
Block
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October 14 Wednesday Back to It II
At Starbucks this morning I edited my first draft of the IVLA paper. Developed two visuals for the paper, which you can
see below. From the visualization I thought about the way that design education might be informed pedagogically by the
cases and examples of actual design practice. I took this picture of the sabbatical journal to see how my thinking
progressed from the table on the right page (a summary of differences found in the reading organized by three
categories: social, institutional, and individual) to the visual on the left page, which summarizes the synthesis of the
readings and focus group by a new individual/social mind-set (top circle) and influencing organizations and education
(both public school and professional preparation programs. Spent part of the afternoon making the revision.
Synthesis Visual (left page)
Analysis Visual (right page)
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Returning home I mowed the yard in 40 degree weather and before
several days of rain. The War of the Leaves continues. The lawn is in
pretty good shape for the winter. Above average rainfall for late
summer and early fall. Could be another mowing or two before the
lawn mower is put away. Might be just enough gasoline left.
First real cold day - 40’s. Cloudy with wind. Cold rain this week.
The first freeze should be on its way. What should be brought in? We
have a large rosemary bush we’ve been nursing on the porch.
Back in the office, and IDT logo is being prepared, and I'm sure
there will never be some agreement on the one. I’m very pragmatic
and don’t waste my energy on ownership issues. I wasn’t keen on the
mouse as a soon-to-be out-of-date artifact but whatever. I know the
secretaries want me back to work.
[ visual break ]
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October 15 Thursday Rain Rain Rain
Developed a flyer promoting my two spring 2010 courses, as enrollment will be in another week or so. I posted this flyer
image to my FB page. I also set up a FB group: Neal’s Spring Courses to promote them to my WVU FB year 5 interns.
I also invited to the group selected graduates asking them to comment on whether or not taking the course was
worthwhile or not. This took the morning. Promoting usually does.
Friends feed Friends
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In today’s E-News, a CNN link to “Best Places to Launch a Business,” where Morgantown was ranked #7.
What has this to do with Sabbatical Time? A lot. The quality of place you are living in counts and Morgantown has been a
good place to live and work for 10 years.
Also edited the IVLA paper after Cindy provided some suggestions. We changed the title, too, to what the paper is really
about.
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At the beginning of Sabbatical Time, I inserted David Whyte’s words on the “middle” of our life:
“The illusion of middle is comfort: middle can be wonderful insulation...” I wonder if somewhere in my “middle” is a shift
back to ideas from people. Paul Johnson (2006), in “Creators From Chaucer to Walt Disney,” defined an intellectual as
“someone who thinks ideas are more important than people” (p. 1). I would say for much of my life I was more friendly
and comfortable with ideas, things, order and such. In my late 30’s I moved towards people and found the feeling side of
me, a side that had always been there but the intellectual side of me had me believing that I was really a thinking person.
Growing comfortable in this discovered identity I grew closer to new friends and remarried for a third time, while at the
same time developing quickly in the academic life. My Type-A past served me well during the academic apprenticeship
and then the tenure-track period, surely the basis for Sabbatical Time and other related products. The feeling side of me
found productivity in the teacher education program and growing as a college instructor. Now I feel a need to turn my
priorities to ideas. Sabbatical enabled me to cut the cord with the teacher ed program by not teaching a course in the
fall, and thus having no fifth year students available for my spring electives. I’ve found it tiresome to work within the
politics that has always been teacher education, truly a bottomless pit, a black hole of disagreement and ownership
issues. Can the feeling side of me find enough in the ideas - perhaps the pull of people benefitting from ideas. This is the
motivation behind Future Design, that humans have the mental capacity to leverage thinking and other tools, such as
social networking and information, to solve their day-to-day challenges as well as the serious prospects of pandemics,
terrorism, and natural disasters. Making the crossing, to use Whyte’s metaphor, is wrought with uncertainty but as I’m
sure he would agree, is where life is.
“Why, this is midsummer madness” Shakespeare.
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October 16 Friday Fiction Writing Day
I’ve been trying to tend to my fiction writing on Friday’s and been
so-so acceptable. But today is what matters, so I’m turning my
attention to fictional essays, organized around the 12 months of
the year, and what a 20-year old learns from the women he meets
during each of these months. Trying to write in a different form fictional essay - a remembrance in first person. The twelve
personalities have been selected and placeholder images in place
to somewhat guide the tale for each month. Each time I sit down
with this document I try to write on each month, so that the work
gets built up layer by layer, somewhat like adding plaster to a
basement wall each spring. 6500 words have been written so far,
3500 today alone. Still a bit schematic but it’s all experimental, so
criticism doesn’t really matter at this stage. Some unifying
structure will show itself to me. I tend to trust myself on these
matters. Stories force my brain to work differently and that’s a
good thing for me. A necessary thing for me. I spin so differently
from the rest of the world.
Sabbatical Summary for This Week:
IVLA: Sent the IVLA paper out to the 5 people who attended our session to get some feedback on it. In two weeks I’ll
send this paper out to the editor of the IVLA Book of Selected Readings. While I’m at AECT in another week I may try to
write on the ETR&D paper submission, which has been outlined but that’s it.
Cindy and I have 3 other papers where Design Thinking is worked out. The
topic keeps us busy with writing and keeps writing in front of us, so we have
to find a way to do that during the semester.
IDT Program: we decided on a logo, which has to be approved through the
College, so this effort could die on the vine, although the Extended Learning
group seems to think online programs can get such a unique visual identity
approved. I need to spend more time with the program issues, but I have to
keep on the sabbatical contract and my writing projects.
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October 17-18 Weekend Fall Color Peak Rainy and Cold
Weekend of rain, cool, and clouds. Sleepy all day Saturday. Managed a reference for a 2008 teacher ed graduate.
Finishing the reading of Creators by Paul Johnson, a book I picked up at Borders in Chicago. A summary of the chapters
follows on the next page. Rachel, the special education student and intern sent me her feedback on the action research
chapter. I’m pleased to add her name as a 4th author to this chapter. Try to revise the paper and get it out the door next
week before I head out to AECT. Also, two half-days of intern observations this coming week.
Cindy is at Create West
Virginia in Huntington, a statesponsored event. Last year
held at Snowshoe. 24 students
plus some faculty members. A
good experience for Cindy’s
younger Design students.
Cindy and Barb have
developed a very good set of
programs for studentsl.
As you can see below, more
shameless course
promotion. After posting the
two-course flyer on FB and
creating a Neal’s Spring
Electives FB group, I
developed the image below
using ComicLife and
PhotoBooth, using the comic
strip look. As I commented on
my FB page, “it looks like I
have too much time on my
hands.”
Pissy Poem
I’m sure other instructors
despise me, but hey, marketing
is the game these days. So get
with the program or go screw
yourself.
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Book Summary: Paul Johnson - Creators: From Chaucer to Walt Disney
Chaucer: sometimes it makes sense to be a poet when countries value the poet (Italy, France). He
loved to write at all times, and he loved his daily wine (caffeination effect?). He found interesting all
things human.
Durer: he drew ALL the time and everything he drew was a product of hard work. He would take his
work in engravings in new directions. He observed the world and drew it all.
Shakespeare: it’s not necessary to have creativity in the genes, to be descended from someone
smart or creative. His plays were about people, not ideas. He “interpolated between earthy and the
real,” kept his audience grounded while at the same time appealing to their senses. He seemed to
move between comedy and seriousness. All of humanity seemed to be captured in Hamlet.
Bach: an example of family inheritance in terms of musicology, which ran in his family for 300 years. 80
members were acknowledged in the Grove Dictionary as advanced musicians. He created 1200 works
and fathered 20 children. A perfectionist and highly experienced, but even this motivation and expertise
somehow falls short of explaining “how one man’s brains and fingers could have created so much to
delight and uplift the human race as long as it endures” (p. 93).
Turner: 1200 oil paintings, 20,000 watercolors and sketches. 100% landscape painter. Could not
draw people. Worked every day of his life as an artist. Never took a vacation although he traveled professionally. His later works featured intensity of color and light.
Hokusai: Japanese landscape painter at about the same time as Turner. Worked in poverty and art all
his life. Manga titles his 15 volume collection of 40,000 images for instruction.
Pugin: English architect in the 1800s - vicious advocate of the Gothic style. No-nonsense life from the
age of three, developed r/ships with craftsmen, traveled, published on architecture. Wasted no time,
kept no staff or overhead.
Hugo: productive author, egoistic, hot aired human being.
Twain: first true American author, appropriated stories and reworked them continuously, on stage
comedienne.
Tiffany: master of art noveau, a brief period of glass innovation. Experimenter.
Eliot: prim and proper, unhappy life balanced by creative poems, poems of mood, suggestion, inviting
the readers to fill in the gaps (The Wasteland, Four Quartets).
Balenciaga and Dior: The first, designer of high fashion.Dior made women happy.
Picasso and Disney: Picasso produced 30,000 works across 8 distinct phases of work, lived in his
own world, used people, richest artist of all time. Disney: entrepreneur, created new artform: sound
cartoon.
Summary of creators:
Focus on people and their world and their humanness (Chaucer, Durer, Shakespeare)
Focus on transforming ideas/images into works (Turner, Hugo)
Unending perseverance and focus on quality work and high levels of productivity (Chaucer, Durer,
Shakespeare, Bach, Turner, Hokusai, Pugin).
Extending the work into new areas (Chaucer, Durer, Shakespeare, Bach).
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October 18 Sunday
Watching the History International channel and a show on “Passages,” reminds me of a type of book to write pretty
much outside of what I now, and that would be historical chapters on places, people, events “between the lines,” so to
speak, or a topic which crosses historical periods. An example would be a topic I’ve thought of for quite a few years and
that would be a book tentatively titled: “Doing Time: Creative Work in Jail.” I’ve collected some books and possible
authors. One chapter could be “Fictional Incarceration” such as The Count of Monte Christo. Chapters or sections could
be “Creative Work,” and “Productive Work,” stories about how people maintained their sanity through projects. “The Bird
Man of Alcatraz” would be an example. A TV show example would be “Boneyards,” stories of how our manufactured
world gets recycled, cut up, or moved.
October 19 Monday Sunny and Fall - upper 50s. didn’t freeze yet
•Revised the AR book chapter and sent it to the editor, making the October 21
deadline.
•Printing out AECT materials for next week’s roundtable and Teaching ID session
(copies of syllabi for graduate and undergraduate ID courses).
•Revised IDT master’s flyer for AECT packet
•Downloaded IVLA audio from digital audio recorder to GarageBand for
notetaking and revision of IVLA paper.
Distractions: In the mail from Amazon (bending over now), I received a copy of
Grant’s Memoirs which I have always wanted to read, having heard that this is
one of the best memoirs of his soldiering year ever written. 800 pages. Yikes.
Looking forward to diving into it, though.
Also received a 2003 release of The Sky Moves Sideways (original 1995) by the
British progressive group Porcupine Tree. Reviewers make frequent references to
Pink Floyd, but I see them as part jacked-up Tangerine Dream, Jade Warrior as
well. What progressive rock is doing today, rather than relying on the 60s and 70s
material. Now I have 2 of their ten albums, the most recent being The Incident,
which I’ve been listening to quite a bit. Very satisfying.
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Fall Outdoors
Nearly the end of the growing season. I would expect the killing frost tonight. The backyard bushes are nearly all red and
the hostas continue to die back. The front yard retains some color on the perennial wildflowers, while the neighbor’s red
map drops many of its leaves on the driveway. This past summer I extended the landscaping into the backyard so I have
a reasonable bed to showcase items, including tulips, daylillies, some herbs, black-eyed susans, a tall perennial grass,
the Japanese maple and some annuals. I did a major pruning of the shrubs overhanging the back fence, including a
wicked holly bush. Most of the cuttings have been recycled or hauled away. Next year I want to expand and move the
garden plot about 10 feet to the west. I also am ready to install a small stone patio in the yard surrounded by lilacs. I can
see in my mind the perimeter brick effect, like the one on the other side of the yard.
Left: circled area encloses where the stone patio will go next year. Lilacs at the back and to the
right (hidden). Perimeter of this area will be bounded by bricks, like the bed to the right of the
yard. Moving the 4 x 8 foot garden plot to the left (west) and enlarging it for next spring. I’ll have
to do much of this in mid-to-late May or mid-June.
October 20 Tuesday Administrivia
AM: Out at 7 am to do one of those multiphasic
screenings, the one where you have to fast for 9
hours and appear like a zombie to get your blood
taken. Administrivia printing out email attachments,
another dissertation to review, submit travel
expenses for Chicago, monitor spring 2010 course
enrollment, which began today. Monitor last minute
intern observation scheduling problems. Made
reservations for November 3-5 at the Mountain Quest
Institute, a retreat center in southern WV, a place to work!
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My college years. I was thinking last night about the differences in my college experiences from those of the young
teachers who work their way through a dual degree, five year program. The year 4 students in this program, known as
Participants, pretty much lose their life to the program and can’t really be “seniors” like their friends who major in other
programs. The upside is that they have more work experience. In some ways the 5-year program is similar to cooperative
education where students alternate semesters between school and a work assignment. Students in years 3, 4, and 5
spend an increasing amount of time in public school, tutoring and observing in year 3, teaching isolated lessons in year
4, and full-time internship in the fall semester of year 5. Students are kept busy with coursework and practicum
assignments. They submit three portfolios over this time, as well as conduct action research for their master’s degree.
They receive a bachelor’s degree in their content area.
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology (1971-1972). My
college years were spread out over 30 years. I spent one full year
at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City,
South Dakota. As an electrical engineering major I took the usual
courses. The school was all science and engineering and few
women, although about 30 of the on-campus females lived one
floor above me. The place was known as being able to place all
graduates in a job. More recently, the web page claims that a
grad’s starting salary was larger than what it cost to go there. I got
behind in my calculus course earning an F. Yes, really. It was years
before I could admit this. My problem was two fold: (1) everyone in my section had had pre-calc in high school. I had four
years of math, but not pre-calc, so the math concepts were difficult for me to master. (2) Although a GTA taught the
course, the real problem was that I went for help only once. My best grade on a test was a 76. I repeated the course and
earned a B, and I probably learned the concepts better than those who went on to Calculus II with a D. This was a
humbling experience for someone who was 6th in his graduating class. My GPA at the end of the first semester was a
dismal 2-something. I pulled it up to a 3.06 by the end of the second semester. I learned how to drink coffee. Another of
my problems was that I was not all that motivated by engineering, but more of a science guy, and I thought of
transferring to the University of Wyoming for in-state tuition and majoring in biochemistry.
KTEQ (1972). I was further side-tracked by my interest in
radio announcing. I had been a radio announcer since the
age of 16 so by the time I was finishing up my first year of
college I actually had 3 years of work experience. In the
second semester I got out a bit more, moved to a new
dorm, and became the station manager of KTEQ, the
campus radio station. I was around a bunch of geeks, me
included, some very smart people I might add. The station
still operates. It was a good time.
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Radio Engineering School (1972). That next summer I spent 7
weeks in Huntington Beach, California at the William B. Ogden Radio
Operational Engineering School where I studied and passed two FCC
exams, basically earning me the ability to be the chief engineer of any
radio or TV station in North America. Very intense experience going to
school every day, yes, every day for 7 weeks. Nothing to do with
announcing, just electronics. Ironically, the math portions of the FCC
exam were the easiest for me. That summer was unbelievable. To get a
sense for what 7 weeks was like at 5075 Warner Avenue, check out
this link:
http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/ogdens%20ross%20story.html
Probably THE hardest educational program I’ve ever survive, a trade school. Check out the link - humorous, brought
back memories. I almost cried when I read this web page. Ogden had this saying: "Accomplishment of the difficult tends
to show what men are." I have so many stories about this place. Almost happy hour stories. I was there summer of 1972.
It closed a year later when the FCC de-regulated the broadcast industry and de-valued the whole licensing effort. So sad.
I still value the FCC First-Class Radiotelephone license very highly. I did cry when I got the acceptance card in the mail.
This experience was very demanding. That 1200 question test Ogden administered I took three times. You could only
miss 25. I know several announcers who went here. We have this place in common and it’s a powerful bond. I have my
group photo somewhere. To the right was the list of the electronics content covered by the school. I have that sheet
somewhere.
Syn-Aud-Con (1980-1981?). A very intense educational experience, sometime in the early 1980sl. The words stand for
Synergetic Audio Concepts. I attended two seminars, sound system engineering as it was known at the time, and a
special seminar discussing Time-Delay-Spectrometry, a technology developed by Richard C. Heyser of JPL. The
seminars were always intense, detailed, organized, practical, hands-on, and so very interesting. In addition, there were
quarterly tech topics newsletters that were loaded with ideas and advice on audio matters. I still have all of my materials,
including the collected audio-related papers of Heyser. I still have the notes from the Heyser seminar as well. I remember
still the first morning’s session, which was heavy on math. There were groans in the
audience. “This is easiest part,” he said. He was brilliant. Audio was his hobby.
The intense workshop experience stayed with me as a favorite instructional
approach, although I have yet to put it into practice. Some of the audio skills were
put into place with a few funded projects in sound system installation, including
two systems in a Best Western lounge and restaurant, sound reinforcement (e.g.,
we did the sound system for the Amazing Kreskin), and two radio station moves in
24 hours. Probably the most technical I’ve been in my life. Nice break from the
training program production I was doing at the same.
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Community College. While living in Gillette from 1972-1984, I also attended Sheridan College and took courses at the
Gillette Branch campus: Environmental Biology (twice, on purpose). Astronomy. Management. Marketing. I think that was
about it. Kept me from getting too school-stale. OK experiences. I took the Biology course twice because it was taught
by Paul Lussow, my high school biology teacher, and the final exam was an overnight field trip in the Big Horn Mountains
and staying at his cabin.
PM: The story of my Virginia Tech 15 years and 3 degrees is too much to think or write about at the moment. A horrible
headache, one of the worst I’ve ever had. After some rest and some minor abatement of the headache, i picked up my
latest read, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. I had read two of this books this summer. Had this idea
during the reading that during November when I tackle “Road Trip,” a fictional visit of the ten towns I have lived in, that I
might include ten chapters of me in first person voice and re-create scenes from living there. Not a summary of living
there, but a scene which would capture the essence of having lived there. And then write 10 chapters reflecting on my
time there but also meeting fictional characters during the visits. So, there are two parallel narratives going on. This helps
my writing strategies for this project.
October 21 Wednesday Intern Observation at Wilsonburg Elementary, Harrison County, WV
Out the door by 7 am for a 40 minute drive to Clarksburg, WV and Wilsonburg Elementary. Observed a fifth year intern
teaching pre-school. Only 10 of 18 children were in school due to flu-like illness. Megan can be see on the
acknowledgments page. She was in my EDUC 400 course last fall.
Left: Megan introducing preschool students to the letter D using a range of strategies
across 30 minutes. Right: Afterwards, Megan gives students a choice of their learning
station. Here several students begin to paint on newsprint.
For observations I fill out a 2-page form while observing. This document goes to the intern, host teacher, and site
coordinator and gets submitted to Sarah in the Benedum Office in early December. This is a time when the site
coordinator de-briefs with Sarah on practicum matters that semester and especially intern performance. I also shoot FLIP
video and still images with my Canon and give to interns. They can use the footage to edit their digital portfolio video and
use images for other parts of the portfolio and for action research, if relevant.
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Yesterday was a useful day:
(1) Multiphasic screening, (2) discovered URL for Radio Operational Engineering School site (summer 1972) which I
attended, (3) thought of a writing strategy for “Road Trip” and (4) made registrations for the Mountain Quest Institute for 3
nights in November. I would have been more productive if it wasn’t for the terrible migraine - must have been a migraine.
Don’t get those very often, but this was debilitating. Oh, and (5) one of my courses filled up in one day:
This happens for a good reason each spring. I try to provide a good course experience in EDUC 400, a senior-level
course. A year later, these students will be in a fifth year master’s program, the 5-year teacher ed program. They have
two electives to take. I offer two courses: EDP 740 Principles of Instruction and IDT 693p Visual Literacy (12 in there so
far). In past years I have had 52, 48, and 46 students in 740, an online delivery. WAY TOO MANY to pay attention to in a
quality way. Still, my highest and best course evaluations have occurred from this online course. Why? There ARE
reasons that I might explain later, if I remember. So, five good results from yesterday. Today?
In addition to the observation today, I transferred the video to a PC and MAC laptops as both machines “see” the video
differently, and I need to make copies for the intern. I listed the priorities for work next week at the AECT conference and
the following week at the Mountain Quest Institute.
TIME FOR AN ASIDE: Sourcing that Kissinger quote about academic politics. The following text found at:
http://ask.metafilter.com/80812/Academic-politics-are-vicious-because-the-stakes-are-so-low
“ACADEMIC politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small.” This observation is routinely attributed to former
Harvard professor Henry Kissinger. Well before Kissinger got credit for that thought in the mid-1970s, however, Harvard political
scientist Richard Neustadt told a reporter, “Academic politics is much more vicious than real politics. We think itʼs because the
stakes are so small.” Others believe this quip originated with political scientist Wallace Sayre, Neustadtʼs onetime colleague at Columbia University. A 1973 book gave as “Sayreʼs Law,” “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of
the stakes at issue—that is why academic politics are so bitter.” Sayreʼs colleague and coauthor Herbert Kaufman said his usual
wording was “The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low.” In his 1979 book Peterʼs People, Laurence
Peter wrote, “Competition in academia is so vicious because the stakes are so small.” He called this “Peterʼs Theory of Entrepreneurial Aggressiveness in Higher Education.” Variations on that thought have also been attributed to scientist-author C. P. Snow,
professor-politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and politician Jesse Unruh (among others). According to the onetime editor of
Woodrow Wilsonʼs papers, however, long before any of them strode the academic-political scene, Wilson observed often that the
intensity of academic squabbles he witnessed while president of Princeton University was a function of the “triviality” of the issues
being considered.
I'm not sure what discipline you're in (and so what counts as a 'decent' cite) but Stanley Fish wrote a funny piece way back called
"The Unbearable Ugliness of Volvos" which discussed how academics were, at heart, pretty miserable resentful people. Quotes
include "Academics like to eat shit, and in a pinch, they don't care whose shit they eat."
Fish, S. The Unbearable Ugliness of Volvos." There's No Such Thing as Free Speech. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. 273-79.
It's discussed here:
http://www.theminnesotareview.org/journal/ns52/fish.htm
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October 22 Thursday Intern Observations at Watson Elementary, Marion County, WV
8.30 am through 12.30 pm at Watson Elementary, an open-classroom school. There’s actually 3 of these in the 31
school Benedum Collaborative. The last of 7 intern observations for 2009. I shoot video clips as well and have a lesson
plan, so I can provide a data-based reference for their first job. These interns are my key people that I pay attention to.
Left: Lindsey using the digital whiteboard for letter sounds, recognition, and order in kindergarten classroom.
Incredibly focused and organized. The open classroom makes it difficult to work sometimes, and the technology needs to be wired into the ceiling.
Middle: Ashley, special education major, working with children from other classes, using digital whiteboard to
help students practice word recognition (strategies used: review, charades, scrambled words). Both Ashley
and Kimberly were in my Fall 2008 EDUC 400 section, so I knew these two interns well. Ashley has an interesting life history. Let’s just say she wanted to be in the 5-year program. She has a wide range of challenging
students in this elementary school. Reading her weekly blog is an eye-opener. I admire this student and person very much.
Right: Kimberly in 3rd grade, teaching a science lesson (1 hr 15 min) using stations to develop inquiry skills.
Here Kimberly has students wear Latex gloves rubbed in Crisco and plunging their hands in ice water for 10
seconds. Students answer 3 inquiry questions. Wonderful energy in this classroom. Other stations 3rd graders quietly on task. A lot of this environment is due to the teaching decisions of the host teacher. I talked to
her for a while about what made “3rd graders,” changes in the school, and openness (but not by others) on
co-teaching.
Cindy: Meanwhile, Cindy was in Ohio with Barb to discuss setting up a 2+2 program with Belmont Technical College,
one of the country’s top technical historical preservation programs. Students would be coming to WVU to get a
bachelor’s in Design Studies.
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October 23 Friday
Back to the rain for two days. Final raking of the leaves
before rain begins their breakdown. They must all move
somehow down to the Mon River. Where do leaves go?
Looking ahead to AECT Conference next week. Two
sessions at a minimum. Working on ETR&D developmental
research paper. Preparations for that completed. Starting
to look ahead to the Mountain Quest visit and working on
fiction in the morning, Future Design/papers/courses in the
afternoon.
National Novel Writing Month begins in one week! I have
two, yes, two, 50,000 word projects planned out. Totally
insane. Some work on “Moon Ladies.” These things don’t
write themselves.
America: short-sighted, narrow in thought, polarized by
difference, angry. Am I wrong here? Is it possible for
America to be pro-active in planning, accommodate
difference, and take responsibility for its actions from birth
to death, from breakfast to dinner, from neighborhood
schools to Afghanistan? I find it hard not to be cynical.
A doctoral student “popped” up this morning. Had to
check her time-out status and review her prospectus. Gave
her f/back within a few hours of her note.
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October 24-25 Homecoming Weekend
“Many of us who walk to and fro upon our usual tasks are prisoners drawing mental maps of escape”
- Loren Eiseley
Decided to rename the future “Road Trip” novella to “There and Back”. Not sure if this will be the final title. Read last
Sunday’s New York Times. Watched some DVDs. Fired up the Keurig for another season of aftern (gourmet/
expensive coffee). Rain overnight. A lot of leaves falling. Just past peak but still a lot of muted color around the
area. Mild weather, 60s. WVU wins their Homecoming game, always helpful for campus morale.
Slow dance. Last night I dreamt of an iPod app that I would call “Slow Dance.” I was thinking about a graduate who
was not having a good day. I sent her a note saying “you need a slow dance,” meaning something more than a hug.
And I defined a slow dance as “spending time with someone in a special place while at the same time living in the
world.” Then I thought about about many of the teacher ed students and graduates who have boyfriends or husbands in Iraq, and wouldn’t it be a great iPod app if they were able to dance together. Take a snapshot using the
iPhone camera feature or grab a face from a photo and match with a list of avatars, then select their favorite song. I
don’t know if this app would be possible. The key insight is thinking about “what do my graduates need?”
October 26 Monday before car travel to AECT Conference
Haircut, packing, email, cindy’s birthday, lawnmowing...nothing exciting, just necessary Monday prep for conference
travel.
October 27-31 Tuesday through Saturday - AECT Conference
The national IDT conference that I haven’t attended since Chicago a few
years ago. The major purpose of the conference is to “reconnect with my
field.” Wednesday I attended a 3.5 hour session on IDT research topics and
IDT programs. Pretty much a mini-PIDT event. PIDT stands for Professors of
Instructional Design and Technology, who meet usually every May in either
Smith Mountain Lake, VA or Estes Park, Colorado. I’ve attended several of
these “summer camps for IDT professors.” Informal settings and a lot of
reflective activity occurs. An efficient use of the morning, as I met quite a few
faculty members that I have known over the years.
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The big plus of this conference is re-connecting with many Virginia Tech graduates who I went to school with, attended
many conferences, somehow got through graduate school. Generally, a successful group and making an impact, each in
their own way.
Me with Bill and Lee from East Caro-
Karen and Vicki from Colorado State Univer-
Pam, one of my doc students here at
lina University. I roomed with Bill at
sity. I’ve known Karen for many years, having
WVU. One of the more enthusiastic
EERA some years ago. Lee is a VT
first met her at IVLA. Very likable, single par-
students I have known. Just loves to
grad, a musician. All around good
ent Mom. She did her graduate work at U. of
learn. At prospectus stage. Ginger is at
guy. He finished up as I was getting
Wyoming. Being a Wyoming native...
Old Dominion University. We talked in
started in grad school.
the hallway for a good hour and met so
many people while we chatted.
I graduated the same year with
I did not know Ross that well
Another shot with Lee and Marc, another VT
Jared, who is now at Idaho
while at VT, but having both
grad at Emporia State in Kansas. Karen
State University. We attended
been there we have much in
crashed this picture, she does add a lot to
our first PIDT together in 1999.
common.
any picture, and the 3 of us would agree.
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Tom and Debbie. I worked with Tom for
15 years as VT in video production. I
could write a book about these times
and experiences. Debbie was in the doc
program after I left. She’s at the NASA
program at Wheeling-Jesuit University.
Lee again along with Barb
in their typical acting
poses. These two went
through the program together. I finished a few
years after Barb but we
I don’t know these two well, but recognized
them. We are survivors of PT3 grants, which
is its own story. One of my favorite photos
because I got to meet them again after
many years and we had this very difficult
grant program set of stories.
had some of the same
classes together.
Thursday was roundtable day. The rain went away today with some sun and 70
degrees. More rain Friday and Saturday. Both IVLA and AECT had rain in the
mix. I loved Friday, as I got to see Ruth Gannon-Cook, who I met somewhere
around 1996 at Invisible College/AERA. We hit it off pretty well from the start.
Graduate work at University of Houston, Clear Lake, now working at DePaul
University in Chicago. Early in the sabbatical you might recall that I wrote an
external review letter for her tenure review. Staning in a hallway about 12.30 pm,
as I waiting to do my roundtable session, there she was with short hair. A cancer
survivor. She thought she was presenting Friday, but I had found her name in the
program and said, “Ruth, you are presenting at 1.00 pm in about 20 minutes!
She had just arrived and hadn’t registered yet, so I showed her where she was
to go. So I got through the roundtable with this event in mind, plus
meeting the Hua (see picture). All 3 of us teach online, so we
agreed to try and put something together on this.
LEFT: Hua from SUNY Potsdam, applied for our IDT
The only option afterwards is that Ruth and I had a beer.
rience. I wish we could hire everybody. Met her at my
position. Good English, research agenda, teaching experoundtable, but frequently throughout the conference.
She was so stressed out about the job. She really wanted
to come to WVU. Anguish.
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The conference already was a success from this point forward. I had
met Ruth at an Invisible College session at AERA, but can’t place the
exact place or year. I met her again at AECT, 2000, in Houston, where
she was still a graduate student at the University of Houston at Clear
Lake. She’s now at Purdue. The woman to the right is Katheine Lei,
or Kat, as we call her now at UH-Clear Lake. She did her work at
Florida State. She’s a dynamo in her own right and being around
these two incredible women is success in my book. She also knows
her beers.
Nichole and Lisa, two grad students
Ronglei Chen, and IDT master’s
A group of us walked 4 blocks from
from Arizona State, who made me stand
student from WVU, who had pre-
the hotel to Fourth Street an enter-
up and talk about my roundtable topic
sented a paper on her Second Life
tainment area, where we ate dinner
before the session started. Clever, I told
work here. I was proud of her for
at a British pub plus heard Eddie
them later. But we talked several times,
attending. We had 3 faculty and 2
Money entertaining on the street.
making them eligible for a photo. I also
grad students here. Not too bad.
talked up my mentoring book, which I
Ronglei had survived my ID course,
agreed to send them (PDF) file for free,
so she was ready for this.
as no one should suffer during tenure-
One of my sabbatical goals was to re-introduce myself to my field, and AECT is an efficient place for that. Attending PIDT
in Estes Park in May would be a good second step, if I can manage it between graduation and our early June cruise. The
roundtable presentation was really the price for admission. The real activity is attending some sessions, receptions, and
spending time with people in those sessions, in the hallway, and at meals. I’m really an introvert but nobody believes me
anymore.
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Some of the major issues that I heard at AECT 2009 in Louisville was teaching online, online programs, and that nobody
wants to come to campus anymore. Also, thin travel budgets, but I’ve always thought that money for travel was
secondary. I’m probably in the minority here. I think you have to show up. I’ve shown up now for 70 conferences in 15
years, so I could do with one less conference, but what I learned is how much I miss VT alumni but also those that I’ve
known from conferences over the year. Finding new people to work with is a good idea. All I want from academia is to be
able to work with people I like and respect, and maybe have some say in the work that I do. My accomplishments so far
at WVU has been to really, really learn about new and experienced teachers, and to invest in public schools. The payoff
has been trust from these teachers, which is no easy deal. I also have gained a positive student enrollment and a
reputation for decent teaching. Good teaching has meant courses with clear purposes/activities/assessment, “doable”
given the constraints of a semester and where the students are in their program and lives, and relevant content and
activities. Clarity, doability, and relevance.
I also was reminded in my observations and listening that I have to continually remind myself about what “studentcentered” is about. For example, I’ve resisted Twitter as one too many social networking things to do. But watching a
session on its use, I reminded myself that Twitter is where students are at. I could see using it as a program-support tool,
rather than course tool, as I’m a good replier on email and I think that tool is sufficient.
Social networking, of course, was a major topic, but I sensed that IDT programs with an ed psych background will be
served best, as ed psych keeps a program and students and faculty “grounded” in foundations, what we’ve worked hard
to find out. Some programs are far apart in terms of IDT and Educational Psychology. Graduating from an ed psychbased IDT program has made all the difference for me. In my first years at WVU this meant attending two meetings a
month, but with the evolution of EDP/Technology Education (TE) to IDT has reduced this two-worlds problem. As IDT
program coordinator I’ve tried to keep the entire department where we live together in IDT decisions.
Dinner with mostly an Arizona State con-
Pam, my doc students, who saved
Ugur, Pam, and me, three out of the 4 WVU
nected group, but pollinated with others. A
money by being an intern volunteer. We
IDT faculty members at AECT.
nice mix and a good example of what con-
had lunch together - an advising session
ferencing is really all about.
400 miles away. Misty was my table
server at breakfast and lunch. A “threeday affair,” I joked. “But she’s always
working.” My humor. I’m really an introvert.
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday was travel day in the rain. A 7 hour trip with several stops. I thought I would
never get home, as I drove through rain most of the day, but the last 90 minutes was
dry, which helped a lot. Halloween. Dogs love it. Runs from 5.30 to 6.30 pm here. There
is one human truth to conferencing and travel in general: “It’s always good to be home.”
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Fiction is taking strange truths and making them into less stranger lies.
- Padgett Powell
Sunday is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month where one attempts to write 50,000 words. I succeeded last
November even with an active fall semester schedule.
After noon today I sat down and typed in my 1667 word daily writing minimum for each of the two novellas. Each was
written in an hour - much faster than last year when I really wasn’t sure what I was doing. The primary story is “Last
Summer” about four adolescent geeks/outsiders. The secondary story is “There and Back” and has me revisiting the ten
towns I have lived in (the fictional part) and writing about that, then writing a reflective scene from my memory of living in
that town (the true part, more or less). You’re not meant to be able to read the text below. Author’s prerogative, but really
mean to visually demonstrate that I actually wrote these words. Daily writing is about 3-4 pages, depending on the
amount of dialogue present.
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November 2 Monday Getting Ready for Another Trip
Getting ready for my tue-friday stay at Mountain Quest Institute where I work on papers and courses. So, not much rest
really. Dissertation comments submitted. IVLA paper mailed out tomorrow. Weekly list of writing projects. Day 2 of novella
writing: 3400 words for each book project (on target). IDT flyer draft pages received for review.
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November 3 Tuesday Travel to Mountain Quest Institute
Met Courtney at Starbucks in Bridgeport on the road south to Mountain Quest. Damn, I didn’t get a picture of us.
Graduate from 2006 - we’ve stayed in touch. She’s working as an intervention specialist in the afternoons. She’s also
pregnant, probably a childhood dream much like being married was a lifetime wish. Probably my favorite graduate.
Mountain Quest Institute is south of Elkins, maybe 90 minutes on 2-lane up and down and just past a little town called
Frost, WV. I’m staying in the Scholar’s Room on the second floor at the edge of the two-floor lodging building. At an early
dinner with four retired educators (3 principals and 1 retired guidance counselor) working for the state and going around
explaining to students and parents career information. Took a few pictures of the grounds before dinner. Managed my
novel quotas, although they took till midnight to reach. A full two days here. The plan is novel writing in the morning and
academic projects in the afternoon, interspersed with walking around the place and eating. Alex(andra) and David Bennet
own the place - life long learners if there ever were a pair. The son is the chef. Alex was a knowledge management
specialist with the Navy, while David was a physicist. Both developed this place as a quiet retreat from DC and research
knowledge and change management, conduct workshops, etc. Cindy and faculty from her department spent several
days here under their guidance for the purpose of re-examining program purposes and faculty agendas. Surprisingly, I
was able to tap a wireless signal from the main building. I didn’t communicate with anyone - just eager to delete what I
could from email.
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November 4 Wednesday Frost here in Frost, WV. A full moon in the morning.
Breakfast with the 4 educators who take off around 8 am. I grab the laptop and head for the Library, which deserves a
capital letter. Only pictures can express the wonderful surroundings to get some of the fiction work done in the morning.
It’s so quiet in the Library that I stopped keyboarding wondering what that water sound was. It was the fan motor in my
laptop. Your brain can so free-wheel here, that you need a plan for working before you enter this place. This is what I
wrote Cindy in a morning email:
OK, we need a Library. And you know what capitalizing this word means! Or a space like this. Is it possible? I'm sittin
on one of the couches in that room, about ready to crank out my daily fiction output. I managed to meet my quota for
yesterday, but it took till midnight to accomplish it. This place is intense by itself, so the half day here helped to get my
bearing with the place and settle in and settle down. Although the place is DEAD quiet at night, there's a vibration
that's operating. There's a wireless signal in the buildings and the Scholar's Room is close enough to pick it up, but
it's being that much of a distraction. Off and working. frost this morning. chilly. layers.
The stillness and self-directedness could fry your brain, as most of
us are not used to such an environment where the decisions are
totally yours. Of course, this is what money is for. I managed the
fiction writing for Day 4 of the National Novel Writing Month. I’m on
target. This assumes that I write this rate for each day. I need to get
ahead pretty soon, as there will be a day or set of days
(Thanksgiving) where I can’t manage the quota.
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November 5 Thursday, last full day at MQI
Here’s an email to Cindy that summarizes the start of today:
The power went out for 2 hours in the night but I was under covers so I didn't notice, but the main house was cold. Then
the power went off just as I said to Andrew: bacon, eggs, and toast, BUT the coffee was brewed. Came back on within
the hour. I was sitting in the Library (library with a capital L) when the power came back, and the piano went off playing a
tune. I was expecting the toy soldier to begin talking to me. I used this moment in one of my stories that I was writing:
visiting Buffalo, Wyoming I sat down on a park bench with two elderly gentlemen, much like they used to do in the old
days when Lula Belle's was still in business. However, the responses to my queries were actually programmed audio these two were in fact robots planted there by the Chamber of Commerce for the benefit of tourists. Of course, this is
probably not true, but you never know and my fictional return to the 10 Cities I've lived in will likely produce more lies.
I had a lonely guy breakfast as I was the only guest on the grounds, but I chatted with Andrew when I could and David
came down and we talked at the table for an hour or so about epigenetics, what happens to genes other than DNA, and
the related topic being in the Navy. Alex escorted me to the file room of the office where all of their writings were archived
and said take what you want. Fortunately, she pointed me to two file cabinets that she thought I would be interested in.
So I have 15-20 articles that we can cite in our Design Thinking avenue. I've tried to share where we are at in all that. Alex
gave me a copy of their hardback book, if I would send her the ID text. Probably send them all 3 books.
So I'm halfway through "Last Summer" Day 5 and need to get back to it. But I'm in the Library (library with a capital L)
and fully ensconced in the environs. What a place. What a place. PS: there are also flies here. What are flies for anyway?
Fiction. Finished Day 5 of National Novel Writing Month, over 8500 words on both projects.
See my writing status pictured in the graph. The gold is my progress against the minimum
needed for 30 days. Actually writing two books at the same time just to see if I can do it.
Cloudy and cool today. Sun for tomorrow’s return. I’ll be ready to go home, I’m sure. I was
thinking today that I’ve really had a wonderful two weeks at AECT and here at MQI. Being
gone for most of two weeks keeps me from home, but the good news is that I have home to
go home to.
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ETR&D. Reading the Design and Development Research book on Model Research and realizing that this paper could be
about the additional study of the reflexive teaching model.
Design Thinking. Developed this visual organizer for the next 3 pages; next to write would be the NOVA and the
DESIGN journal papers. The IDEC paper is being considered as a conference paper. The work that would go into the
IDEC paper will go also in the NOVA/DESIGN papers. Both of these have parallel outlines.
November 6 Friday Return Home
Working for a few minutes or an hour in the Library (with a capital L) for the last time, at least for this trip. Unique place
and for us it’s probably an ideal place. We can emulate some of its features at home. I wonder what will happen to our
house and to us as a result? Back to novel writing, Day 6 10,200 words X 2 novels.
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IMPORTANT: Over the time here I did get some fiction done and I got 2 articles organized and the ETR&D article
conceptually thought though, but the real accomplishment of the time at MQI was seeing what serious work and
serious scholars look like, and the courage it takes to make the decisions to commit to serious work. It was
good to be home after two pretty amazing weeks for me.
November 7 Saturday HOME
Got in my 3400 words for the two books. There’s 2 Morgantown “write-in’s” scheduled for this Tuesday and Sunday.
Next Sunday will be halfway through the month. Should be at 25,000 words. I reach 12,000 words for each book today.
We walk the neighborhood today delivering 2 packages mistakenly delivered to our house. Watching the WVU game on
TV and browsing through last Sunday’s New York Times. Cindy looked online for a reconditioned VHS-DVD recorder to
move some of our home-grown VHS tapes to DVD’s. Next week’s evening schedule filled for Monday (East Park
students/site coordinator), Tuesday (write-in at Barnes & Noble), and Wednesday (need to confirm with Heather, an 09
graduate for a dinner at the Beanery).
November 8 Cindy’s Birthday
Birthday day: breakfast, walking with the dogs on the Mon River Trail, eating with the dogs at the nearest Sonic Drive In,
driving back for presents, out for a movie (The Christmas Carol), simple dinner meal, and an evening dance (“Sacred
Trust” by the Bee Gees). I’m 3400 words behind as of today, but I’ll try to catch up tomorrow.
November 9 Monday Week 12 of the Semester
Week: Cindy’s getting ready for an accreditation meeting period Friday through Monday. I’ll
be jumping on the NOVA and Design papers, plus trying to get a final outline for the
ETR&D paper.
My Monday: Processing email. Back to the BowFlex in the AM. Also managed to catch
up this morning on the word count (15,000+) for the “Last Summer” story. Cranked out
3400 words on “There and Back,” so I’m caught up from not writing on Sunday. How did I
do that? So a total of 4000 words today.
Tonight, met with 7 interns and teacher education site coordinator
from East Park Elementary in Marion County. One of my favorite
schools, one of my favorite site coordinators (winking buddies),
and interns. Working on the interns’ spring contract details where
they give back to the school 135 hours of activity. Dinner with them
at the Beanery. Each of the 7 are to develop a theme for their own
professional development that they share with the schools they’ve
taught in for 3 years. These are 5-year students in the dual-degree
teacher education program at WVU. I like these kind of events as
teachers get a chance to be together and talk about their day.
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November 10 Tuesday Morgantown Wrimo’s Write-In at Barnes & Noble
Home: First thing today was clean out the gutter over the garage. Full of leaves and
muck. Less full of leaves and muck. Packed up books and video tapes, preparing for
the window installation the first week of December.
IDT program: needed to chime in on my choice for the IDT Online Master’s Program
flyer.
Email: scheduling Rivesville Participant (year 4) observations for next week; updating
Contract Hours form and sending to Sarah and Kristi. Daily printing of certain email’s
and routing to files or TO-DO lists.
Novels: now want to average 4000 words a day, just about the 3400 minimum I need
for daily writing of the two short novels. Now up to 17,000 for each, 1/3 of the way. The Write-In attracted only 4 people,
2 of us had word counts, and the other two had just signed up today. Was not that productive but interesting in meeting
real people. The only way to accomplish Novel Writing Month is to start, then finish. It’s a brutally honest event. Not many
can do it. Maybe 10% of the 100,000 people who sign up finish with 50,000
words.
November 11 Wednesday Writing Writing Writing - Meeting 09 Graduate
Writing: Early morning ideas on moving “Last Summer” forward in an uplifting,
surprising way. Now I’m beginning to really think and obsess about the story. I
need this after Week 1 in order to move this story in a way that I want. The
image to the right is a hand-written screen capture of the weekly Nano peptalk.
FYI. I don’t thiink that writing by hand would work for many on this challenge. I
think the points are valid, but who’s got time to transcribe? Both Cindy and I
are obsessing: she has an accreditation visit this weekend while I have two
short novels to write. Today’s 4000 words were difficult for “Last Summer” as it
pulled on my imagination quite a bit. I sputtered for a while, but in 2 hours had
my word count and some emergent story features. For “There and Back” I
focused on Newcastle, Wyoming, but mostly my fears as a child. Again, fiction
writing forces my brain to work differently, and provides an example of doing versus
preaching.
IDT: The final version of the IDT online master’s flyer is now in the Dean’s office.
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09 Graduate Reunion at The Beanery (again)
I met Heather over 2 years ago when she joined the Leadership Team of
ESGA. She also took my Visual Literacy course spring 2009, plus I observed
her teaching at Watson Elementary. Met her folks twice. Now has an
assistantship to get a second master’s in reading. We had a wonderful two
hours at The Beanery eating grilled cheese and fries, one of her favorite
dishes. One of my favorite graduates (from ’09). I asked Heather in class once
to try and not smile. She can’t do it. Spending time with graduates is one of
my hobbies and favorite activities. So 2 nights this week at The Beanery.
November 12 Thursday Taking Stock of the Fiction Writing.
Fiction: Ran an errand at the Credit Union and stopped at Starbucks to work through some story issues. What I laid out
was a story trajectory to Part II of the first book and added sections for the second book. I’m not wedded to any of these
decisions, but I am at Day 12 a bit anxious about getting from 19,000 to 50,000 words, and working on the academic
projects. As of 11 am I haven’t typed any words, but I did need a slight break in the routine, as I was starting to feel
counter productive working the same grind, but this is the sort of discipline one has to maintain to write any lengthy
books. The discipline transfers over to the academic side as well in terms of focused work, clear agendas, and handling
different genres of writing in my head. Managed the 4000 words again, but still feeling my way through the middle part of
book one. Book two is more a recall at the moment.
Papers: Elaborated on PPT the Design Thinking
papers organizer worked out at Mountain Quest.
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November 13 Friday
Working in B&N to try a new location to get my wordcount in,
especially for “Last Summer.” Managed it by 10.00 am, so 2000
words in less than an hour. Still, I haven’t moved across the
trajectory or the story arc in the middle part of the story - the Future.
Maybe the surroundings will help. The image to the right is a
wordcloud, one of the app’s found on the Nano site suitable for
procrastination. I pasted a paragraph from the story and the app
provides a visual placement of the words sans common English
words. I was hoping the wireless was working but no luck for some
reason. Below are four images that visualize the thinking over two days of the decisions on the middle part of the book,
about 25,000 words. I don’t expect a reader to make sense of these images. The message here is that one has to work
through writing schemes, and that each writer has a different approach. In this case, moving to a different physical place
and writing out my thinking (top left to right, bottom left to right).
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Reality check: My Mother had a mild heart attack yesterday and she’s resting at home on medication and waiting for
the symptoms to go away. So that’s sobering news on this Friday. Finishing writing around 2 pm. Maybe just putz
around would be the right thing to do or read. STOPPING would be good.
Yesterday I ordered 2 more Porcupine Tree CDs. I just like their form of progressive rock. I need some new music.
Today at Barnes and Noble I purchased the latest Prog Rock magazine published in England with Sampler #4, not as
interesting as the #2 and #3 that I have. Still the magazine is very satisfying. Also purchased the latest Monocle
magazine, also published in England - gives me perspective outside of this country. Graphic design is excellent as well.
Finally, I purchased the latest Stephen King novel, Under the Dome, 1072 pages, a huge and heavy book. I tend to like
his sequential, emergent approach. I like how patient he is in building suspense and terror. His first lines are the following:
“From two thousand fee, where Claudette Sanders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester Mill gleamed in the
morning light like something freshly made and just set down.” This is patience. There is nothing on the fly leaf of the book
to explain what the book is about and the author. Nothing. There is honesty about writing fiction. You either do it or you
don’t. You’re good at it from doing it a long time and working at it, not just doing it. I’ve just started. I like King’s honesty
about writing and his honesty with his readers. What else do you need?
Attic Office Layout
1 Record storage, archive of professional and personal writing project,
CD storage, and Future Design references, big format books, current
tenure notebooks. 2 Glasstop desks, ontop are piles for current projects. 3 2 MacBookPro’s, one for work, one for creative projects, Keurig
coffee machine, various bins for storage 4 main iMac with microphone
and keyboard input (not shown), above references, working logs,
framed pictures of favorite graduates, 4 bin systems underneath main
desk for writing projects (conferences, papers, creative projects).
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Serious work requires a serious workspace.
“people spend as much time understanding what they are doing as actually doing it.”
Michael Schrage, Shared Minds: The new technologies of collaboration. New York, Random
House, pp. 32-33.
November 14 Saturday
Sun’s out, working on the wordcount quota for Saturday. Having difficulty
pulling off my middle part strategy. I still think it’s on target, but I really have
to pull on imagination. I’ll have to expand my strategies for these middle
sections to meet what I feel is a 5000 X 4 to achieve what I want. I should
be typing but maybe I need a break. I managed 2,000 words on book #1
to meet the half-way mark target by the end of Sunday, so I have some
time to re-charge.
Meanwhile, Cindy reports a grumpy accreditation crew, the usual starting-up
moments when someone has forgotten their laptop, when one doesn’t drink diet drinks, and the setup in terms of
displays is not to their need of x-info here, then y-info, etc.
Then there’s health concerns all around us all - everything seemed to hit yesterday. Cindy’s aunt, my Mom, our own
sense of health and well-being seems tenuous in light of these events. Cindy needs to get this accreditation visit behind
her to regain normalcy and sanity. I’ve grown tiresome over the teacher education politics. I really want to check out from
all of the emails.
Watched 3 episodes of the old Outer Limits episodes. There’s one
“The exploration of human behavior under simulated con-
called “Nightmare” that resonates very well with the present and
ditions of stress is a commonplace component of the
how humans react to war’s machinery; specifically, how we might
machinery called war. So long as Man anticipates and
react to the enemy as priosoners. Are we the Ebonites? I
prepares for combat, be it with neighboring nations or
remember watching this show at the age of 10 or so. Very scary
with our neighbors in space, these unreal games must be
stuff. Black and white probably help the moon, as well ass the
played, and there are only real men to play them. Accord-
expense of producing the show.
ing to established military procedure, the results of the
Ebon maneuvers will be recorded in books and fed into
computers for the edification and enlightenment of all the
strategists of the future. Perhaps they will learn something.”
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November 15 Sunday
Cindy had a trying day with the accreditation team yesterday and she’s back at it today through Tuesday late morning.
Talked with my Mom today on her minor stroke incident. Her speech is still not 100% but she sounds good. We
convinced her to sign the HIPAA forms to allow more people access to her medical information. Managed the word
count and am up to 27,500 words, mostly from filling in the first set of pages with additional description and dialogue. I
needed to do that, although the common wisdom is not to edit. I needed a break from the imaginative section which is
the challenge for next week. Book 2 is also at 27K, so I’m on target.
November 16 Monday Week 13 of the Semester: Ramping up the personal and professional writing
Ran errands for dog food and coffee. While at Starbucks I made 2 pages of notes on the
rest of the chapters for “Last Summer” plus a strategy for fleshing out the World Above the
Sky chapter, keeping it as a chapter rather than as Part II. The 3 parts of the book are
Starting Point, Conversion, and Emergence. I manage to reach 29,000 words.
Thinking tools: I stop at Barnes & Noble and purchase four books (I am in trouble, of
course): South of Broad by Pan Conroy, a book my sister and Mom are reading and highly
praise its writing; and three SF books: The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov to refresh myself on what it was like to read
books by this masterful SF author, The Prisoner by Thomas Disch; a fan of the TV series from 1967 and watching the
remake TV series; and The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF. 2000 words completed for Book 2, writing about South
Dakota Tech and my drive out to Huntington Beach. For Book 2 I need to lay in the “this is my life” stuff and come back
and think through the fictional drive sections. The first book is taking most of my brain.
Thinking tools: Arrived in the mail two more Porcupine Tree CDs: “Fear of a Blank
Planet” from 2007 and “Stars Die | The Delerium Years 1991-1997.” This group has
provided me with a soundtrack for some of the Sabbatical months. I now have 4 CDs of
their total of 10. I need them all. Progressive Rock in the 21st century, basically is the
sound. Could be labeled as melancholia, but I like the mix of very hard mix and delicate,
synthesizer mixes. Hard to describe. Nothing formulaic about Porcupine Tree, a British
group.
Academia: I have 3 students who want to get into the 740 course, two from Sport and Exercise Psychology. EDP is a
cognate option for them. A doctoral form that needs signed (I usually have an administrative person sign for me), and
setting up a lunch with Amy Kuhn, one of my graduated doc students. Also replied to a university query for pedagogy
courses for a 12-hour university certificate for GTAs on teaching. Email to a public school teacher about end of the year
presentation for the school’s professional development plan. I’m still invested here and there deeply in teacher ed, usually
when I can get the closest to the teachers and the new teachers. Everything inbetween is a hindrance.
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November 17 Tuesday
31,700 words on book1, but I began thinking that perhaps I should try to knock out the full 50,000 words ASAP in less
than a week, so I can move to academic papers. If I could do 6000 words in 3 days I’d be done. About 3X my daily
output now. Lunch with Amy Kuhn on her teaching of the EDP640 class for the EDLS cohort and generally catching up
on things. Met with an intern from East Park elementary on the choice of exhibits for portfolio. We met 45 minutes late at
Panera. We were both there on time at 6.30 but we did not see each other or aggressively seek each other out. Still, we
had a productive meeting.
November 18 Wednesday Writing Day
I set myself up for a 12 hour writing day, starting at 7.20 am and managing 7,000 words by 3.30 pm. Felt ok about the
writing, but the middle sections need work. Semi-exhausted. Wrote the end chapters and will now return to prop up the
sorry middle with 12.000 words in 2-3 days. Tomorrow, however, I spend the morning at a public school observing 4th
year teacher ed students.
Arrived in the mail today “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work,” an attempt by a Britisher to impart the devilty and
privileges of work in various settings. Out of print, picked up via Amazon through a third-party bookstore. A nice break
from the imagination.
November 19 Thursday Rivesville Morning Observations - Writing Afternoon
Observed two 4th year teacher education students known here as “Participants.” This semester they spend 2 half days a
week in a public school and increase that to 14 hours/week next semester. Next Fall in their 5th year they spend the
entire semester teaching full-time. Both Katie (left) and Megan (right) were teaching third graders subtraction review using
the whiteboard. There are pictures of both early in this document. They are my favorite (and only) Participants this year.
But, I do love both of them. I also signed paperwork - paperwork trumps everything these days.
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Academia: got a request to revise a submission I made to the 4th edition of the National PDS Research Handbook. I
have until Christmas to revise and submit. I think I’ll get a publication out of this finally. A long wait to hear. I almost forgot
about it.
Music: received in the mail a copy of the new Rush CD, “Working Men,” a repackaging of a dozen live tunes. Good for
driving. Rush is the music in my head when I first took the Instructional Design course as a student in the Fall of 1992.
Seems like forever ago. Changed my life, the course, that is. The music from this group pretty much characterizes the
noise in my head. Another attribute is that the 3 members are my age, so
there is hope.
Fiction: Afternoon from 3-5 pm I managed 2000 words and now have
40,000 under my belt. I’m not sure where 10,000 more will emerge from
my head. About 102 pages so far.
November 20 Friday
This is one of those days celebrated by many of us. Friday before Thanksgiving, meaning we have the weekend plus a
whole week before academic life returns. Here we have completed week 13. Two remain of the Fall 2009 semester, my
21st semester here.
5000 words managed today. 5000 words left,
and I need to think of a plot addition to make this
happen or do more back story or perhaps one
more pass through the whole document and
filling in with description or dialogue or brief
sections. Might have to sleep on it. Could I finish
this tomorrow or by Sunday? If I have some
ideas I can dispatch this project quickly.
Otherwise, it will be slow and tedious.
November 21 Saturday DONE
50,000 words, 154 pages, 22 days.
You have to want to do this. You have to believe
you can. The only way to believe is to do. You
have to push your way through it. You either do it
or you don’t. Your choice, which is why I like
doing it.
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November 22 Sunday
Cindy is reading the “Last Summer” manuscript. She’s reading for story, thank goodness and not for the many, many
technical problems that a first reading by me will uncover and mortify me terribly. I do need a reading for the overall story
to tell me if further work is worth the time.
Two more Porcupine Tree CDs arrive. Another one on order making 7 out of 14 in
my possession. This music has kept me interested and vitalized.
November 24 - 28 Thanksgiving Travel
Wednesday in Portsmouth, VA writing 9000 words (the most I have ever written in
one day) on “There and Back,” wrimo book #2. No need to complete or reach
50,000 words by the end of November, although this accomplishment is in sight.
Relatively easy to write, as the content of the book is right now a memoir. I’ll go back
and add the fictional visiting sections later. The towns of Casper, Blacksburg, and Morgantown each deserve 5,000
words so, yes, I could do this. Facing the writing for Casper, however, is not easy to face, even being in Portsmouth with
time enough to remember this time again. This was not an easy time for me, followed by the 1994-1995 period, a very
intense and hard period for me.
Thursday we survived Thanksgiving at the houses of two
relatives. Long day, though, and I ate too much. I’ve tried to
watch my diet and keeping my hands clean during this trip. One
year ago tomorrow I came down with a horrible flu, about 10
days of what I believed were two bouts of flu back-to-back.
Earlier today in talking with Cindy I was able to match up an idea
with a book title, one that would be a companion to “Putting
Ourselves Through College: Strategies for Tenure-track Faculty.”
This one would be about being successful and having a real life
after surviving the tenure-track process: “Getting to the Real
Work: Strategies for Post Tenure-track Faculty.”
Sunset off the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth, Virginia
where my in-laws live.
Friday I got in 4000 words on Book 2, now at 43,000 words. We
went out Christmas shopping for the morning and had some
lunch. I’m really dreading the next 24 hours - I really want to return home tomorrow healthy and in good weather, as I’m a
worrier by nature. I’ve managed 13,000 words here - not a bad performance, although the writing has all been
autobiographical memoir. I am feeling the withdrawal of online capability. But given the holiday break, most of the email
will be from catalog companies and probably very few important messages.
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American Wrimos celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving by gathering together with
friends and family, wolfing down a huge meal as quickly as possible, and then ditching those
friends and family to hide in the bathroom with a laptop. from nanowrimo.org.
November 29 Sunday
Getting house ready for Pella window installation on the ground floor. Looks like we’re moving.
Also submitted my book 1 to the nanowrimo site.
November 30 Monday Last Day of November YIKES Day 1 of Window Install
AM: Doctoral advising: prospectus feedback, dissertation revision comments, dissertation
topic feedback
AM: Editorial: feedback on ETR&D revision (I’m a reviewer for the Developmental section)
House: windows getting installed. Raining, but it’s finally happening. This is a major event for a homeowner: Pella
windows. 5 windows installed (lovely); 2 windows and 1 sliding glass door left.
PM: writing book 2: adding 7000 words, now at 50,000 words for “There and Back.” 2 50,000 word books written in 30
days. Just wanted to see if I could do it.
December 1 Tuesday Sunshine Day 2 of Window Install
All work is done and it was worth every dollar. Window replacement is a major cost and it’s a shock to find out how much
these cost. Doors are even worse.
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December 2 - 3 PDS Yearbook Paper and a visit to Allen Hall
Two days and this paper #3 of 6 gets submitted, actually a revision. Stopped in to the building and reserved a room on
the 4th floor for a course, but 3 weeks are taken. I can still work around that, if I have to. Yesterday I got in some
Christmas shopping for Cindy. The administrivia from email is starting to pile up again.
December 4 Friday
Email clean-out took all morning but after 2-3 weeks the misc tasks start to pile up: reference form, letter, grant review
document/form, benedum files (usually a lot), department/college/university documents to print and file, and other PDFs.
December is a multi-tasking month - I don’t like multi-tasking, but I have to move back to working on multiple levels of
activity: finishing up 3 more papers and done with publishing for the year, other than revisions; course design has to start
up soon; IDT program coordination has to resume in January; there are the holidays. Then there were new windows and
work around the house for the winter months. I wonder if the mower will start one more time?
December 5-6 Weekend
Saturday decorating the house for Christmas. Snowed most of the day. Watched “White
Christmas. 2.5” Baked fries for the first time - paired with cold KFC.
Sunday thinking about Visual Literacy course and influenced by two segments on CBS
Sunday Morning, one about Miffy, the character developed by a Dutch artist, now with 89
million Miffy books and the trend of young and older people forming Glee and/or
ShowChoir groups. Maybe the one teaching strategy for the 20-something’s I know is to
get them into a compelling task immediately and letting them discover and you point out
“content” from that task. Then there was the ping pong segment.
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December 7 Week 15 Semester
Working on the final 2 papers: Design Journal and the NOVA book chapter. Paper #7 won’t make it in 2009.
Monday: strategy for the two
papers, reviewing the templates
and proposals. Reviewed a
dissertation revision, submitted an
evaluation of a grant proposal, and
logged on to eCampus and made
initial changes to the online course
page.
Tuesday: adding two major
references and other supporting
references to both papers.
Wednesday: major revisions to
Design Journal paper. 90% done.
Reading on materials to include in
the NOVA book chapter.
Administrative issues to address: updating WVU spreadsheet on MA/EdD program
contact information, emails to prospective IDT students, final IDT flyer ready to use
for marketing. I created a course welcome using an online simulation site. See:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5798853/
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Thursday working on paper 2 for the NOVA book chapter. Sue calls in the morning for a short chat.
Friday submitted grades for 690/790 series of independent studies, research hours. I don’t do as many independent
studies as I used to. Try to avoid them, if
possible. Winter Graduation. 60 students,
about 30 faculty attended. IDEC proposal
accepted - conference in Atlanta next Spring.
Turned over the 2 papers to Cindy. The Design
paper is about 90% done, the NOVA paper due
on the 20th 50% done.
Saturday Holiday errands, breakfast out. Saw
Megan, one of the two Rivesville interns, at
Barnes & Noble. Observe her in year four again
this spring - she’ll be in 5th grade. Such great
experience teaching a range of grades. She’ll be
good. She doesn’t think so at the moment.
Left: Gayle, faculty member in Speech Pathology and Audiology, hooded by
me last May.
Right: Saw Jaci at Winter Graduation, former co-worker at WVU, a lot of work
on action research. Get together for lunch next week and catch-up.
Right now she just wants to finish the semester
and Year 4. Picked up drapes from the dry
cleaners and hung them in front of the new windows.
December 14 Monday, Tuesday working on NOVA paper, wrapping gifts, Post Office, cleaning up house, so a mix of
stuff. Tuesday haircut and H1N1 vaccination.
December 17 Thursday 2.5 hour lunch with Jaci. Starbucks morning to work on options for Visual Literacy course.
December 18 Friday Starbucks in the morning making notes on end-of-the-year tasks, fall course teaching options,
writing and program activities for the spring. Lunch in Allen Hall. Avoided the department meeting that preceded the
lunch. Afterwards, grabbed to make decisions about the faculty hire. Typical in that IF you are in the building you will be
grabbed. In this case, it was a useful activity. The politics behind faculty hires are thick and deep. Faculty hires are where
a lot of politics are focused. Won a poinsettia from the lunch drawing, however.
December 19 Saturday 6” of snow, far short of what others east and south of us received, but still shut down the area
and state. Wet snow and tiring to shovel the sidewalk and driveway. Cindy finished the NOVA paper and it was submitted
today. The Design journal paper is left, but it’s 90% done. Finished reading Stephen King’s Under the Dome, at 1000+
pages, a long one.
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Holidays. 5 days in Portsmouth, Virginia with relatively mild winter weather. Back in
Morgantown on the 28th the temp’s were back in the 20s and 2” fell just after we
drove back. Cindy completes her annual file, while I update my 09-10 notebooks
and clean out email, etc. We celebrate our Christmas on New Years, as it’s not
feasible to haul our gifts to Portsmouth, then back again, with two dogs.
I’m reading Defend the Realm, a history of MI5, Britain’s secret service agency.
About 400 pages through the 800 page book. Thought of writing 2 different versions
of an academic spoof next fall. Also, more thinking of “Getting to the Real Work,” the
post tenure-track book I’ve outlined. During the trip we got the NOVA chapter
accepted. I also had the idea on the return trip to develop some in-house faculty
success workshops.
Sabbatical’s End
By Monday December 21 I can say that the sabbatical is pretty much over. Helps that I’m in the holiday break period
between semesters. The weekend was taken up by 6” of snow. The sabbatical piles in my office have been replaced with
the piles of materials for the two spring courses (20 and 25 students). Today, Monday, I cleaned out the personal files in
the back office file cabinet. Filled 1.5 black bags of shredded receipts and records, long overdue. I also finished The
Chimes by Charles Dickens, of his annual Christmas stories, although The Chimes is about New Year’s. One of the
comments from a character in The Chimes was about cleaning up one’s loose ends by the end of the Old Year. Just a
coincidence, actually.
Monday and Tuesday before another car trip to Portsmouth for a Christmas trip of 5 days. We don’t celebrate our
Christmas until New Years. With the dogs we don’t have room to haul our packages to Portsmouth and back. My
shopping is all done and the gifts wrapped. I usually have my eCampus sites set up for my spring courses, but this
shouldn’t take long. The spring calendar is more or less set up for the two courses, although I haven’t updated the syllabi
yet. First TO-DOs for 2010.
Professional Productivity: Bottom-Line
2 conferences attended; 3 proposals accepted for Spring 2010. 7 papers submitted: 2 conference proceedings, 3 book
chapters (2 invited), 2 journals.
Conferences. The conferences turned out very well in terms of seeing people again and connecting visually, F2F, with
those I haven’t seen in a while. My overall purpose for the sabbatical was re-introducing myself to my field, something
that doesn’t “compute” in a sabbatical application, but this broad purpose is critical to establishing our IDT program for
the long haul. We had 3 faculty and 2 grad’ students at AECT, and 2 faculty and 2 WVU alumni at IVLA. Of course, at
both, I got to see a lot of VT friends, too, so that was a bonus. Attendance at the roundtables for both was better than I
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could have imagined. IVLA’s participants provided well-rounded feedback on our Design Thinking topic and we were able
to use what we learned from IVLA in our Design and NOVA papers.
Writing. I submitted 3 out of the 4 paper submissions I originally planned. The only non-submission was one for ETR&D,
and it took most of the fall to determine that the purpose of the submission should be Part 2 of the reflexive teaching
model, Part 2 of which has been published by ETR&D. In its place I added three book chapters, 2 of which were revised
for a book on action research to be published by Rowman and Littlefield in Maryland. September was spent in getting
the two conference papers ready, while October was spent in visiting two conferences and 1 working location. November
was spend in writing in revising the proceedings papers and the book chapters, while December was spent in finishing
up the journal articles. I have listed 6-7 submissions for spring - this is a normal plan, although not all get finished during
the spring, as some projects just drop off the list.
I also observed 9 new teachers and wrote 2 external tenure reviews.
Personal Productivity: Bottom-Line
7 children’s stories self-published in 4 titles on blurb.com. 1 personal development title self-published on wordclay.com. 2
50,000 word short novels completed in November. 2 picture books, self-printed (iPhoto’s service).
Getting the short stories self-published on blurb.com was my first goal and I jumped on the projects after a visit from my
sister and her husband in early June. This project took most of June. July I moved the mentoring book to wordclay.com.
200 pages takes a while to format and get self-published. The November book writing on the National Novel Writing
Month site took all of the month, 22 days for the first title, and the full 30 days for book 2.
Personal Connections
•Seeing VT colleagues and graduate student peers at both IVLA and AECT
•WVU faculty and 2 students at AECT
•Seeing Ruth at AECT, after 5 years.
•Mountain Quest Institute
•4 WVU alumni, new teachers
•IDT peers: Instructional design research and teaching 4 hour session at AECT; essentially, a pre-PIDT session.
Administrative Activity
IDT brochure, IDT online course grant letter, IDT faculty search and decision
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Big Ideas
What it means to be serious about one’s work. When I visited Mountain Quest Institute in Frost, WV, I observed what
it means to be serious about one’s work, at least for a married couple. Even outside the physical challenge of building
and running a conference/retreat center, they have organized themselves using federal grants on change management to
further their professional agendas. What I took away from the 4 days there was getting better organized behind my
agenda and accelerating my writing and publication activity. What is the purpose for your life and work? How will you get
to it?? I need to step up my thinking and productivity and look at the big picture (what I preach all the time).
Design thinking as applied to scientists, lay people, designers, and educators. We learned quite a bit about the
term design thinking, especially with recent books written about it, primarily business books. I also made the connection
between design thinking and future design, which is moving these notions to informed individuals and groups.
Porcupine Tree. A music discovery, a major new listen for me. I now have 6 CDs from this British progressive music
group. A real kick for me, something new and interesting, a true soundtrack for my thinking.
Future projects
Design thinking for educators. Business seems to be embracing design thinking as a process for everyone to be
involved in making business decisions. Why not apply design thinking ideas to new educational programs? We should
have 4 design thinking papers to complement this?
Developing a metaview of design thinking. This idea came up in our IVLA roundtable. The book of selected readings
used an initial category system, but we need to work more on this project.
Getting to the real work: Strategies for post-tenure faculty. A follow-up to the first mentoring book, one for those
who have achieved tenure. The outline is done. Can I crank this out in the spring?
Some project with Jaci. We talked about the Boyer model for scholarship. I had done an external tenure review using
these features, so there might be something here, as Jaci says faculty at Fairmont State have discussed embracing the
Boyer model.
Books. Future Design and Teaching Design are two book titles Cindy and I have discussed. The second, Teaching
Design, is probably the closest to a reality. I can’t see it popping out as a project until the summer.
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Sabbatical Productivity: September - December 2009
Publications
IVLA Selected Readings
Beginning A Dialogue on Design Thinking. 2nd author
AECT Proceedings
Using Activity Theory to Guide E-Learning Initiatives, sole author
Design journal
Paper in progress: Translating Design Thinking for Lay People
NOVA book chapter
Book chapter accepted: Translating Design Thinking for Scientists
Action Research Chapter
Book: New Teacher’s Guide to Action Research: Framing an AR Study, 1st
National PDS Yearbook IV
Book chapter revised; resubmitted, accepted. sole author
Conferences
IVLA October 09
Presentation: focus group,results reported in Readings paper (above), and Design
Journal, NOVA book chapter
AECT October 09
Presentation: roundtable results reporting in Proceedings paper (above); Teaching
Instructional Design half-day session
Design 2010, Chicago
Proposal for virtual presentation accepted, February 2010
AERA 2010, Denver
Proposal for paper session accepted November for conference in April 2010
IDEC 2010, Atlanta
Proposal on Design Thinking accepted, March 2010
Other
Service: national
(2) external reviews of faculty members (DePaul University, U. of West Georgia)
Service: teacher education
(7) observations of interns (year 5) at 3 PDS; (2) observations of participants (year 4)
Professional development meeting of PDS teachers - East Fairmont HS
Met with East Park interns and site coordinator on contract choices for Spring 2010
Service: college
Email to all of my doctoral students regarding my sabbatical and their plan to finish,
coordination of a candidacy exam re-take (serious health issues), Review of a doc
student’s prospectus, and 2 dissertation reviewed as committee member
Service: department
Reviewed and approved flyer drafts for online IDT master’s program.
Teaching
Marketed 2 courses for spring 2010 and achieved full enrollment; 21 for Visual Literacy;
25 for Principles of Instruction
Teaching
Submitted EDP 640 and EDP 740 as courses for University’s 12-hr certificate for
University Teaching for university GTAs
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Personal Productivity
Writing
“Moon Ladies”
6000 words, fictional memoir essays
“Last Summer”
50,000 words
“There and Back”
50,000 words Part II of “Life As I Imagined It”
Children stories
7 stories, 4 books self-published with blurb.com
Productivity by Month
August
2 external faculty review letters written
Email to doctoral students on sabbatical and their plans to finish
College faculty mentoring book available on wordclay.com
September
IVLA Conference attended, paper written, submitted to focus group for review
Doc student re-examination coordinated
ETR&D journal article topic determined
Benedum Collaborative meeting, Saturday, East Fairmont HS
NOVA book chapter proposal accepted
October
IVLA Conference attended, paper written, submitted to focus group for review
AECT Conference attended, proceedings paper submitted
IDEC Conference proposal submitted
Action Research book chapter revised, student review, submitted to editor
7 intern observations at public schools
Spring 2010 courses promoted through Facebook
November
IVLA Book of Readings paper mailed 11-3
Mountain Quest Institute visited
2 short novels written
IDT online master’s program flyer approved
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December
PDS Yearbook chapter revised and resubmitted, accepted
NOVA chapter written and submitted, accepted
Design paper revised and submitted
IDEC proposal accepted
Spring 2010 courses designed
Places I Visited for Professional Reasons
Chicago, Illinois: IVLA conference, October, 3 days
Louisville, KY: AECT conference, October, 4 days
Mountain Quest Institute, Frost, WV, November, 3 days
Books Read During the Sabbatical
Yes, I actually read these between September and December 2009.
Biography:
The Journals of Joyce Carol Oates 1973-1982 (2007) Edited by Greg Johnson. New York: Ecco: HarperCollins Publishers. Oates is known by her incredible writing productivity and her grim subject matter. How she
writes and still teaches courses is beyond my skills at the moment. The first book of journal entries I have read
and worth it. I highlighted interesting passages and transcribed these in a document. I could only do this in the
summer.
Creators: From Chaucer to Walt Disney (2006). Paul Johnson. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This document summarizes
each profile.
History:
The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa 1945 - The Last Epic Struggle of World War II Bill Sloan (2007). New York:
Simon & Schuster. Carnage, another example of my desire to read deeper into the history.
Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World Colin Wells (2006). New York: Dell/Random
House. A civilization I knew nothing about. I had never had world history, a major gap in my public schooling.
Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History, Craig Symonds (2005). Oxford University Press.
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation. (2000). Joseph Ellis. Vintage. I got the idea for “Last Summer” from the
duelling incident involving Burr and Hamilton.
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Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 Christopher Andrew. (2009). New York: Knopf. A way of viewing Britain’s
last 100 years.
Fiction:
The Star Cafe, Mary Caponegro. 1990. Charles Scribers & Sons. I had owned this book almost 10 years before reading it. I
could never write like her, but I find her story collections interesting to read both as a reader and a writer. I have another one in the
wings to read.
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon. 1988. Harper Perennial. Fresh writing without a lot of baggage.
The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson 2008. Anchor Books/Random House. I can’t remember
reading this.
Under the Dome, Steven King, 2009. Scribner. 1000 pages. I liked his previous book, Duma
Key, better, but still a case study in characterization and letting the characters speak with their own
voices.
The Chimes, Charles Dickens. 1844. Read this just before Christmas. A story of the new year,
actually, but one of the several holiday stories Dickens wrote for an appreciative public. From what I
read, The Christmas Carol, single-handedly re-invigorated the celebration of Christmas. When I was
younger, we had a set of literature classics, and one of them was a combined Christmas Carol and
The Chimes. I had read it earlier but I didn’t slow down and take in the story. Deserves rereading.
Productive Work:
The Chimes
Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity, David Whyte. 2001. Riverhead
Books. One of the better books on work, at least for me. Another book that deserves re-reading;
instead, I’ve read here and there, but finished it this summer and highlighted passages. His words,
from a poet, need time to soak in somewhere.
by Charles Dickens
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Stephen King. 2000. Scribner. Helpful to read part of this book prior to the November writing.
The major ideas was letting the characters speak for themselves, let the story unfold, and be honest with the reader.
Enhancing Learning Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: The Challenges and Joys of Juggling. Kathleen
McKinney 2007. Anker Publishing. Scanned only. Will return to this title during the spring semester when I’m teaching again and
when I’m developing the online master’s program.
Immediate Fiction. Jerry Cleaver. 2002. St. Martin’s Griffin. Gave me some ideas prior to the November writing.
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Music I Listened to During the Sabbatical
Bo Deans: first album, actually listened to a 33 1/3 rpm record, purchased in Berkeley Springs in June. Straight ahead
guy rock and roll. One of my favorite groups of this genre.
GTR: King Biscuit live album, and GTR (only studio album). GTR stands for Guitar, featuring Steve Howe (Yes) and Steve
Hackett (Genesis, solo work), two of my favorite guitarists
Porcupine Tree: The Incident, The Sky Moves Sideways, Fear of a Blank Planet, The Deliverium Years, Absentia,
Deadwing, Signify. Early and most recent work by this British progressive music group. Very atmospheric, nice and edgy,
too. The “find” of the summer.
Robin Trower: What Lies Beneath. Guitarist for Procal Harum, many fine solo works. This was a conceptual piece, very
bluesy and satisfying.
Prognosis 2, 3, 4: progressive music samplers, including a nice cut from Darwin’s Radio.
Rush: Working Men, live cuts, but too many cuts and albums to name, the original soundtrack to my mind. These guys
are my age, so the fact that they still get along and play together - 40 years or so is quite the accomplishment. The major
group to sustain me during my graduate student days.
Wagner: Preludes. Mostly the prelude to the Lohengrin, or the Holy Grail prelude. I’ve loved this piece since my
elementary school days, when I was introduced to it by a traveling music teacher.
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Final Comments
I wonder why more faculty members don’t take advantage of leave provisions. The sabbatical, which everybody seems
to recognize, is not really understood. It’s not a period of doing nothing, although the word when defined as I did up front
means a “stopping.” In my case the leave was known as professional development leave and it’s really a contract to
produce X, while the typical activities are put aside. Both of my courses were covered by others, so students didn’t lose
out. The major impact of not teaching EDUC 400 was that I would not have students to feed into my spring elective
courses for Spring 2011. So my student numbers will drop 2010-2011 unless something different occurs. The online
master’s program may take up the slack. At WVU one signs a contract to X instead of Y; in my case, 4 papers, 3
conferences. I did 7 papers and 3 conferences. I have to write a report within 60 days and submit to the Provost’s Office.
The major benefit of the “stopping” is really stopping one’s fall routines, which primarily consist of teaching and attending
meetings. Not being in Allen Hall was the #1 benefit of the sabbatical, to be away from the weekly grind of meetings and
college politics, most of which cut into one’s productive habits and time. I didn’t miss the teaching all that much, being
that I was only gone for a semester. I needed a break from teaching EDUC 400 and EDP 640, both ID courses. Fall was
the right time to take the sabbatical as I didn’t have to deal with weather in the fall, as I would in the spring. The major
surprise from the conferences was how much I enjoyed them, particularly seeing old friends again, very much overdue. I
am faced with a busy spring travel season, but also a lot of priorities with the IDT program. Too much travel could really
impact this priority. And, paying attention to students in the two spring courses takes a lot of time, one of them being an
online course. And, paying attention to graduating interns in the teacher education program also takes time and desire. I
know these young teachers, so I see “spring” as a closure time for them and helping them exit the program and back to
real lives again.
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