Biking to Boulder!

Last year I set a goal to ride my bike out to Boulder, and for various reasons, it didn't happen. BUT... this year, it did happen, and it was GREAT. I woke up early as usual, and after taking my pooch for his morning walk, he and I grabbed a bit of breakfast, and I got myself ready to go.

I made it to Boulder about 2 hours later, and first thing I did was head to Spud Brothers for lunch, where I feasted on poutine (a Canadian specialty, and one I used to have back when I lived in New York). Then it was off to The Cup for a Bhakti Chai milkshake and relax a bit more before the ride home.

The ride home, while hot, wasn't quite as bad as I thought it might be. In almost no time, I found myself at Mojo Coffeehouse in Lafayette, where I enjoyed an iced latte. Then it was time to head home.

The day was a bit longer than I had originally planned, but I'm really glad I took my time; I got some great pictures and had fun taking some video while I was at it. The movie below is a little videoblog of my adventure. Enjoy! (Cross posted to Elephant Journal.)

Goals met (at least partially) and Smart Board reflections

Got up early this morning and really wanted to go on a bike ride, so I pumped up the Cannondale, got in the saddle and off I went. It was an absolutely perfect morning for a bike ride. I headed north and found myself on highway 7 before long, then I headed west. Next thing I knew, I saw a sign that said "Lafayette 6; Boulder 17." I smiled and decided to make the trip to Lafayette. It didn't take me anywhere near as long as I thought it might; an hour or so after I left my house, and I was in Old Town Lafayette. I hung out for a while, then made the trip back for a total of 28 miles in roughly two hours. I was pretty psyched, and it's most of the way towards my goal of riding my bike to Boulder. Since I was roughly 10 miles from Boulder, I definitely know that it's within my reach to finish it out to Boulder. I have to admit that I was glad I turned myself around, even though I was tempted to finish it out to Boulder. I like to finish out the last half-mile or so to my house on a dead sprint, but that just wasn't going to happen today. About five seconds into the sprint, my legs gave me a very firm "Nope, not gonna happen, buddy" response, and I decided instead to do a nice, easy warm down ride instead. Heh.

I've been using the Smart Board quite a lot now, and it's been working out fantastically. We were working on the 11-sentence paragraph in class last week, and what could have been dry and boring ended up being a lot of fun. We spent some time filling out the graphic organizer together on the Smart Board, and I had 100% engagement for 100% of the time in all of my classes; not bad for a Friday afternoon before a long weekend.

I think I've actually perfected the podcasting, too. I recorded each of my classes on Friday, and I'll be uploading and linking them on my class website later on today. (I also plan to upload and link the Power Point presentations I used, though I will likely upload them as .pdf files since not everyone may have Power Point or even Microsoft Word, but Adobe Acrobat Reader is free.) Initially I was going to do all sorts of editing of the podcasts and only upload the "best," but the principal encouraged me to just upload them as they are and let the students fast forward through them as they need to.

Of course, there are some definite implications around doing that, not the least of which is that my classroom walls are definitely going to disappear and there will be full transparency, particularly since not only my students can listen to the podcasts, but their parents can as well. I told my students not to worry... I know how brilliant they are, and now their parents can hear it as well. :-) I do plan on emailing the link to as many parents as I have email addresses for, and while it seems a little scary to open myself up like this, I don't see it as a bad thing at all. I'm really excited about it.

I've gotten most of the students logged on and blogging already, and that has been a fantastic experience so far. The students have the option of blogging or reading during independent reading time, and it's not unusual to have a line of students four to six deep waiting to blog. So far I only have two desktops in my room, though I'm trying to get more put in. If you go to the class website, I've linked to the students' blogs there, so anyone interested can read and comment on their blogs. There is still some tweaking to do around the blogs, but they've gotten started, so the biggest part is done. I'm planning on working with my reluctant colleague after professional development this week and want to have her up and blogging as well.

I hit upon a bit of a flash as well around sub plans. What I hope to do on days when I know I'm going to be out is to upload my lessons as Power Points and record what I want to say in advance, along with a notesheet for my students to fill out and email back to me, then email links to the Power Point and podcast to my students, along with the notesheet to fill out. Then, on the day(s) when I know I'm going to be out, I simply reserve the computer lab for my students, the sub takes them down there, where they then log in, and can watch the presentation, listen to the podcast, and do the work there. Chances are I'll let them work collaboratively, but certainly any student that wants to work alone could... I guess it will depend on the nature of the assignment. I can even check in on them while I'm wherever I am and address issues/questions as needed. They really CAN have class 24/7! Of course, making sure I have access will be an issue, but I think it's one I can resolve (I hope).

The implications for all of this on my teaching is mind boggling. How on earth did I get anything done in the classroom before?? ;-)

World Tibet Day

World Tibet Day is this weekend. Basically it's a day of celebration of the Tibetan culture and an observance of the birthday of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama's birthday. Boulder's celebration of it is tomorrow, and I'm pretty psyched about it. Kyle has to work all day tomorrow, so he had to miss it, but Blake and I will be able to go since Blake only has to work two hours. I think it's going to be a LOT of fun.

In other news, things with the Robert Thurman event are going pretty well. Endangered Species Chocolate has signed on as a sponsor of the event, which is really cool of them, and has moved them up into my favorite chocolate company. It was already pretty cool that they donate 10% of their profits to environmental causes, and now they've demonstrated that they are about a lot more than just that. Very cool of them. Prana and the Gaia Community have also expressed interest, which is really encouraging. I'm really excited about being able to meet and talk with Professor Thurman. By all accounts, he's a pretty amazing man.

I didn't get to do any climbing this week (argh!), but I did get some yoga and lots of bike riding in (yay!). Maybe Sunday will be my big chance to get on the rocks (crosses fingers). Let's hope! In the meantime... I'm off to enjoy some fireworks.

Another great day

An absolutely amazing day today. I'm still unpacking from the move (where did I get all of this junk??), but took the day to head to the farmers' market (of course), and stopped by the shop owned by my friend, Tenzin. Also had the pleasure of catching up with another friend of mine who formerly owned a coffee company but has switched over to hibiscus-based drinks. I tried one, and it was pretty tasty, I have to say.

I still haven't been able to do any yoga, climbing, or cycling, but considering that there is no room in my living room for yoga, my bikes are buried somewhere in the garage, and I've had no time for climbing, I guess that's not really surprising. Soon... soon.

I've been eating more vegetarian meals lately. Don't worry, I still like MEAT. In fact, I made some bison burgers this week that made me really happy, but tonight I experimented with tofu a bit. I sauteed some tofu in coconut oil, then baked it in a chipotle-citrus barbecue sauce, and topped it with a pineapple-mango salsa that Blake (Kyle's friend) and I made from scratch and off the top of our heads. It turned out pretty great, really. Oh... and yes, it was all organic. :-D Much of it was even local, compliments of the farmers' market.

I've also had no time for reading, which really bums me out. I'm thinking of doing some tonight, provided that I can find the book I want to read. :-p Oh yeah... moving is great, let me tell you. My goal is to be completely settled in before next week's farmers' market. Craigslist is going to love me pretty soon... I've been finding a lot of stuff and wondering why I still have it, so it's time to get rid of it... an ice cream maker that I've never used, and in fact I now have two, so it's time to get rid of one of them, a LARGE cast iron frying pan, a wok (again... I have two [why?]), a windsurfing board (was a cool gift at the time, but....)... all things that I have no idea why I still have them, and I know there will be more to come once I get to really sorting through boxes. Time to purge those things I no longer need... I even found a decoration I'd saved from my high school senior prom, for Pete's sake... what have I been thinking?? Time to purge. As Henry David Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify." I thought about having a garage sale, but that's too much hassle, so I'm probably going to give most of it away, with the exception maybe of the extra washer and dryer I now have.

I like the new place except that the dishwasher doesn't work that well. bleah. I'll deal with it, or perhaps discuss it with the landlord; we'll see how bad it gets.

More unpacking tomorrow, then I can start on the garage and get my bikes out!! Woohoo!!