So yesterday I woke up early and took the early train so that I could be at C-SPAN in time to watch Senator Grassley on the Washington Journal. I TV-stalked him, as soon as they wrapped up on the TV I ran down the hallway so I could say hello. It was great to see him, we talked about home and his visit to NEH and my fellowship. *Celebrity sighting #1* I spent more time yesterday working on my map. For those of you keeping track, I DID have a publicly embarrassing moment, but that is all I am going to say. And I got called on it, for those of you playing the game at home. If you really need to know, contact me privately. I don't need to share EVERY humilation with the world. :)
You will be disappointed to find, though, that today I made it through an entire day without anything embarrassing happening to me! I took the early train again. I decided that since dinner is waiting for me when I get home it really isn't possible for me to stay late most nights, so I go in early to get extra work done instead.
Today we got to meet Craig, who is fantastic. I actually saw a picture of a fish he caught that was literally larger than I am. It was crazy. We presented our presentation ideas to him for some feedback, which was wonderful. I got to show him my map and we talked about what we could do with it. I also got to show it to Jeremy after I tweeted it out this afternoon. It's fun to share a project that you've worked so hard on!
After our morning meeting I wanted to work on some projects outside of my Google map. Today I created a sort of template Mind Map for Supreme Court cases. I shared part of the first one, but that program wasn't doing what I wanted to, so I began a different one with Cacoo. The second one turned out better, but I'm not sure if I'm happy with it yet. It is definitely a tool I would use with my 6th grade civics class over my 12th grade government class - however it is structured in a way that it might be really helpful for some of my special needs kids or kids who need help with focus and organization.
After I finished that I began creating a webquest. I tweeted that out earlier, and if you get a chance to look at it I'd really appreciate some feedback. The idea is the students will explore my Google map, answer some fact based questions about the map to show familiarity, then research candidates and issues to create a poster for the candidate of their choice and the summative piece is a writing assignment. I'm really unhappy with the summative piece, but the formative and feedback pieces are coming together. So we'll see.
I'm also working on a few other ideas with Campaign 2012 and mapping, but I'm not ready to share those yet. The PBL part of my work is temporarily on hold. I'm finding it a little hard to focus on the process because there is so much going on. I'm hoping I can convince some of my amazing IACoPi colleagues to work with me on it!
I wish I could keep this job forever. I am so excited to come in each day and talk to people and share ideas and create and develop materials. I can't believe the first week is over already. I wish I could have this job AND have my family, because then it would truly be perfect. Although I'm definitely ready to get back in the classroom and start using some of these amazing ideas. Earlier my sister said it sounds like I want to have my cake and eat it, too. I told her I want to have my cake, eat it, and have some pie...
I got an email about doing some more CoPi work, which is fantastic, because that's another project that I am insanely passionate about. What we are doing within that group of educators in Iowa is truly amazing. I hope more people will be given the chance to learn about this project. It has shown me how many truly amazing, passionate, innovative educators there are in Iowa. It has also inspired me to step up my game! For each idea I come up twelve other people have come up with something better - putting those minds together is going to mean big things for our state!
When I got home tonight Kayo had made a Hawaiian shrimp and rice dish because Mark was gone and he doesn't eat shrimp so she made me a special dinner. It was fantastic. I had a headache most of the evening, so I've been kind of lazy, but I'm feeling better now. I was talking to Mark about work and mid-way through the conversation he said "I am going to tell you something to horrify you. I was the exact same way at your age."
We then got into a discussion about his Myers-Briggs test results during which he proceeded to print out a description of his results (INTJ). Apparently the people who wrote the article have met me and felt like describing me nearly perfectly. So of course, I went online, found a free test, and yep, there it was. INTJ with highest results (67s) on I and J. So that was how my evening ended. Tomorrow will be a day to relax, and then Sunday we are doing dinner and Mama Mia at Wolftrap. Monday will obviously be the fireworks thing, and then we're off to a short week 2 of my C-SPAN journey!
WAIT!!!!!!!! My second celebrity sighting! Well ladies and gentlemen, that sighting was me. The lady at the shop that I went into over lunch decided I look just like..... drum roll........................ Kate Middleton. I'm not sure on that one, but she insisted that I look just like her and that for fun she was going to tell people that she met Kate Middleton today. I laughed, but I suppose if people are going to compare you to a celebrity she's one of the better ones!
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