Race to the Finish

Yesterday and today were crazy days, trying to get everything done before we go home. Yesterday I worked on my PBL lessons all day, as well as writing questions for 7-8 of Dan's Supreme Court videos. The Supreme Court timeline is going to be such a great tool for everyone's classroom. The Library of Congress documentary aired last night, and I think Mary Sue finished the study guide to go along with it. I came up with some fun alternative activities that I think are going to be added.

An act of God allowed a shoe that I *really* wanted to fit me in the only size available - 8! I haven't worn an 8 since... I'm not even sure. So it was quite an exciting day solely because I got these shoes (on sale):



Pam posted a few pictures from the conference from her camera, so I have a few of me doing my presentation and working with the educators.



Today was a big day, too. I came in early so that I could record my tutorial for the video library and Google maps for the C-SPAN classroom website. That was really fun, and the guy who set it up, Devo, was super nice. I also had a SUPER publicly embarrassing moment. This morning I fell asleep on the train. That wasn't a problem. What was a problem was that I woke up and there was only one guy left in my entire car - everyone had left. I got up quickly, dropped my phone, hit my head, and proceeded to stumble - twice - in the aisle. It was so crazy. I don't know if my foot fell asleep, or what happened, but the man definitely just sat and stared at me like "Why is this girl drunk at 8am?"

As far as my work today, I took Brian Lamb up on a challenge to teach an entire class using his Booknotes programming as the basis of the curriculum. I had to adapt it, but I was able to find clips for every week but 4 for both my American History classes. I think the interviews will give the kids some different perspectives, which could spark some interesting discussion, and often times I picked clips that showed popular culture or some other aspect that we might not otherwise get into. So I spent a chunk of yesterday and a good part of today sifting through all 811 episodes of Booknotes and applying them to my curriculum. I may not get it every week, but it's nice to have either way for enrichment purposes.

This morning we went to the Newseum. It was fantastic. Quite possibly my favorite museum in DC, but definitely top 3. The exhibits were fascinating. I found this wall display of free press rights throughout the world. Green = free press, Yellow = Partially free, and Red = Not free at all:



The next two pictures I cannot wait to use. The Newseum has 8 real pieces of the Berlin wall. I believe they said it is the largest display outside of Germany. I cannot think of a better way to illustrate the differences between East and West Berlin/Germany than these images:



I also had the opportunity to "sit in" on a Google Doc with the amazing IACoPi educators who met in Des Moines this week to IGNITE and start moving ahead with the project. I have to thank Monte and Erin for all the notes and tweets!

I was supposed to go to the Library of Congress tonight after work, but I got kind of head sick on the walk to/from the Newseum, so I had to miss that. I am feeling better, though, so hopefully tomorrow will be better. It rained tonight, so I'm hoping it cools down a little.

The rest of the week is just as busy, so stay tuned!

End of Week 1 - some celebrity sightings!

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!

I have an ID badge - with the standard ugly picture

Yesterday was my first day at C-SPAN and it was WONDERFUL!

I started off the morning by going to bed - yep, couldn't fall asleep, finally fell asleep at around 12:30am. Woke up a 2:30, went back to bed, and then my alarm went off at 5:30. I was out the door by 6:20am - had to hit Wal-Mart for a few necessities (Diet Mt. Dew, anyone?) before I got to the train. Then.... I waited 25 minutes for the train because I just missed the 6:40 train and had to wait for the 7:05. Upon boarding the train I was hit in the head by an automatic door. Taking the 7:05 train put me in D.C. by 7:50. That's okay, I had to walk to C-SPAN, right? :Yeah, well, C-SPAN is approximately... right across the street from Union Station (about 2 blocks).





Once I got to work, I hung out in the hallway for approximately... 20-30 minutes, hiding because I was there an hour early.



I finally went in and one of the men in charge of the entire operation (aka Brian Lamb, founder and CEO) showed me around - the directors of C-SPAN walk around all the time greeting everyone and joking with employees. We got a tour, got our ID badges, met a lot of the employees, etc. Typical first day kind of stuff.



After lunch (at Union Station) we had time to work on our projects. We have four collaborative projects to work on throughout our time here:
1. Preview new Library of Congress piece produced by C-SPAN and analyze for teacher use
2. Develop presentation for Educator Conference in 2 weeks
3. Find clips related to the Constitution to add to Constitution Clips library
4. Analyze 2004/08 Electoral College maps for improvements to 2012 map

We also have the opportunity to develop individual projects, but more about that later.

It was SO WONDERFUL to be given time to simply sit and work on creating teacher/student resources. I made it safely onto the train home, successfully pulled Mark's truck into the garage, and then watched Falling Skies with Mark & Kay.

Day 2

I didn't leave until 7:15 today, catching the 7:35 train so I didn't get into the city until 8:30 - much more reasonable!

This morning I got to work and we just went to our desks and got to work! It's such a strange feeling, and I know that will get repetitive, but it really is a strange feeling. We had a team meeting at 10:00. At this point I learned that my work will be slightly challenging in that education in Iowa is moving in a different direction than that of either of my colleagues (California and Virginia). We also had the opportunity to look through teacher suggestions from all across the nation on different C-SPAN education topics and I found that all across the nation teachers are still SOOOOOOO focused on facts and "Google Curriculum". I'm trying to decide to what extent I push the envelope with these people at our educator conference later this summer. I don't know that that's really my place as a fellow, but I do feel like, as an educator, it is my job to remind my fellow educators of our changing times (Think Tony Wagner's Global Achievement Gap). Input on this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Embarrassing item today? Falling *UP* (yep, up) the steps in the middle of Union Station at lunch!

That's all for now. I will post again soon about the individual projects I will be working on - incorporating a lot of 2.0 and PBL!