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!

Welcome to Virginia!

I arrived at Reagan National Airport in Washington DC at around 3:15pm on Saturday, June 25. The flight was fine, made a connection in Detroit, and while there was a bit of rough air ("Flight attendants please take your seats" is something you don't like to hear during beverage service), it was a pretty uneventful trip.

Mark and Kay picked me up and we went back to the house - which is gorgeous - before dinner. I had the best manicotti EVER at Villa Bella.

My room:



Today we did a practice drive to the train station where, just an FYI to the VRE people, BOTH ticket machines were out of order. So Mark and I drove to the next station to buy my first 5-day train pass on the VRE. I'll take the 7:00 train tomorrow to be safe, and after that I think I'll be able to take the 7:30 train. It's about a quarter-mile walk from Union Station to C-SPAN headquarters (according to Google Maps).

For lunch today we went up to Maryland and visited some of Kay's friends - they are from Nepal (and some other friends from Japan - all of whom are flying out of the country this week!). The father is a famous (in his country) Nepalese folk singer, and they cooked a traditional Nepalese dinner. New food of the day? Tofu. I couldn't bring myself to eat the fishy noodle thing, but I'm sure if I were a seafood person it would have been delicious. I had a lot of chicken, and I was surprised (and pleased) to find that the spices on one of the chicken dishes tasted REALLY similar to a dish I had made for my 7th graders last year (2009-2010) during our study of southeast Asia!



We then had a Swiss Chocolate Cake (from a Swiss Bakery in Burke). That was pretty much amazing. To balance out our international cuisine for the day Mark made Black Angus steaks for supper. Grilled to perfection, we also had salads and baked potatoes. I had some asian pear slices for dessert, although Mark will be back shortly for cheesecake.

So this first post ended up being mostly about food, and you will continue to see those types of details, I'm sure, since Kay is an amazing cook. However, since I'll be on my way to C-SPAN Headquarters in less than 12 hours, I'm sure I'll have much more to talk about tomorrow.