Home Sweet Home

June 20, 2015 Sweet Home...

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

It was a whirl wind trip to California. I've been in five airports in the past three days, and while it's always exciting to discover new places, it always feel great to come home. Today, between 4:00 am and 4:00 pm, I flew over the Pacific, the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Plains. Yet when we finally circled Chicago before heading north along the shore of Lake Michigan, that warm feeling of home came over me. Still, during my brief layover at O'Hare, I felt that familiar urge to hop on a plane to Paris. Yet fifteen minutes later, when we touched down in Milwaukee, it sure felt good to be home!

San Diego

June 19, 2015 {170/365} Iglesia

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Old Town - San Diego

For the past two days, I've been providing professional development at the Vista Unified School District in Oceanside, California. It was a last-minute invitation, but I'm so glad I took the opportunity to stretch myself. On Thursday, I spent the day at Temple Heights Elementary School teaching students about tech tools (Google and iOS applications) to facilitate and support personalized learning: tinyurl.com/pl-vista. Today, I was at Vista Visions Academy, a K-12 completely blended learning environment, where I modeled the inquiry process and provided tools and resources to support questioning, researching, discussing, creating, and reflecting: tinyurl.com/inquiry-vista

It is always inspiring and motivating to discover new ideas and perspectives as a lead learner. It was also fun to imagine going to school in this environment. The photo below is the "cafeteria" and the open door (left) is the classroom where I taught today. Toto, I don't think we're in Wisconsin anymore!

Palm Tree

June 17, 2015 {168/365}

Advice from a Palm Tree: Soak up the sun. Stand up straight and proud. Showcase your natural beauty -- flaws and all. Keep stretching yourself, but remember your roots. Enjoy the view.