Last First Day?

Inservice week. I began the week by delivering a workshop called "The First Day of School" in which I helped teachers understand how to effectively manage space, time, information and persona involved in the first day of school or class. I qualified my expertise by describing how I've conducted over 50 successful first days of school. I used a paper manipulative to share ideas about all the topics I mentioned a few sentences ago. I was interactive with the attendees. I gave some hints about student management that help to preserve the dignity of both the student and the teacher. I demonstrated how to keep students actively involved. I talked about how to execute an explanation of the course content in one or two sentences. I sensed that the workshop was a success. Maybe I'll just keep on teaching for a few more terms rather than to truly retire at the end of the quarter based on this confirmation of my teaching methods.
Then Wednesday I attended the all staff/campus general gathering in the gym where we ate cold powdered scrambled eggs, something that looks sort of like sausages and drank someone's fair effort at making coffee for the masses. I listened to the deans introduce the new people on their staffs. Then the deans sang a long song called "Acronyms" that attempted to include every committee in the college that has letters that describe its purpose. It was kinda cute. For about five minutes. But it went on for about 12 more minutes. I'm not kidding. Next, the president spoke. She delivered a really good speech. If she'd been in my speech class, she would have earned extra points for quality and presentation for basing her content on a nifty kaleidoscope metaphor and numbering her major points so you could easily keep track of when she'd finish. And finally, the person I'd been waiting to hear, our keynote speaker Terry Doyle, delivered his speech.
The speech began with his validation of his role as presenter by telling us that he'd had over 80 first days of school. He described what we can do to be more effective educators: involve ourselves in the learner centered process. We can do this by focusing attention on space, time, content and personalities. Yes, it did sound familiar and,boy, was I glad I'd presented first! I left even a little more determined to keep teaching.
Then came Thursday. My epiphany completed itself. I'll tell you about it in the next few days because this entry, like most all my others, is too long as it stands.

City Pics

I didn't take my camera with me on our recent trip to San Francisco. I wanted to experience my own perspective rather than that of the one behind the lens. I've discovered that photo ops often rule how I "download" my time when I travel and that the trip becomes more about the camera than about me. So I'll share a few word pics to let you know about this amazing trip.
Picture us in a narrow alley in China Town. We're in a line to see a fortune cookie factory. Ahead of us is the doorway through which you see a dark, narrow little room where three Chinese women sit one behind the other rolling discs of cookie dough into fortune shapes after they've slipped in the paper fortunes. Notice the "boss" moving back and forth between them keeping them on task and reminding us to pay 50 cents per picture.
Envision an intimate, darkened theater. There are seats for about two hundred people with small tables in the first two rows. We are sitting in the first row laughing at the spectacle of male dancers dressed in poodle dog costumes standing beside a hugely coiffed Sarah Palin figure singing about how Snow White can find a husband. There are several full and empty beer steins in front of us. We're watching "Beach Blanket Babylon."
Study the group as we make our way around Angel Island on Segways. We are neatly in line as directed except for Pat who is seen out of line and zigzagged to our left where his stunt riding has led him straight smack dab into the hillside. Again, notice the hard laughter.
See the seven of us sitting on the steps facing Macy's in Union Square. It is a beautiful night and we are eating cheesecake in celebration of my 64th birthday. There are a few homeless people scattered around us and the sidewalk in front of us is full of walkers even though it is past 9:00. The sparkly lights of the tall buildings all around us illuminate the area in a magic sort of way.
And just imagine the cityscape as seen from an Edwardian balcony in the Buena Vista area of San Francisco. The Bay Bridge is in the horizon, Union Sqare and the rest of the city is in the middle distance and just below us two floors is the tiny manicured knot garden of our hosts. The sky is an outrageous blue and the sun dominates all.
Finally, a shot of us on the ferry sitting with our faces in the cool breeze yet warmed by the big sun to the west of us. The Coit Tower can be seen to our right and Alcatraz is close by to the left. We are sharing our outside deck seats with all manner of young people returning to the city from their adventures in the nearby locations where they have been bike riding, walking, picnicking and otherwise spending leisure time in the rare Bay Area sun just as we were.
It was unbelievable. It is like that every time we visit The City.

Tree Hunt

It's time to consider what to do with the ugly, bare spot left in my sister's lawn because of the loss of the 50 year old maple in one of last spring's storms. We figured we'd just plant a tree or three and compose a little mountain woodsy sort of landscape with some found objects and our communal artistic ideas. I can sort of see it already.

So within the last few days, we've explored five different nurseries. We've covered a fair piece of ground up and down the I-5 corridor including the famous Al's Garden in Woodburn. Guess what? It isn't all that easy to find conifer trees to purchase here in our naturally thick with conifers Oregon. We were really surprised.

After some real time browsing at actual nurseries and some internet exploration, Bobbie decided she likes mountain hemlocks and alpine firs the best. Pat and I know that alpine firs are not that easy to find and mountain hemlocks can be tricky to locate as well but, boy, did we find some good ones in a Salem area nursery. I won't say which one because their trees go on sale tomorrow and you'll all probably rush out to buy the very trees we want. I'll tell you about this fabulous source after we've made our purchase. Suffice it to say that this place has great nursery stock and helpful though rather unsmiling clerks. Their nursery stock is beautifully cared for and thriving in an accessible and very navigable lot.
And the gift shop has some great stuff in it too.

So we'll finish our research on soils (we want to berm the trees up a bit), figure out yards to units (Pat's job), and get on with the buying. Someday soon all three of us will be out in Bobbie's front yard creating the new piece of landscape and planting something new in the place where my dad cautioned my sister to let the twiggy little maple alone all those years ago.

Writer's Block

Oh, um. . .what to write about? Need to update the blog-no more fancy trips just the one long and hot weekend in Prineville keeping cool by the swamp cooler or breezing in the boat on the Reservoir all with fun friends-slept on memory foam mattress and bought our own on the way home but it's the new and improved one with memory gel along with the foam or some such thing and, boy, is it comfortable and my back feels better than it has in a long, long time-thinking lots about turning 64 next month especially with the Beatles' song "When I'm 64" running through my head many times per day-want to get in touch with my Stayton friends for a walk in the Wilderness (maybethisweekendifyou'rereadingthis?) so did a practice walk in the cool of this morning-was lovely but I was puffing a bit-it's the extra weight which is driving me crazy but I can't resolve what to do and I can't believe I'm actually putting that thought out into cyberspace-yikes!and fall will start next week with childcare responsibilities shaping our schedules again but then it's off to San Francisco to see our Derek and Brian special friends for some Bay Area fun and hi jinks before I have to prep for the in-service workshop I'm doing. That's it! A blog update!

Alaska is. . .

• Anchorage-big, wide, clean, friendly
• the Snow City Cafe-french toast stuffed with mandarin cream cheese
• a great yarn shop with friendly knitters and local yarn
• Talkeetna-a rustic, historic village north of Wasilla
• the cabin way out there where we could hear the salmon jumping as we sat by the campfire
• sun until nearly midnight when the daylight just dims
• Homer-a little town that thinks it's big but it can't compete with the mountains and the water around it
• Seward with its gorgeous Resurrection Bay and the police officer who spent his shift shooing off a mama bear and her three cubs from the out of town bridge where they were fishing
• big sky, big mountains, wildlife
• SERIOUS fishermen and women who wear their waders all day long and even in town
• a secret restaurant that is rated one of the top ten in the USA by the food network
• a place that needs to be revisited

Real life in Real Time-Mendenhall Glacier

The power of Alaska is easy to see on the trail to Mendenhall Glacier outside of Juneau. Hike along with wildflowers beside you and icy streams gurgling down the hillside to your right. See some bald eagles perched above in the trees. Study the huge striated rocks that are so wondrously cut and colored by the glaciers that you just want to stuff some into your day pack to take home. And then you begin to hear the roar of the huge waterfall that is just to the right of the glacier which you begin to glimpse as the trail curves. And then there it is: the awesome edifice of ice that looks like some sort of fantasy created for a ride at Disneyland and then you realize that this thing is absolutely real and absolutely not created by any human hands. With the fog lifting above it and the waterfall bellowing just to the right of it, the glacier commands your perfect attention and you just stare and stare.

Floating Quarters

Alaska was amazing. I have no words to describe the power of Glacier Bay. We sailed in on a sunny, blue sky day on water that was as smooth as a mirror that reflected the glaciers and mountains all around us. The glaciers are interesting and we learned a lot about Marjorie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier but the power comes from floating through the bay which is so refreshingly cool and clean and so sharply focused in the bright air. The glaciers and the ice floes are a deep sky blue. I cannot even imagine what it must have been like for the likes of John Muir and others who went up to study the glaciers and that whole stunning ecosystem. I feel so fortunate to have been there.
The towns of Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan are clever little villages obviously started by hearty souls who wanted gold and had an itch to explore this last frontier. The people in the shops, even though most are newbies anywhere from a few years to several decades of inhabiting, have this special acceptance about their environment which rules every move they make. It was comical to see the fans on in Ketchikan on a day of about 65 degrees which they felt was a heatwave. They are warm and welcoming to all the tourists.
The cruise itself was okay. I was highly aware that we were living on a gigantic floating mall that sucked money straight out of the guests at every turn. It was difficult not to feel like a packed in herd of cattle being shuffled from one deck to another to spend money. And the impact on the environment is not something I even want to think about. Food rules. I don't get that even though I am one of the world's most enthusiastic foodies. Why does everyone base the quality of a cruise on its food? And how do you know if the food is better on this cruise or that? I could find something good to eat any time day or night. Lots of it was mediocre, but there was plenty of good stuff to choose from as well.
But I absolutely love going to bed with the ocean singing outside our deck door and waking up in the morning at a new port or just lounging in bed with the sun streaming over a calm ocean onto our bed. That, folks, is the absolute height of luxury.
More about this later along with some photos.