Rush the Iceberg

I am not sure where I came across this on the web, maybe Kotkke, but the idea of a Personal Canon has stayed with me, begging me to write about my own Canon.

The quote below by David Cole is what captured my thoughts:

“These are the pieces that I find myself referencing regularly in my work life, the pieces I wish everyone would read. Big, small, philosophical, practical, and between.”

I think a Personal Canon is a great way to look backwards and forwards, like Janus does.

Cole has his set up within Quora, but I want to create something little easier to navigate and update. Perhaps another Tumblr?

I keep thinking about my grandpa’s old army chest that has random, yet personal and revealing, things waiting to equip me for a better understanding of who I am.

I also keep thinking about what am I leaving for my 50, 60, 70, 80…year old self to remind me of life lived that makes living so great.

Thinking about my kids when I am no longer around…my grandchildren…

I have many fond memories of both sides of my family: parents to third cousins. I know the big things: marriages, children, deaths, war. But I want to know more…I want insights, questions, and understandings from the cumulative lives of my family.

I am thinking about creating yet another Tumblr just for this project. I envision this as an ongoing journey.

What are your thoughts? What areas of one’s life should be included?

P.S. - As a teacher, I often talked about the metaphorical tool box, yet my tools are not in a single place, easily referenced. Maybe I should create a My Teaching Canon, too.

The picture below was really fun for me to create.  I was asked to explain how I created this pic, so I started explaining it as a comment on Instagram. I then realized there were a few obvious and not so obvious connections to education stuff, so I am posting my response and thoughts here.

I first took the photo with #Hipstamatic using the “Kodot XGrizzled” film and “Loftus” lense, no flash. I absolutely LOVE Hipstamatic!

Then I threw it into #Snapseed for some basic enhancements, nothing special. I did change the frame to #7 at its widest and most offset positions.

#Photowizard was next. I have been playing around with this app for a few pics and really, really like what it can do. I had done a cool “Whirl” on a previous picture and wanted to do that again, but more subtley on this pic. After the “Whirl” adjustments, I experimented with the “Pinch/Punch” settings. I ended up “Pinching” it inward just a bit. I liked how it casued the wood in between the tracks to curve up just the slightest bit and how it manipulated the frame inwards. I then added a touch of the “Dreamy” setting to the pic.

@wmchamberlain posted a great pic a few days ago using #PowerSketch and I new I had to get the app! I threw my pic into PowerSketch and tried the “PiP” setting, but did not like how “clean” the edges were. I then saw “X-Sketch A” and tried that: LOVED IT!

I then put the pic into Instagram and that is it!

All of the above was experimental: trying different settings and seeing what catches my imagination.

I asked many “What ifs” and “How abouts”… I am posting this explanation here to my blog because I think it is important for teachers and students to remember that all creative endeavors are driven by questions and the unknown.

Like your mommy used to say at the dinner table, “try the green beans with mystery goup on it, you might like it.”  Or, “try the broccoli with a light brown substance drenched on top of it, you might like it.” Mayonaise and soy sauce are actually pretty good together!

Mikey likes it, he really does.

Just try stuff, mess around with different settings and see what grabs hold of your imagination and enjoy the ride.

For most of this school year I have been feeling like Prufrock.

However, instead of sitting in a coffee house with spoons stirring caffeinated thoughts, I am sitting in my class with past lessons crying out to stir students’ imaginations.

Instead of being inspired by my Twitter feed and blogs I read, I have felt the dichotomy of overwhelming paralysis and spinning my wheels getting nowhere.

I am well aware that all of this is self-inflicted…

…formulated, sprawling on a pin

I often feel that, no matter what my lesson plans are for my classes, no matter how I execute them, many in the Education Reform wing of Twitter and Blogosphere would criticize me with a fervor only seen on cable news punditry.

I need to remember sometimes the road is broader than what is between the progressive and constructivist lines.

Even in the sentence above, I feel that many would tweet something like, “Oh, you shouldn’t have lesson plans, your students are going to be permanently scarred because you are not letting them construct their own learning! You are a horrible teacher!”

You see, that is what I am talking about. I have a thought, and I immediately think that some tweep or blogger will criticize me. I find I often need to censor are add a caveat to my thought to let the Ed Reformers in on a little nuance that can be found in the humanity of education, not the idealogy of education.

I have heard the EdReformers tweeting, each to each. I do not think they will tweet to me.

“Your students sit in desks, what are you, Michelle Rhee? Don’t you know those are metaphors for the shackles of the outdated industrial model of education.”

There I go again…

Granted,  I should not care what others think or tweet, much less let them affect my pedagogy.

But I do let them affect my lessons.

I know its wrong and that it reveals one of my many weaknesses.

I bet I am not the only one who often feels beat down by hyperbolic tweeting and blogging.

Some are watchtowers and some are getting a tan on the beach during their conference period…I get it.

Yes, I know I can simply unfollow them on Twitter and not read their blog posts. I do not want to do that. I like that they challenge my thinking and force me to look for nuances in my own thought.

I guess I have not remembered this…

I need to go roll the bottoms of my trousers….

I have always been interested in photography. One of my favorite classes in high school was Photography. To be honest, though, the only thing I actively remember from that class is the famous “Rule of Thirds” rule. I always new there was much, much more to photography, but I always felt overwhelmed!

You can find my photos on 500px and on Flickr and I am “rushtheiceberg” on Instagram.

Presently, I really do not have any desire to learn about f-stops and shutter speed and much of the other technical aspects of photography. I’m sure I will get there in the future.

I am much more interested in composition and post processing of photos.

I also have a 2 1/2 year old and a 6 1/2 month old, so I do not have much time, well, to do anything.

Enter the iPhone and all the obligatory photography apps…

Below is my iPhoneography camera bag and my work flow…

PHOTOTOASTER - My photos go here first. Basic touch/tune ups…add clarity. I really like the cropping options: square and rectangle with 4:3, 4:6, 5:7, 8:10, and Golden Ratio. Many other apps have the same feature set, along with many filters and effects. However, I really like the intuitive UI with this app.

PHOTOFORGE/PHOTOGENE2 - I then generally throw my photos in one of these two next. My favorite part of Photogene2 is the curve adjustment. I have NO idea what the technical aspects of adjusting the curves are, but I do like to see the real time change as I slide my finger around on the screen. There is a whitebalance tool that I am sure I need to figure out how to use…

PICFX- Love this app for various filters and effects. Most of these can likely be found in other apps, but again, the UI of this app is simple and intuitive. All of my photos go through this app; however, not all photos end up being processed with this app – I like to see what my options are. I didn’t realize this for the longest time, but you can adjust the intensity of the filter/effect with a verticle slide bar on the right side of the photo!

PHOTOWIZARD – I am starting to play around with this app. It seems overwhelming to me, yet the promise of power and versitility is present.

Lenslight – Just got this last night and I love it! At first I thought I could not really use the app much, but playing around with it proved me wrong. The controls for different lighting effects are intuitive and creative. Highly recommend this…you may not use it much, but when you do, it will take your photo to the next level…The moon is the next photo is from Lenslight….

—Updtate: I used Photowizard (and Snapseed and Lenslight for this photo)

SNAPSEED – I want to use and like this app more than I do…UPDATE – I have spent a few days with this app and really like it a lot! I know I am not using it to its fullest potential. The thing I like most is it is pretty easy to experiment with different “things” in this app without causing too many problems.

POSTAL PIX/POSTAGRAM - You have too order prints of your pics for the refridgerator and family!

SHUTTERCAL - I use this app to upload the photos for my 365 project to this site – the site has a cool calandar view…

COUNTDOWN – Not a photo app, but I use this to keep track of the chronological day of the year…

HIPSTAMATIC – I have this app for over a year, however I rarely used it. The layout was simple, yet all the combinations of film, flash, and lenses overwhelmed me. In addition, at first I did not like that you have to shoot the photo in this app – so I stopped using it. About two weeks ago, I started using the app again. I am not sure why, either! I am super happy that I did! I feel like the quality of my compositions and over photos have stepped up a notch. This app really makes me think through the shot before snapping the photo! When the combiniation of film, flash, and lenses is bad, it is HORRIBLE! However, when the combination is good, I get so much joy!

INSTAGRAM – Well, you know…I do want to say that, for about a month, I thought you could only take the photo within the app. Boy was I wrong! I finally figured out that I can take pictures with the iPhone’s normal camera or our DSLR, save the photos to the phone’s camera roll, and then select the photo from there to add flters and stuff to…

Favorite iPhoneographers on Instagram – I strongly suggest tegold, billselak, doremigirl, fodograph, furius_spurius, intrepidteacher, jimconnolly, kshelton, needleworks, maryannreilly, magrelacanela, rjob50, rvesper, robertogreco, seani_, tfullerton …

I’m sure I have missed some apps and photographers…please include your favorites in the comments!

I no longer want to be David fighting Goliath.

Rather, I want to be that little kid on the shore throwing starfish back into the water.

I just read a great blog post by Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper. The title of the article speaks to a simple truth: “Whatever Works for You”.

If you remove the concept being a “fanboy” for technology and replace it with being an EdReformer on blogs and Twitter, you would have the blog post I have had in my mind for months, yet could not fully express.

Here are my two favorite paragraphs in the piece:

Previous-me tried to persuade everyone to switch to my setup, but I now know that it’s not worth the effort. I’ll never know someone else’s requirements, environment, or priorities as well as they do. I don’t know #$%! about Windows or Outlook or architecture.

You should use whatever works for you. And I no longer have the patience or hubris to convince you what that should be. All I can offer is one data point: what I use, and how it works for me.

Before you start with a reactionary “yeah, but…”, please understand that I am all for sharing ideas, resources, and inspiration. I am not biting the hand that keeps me sane. Rather, the militant EdReformers are on my mind. Yeah, Joe Bower, Gary Stager, and Michelle Rhee are on my mind…They all have their place in our edusphere, but I think extremism, in any direction, is misguided and lacking nuance.

I’m curious to read your comments…

Steve Jobs is known for saying “real artists ship.”

For too long, the inherent message of this quote has been an anchor, rather than wind in my sails.

You see, I began spending a great amount of time blogging and tweeting about all things education: I took up residence on Education Beach.

I interacted with many wonderful educators, parents, and education consultants of various motives. I have been jealous of some and annoyed by others.

Some were watchtowers, peering down on all educators below them.

Some were lighthouses, offering guidance to safe harbor and shining light into ignored corners.

Some were ski boats, quickly moving onto new technology and theories, ultimately skimming the surface.

Some were sailboats, letting the winds of change direct them, rarely tacking against the wind.

Some were rowboats, forging their own path while being aware the tide influences them.

Some were sun-bathers, browning themselves in the hopes of looking better, remaining the same teacher on the inside.

I have been AND known them all. Eventually I found myself reeling between the Scylla of Conservative District Realities and the Charybdiss of Progressive Education Idealists.

This grew ever frustrating.

Then my son was born and new realities emerged on the horizon.

Distraction, survival, and joy were the new ports of call.

Then one day, while the eyes of Hurricanes Jocelyn and Casen passed overhead, I realized something:

My hobby is education.

My art is teaching.

I am an artist that ships daily in my classroom with my students.

“What” is tangible…

“Why” is abstract…

“What” is a noun…

“Why” is a verb…

“What” is humanity….

“Why” is culture…

“What” is finite…

“Why” is infinite…

“What” is a grade on a piece of paper…

“Why” is learning nuance and paradox…

“What” is a song on your iPod…

“Why” is music stirring long forgotten emotions…

“What” is the poem in your college literature anthology…

“Why” is lines six through eleven jumping into your mind while watching Modern Family….

….”Why” is AND.

….”Why” is WITH.

I tend to have grand ideas that, well, I rarely see through to fruition.

Those ideas that do come to fruition often are ripe for one or two days then rot on the vine.

I hope the idea below does not suffer the same fate…

This week is a typically odd week with various obstacles getting in the way of inquiry and learning.

Monday – Weekly Review = Awesome

Tuesday – District Mandated Benchmark Exams = Saddening/frustrating

Wednesday – Yay! Fun Day! Acrostics and Metaphorical License Plates = Fun

Thursday – District mandated meeting at the district office = Boring and Sub

Friday – Minimum day = Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address and craziness

As I was writing the obligatory daily agenda on the board, I remembered that I highly value a print rich AND a visually rich environment. However, my daily agenda did not match my values.

I decided to add a visual component:

I admit, this is far short of amazing. However, my students are responding well to this small addition.

I have 196 students and 45 have IEP’s and receive services (ugg) from the RSP department. The RSP students are spread throughout the day and two have already come up to me and told me the like it because they can be better prepared and anticipate the tone and mood for the day.

I hope I continue to do this…I have told a few students to remind me to do this every week! (yeah, I know, things change in the week based on student understanding and all that…)

I installed a sort of inner Steve (Jobs), an Angel of Better telling me to make it simpler, try once more, don’t forget to delight, and remember that greatness is possible.

Neven Mrgan  via Marco.org

This is my new guiding thought in the classroom.