Education – Page 8 – The Future is Open

June 22, 2011

What now?

I work in education and I’m employed as a technology director. Everyone is a director now. Our egos call for it. Everyone’s ego demands director status. I like to think of myself as more of a facilitator. I enable teachers, administrators, students and parents to look their best when they use technology. I like helping people. I also love teaching. I look at teaching as a way to help others. I also consider my work as more of a cosmic than a local undertaking. Act locally, but think globally. That’s some of what drives me. I also was thinking of Colossians 3:23 today, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord …”

That’s really what my work is about is working for the creator, for the Lord. It helps to think this way because whether a person is helpful or hurtful; loving or uncaring. I’m working for the Lord and it really doesn’t matter what people think. I’ve got a different employer and he/she pays well. In a couple of days I’ll be in Philadelphia at the ISTE Conference. There will be lots of tech people and tech wannabes. Ed Tech is big business now and I think some people think an iPad or a net book can solve the education crisis in our country. Although I’m a gadget fan I think the answers are deeper than that. I’m no fan of the Common Core either. I think that is a creation of the testing companies. They make billions on these tests and there’s no firm evidence to suggest that students are learning more or getting better jobs.

Most of the students I meet need love. Simple love and caring would do a great deal to solve the education woes. Heck, most teachers and administrators need love too. Love is trans-formative and it’s free too. Try some love on your staff and students. I did and it worked. I don’t know if my students learned much but I showed them love and respect and I hope they share that with someone else.

June 3, 2011

Hundred Acre Wood

The hundred acre wood behind our home. Today I got a chance to catch up a bit. I was down with a head cold which is mother nature’s way of saying take a day off and rest. That is mostly what I did today. Nonetheless, with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and now the ISTE Ning I’ve been busy writing, reading and thinking. I’ll be attending ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia at the end of the month. I was able to attend the NECC/ISTE 2009 Conference in Washington, DC a couple of years ago and it was a watershed moment. I hope I can learn and connect with many folks and that I can keep the beginners mind.

The picture above was taken with my new iPhone which I’ve had for a couple weeks now. I’m still getting used to it. It’s my fourth smart phone in five years. I had a couple Blackberries, a Droid and now the iPhone. They are amazing devices.

May 16, 2011

The Franciscan Journey

This morning began early when I woke up unable to sleep anymore at 6:30 am. A shower and then getting dressed for graduation at St. Bonaventure University. The steady rain forced me to put my cap and gown in a makeshift barrel bag covering and then a twenty-five minute drive to campus. With the help of custodian in the Reilly Center I found a spacious classroom where we could stow our gear. I got gowned and capped and then stood in line waiting with hundreds of others grads and undergrads prior to our procession into the Reilly Center arena. As I turned the corner following my classmates I saw than one each side of the center aisle were the faculty of St. Bonaventure University who greeted us as we processed. Early in that procession my eyes misted a bit as I remembered my Franciscan roots at St. Pius X Grammar School where I graduated 45 years ago.

My adviser Dr. Gibbs, who is also head of the Department of Educational Leadership extended his hand. “Congratulations, Don.” Next to him was my friend Brother Kevin Kriso, OFM. Kevin looked resplendent in his red robes. My humble friend is actually a Doctor of Counseling Psychology; next was Dr. McDonough who taught me so much about curriculum and data analysis; then there was Dr. Anne Claire-Fisher who explored the Secular Franciscan life; Fr. Bob Struszynski, OFM who is actually a Doctor of Theology; Fr. Dan Riley, OFM who is one of my dearest friends; Fr. Michael Calabria, OFM a lovely friar and Facebook friend who heads the University’s Islamic Studies program.

One of the professors that I didn’t know was wearing a Tau. I had two on this morning but they were under my gown. At St. Bonaventure University we are all Franciscans. Today was one of those peak experiences that define our lives. I cannot begin to describe all that I experienced today but I can tell you that I am honored to be a St. Bonaventure Alumni. I had been looking forward to shaking Sister Margaret Carney, STD, OSF’s hand and I did today. Sister Margaret embodies all that one would want to be. She is so personable and hospitable. I can think of no one else who more embodies what it means to be a Franciscan.

Today I graduated with an MSED in Educational Leadership and that is very important and meaningful to me. More importantly I graduated from St. Bonaventure University an institution that embodies all that I treasure. I am a Franciscan and receiving a degree from a Franciscan institution is great blessing. Words cannot adequately express all that is in my heart tonight.

May 15, 2011

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

This quote from Jeremiah has been with me lately. It’s one that I keep meditating on. In a few hours I’ll graduate from St. Bonaventure University. What will I do with my new certifications and skills? Will I lead a school or school district? Will I continue to be a technology coordinator? What did the Holy Spirit have in mind when it influenced me to enroll at St. Bonaventure University a couple of years ago? The spirit will lead as it always does and I will do my best to follow it, listening with the ear of my heart.

It is quiet this morning as I sit here keying in these words that have come to me. It is raining again and whenever it rains I think of Thomas Merton. Rain is the best metaphor for the grace of God and the Holy Spirit that I can think of. I am surrounded then by God’s grace and enveloped in that loving spirit as I have been throughout my life.

I came up here from the monastery last night, sloshing through the cornfield, said Vespers, and put some oatmeal on the Coleman stove for supper. It boiled over while I was listening to the rain and toasting a piece of bread at the log fire. The night became very dark. The rain surrounded the whole cabin with its enormous virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, of rumor. Think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water, washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside! What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks I am going to listen. — Thomas Merton, “Rain and the Rhinoceros.”

So this morning I listen to the rain as it talks to me. I am glad to be here and glad that it is raining otherwise I might miss the voice of the Ruach.

May 14, 2011

Graduation

Tomorrow I graduate from St. Bonaventure University with a Master of Science in Education in Educational Leadership. Two years ago there was no thought about such a reality but in the past 22 months something happened. I have been on “The Good Journey.” In less than two years I have completed 35 graduate hours. I’ve completed 831.5 hours of internships in Special Education, Curriculum, Assistant Principal and been an assistant to a superintendent. My daughter, Dara who graduated in December 2010 from St. Bonaventure University has been an inspiration to me. She graduated from State University College at Fredonia, Summa Cum Laude with a 3.98 gpa a couple of years ago and then graduated from St. Bonaventure with a 4.0 gpa. Through God’s grace and good fortune I too have made that mark. In the process I have been nominated to Pi Lamda Theta and graciously accepted.

On the road to this degree I have met with many wonderful classmates whom I will miss a great deal. I have been blessed to have a great adviser and great professors from whom I have learned. Where does the road lead now? I really don’t know. I do know that I have enjoyed these last almost two years and I am proud to be graduating from St. Bonaventure University tomorrow. Franciscans have played a tremendous role in my educational life. From grade school, high school and now a graduate degree from St. Bonaventure University.

Tomorrow I become an alumni of an institution that I have admired much of my life. I remember looking at the tiled rooftops forty-plus years ago when I sat in study halls at nearby Archbishop Walsh High School. I came to basketball camp here. It was here too that I came on a first date with my wife. We came with our family to enjoy many basketball games. Bonaventure is home to Thomas Merton too. I have reflected often in these past months of how I was studying in the same library that Thomas studied in. Words cannot express all that is in my heart. This has been an incredibly fulfilling journey. Pax et Bonum!

April 8, 2011

Good news

Today I wrapped up an internship and received good news that I had passed my comprehensive examinations at St. Bonaventure University. It’s late and I’m tired but I’m also very grateful. I want to thank all the people who prayed for me and for my wife for putting up with my worry. The last 21 months have been a journey of self-discovery and homecoming. It has been a metanoia and it is still unfolding. One of my younger co-workers said to me today, “Why don’t you retire?” How old are you anyway? I told him I was 58 years old and not ready to retire. He seemed incredulous. This young man is perhaps 35 at most and to him I seem moderately ancient, but to me it’s relative.

I got some good news too in the last couple days. One of the students for whom I have prayed a lot has received been selected to attend “Upward Bound” at Houghton College. I wrote a recommendation for him when no one else would. When his counselor told me he came into her office excited to be going I was thrilled and deeply moved. This young man and other young men and women like him are what keep me animated and moving forward. I’m tired tonight but grateful and I wanted to record these thoughts. Deo gratias!

December 20, 2010

Creativity Is on the Decline — And Why It Matters – The Juggle – WSJ

This adds fuel to a fire that is burning within me and it has to do with how we teach and what we teach and of course test in schools. The test everything mentality is not leaving us better prepared. It is in fact leaving our students less ready for the world and the it is the world that is suffering. We live in a post information age world.

Creativity Is on the Decline — And Why It Matters – The Juggle – WSJ

tags: creativity

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

December 1, 2010

Halt the Lion of War

I just watched a great video from TEDx which is one of my favorite sources of information and education. Consider how William Ury’s approach which is based in Abraham could work. This fall as a graduate student at St. Bonaventure University I read one of William Ury’s books, “Getting to Yes.”
[ted id=1017]

July 17, 2010

Time to write

I’ve been busier than the proverbial one armed paperhanger. I’m involved in an internship for the degree program I’m enrolled in at St. Bonaventure University. That internship sees me leaving my home four days a week at 7 am and returning to my home at 4 pm most days this summer. My time in the internship has been fulfilling and I am very glad to be gaining the experience in educational administration. I’m meeting many new faces and making some new acquaintances too. But, it has left me scant time to do some of the things that I found myself doing in previous summers. That maybe good or bad depending on your view.

This has been a time of change too and I’m doing my best to embrace the uncertainty and change that has been central to all of this. Where I’m going to be a year from now can not be answered with any certainty. Needless to say this past year has been very engaging and a dramatic turnaround from where I found myself one year ago. Just recently I completed yet another course at St. Bonaventure University and now in just under eleven months of graduate work I have finished 16 graduate credits. I’ve read dozens of books and written numerous papers and completed sundry other projects. I am glad to be moving forward and many tremendous opportunities have come my way. I am grateful for the change of pace and sometimes wish I were ten years younger.

I’ve been asked to speak at a gathering of educators on July 28th. I’m grateful to those of you inclined to pray and covet those prayers. I have an idea of what to say, but how to say it is not there yet. I know it will be in time.