We were able to get into our classroom for the first time today, but that wasn’t the best thing that happened, although, as you’ll see, our classroom is pretty nice.

We (my TAs and I) met at Accenture at noon today, and were greeted by Katie and Jen who brought us up to our room on the 36th floor. Richard and David were there setting up the laptops for the students. First, I have to commend every Accenture employee, about 20 so far, we’ve interacted with – they have been so, so responsive, friendly, helpful, and absolutely bent on making this the best experience possible for both the students and the teaching staff. They all have full time jobs, but have made this program an exceedingly high priority. Props to Accenture for allowing them to follow their passions. They all work so well together, even though many are meeting each other face-to-face for the first time.

Our room. Wow. It was completed less than a year ago in a remodel and has a lot of the latest meeting room technology, like a single, removable panel (almost like a tablet) which controls the lights, display monitors, shades, audio, everything. The building is about a block and a half south of the Chicago River, across the street from the Thompson Center. Our room, as I mentioned, is on the 36th floor, facing north. From it, we can see the river and miles and miles to the north-northwest. Simply spectacular, though the view from the cafeteria, where Accenture will generously be providing us with daily lunch, is even more so – it faces east and looks out over Millennium Park and the lake.

The most exciting part about today was finally getting to meet the students and some of their parents at our Meet and Greet. It was almost like an open house at school, except the food and the view are way better. And there was a lot of food – the guacamole alone would have overfilled any bowl I have at my home in Connecticut.

The students – so bright, excited and friendly. I met Vanessa, Dami (whose first name is much longer than that and means “God has rewarded me with wealth” – I promised to learn her full name before the end of the week), Naissa, Yu Jing, Bella (and her sister Rosie), Erica, Kayla, Briannah and Jessica, as well as many of their family members. This is a very diverse set of young women, in terms of ethnicity, socioeconomic background, personality, and level of coding experience.

I happened to remember some of Vanessa’s application – namely that she was involved in  her high school’s radio station and an anti-substance abuse program called Operation Snowball, which she will be the director of next year. She was completely stunned (and pleased) that I knew anything about her (so were her parents). In all honesty, I had just read her bio about an hour before and thought she might be a good candidate for one of the GWC media outreach programs.

Because of her excitement, right here, right now, I am taking a personal (and since you’re reading this, public) vow to know every student’s bio before they walk in Monday morning. That should set a positive, respectful tone for the rest of the summer. Plus, it’s only memorizing a bunch of stuff. Hmm, I also have their pictures, so maybe I can also know their names as they walk in – since I met so many tonight, I’m already halfway there.

She set me at ease immediately, “Would you like a glass of water while you wait?” Admittedly, I was already pretty chill after a challenging yoga class, but her offer took me down another notch. That was not to last.

I’ve been eyeing this restaurant for days; my bus stop is across a little side street from it. When I first walked past on Monday, it looked kind of like a closed business (there are lots of them around here, though this neighborhood has the feel of an impending resurgence). The sign outside was no help: Nana. Sort of a comforting name, especially if you are alone in a new city, but a quick glance inside as I walked past yielded no clue as to what their business was.

Then, as I was searching for a place to eat yesterday (I googled “restaurants near me”), Nana (nanaorganic.com) came up as a well-reviewed, local, organic, sustainable restaurant, and the prices are decent; PLUS it’s only a six minute walk away! I knew I had to try it before the summer was over. When I can, which is almost always when I’m traveling alone or with my family, I try to patronize locally owned businesses. I prefer to have my money stay in and support the community I am visiting.

I was parched after yoga, so I relaxed even more when another waitress offered me a second glass of water. I don’t think I’ve ever been offered a drink while waiting for take out  – certainly not twice. As I settled into my tranquility, I gazed absently down South Halsted Street, watching the infrequent foot traffic meander by.

Suddenly, the sky strobed white, then became dark again. I was a little taken aback, but I had conversed with several classmates at yoga: thunderstorms were expected, I thought at eight o’clock, they had heard later. One mentioned the possibility of a tornado. Still, that was later. I relaxed again and waited.

The sky began to flash more ominously and frequently. Were we going to get hit early? I slid to the edge of my seat (about half the chairs in restaurants here are those high stools), and began to look around. I saw, with a sense of relief, the waitress put a box into a bag. I was the only to-go customer, and I was ready to go! The wind was beginning to pick up. She looked into the bag, then set it on the counter in front of the chef, and said something to him I couldn’t make out, and walked away.

I had ordered their grilled chicken sandwich (chicken from a local farm – I asked. By the way, if you’ve never had chicken raised in a sustainable way, by a farmer which you are only one or two degrees of separation from, I recommend you do. It’s a different bird. There is something extraordinarily comforting about knowing who grew your food. Seriously.), and it came with a side dish. I ordered “farmer’s vegetable, seasonal selection, ask your server” which turned out to be grilled zucchini. It’s early for zucchini, I know, but it was delicious after such a long hiatus. Although it’s early for zucchini, this particular zucchini was taking it’s sweet time getting cooked. “It’ll be ready shortly,” the waitress told me. She must have noticed me beginning to fidget and offered me a third glass of water. I declined – the sky was flashing like a dance club. Mercifully, they brought the bill before the food, so when my meal was ready, I grabbed the bag and headed out the door. No rain yet.

I walked the half block to my street, and as I turned the corner, a man lurched off the step of what used to be a corner store, and said “Come on, let’s go.” I was startled, but because he had his back to me, not too worried. I turned the corner, and his dog, a small schnauzer mix,  ran toward me barking. When she saw I wasn’t afraid of her, she immediately calmed down and walked up to sniff me. She bored of that quickly and moved on.

I had to hoof it. I started counting the seconds between the flash and the boom, “One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, … seventeen one thousand”. Ok, not too bad. All the way home I counted, over and over. I started with every really bright flash, hoping for a clear report to make the count certain, but the flashes were coming faster than the thunder, rendering my task impossible. The wind continued to pick up, and at one point brought the oddest scent: watermelons. For about three full breaths, I sensed their unmistakeable aroma.

Finally, I reached my gate, pushed through and climbed to the second floor. I unlocked the door, and dropped my bag on the table as the skies opened up, glad to be safely at my home away from home. Man, that was a good chicken sandwich.

The storms, swinging down like a battle axe.

I walked in a different direction this morning, so I can report this: that civil engineering project where they raised the streets is HUGE. It is at least two miles across. Just wow. I can also report that mulberrries are plentiful here, and hardly anyone eats them, except for that woman who had a quarter shopping bag full of them and was still collecting with thousands on the sidewalk around her. PLUS there is this type of blueberry bush used ornamentally around here that is just delicious. What can I say? My mom didn’t do such a great job of teaching me not to stick things in my mouth. But, as she would say (and has on many an occasion), I was her first try.

I spent the majority of the day working: fixing slides, adjusting our lesson plans and calendar and actually doing the programming activities that we will ask the students to do. Yesterday I programmed the computer to play Pig, an easy dice game you could play with even little kids (old enough to count to 100) on a rainy day. Today I will be programming a Jukebox, and tomorrow it will be an image posterizer and a video game. That’ll get me through the first three weeks of what the students will be doing.

We had a meeting with our hosts at Accenture today. I bet you don’t know what Accenture does. I know I didn’t until today, when a twenty-something (that’s the term he started using when some of the new employees were younger than his tenure) year veteran at Accenture told me about some of their projects. Sufficed to say, they’re everywhere. Remember way back in the eighties, there were those really kind of unnerving commercials “We’re Beatrice” (example), and we all thought “Who’s Beatrice?” It’s kind of like that, but not so unnerving. They work as consultants for (at least) all the Fortune 1000 (not a typo). So, if a grocery chain wants to do some big tech project, like those hand held scanners for shoppers some stores have, they call Accenture to help them. (I don’t know that Accenture actually did that, but from some of the other projects he described, that would be exactly the type of thing that they’d do). We don’t know the name so well because “Buy’N’Large announces that they hired consultants to make these nifty new scanners” doesn’t sound as good as “Buy’N’Large announces their nifty new scanners”.

I hate to disparage my new classroom at EHHS, even though my view improved from a close up of view of the brick side of the old LMC to a grand panorama of the VFW, the Peacemaker (an Apache helicopter) and the surrounding neighborhood, but my view this summer will be incredible: Our classroom is on the 36th floor facing north looking out over all of North Chicago and the lake. I’ll post pictures when we get in the classroom full time on Thursday.

I’m taking my own advice and heading to bed early tonight.

The titles of these posts seem like scores. Days are winning so far.

Click here for the cast of characters

A non-fiction six word story I omitted from yesterday: “We’re at the same airport, right?”

Note to self: If you are going to put off writing until the end of the day, get home earlier.

I’m staying in a pretty safe neighborhood. I judge this by the walk I took this morning. First, people in Chicago, at least this section, are awake fairly early. There were many people out exercising at 6:15 am. Of course, this could just be because this is a city, and there are simply a lot of people.

Back to safety. I often judge the safety of an unfamiliar neighborhood by the number of people who look more vulnerable than I am to an attack. If there are a lot of people who look like easier pickings than I am, I feel safe. I walked today to Palmisano Park which shares a corner with the Chinatown section of Chicago (it feels uncomfortable to say Chinatown, it’s almost like saying Chinaman and I wouldn’t use that term to describe any person). There were quite a few people out for their morning walks – many in their seventies and eighties, so I felt safe. OK, there was that seventy-something year old guy who was vigorously kicking his leg as high as his chest. He could probably take me, so don’t count him. Then there was that Asian woman who was walking about twice as fast as me. Don’t count her either. And that woman who was walking about ninety miles an hour backwards. Don’t count her. Other than those three, I think I was OK. Oh, wait, there was a twenty-something runner who looked like she could kick my butt. Actually, two of them. Don’t count them either. See? Safe.

In the neighborhood surrounding the park, many people had put in these teeny-tiny vegetable gardens. There was one that was in the fifteen inches between the sidewalk and the street – full of lettuce, peas and broccoli, freshly weeded and watered.

The whole area is interesting from a civil engineering point of view (Hi, Dad!), too. Many of the houses have entrances eight to ten feet below street level. Some have bridges to second story entryways. It turns out that well after the houses were established, Chicago needed to put in sewers, so they raised all the streets by about ten feet, letting gravity make the sewage flow. This was no small project – so far, I know it to be about a mile and a half square, and I haven’t headed in the other direction yet. I can’t even imagine the cost and red tape a project like that would take now.

I met with my teaching team this morning. Unfortunately, the wifi at the cafe we were at was excruciatingly slow. Still, we got a bunch of stuff done and got to know each other a bit. We divvied (there’s a good Words With Friends word when you are stuck with vees) up the material for the first week, and to my genuine surprise, both TAs volunteered for large chunks of the activities. I would not have expected a high school student to volunteer for a half hour lecture/activity on coding conditionals, but there you go.

In the evening, I took myself downtown to explore the Millennium Park/Navy Pier area a bit. I met a few interesting people. One was a woman who was taking pictures near Buckingham Fountain in the park holding a Chelsea (Barbie’s little sister – I just did a heck of a lot of research to figure that out, so you’re welcome) up in front of every picture. I figured that there had to be a good story behind it, so I asked. It turns out that she writes books to help people to know about places, and the doll is the guide. I should’ve asked if I could take the doll’s picture too, so you could see it, but I only thought of it ten minutes later.

Also at the fountain, I discovered that even if you know EXACTLY how rainbows are formed, they are still comforting and wonderful, AND you know how to position yourself with respect to the water and light to see the best ones.

I’ll leave you with this: Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me.

Click here for the cast of characters

Click, click click, the roller-coaster starts its inexorable climb to the top. In a few minutes, it’ll be a literal climb as my flight to Chicago takes off.

For those who don’t know yet, I’ll be in Chicago for the next nine weeks teaching in the Girls Who Code (GWC) Summer Immersion Program (SIP). I’ll post more about this excellent  program as the summer goes on, but if you subscribe to the premise of instant gratification, here’s what it’s about: SIP.

First, I’m going to publicly commit to writing every day until I get back. This is the longest continuous writing challenge I’ve ever done. My previous writing record is about 30 days. Don’t expect Shakespeare here – expect more a melange of Shakespeare (I’ll probably make up words), Faulkner (I tend towards the run-ons), P.D. Eastman (short, easy sentences), and the worst copy editing you ever seen, and none of any of these more than two or three words in a row. Plus, I use a lot of parentheses, so it may look like fingernail clippings if you squint a bit.

It’s a curious thing, leaving home for so long. It’s almost like vacation in reverse. The other day, I found myself filling my travel pill organizer to use at home, and packing my medicine bottles. Normally, you’d think about putting your gardens to bed at the end of vacation, but I put mine to bed for the summer – I’m trying yellow wax beans as a cover crop.

I’m looking forward to the adventure, but also a bit nervous. Here’s a list of things on my mind:

I think you can see where this is going.

I’ve peeked at the calendar and seen that there are several neat events ahead: field trips, speakers, program events, all in addition to the coding the students will be doing. There is at least one speaker who I’ve googled (is that a lower case verb now?) and am very excited to hear speak. Cool stuff. A lot of it is intended to be surprises for the students, so I’ll tell you what’s what when I can.

I plan to explore this city during my down time, so sometimes I’ll write about what I find. Of all the people I’ve spoken with, no one has said ANYTHING negative about this city, so I am looking forward to it.

Later the same day: I made it so the Windy City (it was just breezy today) and am settling in.

Why Day Zero?

In the SIP program, tomorrow starts week zero – a week of preparation for the teaching teams. The students start on week 1. Since work starts for me tomorrow, that will be Day 1. Hence, today is Day Zero.

I’ll keep updating this as the summer goes on

Me – well, of course there’s me. Most of you know me, but for those who don’t, here’s the synopsis: I’ve been a husband for almost twenty-five years and counting, I am a father to two adult daughters, I have been a high school chemistry teacher for nine years, I have been a professional coder for thirty five years, though not always full time. I am a closeted, guerrilla English teacher – I have to keep my head low, because I am not certified. Don’t tell anyone.

Camilla – my laptop. She is certainly going to be put through her paces this summer. She is a dual boot Lenovo T400, and her tab key is nonfunctional and her 1 key is flaky.

Charles – my Airbnb host.

Shanzeh – a college aged TA in my Girls Who Code classroom. She just finished her sophomore year at a prestigious traditional woman’s college as a computer science major.

Courtney – a rising high school senior who will be my alumni TA. She was a student in GWC last year, and will be the only who knows what’s going on. Her art form is dance.

Ten years ago today, I started an experiment. I thought to myself,  “I wonder if it’s possible to exercise an hour a day for a whole week without skipping a day.” It turned out that it was. On day eight, I woke up thinking “I wonder if two weeks is possible.” Then thirty days. There was no good reason to stop on day thirty one, nor on day one hundred one, and so on. So here I am, day 3653, with no good reason to stop. But, as I was snowshoeing through my local state park this morning (17 degrees, wind chill something like 5 below) I had good reason to pause.

I paused to think of all the people in my community who have made this possible and even enjoyable. If you are reading this, you are my community, and I thank you even if I don’t mention you by name.

There are so many things I’d have never done without all of you. At first, I exercised alone or with Emmett the Dog. We hiked over 8,000 miles together during his lifetime, nearly all of it during these ten years. He never complained. Not even once. He was always eager to go, even if it was 4 in the morning, or 10:45 at night, 34 degrees, raining and windy. Rest in peace Emmett.

Early on, John Gresh dragged me to the gym during our lunch hour. It’s so much more fun to exercise with someone than alone. Thanks, John! Eventually, we both started new careers, so I was on my own (with Emmett) again for a few years. Lots of hiking in those days. At some point Emmett and I had piece hiked across Connecticut from the sound to the Massachusetts border (and back, because all of our hikes were out and back in those days). Emmett got to eat a container of soft cat food when we finally finished that.

When people hear of my exercise streak, they often ask similar questions. What do you do when you’re sick? Answer: short walks, maybe 15 minutes each, though that’s only happened once, and that was the result of food poisoning. I have been remarkably healthy over the past ten years other than minor ailments which don’t seem to last too long.

The toughest times to keep it up are when I travel, though those circumstances have been the sources of some really amazing experiences. Running with the cross country team on the senior class trip to Washington springs to mind. Of course, there have been some less memorable experiences too, like walking up and down the stairs for an hour in the dorm at UCONN Avery Point, because the dorm doors were locked at 6pm. Poor planning on my part.

So I exercised alone for a long time. Then, a few years ago, a crazy (in a good way) guy I work with, Mike Dalton, sent out an email saying he was doing this event called a Tough Mudder, and was looking for some team mates. I don’t what kind of cra-cra was pent up in my colleagues those days, but twenty-something colleagues and spouses all joined the team for what was the best and worst experience of our lives. I have so many indelible memories from that event, but especially remember running with Andrea Giuliano, Laura Martin, Sherry Banack, Karen Oliva, and Jackie Russell. I’d have never made it without you. I even have (cloudy) memories of training for that thing: running UP the cross country hill with logs on our shoulders. What WERE we thinking? Thanks to Mark O’Donnell, I’ve finished two more Tough Mudders since then. And now, thanks to Karen Moore, I’ll finish another in the fall. (BTW, there is still an article about the first one online: http://www.glcitizen.com/archives/2012/5-18-2012.pdf If you were part of our team, take the time to read that article. There is so much I had forgotten.)

During the training for that first Tough Mudder, my list of exercise companions grew tremendously, and continues to grow, almost daily. I now have a long list of running partners, people who’ve run with once or many times. I appreciate everyone of them, because any mile I run with a friend is an easy one. There are so many of you:  Lisa Lupacchino, Melissa Reynolds, Matt Warner, Cristin Flannery, Mark O’Donnell, Dani King, and Trish Seeley. I also have to thank my running partner Yvonne Lee for  inspiring me to run my first half marathon (two weeks from now), and introducing to so many other crazy running people: Sherri, JR, Jackie, Laura, Gordon, Michelle, etc.

So many other people to thank. Here’s the short list:

• Hiking partners: Jarad and Mark (with whom I hope to climb most of the highest peaks in CT this year)
• Matt Warner taught me to jump rope.
• Yoga partners: Robin (who introduced me to yoga and has been my reliable weekly yoga partner for almost two years now)  and Cris (I’ll never forget 108 sun salutations. Thanks!)
• Those who never hesitate to celebrate my meager accomplishments: Dani and Trish
• The people who casually ask me how the streak is going (It means a lot more than you know): Nikki Galvez, Amy Rollins and John Fidler
• My parents, who have provided me with food, clothing, shelter and encouragement at various critical times in this experiment.
• Some people who are personal inspirations to me: Mark O, Karen M, Cris F, Dani K and Trish S. I think I’ve told you all why. You are all incredible.
• And finally my wife and kids. Without their flexibility and tolerance, this would not be possible.

Here’s a short list of things that happened because of this experiment:

• I’ve lost 60 pounds.
• I’ve run about 1700 miles.
• I finished the King of Pain race in Glastonbury.
• I’ve hiked more than 5000 miles.

How I celebrated 10 years:

• Yesterday I ran 13.1 miles for the first time in my life.
• Today I snowshoed for two hours in “blizzard like conditions”. It wasn’t that bad, really.

Things I’ve learned during this experiment:

• Be kind to yourself and others.
• This isn’t enough of an excuse to stop.
• Together is better than alone.
• I am surrounded by the greatest people ever.

Thank you all.

I had dubbed this the year of experiments. I guess part of that has been just saying yes to almost anything (except what I definitely don’t have time for, or would compromise my personal code of ethics.)

Here are the things that I can remember that I’ve said yes to (there are probably other things that I won’t remember until the middle of the night), and how they worked out (in the order I remember them):

• Running a half marathon – I’m still in training for this one. I’m upping my mileage this month (November 2014) to 20+ miles per week. Next month, longer runs then earnest training starts in January. The goal is to finish the Colchester Half, which is February 28. I will run the Middletown Half  in April for time. I may even do others.
• Early Morning running. I have a friend who was training for the NY Marathon who invited me to run with her group at 5:30 in the morning. Now I run with them three or four days a week. Running with someone beats the heck out of running alone.
• Pink nails: I got my nails done at a Manis for the Cure event at my school. My FB post:

Today my yoga instructor (who knows me well enough to) asked me why I had (bright pink) nail polish on my fingers.

Fortunately, she asked near the start of class, so I had enough time to untangle my thoughts on this and articulate an answer after class.

The reasons are listed in the order that I’d use with someone I don’t know (but of course I KNOW you).

I strongly suspect that the other men in the school who joined in (five that I know of) share some of these.

1) To support the fund raising efforts of three amazing students and one amazing colleague.

2) To show my students (and anyone else who notices) that it’s worthwhile to step outside your comfort zone to help others. Students need to see adults model this.

3) To offer a version of masculinity that honors and supports the feminine. Our society needs much more of this.

4) I kind of like nail polish.

I work with and among some of the best people ever.

Next adventure? Getting duct-taped to the wall Thursday.

• Getting duct taped to the wall. This was scary for me, I arranged for an evil hoard (of one) to protect me, and had a back up posse of about 6 teachers to make sure that I stayed healthy and safe. Here’s the FB post:

How I spent my lunch today. This went way better than I imagined it would. Special thanks to my evil horde (there to protect me) and their backup posse. (You know who you are and I love you all.)
The kids were great. The engineering not so much. There’s are reason for the E in STEM. It held for about 30 seconds before I started to slip. The first lunchers got some ‘splainin to do (really? twisted tape in the base layer?).
I feel really bad for one student who is going into engineering, and wasn’t there until second lunch. He looked at me and said, “I could hold you up there with half that amount of tape.” And he could, too. Sadly, it finally took almost twice as much tape as there was then. (Also, sorry if I missed anyone who was there. It was really busy.)

• co-moderated a professional development work shop on Grading reform. That went well. Lots of good discussion.
• Jumped into lake pocotopaug in 34 degree weather with 20 mile an hour winds. Waiting around for it to happen was the hardest part.
• Gong meditation. This was pretty good. I’m going to do this again. It is like being in a safe thunder storm. You don’t know when the gong is going to happen. Time passed very quickly.
• Yoga nidra – this is an hour of relaxation meditation without movement. Of all the things I’ve done, this was the most difficult for me. I ran into pain in my arm after about half an hour. I also kept falling asleep. (Sleep deprived that weekend me thinks. Left the session more stressed than I went in. It took almost 24hrs (and another regular yoga class) to get back right again.

For anyone following this thread, it went VERY well. We had a great discussion about the quiz on summer work. The student had great insight about why things were difficult, and shared some of the ways they prepared (quizlet). Hooray!

Although, it could be the coffee ice cream I ate earlier this evening.

It really is on fire, though, filled with thoughts about learning and life. I’ve been re-listening to a podcast from “On Being” of an interview with Adele Diamond for, like, the fifth time in the last month. So, so much important stuff in this about education.

It’s about executive function and its importance in learning, and how best to develop it. It has science and yoga and art and physical fitness and the Dalai Lama and just everything. If I ever get another degree, it’ll be in this area. *waves his hand back and forth to cool off his brain*

I want to put ALL of this into my chemistry classes, but don’t know how to fit it, and still fit chemistry in.

My first goal is to try to fit in Stephen Covey’s talking stick(though it’s not really his, I know). I want to use this in my UCONN chemistry class on Tuesday to talk about the results of the first quiz, which was on summer work and, though I’m only halfway through grading it, is a mixed bag. I am thinking of putting up the class results as a histogram, and just having the students talk about what they think and notice. I’d like to extend this to talking about the assigned reading over the weekend, too. It would send the signal that everyone is responsible for doing the reading. Everyone would get the talking stick (in reality, I’ll be using a stuffed mole left by my predecessor – it’s a chemistry joke) at some point.

I think this would be an authentic college experience, because many college classes (except general chemistry, alas) are run this way. My big concern: time. Do I have time to do this? Will it’s value outweigh the investment? I’m already a little behind the eight ball in terms of the syllabus, even though it’s only been two days. I can’t help but think it would benefit the students (all really good students) more than lecture style.

I’ve never done anything like this in my class. If you have some ideas or tips, please comment!

I’m also thinking about starting to use the talking stick idea to facilitate advisor group activities. I have a new homeroom of first year students, so this would be the time to do it. We have a goal setting advisory coming up Thursday, I think. My concern is that one student in my homeroom is high functioning autism. How do I modify for that? I’ll ask the para in advisory for her opinion, since she may know the student better than I.

I’m pretty sure there was more in my head a while ago, but I think this will do for now. It’s 2am. Dude needs sleep. I think I need to choose a more boring (boringer?) podcast to drift off to.