Out Season: 5K Test - Are You Kidding Me?

I have been mentally preparing for this day. My running has been terrible since June. In triathlons it has progressively gone worse until Pigman. Back in April I ran a sub 20 minute 5K and was just killing my running. From that point things began to fall apart.

I am out of shape and overweight. I was more nervous for this run than the bike test because I knew it would hurt more and that the results would speak to the issues at hand.

This morning I took my AdvoCare, mentally prepped and headed out. It was chilly out this morning, but it was perfect weather to test in my mind.

Here is a breakdown of the morning

WU: 15' including 4 x 30" at 5k pace.

You can see I ran a bit longer to get to the starting point. I had a place in mind to start and I wanted to be there. The extra minutes did not do much in terms of wearing me out, but just took more time than planned.

MS: Run a 5k Time Trial. Find a relatively flat course (or track) for your test. Goal is to hold a pace you can sustain for the full duration of the test without blowing up and without having a lot left to kick at the end. The ideal course is one you can test on repeatedly.

Now you are probably saying, "Isn't a 5K 3.2 miles?" Why yes it is! My stupid watch decided that it was going to pause during the run. I started the watch and took off. I made myself not look at the watch so I would not be so worried about distance and time. Instead I would just focus on my breathing and trying not to barf. When I hit a point I mentally mapped out to look at my watch where I knew I would be close to the end it read .38 miles. I blew up! I was so mad. I hit start and kept going until I got to one mile. This mile is .38 from the start and .62 from the end. I was cruising around 6:30 pace at the end but that was fueled by anger. I was not running this pace the whole time. I was more around 7:05 - 7:15 if I had to guess.

During this run my legs were shot. I had bile brewing in my gut and I prayed I would not puke. However, like I always do after the first few miles I hit a groove and was able to push. I have always been this way. I have not pushed my body this hard in a long time. My brain was screaming at me to stop, but it felt good to challenge myself. I did not enjoy the feeling of burning legs, lungs, and bile, but it was a great feeling to know I was tough enough to keep pushing harder.

CD: Walking, jogging as needed, etc.

I walked a bit before jogging home. In all I ran about 6 miles. It is the same old course I have ran with the CRAZIES for over a year so I know it is 6 miles.

So, where does this leave me? I posted my situation to my coach. Time will tell if I have to retest which I am thinking I will need to do. The problem is that my legs are already sore. Mentally I have to find that drive to push myself again and soon. Perhaps this weekend I will give it another go. Or maybe I can use the data that was recorded. I want to do this right so I know that means testing again. BARF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall, I really surprised myself by the time I was running. I did not think even low 7's were possible at this stage of my training. This gives me hope that I might be a little better off than what I thought. I look forward to getting some better data and watching my progress develop.

Lego Imagination October Contest: Halloween - All Submissions

Today is Halloween! Happy Halloween to you!!!

Here are the photos of all the submissions. You can see more views of each one by checking out the slide show at the bottom.




Here is the slide show with more photos of some of these with greater detail.



Thank you to everyone who submitted. We had ages 7-14. Thank you to everyone who submitted. If you have a favorite, leave a comment and let us know.

November theme is released tomorrow. Spread the word and get your LEGOS ready!

Our Bus Driver: Canoe Maker and Amazing Person and Teacher

Bill Collett, the man who I call, "The Man, The Myth, and The Legend" was spotlighted in our local new channel. Bill Collett is our bus driver for our ELP program that I teach. Bill is retired from education after serving for many, many years as the outdoor director education teacher for our district. With budget cuts, the program ceased to exist as do many field trips and amazing opportunities that he created and organized.

We are lucky enough to have him as our mode of transportation. He picks up all the students for our 4th and 5th grade ELP classes and brings them to the middle school for class. Many bus drivers would just relax, take a nap, and not enjoy the hour to themselves. With Bill, he comes to class and really serves as another educator in our classroom. His infinite wisdom and way of thinking and processing elevates our learning atmosphere and we are lucky to have him.

With all that being said, he is an outdoor guy. He has traveled, canoed, backpacked, etc. all over the world. He has amazing stories and rarely is there a former student who does not have a fond memory of him from his travels and field trips. Fran Riley of KWQC news contacted Bill about doing a feature on his canoes. Bill builds these from scratch by hand in his garage. They are amazing. They are beautiful. I will have to get some pictures that he has taken so you can really grasp how amazing his craftsmanship really is.

Yesterday, the news segment was on the TV. I wanted to share it with everyone because I think it is important to spotlight all the amazing people that we have in our communities. If you did not know Bill personally, you would never know of his amazing skills. He is not one to brag or even bring up what he is capable of achieving. This is why he is a perfect example for our youth.

Here is the news segment.
http://www.kwqc.com/category/231919/video-landing-page?clipId=7900938&autostart=true

Enlighten Me With Your Musical Insighgt

I saw this picture and just had to repost to create some good discussion. I am in need of some good insight after my stupid watch not working during my 5K test run this morning.

Go ahead and let me know.

For me it is currently the new Green Day album. Not sure why, but when their songs pop up I am never in the mood to listen.

Short Story Review: Alien Invasion of the Zombie Apocalypse

This was fun short story to read. It took all of about 20 minutes to read, but it was worth the time. I enjoyed the subtle humor and play on of certain names. It was the perfect story to read right before going to sleep.

I kept thinking that this topic could make for a very cool book. Throw the humor out the window and really throw these different type of characters into battle and I think it would be very cool and possibly epic.

If you need a nice, quick, humorous read, then be sure to check this short story out.

Out Season Training Begins - Bike Test From......

Today I begin my Out Season training plan. The four weeks was the preseason and in reality it was not much of any season. I fell apart mentally. I jumped in hoping I would mentally get prepped and primed, but it never happened. As I stated in the video I posted earlier, I flipped the switch this weekend after gathering with some amazing people who either paced or ran Leadville. It was just what I needed.

This morning I had the bike test.

WU: 15' easy, include 4 x 30" Spinups. 3 x 1' (1') Hard, to get your heart rate up and work up a sweat.
 MS: Then time trial 40' Hard-Very Hard, as if racing. Take average heart rate for the test. This is your LTHR.
CD: Easy spin.

I was nervous to do this test this morning. I know I am not in the best shape. I know numbers don't lie so I realized doing this test makes things real.

I felt great afterwards. It was good to challenge my mental toughness. I wanted to stop at the 25 minute mark. My legs were shot. The key to this was to keep a stable pace and not shoot up and down. I think I could have pushed maybe a tad harder, but my legs were shot when I finished. This is a good start to the season.

I also weighed myself this morning as I have done for about 1.5 years. Sad to say that I weighed in at the most I have ever weighed since I started charting once a week back in June of 2011. It is time to get things under control.

All those small details I have let slip over the last few months are catching up. Just like taking care of all those small details lead to success.

The key today will be staying awake! I am tired and have a long day ahead of me.

Rest tomorrow and then a run test on Wednesday. That should prove interesting!

Getting It Done: Fresh RE-Start - Bike Test of OS

Pringle Challenge Is Underway!

My 4th and 5th grade ELP students are taking part in a Pringle Challenge in which they have to build a container that will keep a Pringle chip intact while being shipped to various classrooms across the US. Students will receive a score based on intactness of their chip, volume, and mass. I could go into further detail, but all documents are presented and shared below.

The materials are quite limited. Students are only able to use notecards, 1 ply cardboard, masking tape, straws, and computer paper. That is all! Talk about making students really plan accordingly.

Here is a basic overview




Here is a Powerpoint going over the unit

Pringles challenge from Aaron Maurer

And here is the Scoring Sheet

Thanks to Elizabeth Jones who has created all these documents.

We wrap up building and finalizing this week. My students only have a few days of class to work as I only meet with each grade level two days a week.

We will mail them off Thursday when I meet with my 5th grade students.

We will then await the packages to arrive. Then we will Skype with the other classes so we can see our packages as well as the other students seeing theirs.

This has been one great thinking challenge and really forcing students to think in whole new aspects.

Here is a slideshow of some of their work in progress. I will update again later this week when we finalize our work.

Lego Imagination Monthly Contest - Vote For November Theme

Lego Imagination Contest: Halloween - The Final Submissions

Here are the last of the submissions for the first Lego Imagination Monthly contest focused on Halloween. I love the creations. I am quite impressed by the creativity and the amount of submissions. I was not sure how many would respond and for the first month we had a great turnout. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted. I will be posting a form soon to give suggestions for the theme for November as well as a voting form for your favorite Halloween creation. I

n the meantime I want to show the final creations submitted this weekend.

This is a student named Peter, a 4th grader in my class. This is his haunted graveyard.

You can see more views of the graveyard as well as the other creations

World of Warcraft: Sensei Wu Notre Dame Style

Go Irish

Warcraft Style

Global Classrooms: A New Project

My new little project that I think has huge potential

http://coffeechug2.wikispaces.com/Global+Classrooms

Book Review: World Class Learners by Yong Zhao

Let me start by stating that this book pretty felt like the ideas were taken from my head and Yong Zhao just brought clarity and data to support the ideas.

This book is a must read!

As the American Education System works towards spending billions of dollars in creating a Common Core curriculum, other countries are trying to emulate what America schools once were. I am not stating that the school system we had was perfect, but it allowed students to pursue their interests and there is a reason that we have more creative awards, innovators, Novel Laureates, and patents than any other country. Forcing everyone to teach the same way is going to cause schools to eliminate those opportunities for students to explore their passions.

This book discusses what America is doing wrong and questions why we want to be like a China education system that can have students pass tests, but cannot innovate? China is striving to be us and vice versa. We are in a pivotal moment right now in education and this book shows what can be if we continue down this path.

It is imperative that teachers have freedom within their classroom. When a teacher can no longer teach a project because other teachers in the subject field don't want to and teachers cannot add their own flare to their subject, then students lose out. This mindset is settling in not only with policy makers, but communities as well.

Parents want more work. More homework, harder classes, more tests, etc. At what point do we say enough! A child should not have to attend school for 6-7 hours a day and then go home to hours of homework each night. It is very important for kids to have time to explore, play, sports, art, music, drama, etc. These avenues allow students to find out who they are and what they want to pursue.

Yong Zhao, the author of this book lays out what he thinks needs to happen to allow students to think like entrepreneurs and prepare for the world. The way things are going right now we are not allowing for this to happen.

This is a well written book. He supports all ideas with several facts, figures, and examples. Being a book review I won't go into all my thoughts and ideas with each section of this book, but I will tell you that this a necessary read for anyone involved in education and wondering what the future holds for us. If we don't start to rethink how we teach and how schools operate we are going to find ourselves falling behind. Creating a national curriculum driven by people who have not stepped foot in a classroom is not the answer. Teachers need to be willing to step up and take risks to challenge their students. As Rabindranath Tagore stated, "Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time."

It is time for teachers to change and adapt how we teach. It is time for administrators to step up to the challenge and change the system. And it is time for policy makers to get out of the way and quit acting like they know what they are talking about. If our students don't prepare to be a global citizen and learn to seek out problems and learn to solve them, then the future could be different from life today! Read this book and find out more about how we can change things to better prepare our students for their future.

Flat Classroom: Eracism Round 1: AMAZING!

This year I have students participating in another Flat Classroom Project.

I have 16 8th grade students taking part in the Eracism project which is an international debate.

A link to this project is here

The debate topic is

Debate topic:
"Global management of natural resources will cause conflict between cultures"

Talk about intense! My students had to take time to focus on the content, deciphering what this really means, creating research, outlines, arguments, etc. Everything that goes into a debate. These are some of the top students in our building. This project has not only opened their eyes, but my eyes as well.

Aside from gathering researching(basic skills that they are sick of), these students have to take their thinking to a whole new level that I really feel they have not reached before or not too often.

After a team dropped out, both of my teams are debating against THINK Global school located in Argentina. What I found to be most fascinating about this process is during the first day when I exposed the students to this project they all had a common reaction:

• We have to go against other schools from other countries? Awesome! Oh wait, they are going to tear us up. 
• We are the only public school? That is not fair!
• How are we going to beat these teams?

I found this so striking. When time presents itself I am going to have a class discussion about why they felt this way without even knowing who these other schools are and what they do.

My 16 students are spread across three class periods. They don't get to meet together as a collective team due to scheduling so they have to communicate and work together through Google Drive and gmail. It has been interesting. What we have discovered is that nothing works better than face to face communication. In a tech saturated environment, these kids are realizing the power of human interaction.

We are in the midst of our first round debates. We have had two of our speakers speak so far. One team is done presenting and just waiting for the final speaker of the other team. 

What do we think?

Well, I think my kids felt inferior. The speaking skills of the other teams were amazing. We have done an outstanding job preparing. I am quite impressed with the scripts and research we have conducted. One student contacted an author, has been asking questions, obtained a copy of the book, and just started to explore beyond Google. 

My kids felt the pressure of thinking on your feet. They only get 5 minutes to plan a rebuttal after listening to the other team. I cannot even begin to describe how intense my office felt while they were talking, discussing, planning the strategies, and then speaking rebuttals. I am not going to lie. I was sweating I was nervous. And I am the teacher and really play no part in the process. I really wish I took pictures. Actually, I am going to take pictures and video next round so I can show how we operated. It is quite amazing to watch them break down the information, make a plan, write some ad lib scripts and begin recording in a matter of minutes. I am so proud of these kids.

There is such a sigh of relief when the recording ends. Then we talk and celebrate for getting it done. 

As an educator I feel like I am being challenged. This platform challenges me to think of more ways to push my students in this way without it being detrimental to their learning. I think that they are enjoying this project. They know there is a real audience listening to them. At this stage they could care less about grades, but instead they care about sounding intelligent, making sound arguments, and winning!

Now that they have done a few speeches(for a lack of a better term), I feel like we have a grasp on things. We know what to expect. We know how to better prepare. Regardless of how we do first round, we have second round. 

This is their project. I don't even have access to their scripts. I fill their minds with ideas, strategies, how to work as a team, etc. I leave it up to them to organize content, find content, write the words, etc. Should I proofread their scripts? I don't know. Some might say I should. I have decided to be an advocate of the "team concepts" and "thinking skills". I feel that if I read the script, offer ideas, give links, etc. then the arguments become mine. I don't want that. I want them to find their voice. I want them to discover their ideas. I want them to feel like this is truly 100% theirs.

I am fortunate enough to be working with another amazing teacher that runs the Argentina schools. This teacher communicates back and forth daily. It has made life great. This teacher helped when another team had to drop. I feel blessed to be competing against THINK Global. We have learned a great deal from the effective speaking and articulation of their speakers. They are examples of where we are trying to be. 

This is phase one. I will keep things updated and will post pictures and video next time we go through the process. It is too much fun to not document. Education is good when at the end of the day the teacher has learned as much as the students.

My First Presentation Reflection.....FINALLY!!

This nametag made feel more important than what I really am!

Last Monday and Tuesday I attended the ITAG (Iowa Talented and Gifted) Conference in Des Moines. There were over 500 educators, professionals, research experts, parents, etc. in attendance for the conference. It is a massive gathering of some very intelligent people that really make me feel inferior in terms of my knowledge.

 I submitted a presentation proposal about 6 months ago as this was always something that I wanted to challenge myself with doing. It has been a goal of mine, but at the same time I have a great fear of giving a presentation. To make a long story short, my proposal was accepted.

 The title of my presentation was, "Going Global With Coffeechug! How To Go Beyond Your Classroom Walls.". You can view the slides, handouts, and wiki I built for the presentation here.

I spent a great deal of time preparing for this presentation. It underwent about three themes, slides, layouts, and basic structures. I kept changing things because I did not feel it was good enough. I won't go into all the headaches I put myself through, but you can read this post about how I stressed over my handout.

On Tuesday, it was my day to present. I had the last time slot to present. I honestly was not sure about what type of turnout I was going to have. However, the last session really was amped up by the head lady and with about 20 minutes before I was to begin my room was packed. I had a room full of people and thought that this was good. All my efforts were going to be worthwhile. I set a goal of not losing my audience. I did not want anyone leaving during my presentation.

I did what I do best. Tell stories. I gave stories and examples like crazy. Perhaps too much because my 60 minute time slot flew by. I needed more time!!!!!!

I had connected with an amazing teacher from the Philippines who created video of her 1st graders. This video is amazing and a great eye opener about what is happening around the world. It is an eye opener that we are not as cutting edge as we give ourselves credit for! My goal was to give my audience their very first global partner. I wanted my audience to record a short video response to the video for these first graders.

A few stuck around for the video due to me talking too much. We finished and many of them did not want to be on camera. I found this interesting. As gifted educators we are constantly challenging and pushing our students outside of their comfort zone and yet as adults we were not comfortable enough to do the very same thing. Part of this was not knowing everyone, but I figured that since we were talking to 1st graders it would not be a big deal. Very little video was recorded and I quickly had to rethink my plan. I now have my 2nd grade son taking a video into his classroom where his teacher has been kind enough to shoot some video for us to send back to these amazing kids!

So, what did I learn? How did it go?

I give myself a B+. I was very comfortable once I started talking. I want to do less talking and more engagement. I wanted more interaction, but this presentation made me realize that perhaps these audiences don't want more engagement. I created a Twitter hashtag, made a Google Document handout where we could collaborate during the presentation, had a video partner established, and built a wiki for us to further connect. What I found interesting is that nothing developed on any of these levels. I really think they wanted a paper handout and to just listen. That is fine and I need to have this as a plan B next time I present. I need to be more accommodating to my audience. I don't like paper. I don't like to to use paper if I don't need to. I need to remember that not everyone is like me.

I also need to provide more time for questions. I had some amazing questions being asked. The questions drove the presentation. Less content, more time for question and answer. I felt that my audience was engaged. I had a lot of eye contact and more questions than I thought would be asked.

It felt good to present and connect. I am following up on some connections with people who wanted more information. I have already applied and been accepted to speak at the 2012 Global Education Conference in November(time to work on a new presentation) and would like to continue to present and challenge myself.

It was a great experience and a great conference. When I attended other breakout sessions I studied how others presented and how the crowd interacted. I now know that I need to give them the straightforward facts and steps for them to follow. They want specifics. I like big ideas for me to then go back and ponder and create my own path. Not everyone is that way.

Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way. There are too many to name, but Amanda(my wife) had to listen to me a million times and helped me stay focused on organized.

Thanks to ITAG for allowing me to present. I only wish I had feedback from the audience to learn more about what they thought.

On to the next one........

Sensei Wu - Doing A Little Dance

Quick little video showing off the dancing skills of my World of Warcraft character.

Enjoy!

Lego Imagination Contest: Halloween - Jaden

Another one of my 4th graders created some cool Halloween creations.

Remember tomorrow is the last day to submit any creations you have put together. This weekend I will be sharing them all in one post for people to vote on their favorite.

Jaden is in 4th grade. Very cool creations!

Ironman Training: Day 22-23

If you read my last post on training you know that Monday did not start off as planned as I missed my swim workout after being up all night with Ava.

Today I was up and ready. I took my AdvoCare rehydrate, O2 gold and right before leaving my Catalyst.

I met up at the Y to see Chad, Curt, John, and Emily. I am not in the best of shape so John and Emily took off and I knew it was too fast for me. Chad stayed behind and we ran our loop. It felt good to be running, but to say it was easy I cannot claim that. I need to get my fitness dialed in.

Time to quit making excuses

Time to stop losing mental focus

Time to study my goals and begin the path to attain them

It felt good to be out running. I always feel so much better afterwards. Today I have been tired I won't lie. Part dehydration and part being out of shape.

My training called for a 40 minute Level 2 run. After missing last week I figure an extra 10 minutes would not hurt too much.

Parent teacher conferences tonight. Last night I was home at 10 after practice, parent teacher conference for Ava, Lego Robotics practice, and helping a guy with a flat tire.  Tonight I should be home by 8pm. I will be jumping on the bike tomorrow morning and sticking with the plan.

I will be back where I want to be soon. It takes time and a plan to do it right.

Ironman Training - Days 15 - 21 - Week 3 Preseason

Here it is

I did not do a thing during my third week of preseason. I mentally did not have it in me. I started off the week with best intentions. I brought all my training gear to Des Moines, but with Ava up all night before leaving at 4 am last Monday it just set the tone. I was tired and worn out Monday. I stayed up late preparing for my presentation and slept in Tuesday.

The rest of the week was a blur. It might have been the busiest week of my teaching career(this week might win out though!). I did not have time. I could HAVE made time, but I really felt like all it would have done was wear my body out.

A big fat 0 for training. At first I was very angry with myself. I was disappointed in my dedication to my fitness and the sport. However, I have moved on. Anger gets you nowhere in life. It happened for a reason. I am okay with it.

This week I am refocused. Today was going to be my day in the pool. Well, Ava was up ALL NIGHT! I overslept my alarm and I am now off to missing a training session. I have a plan to get it all back and will do so later this week.

Life is crazy. Parent teacher conferences two nights as a teacher. Two nights of parent teacher conferences for my children. Lego Robotics practice Monday night. Girls basketball practice after school on days without my teaching parent conferences. Life of kids and getting them from point A to point B, homework, chores, etc. I have to make time.

Working out helps me. I know it does. I am much more relaxed and not so grumpy when I train. I will get back into things somehow, someway. I have a crazy 6-7 mile race coming up in a few short weeks so I need to prepare.

Life creates obstacles. The key is not to say blocked for long, but to learn how to move on. I will do just that.

Time To Show Off Your Pumpkins!

We grabbed our pumpkins yesterday from the pumpkin patch. I have a cool idea to make our pumpkins glow in the dark. In the meantime, I would love to see your pumpkin carvings. Send me a picture to my email at aarmau@gmail.com or amaurer@bettendorf.k12.ia.us and I will share them with everyone here on the blog.

I will be sharing our pumpkins as soon as we have time to carve!


 

Time For A Quail Name

My lonely quail needs a name. Send in your suggestions and my classes will vote on a name. This is open to everyone!

Quail Update: 4 Days Old

Last Friday we finally had class with our 5th grade ELP students. They were so excited about the quail. We talked about what had developed since we had class the week before and where things were going. We viewed the video about the hatching of the quail and we then began to brainstorm the variables between our three incubators and what could have caused different amount of birds to hatch. It was great to back with the kids and actually talking about the quail with them.



As of Monday morning, the quail all seem to be doing good. We have had some scary situations in keeping the quail alive, but I believe we have worked through them all.

On my end the quail food has not arrived like it was supposed to. So, I have gone a different route with seeds, tomato, and most recently dog food. I hope the food arrives today so I can get the little guy on a good feeding system.

Speaking with Mr. Collett over the weekend it sounds like he had a scare. Mr. Collett had to devise a new brooder container after the first metal brooder the quail kept getting wet from the water dish. At this stage in development the quail cannot get wet as they are not able to regulate their body temperatures.

Mr. Collett had to use the dome incubator and dry towels to keep them warm much like what they do at hospitals and by staying up late into the night and helping them feed with an eye dropper they are still alive

My son has devised a little house for the quail at my house and a little trough. The house will have to be removed soon as the quail continues to move faster and learning how to jump which leads to flying.

I am working out a new camera system for the live feed. It is providing a much better picture, but I am having issues with it staying on. I hope to have this figured out soon.

This week we will try to figure out a way to get all the quail together and the best plan for getting them back to school for students to see in person.

Our next step - building a flight pen. Students will be taking part in building a flight pen for our quail to survive in throughout the winter. If you have any great ideas please send them our way.

Here are a few pictures

Friday, October 19th - One Day Old







Eating some tomato

Saturday, October 20th - Two Days Old





























Sunday, October 21st - Three Days Old






























To view all the rest check out the photos here

One Of My Favorite Tools: Sunrise

I have been using Sunrise for about  a month now and I love it.

Sunrise is a website that you connect with and in a matter of a few minutes you are all setup and ready to go.

From their website, 

What are you doing today?
Sunrise combines Facebook, Google Calendar, LinkedIn and more into a nicely designed daily email.
And it's free!

 Basically, what happens is that you sign up and connect to the social networks that you wish to use. Then every morning you will receive an email in your inbox giving you the lowdown for the day.
 The email looks like this when it arrives(I did not show the birthday section for privacy reasons.)

I have my Sunrise connected with everything including all my calendars

 

Every morning when I get up and check my email with my cup of coffee I gave  quick rundown of everything going on for the day. It reminds me about birthdays as well.

This free service is great. It is just one of those little tools that I look forward to each morning. It does not take much time away from my busy schedule and it helps me get a better visual of what my day looks like. 

Check it out. The best part is that if you don't like it, simply unsubscribe and you are out nothing.

What tools and services do you use to make your life easier?

Website: https://www.sunrise.im/

@sunriseapp

Edmodo Video Segment

I agreed to help out another teacher with her presentation on the power of Edmodo. Here is the quick 3 minute video clip I created showcasing and talking about the powers of Edmodo and how students can connect to make learning more adaptable to their lives.

Live Wallpaper App Review

Mac iOS App

 Live Wallpaper

 Cost $.99

My Rating: 4/5

QUAIL HATCH!!!!

Late last night when I thought all was lost I was surprised to find one still alive. I thought it was a lost cause to be honest and the reason I pulled the live feed Thursday night. As I was cleaning the incubator I heard a noise and so far one has hatched and held strong to give us hope.

We have several more in another incubator and that one has had huge success as you will see in the video.

Check out the video. I have the live feed up and running. I just got things back up this morning before school. I will create a better live feed this evening when I have time to rig a camera to the brooder so I am not recording video through the plastic tub.

There is sound in case you want to hear the chirping. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aaronmaurer161

Remember, if you have a class that wants to join us for our eagle project, then please sign up and check out the details at http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/



Here is a slideshow of photos up until this point in time.

ALCOA Eagle On The World Project - Netherlands Press!

How cool is this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the very reason I support global classrooms. This is the very reason that I love education and connecting with people from around the world.

I received an email yesterday from Frank van den Oetelaar

Frank was kind enough to write an article about our ALCOA bald eagle project and submit it to the press in the Netherlands!

The NETHERLANDS

How amazing is that? I never would have thought that a bald eagle camera and project would spread like this.

You can read the article here - http://www.21stcenturyskills.nl/2012/10/18/21st-century-skills-ontwikkelen-in-het-eagle-global-project/

If you cannot read this language, then here is the translation

Thank you Frank for your article. I hope some classrooms connect with us on our project.

Here is the project page if you want to learn more and possibly join us! http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/

Quail Egg Hatching Update

Yesterday (Wednesday, October 17th) was the day of hatching. Based on the 23 day incubation cycle that quail eggs follow we were to have some quail out and about yesterday.

Many of you tuned in to the live feed and thank you so much for doing so. I know there was a lot of anticipation, but we did not have any quail successful break on through.

This does not mean that all is lost.

At around 5:30 am yesterday we had signs in three eggs by observing cracks in the shell like below(top egg in the right hand corner).



Throughout the rest of the day we did not see much action. When I arrived at home that night and checked there was not much improvement of the process.

This morning I noticed that the quail were back at it



You can see the egg bottom right has more cracks than yesterday.

Also, I was able to hear the quail chirping and making noise.

At this point I believe that we have a chance for at least one quail to hatch. When I left for school this morning the egg was moving like crazy. I hope this is a sign that the quail is still strong and able to break through the membrane.

If this little guy does not make it, then I am assuming that this batch is a lost cause, but important learning experience. We did however, separate our quail eggs so we were not putting all our eggs in one basket(nice pun!). In the incubator that Mr. Collet kept at his house he informed me that he had two quail hatch yesterday. We have another incubator at the bus barn as well. We have success and I just hope this one on the live feed will make it so we can experience the process.

I will keep everyone updated as much as I can.

Here is the live feed link - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aaronmaurer161

Here is the link to our project on bald eagles. Please consider joining us - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/

Quail Eggs - T-Minus 24 hours

In  less than one day our eggs are set to hatch.

Check out the live camera feed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aaronmaurer161

Check back often and I will try to keep everyone updated.

Students are currently working on names that start with Q for all the ones that make it out of the shell(I hope at least one does!)


Check out the egg development here on our bald eagle global project site - http://eagleeyecamera.wikispaces.com/Quail+Project

ITAG Conference Day 1: Brain on OVERLOAD, I create new Keynote!

Today was a great day of learning. It is so important for teachers to get out to these conferences to network. I learn so much from the keynotes and breakout sessions, but I learn even more from people in regular conversation.

If you know me, then you know I lack some social skills until prompted. I had to break out of my shell and comfort zone to engage and when I did I quite impressed with who I talked to and what they do. I have several posts in the making on all these topics. I have more pages of notes than you can imagine. I fought through fatigue to stay driven and capture key ideas.

These conferences make me realize how little I really know and how much more I can learn. I love this! It leaves me hungry for more.

Early today I posted my notes and thoughts from the first keynote. I will post the rest of my notes and ideas soon.

The point of this post is to get back to my earlier post about taking care of small details. I discussed my process of my handout. I still found two errors that are driving me nuts, but they are things that perhaps only I will notice. As I rehearsed yesterday I realized that my original slides did not fill the entire screen when presenting. So, I went back and created a whole new presentation. I kept 98% of it the same, but had to retype, copy and paste the whole thing to the new format. You can the new one here on my wiki for my presentation

Tomorrow I have to present during the last session of the entire conference. I hope to energize my crowd(if I even have one!). I have practiced. I have prepared. I am nervous. Nervous for coming across professional like the presenters here. Not nervous due to lack of preparation.

Off to relax and get a bit of sleep after the long night last night. As I have posted on Twitter and G+, I will post the same here to close. Thanks and stay tuned for all the great things I learned.

All educators, please leave a tweet about the importance of global education to the hashtag #flatclass. I am doing my first presentation tomorrow about global education. Feel free to also join the conversation tomorrow at 2:30 pm central time. I would love to have you to show how powerful the online global education network is. Thanks

OR

Leave a note or two on the wiki and/or presentation handout at http://www.coffeechug2.wikispaces.com

ITAG Conference: David Williamson Keynote, "Know Next Now"

This keynote was a great start to the conference. Despite being super tired from being up since 2:15 with an upset child and driving 3 hours to get here I walked away with some great ideas and food for thought.

Here are my "take-aways" from David Williamson and his presentation titled, "Know Next Now"

**This is a mix of his words, suggestions, and my thoughts and questions**

• Must read Michio Kaku - Physics of the Future(already purchased on my Kindle, cannot wait to read!)
• 
  

• Another book suggestion - Tom Peters, Re-Imagine
• Key Idea - Find people living tomorrow TODAY!
• Army
• Parviv working on internet contact lens(INSANE!)
• Arts
• Advanced Manufacturing
• View Corey Taylor(lead singer of Slipknot) talk to Oxford College last year about doing NOT what you are passionate about or what you love, BUT what you are GOOD at
• new ITBS called Smarter Balance(I need to read up on this more)
• A good idea for opening up my gifted class taken from his sun fact
• Have students point to the sun(they point at the light)
• Ask them why they are waiting or the present to be the past
• Discuss sun takes 8.3 minutes to reach Earth
• Follow up with goal setting about the future
• Polaris is over 450 years old by the time it reaches us(before Pilgrims)
• "When we hook our dreams to the stars, will it still be there when we arrive?"
• "What a product MEANS has replaced what a product DOES."
• Take his idea of merging two unlikely ideas/products as part of our gifted theme for next year
• yardstick and yo-yo = tape measure
• typewriter and TV = computer
• Know the difference between a visual answer and visual question
• representational
• non-representational
• Study up on the Lean Six Sigma
• How can I apply this to my teaching?
• Jet Blue example of slowing planes down 2mph saves 13.6 million dollars
• What 2% change can we do as teachers to create this type of positive difference?

There it is. My notes and my thoughts. Time to further crunch my ideas when I return back to Bettendorf and clear off a few monster projects currently in the works.

Ironman Training: Days 12-14

Preseason Week 2

Friday

Friday I had to do my swimming workout that was supposed to be done on Monday.

It was another technique day, but focusing on a different set of techniques and drills. I did not feel very comfortable doing these so that is a sign that I have some work to do.

Warm Up (WU): 200-400 yds/m, your choice
100 free, 100 pull, 100 kick, 100 free

MainSet 1 (MS1): 4 x 50 yds/m “Swim Golf”, as #1, 2, 3 at moderate pace, #4 as hard/sprint.

•  Scores of 80, 79, 77, 70

MS2: 2 x 50yd/m of each drill in the Propulsion Progression

There were seven drills working on hand placement in the water and pulling on the backstroke. These were tough and thinking this much threw me for a loop.

MS3: Repeat MS1. How do the two Swim Golf sets compare?

• 76, 74, 74, 70 

MS4: 200-400 yd/m, your choice of distance. Count your strokes on the 1st and 3rd 25 of every 100. Swim only as fast as your ability to maintain and sustain your best form across the entire distance.

I swam 100 pull, 200 free(this was tough!!!), 100 pull, and 100 kick



I ended with 2000 yards in 34:50. Not bad considering I overslept and did not get in the water until 7:15.


Saturday

Saturday I jumped on the bike for a 90 minute easy ride. I started off and 45 minutes later I had to stop as we had to pick up Aiden from a birthday party and Ava decided to wake up. I had Ava duty until Amanda returned. I jumped back on after about 20 minutes to finish up this ride

Sunday Workout #1: 60 Minute Run
EP to MP/Zone 1-2/Easy to Steady. Include 5 x 20" Strides. Rolling course. I felt great this morning. I was back to shorts and shirt. There was a light rain and I just took off and it felt great to be out all alone. I did not see a single person. I had my headphones on and just practiced my presentation and thought about other things.

I compared my distance compared to last week when I ran 60 minutes. Last week I ran 61 minutes get 6.38 miles. I ran a 9:35 pace and did not feel good while running this slow.

Today I ran a 9:16 pace for 6.52 miles in 60 minutes. It felt easy. My clean eating and AdvoCare has helped to improve my fitness over the last week. The training plan provided by Endurance Nation also has me on track. I have had to overcome a lot of habits that I did this year. I am running for time and not distance which just throws my brain for a loop.

I feel good after two weeks of preseason. The workouts are short and to the point. Nothing unnecessary to just be training. I train, I move on.

I look forward to week 3. I will have to be disciplined while in Des Moines. I am never good while on the road. This will be a good test for me.

Expect The Best From Yourself: Small Details Matter

Tuesday I am delivering my first education presentation ever. I am nervous. I feel prepared. I spent most of today finalized everything. I will admit that I feel good about what I put together. With anything, I had tremendous help from so many people helping me, offering ideas, suggestions, topics, links, etc. Amanda had to check out all things today when she had other issues.

I have high expectations for my students. Ask any of my 6th grade students that I just wrapped up an extension with and they will tell that I expect a lot from them. In order to expect great things from others you have to expect a lot from yourself.

That is the reason for this post. I want to show my students and others that small details make a difference.

Today I spent more time that necessary working on the layout of my handout. I was not going to hand anything out, but I was advised that teachers love handouts so I agreed.

I started out with this version to begin with:

I used my own face as images because I could not find what I wanted. I originally liked this one quite a bit. However, it was pointed out to me that the glare in the posters behind were tacky. Then I thought that an image of myself could come across as conceited.

So I moved to version 2.0

I was trying to achieve a Zen like approach, but this just seemed to be "off". I don't know, but it did not work and I was frustrated. Then it hit me and I came up with version 3.0

I started to really like where this was headed, but this was still not quite right. I changed some fonts, increased the images just a tad to eliminate white space and reduced some dark shades of black and came up with the final version.

Yes, that looks nice. I like this handout. This is one sharp looking handout.

I expect a lot from myself. This is just a silly handout. The real worth of my presentation is all online with my Google Document and the slides and the website I built for one 60 minute talk.

So, to all my students. I do have high expectations. I expect great things from myself and my family. I expect great things from my colleagues. I expect great things from all people. Why not work to your potential? We are only here for so long so what will your mark be that you leave behind?

In case you care all things for my presentation can be found here on the website I built - http://coffeechug2.wikispaces.com/

Feel free to check it out. As always leave any suggestions or ideas as there is still time to make any necessary changes.

AdvoCare 10 Day Cleanse - What it is and my update through Day 4

Alright, to help me get back on track with fitness and health I have decided to give AdvoCare products a try. I have talked to several people who currently use AdvoCare products and I finally caved in to the products.

I will tell you that they have been very beneficial to helping me get on track and staying on track.

As part of jump start to quit being a slob after my 6 week break I am doing the 10 Day Cleanse. This is the first part of the 24 Day Challenge that helps people lose weight and get back on track. I am not real concerned with weight loss(although a few lbs would not hut), but I am more concerned with establishing some good eating habits and getting rid of toxins in my body.

The products are great. I can tell a HUGE difference already. My coffee consumption is at zero or no more than one cup a day. The only caffeine I consume is one AdvoCare SPARK a day. I did have a headache yesterday as I have drastically lowered my caffeine consumption from 1.5 pots of coffee a day to one SPARK. However, I have never felt better. I have more energy than ever before and my sleeping is already putting me on track for better production during the day.

Caffeine reduction was one goal of mine. The other reasons I feel good is the food. This cleanse has me eliminating sugar, white bread/flour. alcohol, dairy, and other items that are not good for you. I have been sticking to a clean diet of fruits, vegetables, chicken, salad, water, AdvoCare meal replacement drinks, and oatmeal. I have never felt better. Honestly! If I felt like crap I would say so.

I am not attributing all this Advocare products. The products help. The products help me stay on track. I wake up and take my AdvoCare Catalyst before I train along with Arginine Extreme. I use the Rehydrate drink and gel while training and then fuel my body with healthy food all day. Supplements cannot change who you are. You have to be willing to change. AdvoCare can help people to reach their goal of changing. I have been tracking my food on a Google Document and here are the first two days.

Monday, October 8th
* 5:10 - AdvoCare Spark with 3 Catalyst
* 5:45 - AdvoCare Fiber Drink
* 6:30 - 7:00 - AdvoCare MRP
* 9:15 - Banana
* 10:40 - AdvoBar
* 11:45 - Salad w/ tomato and Ranch Spritzer, two chicken breasts (slow cooker chicken burritos)
* 2:55 - 2 servings of raw almonds, nuts, cashews
* 3:45 - few carrots with Ranch Spritzer
* 5:00 - Buffalo Turkey Lettuce Wraps, salad
* 6:40 - TeeCino
*9:00 - Advocare Herbal Cleanse

Tuesday, October 9th
* 4:40 - AdvoCare Spark (1/2 serving) with 3 Catalyst, Advocare Arginine Exteme
* 6:10 - YMCA Cup of Coffee
* 6:30 - AdvoCare Fiber Drink
* 7:00 - AdvoCare MRP
* 9:15 - Banana
* 10:40 - AdvoBar
* 11:45 - Salad w/ tomato and Ranch Spritzer, two chicken breasts (slow cooker chicken burritos)
* 2:55 - 2 servings of raw almonds, nuts, cashews
* 3:45 - few carrots with Ranch Spritzer
* 5:00 - Buffalo Turkey Lettuce Wraps, salad
* 6:40 - TeeCino
* 9:00 - Advocare Herbal Cleanse
* 9: 15: Banana
* 10:40 - AdvoBar
* 1:30 - Slow Cooker Burrito Chicken, salad with tomato and Ranch Spritzer
* 2:20 - Bag of mixed nuts
* 2:55 - Granny Smith Apple
* 5:30 - AdvoCare Recipe Chili(YUMMY!!) with sparkling water
* 7:30 - Two spoonfuls of PB
* 8:00 - Chili spoonful


You can see that I still eat a mass amount of food. This is not a diet fad. This is not scheme to lose weight fast and put it all back on. After the cleanse I will continue to eat healthy and incorporate some items back into my diet that I feel will help me with my training like Greek yogurt.

The key to all of this is WANTING to change. It has been super difficult to stay away from the Oreo cookies, sugar soaked cereal, creamer and coffee, and a bag of pretzels or chips. The payoff is that I feel fantastic and after four days those cravings are starting to go away.

I will continue to update my progress. I would love to help you out if interested in knowing more about the cleanse. I have a ton of information and have contacts with people who are experts.

GETTING IT DONE! means making healthy choices and doing what is right to be a good role model.

These changes are going to pay off big time as I continue to train for my first IRONMAN this summer!

Lego Imagination Challenge: Halloween Entry #6 - PUMPKIN!

The next entry in the LEGO Halloween Challenge.

This comes from another student of mine, Sophie. She is in 4th grade and is 9 years old

She has titled this

PUMPKIN!

And I love it! Very clever way to creating a pumpkin. I love the abstract feel that this creates.

About two weeks left to get your submissions entered to the challenge. Great job everyone!

This picture reminds me that my family needs to go get pumpkins!