I want to step away from education for a moment to say goodbye to a friend. My friend Sue Gabbert passed away Saturday after a long fight with cancer. If you didn't get a chance to meet Sue, you missed out. Sue was a teacher at Calumet High School, and that's where I first met her. Sue was the kind of person who was selfless, her attention made you feel important simply because it was Sue that was listening to you. She loved to talk, loved to listen. We spent many Wednesdays along with our friend Andy Trevino laughing and enjoying each others company at CHS. She loved talking about her family, her friends, great and cheesy 80's music, and her students. Life brimmed out of Sue everyday that you came in contact with her. Simply said, she was one of the good ones. She is a person that I am glad to have met, am lucky to have known, and wish I had met earlier.
I can only imagine the legions of people that have been affected by this loss. Sue simply was not a person that you met only to forget moments later. She stayed with you. My favorite memories of her will include bring your child to work days (where I got to see Sue and her daughter Lauren interact) and the Cinco de Mayo party she invited us to. Thank you Sue, God bless and good journey to you.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Tomorrow is a huge step in the direction of the future as June and I officially ask our students to move forward into New Tech. The students will not walk into the class and listen to a lecture; instead of this, they will log into Echo and look at their agenda. They will then go about completing the agenda of the day while I prompt them forward one group at a time. Calumet has a long way to go to reach the potential we have within us. That being said, our roll out on Friday as well as our baby steps on Monday can be seen as movement in the right direction!
With our first full week of the New Tech experience completed at Calumet High School, I thought it was time to recap what we've accomplished and as well as a few of the hurdles we've had to jump over!
There was some frustration involved as school opened up last week as the Science lab lacked the ability to access the internet. June and I instead focused on the culture of New Tech, what the students could expect and how our projects would slowly ramp up in their professionalism. Our first project will be a bridge between what they've done in the past and what will be expected of them in the very new future.
One source of frustration actually turned into a strength about my partnership with June. We spent the summer time working on developing and firm plan in place to be super organized, and yet we spent our first full week ad libbing things and being about 15minutes ahead of the students. It's not that we didn't have a plan in place, it was that we were not able to execute the plans we made for one reason or another. What we found, however, is that June and I can be flexible and rolled with the punches. We teamed up, rescheduled our plans, and moved forward.
There was some frustration involved as school opened up last week as the Science lab lacked the ability to access the internet. June and I instead focused on the culture of New Tech, what the students could expect and how our projects would slowly ramp up in their professionalism. Our first project will be a bridge between what they've done in the past and what will be expected of them in the very new future.
One source of frustration actually turned into a strength about my partnership with June. We spent the summer time working on developing and firm plan in place to be super organized, and yet we spent our first full week ad libbing things and being about 15minutes ahead of the students. It's not that we didn't have a plan in place, it was that we were not able to execute the plans we made for one reason or another. What we found, however, is that June and I can be flexible and rolled with the punches. We teamed up, rescheduled our plans, and moved forward.
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