Today was a long run day. A 16 mile day. Non-runners may not understand how energizing it can be to run, let alone running for over three hours straight. But, everyone can understand contentment. Everyone can understand having a passion.

Krug to Sunbridge Conservation Area Trail Run

If I wanted to make a long story short, I probably could. My run started in the early morning frost at Krug Park. I ran up the hill, past a castle, nodded at some buffalo and headed into the woods.  I made my way over to the Sunbridge Conservation Area Trails, and then returned to Krug Park and on to St. Joe Avenue to finish my run. But, that wouldn’t be much fun! Here’s a tale of two trails.

Krug Park Waterfall

It was a morning where headphones weren’t necessary but stopping to take pictures was! I loved the first 5 miles. With 25˚F temperatures, the ground was soft but not quite spongey. Deer were out and birds chirping everywhere. The waterfall was gurgling and peaceful as I ran by. Amazingly, I did not pass a single runner or biker throughout the run.

If you look at the map above, you can see a flag right about Second Street–more about the flag later. This flag marks an unofficial exit point from the Krug Park Trails. Earlier, in preparation to a long run, I had stashed some water wrapped in my Volley’s T-Shirt. I’ve had water stolen from me on a few occasions. I had this crazy notion that by wrapping my drink in a shirt…one, someone would know the water belonged to someone and two, the shirt would keep it insulated and prevent freezing. It did the trick! Ok, the fact that Second Street is basically in the middle of nowhere and the bottle was hidden in the crook of a tree probably helped. I was just proud of my ingenuity and thankful for a beverage.

At about mile 6, I paused my Nike Plus app, and had my first pit stop.

Then, I was off on the second leg of my run, my inaugural visit to the Sunbridge Conservation Area.  Since this was my first trip to Sunbridge, I was a bit worried about getting lost. And guess what? I got lost! Kinda… I’m pretty sure I  ended up on some unofficial trails, but I could see the Missouri River the majority of the  time. And, I had my iPhone.  All was good.

By this time, the ground had become warmer and squishier. The view… stunning…

Sunbridge Trail

I ran past an old family cemetery surrounded by a wrought iron fence, and wondered who was buried there? Is it haunted?

I ran past an observation deck and stopped to admire the scene.

View of Missouri River off Observation Deck

I ran up hills and down ravines, hopped trails and ended up in a beautiful stone building. There were identical hearths on both sides of the foundation. Who had lived here?

Mysterious Foundation

Now, I want to know more and began to investigate. I wandered around the building and found a second stone foundation. What?!? Really, who lived here? I realized nothing more could be learned today so I decided to get back to running! I went to continue my run only to see trails branching out in all directions… Ha!  So, after a bit of disorientation,  I pulled out my phone to look at a map and listened for the traffic. Bingo! I was able to gradually walk/run till I could see I-229 and made my way back onto a road. From there, it was a return to the 2nd Street “Entrance”  to Krug Park and my second water break.

And, on to my next adventure! As I was gulping down water, I realized a different sensation. Oh my… I do believe this was the first time I HAD to go to pee in the middle of a run with no facilities available. Still, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. So, for the first time ever, I hid behind some trees and took care of business…and felt much better!

During this time, I had paused the Nike Plus App. Some people probably think I’m weird to keep track of my runs, but I like to see how far I’ve ran and where I’ve been. It was during my time here I accidentally stopped my Nike Plus.

So, I started a new run! For the third leg of my jaunt, it was back into Krug Park to finish the trails.

By now, the temperatures continued to rise and the ground continued to thaw. Squishy ground is now a shoe-sucking mudpit.

Krug Park Mud!

Even being as careful as possible, an inevititable slide down a hill ensued. I laughed the entire time. I had to walk/slip/slide/grab onto trees the last 1/2-1 mile, but the trail was conquered.

I was back to the Duck Pond in no time.

Ducks at Krug Park

With trails, running switchbacks plays havoc with your GPS. Most programs can’t correctly gauge your milage. Mine said I had gone about 12.5 miles. Even though I had most likely ran more than that, I wasn’t ready to be done! So, after a swish of water at my car, I was off and running again. This time on pavement. Flat, smooth (kind of smooth) sidewalk… I took a trip down Saint Joe Avenue and back. I smiled at everyone  but only  noticed stares in return.

Mud...Head to Toe

Turns out.  Mud… Head to Toe!

I love running around in the woods. Trail Runs. It’s a time to clear your mind of worries and fill it with wonder.

What an adventure! Who would like to join me?

Artwork Thanks: 2003-08-04 Ducks at Krug Park, St. Joe, MO by drboman on Flickr. All other images are my own.

Today, I witnessed something amazing.

I saw a young man, an 8th grader, walking down the hall. He was wearing this colorful “Paint the Parkway Pink” t-shirt for Breast Cancer awareness. Impulsively, I asked him about it and we held an intelligent conversation about the walk this weekend. As I continued down the hall, I saw him go into another teacher’s room saying, “I saw this last night and had to get it for you,” and proceeded to give the teacher a gift. After the exchange, he walked out and continued to the stairs, where he had thoughtful exchanges with yet another staff member and a student.

When I tell people I teach at a middle school, I receive mixed feedback. Often times, I am greeted with exclamations that there is no way they could ever teach “that age group”.

What, with their fluctuating mood swings, raging hormones, and developing bodies, chaos can sometimes appear to be king. And it’s true… This age group has it’s challenges.  The one thing I can count on is that change is a constant.

But that isn’t everything. That isn’t everyone.

The young man this morning reminded me how important the adolescent years can be.

We are at a serendipitous time, the middle school years. If you look at other typical attributes, it is a no brainer to begin looking at the big picture. Problem-based learning along with global collaborative initiatives can and should be implemented and sustained. During the middle school years, students are intensely curious and idealistic.  Capitalize on that! They thrive on interactions from their peers. Students in this age group often show compassion for the downtrodden and the environment.

In childhood, students generally think in terms of either-or or black-or-white.  I see adolescence as a time where the “shades of grey” start to materialize. Give them a problem.  Something where there is no one right answer.  You’ll be amazed with what they can accomplish.

Last year, The International Energy Challenge was developed with some fabulous connections with the Siemen’s STEM Institute and Twitter. Kristy Lathrop, Britt Gow, Deon Scanlon, and I collaborated to create an opportunity of learning for our students.

If you want to help your students stretch their thinking and soar with their results, consider joining us on our journey this year.

So I teach in a middle school…with crazy, energetic, growing, passionate young minds. I am anxiously awaiting to see how they will learn and grow this school year.

Join us on our International Energy Challenge and see what we can do together!*

Artwork Thanks: two young girls laughing behind another girls back by studiostoer and 19 – Tile! and I was tagged by connerdowney, both on Flickr

*There is a seven minute video at the Energy Challenge Wikispaces if you’d like more information.

I am so proud to be called a runner! Currently, I am training to run my first half marathon. I have discovered in endurance training, a dark side lurks.  Real runners forget to tell us newbies that not everything in running is pretty.  Below, I’ve highlighted the top five annoying things running has made me accept…grudgingly.  My hope is other new runners may be forwarned and to take preemptive action!

me myself and I on the road

Top 5

5. Even sidewalk cracks of a 1/2 inch can trip you up!

Trust me, pay attention to where your foot falls.  If you must run in low lighting, consider investing in a headlamp.  That way, you can actually see where you are going.

4. You will stink.  

Sorry, but sweating all the time makes you odiferous.  Even after washing my running clothes, they can still be smelly! Accept it.  Try different detergents. Or just get new clothes. (My personal fav!)

2. You will eat bugs.

So you’re running… and your mouth is open as you suck in the much needed oxygen. Consider the flying insects much needed protein to keep you energized in your long runs.

2. Toenails are for sissies.

Yes, they fall off!  Just remember ladies, a little fingernail polish and most people won’t notice a thing.

1. Fiber is not always your friend.

I learned this one the hard way. Did you know you should stop eating fiber at least 2 days prior to a long run?  And, eat nothing a couple hours before you begin.  You see, I ate a Fiber One Brownie to get some carbs prior to running 13.5 miles.  Hey, I wanted the carbs! I also got something else when the run was done.  If you can’t guess what it is, shoot me an email, and I’ll fill you in.

And even after all this, do I still run? You betcha!!!

Will you?

Artwork Thanks: “me myself and I on the road” by adropp  and “the weapons of choice” by Tim Wilson, both on Flickr

Special thanks to my new Warrior Dash Friends for giving me some new play on vocabulary.

Me at my maximum weight.

So… This is me…

This is me until very recently.

You see, in April, my doctor insisted I have a blood test before she would give me my blood pressure medicine. When I got to the appointment to get my prescription, she had the audacity to tell me I was diabetic.  I really shouldn’t have been surprised.  I love to eat food.  Obviously, too much of it! And, although I play volleyball, it wasn’t enough exercise.

After a bit of crying and feeling a bit sorry for myself, reality set in.  Is this what I wanted for the next half of my life?

To get me on the right path, I used one of the tools I was most comfortable using–my iPhone! It is amazing the number of apps out there that can promote a healthier lifestyle.

My apps for a healthier lifestyle

Check out THIS row.  It starts with SparkPeople, then RunMeter, Pedometer, and Get Running.  I want to stress there are a ton of similar apps out there that will do just as well. I just happened to find these first.

Julia's Run for Hope

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The apps worked for me. When people have asked me why, I see two key ingredients:

• They focused on the zone of proximal development.
• They provided a measure of accountability.

Ok, both of these are very “schoolly”  reasons.  Let me explain what I mean.

Zone of Proximal Development

Photograph by David Guttenfelder, EPA

Yesterday was our Instructional Coaching Tech Day. I love them! There is always this pinpoint focus on how can we use technology, purposely, so that students learn. I never walk away from these sessions without my head being turned to mush. Sean Nash, our Academic Technology Instructional Specialist,  shared annotating tools to aid in reading comprehension.

One that will be easy for you (as well as your students) is FineTuna. This tool specifically looks at how we can annotate an image. Someone can upload an image, post sticky notes and draw.  What a great tool to process information!

My class has been learning about the physical and chemical changes that occur in matter. With the unbelievable events occurring in Japan, our 8th grade science department has decided to stop what we are doing and take the time to investigate the tragedy. But, I KNOW kids still are struggling with some of the content.

On the last checkpoint, most students told me that as temperature increases, viscosity increases.  If you are not a science teacher, you may not know that is exactly the opposite of what is happening. As the temperature increases, the viscosity DECREASES.  I had to reteach, and check again.

Using images that focus on the tragedy in Japan,  we can continue with our current topic, while creating quick checks of what the students are thinking about past learning. At the top of this post is an image I used to reassess what students know about viscosity.

Discussion Forums

One educational decision was to post the image on a discussion thread. ours was here. That way, students could write as much as they needed without clouding up the image.  Discussion forums are a great way to see what kids are thinking on a particular topic.  And if a student reads 10 responses before creating their own because they didn’t understand… AWESOME! What better way to learn that by seeing other students explain their thinking.

Try out FineTuna.  Better yet, have your student upload an image relating to a current topic and annotate it. I’d love to hear how it helped your students learn!

My 13 year old daughter is preparing for her first science fair. Not because she has to… but because she wants to.

In this post, I am the mom…

…Worried that she wants to do a project over her head.  Seriously, what 7th grader wants to know how heavy metals affect bacterial growth?!?   Shouldn’t she be looking at how plants grow or what paper towels are the strongest? As a science teacher, I overhear many students giving the fair a bad name.  I did not and do not want my child to have negative feelings about science.

Guess what? I shouldn’t have worried.  Competing in the Science Fair has been an amazing experience for us both.  And to science teachers out there, I highly encourage you to find SOME way for your students to complete independent research. The key is to make it engaging and relevant to the students lives.

I am so impressed with how the science fair has engaged her mind, stretched her thinking, and allowed her to use her learning in a holistic way.

Science Fairs are not just about the science! It’s about learning something that you find interesting. It’s about talking science with researchers in the field.  It’s about synthesizing skills learned over the school year while tackling the unknown.

I have to give a shout out to her teachers. Some of the articles that Maggie read, were tough.  Even Wikipedia was a challenge at times! And as I tried to help her, she pushed me away with a, “I got this.”  And “got this” she did.  I saw her use some paraphrasing and summarizing strategies she had learned in her Communication Arts Classes.  When it came time to making her graph, I told her to wait and I’d show her a website she could use to share her data.
Maggie went ahead and made her graph without me.  She even found the same web tool I was going to show her!

Wow! She was able to locate a graph maker online, create a fabulous and appropriate graph with all key items identified. And the most important thing to her, she was able to make it pretty! : o )

And what did I learn?  The mom?

My daughter is resourceful!  She can accomplish great things with the skills her teachers are helping her learn. And no matter what place she earns at the competition, I find it unbelievably cool!

Creative Idea Alert!
Sometimes, low tech or no tech can be just as effective as having a room full of laptops.

Our 8th grade science class is currently working on the following Learning Target:

I can describe how heat is transferred (moved) by conduction, convection, and radiation, and classify examples of each.

Our goal was to allow students to practice this learning target in a variety of formats. And if we know people learn differently, how did we accomplish this?

Thermal Energy and Recordable Cards from Terri Johnson on Vimeo.

It’s difficult to reach EVERY learning style, but if we use Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, which ones would this lesson reach?

Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Logical-Mathematical
Linguistic
Visual-Spatial
Naturalist
Musical

Now, think about Formative Assessment.
When this lesson is complete, will students know if they know conduction, convection, and radiation? Will they be able to give examples? Will I, as the teacher know where their learning stands?

What could we do to improve this lesson?

How could you take this idea and make it your own?

I have to be honest…
I am not always a dedicated Twitter tweeter. Don’t get me wrong, I ADORE Twitter and spend time every day… ok, most days… reading and replying to tweets.

I also have the same issues many people have… I’m busy, I have a vast array of responsibilites and my time is precious. In order to protect my sanity and get the most out of Twitter, I had to find a way to balance this enormous pool of information.

Keys to My Success: Organize and Filter

Doesn’t that sound easy? Ha! I am a collector! I collect antiques, books, pictures, tweeps… I mean, I follow a TON of people on Twitter. Over the last three years, I have collected over a thousand interesting and intriguing individuals.

And each… person… matters… If I have deliberately followed each and every person on my Twitter account–checking out their bios, reading recent comments, how in the world can I remove them from my lists?

In reality, I follow so many people, the chances of me actually reading something someone sent out is a serendipitous event. That isn’t right either.

So, how do I do both? Continue to collect on Twitter, yet still manage to learn the most from my PLN?

As I mentioned… Organize and Filter!

1. Tweet Deck

Far and away, Tweet Deck has saved my sanity. Every person now has a place. Tweetdeck allows me to create columns; each column giving me specific information.

Terri_Science Tweetdeck Screencast from Terri Johnson on Vimeo.

Sometimes, reading tweet after tweet just isn’t want I want or need. Enter my second secret weapon.

2. Paper.li
Paper.li is my new BFF! It kind of snuck up on me. In a previous post, I mentioned reading The Missouri Ed Daily to receive news important to other educators in Missouri. It was and is an excellent aggregator.  Paper.li looks at all the tweets from a given list and  uses some fancy mumbo jumbo to pick out the most interesting articles, videos, and pictures.  After several months of reading The Missouri Ed, it finally hit me, “Why am I not doing this?”

Enter, This Paper.li paper is AWESOME. It is for me, by me.  Every day, I get a fresh newspaper that has plenty of reading material that is tailored to my interests. I’m not interested in having other readers subscribe to my newspaper, as it may not be as wonderfully perfect to them. However, Paper.li has the option to send out a Tweet when my newspaper gets updated and I clicked it… even though I don’t care if I get subscribers.  You see, it also sends a Shout Out to my top stories. I think it’s a way to say thank you to my followers for sharing.

But, Paper.li can be more than a daily newspaper for your tweets.  I created a weekly paper using only the educators from the Saint Joseph School District. The name isn’t finalized–another perk of the website! It went from iBode to the St. Joe News.  The point is, Paper.li allows you to create specific newspapers based on lists or even Twitter searches!

So, teachers, think of the possibilities!  There are already Daily Newspapers for thousands of searches with hashtags. If you truly want your students to see what is currently being talked about, there may already be a newspaper waiting for your class.

I read today that Southern Somalia has voted to create their own country.  When I wondered what others were thinking, I checked and found this…

If you have a Twitter account, Paper.li allows you 10 credits to create 10 different newspapers.

A few suggestions:

• Start Simple–I tried to create a very specific newspaper at first and ended up with a newspaper with ZERO articles.  Oops.
• If you do decide to create a custom focus, remember your search commands (AND, OR…)
• For the customized newspaper, try out the practice twitter search link. You’ll see what kinds of articles your paper will likely find.
• Before you try to create a new newspaper from a #search, see if one is already created.
• Have fun!

3 And finally, for those with iPads,  Flipboard.

It looks to be very similar to Paper.li, allowing you create a customized magazine from your Twitter and Facebook accounts. One review says if you squint and look just the right angle, you won’t even know it’s not a true magazine!

All tools mentioned here are… FREE!!! So, try one out and begin organizing and filtering your Twitter feed.

Artwork Thanks: a mess at work by Ron Wieki and  Memo pockets series one by Kasaa; both on Flickr

No laughing and critiquing please… But below, I’ve shared a quick exchange that happened today between me and a student.  To be honest, he isn’t even in my class!

I was trying to to videotape an energy transformation to share with an absent student, and he started asking me questions about what was happening.  My questioning wasn’t perfect, but his was!

Teachers we all need to remember that inquiry isn’t always about the questions that the teacher wants to answer, but what the student wants. Middle schoolers need time to “play” constructively with science materials.

Energy Transformations from Terri Johnson on Vimeo.

Tomorrow, new items will be available for testing. Blow dryers, curlers, incandescent lights, Black lights, and fluorescent ones too. Which ones do you think cause the radiometer to spin?

And as an extension… What about a solar panel? Does the same light and/or energy that turns the radiometer also turn this?

Lego Ferris Wheel, Energy Transfers from Terri Johnson on Vimeo.