Tryangulation

empty nest chronicles, part 2

Younger son Andy moved into his new Houston home on Sunday. Through friends and friends-of-friends, we found a wonderful family who were also about to become empty nesters, but were eager to still have some young adults around.

We hit it off right away with Mike and Sue, and we were delighted to learn that we have many friends in common through our church. Their home is only two miles away from the campus where Andy will study, and is on the only bus route that goes there. All in all, a good place for Andy to be if he can't be with us in Ankara.

Although JoNell will be in Houston for 2 more weeks, and I'll stay around a little longer, Andy no longer stays with us, so the nest is now officially empty. Even though we knew we would see Andy again on Monday,  we couldn't help crying a little when we said good night on Sunday.

From an external viewpoint, not much has changed. Andy and I message each other on our new phones, we are still getting together to shop and eat, and of course our relationship will continue as long as we live. Even so, there was that moment when we let go of the roles we had played for nearly 20 years, and released these two amazing men, Sam and Andy, into the world.

For a little more about Andy, you can click here.

http://tryangulation.typepad.com/learning/2007/06/well_done_andy.html

Window to the EduBlogger World

Today education bloggers around the world will participate in collaborative events that will showcase the EduBloggerWorld online social network. I joined the network about two months ago, and have enjoyed the interaction between edubloggers from many different countries.

One of the main events of the day is the contribution of blog posts around a common theme from as many edubloggers as possible. Here is my contribution.

I started blogging about three years ago as a way to challenge myself to improve my writing, and hence my observation and reflection, as I looked around for things to write about.  I've started and abandoned several blogs before creating this one as I learned more about the technical side of putting together a blog and also narrowed down my focus.

This blog is where I write about how we learn, how we use what we learn, and whether formal education helps or hinders those processes. I might write about education policy, cognition, education technologies, and my own "aha!" moments as I learn something new. I have studied pedagogy, literature, anthropology, linguistics and public administration, and I have worked both inside and outside the education sector in three different countries; those experiences, and a lifelong urge to find the connections between things, have given me a perspective that I think is worth sharing.

I blog principally for myself, as a way to focus my thoughts and find ways to articulate them effectively. Sometimes my thoughts strike a chord with other edubloggers, and so my blog create opportunities for me to have conversations with fascinating people around the world. I also blog as a way to share my discoveries with my colleagues, and as an example they can follow as they explore the possibilities of this medium in education. 

My window to the edublogger world is supposed to include a photo of either where I blog, or the view I have while blogging. I'm sharing both: the top photo is of my office in Ankara, and the bottom photo is my view of a snowball fight outside my window on a snowy day (notice the open classroom windows in the background?).

edubloggerworldmeetup2007

empty nest chronicles

All you readers out there with children still at home: hug 'em while you can.

Yesterday we said goodbye to our oldest son, Sam, as he stayed behind in his new digs at Belhaven College, while we hit the road to return to Houston, and then back to Turkey. I wrote a little about Sam last year when he graduated from high school (link); he spent the last year working in Turkey as a teacher's assistant in a Turkish kindergarten. He's a great person and he'll do great at school, getting to know (and debate with) new friends, teachers, a local church that is ready to adopt him. He'll definitely learn a lot. He'll also take some classes. 

This week it's our younger son Andy's turn to take up residence in Houston. Sigh.

Historic first for Turkish public school

Thanks to my Bloglines account I'm able to keep up with current events in Turkey, and was pleased to see published the news that I had already heard through the grapevine before coming to the US: a social science magnet school in Istanbul has become the first public school in Turkey to be authorized for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Previously the IB Diploma was available through 19 private schools in the country.

The Prof. Dr. Mümtaz Tarhan Social Sciences High School has been interacting with other IB schools in Turkey for the last two years to learn from our experiences and to get encouragement in the difficult authorization process.  Among the obstacles they faced were the retooling of current teachers, recruiting other qualified teachers, and converting their social science and experimental science instruction from Turkish to English.

The International Baccalaureate Organization has made increased access a major goal for the coming years, and the authorization of this school is a major step in Turkey for mainstreaming the ideals of the IB and enriching the education opportunities available here. Although the news article emphasized the potential for public school graduates to gain international scholarships via the IB Diploma, our hope is that the other less tangible benefits of the program would also become more evident and appreciated.

Click on the following link for the original article in Turkish from Radikal:

İSTANBUL- Prof. Dr. Mümtaz Tarhan Sosyal Bilimler Lisesi, Türkiye'de uluslararası geçerliliği bulunan Bakolarya diplomasını veren ilk ve tek devlet okulu oldu.

I don't remember freshman year being that much fun

Yesterday we knocked off one of the big items on our to-do list: confirm Andy's admission to Houston Community College and get him enrolled in the first semester of courses for the Filmmaking program. Check this out: TV Field Production, Audio Engineering I, Production Management, Film Business and Marketing. As if it wasn't bad enough that he's known what he wants to do since we first took him to see a movie (I blame his mother), as soon as he's out of high school and into college his first class is field production?? I am so jealous.

In my day, we had to take all kinds of boring classes in humanities, history, freshman science, etc.  before we ever got into the classes that were our reason for going to college in the first place. I studied education as an undergrad, and they never let us near real live children until our third year. No wonder we were all so nervous on our first day of student teaching. I guess things have changed some since then, but the really passionate teachers I've known are mainly on their own when trying to keep the passion alive.

Remember when community colleges were just glorified vocational ed programs? Those days are gone, but they still have the philosophy of teaching students how, not just what. So why wasn't teacher education ever treated like a vocation, even a little bit, instead of solely an academic pursuit? What's wrong with teaching future teachers how to enthuse, intrigue, educe, and instill, in addition to all those other (boring) learning objective verbs? How different would things be if education majors started their freshman year with Field Teaching I?

Transitions

Today is my first day of vacation, and I celebrated by sleeping in, and then spending the rest of the day running personal errands. The next few weeks will be focused on moving our sons Sam (19) and Andy (18) to the US where they'll start their college careers.

In September I'll officially be on leave of absence from my job for one semester, in order to be free to give attention to family and health matters. I have no intention of leaving this blog, but posting might be sporadic as we get things sorted out in the US. So keep in touch!