Tryangulation

Past imperfect, future conditional

Back in August I wrote that I would be very sporadic on this blog for a while. With my last post more than two months ago, I'd say that was a good prediction. My leave of absence from school ends in a few weeks so I'm now working at clearing the cobwebs in my head.  After nearly three months of abstinence from blogging, blog reading and blog commenting, I have 7241 unread posts waiting for me in my feed aggregator. So do I try to catch up, or just start over?

I looked through some of my old posts to get a feel for where I was headed before the hiatus. A couple posts that helped were Window to the Edu-Blogger world, where I outlined my reasons for blogging, and The world is not flat, where I laid out some premises for non-western educational blogging. I'm fairly pleased with how I was getting the hang of it, but now I'm not sure if I'll continue on the same track.

Starting over is not as simple as it sounds. The longer you're away from something, the weaker the hold that it has over you. That frantic drive to read everything in sight and blog several times a week is gone. I don't feel the compulsion to be aware, smart and clever. I don't even care much about the stats.  I've had time now to think about what I really want to accomplish, and even whether blogging is part of that or not.

I'm going to give it a go, but I'm not making any promises about where I'll end up. I'm grateful to all who have remained subscribers. I'm glad you've stuck with me, and I'll try to make this new start worthwhile.

empty nest chronicles, part 5

I've been back in Ankara for nearly ten days, still a little dazed after saying goodbye to Andy at the airport in Houston, and then getting to talk on the phone with Sam before I boarded.  Now that I'm home the empty nest process has been completed. Thanks to Skype and Facebook we've been able to stay connected, and even enjoy aspects of each other that weren't so evident from just living together.

Despite all our international living, I've rarely been away from my place of residence for as long as two months, and never away from JoNell for a month, so the switch of scenery, plots, and the entire cast of characters has been a little much. But I'm catching up.

empty nest chronicles, part 4

Just got back from taking JoNell to the airport for her return trip to Ankara. Now it's just Andy and me in his place at our friends' house.

empty nest chronicles, part 3

Both boys are settled and have completed their second week of classes at college. This week it's been JoNell's turn. Since she goes back to Turkey on Sunday we're making sure she gets some time with friends, music shopping and other stuff she enjoys. A highlight was when we took off for a few days to stroll in San Antonio, something we hadn't done since before we had children.

We love the River Walk there, which is a shady riverside walkway that meanders through the city, below the street level so it's out of the noise, and lined with the city's best restaurants, bars and shops. It was great to relax, put away the to-do lists, enjoy the food, speak some Spanish, reflect on 22 years together, and let out one long sigh of relief that the boys will be OK after all.

We'll finish out the week with some last minute shopping for things that JoNell will take back. I'm staying behind a few extra weeks to keep an eye on the boys and wrap up some family affairs. Being away from Ankara has made me drop out of step with my edublogger colleagues who are now cranking up for a new school year and filling up my Bloglines aggregator with lots of new conversations. I'm sorry if I'm getting behind, but I'm officially on leave of absence now, so I'm not yet in any back-to-school frame of mind.

Just give me one more week.

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

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.

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?