Fall Awakening in Brownsville, MN

What a beautiful time of year to enjoy the sights, scenes and smells of the great outdoors before we hit the harsh coldness of winter. In our Brownsville, MN area we have been enjoying the beautiful Fall panoramic views and sounds of the season with the arrival of the snow geese, tundra swans, white pelicans, and a variety of ducks on the Mississippi River. Just 3 miles south of our home is a newly developed overlook to view and watch the beautiful birds that have arrived to take a break from their migration route during the months of late October through December. It is a spectacular site and "a must scenic drive" for Fall travelers.

There has been a lot of activity in our area for avid photographers to take that picture perfect photo of these birds, or to capture a video clip to showcase the beauty of this secluded area. Take a look at this latest clip from "Mory" from Wisconsin of his early morning video capture from last weekend- well done Mory!

Lastly, here is an Animoto video I have put together to share with all of you to experience the "Fall Awakening"' in our area, even if you do not get a chance to travel to this part of the country. Enjoy!


Naomi

Reflecting on October

Isn't it amazing how time flies? I have been rather quiet over these past two weeks due to a crazy work schedule, but also to reflect on my father's one year of passing. It is amazing to look back to where I was one year ago and trying to understand and handle the difficult passing of my father. Only 8 months earlier was he diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and who knew how fast it would take his life.

I owe so very much to my father. Those last few weeks in the hospital, when I could get away from work - which seemed so daunting at the time, I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with him. We had brief but powerful conversations encompassing stories of his past, the family farm, fishing with Grandpa John, and special stories when my father had those special moments of giving each one of us 5 kids some special one-on one time. My special time was when my dad would sneak me outside of the house at night with him when the sows were having their baby piglets, and he would let me watch the piglets being born, and make sure to comfort the hogs and new born piglets with fresh straw. I know it may sound strange to all of you but this was "my special time with my dad." He knew how much I loved animals and cared for them, that is also why he chose me as the middle daughter to also milk his dairy cows starting at age 9 until I left home for college. These stories and memories are priceless.

My life has changed significantly since my father has passed. I have not told a lot of individuals, but I will tell you here today. My father could tell I was not myself when I would visit him in the hospital or visit him on the farm in NE Iowa this past year, and he knew I was unhappy with my work situation, and he too noted it that there must me some "vision collision" going on. He knew how strong willed I was and he understand and appreciated my dedicated work ethic, well because- I learned from the best- my father- the Iowa dairy and hog farmer of 70 years. We discussed at quite length my situation and he actively listened the best he could, and grew tired very easily. He never wanted to see any of his children unhappy, but always offered the best advise, even if we thought it was not at the present time.

My father offered his "risk-taking advice" as he always would. He told me I am in control of my own situation and that I should leave the company I was currently with and start my own ed tech consulting business or start my own restaurant/bakery- because many of you know how I love to cook and bake. I could not believe he was telling me do this and to direct me in this manner, to leave a well paying job with benefits. He wanted me to be happy, because he could see that I was not.

Time passed and by October 22, 2008 by dad passed at 3AM in his home on his dairy farm as he had requested, and I am glad to say I was with him with my brothers and sisters to grant him this last request. The next few months were extremely difficult and my day to day work meant very little to me, due to the unappreciative and 19th century leadership I was dealing with, but I must say the educators and ed tech leaders I worked with on a daily basis kept me going. As all good things must end- it eventually came to a head where the "vision collision" took place, my strong will and voice were present, and my departure occurred the end of February 2009.

I was FREE- finally FREE and could move on- why could I not do this a year earlier- I just do not know why- but finally FREE. I immediately started my own consulting company "Innovative Educator Consulting Corporation," and 16 out of the 26 school districts immediately contacted me for services. Then four universities contacted me within a month to design and deliver online content for new graduate and master course work. Next, Intel Education came knocking within one month and I accepted a part-time position as a National Intel Senior Trainer. Next thing I know- ISTE is following me on Twitter for over 6 months and now asking me to offer online PD webinars for them.

The work for my consulting company continues to pour in, and I am now in a position to say "yes" or "no" to job opportunities extending out two years from now. My latest adventures have kept me very busy with offering national and international keynote presentations. These speaking opportunities have assisted me to launch my company even further with many educational affiliate organizations. These new affiliations have also partnered with the many EETT and ARRA grants that I have wrote and continue to write for rural and high need schools in WI.

Looking back- my dad was right! I wish I could have taken the leap or the risk in the Fall of 2008 so he could have seen how well my company is doing. I really think I needed to hit a low point, before I could move on to make this change- and I see now why it had to occur this way. I am one to make and strive for change- positive change- and in order for me to be fully passionate about a situation I have to own part of it- and be fully entrenched with it to understand the direction it will take me.

I really miss my father. I look back to the times we could have had, and now think of all of those times I told him I could not see him or my family because I had work to do- what a waste that was when I think back. I am so glad I have my priorities straight now- and that I can choose my own adventure and that I can sore in this new 21st century career and teaching and learning environment, and never be held back by an ill-fated 20th century factory leadership model.

My best advice to all of you is by the most recent quote that was shared with me:

“Love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. Love it with a passion, because life truly does
give back, many times over, what you put into it” ~Maya Angelou

I choose life and I choose true happiness!

Naomi

Final Reflections on South Africa Educational Journey

Greeting Everyone,

I am writing my final reflection on my South African educational journey, as a peer out my deck window overlooking the Mississippi River, while it is now snowing in southwestern Minnesota. This Minnesota weather makes it seem like it was years ago when I traveled to South Africa, yet it has only been two weeks ago. I have just received some more conference pictures from Gerald and others of our final days in South Africa. Due to my dedication to present and attend the many events it was hard to capture the remaining days of photos to showcase the daily activities. Luckily many others did and shared their digital photos with us on the School net conference site, and I have now reproduced a collection of my photos and the conference attendees, conference planning team and the Intel affiliates.



At this time I want to reflect and share with each of you my thankfulness and sincere gratitude to all of my new South African friends and new colleagues. These individuals made my African experience a positive and life changing event for me and my husband. I have never been so welcomed into one's country and cultural society, and respected as a true professional. I was the minority coming into their country, yet there were no cultural barriers or stereotypes placed upon me as a visitor. I was treated as an immediate family member as I arrived into their country, throughout out our entire stay, and even upon our final departure.

Thank you South Africa for your kind, compassionate and caring ways and positive attitude to accept me, as an American educator, into your educational family!

National ICT Conference

September 24, 25 and 26 encompassed the time I presented at the National ICT Conference in Durban, South Africa. All of the International presenters stayed at a lovely quest house where each morning we were served a cooked breakfast. From our balcony view we could see the city of Durban and the oceanfront. We also had an opportunity to be welcomed each day from the guesthouse surrounding treetops with monkeys. It was a quite a site to see as they swung from branch to branch and eventually landed on top of the guest house roof.

The conference was a joyous event to attend and present at. This countries culture was truly represented throughout, but especially the opening day and closing day ceremonies with a childrens choir singing the native songs and greeting all attendees, and closing of the attendees singing in true celebration of thankfulness. Bruce Dixon, was the opening keynote presenter, delivering a powerful message addressing reform initiatives that significantly improve the opportunities for learning through the use of technology. His keynote focus set the stage for many meaningful technology integration connections and extended collaborative opportunities throughout the next two days of workshop sessions for all.

The evening events included dining opportunities to experience the African cuisine which included kingclip, mussels, Kudu (antelope), oscterage, and crockidile. Many chocolate and cream decadent desserts were also served to complete the dinner courses. We also attended a dinner conference event where all attendees were invited and we experienced many global and Africa finger foods. To enhance the evenings dinner event we had African dancers that preformed us, and we too with the native clothing for the night, and danced as a large group with everyone to their cultural and ritual dance beat- it was marvelous. Music is the the universal language we can all understand and come together to celebrate as a nation.

I tried my best during my leadership sessions to video stream my presentations, and run a back channel chat back to the states but….. as you can imagine- the limited bandwidth and restrictive Internet access throughout Africa and conference arena were too limited to successfully stream the sessions. But on a positive note… the back channel chat worked very successfully, and immediately pulled in all conference attendees into a live online portal to instantly communicate and collaborate as a community. I used the tool Todays Meet tool, which the archived session can be found at http://todaysmeet.com/SouthAfrica

The workshop conversations and in-depth discussions with my attendees opened up my eyes to an all-new technology world. Did you know Africa was the last continent to gain access to television? This took place in 1974- wow this blew me away. Most of the school attendees that attended my workshop have one computer classrooms or a small lab environment, with extremely limited bandwidth- think of it as a computer lab where you recently trained in and each computer had to “dial up” to gain the connection. There were some exceptions though- some schools that attended now have 3G networks- equivalent to cell phones and multiple labs for technology integration to support their whiteboard initiatives.(The picture posted in the lab where I presented in- Not A Typical Lab though- this was computer lab was brought in by the Mustek Technology vendor to assist me for presentation purposes).

I also found it very- very interesting where most of the children in South Africa that attend a public school have cell phones. Cell phone plans in South Africa are relatively inexpensive- $70 Ran = $10 a month. And when you sign up for a cell phone plan the cell phones are free. Many teachers in this area are using the cell phone technology to their advantage and allowing them into the classroom as a teaching tool to enhance the teaching and learning environment. (Isn’t this a novel idea America educators and administrators!) Also, the teachers are listening to the student’s needs and innovative ideas of cell phone and developing projects and specific lessons with these tools. This is truly amazing! (Gerald Roos is noted in the photo, this was Gerald's profile view throughout the conference. He made sure everything was running smoothly and the cell phone technology was the quickest communication tool to find the right people to do the job).

I must say, I was truly blessed to have an opportunity to present in South Africa with the other international presenters and to meet the many unique and dynamic educators and administrators! The network opportunities were limitless and I learned so much from all of my attendees- especially to be more skilled with the native language, the history and culture of the country, and a new educational perspective of ICT literacy in South Africa.

I also want to thank at this time my gracious host, Gerald Roos, (see picture above) who also was the coordinator of the National ICT Conference. His extensive background technology knowledge, conference planning skills and organization contributed greatly to the conference’s overall success.

South Africa Day #2

Today we ventured to the town of Hermanus in South Africa to go watch whales. It is their mating season right now and the whales are more incline to come into the shallow and coastal waters for breeding purposes. We had an opportunity to view the whales as they would breech- lunge up out of water and come crashing down. We also saw a few tail fins and their large mammoth heads and parts of their bodies covered in barnacles. The best part was hearing them reach the surface through their blowhole spurt out a spray of water before submerging back into the ocean again- it was truly breathtaking.


We continued onward with our journey back towards Capetown area and had a wonderful lunch at the Bodega Vineyard. The setting of this winery and restaurant was nestled backed within a lush floral valley and cascading mountainside- it was just breath taking and so relaxing. The Spanish decor of wrought iron accents, Tuscany rich rust and peach colors- accompanied with the cultural Spanish music took us back in time and almost to another place. Simply lovely. For lunch I tried something new- a seafood entree of a Kingclip- a white fish- complimented with a side and garnish of asparagus and sun dried tomatoes. The rich flavor and zesty seasonings of the food melted in my mouth. It was so simply wonderful!


After lunch we ventured on to two other winery's where we enjoyed wine and chocolate tasting- now I was surely in heaven. One of the winery's was owned by Ernie Elle's, famous PGA golf pro. This winery estate welcomed us with a hand laid bricked driveway and manicured lawn and landscapes. It was set back also into the rolling hillside- almost as if it was meant to be hidden from passerby's. Inside the winery the decor reflected the golf pro's many accomplishments with shiny large trophies, professional photos, and world champion golf scenes. My husband truly enjoyed this visit and was in his element.


We ended our lovely day with a home cooked curry mincemeat meal with Gerald, Elaine and Elaine's mother. This was a dish neither I nor my husband have had before. To compliment our main meal we had a side dish of rice, fresh green peppers/tomatoes, and sliced ripe bananas. We also added a tablespoon of chutney to the curry mince meat as a condiment- it truly enhanced the overall experience of the homemade entree- which was just marvelous. My husband and I feel so welcome in their home and they have accommodated so graciously- we are so very thankful to have this new family as part of our lives this week and year's to come.





Tomorrow we are going to have a quiet morning and perhaps venture out in the early afternoon to the botanical gardens, before we need to catch our evening flight to Durban to prepare for the conference.