Where have I been?

It has been brought to my attention that I have neglected my blog in recent weeks.

Really? Huh.

Well, it's been a VERY busy period in my life, so let me just catch you up:

The program of which I am director has, in the last two months, wrapped up one school year with 50 teacher participants and 11 instructional coaches; reviewed and selected 28 new teacher participants (from a significantly larger pool of applicants); initiated the search/hiring processes for additional instructional coaches; launched the beta version of our public website; continued intense negotiations with "Major University" (no names until everything's got signatures!) to provide the first-ever completely online subject endorsement program for our state's teachers; and produced several instructional videos.

I just taught my first-ever course as an an adjunct instructor for Utah State University, which was a BOATLOAD of work but very rewarding. I plan to do it again. I've also recently done some mini-workshops on Gifted Education in various forums, and have another one coming up on Monday.

I'm writing this from the campus of Utah State, where a colleague and I are presenting a "Mini-Strand" on technology integration in gifted education (75 minutes a day for three days!) at the Intermountain Conference on Gifted Education. I'll be revamping this to create a shorter version to present at the Utah Rural Schools Association conference in July, the Utah Association for Gifted Children conference in January 2010, and possibly the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology conference in February 2010. I like presenting at conferences, and have been doing so for a few years now - it's quite energizing, and it brings educators together over larger issues and themes, breaking the isolation that often comes with out profession.

I might mention that it's FREEZING here in Logan, UT; rain and thunderstorms all week. I am missing the desert heat mightily!

In other news:

• The BeagleDog hurt his back again a couple of months ago, but is better now.
• Thanks to GrandmaT we've got a nice garden going with tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, green beans, zucchini, corn, pumpkins, carrots, radishes, and probably some other stuff that I can't remember. We don't have a whole lot of any one item, as we're experimenting, but so far things are growing happily.
• I got the tires on the Rav rotated and balanced for the first time in two years; next up is a brake job for the Pathfinder.
• My FaceBook FarmTown farm has been neglected as of late... fallow fields and unruly trees. I really MUST do something about this situation.
• I met up with a friend whom I have not seen since 10th grade (that would be 24 years ago) last night. She now lives here in Logan, and we reconnected on faceBook. IT WAS SOOOOOO FUN!!!
  

Okay, I gotta go now, but I'll try to keep up the blog better so Wombat will be happy.