Live and Learn New Mexico!

I guess I should have some kind of thread running through my blog -- and I do -- it all falls under building my nonprofit. I know,though, that sometimes I seem to be all over the place. However, it all fits in if you think in big pictures. Today I want to bitch about the crazy need Americans have for specialization and being the expert on things. This obsession with having to prove our expertise had led to the inability to see how things fit together to solve problems. Let me explain. Years ago, I worked as staff on interim New Mexico legislative committees. The one I became particularly fond of was the Welfare Reform Committee. We traveled around the state to monthly meetings where NM communities shared how they were using TANF and welfare-to-work principles to help their residents get back on their feet. Many discussions centered around finding ways to create jobs within communities that welfare recipients could fill. I was very excited about some ideas that were talked about r...

First of all, why are Mondays so hard? I thought that once I left the regular 8-5 routine, Mondays wouldn't phase me. But they still do. I think I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating. After all, Mondays happen every week. I think I also mentioned that the best I can do to beat the Monday blues is to get started on something. So I will blog. I spent the weekend thinking about the direction I'm going in. Am I off track from my original mission/vision for L&LNM? I put Adult Education on the Facebook page but is that wrong? I do have more in the description, which includes family and community, and I do feel that is the direction I find myself going in. But I'm not sure that Adult Ed is what I want to call L&LNM anymore...are we more of a P-16 thing? Or are we even within that system at all? I don't think so. However, in the beginning, L&LNM did have a somewhat narrow focus -- to help adults prepare for and pass a high school equivalency (e...

I am learning so much by tutoring this little first grader (we will call her Wendy) through Wyzant , not just about myself and Wendy but also about her parents, Internet instruction, schools, and testing. Yes, testing. For the first time, Wendy did not have a homework packet from her teacher for the week so we decided to work on her reading. Wendy's mom grabbed some flashcards they had made for sight words and books for Wendy's grade level. Great! I'm up for that. What I'm describing did not necessarily happen in chronological order; I'm describing my aha! moments. And there were many. For the last two weeks, I tried to have Wendy work offline first. She works primarily on paper in the classroom, it seems, so I want to make sure we work that way, too, for part of our session. If she got through some of her homework, we spent the end of the session on ABCMouse and did practice activities to earn reward tickets. It was while we were working offline that I real...

This is an old post, updated.  I had no idea what to blog about today and wasn't even planning to until I started surfing and discovered links on my Facebook page ( by following Sir Ken Robinson's page ) to UK blogs about slow education . First of all, I want to say that when I stumbled on this, I realized just how global we already are. I mean, think about it, Pearson is a British company that is taking over the standardized testing world. We all have to deal with that. The UK is just as interested -- a better word would be concerned -- about standardized testing as we are. We are all facing the same villain. Second, here I was thinking I had thought up all these new ideas when I hadn't. In fact, I'm pretty slow. It is good, though, to find confirmation that my ideas are worth discussion, and maybe I didn't start all this but I can certainly be an advocate and an activist in New Mexico , promoting a return to true learning in a changing world. And I can form...

Okay, so it is good to do something, take action, when you are feeling low but maybe take a few extra minutes to make sure you do it right. Yesterday, I posted my first call for volunteers and donations on VolunteerSpot . In my haste, I forgot to sign up as Live and Learn NM! I also forgot to put a link to our website in. The result is that a call for volunteers went out and no one who received the call knows what I'm even talking about. Thanks to my friend, Linda, for bringing this to my attention. I went to VolunteerSpot but couldn't find a way to recall the call or clarify or whatever I needed to do. I ended up going on Facebook and making a comment on it that puts in a link to the L&LNM site. I'm not sure if I should submit another or just wait and see what happens with this one. So I'm gonna wait. My advice to you, no matter what mood you are in, is to take your time and double check things before you post. On a brighter note, another thanks goes out...

Mondays are hard anyway but this one was especially difficult following a weekend spent in the doldrums. Questioning things, feeling helpless and hopeless, couldn't get on the Internet... sigh I won't elaborate as I spent all that time feeling sorry for myself and don't need to continue. The only way I know to pull myself out of the blues is to do something. It doesn't have to be big, just something that I can say I accomplished. I always feel better afterwards. So I launched my first request for volunteers on Volunteer Spot. I even put in a request for donations. I then posted it on Facebook and boosted the post. I feel SO MUCH BETTER!! Now I find myself looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Yesterday I received in the mail my first Wyzant paycheck. $56!!! Woo hoo! I figure, with the travel and planning for the three lessons I was paid for, I made about $5.60/hour. But I'm having fun, and I'm learning a lot. I was thinking, though, that it would have been great to have something like this when I was working on my BA. College students could make some pretty good money and at the same time, get good experience to put on their resumes. College of Education students could get class credit. Maybe some could even count their tutoring hours toward their student teaching. I was also thinking that retirees might also find something like this fun to do for a little extra cash. Having said that, for purposes of my own nonprofit, I need to find volunteers to tutor. Seems like a paradox but it isn't. This is how I see it. Live and Learn New Mexico! provides free instruction and so far, we have absolutely no money to pay anyone to teach. So we need to find people who...

I've been reading a lot about crowdfunding, where teachers fund projects by setting up a call for donations online. This is so awesome for teachers. They spend a lot of their own money on classroom materials and now they don't necessarily have to. Although I think first as an educator, I know that I also have to think as a nonprofit. A big part of being a nonprofit, specifically a charity, as I've been designated, is to find funding through donations and grants. I've already submitted a proposal to the Kellogg Foundation and was lucky to talk with them personally but they are interested in two specific NM counties -- Dona Ana and Gallup-McKinley -- and at that time, I was not planning to start up in either. However, I have experience in Gallup-McKinley County; my first teaching job was there. I had always intended to sometime serve that area, too, but was not planning to start up there. Now I am finding contacts in the area so that I can re-apply for a Kellogg gra...

As I've said many times, I am on a journey this year as I begin setting up my nonprofit. I am a big picture person and as I've explored the information out there that can help me on my journey, I have not limited myself to the field of education. I read about business, psychology, sociology, whatever fits into my big picture. There are many business models and concepts that overlap with educational principles. I've been looking into how businesses use systems approaches for more efficient solutions. I've also been looking into work-at-home models. This week, I've been reading a book called The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. It's nice and short and has a lot of motivational ideas for working at home and for yourself. He challenges the reader to step out of their comfort zone and contact a famous person that they admire and ask them a question. My first instinct was to snort in derision. Yeah, that ain't gonna happen. And is it really that impressive ...

This morning I had to sit down and pay my daughter's college tuition. Her Pell grant is running out and I have to pick up the slack. As I'm entering all my info, she is complaining about her statistics class. The combination of these two events -- me looking at the high cost of education and grudgingly paying it and my daughter complaining about her class -- led me down another train of thought. Evidently, as most statistics classes are, this class is a difficult one. The instructor is older and has taught the class for many years. He has noticed certain trends over the years, such as the fact that most students don't do well on his tests and that they even do worse on the second test than the first. On the second test, which the class recently completed, only two people made an A without the benefit of grading on a curve. As I'm just about to click the Submit Payment button, my daughter complains that she isn't learning anything in the class. She rightfully que...

(another repost from before I had an audience but it still holds true) As I've traveled on this journey to establish Live and Learn New Mexico! I've discovered many things. I've been able to work in education the way I want to. Although my nonprofit is aimed at adult learners, it's also about families and communities. I decided to not only look at what is happening in adult ed but in education in general, all levels, all disciplines, public, private, online. And that was the best decision I could have made. My work has been so rewarding to me, not monetarily in any way (dammit) but I am starting to feel whole. The biggest lesson I've learned so far is that we truly need to put the power back into the teachers' hands. This conclusion has been strengthened in a funny way, by tutoring a little girl in first grade. I'm helping her with reading and math, and I'm using ABCMouse (first month free trial) and Khan Academy (always free) to help me. They are inc...

A friend posted this link on Facebook and I think it says almost everything I've said or wish to say. The only thing I haven't given much thought to is teacher unions. I never was a big supporter but maybe I should learn more before making a decision. 5 Myths about Failing Schools

I'm listening to the radio and they're saying that 1,000 APS students so far have opted out of the PARCC. This is what has to happen but the fight gets more intense as the PED tells us that if schools have too many students opting out, the school's grade will drop. Big woo! I truly believe that parents, their kids, and teachers know better. We are starting to see the absolute absurdity of a grading system to evaluate schools. We are the ones who see the ridiculous amount of stress generated by this test. Most importantly, we see that this is about test publishers building their business and making decisions regarding education for the purpose of making more money. The sad part of all this is that if the PARCC isn't supported, schools run the risk of a drop in funding. That is always the bottom line. No, we don't care if our school drops a grade, but we do care that our own school has the resources it needs to help our kids learn. Parents and teachers are ab...

I sat down to this blog several times over the last few days, thinking I knew what I was going to say. It's not that I don't have ideas; it's that I have too many. Today I thought I would talk about what I've learned this week as a new Wyzant tutor. I learned that I love working with elementary school kids. They are totally into learning, no matter what their test scores say. They love their teachers. They don't understand at all what political influence means nor do they care that much about grades. Honestly, I don' t think they have a competitive bone in their bodies in the early grades. That is when we could be capitalizing on community and peer learning; they are powerful "tools" in the classroom. Back to tutoring, I had my first session with a college student this week and found that it was not as rewarding an experience but I did learn a lot. I learned that many students DO hire others to do their classwork for them. I got the feeling that th...

I published this in February and decided to update it now that I have more of an audience...and I noticed that many schools are testing after spring break. UGH! I don't have to take the PARCC but my thoughts and prayers are with all those kids who do. As I work at my home office and look out the window at the beautiful beginnings of spring, I can't help but wish for those kids that they could enjoy it as well instead of taking a stupid test. Yes, it is a stupid test. Unfortunately, though, our students are the ones who feel stupid, even before they take it. Last month, I heard, almost daily, discussions about it on my favorite radio station as parents called or emailed in, frantically trying to find ways to help their kids deal with it. They were looking for help but instead were getting the run-around from the schools and the PED. They re looking to someone with expertise and don't realize that they themselves have power, that they don't have to put up with the cra...