08-25-10 We Trust You

For the first 15 years I taught in my current school I had a key to my room but I didn't have a key to the building. No teacher did. The concern was that if one of us lost our key, the door would have to be re-keyed and a new set of keys would have to be distributed. What it meant was that if I wanted to work on a Saturday or Sunday or the evening, I would need to call my principal, go to his house, pick up the key. And then return it when I was done.I'll never forget the faculty meeting when our new principal said, "I have a gift for you." At that moment one of the assistant principals came in to the room with a giant key ring with 100 master keys on it. I was stunned. The long-time Spanish teacher sitting next to me literally squealed with joy.Oddly enough, in my career as an educator, which spans three decades, this is one of the most memorable things a principal has ever done for his or her staff. It was about empowerment, trust and autonomy.I am not saying that other principals I worked for didn't trust and empower me. They have. But If you ask me, public education is less about empowerment, trust and autonomy than it is about control. Public education is hierarchical, all the way from "No Child Left Behind" down to the way many teachers still arrange their classrooms. And I think all of this is a hindrance to the kind of learning and teaching processes that need to be occurring in 21st century schools.What is the "key" to improvement? I have some ideas but for me it will start tomorrow in my sophomore world history class when I outline what needs to be done this semester and then ask my students to help me figure out how we are going to do it.

I Am Not the Artist

If you think I did something beyond point and shoot on this photo, you'd be wrong. I credit Mother Nature. But my 70-200mm 2.8 lens played an important role.The circular green swirls that seem to frame these lilies are actually out-of-focus lilly leaves. And, like so many shots I take, I didn't see this until I opened the photo on my computer.These lilies are long gone now, I'm sad to say. In fact many of the flowers in my wife's garden are waning. Fall is just around the corner and, of course, it offers many opportunities for photographers.It's the four or five months of winter that I find challenging. . . .Canon 5DII 1/200s f/2.8 ISO400 130mm

Shipwreck

The shore and the land along Lake Oahe are relatively devoid of trees in the 20 mile stretch that I have sailed for two decades. But those who remember the river before the dam was built in the '40s and '50s will tell you that there were many trees.And then, when the water filled the massive reservoir, the trees died and ultimately floated to the surface. One local told me that when he sailed the lake in the early days, floating logs and beached driftwood were plentiful.A half century later, there is still evidence of what the Missouri River used to be, including this massive, ancient cottonwood. The tree is bleached white from thousands of sunny days and I can only guess at its story. Was it a sappling in 1804 when Lewis and Clark led their expedition through the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase? Who knows? The tree isn't talking. . .The title is figurative, of course. As far as I know, there are no real shipwrecks on Lake Oahe.

Imminence - Sunrise, August 21, 2010

I had spent Friday, August 20, 2010, making small repairs to Wandering Star and then sailing, motoring and swimming on a hot, August day on Lake Oahe. Deb drove out from Watertown after work and arrived around 8 PM. I said, "We're going to Hurricane Bay." Because the wind had died to whisper, we motored west a few miles and dropped our anchor in a narrow, protected channel of the bay. We were alone. On this clear, warm evening it seemed like we had the bay, the lake and a billion stars all to ourselves.The next morning, we woke up well before sunrise and around 6:30 we pulled up anchor and motored out into the main channel to watch the sunrise. The weather forecast said it was going to get to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on this day. But in the pre-dawn moments, it was beautiful. And just as the sun started to light up a band of clouds close to the horizon, I took this photo.Yes, it's "just another sunrise shot" but like my "just another sunset shot" from several weeks ago, there is much more here than meets the eye: I was with my favorite person on my favorite boat in one of my favorite places. Some would call central South Dakota on a 100+ degree day "god-forsaken." I would say that you must have your senses shut down if you aren't seeing god here - especially in a beautiful, quiet sunrise like this.(See this on Panoramio.)

Mirror Image

Curiosity 2

This doe ("do, a dear; a female dear") wasn't very fa ("a long, long way to run") from me. It was late in the day but there were a few rays shining through the trees ("re, a drop of golden sun"). Stop it! I'm already having visions of Julie Andrews (as Mary Poppins) coming out from behind a tree. And that's not a sign of good mental health.Anyway, I like the look this dear is giving me. She is trying to decide if I pose a threat or if I have more cracked corn to feed her. Neither was the case, but I did shoot her with a camera.By the way, I called this "Curiosity 2" because it reminds me a bit of another photo I posted several months ago called "Curiosity".

Squall Line

Chip

An Evil Flower?

Not only is this a "weed," but it is a "noxious weed" - aka a "thistle." But it is also a flower and when I was taking pictures of this intriguing plant, I was wondering what makes some flowers (roses and lillies, for example) "flowers" and what makes others (Canadian thistle and dandelions) "weeds?" I have my theories, but I'm playing coy today. I'll let you ponder this deep and profound mystery.

Bambi Twins

It's easy to shoot wildlife photos when the wildlife wanders into your front yard. In this case the front yard is at our cabin in the Black HIlls. They were lured there by the cracked corn that had been thrown on the grass.If you study the spots on the fawns, incidentally, you will discover that the deer are not identical twins, though I'm guessing that human twins wouldn't necessarily have the exact same skin blemishes, would they? Maybe it's the same for deer.

Mom & Dad

My dad died 10 years ago today and while I have posted a couple photos of my mom on this blog, I have yet to do so with Dad.I think that this is the last photo I took of my Mom and Dad together and it was taken a few years before my dad died. It is probably just me, but I think my mother is almost radiant in this photo. Later in her life, it was very difficult to get a decent photo of her because she came to dislike the camera. I don't know why.On the day that my dad died, I was sailing in a good wind on a hot day on Lake Oahe. When a boat motored close to me and the owner of the place where I kept my boat yelled to me that I needed to call home, I knew it was about my dad. He passed away comfortably sitting in his favorite chair at the age of 83.I miss them both very much right now.

The Evil Eye

The circular object with concentric circles of blue and white is known as the evil eye. If you look closely in this photo, you will also noticed bracelets with much smaller versions of the same symbol. This photo was taken in Istanbul, Turkey, but I have seen this bracelet in Greece and other places in Eastern Europe.The belief is that is that if you wear one of these amulets, bad things won't happen to you. I'm not sure if there is any science to back this up. The vendor's missing foot and toes make me wonder about its efficacy.Incidentally, the sign that we sometimes use to mean "OK" in western culture is the "evil eye" sign in eastern Europe. So don't flash the "OK" sign in Istanbul - it may cause a fight.