Curriculum in everything?

Posted by admin on June 4, 2012

 

Portfolio Notes:

I included this blog post from the 911 course as it represents the reality of research and working through ideas - it can be messy and unsettling. Often, the only aspect which may pull us through is - hope, belief and determination.

 

  

bad-week-250x130.pngOK, I’ve had a week … it’s actually quite hard to describe, but let me do so with the foreshadowing that I am asking myself – now that the week is past – is there a curriculum in my experiences?

Monday – Last week started with a couple of teenage sisters asking me if they could talk.  23 highschoolers in my house (a normal weekly event), and these 2 have something to talk about – that is an understatement… I invest the next hour listening and choking back tears for pain in empathy while they recounted their mother’s suicide only a 3 months ago.  This is the first they have ever mentioned this detail of their lives… their anger was starting to surface … it was raw, it hurt … I’m not ok yet … just from listening and talking.  How are they?  We’ve met throughout the week … I am so sad for them.

Tuesday – I have a major breakthrough in creating a Single Sign On environment for Moodle, Active Directory amd a Student Information System – word gets out, and people are asking for help all day … I just don’t have the time to give the help, but I keep helping … driving myself crazy.

Wednesday – Working through finalizing plans for an event sunday – one of my main volunteer leaders has a break down wondering if he has what it takes to be a leader, and is thinking about dropping off the face of the earth … drop everything – go have an amazing talk with him – learn that fear is a major paralyzer in his life and causes extreme (and unfounded) self-doubt.  Time well invested, can make up the rest of my ‘time’ tomorrow…

Thursday – take the day off to catch up.  Servers in Edmonton decide that this is not to be for me … all day disaster recovery mode.

Friday – a little ragged.  Go for a much needed breakfast with a friend and am eager to get back to work … today will be productive.  In the office for 15 minutes, and the principal asks me if I can track “tweets” through the internet … well, of course … spend entire day tracking secually abusive student activity with suspect students in my office, until their eventual confessions (not before I learn of their porn addictions tatooed all over their personal iPad, phones, and computers… Work Friday evening until 4 am to actually start the catch up process … wow!

Why do we have weeks like this?  is there a built in curriculum, or is it our job to find the curriculum in the haystack?  My brain hurts, and needs to digest … I’ll back to this later…