Balance

This has been one of the most difficult aspects of the course for me. Balancing the time I spend completing #i3cs21 class work, and balancing how I spend that time (and, of course, keeping up with the day job). When I was a new teacher I had a principal who gave a great piece of advice about balancing work and life, and that was to quantify the time spent on work. My goal will be to try to listen to her advice once again and find a reasonable balance between my "real" life and my new found "online" life. I realize my "online" life will continue once this course is over and my hope is that I'll feel more comfortable when that time arrives.

When my son was born my mother also gave a great piece of advice, and that was to be sure to take a shower every day. Meaning don't let the simple things that are necessary and that make you feel better get away from you. This is something I wrestled with this weekend. On Saturday I worked for about 2-3 hours on what might become my Summary of Personal Learning, then closed the laptop to prepare for a friend that was visiting from out of town. Despite the fact that I was just beginning to make some headway (nothing tangible, I might add), I felt a certain amount of accomplishment in what I had achieved (again, lacking in quality evidence), and headed to the grocery store with a happy heart.

Sunday, however, was a different story. Our plan was to finish the Freedom Trail and to top that off with a climb up the Bunker Hill Monument (well, a partial climb), but it was very difficult to let go of the nagging feeling of the class work I was not getting done. I'm embarrassed to say that I was even soliciting advice from my friend about the Major Creative (digital) Sharing Project as we rounded the bend to the USS Constitution. It will probably be a while before she visits again.

Monday evening we went to the Massachusetts Historical Society to hear an author, Woody Holton, talk about his new book, Abigail Adams. Again the guilt. But I couldn't help to think what Abigail Adams would have done in the 21st century. It seems to me that she was a 21st century thinker in the 18th century. Or at least was the makings of one. She seems (I haven't read the book yet) to have learned so much with no formal education, no brick and mortar, imagine what she would have done with access to the information available to us today.

With my eye on the clock, shampoo at the ready, I'll dive back in...