My Birthday

Today I turned 38!  I received a lot of great birthday wishes on Facebook as well as got to have lunch with Curtis.  Had a great A meeting with Curtis today as well.  Got the all staff schedules for Monday and need to reschedule some of the A meetings for next week.

Interesting podcast on the way to work today on negotiation and learned quite a bit need to check out his book, a lot of great tips.

That is it for today pretty tired and looking forward for tomorrow.

Interesting Day

Today was interesting.  It started off like normal, but I ended up running out of time and had to cut my work out short so that I could get to work on time.  Lots of things happened, but not a lot off my to do list.  I need to figure out a better way to run web staff meetings or I need to put fewer things on the agenda is more like it.

Keeping up with this blog is going to be hard; but I want to try.

The podcast I chose this morning was a good one because it covered a lot of great episodes from the entreleadership podcast - many of which I really enjoyed.  It gave me some new ideas to cover in my all staff next week.  I want this year to go better with my teams.  That statement makes it sound like things went bad last year, but that isn't what I mean - things can always be improved.

Spent the evening watching Captain America: Civil War with the kids that was nice to just hang out with them.  But now it is late and we need to get to bed.

Tomorrow I turn 38 - where did the time go?

First day of work for the new year

Today was my first day back to work for 2017.  It's not like I had a huge break or anything, but it was nice to get back in the swing of things.  Had a pretty good day - started working on the agenda for my first all staff for my department. It's tricky since all three teams don't have a whole lot of overlap and I typically don't have them meet.  It will be interesting to bring them all together for the first time.  Probably the biggest thing I learned today was around tiny habits.  This isn't the first time I thought about them, but I rewatched the video again today and I really think this will be a good thing for my teams to get a handle on.  BJ Fogg's formula for behavior change B=MAT or Behavior = Motivation x Ability x Trigger.  The insight is that in order to make small habits happen is to choose behaviors that require low motivation, low ability, and a trigger behavior - something that already is happening on a regular basis.  Like choosing to floss one tooth after you brush your teach.

Thinking about my goals.... I exercised and stayed within my diet pretty good.  When I weighed in this morning I was down 2 lbs so about 37.5 lbs left to go for the year.  This is a good thing and I hope I keep this momentum.  I also spent time reading the bible - I still need to force myself to pray.  Force isn't the right word - why I don't I see it as something I am honored/get to do?  I also didn't get a chance to work on the podcast - although one of the podcasts I listened to today was about podcasting in higher education, which helped me come away with some insights and ideas.  I am still on track for finishing a couple non-fiction books this month.

It looks like this post is going to be shorter than the previous ones...I was ready to skip it tonight and just go to bed, but I am glad that I honored my goal of writing something every day and even though it is shorter I still contributed - at least it is something I can look back on and remember what I was thinking about today.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Mostly Biology stuff today

So... today I spent time trying to figure out how I can use MasteryPaths in my online Biology course in Canvas.  It is a pretty complicated thing and I am still trying to figure out what assignments students should complete if they don't pass their unit exams.  It seems like if they score 80 or higher having them reflect on their experience in preparation for the next exam and a choice about submitting the CIQ assignment makes sense.  I want the students who score between 60 and 80 to be assigned the CIQ and a practice quiz that pulls questions from each chapter for more practice - but it might make sense to create some sort of study guide assignment that they need to complete in order to get their second attempt on the exam.  Then perhaps assigning an additional quiz would be for students who get lower than a 60.  I will think about it some more and decide tomorrow.

I also worked on my course to get it ready for Spring.  It included going through everything to see what needs to be updated as well as looking through my evaluations from the last semester.  It was around 62% response rate, which is good and the majority were very positive.  It is amazing that one disagree bothers me.  I need to let it go, but it is hard.  I have also decided based on feedback that I have received to do a couple things this term.  Adding the discussions as assignments rather than extra credit, but giving out points for posting by the end of the first week and replying the first time by the end of the second week in hopes to encourage more interaction.  I haven't used discussions in a long time because I got burned out early on in my teaching because no one ever participated until the last minute, which made it an assignment not a discussion.  Lastly I am going to tweak several of my labs to change them over to quizzes, but tweak them to combine the procedure sheets with the lab report in the quiz.  So basically teaching what to do while students work through the quiz.  We will see if that makes a difference in how they do especially on lab 10 because students in the last term really struggled and didn't give themselves enough time to learn the material.

Quick comment about my progress towards my goals that I posted about yesterday.

1. I did weigh in and lost about a half pound.  I exercised again (2 miles on the treadmill ran a quarter mile further then the day before) and I did okay on my diet.  Will work harder at it for tomorrow.  I did already pack my lunches for the week so that should help.
2. I spent time in my bible, but I need to actually have some quiet time where I think about the scripture.  Just reading it isn't enough.
3. Only read one chapter from one book today; will spend some time this evening as I get ready for bed to knock out some more, but I am definitely on my way to reaching the goal of reading at least one non-fiction book a month this year.
4. I didn't work on the podcast today; will need to spend some time tomorrow planning for the first post.  I have been trying to decide if I should be posting to YouTube on a regular basis and then use those pieces to combine as the monthly podcast or if I should just release a monthly show and then take pieces from that an upload the clips to YouTube after or at all.  I need to spend some time creating accounts and getting the tech part out of the way so that I can get started on writing the first episode.  I don't want to just wing it.

I think that is it for the day, my goal was to type and fill one page and it looks like I made it for today.  Until tomorrow.

Becoming a Better Me in 2017

Back in March Seth Godin was on The Dave Ramsey Show and made a statement to the effect that everyone should have a blog.  Here is a quote from that segment:

"It doesn't matter if anyone reads it, it matters that you write it. If every single day you have to write down something that you believe about the world, a prediction about what is going to happen next, an analysis of something you noticed, every single day. You will never get writers block because your subconsious will know its due. At the end of the year you can look back to 365 things you contributed, contributed to the giant haystack of ideas and at the end of a year you will look back and say I wouldn't have missed that for the world.  It will make you a better, smarter, more alert person."

So my goal this year that every day I want to write something.  Predict something that is going to happen, or analyze something I noticed every day in order to become a better, smarter, more alert person.

There were several things that impacted my day, I think for the better.  One, even though the rec center was closed I still went ahead and exercised - I still ran a mile and then walked another mile. I want to be more intentional with my exercise this year.  Two, I read.  Not only several books that are interesting to me (Jab, Jab, Right hook, Quiet, Do Over, and Getting Things Done), but also I read my bible.  A better way to be a better me is to be reading.

I know a lot of people make goals or resolutions for the year and then by the end of the year they go by the wayside.  But I want 2017 to be different for me:

1. I want to spend time with God everyday - reading the bible and praying.
2. I want to lose 40 pounds - this will get me to about 180 where I think I should be - this means I need to exercise and eat better or I won't make it.
3. I want to read at least one non-fiction book every month - I need to be intentional or this won't work.
4. I want to create a podcast - effective online teaching - I don't know if I will get any followers, but I feel like this will provide an outlet for the biggest thing I miss the most about my old job - working with online faculty.  Helping them be better at what they do.

I have other goals like being a better husband and father, but the best way I know how to do that is by sticking with my first goal - being intentional about improving my walk with God will improve every other aspect of my life.

So here is to 2017!  May it be the year of intention - the year I become a better me.