I Love This!

Andy sent this to us last week. He says that this is the #1 Viral Video for 2008. I can think of no more appropriate time to enjoy this than now. Peace to all and let's all dance!

Click in the bottom right hand corner to see the video clearly.

A Dream Come True - for a while!

Those of you that know me, know that Lois Lowery's The Giver is one of my favorite chapter books ever..until her book The Willoughbys came out last spring. Actually, they are favorites in different categories. When we received a notice that Lois and Jack Cantos were coming to speak, I bought a couple of copies of their books, ignored all of my plans to get ahead with assignments,and hiked back across campus to hear these people whose writing I admire. My greatest regret is that I did not have my tattered copies of their books to autograph, but who knew?

The panel only had 20 minutes to talk. That was the most frustrating part of the evening - that and I was late so I had to sit in the back. (By the way, you cannot see much, but this is the lecture room for 2 of my classes.) This is Lois Lowery telling us an amazing story about Alan Say that I will try to duplicate, but there is not enough time or space to do justice to the story.

Lois is sitting down at the front of the room wearing the tan turtleneck. This is the brief version of her story. (Kristine - I have to tell you the whole story when I get home - you will love it!)
When she was little, Lois' Dad was stationed in the South Pacific. She lived with her mother and her siblings in Pennsylvania in her grandfather's house, so she really did not know her dad very well. When he came home on visits, she said that she was actually afraid of him. Once he achieved officer status, he brought his family to Japan where he was stationed. Lois says that she was extremely shy and lonely. Every day she would ride her green bike to the limits of the base where they were stationed and every day there was an equally shy young Japanese boy on the other side of the fence. They never spoke - they just watched each other. This went on for months until her family moved.
Lois was at the Newbury awards to receive hers for The Giver(how many of us can toss that into conversations?) during which they also present the Caldecott Awards. Lois was seated next to Alan Say who was there to receive his Caldecott. They began to chat, sharing personal histories. You can imagine the conversation:
Lois: "I lived in Japan for a while when I was young."
Alan: "I did too! Where did you live?"
Lois: " Name of the place"
Alan: "I lived there too. When were you there?"
Lois: "Dates" (Of course I do not remember the specifics)
You have probably already guessed that Alan was there as well. As they narrowed the location and times of their youth in Japan, Alan stopped and said, "Were you the girl on the green bicycle?"
HOW COOL IS THAT?
Now, Jack Cantos. If you have read the Joey Pigza books, he is Joey Pigza. He had us all in stitches which should not have been a surprise as I laughed so hard when I read about Joey putting his vomiting dog in the glove compartment in his book, Joey Pigza Looses Control. He vows that he based that character on a kid in his class, but, oh my goodness, he had some of the same behaviors.

What a great night....until I had to come back and work until 1:00 on a statistics report.

My First Snow in Boston

When I left Asheville early last Monday morning, it was snowing big, fat flakes. I think that was the third snow of the season for Asheville. Today was the first snow that we have had in Boston. There is something wrong with the weather story, but I think that we are getting ready to pay for the nice weather we have had so far.The goofy weather man (and I thought we only had those in North Carolina) is calling for snow 2 more times this week. This was the biggest pile of snow that I could find...as I was running to church.

This is the dining hall for the freshmen. They seem to think that they own the sidewalk as I just miss several of them as I ride to class on my bicycle. Now that they are wearing ear muffs, I am probably going to have to plow them down.

So when I got to church as the last bell tolled, This is how it is decorated for Advent. This is also how it is decorated for Thanksgiving, autumn, September, and any other event that I have attended. Dr. Peter Gomes announced that he did not care for Advent - this was not news to the congregation, but it was an interesting way to address the holidays. He actually made a very good point, but can you imagine
Guy announcing that in Asheville?!


A final word - I have been to Boston twice to find the King's Chapel. During those visits, I found a house that was empty, slipped on ice and walked literally for 2 hours. Someone needs to come to Boston to help me find this place - OR - I could have a new fancy phone with a GPS like other members of my family enjoy!

Happy Holidays!

Oh, my brain, my brain!

A Word of Thanksgiving

I have much to be thankful for - especially this year. I am grateful that parts of my brain sometimes still work and that I get to live in a place saturated in history that I do not have time to see or research. I am grateful for friends from school who remind me why I came here, for all the people who have emailed to remind me why I will be so glad to be back in Asheville, and Bob, who has done an amazing job of keeping up my spirits, keeping in touch with the kids and keeping everything running smoothly.



This month has been a constant series of reading journal articles and books - and writing papers. Frivolous writing (such as this) and reading (such as a newspaper) have been abandoned for frivolous writing of a different sort. I have written policy memos justifying placements or non-placement in special education, a letter to Barak Obama making policy recommendations for No Child Left Behind, a project proposal to survey neuroscientists and educators about just who is traveling on that bridge between cognitive neuroscience and educational practice - my prediction is that they aren't even on the same highway!

There have been moments of serendipity and they are as follows:

These people spoke to me today at MIT's Learning and the Brain Conference. They allowed the grad students to attend for free if we would do a little slave labor.

John Gabrieli and Maryanne Wolf spoke to our group today. Dr. Gabrieli is a frequent speaker in our program. Both of these people were impressive





M.Wolf's book http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=maryanne+wolf&x=0&y=0

This is the latest Busey accomplishment - - - that we can speak about publicly! Scroll to the bottom of the page.


Em is coming home for Thanksgiving! That is an unexpected surprise. Would anyone be willing to drive out to Seattle to bring her dog to Asheville?

This is what Andy wants for Thanksgiving:

This, according to our son, is a turbaconducken.

Amy is no longer in Thailand. We can say with certainty that she is somewhere in Asia - we think!

A prize goes to the person who can tell me who this is:

Ode to my Laptop

With apologies to anyone who appreciates fine literature...or any kind of literature at all

A friend, you were there through thick and thin
Through four straight papers, when thoughts ran thin.
When talking to Bob - though you kept shutting down,
During office hours, classes and around.
And at the end of the week when I let you lie,
Quietly on the desk...you up and die!

Delayed Musings

This has been a stressful couple of weeks. Papers due back to back and readings that I still haven't finished, so just a couple of thoughts - none of them too profound for I have short circuited that part of my brain and we all know it wasn't up to par to begin with!

This is the most beautiful sight in North Carolina. Last weekend I met Bob in Chapel Hill/Durham. Andy's friend Khristy joined us for a meal which shows great courage on her part. You may notice a shiny object on Meredith's hand. She had just received her Meredith College ring the night before. That is a significant rite of passage and she was overjoyed!

Al Gore came to Harvard to help launch the Sustainability initiative. One would be hard-pressed to prove the Greenhouse Effect that day. It was freezing, but they served hot apple cider, apple crisp, and apples to keep us warm while we waited. He really is a compelling speaker and it was worth the numb fingers and toes to hear him. He is standing on the steps to Memorial Hall where I attend church. In fact the previous Sunday Dr. Peter Gomes spoke from the pulpit about the time he stood on the same steps and "came out" before a distinguished gathering of his peers. He also mentioned that he could not see Russia from his house and worried about people who say that they can. Now in what other Baptist church in America, would you find those two comments in the same sermon? Everyone who sees Guy should thank him for his wisdom and for packing much better messages into shorter periods of time!

Em, here is the picture of my stuffed pumpkin. Thanks for the recipe. I am going to try it again this weekend.

Finally, remember the tree in one of my early ramblings? (the picture with my finger) Here it is now.

The American Revolution, Part 2

It was supposed to be a beautiful weekend so it seemed the perfect time to explore the area on my bike. As luck would have it, our program director sent out a list of local events and attractions this week. The Minuteman Bikeway was relatively close and free (again - relatively: we won't mention the cost of sitting on that hard seat for all of those hours). What better way to see the area and get some much-needed exercise?
I googled the directions to the beginning of the Bikeway which began at the "west side" of the Alewife station. Not being a good scout, I did not have a compass or a sextant or even a good sense of direction! I found a path on A side of the Alewife station, but I began to wonder if it had not been traveled since the Revolution until I saw all of the graffiti along the fence. The artist was definitely a modern-day poet. You could tell by the alliteration and repetition of words beginning in "f" and "s". I kept telling myself that I would turn around when I could, but that turned out to be well beyond my starting point. Following some other people on bikes, I discovered that the Minuteman Bikeway has no graffiti and that it has big banners announcing its location!
Now I know!
The first stop after I joined the trail was the Spy Pond. the picture is at the beginning of this post - doesn't it look exactly like the pictures of small New England towns? Now this is interesting:
Did you know that the pond is over 100 acres and that ships used to come into Boston to take huge chunks of ice from the pond as far away as Africa and South America? That does not explain the name, but it is fascinating.



There was no marker, but I am guessing that this is where General George Washington stopped to feed his troops after all of the tea had been dumped into the hahbor.

The Bikeway is 11 miles - I am not sure if that is round trip or one way, but I do know that it is uphill both ways and that there are some sassy young people in spandex who kept passing me, but when the ladies who were older and larger than I passed me, that is when I had to stop gazing around and defend my pride. Look what happens to you if you don't make it:


Given the 3 mile journey to the station and the 3 miles back PLUS the 2 miles (at least) that I traveled through the Hood, I think that I earned the 10 Advil and the nap that I took when I got back!

If you are interested in learning more about the bikeway, the link follows and anyone who wants to come visit is welcome to go with me to explore again!
http://www.minutemanbikeway.org/Pages/intro.html

I must thank Andy for his comment explaining to me that a piece of equipment in my apartment is upside down. I value input like his and hope that you will feel free to help me with my decorating faux pas(es?) as my good child has done! That is why we have children, after all.

Sweet, Sweet Children

Today is my birthday and it was a little difficult because I was coming back from a wonderful weekend with Bob and family, and facing a mountain of work to do this week. However, there were so many sweet surprises from our children.The flowers above are from all four of the kids. Em got the idea to send them and communicated with the other three children from Seattle to Boston to Chapel Hill to Raleigh. Meredith chose the flowers, Andy wrote the poem (which follows), Amy chose the florist and Em edited and organized. What a proud mother!
"Hope things keep going well at Hah-Vud.
Happy Birthday from near, fah and fah-thuh."

Amy and Sam took me out to this amazing Mexican restaurant where they make the most divine guacamole table-side. Notice Sam's sore shoulder from carrying the dresser (see pictures above)up to my apartment last night. If you look even more closely, you can see his bloody fingers from my attempts to help! Despite all of that, he paid for the meal!
Then, after Sam shamed Amy into getting out of the car (it is cold and you will note that she does not have a jacket), they gave me a container of cupcakes that Amy had made with a lovely candle that Sam lit from the back of the car. You cannot see or taste how delicious these cupcakes are - but they must be based on the wonderful-sounding peanut butter and chocolate cake described by the smitten kitchen blog. They are outstanding! And I say with gratitude - so are our children!

Ode to Joy: A metaphor for my Harvard experience (APA style)

What I Learned in School Today

We have been talking about attention and perception in my Research and Evidence: Framing Scientific Research for Public Understanding class. We have spent some time discussing and reading research about what people know, believe, preceive and how they understand (or do not understand) what they have experienced based on their level of attention.
Of course, those of us who are married or who have children, know exactly how that works - except for me! We all know that Bob hangs on every word I say. That is why he looks so happy when we talk on the computer at night - it has nothing to do with being "free at last".
Watch the Charlie Chaplin video and the Ames' Window video using the link below.

http://www.richardgregory.org/experiments/index.htm

The Rest of the Route to Class

Weeks ago I promised I would show you the rest of the trek to class but I have been a little busy reading a few thousand pages of journal articles and books by Harvard professors for Harvard classes and published by Harvard University Press -- an arrangement that I happen to like.

Enough whining. This is the street that is the hub for the Graduate School of Education. It is called, with good reason, Appian Way. Across the street is the Common where George Washington organized the troops during the Revolutionary War. There is a famous tree there -- I am sure you see it.




This is Longfellow Hall where I take Statistics. The main lecture hall is huge, old, but very beautiful. There are 200 students in that class. The professor used to be a first grade teacher and has a baseball cap for every statistics symbol.




This is Gutman Library, one of over 80 libraries on campus. The staff here is phenomenal from the cute young man who checks our ID's each time we enter the building (and doesn't laugh at the pictures) to the reference librarians who know everything about everything (almost as much as Andy) and who are extremely patient with those of us who don't!

The red brick building below is Larson Hall where all of the rest of my classses meet.
My Sunday night study group. Lori, Sarah and Sawyer.


Guess who knows more than I do?



People who are coming to talk to me in October:

Al Gore is coming to celebrate Harvard's initiative to erase our carbon footprint by the year 2010.

And Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education is coming this week.

Route to Class

The walk to class takes about 10 minutes from my apartment. I have made a weak attempt to take you with me, but I was not willing to do the geeky tourist thing, (hence the finger)- so you will just have to come see it in person to appreciate the true beauty of this place. (Also, you cannot hear the thousands of languages being spoken along the way.That in itself is incredible)
This is the path that goes under the Design Building across from my apartment. The tree at the top of the steps has been gradually changing colors. You cannot see it but the leaves are the loveliest red.

Above: This is the Pusey Library just inside the gates to the "Yahd". I personally believe that this is a misspelling and some wealthy Busey once donated their books. Below you will see the white steeple of The Memorial Church I mentioned in the last post. It is about 2 blocks from my tiny apartment.
Still in Harvard Yard. The freshmen live in the beautiful old dorms around the Yard. It was much quieter before they arrived.

One of the many gates that lead out onto Harvard Square.

Below is Harvard Square where you could give away a fortune to people who just need a little change and we won't mention how much I have given away to subway musicians on the outside chance that they are conducting another study with an infamous musician.

There is more, but I have homework to do. Coming soon: The Grad School of Education Buildings and the site where George Washington gathered troops for the Revolutionary War.

Classes have begun and I am never going to finish reading!

This has been an incredible week. Classes began on Monday with our core class (taught by the Mind Brain and Education faculty and lasting all year). Just sitting in that class made me realize that this was what I was created to do and how nice that I get to do it now - because it is going to kill me! The content is amazing, the professors are beyond belief (Google Kurt Fischer, Howard Gardner and David Rose). Just listening to them talk is worth the $5 million dollars that it is costing for me to be here. And that is just the first class!
It took hours of agonizing and discussion for me to narrow 12 classes I wanted to take down to 4 classes. They are as follows:

Cognitive Development, Education, and the Brain

Research and Evidence: Framing Scientific Research for Public Understanding

Empirical Methods:Introduction to Statistics for Research

Students with Learning Disabilities in Education (taught by a man who was responsible for writing much of the current legislation for students with disabilities)

My new mantra for the school year.....That that does not kill us makes us stronger!

Masters in Electronics

OK - I cannot function in today's world - something my family and many others have known for a long time.

Time it took for me to get Internet connected: 14 hours (This one is not my fault...the cable people recorded the wrong modem number in their files.)

Time it took me to get cable connected to the television (and all I wanted was to be able to watch the news): 16 hours and 5 phone calls. You may not know this, but if the cable wall outlet is plugged into the TV/VCR outlet on the back of the cable box, and the splitter cable is plugged into the "signal in" outlet....the cable signal does not get to the television!

Time it has taken to get Airport Express working with the cable and the computer: INFINITY
FYI: While my brand new Airport Express is under warranty until next fall, I am not entitled to technical support! Strike 1 for Apple.

The good news is that I still get to set up my printer, wireless keyboard, mouse and DVD player!

I am coming back to Asheville and enrolling in AB Tech!

Here I Am

My Living Room/Bedroom/Breakfast Room/Study

(Sorry about the light)



The Hall

My Tiny Bathroom

I Left My Brand New Kitchen for This?

Well, I made it! Tuesday morning at the airport was rough! Leaving Bob was dreadful, then I had to pay almost a year's tuition to check 3 bags, but Delta must have needed to buy a new plane because they also made me pay for an overweight bag! (FYI to the Pattersons, the Hemphills and the Parsons - if you should read this - I did not get all of my shoes in my bags!) The good news is that the parent of two of my former students was on my flight to Cincinnati. I heard someone call my name and it was Steve Porach. How nice to have a member of one of my special school and OM families on the plane with me!

When I got to Boson, I ditched my 300 pounds of luggage and came to see my new apartment for the very first time. The entire room could fit inside our little living room in Asheville, but it is cute and it is only home for 9 months. The good news is that it is a block away from Harvard Yard in a nice area.

And there are really nice people here! A friendly man watched me lug 2 heavy bags up three flights of stairs and when I came down for the third (and worst), he held the inner door open for me! Also the nice cable guy almost laughed at one of my jokes once we figured out that we were both speaking English - he just speaks it really quickly with a Boston accent. Finally, the nice young man who delivered my bed, grabbed my tip and said, "Have a nice day" before he ran down the steps leaving me to set up the frame with no directions!

I could not have managed nearly so well if not for the generous help from Amy and Sam. They have both been patient and gracious in helping me get around, lug stuff up three flights (Sam even bled a little) and find my way around this convoluted place. I am going to try to be an adult and figure the city out on my own, but I am not sure I could have managed without their help.

Bob is in Virginia right now setting a world record for jumping out of an airplane with 99 other crazy people. He may get blown out of the competition by Hannah as she moves up the eastern coastline. I just hope that the world record is all that he breaks up there! These people are pretty snooty about who they will let play their little games and they have already moved Bob to a more important position in the big formation.

Final thought: Today I was walking through Harvard Yard going in search of my iced tea (I don't have to say, "unsweetened" up here!) and I was thinking about how beautiful everyone seems to be and how self-assured- even the very ancient people just look very comfortable in their own skins with their special hats and style. In the midst of these musings, I heard a big thunk and this man in his late 30's walked into a silver Explorer and banged his bag of books against the car because the car did not stop for him when he thought it should. Evidently the slamming of the bag against the car was not adequate punishment for the poor driver - as the man proceeded to scream, "Whut the &@*$#&$^@# is the maddah with you, you (*#(@#&*$) *#*#(@%&?!?! I realized that the beauty may just be a facade!

This will be my temporary residence next year.

Way up on the third floor of this building is a tiny space (300 sq. ft.) that will be mine... if I make it up the stairs. It is just over a block from Harvard Square and about 6 blocks from the Ed School.

My address is 22 Prescott Street #12
Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: jhb050@mail.harvard.edu

The Description of My Program

This is the description of my program from the Harvard MBE web site:

Mind, Brain and Education

Graduate School of Education: mbe

Full Year 2008

The master's program in Mind, Brain, and Education is designed for students interested in connecting cognition, neuroscience, and educational practice, especially involving learning, teaching, and cognitive and emotional development. This intersection of biology and cognitive science with pedagogy has become a new focus in education and public policy in the current Age of Biology. Linked to the Harvard Initiative on Mind, Brain, and Behavior (MBB), the program is strongly interdisciplinary, including not only psychology, pedagogy, and neuroscience, but also philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, computer science, and other relevant disciplines. The program is designed to be completed in one academic year. Students may focus their work on cognitive neuroscience, learning and instruction, cognitive development, emotional development, learning disabilities, interventions with children, uses of technology for education, diversity in education, or a combination of these topics. Many students emphasize hands-on applications of cognitive principles to relevant practical and research problems, with the intention of promoting a reciprocal integration of research with practice.

Leaving for School Checklist

1.✔Say "good-bye" to everyone I know - at least 3 times.

2. ✔Hide all of my stuff from Bob so that he will not throw it away while I am gone.
Sort-of check.

3. ✔Endure the look of horror from the man at the Mail Boxes counter when he hears that I am going back to school. I choose to believe that he was appalled by the numbers of boxes I was mailing and not that he thought we should be building a coffin with those boxes.

4. ✔✔Burn chicken so that I can freeze portions of chicken noodle soup for Bob to eat while I am away. I can just see him sitting, eating soup and missing me --until he breaks a tooth on charred chicken.

5. ✔Realize that I have teacher clothes and I have more teacher clothes, but I have no clothes that look like a way cool and very learned graduate student.

6. ✔Tell everyone I know that Kyle and Marty at 777-JUNK are my new best friends.

7. ✔Finally....get a hair cut!

8. ✔Make sure Bob has 9 pillows on the bed just like the hotel in OshKosh, Wisconsin. Maybe he will think I am still there and not notice those tuition bills.

9. ✔Hide Bob's iPod docking station in my luggage. He will never notice that it is gone.

10. ✔Actually mail the notes that I have written to our generous friends.
Tomorrow.