Well we are a few days out from Spring Break and I had been looking towards working on an online AP curriculum but . . . the company wanted it written more quickly than I felt was possible for me to deliver so they’ve bid me ado and from my point of view it is a fond farewell indeed. They had contacted me based on the material that they saw on my web page and offered me what seemed like a reasonable amout to write the lessons but after getting into it they were on a much faster track than I was willing to run on. So they offered to pay me for the work completed and let me loose. I was the latest victum of the economic downturm. :-)
I have one or two items that I’d like to complete around the house not to mention some work to do on my full time job teaching in my classroom so while disappointed not to finish the project I’m glad to be relieved of the pressure that it was beginning to place on my day to day life. As I get older it seems that life is way too short for that kind of pressure. If I were younger I’d at least be able to say that being involved would look good on my resume but at my age . . . I don’t think I’ll be showing anyone my resume in hopes of getting another job so I don’t need any further additions to my resume.

There was a time when I considered going back and working on a PhD in history but never could get myself to talk to OSU about enrollment qualifications and the routine. It again would look good on a resume but then I’m past that now anyway so of no concern to me. I would have enjoyed the class work but not the pressure it would have added to my life. I’m very comfortable with what I’m doing and how I do it. Don’t get me wrong I’m still very much concerned about the quality of work that I put out and am constantly trying to perform at a higher level, I just don’t think that a PhD will necessarily will add much to my performance in the classroom.

What I’ve done rather than formal education is take advantage of summer opportunities to expand my curriculum knowledge by attending area specific seminars offered to teachers in the summer. My first attempt was a 3 week seminar in Salem, Oregon in the mid 1990s which continued for three different summers developing a computer game that taught the legislative process to high school students. The teachers I met there I still communicate with from time to time. That experience would wet my appetite for further seminars that have been very beneficial as well as a lot of fun.

The benefit of this plan over working on a PhD is that I get to choose the areas of concentration to study and I also get to travel usually on someone else’s money. The National Endowment of Humanities has several different study options varying from 1 week to 6 weeks each in the summer. The best NEH experience was 5 weeks spent in England centered at the University of Nottingham studying the British Industrial Revolution. There have also been some wonderful trips in the U.S. as well.

This summer I’ve applied for two different NEH Landmark seminars, one in Niagara, NY to study the French and Indian War fought near there and the other in Philadelphia, PA in a study of Benjamin Franklin. I hope to hear some good news early in April.