Happy Presidents' Day and a bit of news re MNPS Virtual School

Things move apace here at MNPS Virtual School. Though it's a holiday for students and a Professional Day for teachers, our whole team (5 dynamic individuals) are each and every one of us in to work today, working working working. We are providing a valuable service to district students over this upcoming Spring "Intersession" the first week of the district's first two-week long Spring Break and Spring Break itself), providing "Bridge Math Intensive," our first real foray into the world of Blended Learning. Students, for a nominal registration fee, will complete in two weeks a course normally running a full 18 week semester. It will be online, but every morning of the 9 days the students attend our physical School, they will work mornings with two stellar online (and classroom) math teachers, then after lunch they will attend intense Math Lab and continue working in small groups with yet another wonderful teacher.

Bridge Math Intensive--and the intensive effort it will require on the part of teachers, administration, and students--will be of particular help to Seniors who may only lack that 5th math in order to graduate on time.

This is what continually amazes me about the teachers with whom we work. Sure, it's an opportunity for them to pick up a little extra money over their Break, but believe me, they are not doing it for the money. They care. They care deeply. In addition to customized registration procedures for BMI (no, not the songwriter's licensing agency--Bridge Math Intensive), we're working this week to open registration for our Summer Success Program, an 8 week fee-based (and no, funding does not happen for summer school locally or, to my knowledge, anywhere in the state) during which students will complete a half-credit course (often one semester of a year long class) for credit. This will require its own set of procedures and mechanisms for registration and delivery. Finally, we're working on new mechanisms and procedures for registration for school year 2013-14. I posted on Facebook last week a status that may have sounded a bit smug or facetious, but I meant every word of it. To quote:

Scott Merrick -- February 13 in Nashville

I'm so glad to be in a workplace where all team members are recognized for their contributions and talents and where continuous improvement is more than a buzz phrase--it's an ever-present challenge and imperative. Thanks MNPS Virtual School and Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Be sure to tune in to Newschannel5+ (Comcast channel 250 locally) Wednesday night at 7PM until 8 to watch our esteemed Principal, Dr. James Witty, and our similarly esteemed District Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jesse Register answer community questions about Virtual School and the way we're doing it here in Nashville Public Schools: We believe we're constantly improving the right way to do it.

 Back to work, y'all. No rest for the innovative. Happy Presidents' Day!

Lane Motor Museum -- Colin's Pics

Happy Spring Break, ya'll,

Colin's grandfather, G-man, took him to the Lane Motor Museum at the start of Spring Break. Colin took some pics I just wanted to share out here. Check it out:

And visit the Lane Motor Museum's website for more info!

Spring Break 2009, on the hunt for Superman and Mister Catfish!

My boy and I booked it up Interstate 24 from home today to arrive in Paducah, Kentucky in order to be within striking distance of both the Super Museum in Metropolis, Illinois and the fishing opportunities at Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. We've had a great time so far and just being together in novel places is a hoot. The slideshow up top should get longer over the next couple days. Just watch. BTW, we didn't find Mr. C. at all, but the last day of our trip, pulling back off the highway into the Moors marina, we walked out the spit to fish off the sunken rusty barge and pulled in 11 fish--stripers, largemouth, and a couple lake trout. Weeeeeee.

DisneyWorld SpringBreak!

The BubbleShare slideshow at the foot of this posting will grow :). After two days driving the 12 hours to get here, we muscled our stuff into our lovely All Star Resorts domicile for the week and pushed on out into the Disney MGM Studios park to take on the infamous Tower of Terror. Colin: "That was totally awesome but I NEVER want to do it again!"

Heheheheee.

We had a lovely meal at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre and made it back "home" to the hotel via a wild bus ride with an insane driver who led out-of-key singalongs of Disney songs. Just how many keys can "It's a Small World" bear all at once!?

Day 2, Monday, Colin and I took off for Epcot and enjoyed Mission Space together, wandered around Epcot in the Innoventions center, then decided that Test Trak looked a bit too much for our courage level, jumping on a bus over to Animal Kingdom where we ate lunch at the Restaurantosaurus (a glorified and very bizzy McDonalds, albeit with better burgers) and Miranda joined us to do Everest, the insane mountaintop rollercoaster. After we survived that we hopped on over to Magic Kingdom where we did Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad. We wandered around in the course of those and caught the parade and the spectacular fireworks, then headed home for a late dinner (11:00!) and bed.

Day 3 we got up and grabbed MickyWaffles to go and drove the 35 miles up to visit my mom in Lake Mary Nursing Home. It was a great, relaxed visit, and we took her the DisneyWorld throw we had bought for her. It'll keep her warm out on the patio on these cool mornings. We trucked out at lunchtime to pick up a Krystal burger for her and surprised her with a Starbucks Double Chocolate Chip frappacino. Drove home in the rain, took a break with Colin in the arcade and Miranda and I hanging out in the room vegging on tv (the rain was good to us, made us relax--I actually love rain, especially in the middle of a busy day!), changed clothes, then headed off to MGM where Colin and I did Star Tours while Miranda shopped, then we took in Drew Carey's funny radio show "Sounds Dangerous" and did an extended bus hop to Disney Downtown for dinner. All the restaurants were on 1 hour waits (at 9:00 pm!) so we, ravished, took in a really great light dinner at Earl of Sandwich, then Colin had to spend some time at the Lego Store (see pics) before we headed home, again late, for bed.
Day 4 we were off to Magic Kingdom after sleeping late. This is the first day we used FastPasses and, wow, the FastPass is da bomb! We nabbed one for the 3:40 Space Mountain then grabbed another at 2 for the 2:40 Spash Mountain. We ate nearby, killed a little time with Miranda shopping (great blue sundress!) while Colin and I took in Pirates of the Caribbean. Fantastic pic in the slideshow of C-man with Cap'n Jack Sparrow. The kids played checkers at a sidewalk pickle barrel then we walked up the FastPass lane to Spash Mountain, which was a blast, then made our way to Space Mountain. With the FastPasses our wait time was 9 minutes (as opposed to the curren 50 for walk-ons-see the two line pics for a notion of the incredibly long line for that wait, winding around a good acre of property in snakey switchbacks) and 4 minutes (as opposed to what had to be over an hour for the poor masses). Well, to be truthful, we waited that way for 50 minutes our first time at Space Mountain, but I have to say the short wait on our Day 4 was glorious. Again, we screamed like little girls!!!

Day 5 We got up early for another visit with Granny and then came back down for a wild aternoon at Animal Kingdom. Last night we vegged out with tv and planned to retire early after order-in pizza (really goooood pizza, really!) and wings. The kids did some non-stop Disney Channel during dinner, then early to bed. Our visit with Granny was great and she loved hearing the CD of Miranda's singing that I made for her to play on her new CD player. She tried to make me take the player home but I told her that I wanted to be able to send her new recordings. The 4 lovely ladies in the courtyard sitting area applauded after every song. Colin's going to be doing some recording, I'm working on some instrumental stuff with mandolin and guitar, and Miranda will be recorded every chance I can get. Now we can send her music as we make it.

Once back at the hotel, we set off for Animal Kingdom where we discovered the park was closing in two hours this night. We marched straight to Kali River Rapids and did it once, getting soaked. Since we were soaked we did it again. And again. Off to Everest where the wait was short too so up (and dooooooown) we went. Colin was laughing so hard at the end of it we had to turn around and do that again, too! Finally, we trekked off to Dinosaur, the indoor scariness of scarinesses. I lovvved that one! The pic they took at the crucial moment the giant TRex appeared to eat us showed 1) Miranda ducking down so you could only see the top of her head, 2) Colin nowhere to be seen, he was ducking down so far, and 3) me, eyes and mouth wide open staring at the sucker. We didn't buy it, but I will remember it!

Back to the hotel to eat in-room salads and sandwiches, then back out to Magic Kingdom again for a last assault on the park.

Later, and finally:

Well that's it. The last pic in the slideshow says it all. After 3 Kali River Rapids, 2 Everests, 3 Spash Mountains, 1 Dinosaur, 1 Primeval Somethingorother, and 1 Thunder River Railroad, we're outta here. On the way in for all that we stopped and had our breath taken away by the spectacular fireworks from the top of Main Street. I got video. Here it is!

Think good thoughts for us as we pack up our pit of a room into our van and make our way back north to our much-loved home and our much-loved Lee Ann.

Cheerio!

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