My Earth Day, 2010

Happy Earthday! For those of you who read this, follow my Tweets, or have friended me on Facebook, you should know by now that I'm a treehugger. So, even though when I said, "Happy Earthday" to a customer, and they replied, "Oh! How old are you?", I put my best green footprint forward today.
When I first started commuting to work on my Trek FX 7.3 last August, I figured it would replace maybe 3 car trips per week. Over the past 2 months, I've driven to work three times, cycling the rest!

The one thing I haven't gotten comfortable doing yet, is cycling in foul weather, so when it started to downpour an hour before I was finished my shift, I glared at my phone, wondering if I'd chicken out and call my mom to pick me up. I paced in the breakroom for a few minutes before changing into my cycling jersey, and putting my phone into it's home on the bike (the under-seat bag). I rode. Not only did I ride, but I rode to Home Depot to recycle the dead CFL that was sitting in my 15 year old JanSport Bag.
I was worrying that finding a safe place to lock my bike up at Home Depot would be difficult. Not only was it pretty easy, but an associate even offered her assistance! (The gesture didn't go unnoticed, guys, thank you.)
I recycled the CFL, unlocked my bike, and continued to my last stop of the day.

While eating gourmet ice cream isn't environmentally friendly, doing some fundraising for the MS Foundation, and having fun with my new friends and teammates was just as important as me honing my treehugger lifestyle (such as it is). Again, finding something to secure my bike to worried me earlier, but managed to be a pretty easy task again.
While bike racks aren't widely available in Warrington/Warminster like they are in more bike-friendly cities, there are plenty of signs, poles, railings, and other immovable objects with which I could lock up against.







All-in-all, my EarthDay wasn't too eventful, really. While I would have loved to plant some trees, build composting bins, start a garden, or any of a million "green activities" I could have done to celebrate our planet, in the end, I did what I've been doing for awhile now. Now, back to tackling my "Boulder List".

Awakening (my trip to Boulder, CO)

After my recent trip to Boulder, Colorado, to visit my girlfriend (she's currently attending Naropa University), I fell in love (with the city) and it's environmental consciousness.
One night, I took out my 2 year old moleskine, and made a list for myself. It was a list of environmental and health goals that I'm currently doing and want to do more, or goals that I haven't tried yet, but want to.

I'm currently:
-Recycling (plastics, glass, and metal as directed by the township)
-Cycling (7miles roundtrip to work in fair-weather)
-Unplugging (vampire adapters, unused appliances, lights, etc)
-Laundry (using Tide Coldwater, full loads)

I want to:
-Begin composting
-Take shorter "Navy" showers
-Cycle more (grocery trips, visiting friends/family, etc)
-Mowing using my reel mower (consistently instead of when I feel like a workout)
-Laundry (hang drying whenever possible)
-Gardening (at least a few vegetables, maybe get involved with a co-op garden)
-Spend more time outdoors

So, there's my list. I definitely consider myself a tree-hugger, but by no means are any of these things "ridiculous" for the average person to at least try...right? My gameplan over the next few weeks is to tackle each one of these. Some I'll start immediately, while others I will have to ease into. Also, while I don't want to inconvenience anybody with my new environmental awakening, I do want to influence people to try living more sustainably in their own rights as well. I'll be thinking about how to do that as I go.

Now I ask, "Am I nuts? What do you do that's Earth friendly? Any tips for me as I begin to whittle down these goals while making them habits?"

EduCon 2.2 (Friday Night Reflections)

This morning, as I hopped on Septa to go downtown to the Science Leadership Academy, I knew this was going to be one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Not only would I get to meet (or see again) some of my favorite "friends" on Twitter, but I would also get to listen and learn from some of the smartest people in the education field.

After my tour of SLA, led by Sophomore student, Jeff K. (who follows me on Twitter, after I attended his EduCon 2.1 session last year), I found some of my other Philly locals, and we planned out our day. I originally planned on observing some classes, then going over to The Franklin to see the new BodyWorlds exhibit. Instead, we took a few out-of-towners to the National Constitution Center.

We met up with a few others at Monk's Cafe for a late lunch (yum!), then made it to the panel discussion, "What is Smart", at The Franklin. Listening to an author, a programmer (a graduated SLA student, who created Tweetie), a Princeton professor, a neuroscientist, and an artist college director try to define smart just made us all think even more. Is IQ genetic? Does smart mean "intelligent" or "street smart" or "talented" or maybe all of the above?

I don't know if any of the 500 educators attending EduCon 2.2 this weekend will be able to answer "What is Smart" by the end of the conference, but I do know one thing: We will all be smarter by the end of the conference.

Reflecting on BarCamp Philly 2009

Yesterday, I attended Philadelphia's 2nd BarCamp, an organic, unconference, where the attendees dictate the sessions, and you get out of it what you put into it.


This years' BarCamp was even more appropriate for me, as I had some of my personal learning network attend as well. We had never met in person prior to that morning of BarCamp, but through Twitter, Google Docs, and Wave, we decided we would present something. After some delicious bagels, freshfruit, and coffee (okay, I had a Pepsi), we posted 2 sessions, and found an empty classroom to begin planning.

Kevin Jarrett posted his session, "Teaching as a Second Career" first thing, and had a small, but dynamic turnout. Being that most of the BarCamp attendees were developers, designers, consultants, and artists, it was a great session for anyone even curious about becoming a teacher.

After attending Things that SUCK (a group exercise), we decided to skip session 3, and grab some lunch at Cosi to continue our planning for the afternoon session, Social Media Survival Guide for Schools.

For a handful of educators, who hadn't met prior to the morning of BarCamp, to collaborate, and present, just shows you how powerful something like BarCamp is to a community. The best thing about it: We're still learning from it! (Our Google Doc, my Twitter List of the 6 of us, and the BarCamp Philly Flickr Pool, for example)

Enjoy, and I hope to see you next year for #3!