“Are you with me now” A J Ryder
Return to Sender Otis - Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell or GTFO!
What a week! I was scheduled to spend M-F in Winnipeg with Sonn but I was stopped at the border and denied entry into Canada. I was sent back on the next plane out. There goes all the preparation I did for the week. In all the years I’ve been going to Winnipeg, no one ever asked me for working papers or told me I needed them but two immigration officers did and they weren’t kidding. They were in charge. The two of them walked me to US Customs and an hour later I was on a plane home. Was there a change in rules? Sonn experienced something similar and was saved from a similar ending because he got on Salesforce and found the contract we had with Winnipeg When I said I could show my agenda and call someone up from the district they didn’t want to hear about it. I guess that’s how fast rules can change or people can interpret a rule differently. A quick aside: This morning on a call with David and Andrew, they told me BPL just won the Salesforce Contest. That’s twice this week Salesforce came through. It was a sad reminder of how so many schools treat students every single day and goes without saying how people are profiled and treated at border crossings. Who knows what flags went up around me? It makes you think about whether this is connected somehow to our election and border issues. Perhaps something is up! New Rules! The other part of the story is that right before I got on the plane, I was on our Just Mercy book talk relaying a story about staying out of systems, any system - justice, criminal, medical, immigration because you lose your rights and agency and then ironically, I was caught in one. The world does work in mysterious ways.
Of course, there’s a ton of work I had to get done, so I just dove into our pending San Diego Foundation proposal and had some good meetings with Danny Corwin, Belen Vargas and Scott Springer from Harbor Freight Tools for Schools and American Student Assistance Foundations. But my most memorable meeting, next to my meeting with Canadian Immigration was our Wednesday Meeting. This time advisor Walt Nowey from Lafayette Big Picture demonstrated an online portfolio he developed with Google Docs. I feel it has legs way beyond his school in its use with both ImBlaze/B-U platforms and the International Big Picture Learning Credential. Below are some images from his demo and website pages to review. This tool is easy to use and has storage for iterative student work that can be used to select a student’s best work, it is great. I know that more of us will have a look and see at the Leadership Summit where Lafayette principal Sue Hart can show us more.
Attached is the annual report from Kenya. They are doing amazing work. We are setting up our next international zoom the week after Leadership. Stay tuned.
Katrina and I continued our conversation about a BPL virtual home school. It seems like there is interest among staff to figure this out by setting one up. It would include B-Unbound and the International Big Picture Learning Credential.
At the same time, I came across an article in the NY Times about Sophia Park becoming the youngest person to pass the California State Bar. The previous holder of this record was her brother Peter. Yes, both did school and college online and also clerked at the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office which we would consider an LTI. And of course they had supportive parents but one more fascinating thing about Sophia’s journey is that “her interest in law started at her first birthday when she picked up a judge’s gavel among all the items placed in front of her at her Doljabi ceremony, the Korean ritual that traditionally predicts a child’s future. As she got older, Sophia said, she realized how the law could be used to help others.”
For those who think our students are too young to pay serious attention to their interests or to accomplish intellectual feats coupled with mature decision-making and emotional balance, let’s have a talk.
Today, Shameka and I met about our After Dark session – What Keeps You Up At Night for our Leadership Summit. There will be a lot of surprises and prizes. Stay tuned.
Be well!
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