Hintonblogger

Well, I have been absent for a while from my blog, but it certainly was for a reason. The past few months have been a blur to some degree. In January I left the Arizona Department of Education and took a position with Remote-Learner.net. After spending a little over 6 weeks in that position, I realized that I had made a mistake. I should clarify that the mistake had nothing to do whatsoever with Remote-Learner. It was entirely my own mistake. They are a terrific company, both to provide services and to work for. My mistake was not understanding that my true occupational passion is for K-12 education, with a healthy secondary interest in the technology side of things. Fortunately, in the middle of March the Department of Education (most especially Cathy Poplin and Nan Williams) were willing to let me return and continue in the great work that they are doing there.

My biggest regret in this whole journey is the tremendous inconvenience I caused both the Department of Education and, most especially, Remote-Learner. Sometimes, we have no other way to find things out about ourselves than by experience (which can be painful and it was for me). I appreciate tremendously how professionally the folks at Remote-Learner (and the Department of Education) handled this situation and certainly appreciate their understanding. It only increases my admiration of the company and the quality of the people that work for them.

With that backstory, that is why I have been more absent than normal from my blog. Things have finally settled down after these couple of job changes, finalizing the new Arizona Educational Technology Plan and a myriad of other things.

I have several blog post ideas in draft form, including some new thoughts about twitter and the echo chamber of educational technology. As always, NECC provides the backdrop for some thinking and great new ideas and so I'll likely be sharing some of those as well. I will also be doing some rearranging of my hintonweb blogs and sites as I try to better organize things for me, my thoughts, interests, and professional portfolio. I'm looking forward to things.....

So I came across this article at http://www.lifehacker.com about the One Hundred Push Ups Takes You from Zero to a Hundred in Six Weeks.

The article is interesting, the comments are priceless, I've included some of the comments here (hang with it to the end, you'll get a good laugh):

Well, I certainly applaud anyone wanting to do a hundred pushups, but take it from this old gym rat, I've spent my entire adult life in the gym, and a program like this one can do more harm than good.

If you only train one part of your body (and that's all a single exercise like pushups is going to do for you), you're setting yourself up for injuries down the road. I've seen it a hundred times.

It's like putting a powerful engine in a stock Toyota Tercel. What will you accomplish? You'll blow out the drive train, the clutch, the transmission, etc., because those factory parts aren't designed to handle the power of an engine much more powerful than the factory installed engine.

Push-ups basically only train the chest muscles and to some extent, the triceps. What you really want to do is train your entire body, all the major muscle groups (chest, back, abdomen, legs, shoulders and arms) at the same time, over the course of a workout. And don't forget your cardiovascular work!

I'm proud of you guys wanting to do this. Three cheers! Falling in love with exercise, eating right, etc., is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself. And you WILL fall in love with it if you can just force yourself to stick with it a year or two and experience the amazing progress you'll make.

But do it right, okay?

My advice, find a good gym, with qualified trainers who will design your programs for you (especially in the beginning, until you get the hang of it yourself) and guide you in your quest for physical fitness. Thirty to 45 minutes a day, three days a week, is all you'll ever need to do (I refuse to believe anyone is so busy that he or she cannot make time for that, especially considering how important it is).

And don't worry about being embarrassed or not being in shape the first time you walk into the gym. You have to start somewhere and almost every one of us were there ourselves at one time. So no one will say anything to you and very, very quickly you will progress way beyond that stage anyway.

Now get out there and do it! :-)

A follow-up comment:

I bet I can eat 100 Big Macs.

And finally:

"Well, I certainly applaud anyone wanting to eat 100 big Macs, but take it from this old McDonald's rat, I've spent my entire adult life eating at McDonnald's, and a program like this one can do more harm than good.

If you only eat big Macs one part of your body (and that's all a single burger type like Big Mac is going to do for you), you're setting yourself up for injuries down the road. I've seen it a hundred times.

Big Macs basically only train the gut muscles and to some extent, the esophagus. What you really want to do is train your entire digestive system, all the major gut groups (esophagus, stomach, colon, liver, and kidneys) at the same time, over the course of a Big Mac meal. So, you will need to add large Big fries, and Large coke with it. Ask for the "Go Big" program.

I'm proud of you guys wanting to do this. Three big meals! Falling in love with eating big Macs, etc., is one of the greatest things you can do for yourself. And you WILL fall in love with it if you can just force yourself to stick with it a year or two and experience the amazing progress you'll make.

But do it right, okay?

My advice, find any McDonnald near you, with qualified burger flippers who will design your burger for you (especially in the beginning, until you get the hang of it yourself) and guide you in your quest for physical fatness. Three to 5 burgers a day, three days a week, is all you'll ever need to do (I refuse to believe anyone is so busy that he or she cannot make time for that, especially considering how important it is).

And don't worry about being embarrassed or not being out of shape the first time you walk into McDonnalds. You have to start somewhere and almost every one of us were there ourselves at one time. So no one will say anything to you and very, very quickly you will progress way beyond that stage anyway.

Now get out there and get fat! :-) "

First, welcome to a 2009 project of mine called the Daily Photo Project. This journey consists of taking at least one picture of something each day of the year. I had heard about this project that others had done and really liked the idea. Every day is a gift and there are so many things that happen daily that are remarkable in their own way. This project is a way to help make us stop and remember that and to document it. I was inspired by Darcy Norman doing it and really like the explanation about the project you can find here. You can check out my 2009/365 project album as it evolves at http://www.picasaweb.com/bretthintons.

I decided to create an additional project called 2009/52 Weeks where I create a collage of pictures from the week (since I obviously take more than 1 a day to try and get a good picture for the day) that represents some of our family activities. You can also check out the evolving results at our Picasaweb site (see link above) and our family blog (http://family.hintonweb.com).

Really quickly, here some notes on the session (live blog is available in replay).

The big finance issue that came out here is that ADM formulas for per pupil funding don't handle the flexibility of online programs. Since students can (and do) enroll in more than just 4 classes (which is what ADM is typically calculated on), it is hard to identify how to fund those extra classes. Part-time programs are harder to fund, largely because they are dependent on special appropriations, grant money, or simply excess budget funds (and who has those these days!).

Another deterrent seems to be the reluctance of traditional high schools to lose their ADM (makes sense) and so they are resistance to letting students take online courses if it is going to siphon off a part of their ADM to pay for those courses.

Live blog replay/notes are below the jump. (See the read more link)

Legislative work is all about relationships, relationships, relationships - in the summer especially when they are off-session. The quality of those relationships will determine if they call on you for info when a vote is up in the legislature. Term limited legislators rely more heavily on lobbyists and staff - so you should target those people in term limit states.

Next Question: What should you never do in working with legislators? Don't go in just with you handout - you need a compelling elevator speech to explain simply, quickly, and powerfully. If you don't know something, don't BS - tell them I don't know, but I will find out and get back to them quickly.

3rd Question: How do you go about creating your value proposition for your initiative?

Quantify, Quantify, Quantify - if you don't have something similar - use data from like populations that do have data as a basis.

No one wants to be a backwater - you can trot out comparisons with other states if you need some firepower

Keep your value proposition simple and succinct.