Shelfreliance – get you some of this

Here is a totally cool product that can help keep your fruit room organized. (http://www.shelfreliance.com/blog/)
As many of you may know, the Harvest 72″ is one of our favorite products here at Shelf Reliance.harvest 72 240×300 Free on Friday: Bringing In the Harvest!It’s a beautiful thing. The unique first in – first out design will cut down on expired food and, therefore, wasted money. The Harvest means less mess, less hassle, and fewer bruises from cans that fall all over the place if you look at them the wrong way. And the best part of all?

One of you lucky souls will be given a Harvest 72″ on Shelf Reliance’s dime. No cost to you. No strings. No joke.

This giveaway is the first installment of a new feature here on the blog. We’re calling it “Free on Friday,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like! We’ll be offering new giveaways every two weeks, and the fortunate winners will be announced on Fridays.

I won’t keep you waiting any longer. Here’s how the Harvest giveaway will work:

Anyone who comments on this blog entry will be entered to win the Harvest 72″. Each comment counts as a separate entry. The winner will be chosen at noon (Mountain Time Zone) on Friday, June 26th, so get your comments in before then!

You are eligible for up to 5 entries.

(1) The 1st entry is easy as pie! Just leave your first and last name in a comment on this blog post.

(2) The 2nd entry is earned by signing up to receive the Shelf Reliance newsletter. The newsletter is one of the best ways to stay up-to-date with all that Shelf Reliance has to offer, including sales, promotions, new products, and online tools. Receiving the newsletter is as easy as entering your e-mail address in the indicated box at www.shelfreliance.com. When you’ve done that, leave a comment on this blog post. This comment should include your first and last name, along with something like, “I signed up for the newsletter.” If you already receive the Shelf Reliance newsletter, leave a comment with your name and something like, “I already receive the newsletter.”

(3) The 3rd entry is earned by becoming a follower of the Shelf Reliance channel on YouTube. This channel has so many videos showing you how to make delicious and creative recipes from your food storage, and our chefs will be adding even more in the months to come! Simply go to http://www.youtube.com/user/ShelfReliance and click on the shiny yellow “Subscribe” button. Then leave a comment on this blog post. This comment should include your first and last name, along with something like, “I’m following you on YouTube!” If you’re already subscribed to the channel, leave a comment with your name and something like, “I already follow the Shelf Reliance channel.”

(4) The 4th entry is earned by writing a blog post about this giveaway on another blog, whether it be a personal blog, a family blog, a business – whatever! Just include a few sentences about the giveaway, along with a link back to the Shelf Reliance blog. In this comment, you’ll need to leave your name and the URL address of your post.

(5) The 5th entry is earned by becoming a fan of Shelf Reliance through Facebook. Our Facebook page is a great place to read unique company news, network with other food storage & emergency preparedness enthusiasts, and – perhaps best of all – discover promotions that are only available through Facebook. To find the fan page, simply search for Shelf Reliance in the search bar on Facebook or click here. Once you’re a fan, leave a comment on this blog post. This comment should have your name and something along the lines of, “I’m a fan on Facebook.” And – you guessed it – if you’re already a Facebook fan, the comment should include your name and something like, “I was already a fan on Facebook!”

Remember, each of the five comments counts as a separate entry. If you just leave one comment that says you’ve done all five things, you’ll only be entered to win once, so be careful about that! Also, you don’t need to do all five things in numerical order (for example, you could just do options 1 & 3 if you wanted). The winner will be chosen randomly, and we’ll be certain to verify that the winning entry is legitimate and fair. Any entries that aren’t in accordance with the giveaway rules will be disqualified and removed.

If you don’t win this time around, don’t sweat it! Every two weeks, we’ll bring you a new chance to win a great prize. Check back often or subscribe to the Shelf Reliance blog by using the buttons on the right side of this page.

So get blogging, get clicking, get commenting! We’re just itching to give this Harvest 72″ away!

Opting in

Should I feel guilty for not posting in a long time? I really don’t think so.

Blogging (to me) is about sharing what you have to share, when you have to share it. Two recent posts (by Harold Jarche, and Brent Schlenker) got me thinking about how much I LOVE RSS! (To me) it’s all about skimming off the top of everything that’s out there what I want to pay attention to. Gone are the days of running down my list of “Favorites” just to see if something has changed on the page. Honestly, I’ve probably scanned* through tons more information** since I made bloglines my homepage last November than I did during my ENTIRE stint as a graduate student. Obviously the depth [whatever that really means] wasn’t as great on all of the tons more information I’ve reviewed… EXCEPT WHERE/WHEN I WANTED IT!

Interestingly enough, I was asked last week in a job interview “…how [I] keep [my]self current in [my] profession…”. I started with the standard (sometimes very expensive!) stuff:

• industry periodicals
• conferences
• peer group discussions

but then came a (very cheap!) revelation for me:

• Using my RSS feeds, I review the practical application, thoughts and experiences of ~100 learning professionals in the real world EVERY DAY. If I want, I make a comment on their thoughts and open a dialog with them.

I mean, really, has anything like this been possible in the history of ever?

* for purposes of comparison, “scanned” = sped read a paragraph to see if I wanted to to learn more.

** for purposes of this exercise, “tons more information” = significantly greater number of authors on a significantly greater number of subjects

FireFoxRox

If Wendy can’t convince you I doubt I can because I’m not nearly as eloquent as she is, but, give FireFox a try.

I was on IE7 and started having some buggy problems with my laptop.  After spending a couple of hours [!] on the phone with Tech “Support”  they said – it must be the program [!].  “HA” says I, they are just trying to blame someone else, this is IEfreaking7 its the backbone of today’s surfing environment!  I’ll try their lame excuse suggestion, switch to Firefox, have the same issues then throw it right back in their face when I have to call back!

Problem is, it’s been 2 weeks and I haven’t had to call back… as a matter of fact, the only differences between now and 2 weeks ago is that

1. I like the interface [slightly] more and
2. (…wait for it…)
3. MY BROWSER WORKS!

Warning:Public Education rant

I’ll keep this short and sweet, but I’ve just GOT to vent somewhere, so…

Lately I’ve gotten to missing the good old days of teaching at a Junior High and was thinking I might like to try substitute teaching one or two days a month/quarter just to mix things up a bit. So I call the local school district and get some details from them when I hear this little gem… “with your qualifications, you would be paid about 52 dollars a day.”

…[Stunned] silence from me, expecting Sally Struthers to come on the line and tell me how “just $52/day can feed a family of 8 and provide much needed medical care…

“That’s ‘a day’?!?” I say.

“Yes” is the simply reply.

“Did I mention that I have a Masters degree in Instructional Technology and taught as a Regular Full Time certified teacher in this state for two years?”

“Yes, you mentioned that”

“Did also I mention that I taught high school in a foreign country and have been a designing, developing and delivering instruction for a multi-billion dollar international corporation since then?”

“Uh, yes, you mentioned that as well.”

“Alrighty then, let me consider my options and I’ll get back to you.” *click*

…Wow…. I mean, just, wow…

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let me place before you the facts;

1. the local school district begins the school day at 7:45AM and ends at 2:15PM
2. this requires [substitute] teachers to be there, at the ABSOLUTE BARE MINIMUM, from 7:30AM until 2:30PM resulting in a 7 hour work day.
3. this leads to the mind-boggling calculation of …drum roll please… $7.14 per hour to safeguard the future leaders of America.
4. Don’t try to pull any “they get their summers off” junk out of your hat – that’s PER HOUR, not per year.

Unconscionable. Reprehensible. Unacceptable. And, ultimately, not surprising. I can’t even type the words without getting frustrated and angry and sad all at the same time.

If this is a topic that interests you, leave a comment and we can talk about it more but I just don’t have it in me to even think about what this implies about how we “value” education any more.

Wow. A whole month

It’s been a whole month since I bothered to write anything… not that I haven’t learned anything new or had anything to write about, as a matter of fact I’ve thought 4 or 5 times “hey, I should blog about that” as I’ve been scanning Bloglines and life in general… Hmmmm interesting blogging dynamic….

This I couldn’t resist, however…

Synthetic happiness

If you build it, they will come

If you’re into sports – or even if you’re not – this article is an AWESOME example of the way technology and learning go hand in hand.

For like the 1329th time I’m swearing to myself that I’m going to get an iPod.

Learnscaping

As I’ve been reflecting on what I want to do as a training professional, the word “nurture” keeps coming to mind.  Maybe it’s just that there is 4 inches of snow on everything right now and the earth beneath is frozen solid, or maybe it’s just that anything over 20 degrees F is “pretty warm outside” , but, I’ve been looking forward to tilling our garden and planting.  Nurture is a word that I’ve come to appreciate, and find myself using alot, these last few weeks.

With this mindset in particular, I loved Jay Cross’ description of Learnscaping…

“Informal learning is about situated action, collaboration, coaching, and reflection, not study and reading. Developing a platform to support informal learning is analogous to landscaping a garden. A major component of informal learning is natural learning, the notion of treating people as organisms in nature. Our role as learning professionals is to protect their environment, provide nutrients for growth, and let nature take its course. Self-service learners connect to one another, to ongoing flows of information and work, to their teams and organizations, to their customers and markets, not to mention their families and friends.

Because the design of informal learning ecosystems is analogous to landscape design, I will call the environment of informal learning a learnscape. A landscape designer’s goal is to conceptualize a harmonious, unified, pleasing garden that makes the most of the site at hand. A learnscaper strives to create a learning environment that increases the organization’s longevity and health, and the individual learner’s happiness and well-being. Gardeners don’t control plants; managers don’t control people. Gardeners and managers have influence but not absolute authority. They can’t make a plant fit into the landscape or a person fit into a team.

A learnscape is a learning ecology. It’s learning without borders.”

Here’s a suggestion: if you haven’t, or haven’t for a long time, nurture a “plant growing area” in the next couple of months.  Not “keep a plant alive in my cubicle”, but GROW something.  It can be indoors or out, whatever fits your fancy. Make it big enough to fill up at least a 2ftx2ft area.  Start from scratch – use seeds not starts. 

1. Tear out a [small] piece of your yard or buy/build a planter box if you don’t have a yard.
2. Tend and amend the soil.  Make the conditions right specifically for those (not just any) plant(s) you’ll be growing.  Think about growing your own tomatoes, carrots, or peppers.  These are pretty common and cheap enough to buy in the store, but always taste better when homegrown.
3. Don’t plan on just growing them, grow them very well.
4. Nurture them to fruition, with a hearty helping of patience.
5. Blog about what you learn…

What learning is about

Whew!  The last week of December -> first week of January is always a crazy one.  This year proved to be no exception but it also provided a good reminder for me of why I love the work I do so much.

Lost in all of the to-do over objective learning outcomes, performance indicators, off-the-production-floor ROI, project [mis]management, the emergence of Learning 2.0 functionality, capturing/fostering informal learning, Connectivism vs. Constructivism vs. Objectivism vs. Behaviorism vs. MyBrainIsGoingToExplodeism, proper modality selection and rigorous adherence to application of andragological  principles…  well, it’s easy to see why we sometimes loose sight of the forest for all the trees.

Last week my kids and I spent a couple of short hours at the Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake City.  It was, well, it was… dare I say… fun.  My four year old ran from one area to the next – obviously far too quickly to acheive any measurable long term performance/skills enhancement (subjecting her to inquisition later proved this true).  Without fail, all of my kids failed to complete even one evaluation form or competency assessment.  But they all (especially the 4 year old) knew that we left waaaaaaay too soon and that it is imperative we go back there again.  If I had thought to record it, I could ODEO our ‘negotiations’ meeting – we got them all in the car but it was not cheap.

Our trip also reminded me of one of the coolest learning experiences I’ve had.  While visiting my inlaws in Santa Rosa, California 2 years ago we went took a day trip down to the Exploratorium in San Franscisco.  I enjoyed science in school, taught middle/high school science for 5 years, and have always thought of Science as a pretty enjoyable domain (as domains go) in general so I think of science museums as a good way to spend a day with my kids.  Usually, I can see the exhibit as I’m walking up to it and have the “science” pretty much figured out before I get to the display itself.  Then it’s jut a matter of playing around with what’s there…  at this stage in my life I think of 99% of this stuff as “cool” but not necessarily insightful or particularly ‘wow’ inducing.  Not that I’m Dr. Smartypants or anything, I’ve just seen a lot of it.

So, I’m casually making my way through the “Life” section of the Exploratorium and I see this display.   In the plexiglass case there are petri dishes with a chick embryo at various develpmental stages.  Starting at the “1-3 days old” end I think “That’s pretty cool, nice little plastic models”.  The I get to the third dish and see… the heart beating!  HUNH?!?  Then I look closer… they are petri dishes with a piece of plastic wrap lightly covering an actual, developing, live baby chick.  I didn’t even notice the heart beating on the second dish which, on closer inspection, it was.  I was completely blown away!  It wasn’t a time-lapse video, it wasn’t even an egg in my own hand (back when we had a rooster and one of our hens would get broody, I used to spotlight the eggs with my kids).  It was there inches away from me… a real, live piece of life that caught me completely off guard.

Now, I don’t intend to ever become an embryologist, a chicken rancher, or even a biology teacher but that moment of discovery is still crystal clear in my mind – when not much else is

That, for me, is what I love so much about the work I do… nurturing moments and environments of discovery.  I guess I just need a four year old to remind me. 

More on the Learning Function

I’ve been simmering on this one since the post on December 21st and have come up with some things that were more detailed/practical/implementation oriented than the thoughts I put in that post…  I tried to capture more of what I was thinking in a wiki format.  Feel free to take a look and add what you would like (here’s your chance to play in a wiki if you’ve been wanting to) (the password to edit is pbwiki).