Life is full of ups and downs, like yesterday morning when a pipe burst in the historic prison. What a mess. All four employees were over there mopping, pumping, documenting, freezing… I took a ton of photos to document the mess then got down on my hands and knees and scooped water with a bucket away from the original foundation. Meanwhile, it was snowing outside!!!
Prison yard:
Original kitchen and pantry in the prison. Now used for exhibits and the A/C unit.
Original foundation in the north cellblock:
Elevator shaft:
Original cellar with mud:
Ups: Last night Jason and I decorated not one, not two, but three Christmas trees. One is real and displayed in the living room. We have a fake one for the guest bed with new ornaments that match the colorful bedspread (pink, lime green, and mauve). The little one with built in lights is in our bedroom. When I get home tonight I’ll take pictures and post them here. (I’m on my 15 min. “break” from work right now).
This past weekend I was in Evanston, WY with Leadership Wyoming. Our topic was Education. What an eye opener. Since I didn’t attend school in Wyoming and don’t have any little ones doing so, all the information presented was new and amazing to me! We had a number of guest speakers from Teacher of the Year, to school board administrators to legislators come and talk to us about education in Wyoming. One random fact: Wyoming spends more per student for education than any other state in the union!!!
The highlight of the trip was visiting the local middle school and observing some amazing teachers in action (the science teacher dressed up as a WWII vet) as well as sitting with the school’s 8th grade council during lunch. It was really interesting to talk with the students about education. We were surprised at the number of students who said they wanted to leave Wyoming when they graduate. L Hey, everyone needs to spread their wings but we hope some of these bright students will become Wyoming’s future leaders.
The school I visited was very high tech, Smart Boards and Macs in all the classrooms and labs. We assume this generation will be so high tech that text shortcuts, LOL, will become common in every day speech, so I was pleasantly surprised when I had this conversation with a group of 8th graders:
Student (to Trey): So why are you here today? What is this group and what are you doing?
Trey: I’m part of Leadership Wyoming. We are a diverse group of professionals from all over Wyoming learning about the state and specific issues, like education. Let me ask you a question, one that has been asked of us.
“How can all kinds of people, with varied backgrounds and interests, best participate in conversations about the purpose of schooling?”
How do we get students, teachers, parents, community members, school council, etc., to communicate about education?
Students: Long Pause…
Boy: WOW!?! (Pause) I don’t know, how would you do that?
Trey: Well, how does your school council communicate?
Girl: We meet twice a week with an agenda and the President leads us through discussions.
Trey: So you meet face-to-face? Do you feel that is the most productive method or would you prefer email, web conferences, etc.?
Girl: No. It is way to easy to misread email. Face-to-face is best.
Conversation continues… we decide as a group that a good old-fashioned town hall meeting at the city levels would work nicely. Representatives then could be sent to Cheyenne and the legislators.
I was very impressed by the students’ insight about communication. There is this assumption that the next generation, and generations to follow, will forgo face-to-face meetings for high tech communication forums and the nature of how we interact as humans will change drastically. Perhaps it still will but I found hope in that young lady’s answer.
Ups: Tonight I’m meeting with my local girlfriends for dessert at our favorite restaurant and Jason’s parents are coming to visit! Tomorrow I’m having lunch with my museum friends. Wed. night I’m teaching confirmation class at church. FRIDAY WE LEAVE FOR NEW ORLEANS!
I think I’ll focus on the UPS and let the floodwaters wash away the DOWNS.
Trey
2 comments:
Wow that is a lot of water. It's too bad I missed out on that ;)
Wow!! That's a lot of water. I forgot to ask you how all that was going today!
Yay for vacation! Isn't it wierd that you're going to New Orleans to escape a flood??
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