Year in review

Overall, a boring year.  No kids were born, no multi-state moves, no getting married, no new PhD programs, no new jobs.  But we had fun this year none-the-less.  We had regular things, like GLO, dinners with Alex, driving kids to school, working out, and what not.  Here's the rest:

January

• Started my semester teaching our department's capstone class and End-user computing 
• Thomas and Tara started swim lessons
• I started a major change to my End-user computing course

February

• More of the same.  
• We all got sick right before GLO kids event, so we missed it, unfortunately.
• This was our most boring month.

March

• Participated in the IT career fair at EMU
• Parent teacher conference for both Thomas and Tara
• Took a tour of Menlo Innovations
• Completed the departmental program review, started in 2009
• Started doing P90X workouts

April

• My Parent's visited
• Celebrated my youngest son's 1st birthday
• Hit on the concept of value-dense living
• Finals and semester end
• Participated in Writing Across the Curriculum Fellowship
• Submitted an article on business ethics

May

• Started Spring semester teaching 2 courses in programming in C# and in web development
• Participated in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference where I hosted a workshop on blogging in the classroom

June

• Finals and Semester end
• Visited St. Louis
• Updated this blog's design

July

• Held a Garage sale.  A lot of work for not much reward.  Not sure we want to do that again. 
• Hosted GLO Kids and had a blast. 
• Painted our bedroom
• Stained our deck
• I painted 3 pictures for my wife's birthday present

August

• Worked on my pedagogical article on meaningful learning
• Parents visit again
• Celebrated my son's 5th birthday
• Vacation to OBX.  Meet Rational Jenn and her family.  Got to spend time with a good friend from high school, Dave Emigh, and his family.

September

• Semester started back up.  I taught End-user computing and Systems Analysis and Design.
• Thomas started Kindergarten at his new school.
• Thomas started soccer
• Tara started dance
• Submitted and approved a design for a hybrid course for web development - half online and half in class instruction.
• Had lunch with Craig Lahti whom I hadn't seen since high school, but living near Detroit. 

October

• Attended a conference in Atlanta for AIS student chapters
• Joined the AIS student chapter advisory board
• Saw the Greenfield Village Halloween special
• Had a 30 minute meeting with the CIO of Borders
• Submitted article on meaningful learning versus active learning
• Built my first piece of furniture - a magazine rack

November

• Had Craig Lahti and his family over for dinner.
• Visited family and friends in St. Louis for Thanksgiving.  
• I attend an academic conference (DSI) in San Diego (although it wasn't as warm and pleasant as I had hoped for).
• Participated in an Academic Service Learning panel discussion.

December

• Received a revise and resubmit notice for both my pedagogical article and my ethics article - WooHoo!
• My parents visited for the 3rd time this year. 
• Celebrated my daughter's 4th birthday. 
• Had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

I didn't quite meet all my new year goals for last January.  I was able to meet the first one in redesigning my intro to IS class.  Instead of conducting another business ethics survey, I decided to write an article in pedagogy, so I don't consider my second goal incomplete, just re-directed.  I was not able to start a part time business this past summer as I had originally intended, but it is still on my radar.  The money we were considering investing in a rental property was diverted to buying a new vehicle for my wife.  I did start trying a new workout program, P90X, but I'm not 100% satisfied with it and may try CrossFit and/or Body by Science this coming year.