Rapid Fire Learning - July 2009

Rapid Fire Learning is a monthly feature at the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog. Karen Swim gets us started this month.

Here is what I have learned in July:

1 - being 'off the net' in the woods is good
Off line, no internet, no email. Yes, I can do more than survive. I can live and enjoy the peace and quiet of nature. The discussions with family and good friends.

2 - being 'on the net' in the woods is surprisingly nice
What can I say other than appropriate use brings the best of both worlds. Balance!

3 - fresh fruit makes for wonderful homemade sherbet
As part of this year's Baslock reunion (more to come on this), Doug prepared some strawberry sherbet that was wonderful Together we played with the recipe to make some blueberry sherbet, also quite wonderful. Then fresh picked raspberries made a decadent sherbet. Cream is the key to providing body to the sherbet, the lighter the cream, the less body. But it still tastes soo good!

4 - nature has many lessons for life, just begin by observing
whether it is a tree growing hugging a monstrous boulder, or a small fungi popping up from the floor of the woods, there are lessons abundant all around. What can you find? Check out my Flickr stream for additional photos.

5 - conversations succeed when both parties use the same frame of reference
The School Committee meeting on June 23 left me with doom and gloom. The budget deficit had yet to be resolved. The numbers were still not balancing and yet tipping in the wrong direction. How many teachers would end up going out the door? It seemed likely that a minimum of 40 would. How many more would go was the question that remained. I returned from travel to find that of the 60 school personnel notified only 12 would not be returning. How had this come about? The level funded budget from the Town didn't change. What did change was all the stimulus funds from either the Federal or State sources were added to the level funded Town budget. That made a big difference. To the tune of $1.1 million. Instead of ending up with a level funded budget, we ended up with a level funded plus budget. The point of view that the School Committee used was not clear to me. Hence, a new learning!

What did you learn in July?