Today is the day. Today a flock of my little birds will leave the nest and go off to their lives beyond college. Today I will applaud their accomplishments and imagine what their bright futures will look like. Today I will watch them fly away with enough potential and confidence to conquer the world. Today [...]
I can hear the bells…
I am gratified this morning to be greeted with the news that Minnesota's House passed a marriage equality bill. Now the only thing between marriage equality is the Minnesota Senate and the Governor which are expected to likewise pass the bill and sign it into law. This makes me happy. This is an inequality that [...]
Authentic – without apology.
Have you ever felt like you don't belong - like you are the odd man out - like you stick out like a sore thumb? I have. Indeed, I often feel like that. It is not lost on me that I am peculiar...different...a curiosity. I recognize that my ability and desire to be "normal" decreases [...]
Validation.
Validation presents itself in many ways. Today it arrived via a graduating student's visit. In the short hour that we visited I was delighted to learn that he realized that so many of the things we have students do in our program added up to more than the sum of their parts. He learned this [...]
Things that make you go EEW!!!!!
On the list of "Things that make you go EEW!!!!!!" - try out this headline from the Associated Press/INFORUM: East about to be overrun by billions of cicadas. Please do allow me to be the first to offer an emphatic EEW!!!!!!!!!! Billions of cicadas - those little bugs are harmless to people physically, but just [...]
Grading B-I-N-G-O
It is that time of year again - grading time. I always enter this period with optimism, but about halfway in my optimism starts to degrade and I begin thinking of quicker, less painful ways to grade. My favorite creative idea for grading when I hit this point in the grading crunch is to throw [...]
Common sense delivered by Dr. Thomas Jacobsen…
Today I want to utilize my blog to both applaud a good citizen and to further spread his thoughtful words. I know my blog readers extend far beyond my local area and beyond North Dakota. I also recognize that not all the folks who read my blog who live locally read The Forum newspaper or [...]
THE NEW FORTY 