- an email from another state's social studies organization, asking if I would present at their virtual conference about flipped learning (a few months from now)
- people in another organization that I'm already a member of reached out to inquire about whether that group could somehow replicate FlipTech's asynchronous / synchronous arrangement
- a message from two employees in my school district's IT department, asking to use some of my instructional videos and possibly hire me for a PD webinar with colleagues
The last one is quite interesting, particularly since last month I wrote a 2-part mini-rant here then here about my frustrations with the district's approach. (There's no way they actually read those blog posts, though, because nobody does!) I'm stepping into this opportunity gradually, for fear of setting my expectations too high. But I can't deny it would be nice to help guide some colleagues toward using video lessons more successfully than last year.
However, today is not really about school stuff. It's been mainly about the freakin' back deck: a 224 square foot wooden platform of frustration and toil. We spent many hours last month sanding away the old stain (from only 4 years ago!), then applied a coat of deck-renewal paint. That started scraping off within a few days, and also we realized the color so light that every muddy footprint left a permanent mark. So I got a different brand of deck paint, washed it off and applied primer last night, then did as much painting as early as I could before the sun rose over the trees at 9:30am. My wife did the last half of the initial coat, because the heat was taking a toll on me. Current heat index: 96 degrees at 4pm. I gotta go back out there this evening for the second coat of paint, and I already know that will be terrible....