JuneBug's Blog

The 2020 Workplace

2011-02-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

I love this time of year. I know, crazy, isn't it? Even with the seasonal hardships and the mid-winter blahs, it's a time when everything outside is resting, a time when the nights are long, a time to reflect and make plans, a time to dream. And as the days grow longer, I find myself already in mid-February Valentine's Day and I have not yet posted my first blog article for 2011!

Anyway, check out this article: Ten Ways the 2020 Workplace Will Work for You.

I love visionaries. In the immortal words of John Lennon, let it be.

Peace,

JuneBug

Moving on to Illustrator

2010-12-29T20:21:00.000-08:00

Changing over from Photoshop to Illustrator in my computer graphics class midway through the semester was a bit of an adjustment for me. I had just come off the cookbook exercises and the poster ad project, both of which had been very immersive experiences with Photoshop. The abruptness of the switch coupled with the fact that my online technical writing course started October 19 and ran through December 19 kind of cramped my style or at least stalled my momentum in my graphics class. When I started Illustrator, I guess I felt like a fish out of water. I was lost for a while even though I was not unfamiliar with vector graphics. In fact I had used vector graphics tools before I had used raster graphic tools in my computer career. In the late 80's through the 90's I used MacDraw and Word and Excel Drawing tools to do charts and system documentation. I knew about grouping and rotating and drawing shapes. Only when digital cameras came along and I started "developing" my photos in Photoshop (and more recently in Lightroom) - did I develop basic familiarity with bitmap graphics tools - and then only to develop photos.

So, even though I'd used (sometimes intensely) basic vector graphic tools first, I found Illustrator to be challenging. Of course it helped that some of the commands from Photoshop carried over to Illustrator. Two of our projects in Illustrator were to design a super-hero logo and a cd jacket for a band of our choice. I chose Sailor Moon as my super hero and combined two images to make it look like she was sitting on a moon (sort of like Betty Boop actually).

For my band, I chose Monkey Puzzle, a postmodern "rockapella" type group out of Bloomington, Indiana. I had heard them perform as the lead-in group for another singer at Lafayette's Long Center in the 90's. I don't know if they are still actively performing, but at the time I was so impressed, I bought both their CD's on the spot.

The CD cover project in particular was an excellent project to challenge me and help me to focus. I had to do a lot of research to find images and inspirations that fell within my ability to actually do something with them in Illustrator. Unfortunately, the approach suggested by our instructor - that of coming up with two drawings at the start - just didn't work for me. That was too top down - at least for this assignment. Instead I needed to search for bits and pieces, and try different things with them, and in the end was fortunate to put something together that worked. My instructor offered lots of helpful guidance to get my muse going. I also pulled the group's CDs out of my library and listened to all their music. I think that helped.

In the end, here's what I came up with:

I have to give credit to 6 wonderful resources I found on the web which served as my inspirations:

the Biffy Cyro Puzzle Album Cover
the wonderful family tree drawing (for which alas I can no longer locate the website)
the yellow sky image
the labyrinth graphic
the gemfonts failed font
the hanoded photography fancy rainforest font

Also, apologies to Monkey Puzzle for changing the name of their CD to one of my favorite songs on it.

Reflecting back on the semester, I am still struck by the strong psychomotor component involved in learning how to use Photoshop and Illustrator. Never has that been so apparent in my other computer classes - but then again, while art and programming both involve design, the root of art lies in actually being able to take a pen, pencil, brush, or some artistic tool and render something amazing. So why should that be any different just because the process now takes place on a computer?

JuneBug

Photoshop Ads and Posters

2010-12-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

My previous posts have sported a series of assignments in Photoshop effects from the Photoshop Cookbook for my computer graphics class this fall. I had lots of fun with those. The next assignment in that class was to design a poster ad on a product or service. I chose to feature our mules Kate and Annie, who have appeared on these blog pages before. Benny hitches Kate and Annie up almost every day during the spring, summer, and fall and takes them for a ride up and down our county roads. Sometimes instead of hitching them to the wagon, he and Bonnie saddle up and ride them. So now that the neighbors have seen them do their thing, Benny gets invited frequently to give hayrides for local outdoor events. Hence, this series of posters (click on each image to get a larger view, if desired):

JuneBug

Woodcuts, oils, and water colors

2010-12-29T17:15:00.000-08:00

Continuing on from my previous post about my computer graphics class this fall, following are some Photoshop Cookbook effects that make photos look like oil paintings, water colors, and woodcuts. You can click the thumbnails to get the full-size image - in many cases doing that will help you distinguish the effect from the original photo more clearly. In some cases I tried different effects with the same photo.

Water Color Effect	Original

	Original
	Original

Following are oil effects:

Oil Effect	Original

	Original
	Original

The following effect converts a photo to a woodcut (remember doing those in art class?)

Woodcut Effect	Original

In many cases these effects aren't necessarily an improvement on the original photo, but they were fun (and sometimes frustrating) to do!

JuneBug

More Photoshop Effects

2010-12-29T16:24:00.000-08:00

Continuing from my previous post on my computer graphics class this fall semester, here are some more fun Photoshop effects from the Photoshop Cookbook. This first one is called Summer to Fall (click on images to view larger version, if desired):

Effect	Original

The following photos demonstrate a vintage hollywood glamour effect:

Effect	Original

Stay tuned for more Cookbook effects!

JuneBug

Back to Beginnings

2010-12-29T16:02:00.000-08:00

When I first started this blog in 2006, it was with the intent of chronicling my job search, after losing my job of 21 years. I hoped to connect with others in similar circumstances to perhaps find and share encouragement along the way. I also thought it would be fun to share my interests as a hobbyist photographer. Well, as time passed, I found a job, and branched out in other directions. I wrote about my family and the Cafe Rienzi, my great aunt Firma Phillips who was a local scenery artist, and several other other noteworthy personalities and topics. Then last year I lost my job again. So this spring I went back to college through Ivy Tech's Senior Scholar Program which allows people over 60 to take classes for free. Recently I have been blogging about that experience as it ties in with my interest in instructional design.

With this post I'd like to get back to the blog's original intent, my interest in photography. This past semester I had a wonderful opportunity to take a computer graphics class at Ivy Tech. The first half of the semester we worked in Photoshop and the second half we spent on Illustrator. Having played around with Photoshop version 7 for many years, I enjoyed this formal class immensely and thought it would be fun to share some of the products in the next few posts.

Our first series of projects were from the Photoshop Cookbook. I especially enjoyed the out of frame effect as shown in the following series of photos:

Effect	Original

Effect	Original

Effect	Original

More effects to come! Stay tuned ....

JuneBug

Reflections of a Senior Learner - IT Job Outlook

2010-12-29T11:05:00.000-08:00

This past semester I had a wonderful opportunity to take an online course in technical writing through our local community college where seniors can attend for free after they turn 60. The course was an 8 week course - offered through the English department for full credit. It started October 19 and ended December 19, and so was extremely fast-paced. Our final project was to research and write a formal technical report on the job outlook in our field to other career consultants in our imaginary firm. The fields varied among the students taking the class. Some were majoring in business administration, others in the medical field, and so forth. I am a dual career person with training and experience in both the fields of information technology and instructional design (education), so I chose to write about the job outlook in information technology.

I have to say that this was an excellent assignment - I really learned a lot about online resources for this topic, if nothing else - such as the Bureau of Labor Statistic's Occupational Handbook and its accompanying O*Net website. It was also interesting and kind of fun to get to "triangulate" my own perspective on the information technology field with all its transformations and permutations over the past thirty years.

I invite you to peruse my report: Occupational Outlook for the Information Technology Field: An Informational Report for Career Consultants. It defines the field and lists various occupations under its umbrella as well as common duties, functions, and activities. It briefly discusses educational requirements for various occupations in the field as well as occupational outlook, placement opportunities, and personality fit. It also includes some crystal-ball type predictions on new opportunities coming down the pike. Finally the references and appendix at the end offer some nice resources to researchers and job-seekers alike.

JuneBug

Reflections of an senior learner - A Blackboard Organizer

2010-12-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

For the last 6 months I have been a senior learner - at age 60 I went back to college while unemployed to catch up on changes in my field and to get certified. Since then I have thrilled on these pages about the joys of learning and groaned and moaned about the challenges. But now the semester is through, we are almost past the holidays, and I am taking the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is. One of our projects in my online Technical Writing Course was to write a set of instructions to accompany a new product of our own invention for the company of our choice. Borrowing from lessons learned in simplifying whilst designing the Report Tickler System at Bauer Family Resources (where I served as Grants and Compliance Specialist), I imagined an enhancement to the Blackboard product used in distance learning by many institutions. Essentially my enhancement was an interactive student organizer that would take the place of all the different course syllabuses. It would help students and teachers keep track of courses, assignments, projects, and exams all in one place. In short, it attempts to address one of those pesky and persistent human problems that I imagined technology was meant to solve.

So without further ado, here are links to my imaginary Blackboard Organizer (and prerequisite cover letter):

Blackboard Student Organizer Instructions
Memo to Ray Henderson, Blackboard Inc.

JuneBug

Thomas Durant

2010-12-22T07:09:00.000-08:00

I promised more to come in the way of my eulogy, when I wrote of my Uncle Tom's passing a few months ago. Uncle Tom was one of the co-founders of the Cafe Rienzi, and an artist in his own right - only one of his many accomplishments. He originally hailed from the suburbs of Chicago, and as a young man, roamed a sales territory in Indiana for his father's business. Uncle Tom knew just about everything and could do just about anything. He and my Aunt met in the labor movement in Detroit after he served in World War II. He followed Aunt Joan back to New York, her roots, and they lived on the outskirts of Greenwich Village for over 60 years until he died. I remember him taking me to his studio in the fifties and teaching me about abstract art. I was maybe eight or ten years old. He let me paint a picture. It remained with me for a while, I even took it to classroom show and tell as my parents moved around the hemispheres in pursuit of my Dad's geology career. It eventually disappeared into my distant childhood.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Joan were fabulous cooks. They tended to fight for control of the kitchen. Uncle Tom cooked me many a wonderful meal ... I still remember steamed mussels, seasoned with a sauce, probably consisting of garlic, olive oil, fresh parmesan cheese, and I don't know what all else, when I brought my girlfriend to New York back in the early 70's.

Yesterday I was visiting with my Aunt Joan on the phone to find out her and my cousin Anna's Christmas plans this year - their first Christmas without him. Aunt Joan gave me quite a few tidbits about Uncle Tom (and the Cafe Rienzi) that were new to me. So here they are:

The Cafe Rienzi was located in what was an old macaroni factory, with a grocery store in front. Uncle Tom, with his architectural affinities, designed the Cafe out of the existing facility - and all the founders worked to turn it into a reality. Aunt Joan has been a prolific writer in her life (not just poetry). I look forward to the day when more of her work is published, because I believe it is a great gift to future generations. Anyway, for a period she wrote plays for Off-Off Broadway, and Uncle Tom built all her sets. Many of Aunt Joan's plays were performed in Theater for the New City currently located at 155 First Avenue, New York 10003-2906.

image courtesy of bike snob nyc blog

This current location was originally an indoor market with vegetable stands and such. Again Uncle Tom provided the architectural drawings and plans to convert this area into a theater. Aunt Joan says the artistic director Crystal Field still provides her with complimentary theater tickets as a thank you.

Uncle Tom also played a key role in assisting a long time (albeit younger) friend of the family artist David Maurice of Star Metal in setting up his metal works business. Star Metal does decorative and architectural metal work for downtown New York buildings among others.

Well, I will close for now, but I am pleased to add these new details to the online record. One of the fond images I have of Uncle Tom - in addition to all the wonderful family discussions over the dinner table, and growing up with his inspirational paintings decorating my Aunt and Uncle's New York apartment is as master gardener. Uncle Tom brought his midwestern roots to New York. He put out garden every spring. For years he had a wonderful roof garden in Manhattan, complete with a fig tree, which we all enjoyed. He even grew sweet corn up there. And wonderful little strawberries and all kinds of vegetables. Even after the roof became unavailable for gardening, he continued to grow tomato plants on their tiny metal window seat balcony off the back bedroom.

I hope some of the folks who have purchased Uncle Tom's paintings will eventually find these writings and perhaps provide photos of his work.

JuneBug

Reflections of an Adult Learner - Learning from Final Presentations

2010-12-10T06:21:00.001-08:00

In my Visual Basic Class we had our choice of a gradebook as a final project - either as a database exercise or as a sequential file exercise, but using advanced controls. We had the options of adding enhancements for extra credit. So I tried to do a blended "animal" between the two assignments, something that would give me experience with the best of both. And it was a good exercise. I came up with a fairly decent design and working program. But oh how I learned from my classmates the day we did our final project presentations.

I often get compliments from my instructors. Some have even commented that they wish all students put forth the effort they see me putting forth. But when I hear this, I think, "Well it kinda all depends on where each student is in life ..."

A senior learner vs a young learner - since I went to college at both stages of life (and points in between) I can make the comparison firsthand.

Recently I was chatting in the cafeteria with my friend who had told me about the community college's Senior Scholar Program. She was recounting with relish the unknown role of women in the French Revolution, the topic of a research paper for her history class. She and I often share our journey ... What's different about this stage of life, we decided, is that we are able to be more focussed (oddly) about our education. That's because we have fewer distractions (again oddly). When you go away to college out of high school, your whole life tends to be about education and being a student. But the difference is that so much of life is unknown at that age, whereas at 60 so much of life has been lived. We know who we are, we know who we've been, we know, more or less, what we want, we have ideas about how to get there, and we have a lifetime perspective. We also have our challenges - like being unemployed and bumping up against the specter of age discrimination in our job hunt. We have aging health issues - like arthritis and bifocals. We tend to want to integrate new learning into our life experiences - which slows the learning process for us. The shelves of our memory tend to get a bit overcrowded, and sometimes things fall off. But we aren't trying to go to school, work full time, and raise a family (usually). That enables us to look at the educational process with a whole new eye and to see things about it we never saw when we were younger - things such as learning is a joy and a privilege, however traditional learning processes and institutions aren't necessarily laid out to optimize that aspect ... even though they still get the job done.

But I digress - back to the vb class final project presentations. I chose the database project out of curiosity and practicality. And I more or less stuck with the design suggested by the textbook exercises - which was pretty much having everything on one form but greatly simplifying the design for the user (uncluttering it). As a result of making that choice, I ran into many more challenges than if I had given each function or option its own screen. This was a fact I didn't realize until the final presentations. My solution was probably okay as an academic exercise. But as a viable solution that gives the best product to the user and requires less bending over backwards to make it work (which would make an employer happy), it comes in second to that of my very original thinking classmate. She came up with a nicely designed and friendly vertical screen. It had a greeting and a neat column of five buttons. Each popped up a screen for that function. So simple for the user. And less complicated for the programmer, although I'm sure that design also presented challenges.

Then my other classmate, a c++ programmer, showed me something I always wanted to be possible since the inception of databases as I knew them - back in the dBASE days.

He went through it pretty fast, so I'm going to write what I think I saw. He popped up a screen in VB 2010 that had two datagrids - a parent table and a child table. I believe if he added a student to the child table, the application created a record in the parent table - to maintain referential integrity. This worked both from Visual Basic and in Access 2010 itself. All without programming the first line of code, for the most part. Simply by setting the relationship and letting it do the work for you...

All in all our day of final presentations was a real eye-opener!

JuneBug

JuneBug's Final Project Presentation

Eating My Words - Reflections of an Adult Learner

2010-11-21T02:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, the grumpy old fa - er, I mean, learner, has to eat her words - kudos to the Technical Writing Class's section on preparing job materials! It is the best and most comprehensive I've encountered so far. The text, the thoughtful discussion questions, along with the supplemental videos did an excellent job of preparing me for my interview on Friday!

JuneBug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIQruPEDmg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opYjNr_4A5k

Reflections of a Grumpy Old Far - er, I mean Learner

2010-11-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

One thing I remember about my elders, as I was growing up, is that they had both good days and bad. Some days they woke up feeling chipper as a robin in spring. Other days they felt slow. They complained of being bothered by arthritis and various aches and pains. Well, now, I'm 60 myself, and I can appreciate the truth of certain of those stereotypes. For instance, maybe I am getting Grumpy, but like Andy Rooney of 60 minutes, certain things really irritate the hell out of me. So be forewarned. This post is not only grumpy, it's downright grouchy. Furthermore, it comes out in fragments, incomplete sentences, and and probably breaks every convention of English (or, in certain cases, programming) that we are not supposed to violate.

I'm taking a graphics class - we are supposed to go out on the web and find tutorials. We're supposed to avoid youtube.

Grumble #1: Teacher, get over it - everybody is going to eventually use that venue, professionals and amateurs alike, just like Wikipedia, Facebook, texting on their cell phones, and whatever else new comes down the pike.

Granted students need to distinguish between professional tutorials and amateurish ones, especially those that may not teach the best approaches. But it strikes me that at this particular stage of our learning, the ability to differentiate online tutorials is not our primary job. We're just trying to learn Photoshop and Illustrator.

Grumble #2: It irritates me to have to spend a precious two-hour block of time surfing the web to find a suitable tutorial on a particular topic. They are not always out there. They are not always easy to find. They are not always on the right version of the software - and how the hell would I know if that even matters? This is not conducive to adult learning. Adults learners are busy people. How many are actually going to take the time - or find the time to do this? Granted, utilizing the amazing, plentiful, and various resources on the web is a WONDERFUL way to teach / learn Photoshop and Illustrator skills. Frankly, I find a textbook to be an awkward medium for teaching skills in these particular products, especially Illustrator (we use the Classroom in a Book Series). A well executed three minute video ( or even short web page tutorial) can effectively convey the same information in fractions of the time. I understand the need for professional artists to be adept at finding quality resources on the web in these days and times, but often they will be researching a particular task that is way beyond basic. So really, teacher, you need to scaffold that assignment a little bit better - unless you want your students to spend more time on your class hunting for something than actually working in / and learning Illustrator and Photoshop.

Today, we have 2 chapters, complete with exercises, an additional reading, and two web tutorials due. No lates accepted. The day after tomorrow, we have another 2 chapters, complete with exercises due. Wonderful. I'd LOVE to do it. I WANT to do it.

Grumble #3: But I also have to finish a chapter and do a project for my Visual Basic class and prepare for an upcoming exam, visit a grieving sister-in-law (out of town), check on my eighty-year-old mother, apply for jobs so I can get my unemployment and keep my family fed, winterize the windows on our 100 year old farm house, feed and water the chickens and clean their coop, take the dog to the vet, cook supper, go to the dentist, and post two discussions and write a memo for my Technical Writing class. And it's Indian Summer and lovely outside and we'll have such a long cold stretch before we'll enjoy such weather again. (Yeah, I know, so what adult learner, or teacher for that matter, doesn't face these challenges and distractions?) But wait a minute - let me take a look at our syllabus. Hmmm ... for the rest of the semester, it looks like we don't have anything but a project. Hey, teacher, can't you space that work out a little? I'd really love to do all the work in all my courses.

Sometimes, when your students do poorly, it's not always their fault.

While we're on the subject (of grumbling, that is) how about matching the appropriate educational strategy to the task at hand? If it's a psychomotor skill, as in Photoshop, and Illustrator, there are very specific best practices for teaching psychomotor skills, including breaking down the learning tasks and providing adequate time for practice and two-way feedback for each sub skill. The student may grasp your wonderful explanation. But a good way to scaffold them and reinforce that into their long-term memory is to allow them verbalize it back to you, perhaps as they are actually trying to do the steps. Yes, it takes some time. And yes, some students will grasp the whole picture sooner than others. But if you don't do your work up front, the rest of us will probably remain a little fuzzy and confused on the finer points of Pen tools and Bezier Curves for years to come - unless we take the time to sort it out on our own, that is.

I'm taking a Visual Basic class. The author really did a great job with the book - efficient prose and examples, lots of exercises, but who has time to actually do them on our course schedule? I did try for the first few chapters. The chapter on arrays was (oddly) about a third of the book - the course assigned the chapter to be completed in a week's time, just like all the other chapters. The chapters containing more complicated and less familiar material to most were condensed down to the last three weeks of the course - almost as an afterthought. This newer material takes a little longer to absorb, learn and apply. So not enough time was allowed to integrate the new knowledge with that learned early on. Besides, some of the later stuff SHOULD HAVE been learned early on. Okay, get ready, I feel a rant coming on:

Public Class RANT
Private Sub btnStartRant_Click(...) Handles btnStartRant.Click
Rant.Text = _

"What's WRONG with the IT CURRICULUM? They still spend 90% of the time teaching structured programming and 10% on OOP.

NOBODY DOES PURE STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING ANYMORE.

NOBODY HIRES ANYBODY WHO DOES PURE STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING ANYMORE.

Structured programming should be taught in the context of OOP from the get go. And I don't mean just having students write in an OOP programming language. I mean ALL OF IT. Students should be introduced to the concepts of OOP FIRST and then taught the structured techniques for the methods. Structured Programming is a way of thinking. OOP is also a way of thinking. If you want people to think OOP when they approach problem-solving, then teach them OOP. I came back to school at age 60 to learn newer techniques and 90% of the course is the same freakin' stuff they taught 30 years ago - with the new stuff tacked on as an after thought. Don't get me wrong, review's always a good thing, but as a student, how far ahead do I actually come out for the time and effort I'm asked to put forth?"

End Sub

Talk about misnomers. I'm taking a "technical writing" course. It is a condensed (eight week) class, and we are half way through it. So far we've written an email, a business letter, a memo, and a persuasive memo with, get this, citing in APA format.

WHO DOES THAT?

Besides ... time for adult learners is short, especially in a condensed class - So, do you want to teach students how to write a persuasive letter or do you want to teach APA format? I guarantee you that if the students approach the assignment conscientiously, they will spend far more time gathering and researching sources and worrying with getting them in APA format than crafting a persuasive argument! I can almost guarantee that if students struggled with how to cite (let alone in APA format) - either because they were rusty or because they were just learning this skill - their prose was choppy.

Grumble #4: For my part, I have a freakin' master's degree for going on ten years now, and have published a scholarly piece, and if I'm a little out of practice with citing and APA format, THIS IS NOT THE VENUE. I'm taking this class to learn more about technical writing, (I have written system and user manuals at work without the benefit of formal training). I'm looking for technical writer jobs. Teach me the finer points of 21st century technical writing and project management - not emails and everything else but!!!

Next we're going to do a resume and cover letter - do you have any idea how many classes and disciplines have had me do that same assignment? I don't, I've forgotten! All I'm wondering is when I'm done with this course, will I know anything more about technical writing than I did to begin with? And would any employer really believe the exercises in this class will qualify me for the technical writer position they are looking to fill?

Let's put it this way: not from the technical writing job descriptions I have read.

Okay. Apart from taking issue with some of the topics in the book, I do think the author of the text did an excellent job of modeling his definition of technical writing. In fact technical communication (Markel, 2010) is the best textbook I've ever seen in "practicing what you preach" or "modeling what you teach." (BTW, I have no idea if I cited that inline title correctly).

Conversely, Blackboard is an excellent NEGATIVE EXAMPLE of technical writing by Mr. Markel's definition. The student has to go to five different places just to figure out what the professor wants them to hand in and when and where. (And this is not the case with just the online English Class.) The sad news is that unlike Mr. Markel, we've missed an obvious and valuable opportunity in Blackboard itself to teach and to model the course objectives. The good news is that Blackboard does not have to be that chaotic. Well, not totally. I know because I took some rudimentary classes way-back-when in how to set up WebCT learning environments (before WebCT was assimilated by Blackboard). Again, institutions should scaffold and provide resources to busy professors in setting up effective distance learning environments in the institution's course management software rather than enforce some awkward "across the board" standardization of said product. The best approach would incorporate elements of both standardization and customization of online learning environments.

And wouldn't it be WONDERFUL if Blackboard provided some sort of one-stop-shopping view or organizer for students so that on any given day, or week ( or whatever or period of time) they could see on ONE screen what they had due for ALL classes? And if Blackboard just did this automatically for them? It's not unfeasible.

Grumble #5: Also if everything we write is supposed to be business format, then shouldn't the instructor be the model?

And putting a word count on posts while trying to teach how to write efficiently and concisely and effectively? I'm sorry, but that's just an oxymoron. I know the problem the teacher is trying to address - making students spend the time to produce high quality, original posts applying the knowledge gained in the course - but there has to be a better way.

Moving on from my classes to some general topics:

This whole concept of education as drinking out of a firehose is freakin' STUPID. It BLOWS. Yup, you guessed it - another rant coming on:

Begin Rant:

When you approach education in that fashion, often all you get is wasted bits and pieces of knowledge scattered all over the ground along with the dead bodies of students' (or employees') talents and abilities that with nurturing might have had a productive life in society. I don't care how busy business is and how fast they want their employees to learn. It has almost become cliche for an employer to say they want a fast learner in a job description. In this era of rapid technology change, we all know that's a given. What employers often mean, when they say this, is they want someone who either already knows the job and the organization perfectly, is magically on the same wave length, or is a genius or savant. Well, who can blame them for that. Those folks don't need training - but like the rest of us, they likely do need the employer to at least stay out of their way or not throw hurtles and barricades in their path in the form of an onboarding program run like your worst reality tv show nightmare.

End Rant

For my part, I would like to enjoy my life, and that includes ENJOYING this wonderful second chance I have been given to learn (as opposed to being rushed through it once again). And at age 60, who can blame me for that? By the way, I've been at the top of the class throughout my academic career, and to my surprise, I still am. I also helped break plenty of new ground at work during the desktop revolution and beyond. So I must have been able to learn "fast enough."

It's ironic that the education that (usually) costs money to get often has the poorest teaching techniques - while the education we get for free at least raises the odds that we get a professionally trained educator who knows what techniques match each task and how to apply them effectively. I know it takes a while for professionally trained educators to get up to speed with the demands from industry, especially in the IT field - because the folks out there learning and doing, and breaking new ground are not trained teachers - they are engineers and artists and what-have-you. When they return to academia to share what they have learned and created, they may or may not be effective teachers. If they are not, much of the cause can be attributed to lack of knowledge of good educational principles and best practices. And who can blame them for that? They were trained to be engineers, not teachers. However some of the problem can also be attributed to a professional or academic arrogance we don't even realize we have, and some to just not caring and lazy attitudes which ALL of us blindly have. And finally, some of the problem can be attributed to a highly inflexible imposition/implementation of standardization by the institution or state that disempowers and discourages teachers from plying their craft - as well as a lack of investment by said organizations in instructional support to scaffold teachers in making the most of their resources.

When I was young, the burden was put on me to learn - sometimes in spite of the teacher. However, now that I'm sixty, I'm no longer buying that crap. Yes, I have to construct the knowledge in my own head - and put forth that time and effort. And yes, it is true that you can learn something from everybody. But students, young and old alike, deserve to be scaffolded with thoughtful, effective, appropriate teaching techniques. And guess what, folks - that takes some up-front work, forethought, caring, and investment from the educators, the institution, and the state. And in educating the various stakeholders about that need, ATTITUDINAL learning may pose our biggest challenge - because not only teachers, but also administrators, politicians, and even students must question their basic beliefs about how to educate.

Maybe if we ALL were not so busy pushing and shoving ourselves and one another through life, students might actually take the time to learn and teachers to teach.

At any rate, teachers and students have to figure out how to meet in the middle. Ultimately, we should be molding learners who know how to take charge of their own learning and education. We should be scaffolding learners as they pursue their learning goals - because once they understand what is required, they alone may best understand how they need to accomplish it.

For example - perhaps I wouldn't find my adult learning experience so frustrating at this point, if I weren't sixty, faced with job-hunting, and struggling to stay out of the Walmart uniform for the rest of my working life (which now looks to be a lot longer than the traditional retirement age if I want to have any degree of financial security or comfort) - even though I've done some darn fine, useful, and lasting work in my career. I have been taking these courses gratefully, hoping they will scaffold / prepare me to take certification exams - if I can just grasp and retain all the material needed to pass them. Not only that, I enjoy my field, and I really do want to learn and understand this stuff.

But approaching every lesson like I'm going to have to remember it and be able to prove myself perhaps as much as a year from now takes me a lot longer than just flipping the pages and going through the motions of skipping, scanning, and cramming. After all, I am 60. How much longer do I have to get this right?

JuneBug

Other Lessons learned . . . Reflections of an Adult Learner

2010-10-20T03:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I lost my kitty Smokey. A blue-gray cat, with one eye just slightly larger than the other, he was just a starving little kitten when he appeared in our barn and garage last winter. I caught him and brought him into the house to tame him and feed him kitten formula so that he would be healthy and survive, and later took him to the vet for shots. It was still dark when I pulled out of our driveway in the early morning fog and saw something obviously not alive lying in the busy road and realized it was him. I was sad. On my way to take a scheduled all morning Work Keys exam at our local Work One Office, I couldn't stop. So I got out my cell to call Benny who was still sleeping, to let him know and to get Smokey off the road. When I got home much later that day, I covered him with pine needles, leaves, and all the flowers and herbs I could pick from my fall garden. Smokey was a pure ray of sunshine and a source of unmitigated love and devotion in this old world. He grew to be a healthy, happy kitty who enjoyed his home and left his people with fond memories of many sweet and funny encounters in his short tenure on earth. I don't think I've cried for ten years, but losing that little guy was truly something to cry for.

Yesterday was a day for paying attention. I took the entire Work Keys exam - again, because it had been five years since I took the last one. Several others just took sections. The proctor graded their sections during the break. One young lady was exhilarated when she learned she'd passed the Locating Information Section - the last requirement she had to fulfill. We all congratulated her, and she wished us all well as we went in to take the last portion of the exam and she got into her car to leave.

After the exam, I went to the McDonald's by Walmart on 26. A delivery guy from Jimmy John's had passed out free sandwiches to everyone at Work One during one of the breaks, so I just got a drink and salad to go along with it. Oh, yes, and cookies. What can I say - taking exams makes me hungry. At 1p I attended a Hub session at Work One - the Hub is part of a program called the Aging Workforce designed to assist displaced older workers primarily.

Next at Ivy Tech, I made a quick restroom stop before my 3p Visual Basic class. Another young woman was on her cell phone with a local childcare agency. She sounded desperate. When she learned that funding had come through, she almost broke into tears of joy. She proclaimed her good news and threw her arms around someone else she evidently knew who happened to be in the restroom. Of course we congratulated her too.

While we were waiting for the instructor to arrive to unlock the computer lab door, two of my classmates were talking, and one mentioned their sitter had gotten licensed and just doubled her fees. I told them about the girl in the restroom. My classmate said they had been on that waiting list for the last year and a half. Boy, I replied, wouldn't it be nice if Ivy Tech had a nursery school where students could just drop off their children, when they had no other childcare resources. My classmate said he'd had to to miss classes in the past when his childcare resource was unavailable or unreliable. He said it would be nice if they offered full time childcare and just added the charge to the rest of the student fees!

A childcare facility would be a great endowment project for some future benefactor of Ivy Tech to take on.

In class, we got down to business, which involved some group work. Another classmate, a quiet young man whom I'd been sitting next to for going on two months now, mentioned that he was tired today, kind of as an apology. We had never really talked much. Today he told me he'd gotten up early - about 4 a to go to work before class. Upon further discussion about our situations, I found out that he works 60 hours a week and goes to school. On top of that, since he is Spanish, he had to learn English and translate all his courses when he first started taking classes two years ago! I'd never really thought about that with programming languages. I said, "Gee, there ought to be a Spanish version of Visual Basic." He also has two children - he laughed when he opened his text and discovered his little girl had stuck stickers all over one of the pages of exercises for him.

This seems to be the week for getting back in touch. I'm going to attend an installation into Phi Theta Kappa for an older friend this evening, and most of my Thursday evenings have been spent at the Democrat Headquarters downtown, calling prospective voters encouraging them to turn out to vote November 2nd. Geez. Since I'm doing all that, I'd better not forget to turn out and vote myself, had I?

JuneBug

Smokey and Bon

Wouldn't it be cool .... Reflections of an Adult Learner

2010-10-15T05:31:00.000-07:00

I'm taking classes at the undergraduate level (even tho I have a masters) in order to update some of my experience with newer technology and to earn certifications - and for fun, and to learn things I've always wanted to but never really had opportunity at work. I am an adult learner. My masters degree is in educational technology with a concentration in instructional design and my teaching philosophy is of the constructivist persuasion. (I also have an associate's degree in computer programming technology - 1991, and a bachelor's in speech education - 1972.) Most of my work life has been spent in the technology field.

So far, I am four classes deep into my plan. I took a class in Excel 2007 this summer, and earned my MOS certification, and a Programming Logic class, as a review to get my feet wet with going back to school at age 60. This fall I am taking two courses, Visual Basic 2008 and Computer Graphics. And I was just thinking, wouldn't it be cool, if every time a student walked into a classroom, one of the walls was a visual map of where they had been so far (in the particular class) and where they were going. And if they helped build it. The map would represent our collective understanding as a class, and remind us that we were each in process of building a similar map in our individual minds. And we could have opportunities in class to discuss our journey with one another.

And wouldn't it be cool, if at least for an hour, we could be involved in a totally immersive process - however minute - so that at the end we emerged feeling like we had really accomplished something. Nobody really knows what works for busy adult learners who are probably trying to do too many things at once and most of whom just don't have the luxury of allowing themselves an immersion experience with their coursework ...

In our Visual Basic Class we are using the text An Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic 2008 by David L. Schneider. It is scarce on text and chockful of helpful and sometimes really mind-bending little exercises. In fact you really need to do the exercises to get the full benefit of reading the chapter - because author David Sanders is all about "show, don't tell."

So I was just thinking, what if the professor assigned the class two or three progressively more complex or challenging exercises out of the book, say on loops, thusly: two groups of students working an exercise at the board (just to give a visual or reference point), the rest of the students, either in groups, or individually, working it at their computers. I like the idea of small groups because it gives students a chance to talk about it and hopefully clarify their understanding. Then at the end of class, have each student individually work an actual problem from a certification exam to see how they do? And then regroup with students to see how well that worked as a strategy and what suggestions they had.

In today's undergraduate programming courses, one is likely to encounter students who are entirely new to programming and students who are experienced programmers needing to learn a particular programming language - with variations inbetween, say the traditional structured programmer needing to learn OOP. This current situation highlights the importance of also structuring the adult learning experience to allow each student to work within their zone of proximal development. One thing I have observed is that the professor can give the whole class one exercise, but allow each individual some wiggle room within the exercise to play, to explore, and to experiment (enough to keep it manageable, anyway, for both teacher and student). In my experience, students will tend to challenge themselves anyway to varying degrees. Of course review of basic concepts benefits everybody, the new student, as well as the relatively experienced student.

And here's a belated idea for the Programming Logic course I took this summer which used Raptor and JavaScript: Wouldn't it be cool to assign as a class project to write a Google Gadget in JavaScript?

My other class this semester is a basic Computer Graphics class - and so far we've been immersed in Photoshop, but are getting ready to leave that behind and start on Illustrator. What strikes me about this class is its strong psychomotor component (Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains). I suppose all courses that teach software packages have a psychomotor component, but this is the first class I had really even thought about it. That's because learning Photoshop is more like learning to play a musical instrument, than, say, the Excel 2007 course I took this past summer. At least to me.

While I'm not a huge fan of behaviorism, it definitely has its benefits in my current situation. Even though I've used earlier versions of Photoshop (more as a hobbyist and to "develop" my digital photographs) and other graphics packages like MacDraw and MacPaint (for drawing flowcharts and other systems-related diagrams) for years and even though I have benefited from the occasional employer workshop offering*, I would still classify myself somewhere in the beginner-intermediate continuum in Photoshop. I have a strong background in the concepts of vector graphics and raster graphics, but, in the case of PhotoShop, no idea how to use many of the tools. Unlike MacPaint, MacDraw, MSPaint, and PhotoDraw, PhotoShop has not been as easy for me to figure out. I think beginner level students in Photoshop might really benefit from opportunities to briefly observe a particular skill, like using the Pen tool, and then to try it out for themselves - and to practice it. Yes, believe it or not, I am talking about short, very specific drill and practice exercises. This would help them to better learn the tool, and to recall how to use it when asked to apply it to more complex assignments. Well, it would benefit me, anyway. So I googled the web for practice exercises and I did find a site called Mike's Sketch Pad that had pen tool practice templates that you could practice drawing.

Just for fun and off-topic, here's a couple of exercises I've done in Photoshop for my class so far:

Out of the frame effect

Product Ad

Well, on to practice some Visual Basic.

JuneBug

*I worked at a university for 21 years and I think introductory and even more specialized workshops in Photoshop, Fireworks, and Flash should be available to the university community as a whole - as a resource for professors to offer their students, and to take themselves, as well as to university employees. The whole university could benefit from this exchange.

Back to the Future - Reflections of an Adult Learner

2010-08-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

I recently completed two summer school courses at our local community college. I took one online course in Excel and one face-to-face class in Programming Logic at the local campus. I never dreamed I'd be going back to school at age 60 - well, not unless it was to follow in my parents' footsteps and pursue a Ph.D. But last year, I lost my job. I figured, like many other experienced and educated workers probably did, that certifications would prove the most efficient way to update my skills in the newer technologies that my programming degree did not cover or that I had not had opportunity to use in the work place. Specifically I was interested in graphics, all things web, and newer programming languages as they applied to design, which seems to be my passion. In addition to my IT background, I also have a masters degree in Educational Technology with a concentration in Instructional Design. So naturally, I can't resist reflecting on my current situation as an adult learner and have already written a couple of blog posts about my summer school experience. One of the posts includes an analysis of the online Excel course. In this post I'd like to consider the F2F Programming Logic Course.

My local community college allows people to attend for free after they turn sixty which I did this May. It also offers certification tracks as well as traditional degree objectives. Itching to get started, I enrolled in summer school, even though the courses I wanted were not offered until fall. I enrolled in the Excel Class to get an MCAS/MOS certification, and I decided to take an introduction to programming logic course even though I probably knew most of what the course would cover. I told my advisor (who also turned out to be our instructor) that I thought it would be a good way to get my feet wet, and that I figured that about 70% of the course would be a good review, and 30% would be new material. He agreed and signed me on.

I had so much fun with this programming logic course. It was so interesting to be able to compare my training 25 years ago not only to see how much the content had changed but also how the student population had changed, and how the methods of teaching the content had changed. I was a bit surprised at how much the content had NOT changed - much of the material sounded like it came straight from my programming classes 25 years ago. Of course the review was helpful. I was impressed with how much the teaching methods had changed. In the first place, we did not learn programming logic separately from a programming language 25 years ago. Unfortunately the language we learned was BASIC - various interpreter versions, plus a souped-up compiler version, which looked more like C and Pascal. Still, not really a big seller in today's market or even that of yesteryear. I liked immensely that Ivy Tech taught the programming logic part separately from imprinting us on a “dead” language.

Let's take a little trip down memory lane just for purposes of comparison. 25 years ago I was working full time whilst starting a second undergraduate degree, this one in computer programming technology. My first had been in education. While computer science had probably been around for 20 or 30 years or so, the university's new technology department was only six or seven years old. C was an elective class (which I also took in summer school), Apple had just come out with their GUI system, and Wndows, Visual Basic, and C++ did not exist. We learned on mainframes. Heck, I had only just missed the punch cards by a year or two! As I worked my way (slowly because programming courses were notorious time hogs) through the curriculum, the PCs began to replace dumb terminals in the computer labs. However they still acted as terminals to access a mainframe programming environment, with the added advantage of providing general word processing and other office productivity tools that students could use to do homework. My degree became a moving target as the curriculum changed to keep up with the times (eventually the department taught COBOL exclusively). OOP and event-driven programming were around, but the department would not catch up with these until the mid to late 90's or early 2000's. So back then we could only dream ... But in all fairness, it was likely that way that everywhere.

In contrast, Ivy Tech's approach to teaching programming logic was to use the familiar hierarchy charts, pseudocode, and flowchart symbols I had learned way back when but not emphasize any particular programming language. It was interesting to see how Pseudocode had standardized over the years. The course used a visual programming tool called Raptor, which allowed us to build and execute programs using flowchart symbols, and which, while not perfectly dovetailed with some of the concepts being taught, was still very cool, in my opinion. Later in the semester we used JavaScript which could easily be tested in our web browsers. I suppose a lot of Ivy Tech's choices, like Purdue's 25 years ago, were driven by cost and practicality. Back then BASIC was the omnipresent low cost learning tool. Today, Raptor is freely downloadable and JavaScript runs in any web browser. But I believe the Ivy Tech approach truly did teach us programming logic concepts along with the expectation / understanding that these would be implemented differently in different languages. (Actually I think I'd enjoy taking a computer science class sometime where we had to write a compiler. I think it would be really helpful to understand things at that level. But I digress.)

The textbook used this summer - Starting Out with Programming Logic & Design by Tony Gaddis was WONDERFUL. I was amazed at how simple it made concepts that once seemed so hard, and I appreciated the simplified real-world applications and examples. About the only fault I could find is that the text almost explained things too much. Adhering to pedagogical best-practice, it explained what it was going to show us (the concepts and algorithms). Then it showed us (the pseudocode and flowcharts). And then it explained what it just showed us (more paragraphs). Sometimes I was like, Okay I get it already, all these words are just slowing me down. But taking the time to process that right-brained intuitive grasp of things through the language center is an essential part of learning a software package- and especially beneficial if you will be training or supporting that software later on. As I read on, I sometimes discovered there was more to be learned. So I usually didn't skip. Part of learning is giving yourself enough breathing space, treating your brain to the luxury of a nice-long soak, taking time to renew an old acquaintance-ship rather than just giving it another passing nod as you dash by at a dead run. That's something you learn as you get older. ;)

Because the focus of the course was more on the logic than the language, the instructor scaffolded¹ us with the JavaScript by providing us with small programs to type in and then modify. My classmate Mark, who usually sat at the computer next to mine, shared an aha moment when he observed, "It's better to retype the program than to copy and paste it." I had resisted copying and pasting (well, for the most part) for that very reason. Later in the semester the JavaScript laid ground for introducing OOP. As an added benefit, it also introduced HTML tags, with "whom" I'd already struck up an informal acquaintance and much appreciated the more formal introduction.

Throughout the course the instructor did a great job inspiring everyone to work in their Zone of Proximal Development¹. The assignments and particularly the two logic projects allowed students to experiment and play at the top of their game while learning common core concepts. The class did skip the chapters on Sorts, Searches, and Recursion, considering that those concepts might best be postponed to a later course. I, however, did not want to skip those. So I read those chapters and implemented the three sorts in Raptor - Bubble, Selection, and Insertion. I added my own twist by pulling in a file and counting how many loops it took each method to sort something. Okay, so I was really curious, what can I say. I also implemented a recursive Binary Search both in JavaScript and in Raptor because I really wanted to learn about recursion. Don't get me wrong, the book handed us most of the logic in pseudocode, so I was just implementing - my point being that it was a great scaffolding technique to be able to take the book's logic and implement it with my own twist. Besides, if I'd had to recall those algorithms from 25 years ago, I'd still be working on them instead of on this blog article! (Although I am a programmer/analyst by trade, my work experience had not afforded much opportunity to use - or at least to write - binary searches and the various sorts through the years.) The scaffolding in this case encouraged me to go ahead and spend the extra time reviewing and revisiting concepts to clear up any remaining confusion left over from the years when everything was so new.

We were assigned regular chapter readings, homework exercises in pseudocode, and lab exercises in Raptor or JavaScript for each class. Every 4th class or so, we had a quiz which consisted of standard test questions as well as lab exercises. Our first logic project was to write a grading program in Raptor and our second, due at the end of the semester, was to write a game called WAR in JavaScript. The second project was especially fun. The final two classes of the semester covered Event Driven Programming and OOP. Our instructuor made the comment that he didn't know why courses always saved these til the end. He felt they should be introduced early on. I very much agree with that. Just because the foundational material emphasizes the control structures, file processing, and the concepts of functions, procedures, modularization, and scope, this shouldn't preclude "thinking in OOP," should it? He mentioned that he was writing a textbook, so I'm curious to see if he will include these topics early on. Since OOP was introduced at the end of the semester, we weren't required to use that approach on our second logic project even though it was implemented in JavaScript. But the instructor also allowed us to do two extra credit programs. So after writing a procedural version of the the War Game in which I implemented a binary search to help keep track of cards played, and a recursive error checking routine, I rewrote most of the program using an OOP approach for extra credit. It was a cool exercise. You may ask why I didn't write it in OOP to begin with? Well, I have self-studied OOP and I have used OOP a little at work - but it's been awhile, and I just needed to break down the problem procedurally to help me best conceptualize it in OOP. I suppose that's a normal jumping off point for procedural programmers and that they eventually get past it. It's sort of like learning a foreign language. You know you really know it when you stop translating it and start to think and dream in it.

The instructor also understood our need to see visual side-by-side comparisons, and developed tables comparing Pseudocode, Raptor, and JavaScript as we progressed through the semester. I suppose a similar approach could be adopted with procedural programming and OOP, just to get students to start thinking in those ways. A constructivist approach² might even go one step further and have students build (and share) their own comparisons over the course of the semester. In any case, I believe that side-by-side visual comparison is a particularly effective strategy for reinforcing the programming logic component of the course.

At the end of the semester the instructor told me he had enjoyed having me in class and that he hoped it was worth my time. It truly was. I think there’s perhaps an overlooked demand by colleges and universities for providing an affordable, doable way for IT professionals to stay current. I have to wonder how many of the people I went through classes with at Purdue are even still in the field. (I know one person who was convinced that computer technology was a better major than computer science who has since become a hospitalist.) People get knocked out of the IT field by rapid progress and lack of opportunity at work to keep up with it, and they often don’t realize that they need to keep going back to school. Gone is the era of when you're through, you're through - albeit just for a while. While the necessity of keeping up in one's field has always been a given, we used to have an expectation of moving on after finishing our education. When many of us finished our first 12, 16, 18, or 20 or so years of schooling, we were ready to discover that big world outside of school - work, relationships, hobbies, etc. If we did decide to go back to school, it was either to explore something entirely different (like I did with my programming degree) or to pursue an advanced degree (like I did with my Ed Tech degree). We also used to have different expectations for professional development opportunities. Times have changed and like the summer rains, many of us are flooding the hallowed halls of learning, our book bags and bifocals in tow, this time to earn certifications and to upgrade our skills in the same fields we started with not not that long ago.

JuneBug

¹Scaffolding, a concept introduced by Lev Vygotsky, proposes, among other things, that students can go further faster if you can find ways to scaffold them (my rough definition). This has to do with a student's "zone of proximal development which is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help."

²Constructivism's basic tenet is that knowledge is not so much transmitted as it is constructed. While a teacher or a text may present material, in the end the student must have encoded the information structures in his own brain to be able to use and retrieve them, a process known as knowledge construction, which also dovetails with theories of Cognitive Psychology. As a learning theory, Constructivism is more about a change in focus. It eschews traditional teacher-lead methods to suggest that learning activities be intentional in helping facilitate or scaffold the knowledge construction process. This approach is referred to as being more student-centered.

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On GPS's and Online Courses - Reflections of an Adult Learner

2010-08-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

I took an online course in Excel 2007 at our local community college this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it, but now that it's over, I realize that not all the insights I gained concerned Excel. Granted there were some pretty cool Excel moments - I've been using spreadsheets since the early 80's, but I have to admit to being WOWed and amazed with this newer version of Excel. And, yes, sometimes a bit annoyed by what it still did not do.

Even though I was a seasoned Excel user (as were many of my classmates, most of whom fell into the broad category of adult learners), I had wanted to add some certifications to my resume. I thought an MCAS/MOS certification in Excel 2007 would be a good way to break the ice. Although I'd had some formal introduction to spreadsheets early on in my IT career, so much of how we learned at the inception of the desktop revolution (before the certifications, degree programs, and the standardization that exists today) involved 90% intuition and exposure on the job, and 10% (re)reading the manual. ;) None of which I regret for even a minute - for me it was a fabulous way to learn. But intuition is right-brained and as such does not conveniently lend itself to words, which are how we communicate, teach, and convey concepts. (My grandmother must have been extremely right-brained because she would often say, "It's just easier for me to do it myself than to try to show you how to do it." This applied to cooking, housework, and most things, and was why I ended up being such a bookworm. But I digress.) While I probably intuitively knew 80% of what the Mastering Excel 2007 course would teach, I didn't know the new Excel interface or if there were far better ways to do what I already knew. (And I was really curious about pivot tables and how they were used!)

Our local community college offered the summer school class in Excel over distance through the program of Office Administration. While I signed on primarily to upgrade my skills and obtain certification, most of my classmates took the class as part of their various degree objectives. So what I would like to do in this article is consider the challenges of effectively teaching an online course in Excel to users of varied experience and motivation.

We purchased our textbooks, obtained our weekly assignments each Monday via Blackboard, and handed them in each Sunday before midnight. Each week usually included working through a unit in the textbook, completing chapter and unit exercises in a programmed instruction sort of fashion, taking a unit exam, and participating in a weekly discussion board topic. The instructor was available via email but we relied primarily on ourselves in true correspondence course fashion, and upon one another's advice on a Discussion Board reserved for help topics. I learned lots, but I don't know that I'd do an intensive eight-week Summer School online course again to prepare for a certification exam. Well, not without more roadmaps along the way.

Let me explain by telling a little story. This summer at a family reunion, we were discussing GPS systems. My cousin Barb, who is a seasoned teacher, said flatly, "They make you stupid." I snickered because her comment reminded me of a TV insurance commercial that always caught my eye. The commercial starts out in a car with a driver who's following the instructions of a friendly GPS voice. Music's playing, and everything's grooving like clockwork:

"Turn right in 20 feet."

(pause)

"Turn left at the next intersection."

(pause) ...

Then abruptly, "Turn right here."

(CRASH!)

The camera pulls away to show us the car sticking through a store front window as the dazed driver looks about in disbelief.

Hee.

While Benny and I don't own a GPS, our family reunion discussion also resurrected memories of our various driving excursions using Mapquest and Google. It dawned on me that the difference between using a map versus following step by step instructions, whether from a GPS or from Google, is that the GPS gives us the steps, but the map gives us a strong visual context in which to use our powers of reasoning. The task of navigating usually requires both skills. Furthermore, I believe our minds were made to see steps or details presented in a context. That's how we make sense of things. Otherwise, we're just driving blind.

The same concept applies to the online Excel class which consisted, in part, of using a textbook to complete assignments step by step in programmed instruction fashion. Actually the textbook was very well conceived. It was quite readable and presented material in digestible portions. It was well-organized and presented concepts in fairly logical progression (one exception being data tables, which were presented in a later chapter than the rest of the "What If" Analysis Tools, Scenarios, Goal Seek, and Solver). The book had many, many summary lists and tables and other visual cues, as well as review questions at the end of each chapter and unit. The authors very wisely included a fun situated case study of an ice cream company to which all exercises and homework related (yum). The book also reviewed and drilled us on earlier concepts as it presented new ones. However, the unrelenting step by step approach taken with the exercises became a bit tedious and frustrating. This approach is sometimes necessary, but learning a new task step by step, even with a little review and backtracking thrown in, can sometimes feel like "driving blind." The exercises also needed an overview, which the book did not provide.

To help us prepare for the MCAS certification exam, the book listed the MCAS objective numbers at the beginning of each chapter and throughout. However, it would have been nice to also have a list of the actual MCAS objectives - those were nowhere to be found - either on the web or in the class.

Not enought roadmaps.

No one in the class had ever taken the Microsoft certification exam. Researching online, we discovered that examples of the test were no longer available. No reason was given. A classmate eventually came up with a one page pdf file of the super-arching objectives, which did help. But essentially we were expected to gamble $85.00 on a test about which we remained pretty much in the dark - we had no idea how long it would take, how many questions were on it, what format the test would use, or what would be the best strategy to prepare for it. Needless to say, many of us were hesitant to pony up that much money in the face of such overwhelming lack of information.

Our text did a thorough job in covering Excel 2007 over the 8 week span of the class. I enjoyed the material. But to prepare students to pass a certification exam as well as to effectively use Excel 2007 in a workplace, I feel that it is important to scaffold the adult learner in strategies of comprehension AND RETENTION. The class mainly concentrated on covering a whole lotta ground in a short amount of time in step by step programmed instruction fashion. I was so focused on just getting through the chapter readings and exercises, completing the chapter and unit assignments, participating in the weekly discussion topic, and taking the unit exam by Sunday midnight, as well as keeping up with my other coursework, that I didn’t think, “What am I going to do to retain all this good information so that I have it when I need it?”

Well, actually I did, but my stop-gap solution was to copy the many helpful summary tables, tips, new information, and lists from each chapter with the idea of using them for a quick review before the exams. Copying pages and pages of textbook on one's all-in-one home printer, however, is probably not the most effective use of time or resources, and in the end, did not prove to be the strategy of choice. What I did wind up doing right before the certification exam was to revisit the text and construct my own Excel "job aid" workbook with notes, tips and examples, using many of the new skills I had learned. I only wished I'd thought of this early\ier on. This approach makes sense in view of two learning theories, Constructivism and Scaffolding, which now that I've mentioned, I will briefly discuss.

Constructivism's basic tenet is that knowledge is not so much transmitted as it is constructed. While a teacher or a text may present material, in the end the student must have encoded the information structures in his own brain to be able to use and retrieve them, a process known as knowledge construction, which also dovetails with theories of Cognitive Psychology. As a learning theory, Constructivism is more about a change in focus. It eschews traditional teacher-lead methods to suggest that learning activities be intentional in helping facilitate or scaffold the knowledge construction process. This approach is referred to as being more student-centered.

Scaffolding, a concept introduced by Lev Vygotsky, proposes, among other things, that students can go further faster if you can find ways to scaffold them (my rough definition). This has to do with a student's "zone of proximal development which is the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help."

Back to the summer Excel course. As busy as we were getting through each week's alloted activities, ironically too much was not enough. In addition to having us work through exercises liberally sprinkled throughout the chapters, the book had plenty of additional programmed exercises at the end of the chapter – plus suggestions for applications we could come up with on our own. It also drilled us on previously presented concepts while it presented new material. So in that sense, the book did an excellent job of scaffolding. But in summer school we only had time to complete about three programmed exercises per chapter, plus three for the unit before we had to move on to the next stop.

Not enough time to construct roadmaps.

We needed more time to play with concepts and to construct our own learning and retention strategies, which were likely different for beginners than for experienced users, or for people preparing for a certification exam versus people fulfilling a degree objective. For one thing, the experienced user has to unlearn established habits with a product and to integrate new information with a large volume of pre-existing knowledge and experience. The inexperienced user, on the other hand, is continually confronted with new concepts and the daunting process of constructing a whole "big picture." In terms of learning tasks, these are fairly different exercises in cognition, each difficult in their own right.

Part of scaffolding an experienced user to learn a newer version of Excel may involve (re)awakening and retraining them to use their powers of observation. Which reminds me of a drawing class I took in college. I remember one particular class where we spent three, count 'em, three whole hours drawing a chair. Just a plain old chair. The instructor kept repeating that he did not want us to draw our concept of a chair - he wanted us to draw THAT chair. Which all goes to show that getting someone to really see something is not as easy as one might think, and that analysis of the audience and the learning task is fairly critical to the success of helping the individual adult learner accomplish his or her goal and to accomplishing the overall course goals (one of which was to prepare students to take the Microsoft certification exam).

In preparing for the certification exam, I used the index to back-track through the step by step exercises in the text to review complex skills. It would have helped to have more quick and easy "how-to" references in the chapters - something visual that showed at a glance where we had just been. I also think the book could have spent more time building visual side by side comparisons - for instance we were introduced to named ranges, tables, list ranges, structured references, and data tables weeks apart from one another. With the lapse of time, these terms tend to run together, so it becomes important to scaffold people in keeping track of what each one means and what are the differences between them. As students, if we knew what was coming, we might have done that ourselves - but ... we were busy driving blind.

I also think McGraw-Hill, with whom I once interviewed, may have rushed the book to market because it contained several errors in the chapters and tests. This could lead to confusing or misleading students, especially distance learners struggling with new concepts. Two-thirds through the course I began wishing I had kept a list of errata. I also wondered if the company did a substantive formative evaluation, particularly in the context of a distance class and a distance audience of varied experience. A focus group may have proved truly helpful in this respect.

See, McGraw-Hill, you should have hired me. ;)

However, all things considered, it is probably beyond the scope of a textbook to accomplish everything involved in preparing learners to learn, so the better question to ask might be what is the balance or what are the roles of the instructor, the learners, and the text in an intensive distance class that teaches a new software product?

I think the designers and instructor of our little online summer course were well on the way to figuring that out. In the end I did get my MCAS/MOS certification. It was not the perfect score I had envisioned, but it was good enough (certification exams and scoring being a whole 'nother topic which I'll skip for now, except to say that with effective planning, institutions may be able to improve numbers of successful certifications as well as certification scores). I had fun with the class and with Excel 2007. There were moments in which I was wowed. I was able to achieve my goals which were understanding the new Excel 2007 interface, learning more of the complex features such as Pivot Tables and What If Analysis (as a programmer, I already had a good general grasp on functions and formulas), discovering better ways to get things done, and passing my MCAS/MOS Excel certification exam. The attrition rate seemed quite modest and other members of the class reported feeling similarly positive about their experience. Overall, I'd say that adds up to an effective albeit fast-paced summer school course in mastering Excel 2007! :)

JuneBug

Back to the Future - Reflections of an Adult Learner

Back to School at 60 - Reflections of an Adult Learner

On Dentists and Technology Obsolescense

Back to School at 60 ... Reflections from an Adult Learner

2010-08-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

God bless our local community college for being there, for being where they are, and for letting us go for free after we turn 60! And God bless my friend Julie for letting me know!

Twelve years ago I made the decision to follow the traditional route of educational progress and pursue a master's degree - for two reasons mainly. First, I had already earned two undergraduate degrees (a B.S. in Speech Education and an A.A.S. in Computer Programming Technology) and being from a family-full of postgraduates as well as having worked eight years in a research lab, I was very curious about the postgraduate experience. And second, I wanted to find a way to tie my two undergraduate degrees together. So I enrolled in a masters program in Educational Technology with a concentration in Instructional Design. I figured it was all win,win. I would wed two fields together and opportunity would follow.

But I suspected even then that I was merely postponing the inevitable - that the rapid pace of technology change had reversed the course of traditional educational progress - that until such time as society recognized and acknowledged this dilemma and came up with some viable and affordable solutions, many of us were destined to keep going back to ground zero at our local or online universities and colleges as the most practical way to keep up with our field, when for one reason or another our work began more and more to not afford us that opportunity (and employers more and more came to discard us like yesterday's trash - or should I say desktop).

I have to wonder how many of the women I went through school with in computer programming technology in the 1990's are still in that field (I know some who aren't). But, personally I am a technology die-hard. So I have accepted that I need to keep going back to school, to take courses that were primarily designed for degree programs I had already been through, that were building the basic infrastructure (for the uninitiated) that I intimately knew. Not that a periodic review hurts - at all! And don't get me wrong - I LOVE learning about and using cool new stuff and participating in the evolution of the desktop revolution. I have certainly bought books and gone through tutorials to self-educate since I finished my last degree -sometimes inbetween inspections whilst sitting on a factory line! I'm just saying that it was confusing twelve years ago at age 50 to have to make the choice between taking yet more undergraduate courses or pursuing an advanced degree at institutions who had courted me to do so.

All this leads up to this spring when after a year of being unemployed once again, I finally stopped postponing the inevitable and turned to my local community college where I'd heard that individuals 60 and over could attend for free. I had celebrated my 60th birthday in May. I have to say the college's advisors were remarkably and wonderfully understanding, encouraging, supportive, welcoming, and most of all, helpful. I talked to one generalist who then directed me to two department heads, one in Information Technology and the other in Graphics Technology - and after speaking with each of them I walked away with a clear sense of direction and purpose. See, it didn't make sense to pursue yet another undergraduate degree in the technology field. However, back when I did my degree work, certifications weren't that common. Now every employer is asking for a list of certifications, and many of the courses in the various programs prepare students to take certification exams. Ivy Tech's advisors helped me lay out a clear plan of action for pursuing certifications in my various areas of interest - whilst obtaining training with current and in-demand products previous jobs had not afforded me opportunity to use or learn.

Not that this entirely eliminates the tug of opportunity costs - my various areas of interest in the technology field are numerous. They include design, programming, graphics, and web-based technologies - and I'm not afraid to branch out to networking and technical writing and support. So the narrowing down process will continue as I wend my way through these certification strategies.

Although I was itching to get started and to take advantage of the extra time I had available for who-knew-only-how-long, many of the courses I wanted weren't offered til the fall semester. So I jumped into a programming logic course in summer school, mainly to review, and to hopefully get into some newer topics that would not have been covered in previous formal coursework. I also hopped programs and took an online course from the Office Administration Program because it offered an opportunity for MCAS/MOS certification in Excel 2007. So at the end of the summer, I could walk away with at least one certification.

Now it is August and I am finished - and I have one certification down - Yea!

Of course I can't help but reflect back over my summer school experience in light of my Instructional Design training and I will probably offer some thoughtful analysis and observations, probably in a series of articles. So, as they say, stay tuned ...

JuneBug

related articles:

Back to the Future - Reflections of an Adult Learner

On GPS's and Online Courses - Reflections of an Adult Learner

On Dentists and Technology Obsolescense

Charter Founder of Cafe Rienzi Passes

2010-07-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 17th, 2010, Uncle Tom Durant, one of the charter founders of the Cafe Rienzi passed away, just short of his 90th birthday. We love you, Uncle Tom, and we miss you.

More information to follow.

JuneBug

This Person Says It Best: I Am Not Disposable!

2010-07-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

What I have been groping for words to articulate for the last ten years, this individual has managed to nail on the head with passion and integrity, in his/her response to Interns Over Forty's article "What Do You Do if You are Fired in Your 50's".

Kudos and here's the link to his/her full comment:

I Am Not Disposable!

Good Job Hunting Tools and Links

2010-04-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

First of all some helpful online articles:

These Net_Temps CrossRoads Newsletter articles deal with some of my "favorite" bug-a-boos and dilemmas:

7 Steps to Writing an Amazing Cover Letter by Jimmy Sweeney (http://www.careerjimmy.com/)
The Likability Factor - Do You Have It by Linda Matias
Questions You Should Ask During the Interview by Carole Martin
Telling Your Structured Stories by Michael Neece (InterviewMastery.com)
Marriage, Infomercials, and Your Job Search by Kevin Donlin
How Pen and Paper Can Work Magic in Your Job Search by Kevin Donlin
Find a Job 65% Faster by Kevin Donlin (what I liked about this article is going in with the idea of generating a 30-60-90 day job plan - it brings together several other pieces of advice such as giving back and would certainly give you ideas about what questions to ask.) :)
How Your Job Hunt Can Threaten Jobless Benefits by Dona DeZube
Basics of Credit Reports and Background Checks (http://www.esrcheck.com/)
Four Techniques That Get Employers to Return Your Phone Calls by Deborah Brown-Volkman (http://www.surpassyourdreams.com/)
Dispelling the Four Great Myths of a Holiday Job Search by Lawrence Alter (http://www.employmentclinic.com/)
Get Past the Telephone Screening Interview by Robin Ryan
Two Ways to Get an Employer to Hire You by Kevin Donlin - I like the approach suggested by the author and have been trying it - albeit not successfully - yet (perhaps considering how to apply the advice with behavioural interview questions would be helpful). The article's focus also goes hand in hand with other articles I've read on "giving back" and contributing some tangible benefit to companies who invest the time in interviewing you - for lack of better words.
Reference Improvement Guide by Tamara Dowling - this article suggests an interesting approach to building your own reference network.
The World is Not a Scary Place by Deborah Brown Volkman - good Chicken Soup for the Job-Interviewee's Soul

And here's some help with networking:

Tweet Yourself to a New Job by Dave Weinberg ( Simply Hired)

Found another good writer at http://www.jobsearchinfo.com/:

Achieving Recognition at Work by M. Green
Clairfying Your Prior Employer's Business by Tim Cotroneo (a little something you might not think of adding to your resume)

Dice Newsletter is another resource (Their latest episode hit a home run with me):
Craving Autonomy? Try Managing Your Boss by Cat Miller - This article is more for job-holders than job-seekers. I had not considered managing the meeting thing so intentionally or persistently (I'm pretty easily put off if I'm "blown-off").
Lies, Damn Lies, and Job Projections by Don Willmott
Effective Follow-up Takes More than eMail by Elizabeth Lions - I plead guilty to preferring to communicate via email - for comfort and convenience (some folks might say "lazy") - and this article at least proves I'm in good company if engineers share this same trait. ;)
Three Questions to Ask in an Interview by Cat Miller
Unemployed? 10 Ways to Fight Depression in Your Job Search by Meridith Levinson (This article calls a spade a spade - a job loss is a loss - and the post traumatic stress of such events can impair our optimum functioning if we let it. This article has some honest and practical suggestions for dealing with discouragement and rejection.)

And happened across what I hope is a wonderful resource for jobseekers over 50 from AARP!

Job Tips and Resources for 50+ Workers
AARP’s Work@50+ Career Tools and Online Resources Can Help You Find the Career You Want

I came across the phrase "How to put a termination in perspective and handle it appropriately" (Judi Perkins) - here's an article on interviewing in that context:
Job Interview Answer: Why were you fired?

Articles with potential from Interns Over Forty:

Video Resume: Should Older Workers Use One?
Recipe for Success Within the Hidden Job Market (helpful hints for "Working the Room" among other things - makes sense)
Top Ten Tips for Older Job Hunters
Simple Five Tips When Sending and Creating a Resume (I found this article along with the comments at the Interns Over 40 Linked In site to be really useful and to address a topic I haven't seen covered before - namely how to name and organize all your electronic resume submissions. A similar treatment of all the different job submission software one encounters "out there" would be helpful.)
Want to Tweet Yourself to a New Job?
10 Phrases that could kill your resume - what I like about this article are the concrete suggestions for how to prove your assertions
.

Consider looking on Craigs List for Computer Gigs? - thanks to Jimmy Saloman's Work From Home - No Scams for this tip!

How about a Video, Flash, or PowerPoint Resume or Portfolio?

There are so many topics to consider while job hunting - writing resumes and cover letters, networking, online job sites, re/training, interviewing. Job titles morph and change over the years - one challenge is knowing what search terms to use to find good prospective job matches. Here is a site where you can take a free career test that seems fairly reliable to get at some of that information:

http://www.livecareer.com/

Now some practical tools:

http://www.pdfonline.com/ - this site will convert word documents to pdf format for free

I'll add to this list and update the date as I get time and add some other links to innovative job sites that help with another bug-a-boo of mine - networking! Several job sites are featuring an online chat feature with an employee at the company or using linked-in to find contacts at the company you are applying to. Also, employers are starting to encourage online networking as a valuable tool for assessing prospective employees. Others are sending out short "assignments" so that you can provide a relevant sample of your work during the interview screening process. Kudos to these innovators! (Wouldn't it be fun to help develop some of these tools? ;))

Happy Job Hunting!

JuneBug

Repost: Job Blogging - Is It Safe?

2010-03-11T04:46:00.000-08:00

Back in the ancient days before the omnipresence of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, I started this blog with the dual intentions of writing about my job search and my photography hobby. This was around February of 2006. Shortly thereafter I found a job and other things to write about. Unfortunately the economic downturn and high cost of health insurance put me back on the job market in 2009. But one of my very first posts in this blog was "Job Blogging - Is it Safe?"

This morning I came across an interesting article in Net-Temps' latest issue of their CrossRoads newsletter entitled How Social Media is Muddying the Waters for Job Seekers by Teena Rose. In the article she mentions a recent survey of hiring managers commissioned by Microsoft that reports 70% of U.S. respondents have rejected a candidate based on their online social profiles.

Hmmm ... Well, I'm not saying that I'm a prophet or a visionary or anything like that - actually my view back then on the potential of social media was a trifle more optimistic, but any tone of smugness detected here IS intentional- ha! :) Anyway, I thought it might be appropriate to revisit my thoughts on the subject back then. So here they are - probably in need of some modification in light of how social media and its use is unfolding:

The internet although widely used is still relatively uncharted territory for employees and employers. Exploring the unknown does carry some risk and this understandably makes people nervous.

For example. I am not and never have been a prospective employer so I am just imagining the following scenario:

Suppose you are an employer interviewing a prospective employee who tells you they are a blogger. Does this information make you worry about issues such as discretion and confidentiality and liability, not to mention "too much information" - ie) inadvertantly showing your hand to competitors or letting trade secrets slip out onto the internet? You may ask yourself, will this prospective employee be discreet and use good judgement? Is it even worth the risk?

These are real concerns. I remember a couple of years ago when I was working retail at our local mall. Our employer, a major retailer, told us to watch our conversations when we walked through the mall - particularly they didn't want other competitors to know too far ahead about upcoming promotions and sales. Now, carry that concern over to the internet and you can begin to see the problem ...

Moving on to the other perspective, that of the interviewee, say me, for instance, who in turn may be thinking ...

They asked me to bring a sample of my writing/web work. Should I even tell them about my blog? Will they trust me or will that make them nervous? I did write about cutting back on the job search while my husband recovered from open heart surgery - will they look elsewhere because I sound like I'm too old and too much of an insurance risk?

These worries are not so far-fetched - or are they? Faced with the unknown, one can't help but wonder...

But let's move to the other side of the balance sheet and consider some of the benefits of job-blogging.

It does allow you the blogger to offer another opportunity for prospective employers to get to know you under more candid circumstances than the formal interview. Certainly it gives employers a chance to observe you over a greater period of time. Also, a job blog can offer another source of information to employers to balance out the background checks and references and recommendations from previous employers. It certainly gives you an opportunity to answer and be heard. To have a voice.

Finally, because of the social nature of blogging and other online communication tools, you can offer employers the opportunity to see you at your best and at your worst when it comes to dealing with other people. Now what prospective employer wouldn't love to see that? :)

To employers I would say that because the internet is uncharted territory, we need people who are willing to get out there and explore and break new ground. So perhaps it's worth the risk? To those worried about trust issues, I would say that inherent in democracy is the belief that people are able to self-regulate and indeed function best that way. However, this also suggests that education, accountability, responsibility, and ethics should play a major role in a free society.

So ... to job blog or not to job blog?

Well, I'm not done with this topic but I am done with this post (for now at least). Can any of you think of additional risks and benefits of job blogging? I'd love to hear your perspective. In the meantime, happy Job-Hunting. It's a jungle out there! :)

JuneBug

Introducing Joan Durant- One of the Founders of the Cafe Rienzi - on YouTube: Interview With a Poet

2010-03-01T09:24:00.000-08:00

In my previous posts about the Cafe Rienzi, I have introduced my Aunt Joan and Uncle Tom Durant - a couple of the Rienzi's original founders. Laura Collins has done a breathtaking feature on my Aunt Joan Durant on YouTube which I am thrilled to present to you here:

YouTube - Interview With a Poet

And speaking of Painters and Poets - Archie Foxworthy

2010-02-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

I have posted frequently on this blog about my great-aunt Firma Duchene Philips, a well-known scenery painter and one of the charter members of the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival. I'd now like to introduce some other memorable folks from my youth - namely Archie and Mary Foxworthy. I spent my teenage years with my grandparents Claude and Helen Alward in Fountain County just outside the town of Wallace, Indiana. Every fall my grandparents would help Archie and Mary ready the produce and products they had raised on their Parke County farm to sell at the Rockville Covered Bridge Festival. My grandparents would tie bunches of bittersweet and help bundle other local fruit and flora such as persimmons and sassafras roots as well as various jams and jellies, I suppose. For many years Archie and Mary ran a produce stand on the corner of highway 234 and US 41, across from a little store called Jipville, where they sold the fruits and vegetables they had raised throughout the growing season. I got to know them there, and at Wolf Creek Community Church, and through Lodge and Eastern Star activities in Wallace. Also Archie had a sugar camp for as long as I can remember - and I have an oil painting of it painted by my Aunt Firma Phillips. The painting has also been around for as long as I can remember. When Parke County started the Maple Syrup Festival which runs from the last weekend of February through the first weekend of March, Archie and Mary became very involved in this event. In fact I'm looking forward to attending this coming weekend and buying some of Foxworthy Farms maple syrup. Now 93 years old, Archie is a musician, a poet, a humorist, and a philosopher. Duane Busick, an Indiana journalist, has produced a wonderful three-part series of videos about Archie entitled "Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure" which can now be viewed on YouTube - and the links follow below. I hope you enjoy meeting Archie and his family as much as I have enjoyed knowing them throughout my life.

Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure - Part One - opens with spectacular scenes of Parke County Covered Bridges as Archie picks his banjo with a hickory nut and sings in the background ...

Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure - Part Two

Archie Foxworthy, Parke County Treasure - Part Three

And here's my Aunt Firma's painting of Archie's Maple Syrup Camp.

JuneBug

Interview Crash or Refresher Courses?

2010-02-22T05:41:00.000-08:00

Someone should come up with an online site of "crash courses" for interviews - not just interview skills but some basic refreshers for skills one might not have used in a while throughout a life long career or education path.

You know, like, "Ack! I have an interview on Wednesday and I need a memory jogger on ... SQL statements ... or Statistical methods ..." It's not that we may not know these things, it's a matter of having them at the tip of our tongues for an event like an interview.

WizIQ or Slideshare might be the ideal place for it. Or of course YouTube.

Happy Monday and Happy Job Searching!

JuneBug

Introducing OFA's Health Care Action Center 2010

2010-02-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

Here's the link to a number of ways to participate. I tweeted my senator and representative. Let's keep pushing to get SOMETHING TRULY HELPFUL done ...

Organizing for America BarackObama.com Health Care Action Center

JuneBug

Thanks to ARAW and UNDER COVER BOSS, I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!

2010-02-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

To go along with the premiere of CBS's new reality series Under Cover Boss, American Rights at Work has started a site where you can sign a petition to Congress for the Employee Free Choice Act, and a blog where you can share your work experiences:

Fix Our Jobs

The comments are well worth reading! And sad. Not only have my long-held suspicions that I am not alone finally been confirmed, that if this had happened to me, it could well be happening to others (with no way of knowing), but in reading the comments I now realize the abuses are much more pervasive than I thought.

All I can say is in our passion and quest for democracy and personal liberty, let us not trade one form of tyranny for another. Let us not surrender our personal freedom to corporations and companies who have no respect for our lives and our values. Let us not turn over our destinies to those who can afford to limit our choices and to give all we grew up regarding as hallowed and precious to their children as a plaything. Let us not be deceived by the incessant, hypocritical, droning lip-service paid to inclusiveness, fairness, quality, nondiscrimination, empowerment, and health by company after company after company who fail to live up to what they proclaim.

After all the fallout from the current recession, the million dollar bonuses, and the inflation of executive salaries and perks by percents in the thousands, kudos to CBS or someone for coming up with a reality show that actually shows some potential to make life better for people everywhere.

JuneBug

P.S. Equally as enlightening, ARAW has another tab on Fix Our Jobs where people can write in why they love their jobs

The Death of the Desktop in 2010? New Trends for ITers in Mobile, Cloud, and Thin-Client Computing

2010-02-07T04:21:00.000-08:00

I've been leaning toward web and graphics these past few years as I think about enhancing my computer skills. These articles identify some emerging trends for IT job searchers in 2010 not the least of which are Electronic Medical Records and Social Computing:

Hot Technology Careers in 2010 - Mobile and Cloud from IT Job Cafe
Thin Clients are Roaring Back by Don Wilmott (this makes a lot of sense)

Junebug

Found a Good Article: Job Interview Problems and Solutions for Baby Boomers

2010-02-06T18:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Mark Ste Marie from Interns Over 40 for a fine article!

Job Interview Problems and Solutions for Baby Boomers

This article articulates the challenges faced by older job-seekers so well - that alone is worth alot! It also comes up with some good suggestions.

Also a notable quote from Michael Greene of JobSearchInfo.com:

"It isn't old age that causes lack of commitment, but old BELIEFS about experience and wisdom that causes companies to pass up highly talented individuals."

Thanks again!

JuneBug

Getting Your Name Off a Hiring Blacklist - WSJ.com

2010-02-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

Getting Your Name Off a Hiring Blacklist - WSJ.com

Wow. This Wall Street Journal article (link above) popped up in my Twitter List and it's been a long time coming. I suspect that this problem doesn't just happen during the job hunt. As I discovered recently, it may also extend its ugly hand through the years to yank you away from a newly found job. Let me explain. I need to live and work in a certain geographic area. Almost ten years ago, I made a decision to stand up for my civil rights at a state university - that's after a 21-year-career at same said institution during which I earned steady promotions, salary increases, and two additional degrees.

Leading one to believe the university valued my efforts as their employee.

In return I believed I was working in an unparalleled place of opportunity, flexibility, growth, and service. But then I accepted a position with one of the large computing shops on campus. The universe started spinning in reverse when I took that job, altho it took me a while to lose my rose-colored glasses. I worked with highly competent people and the job certainly helped me to stretch and successfully acquire some valuable tech and collaborative skills which I still use to this day - even with technology's advances. But in the end I hit a really ugly glass ceiling. I found myself under the thumb of a large and arrogant organization that wouldn't let me stay and wouldn't let me leave. I'm not claiming that I did everything right - but as I made my interests known and attempted to navigate a tricky terrain under an "unpopular" supervisor and to negotiate in reasonable fashion for my career goals (as I had been lead to believe possible after I put in a reasonable amount of time), I was given assignments that my supervisor wouldn't respond to for months on end - or else handed off to someone who had too little to do. It got obvious enough that my coworkers noticed and asked me about it (so much for team morale-building). Contrary to the advice proffered by career experts in how to interview, my experience and perception of the organization (or at least my subdivision) indicated that women were frequently hired out of pity or as a favor rather than because anyone held any real esteem for their aptitudes, capabilities, and interests. On the other hand, men were frequently given opportunities, despite their skills and experience. In my case, I tried everything positive I knew and had been trained by the university to do to get myself into a better situation. But eventually I had to take a medical leave of absence because trying to make sense of what was happening was making me sick - while supervisors kept making promises as the clock ticked away my hopes. After all, in my twenty-one years of experience, the university had helped many a good employee relocate - looking back, those were mostly men, however.

My brother-in-law, a retired head of department from the same university, advised me not to fight it.

"If you do, you'll never work anywhere again," he said.

He didn't elaborate. And I didn't listen. I thought my 21 years of good reputation, collaboration, accomplishments, and hard work would outweigh this one bad experience.

Well, turned out my brother-in-law wasn't completely right. I did work again. But mostly for people who knew me. While finalizing my master's degree, I worked a graduate assistantship, a position I somehow stumbled into under the university's radar. In my last two years with the university, I was able to finish two stellar projects which have become fixtures on the university's web site. But after that, nothing. I worked for a year or two in stop-gap jobs - restaurant, factory, and retail and collaborated on a scholarly article that came out of my master's project. Then I found work at a local not-for-profit. My new boss was one of my previous bosses from the university. I was grateful to find work again in my field - from someone who knew me and my work and was happy to rehire me.

I worked for the not-for-profit for two and a half years and continued to grow my skills. I learned about SharePoint and started setting up the organization's intranet to facilitate keeping track of complicated grant requirements. I did a considerable amount of Excel programming as well. At first the not-for-profit shared me with another organization, but when that alliance ended, my hours fell back to 30 hours a week. I was glad to still have a job. But in January of 2009 my employer's health insurance doubled. At the time, I needed to cover my husband (who had had valve replacement surgery) as well as myself. He eventually went on Social Security Disability and Medicare. But back then I knew that I would either have to find a second job or find a job with more affordable benefits. Then a wonderful opportunity came along to work for a new hospital in town - training clinicians to use electronic medical record software. The organization seemed to have a good grasp of who I was and what I had to offer. I in turn thought the opportunity was a wonderful match to my skills, interests, experience, and education. I took it at face value. It was almost too good to be true at my age and in this economy! Six weeks into training, I was stunned when the hiring supervisor turned on me like a snake. I mean it was out of the blue. It so flew in the face of good practice that I wondered if he'd somehow heard something bad about me if not through a black list, then through quasi-legal access obtained to my medical records, and decided to get rid of me, no questions asked. Although and alternatively, he may have felt he'd hired too soon when someone else turned up that he wanted to give the job to? The thing is, I'll never know. Why would someone would hire me in good faith, pay expensive top notch trainers to mentor me, and then go crosswise of their satisfaction and recommendations six weeks into the training process and fire me?

I can tell you this - that both he and his line leader got much more personally involved in the training of an employee who transfered in during my brief tenure. As well as being very qualified (she had onboarded as a unit tech when the hospital started in 2010), she also had the beauty of her youth. Nothing against her at all - she was a nice, knowledgeable, personable individual. She would have been fun to work with. She both deserved and fit the opportunity.

So, June Bug, coincidence or meow? Well, okay. I admit my experiences as an aging female employee may have made me overly sensitive.

Anyway, we hadn't discussed the negative aspects of my experience at the university computing center in any great detail during my interview - and not because I tried to hide it. I do not omit anything or anyone from my application and resume. What could be a greater peace offering to my former bosses than to say, "Hey, I learned a lot of good stuff when I worked with you guys which I still put to good use and eventually, you even used some of my work. No matter what our differences were, I'm in a place where I trust you to do the right thing - and however you may choose to respond, others will balance out the picture - so I won't deny you your chance to be heard." After all no one is perfect. In arriving at the final group of candidates, interviewers seek to satisfy two basic requirements - do we have a good (best) match in compatibility and do we have a good (best) match in skills? I was certainly prepared to address any of my interviewers' concerns, while hopefully keeping my best foot forward. But the "right" opportunity to discuss these particular experiences did not come up in the initial hiring process - so I am left somewhat sadly wondering what happened at the end.

The irony is that my previous employer, the not-for-profit, wanted to keep me. They couldn't compete with the offer from the hospital but they did make a counter-offer that would have helped me afford the health benefits. But I'd had previous experience in the nineties bringing in new systems at a university medical facility, and I thought it would be so exciting to work in a new hospital, training clinicians to use state-of-the-art electronic medical records software, something we only dreamed of at the university health center. The fact that the country now had a universal healthcare initiative under our newly elected President only fueled my enthusiasm. And the salary would have made me and my family more comfortable than we've been in a very long time. Ah well, I did get to write a four part series on training the EMR afterwards and then spend time on working my old farm house ...

My latest job search has lasted a while, and has not yielded results as yet. It probably doesn't help that I am now pushing sixty. It doesn't help that I'm not feeling as confident about that. But the good news is that at sixty, you really DO have less to lose - so why not just be yourself?

Ah, Sweet Freedom ... to just not have to give a damn about participating in dog and pony shows which may or may not yield up the best candidate ... It's like ... here I am, folks. I certainly enjoy a mutually enlightening conversation. But really, my work is out there and it speaks for itself, so take it or leave it. I'm a good person, a good employee, and a good worker. I'm flexible, I'm very open to change, and I'm very committed to (re)learning, improving, and furthering my professional development. I'm humble. In the absence of knowing best practices, I gratefully recognize, admire, appreciate, and follow good examples. I do good work, I get things done, and I get along well with people. And while I am putting on a few gray hairs, I have a lot of knowledge, wisdom, and experience on which to build, and there's still a lot more I'd like to learn. And a word to some of you younger folks coming up behind me in the workplace - if I have mentioned opportunities here that you envision being in your future - then you'd better start helping to build it now - by creating a workforce that includes opportunity for aging employees - because one day, they will be you.

In closing, this Wall Street Journal Article on black lists is interesting - in the fact that it acknowledges that they exist. The comments are good too. These black lists, among other things, serve the dubious value of re-opening old wounds. What good does that serve when all people really need and want is a chance to heal, to go forward, and to move on? In short, to be able to learn from the gifts of their experiences and their lives? While losing my job at the university seemed devastating at the time, in retrospect it opened other doors and allowed me to realize life-long dreams. It also allowed me to continue to season and mature as a human being and as an employee.

So in lieu of black lists, let's hear it instead for second chances!

June Bug

Are Applicant Blacklists Legal? (http://www.thehrspecialist.com)

YouTube Blog: Your Questions for President Obama

2010-02-02T04:36:00.000-08:00

Ah, the growing power and significance of Social Media ... Twitter ... Linked-In ... Facebook ... Flickr ... YouTube ... Blogger ... SlideShare ... I believe it trumped conventional politics to make all the difference in the past Presidential election! I marvel at how it's grown since I onboarded twelve years ago as an online message board poster in a fan community for a TV show called Prey. I eventually became a webmaster myself and set up various sites and message boards. I was so amazed when the desktop computer I got to do homework and balance the checkbook morphed into a powerful communication tool before my eyes. But that's another story...

Anyway, in investigating Social Media as a networking tool for my job hunt this new year, I came across these (unrelated) links & thought I'd share! YouTube is pretty excited about them and with good reason ...

Enjoy!

JuneBug

On the Clock Advice

2010-01-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

A lot of my posts - and a sub-theme of this blog - revolve around the job-hunt. When I got a job I thought it would be interesting to switch to on-the-job topics. But when you start a new job, you generally get very busy and ... well ... good intentions ... you know how that goes ...

Now I'm on the hunt again - but I did come across this helpful article by Mary Pratt from Computer World for those who are on the clock and I wanted to share it. The comments are pertinent too.

Your Tech Career: How to Cope with an Unsupportive Boss

Lately I've been reading a lot of career advice articles, and I frequently come across the observation or statistic that more people report being dissatisfied with their jobs than ever before. So I hope this will help those of you who are restless with your on-the-clock. :)

June Bug

Great State of the Union Address Last Night, President Obama! :D

2010-01-28T04:28:00.000-08:00

State of the Union Address 2010

Now I too am reinvigorated and hopeful for our county's future!

Insurance Companies Back Health Care Reform?

2010-01-27T05:41:00.000-08:00

Locals Rally for Health Care Reform

I attended a local Health Care Rally (sponsored by Move On, Yes We Can Tippecanoe from Organizing for America, and the Lafayette Peace Coalition) outside our courthouse yesterday. BRRRR! I thought it went really well - passers-by seemed supportive and receptive. And boy are my arms sore from holding a sign high above my head for half an hour to be more visible to folks driving by .... (I'm the gal in black in the picture below and I really need to get more exercise) ...

Ages of participants ranged from 13 years old to 94 years old - and the local tv reporters were there and featured us on the evening news! (By the way, the 13 year old is an avid activist as well as a home schooler and I admire his mom for making this event part of his education.) I also admired his astute sense of humor. At times we chanted slogans (to help keep warm as much as anything - hee), so after a few rounds of, "We want healthcare," he suddenly switched to, "I feel stupid!" I had to laugh - an unlikely collection of demonstrators, we all looked a bit uncomfortable out there in the freezing elements - but we were all willing to push past our comfort zones to support health care reform. Unfortunately Evan Bayh wasn't willing to push past his. His response was disappointing, out of touch, and ... clueless? Well, at least as Channel 18 reported it.

And thanks to the lovely lady from Lafayette Office Supply who, wearing no coat over a silky blouse with sheer sleeves, gingerly made her way across the street to invite us all in to warm up with coffee, tea, and hot chocolate! Just wrapping my frozen fingers around the steaming styrofoam cup warmed me up all over! Except for the frozen toes. ;)

I did learn something interesting while talking to one of my colleagues at the rally. He had read an article in an insurance industry trade journal. Apparently insurance companies are fast losing their customers. The first wave of baby boomers are reaching the age of medicare eligibility. On top of that, massive unemployment and job loss has made health care insurance unaffordable for many. Also employers are dropping coverage because they cannot afford to provide it. So apparently the insurance companies are looking to health care reform and the government to guarantee them $30 million or billion in revenue or whatever! As a result, we may see more Republicans supporting health care ...

Just a heads up - and keep warm out there!

June Bug

What Next for Health Care Reform? A Progressive Caucus Poll

2010-01-22T11:43:00.001-08:00

The Progressive Congress seems to have a very sane approach - they are asking for suggestions and ideas to feed back to Congress about what to do next about Health Care Reform. Here's a link to people's responses so far:

http://feedback.progressivecongress.org/forums/38781-what-s-next-for-health-care-reform-jan-20-2010/activity.atom

I thought the comments were varied and helpful. It helps to have a thoughtful discussion in a democracy. Which you can't do if only one voice is talking. Or if people are simply throwing party lines at one another. Only with a thoughtful discussion can we truly get to know one another and begin to see what our options are!

I participated in the calling in Massachusetts, and while it was an interesting experience, I'm not sure it was an effective way to campaign. It really sounds like the Democratic candidate should have done her homework - and not fallen back on Organizing for America as a last-ditch campaign strategy. People don't like to be bombarded with sales pitches - whether it's a sales call or a campaign call or even a fund-raising campaign for a good cause. With today's technology, a lot of people let their answering machine take calls when they don't recognize a number. I know I do.

On the other hand, if someone legitimately needs to know when the poll is open, or where it is, or how to get a ride, or even that their vote is critically needed ... a brief message on the phone with some helpful information may be appreciated.

It's hard for the average joe/jane (like me) to understand the health care proposal. I know I found it a little disturbing when Physicans for a National Health Care Plan said they couldn't support it. Huh? They found it fatally flawed. Apparently the insurance and drug companies are going to make more money than ever.

Huh?

I thought the idea was to cut costs and make health care more accessible.

Okay. So now what are we supposed to do? Nothing? Well, I don't know about everybody else, but that won't fly with me. While I am grateful for last November's historic election, glad I voted for President Obama, and glad he won, health care reform was THE determining issue for us in picking a candidate. It would have also been a historic election if Hillary had been elected. And maybe, she could have gotten us a better health care bill. With her previous health care reform experience as First Lady, as well as her recent experience as the Senator from New York, I'll bet she would have been tremendously helpful! But instead she's running around as Secretary of State ...

Ah, well, I digress. Anyway, take a look at what fellow Americans think in the Progressive Congress poll.

JuneBug

Flowers from Summer Storms

2010-01-21T10:42:00.001-08:00

Flowers from Summer Storms
Originally uploaded by Prey_Momma

Just testing the flickr interface

People age 55-64 find it hard to rebound from unemployment, but are the wave of the future?

2010-01-19T11:03:00.000-08:00

Yes! Someone FINALLY noticed! I knew I wasn't alone - that if this was happening to me, there were others out there grappling with a similar dilemma!

Check out this article tweeted by heymarci:

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/1421791.html

Thanks to reporter Cindy Krischer Goodman of the Miami Herald for noticing and for giving us a voice!

I lost a new job last April when I was 58. And while I have to accept some responsibility for allowing myself to be duped away from a two and a half year stable job to take a job that lasted only six weeks, shame shame shame on those who practice such irresponsible and hurtful hiring practices (all the while proclaiming they want to benefit community health and be seen as a premiere employer in the area)! I know it sounds harsh, but American workers are tiring of such corporate hypocrisy (and the growing wage disparities as well). After all, the only reason I started looking for a different job was because health care premiums had doubled, and I knew I had to find either a second job or more affordable benefits. But now, if it weren't for President Obama's ARRA discount, I wouldn't even have health care.

Seems as if management theory has been promoting more and more horrific management practices the past few year (and the propagators likely paid rather well, I might add) - but where do these ideas come from? In the eighties and nineties, participative management emerged as a management theory. It was both energizing and empowering. Along with more inclusive policies for women and minorities in the work place, it helped create opportunity, therefore it must have indirectly fostered economic growth. Like the GI Bill after World War II, it built the confidence of a generation. It encouraged exploration and new ideas. And then it disappeared. What ever happened to it? Of late, I really wonder if managers are turning to reality tv shows as their models. If this is truly the case, it does not improve life in the American workplace, needless to say, but rather seems just another way in the popular trend to be outrageous.

But perhaps I digress. Ageism is an age-old issue and it has touched all groups, whether privileged or marginalized. When I encounter ageism in the workplace, I just think, "May you also be blessed with health and long life. And don't you know you're looking at your future - and don't you want to make it better?" And when that person is actually my age or older and hasn't a clue, I think, "There but for the grace of God go ...."

I hope we can get back on track and make the work place a better place for all Americans to work for future generations. A good place to start may be to join organizations like American Rights at Work (araw) and to support the Employee Free Choice Act. As well as putting some checks and balances on the abilities of individuals, corporations, and I suppose whole industries to buy our elected officials. Sigh. We have enough of that already. The current disparity of wealth in some cases is such that a single business entity or individual could "trump" the wishes of a whole democracy. And historically, human nature seems to favor the odds that they will. And if they do, will we still be truly free?

The second half of the title of Cindy's piece (that we may also be the wave of the future) is definitely more upbeat and hopeful - and that should give us incentive. :)

JuneBug

History of a Haitian Holocaust: Information Clearing House - ICH

2010-01-18T04:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, here's an eye opener about Haiti and the relief effort. You'd think we'd learn from Katrina. We have trouble getting organized to respond timely to our own citizens!

History of a Haitian Holocaust : Information Clearing House - ICH

JuneBug

I wonder if our private groups and not-for-profits have been able to respond more quickly and effectively? It would be a good question to ask ...

Ron Paul: US has broken with reality, sanity, and rule of law; calls for "Revolutionary changes"

2010-01-15T06:00:00.001-08:00

I really like Ron Paul. I think a lot of people do.

Ron Paul: US has broken with reality, sanity, and rule of law; calls for "Revolutionary changes"

Ron Paul: This Speaker Says It All

JuneBug

Posted using ShareThis

Job Seekers' New Year's Resolutions by Jobs.Com

2010-01-12T07:43:00.001-08:00

Don't know if I agree with all of these, but it's a good start for a new year! With the clutter of the holidays behind us, and the pristine new year before us:

A Job Seeker's New Year's Resolutions by Kristin Bennett

Happy Job-Hunting!

JuneBug

How to Slum Your Period of Unemployment in Style - This Old Farmhouse Tour

2009-10-28T05:54:00.001-07:00

Greetings again, everyone! Ever dreamed of living in a 100-year old house? Or of having a hobby farm? Or just plain curious what living in an older house might be like for modern day humans? Or looking for ways to spend your time and limited resources in a down economy - when you're not job-hunting, that is? Live history vicariously on This Old Farm House Tour!This recent period of unemployment has finally allowed me to finish moving in to our "new" house - and to write about the journey.

Enjoy!

digital image developed with Adobe Lightroom 2.5

This Old Farmhouse Tour

JuneBug

Checking in after getting my head above water!

2009-10-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings! I feel like it's been awhile! I had good intentions - and several ideas for blog articles - during this summer of my unemployment - healthcare, the real economy vs the fake economy ... and then during August and September I got totally sidelined with fixing up and writing an article about my old farmhouse. And gardening, cleaning, and fall planting. Sigh. While I did write my congressmen and senators about supporting healthcare reform, I have yet to call them. However, I have written two letters to the editor and proffered a speck of financial support for the cause.

It's good to hear that the Senate has just come up with with a bill that includes a Public Option. (Actually, it's good to hear they came up with a bill period!)

Anyway ... I've also been working on the job search and cover letters and resume drafts. Online tools for job-hunting are getting a lot better - wouldn't that be a fun job? Designing online tools to facilitate job-hunting for folks?

So I hope to have some subjects for posting ... stay tuned!

JuneBug

Why I Support Health Care Reform

2009-08-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

These are hard times. However for some Americans, it’s always been hard times. Back in the 80’s and 90’s when I had a good job in my field, my hair stylist contributed to my financial success by keeping me looking stylish, sharp, professional, and well-groomed. Only a few years older than me, she is passionate, talented, experienced, and devoted to her craft. She is good at what she does, and she has developed a loyal customer base. For years she has put in 60 and 70 hour weeks on her feet to take care of her customers and pay her bills and support her family. I used to feel bad because she didn't have access to an affordable comprehensive health care plan, or even sick leave or a pension plan all the while she was helping me to have all of those things. I felt especially bad when she had to leave her chosen field and even sell her home because of health problems and because she worried about a retirement income a few years ago. I have to wonder how many people in the health and beauty field have faced a similar dilemma. And yet what would we do without them?

Another person who has never had access to health care is my daughter. She has built her career and considerable expertise as a server and a cook in the hospitality industry on the east coast and locally. She has always had to pay any health care costs out of her own pocket or go without. Still in her early forties, she is a young and healthy woman. But what will happen to her when she reaches age fifty and beyond? She will certainly start to need more preventive healthcare services. I have to wonder how many people in the food service and hospitality industry face a similar dilemma. And what would we – and what would the American economy – do without them?

Recently I’ve come across hard times myself. This January my not-for-profit employer had to double its insurance premiums. I knew I either had to find a second job or look for a new job to be able to afford health care. I was incredibly thankful when an opportunity that looked good on the surface opened up with the new hospital. Although my previous employer wanted to keep me,I decided to go to work for the new hospital for better pay, better benefits, and an exciting opportunity to train clinicians on how to use their new electronic medical record software. Unfortunately the new hospital fired me after 8 weeks. Now, at age 59, I am without a job and any income. Initially my unemployment was denied. Of course I appealed and the State found in my favor – but it has been 4 months since I lost my job and as of this writing I still haven't received any unemployment compensation from the State. In the meantime, I’ve pretty much exhausted our savings and have had to cash out pension funds early to pay the bills – at a time when pension values are down and even though there could be a huge tax disadvantage. I can now understand the sense of abandonment the victims of Katrina must have experienced as they waited and waited while the people and institutions they thought they could count on never came to help them.

In my case I haven’t been waiting – I’ve been job-hunting and otherwise getting on with my life. But age 59 is a hard sell when you are a woman in the technology field with family to look after in the Lafayette area. Even if you look in Indianapolis. If it weren’t for President Obama’s 85% COBRA discount, I wouldn’t have health care. But so far I have been able to make the monthly payment because of it.

I have decided to share my story on this blog to add to the sheer mass of voices of people across the nation who need jobs and who need quality, timely, and affordable healthcare. Let’s face it – like the auto industry, the health care and insurance industry has had YEARS to address this problem. They have totally dropped the ball all the while increasing their own salaries and bonuses by orders of magnitude as they left the average American worker behind in the dust. It is time to solve this problem. The American people voted for Bill Clinton in 1993 because they wanted Health Care Reform. We watched as the focus shifted instead to balancing the budget. Then we watched another eight years as George Bush and the Republicans made a total farce of themselves, their party, their values, and the whole concept of balancing the budget – all the while evidently thinking that we the public are stupid or that we’ve forgotten.

Well we haven’t. We voted for Health Care sixteen years ago, and we are still waiting. My COBRA runs out 9 months from April. If I am still unemployed by then, I hope that the United States will have affordable, timely, quality health care options for me and anyone else who needs them.

JuneBug

Go see Julie and Julia - it's a Treasure!

2009-08-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

The movie Julie and Julia will make even the lukewarm cook aspire to "Master the Art of French Cooking." Currently unemployed, I even checked out our local Good Will to see if there might be a copy languishing on the shelves. No such luck. This movie put it back on the best seller list.

Julie and Julia has something for all the generations. Not only about cooking, it's also about life, love, finding meaning and being heard, the political environment, family relationships, and parents and children. If you were alive during the period depicted by Julia Child's memoires, this movie will bring back memories. If you came along later - you'll find a lot of commonalities with history. And what blogger young or old couldn't relate to Amy Adams (aka Julie Powell) as she wonders if anyone is even reading her blog? Or what aspiring writer struggling to "birth" a best seller couldn't empathize with both "Julies"' efforts to get published? What woman who was ever "too" large or "too" tall or "too" whatever in any era won't relate to Meryl Streep and Jane Lynch as they depict the tall McWilliam sisters who came of age when the average height of American women was 5'4"? What woman couldn't empathize with Julia's sorrow at being childless and her quest to find something else to do with her life that could possibly be equally rewarding or as meaningful? What person who ever had a parent or who grew up in dysfunctional family or in the fractured disconnects of the 20th century won't chuckle or snicker at the interactions between the generations in this movie? (heck, my elderly mother and aunt practically dragged me to this movie kicking and screaming. I did not want to go - I thought I was too busy. But I went anyway - out of daughterly/niecely duty. Some people call it guilt.) And what person who ever had a nine to five with all that implies (or a 7 to 4, or 6 to 3, or a whatEVER) couldn't sympathize with Julie Powell? (Or with student Julia's struggles through French Cooking School with her headmistress from hell?) Yet both "Julies" manage to show us how to handle and even side step life's dead ends with creativity and grace.

The richness and the flavors of French cuisine permeate all aspects of this movie - it shows how far we've come and in some respects reminds us of what we've lost. In the end, it is as much about "mastering the art of living" as it is about "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." The performances are superb (special kudoes to Meryl Streep) - this movie is a treat in every way. Go see it! You won't be sorry! And a big thankyou to Nora Ephron and the creative team for bringing us this wonderful gift!

June Bug

Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective - The Patient's Point of View

2009-08-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

I thought I had completed my 3 part series on Training the EMR:

But then, as fate would have it, I landed back in the middle of it with an unexpected trip to the ER this summer. As mentioned in the earlier articles, I spent 8 weeks as an EMR trainer at a new hospital in our county. The new hospital used Cerner software, but my intent in writing the series was to apply/discover principles that could apply to training an EMR in general.

Anyway, back to my story. A few years ago my husband and I fulfilled a life's dream by acquiring three acres of land with a 100-year-old farmhouse and two newer pole barns where he could work on antiques and have horses. While the house had been kept up very well (for its age), it was in need of a new roof - so this summer the old gal got a new "do." :)

We had contracted with a German Baptist gentleman in a neighboring county and so were rather surprised when a team of four Mexicans showed up to do the work. Extremely hard-working and agile, they managed to take the old shingles off our steep roof and put the new shingles on in a day and a half. This included a trip to the emergency room about 8:00 p.m the first day when one of them slipped and got a splinter that went through his palm by his little finger and protruded out of the back of his hand -- Ouch!

I'd like to make a little detour off the subject here - just long enough to
mention that during the summer months, when the sun sets at 10:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. is
waaay too early to close the Urgent Care Clinics which are part of the health care system in our area.

I have no criticism of the ER staff other than the length of time it took to get around to actually removing the splinter. They put us immediately into a room - and didn't fiddle-faddle-dawdle around about insurance. Which is what you would expect of a patient-centered facility. They made a valiant attempt to communicate with the injured young man who didn't speak English, as they tried to locate a translator. They were humorous, professional, and reassuring - and likely happy - not for the calamity, but for the business.

As I watched the nurse do the intake and initial assessment and medication reconciliation, I thought back to my training stint and tried to picture the computer screens she was working with - even though I hadn't dealt with Cerner's ER module.

I could also tell that the young man was starting to be in quite a bit of pain. As the clinician sat and gazed into the computer with furrowed brow and worked through the questions, he sort of looked at her puzzled - as if to say, "Yoo hoo, I'm over here." Then he glanced over at me and smiled and shrugged.

In all fairness, time often seems to move slower in hospitals - at least from the patient's - and family's perspective. My own term for this phenomenon, coined from various experiences with friends and relatives through the years, is hospital time. Actually, since my EMR training, I now know there truly is such a thing - it's referred to as the standard medication administration schedule and Cerner allows half an hour to fifty minute window before a dose is considered to have been missed (if I remember correctly). Anyway, noting that my young roofer friend was not being actively attended to, I asked a nurse if he could at least have an aspirin or something for pain (because I know first hand what a bad splinter feels like - and I was starting to get sympathy pains just looking at him).

"Of course," she said. And of course he got it - in hospital time. But eventually they got him all fixed up - and he was back at work the next day!

Reflecting back on this experience, it's easier for me to understand the resistance some healers may feel toward an EMR. Despite all the ways devised to make them unobtrusive - stationing computers outside each patient's room, having WOWs (Workstations on Wheels) and COWS (Computers on Wheels) on the units, and having clinician work areas behind the nurse's station, computers still seem to insert themselves between the healer and the patient at, well, inappropriate times. Or so it feels. Educationally, this concern is reflected in the comments and requests voiced by my students. They wanted access and practice time outside of class to get to know the forms they were going to use - because, as more than one person said, they did not want to appear to fumble in front of a patient.

It's a legitimate and professional concern - and I don't know entirely what the answer is, other than to give clinicians as much access as they need during the training period for them to feel comfortable and facile with the EMR. This would include manuals, and access to simulation tools outside of class - both at work and at home. Perhaps my readers may have other suggestions as well.

JuneBug

Coming Full Circle

2009-08-01T04:54:00.000-07:00

As noted previously in my blog, this winter I had an opportunity to work as an EMR trainer for a new hospital in our county. Before that I worked for two years at a local not-for-profit agency as their Grants and Compliance Specialist during which time I designed a grant reports tickler system to keep the agency compliant and our grantors happy. I enjoyed my job at the agency. The impetus to change occurred solely because of healthcare. In January insurance rates doubled - and I knew I would either have to find a second job, or find another job with more affordable benefits. I felt incredibly fortunate when the EMR trainer opportunity came along.

Unexpectedly, the position lasted only 8 weeks and I found myself in the unemployment line after several years of gainful employment. Even so working with the EMR was a great learning experience and opportunity to round out an area of my professional development - namely training and presentation skills (and learning an EMR). I ended up writing a four part series on Training the EMR. Another really cool thing is that recently I had an opportunity to bring what I learned back to the agency when they had me return to train my replacement.

I find it interesting to compare the two different training situations. In one I was learning how to teach clinicians the EMR. In the other, I was training the new Grants and Compliance Specialist how to use SharePoint in the context of the tickler system I had designed. The differences? Well for one thing, even though I'd been away from SharePoint, the tickler system, and the Grant report work flow for a while, I designed that system. I cleared the first path through the forest - so I know it from the inside out. Whereas with the EMR, I had to learn it in the reverse - from the outside in.

The similarities? Well, Adult Learning Theory still applies. And both scenarios are pioneering situations. People have to observe and analyze and pay attention to detail - and fortunately for the agency, their new Grants and Compliance Specialist is exceptionally good at it. People also have to be somewhat willing to wing it and to be experimental. Which is a little different from the mastery, expert, instructor-lead approach expected at the hospital. So let's go back to to the differences between the two training situations. Technology adoption - in the agency's case, empowering someone else with SharePoint in a way that they can take that ball and run with it - are able to maintain and improve applications they did not create, train others, and transfer knowledge to other applications not yet thought of - is not something you can teach someone in an expert way - for instance, the way we were expected to teach the EMR at the hospital. It's more like putting your heads together, engaging in give and take and having both people coming up with pieces of the puzzle when a real incentive exists to do that. Equals and partners as Adult Learning Theory says. For instance today, I had my replacement's brain to help me with SharePoint quirks, whereas when I was designing it, I had to bang my head against the wall all by myself because I had no one to talk to.

So what did I bring back to the agency from my training experience at the hospital? Well, thinking back, those traveling consultants at the hospital were darn good trainers. And I have always been a darn good student. I'm going to veer off course for a little rant here - probably not a good idea, but it is my blog, and it is therapeutic. :)

Begin rant.

I honestly believe the trainers could have gotten me up and training if our boss had approached his role as a true educator rather than as a reality tv-show judge . What do I mean by that? Entrusting me to expensive and talented resources to train me for six weeks, but then derailing the whole process by demanding a training demo before we were ready, and on top of that instituting full disciplinary action (of all things) against me because he felt I lacked polish in the demo - when I had been working really hard to learn it all and my trainers appeared quite satisfied with our progress to date. So if he was going to abandon traditional educational practice in favor of "newer," experimental approaches, he should have at least provided full disclosure during the interview process - like they are supposed to do in the reality tv shows - in which case I might not have taken the job and would still have a job. Ironically one of things I mentioned in the interview when he asked what I was looking for in a job was "stability." (Remember, I was leaving a job I liked because I could no longer afford health care.) And then to be denied unemployment compensation for going on four months is pretty unconscionable for an organization whose mission is to improve community life, improve community health, and be considered a premiere employer in the area. My physician of twenty years is employed by that organization and this spring wanted me to come back in for a blood pressure check because it's been running a little high. It's now approaching fall and I'm still trying to work up the enthusiasm to go back there because I'm not looking forward to having to explain to her why I'm no longer working for her organization. One thing about being part of the aging workforce in a technological society - if you lose your job, it's hard to find a comparable opportunity these days, let alone advancement. Even if you are willing to travel. Our work experience and education instead of being valued is considered outdated. In a sense it is both (valuable and outdated). It is outdated in the sense that technology changes rapidly. It is valuable in that it provides a scaffold which accelerates the process of building new knowledge and skills - rather than having to start from scratch. But even though we are a technologically advanced society, life's quirks and injustices still come into play along the traditional lines. The problem with technology degrees is that (despite the claims of the professors and the universities who make huge amounts of money off providing them) they go out of date as fast as that new computer you just pulled out of the box. They are considered obsolete before most people can even pay off the loans for their college education - and while the underlying skills they provide should equip an individual for life-long learning and service in their field, the opportunities to keep oneself updated still fall out among traditional categories of discrimination - race, gender, age ...etc. I've now been knocked back on my a__ twice and had to work my way back. It takes time. And huge amounts of money. And I'm no longer in my thirties or even my forties. I feel like I'm running out of time.

Okay, end rant.

Back to the subject at hand. After I returned to the agency to train the new Grants and Compliance Specialist, I often thought about what my mentor at the hospital said about it being my classroom and taking charge of it - even though the student is very actively participating in their own training. I also thought a lot about my boss's "Guiding the Eye" principle - and how to adapt that to my teaching style using a constructivist approach. I reasoned I could turn locating and recognizing objects on the computer screen into a treasure hunt. By that I mean if I didn't have a pointer, or didn't choose to point with my pencil, I could guide my student's eye with descriptive language or even use hints, like the games my grandchildren play - "What I spy with my little eye" - and "Hot and Cold." Then after my student locates the object on the screen, she and I could discuss what it is. She could help me name it and we could agree on what to call it so that we develop a common language - with an eye to rolling that language out to others as they come on board.

I remembered how effective my mentor at the hospital was at jogging my memory with review questions after we had covered a lot of new material. Thinking back to the teaching and learning strategies course I took for my masters in Educational Technology, I realized that my mentor's questioning and reviewing approach truly did help me learn and retain the material better -so I adopted that approach when I returned to the agency to train my replacement.

I also remembered my mentor's suggestions and feedback - she would always exclaimed "Good(!)" or "Perfect(!)" when I did something right, providing positive reinforcement. So I incorporated that into my training approach. Actually my replacement came up with her own feedback today when she observed that she was really beginning to learn her way around SharePoint. For her that was a revelation. (The trainers at the hospital often talked about leading their students to the "aha moment.") So these are some of the things I was able to bring back to the agency from my training at the hospital.

For my part, working at the agency as a trainer - rather than in my previous role with them - helped me realize how much I enjoy the social aspect of "teaching at the elbow," as the hospital termed it. It makes me feel much more comfortable and included in the workplace than working alone and isolated, although I still really like to analyze and design. But it's hard to design and get buy-in in a vacuum. And it's so great to have two heads to work on a problem - so you don't just feel like you're shooting in the dark. Coming back to the agency to train my replacement also helped me realize that I did get good training at the hospital - and that helps me know what to say at future interviews.

Even tho the hospital job was cut short, I got some really good training - and I was trained by some really good people, and I took those techniques and that learning back to my previous employer and used it to train their employees in SharePoint, which like Cerner, can be very technical. And even if the boss at the hospital didn't like my training style or whatever, he was correct in his initial assessment of me. Which is that I have an established track record of helping people adopt, and use, and leverage technology successfully and happily. I have been recognized as being good with at the elbow support and small group training for many years. That is why I was comfortable going with the hospital - they made the job offer in a way that I felt that they "knew" me, and I "knew" them - because we had all been there before.

Yes, looking back, I think that the consultant trainers at the hospital and I could have gotten the job done. They were good trainers. I was a good student. I remember when my mentor and others were teaching, I was paying attention to content (learning the content) AND to the teaching techniques and strategies of the trainer. And I was trying to connect it all back to my education and previous work experience. I don't think I was doing anything wrong. And I was flexible - when I was asked to change my approach, I did. I really appreciated the opportunity and the skills of the people I was working with, and I changed and adapted to maximize benefits of being around those folks. So those are all things I can say about that experience if I ever get to discuss it in an interview again.

And it strikes me that by sitting around and confabbing with my coworkers at the agency and listening to them discuss work flow, I was doing a lot what the trainers were doing with their units at the hospital. And that was another cool insight for me.

JuneBug

A Lesson in History and Engineering

2009-06-06T10:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, this email just forwarded by my mother is too good not to share. Don't know if it's accurate but kudoes to the author for a brilliant analysis!

INTERESTING HISTORY LESSON

Railroad track specifications and transportation. Definitely work related.

Be sure to read the final paragraph; your understanding of it will depend on the earlier part of the content.
_________________________________________

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did 'they' use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England ) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot.

Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with it?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horse's asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The eng who designed the SRB's would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRB's had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, asyou now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

And you thought being a horse's ass wasn't important?

Ancient horse's asses control almost everything... and CURRENT Horses Asses are controlling everything else.

obtained from the internet - author unknown

JuneBug (hee hee. Haw! :D)

Kate and Annie have shedded out and are all brushed out - their behinds are looking pretty darn good these days!"

Training the EMR: A Case Based Perspective - Best Practices and Training the Trainer

2009-05-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

It is estimated that only 5% of hospitals in the US have a completely electronic medical record system (EMR). Given this statistic and wide-spread public support for President Obama's healthcare reform initiative, the EMR is standing on the eve of an era of accelerating growth. In the first two articles in this series, Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective and Training the EMR: A Case Based Perspective - Drilling Down, I have compared this position to pioneering on a new frontier and have discussed some of the challenges and decisions clinicians and trainers face in "charting" new territory. In this third and final article I want to briefly comment on training the trainer and best practices in training the EMR.

Due to the tightly-knit relationship between medical knowledge and charting medical results, I believe that medical schools will offer degree programs for teaching and supporting the EMR. I believe this will happen sooner rather than later. For now, however, instructors, trainers, and designers from many different backgrounds have an exciting window of opportunity to enter the medical field as EMR trainers. A case in point is the new hospital where I worked as an EMR trainer this winter. During startup, the hospital employed traveling consultants to train large groups of staff. Many of these folks, who have had experience bringing Cerner and other EMRs online at hospitals throughout the nation, have remained, and the hospital is currently in the process of hiring FTE's as well.

Trainers at our new hospital come from varied backgrounds. Some entered through the doors of traditional education and/or HR Training. Some are clinicians. Others, like myself, came from IT support backgrounds. Yet others were promoted from internal ranks - unit support techs who had undergone a rigorous training program with both the physicians and the nurses during the hospital's startup phase. Assuming this population of trainers is representative of hospitals across the country, one might presume that programs for "training the trainer" may vary depending on individual blends of content skills, presentation skills, technical skills, and teaching strategies. Even so, a training department must define a clear set of over-arching goals and objectives as well as a way of effectively communicating them, and objectively and reliably measuring achievement toward them.

Based on an opportunity to train and be trained in the EMR at a new hospital in our area this past winter, I want to jot down a few observations and suggestions on what I learned about best practices during this period - recognizing that in the new frontier, these are still in process of being defined and discovered. I'd like to start by discussing a few of the learning theories and strategies that can inform best practices in training the EMR. These are Adult Learning Theory, Constructivism, Critical Theory, and a blend of Experiential / Situated / Hands-on /Discovery teamed with Small Group Learning - using simple coaching techniques such as guiding the eye and sophisticated software simulation tools such as a virtual hospital. Positive reinforcement and a systematic analysis and design process that yields clear and measureable goals and objectives that are effectively communicated are also critically important to a successful training program.

Many precepts from Adult Learning Theory are of course applicable to training the EMR. I'd like to discuss the following ones specifically.

Adult learners require autonomy and control over their own training and learning. They should be able to make suggestions about the when, the where, the how, and even the sequence of learning. One example of accommodating this need could be providing access from home. There are many others.
Adult learners require processing time to link new knowledge gained to previous experience. This simply means that training schedules should recognize, acknowledge, and, inasmuch as possible, incorporate measures that accommodate this driving need to make meaning of new content. Allotting time for debriefing, reflection, and group discussion are some examples of how this can be done.
A key way to respect adult learners is to acknowledge them as collaborators and equals in the training process. It's okay to have a certain amount of give and take, or role switching, if you will, between student and trainer - or as one new nurse I taught noted with some satisfaction, "We train one another."

The simplest precept of Constructivism is that knowledge is not so much transmitted as it is constructed. Applied to learning the EMR, Constructivism simply recognizes that trainers and clinicians need to wrap their heads around EMR individually, whatever their background and whatever resources are provided to facilitate their learning. At the same time they need to negotiate their knowledge socially. This would include agreeing upon common language and terminology for teaching and communicating EMR screen objects, for example. Constructivist approaches oriented toward Experiential / Situated / Hands on / Collaborative and Discovery Learning are perhaps most uniquely suited for pioneering on the EMR frontier.
Critical theory and critical thinking skills become increasingly necessary in a society that is becoming more techno-reliant. Back in the "good old days," we faced a similar problem with print media. How often have we heard the admonition from our teachers and mentors, "Just because it's in print, doesn't mean it's true." Equally, just because the computer says so, doesn't make it true. An important aspect in training the EMR is reinforcing and affirming the clinician's clinical judgement. After all, software systems have been historically notorious for their low reliablity scores in the engineering field. The best programs still have bugs. Additionally we all know that software users make mistakes. Hence the term GIGO - garbage in, garbage out - coined in the systems field. On the other hand and despite our best efforts, methods, and intentions, sometimes we human beings are just plain wrong. Sometimes clinicians are wrong. The best any of us can do is to maintain an attitude of alertness and respectful skepticism whether we use an EMR or a paper-based system, recognizing the EMR may come with its own set of perils.
Moving past the theoretical to the more concrete and practical, I'd like to offer the following "pot pourri" of suggestions and ideas (credited to varied sources) which I found helpful in training and learning the EMR.

Training the trainer should model how the organization wants the trainer to train the clinicians. All the same rules should apply.
Training all out in front of your colleagues whilst working through your class content in give and take, stop and start fashion, as well as in a final dress rehearsal is recommended. At first glance, inviting your colleagues to critique you as you learn may sound intimidating, however, it can actually lead to a collaborative mentoring process on a grand scale. When done well, it can open to the individual trainer the wisdom and skill set of his or her peers, yield a rich learning experience for everyone as together they craft the instructional experience, and in the end, result in a great instructional product. In short, it can be time well-spent for everyone. Inviting new trainers to first observe the process may help them be more comfortable with trying it.
Along these lines, strategic management and arrangement of staff work space(s) and schedules to maximize time together and provide private time as needed can greatly enhance both the work and the learning experience for employees, put social negotiation and knowledge construction on a fast track, and encourage mentoring. I can honestly say that I was warmly received into the training group from the very first day, and in my entire time at the hospital, I never ate lunch by myself. And while I can function contentedly in either solitary or social mode, my social experience with the training group was fabulous and greatly enhanced my learning experience.
Developing short, fifteen minute to half an hour training segments and then teaching them right away as part of someone else's class may accelerate the learning process for the trainer. Additionally, continuing to shadow clinicians and other trainers throughout the training period is very helpful to observe a variety of work flows and training styles.
If you are using a virtual hospital or simulation, giving a new trainer a variety of log-ins representing differenting clinical roles and teaching them how to set up for a class early on could be very empowering.
In our hospital most trainers also provided day to day support on the units, and to this end, kept a shared descriptive log of problems and resolutions. Jump-starting a new trainer from the log, so that they quickly learn how to answer some of the most commonly re-curring questions could be very empowering.
Situated learning is the preferred approach for training clincians to use the EMR.
Computer simulation is the preferred tool for training clincians to use the EMR.
Leading your students to the "Aha moment," and structuring your training to allow students to experience many small successes along the way is a powerful approach to teaching technology.
In a similar vein to the last comment, I was introduced to a training technique called "guiding the eye." At its simplest, it can be a refined way of pointing out objects on the screen. At its subtlest, it is a way of leading the user on a treasure hunt to locate certain screen objects and areas through the use of metaphor and descriptive language. Somewhat of a guided discovery learning approach, if you will. The rationale behind this approach is that if the student does the work of finding and identifying screen components, he or she will be more likely to remember them.

In the end, bringing the individual trainers or clinicians up to speed with the EMR is akin to project management on a smaller scale. It should have clearly defined educational goals and objectives, communicated to all the players. It has hard and soft deadlines or milestones with deliverables, with hopefully some flexibility built inbetween. For trainers, learning the content and learning the training technique can run in parallel with both activities occuring early on in the training. In this way, no one need be surprised at the end of the training period.

In closing this series of articles on training the EMR, I recognize the topic deserves a really thorough evidence-based literature review - while this blog series affords only a lightweight treatment. But right now I have other fish to fry and other gardens to tend. Perhaps one day I shall return to this topic in a more rigorous manner. Undoubtedly, somewhere, sometime, somebody already has done this or is now in the process. In the meantime, there are many good articles out there about the EMR and its risks and benefits for the practice of medicine. I encourage you, my readers, to continuing exploring the EMR frontier.
JuneBug

Here are the beginnings of a list of other articles on job opportunities and training the EMR.

http://www.informatics-review.com/wiki/index.php/EMR_Training
3 Emerging Skill Sets
More on Opportunities in Healthcare IT
http://www.isalushealthcare.com/Stimulus-Package.aspx
Health Information Technology: the next frontier

The writer of this series has twenty years of experience in the information technology and education fields with an emphasis on systems analysis and design, including two years working for a university health center. She has earned a bachelor's degree in Speech Education from Bob Jones University, and an associate's degree in Computer Programming Technology and a master's degree in Educational Technology, both from Purdue University. Recently she spent 10 weeks as an EMR trainer at a new hospital.　

Training the EMR: A Case Based Perspective - Drilling Down

2009-05-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

In the first part of this series, we took a look, from a case-based perspective, at some of the general complexities and challenges faced in implementing a new Electronic Medical Record System. In part two, I want to drill down a bit more to look at some of the barriers and challenges that clinicians and trainers encounter as they try to learn and use an EMR. I will also offer up some suggestions, as a jumping off place for considering solutions.

As previously discussed, I had an opportunity earlier this year to actually "swim in the soup" as an EMR trainer for a new hospital. This hospital was started by a local healthcare organization in a bold move to provide integrated inpatient/outpatient care as well as a state-of-the-art, patient-centered hospital in our community. The first article discusses how the hospital (the inpatient side) ended up with a different EMR system than the outpatient side. In this article I want to examine from instructional design and critical theory standpoints how trainers, clinicians, and ultimately the patients themselves are surviving and coping on the EMR frontier.

Theoretically one benefit of the EMR is to make medical information more accessible to those who need it most. Ironically it may introduce new challenges to accessibility. Several years before building their new hospital, the local outpatient care organization joined a larger network of hospitals in the region. While this alliance created new opportunities, it also added another layer of standardization to the local organization with respect to licensing requirements and the Joint Commission (JCAHO). As a result the new hospital went with the EMR (Cerner) used by the other hospitals in the network. The local outpatient side stayed with Epic. Additionally the new hospital used a later version of Cerner than the older hospitals in the network.

While EMR training at the hospital has been largely effective, staff and trainers have encountered disconnects in our new frontier. One disconnect revolved around the EMR manual(s). Picture, if you will, a continuum with training by function at one end and training by process at the other. Training by function referrs to sequencing the content to be learned by the basic functionality of the EMR software, usually as laid out in a software manual. Training by process referrs to a more "situated learning" approach, sequencing content to be taught by work flow or "day in the life" of various clincian roles. Generally speaking, trainers who came from a clinical background leaned more toward teaching by process, while trainers from professional training, adult education, IT, and traditional education backgrounds were more familiar with teaching by function. In actuality, trainers experimented with a blend of approaches, particularly as classes decreased in size. The logistics of bringing a huge influx of staff onboard during hospital startup required classes that were large and more generalized. Training was instructor-lead and occurred in 8 hour blocks in classrooms and computer labs. After going live, the flow of incoming staff tapered off and training became more individualized and flexible in schedule - with trainers providing "at the elbow" support and instruction to clinicians.

Because the hospitals in the network had standardized on the EMR (more or less), the local organization did not have control over their training manual even though their new hospital broke new ground in conception and design and had also implemented a newer version of Cerner. The manual's copyright remained with the parent organization. The process to update the manual was a committee-reviewed, hierarchically-negotiated process at the highest levels, while the need to update, refine, and retrain new procedures occurred almost daily in our new frontier. Our education department was quite resourceful, inventive, and effective in designing and delivering retraining to the units. The problem came with getting these same changes into the manual for new employee orientation. While manuals are usually out of date the minute they go into print (especially in the world of technology), they can still be a valuable tool for the instructor, the learner, and the organization. At the least, manuals help trainers keep "on the same page" about the content to be covered, whether they train by process or by function, thus ensuring more consistency for learners overall. (After all, learners do need to be able to speak the same language after they emerge from training.) Additionally many learners find that underlining key points, jotting notes on the pages, and reviewing/rereading the text constitute an effective strategy for reinforcing learning and filling in gaps in understanding that may occur during initial instruction.

In our case new employers were provided with manuals at the onset of training. These manuals had to be ordered from the parent organization and were a significant training expense. Therefore, learners were asked not to mark in them and to hand them back at the end of training. The manuals weren't necessarily up to date with the training software or with current procedures. All that aside, I noted that many new clinicians were reluctant to relinquish their manual at the end of the training. Their manual was their security blanket, depending on where they were in their experience with the EMR and computers in general. It was also a way that empowered them to teach themselves - one of the fundamental precepts of adult education theory. New employees were given the URL of the most recent PDF version of the manual during orientation, but for many, access to print from home was problematic, and opportunities to print at the new hospital were relatively inaccessible during the orientation period.

Some quick suggestions regarding the manual - since the local organization was pioneering a new hospital in conception and design, and had implemented a newer version of the EMR, they should logically be given more control of their teaching manual. This would allow them to quickly integrate changes and to print "throwaway" copies that clinicians could write in and keep. To ensure each group of incoming employees receives the most up to date version, manuals should be printed locally at the time of each orientation, which takes place every two weeks. The manuals themselves should contain the URL of the latest, most current PDF version. Clinicians should be able to reach this URL from any location or computer whether at home or at work.

In my opinion, a software simulation package would be the tool of choice in teaching an EMR, and the larger healthcare network and the vendors had the wisdom and foresight to implement one. Along with the manual, the new hospital shared a simulation tool with the rest of the hospitals in the network. A workbook bridged between the simulation tool and the instruction manual, but given the rapid nature of change on the new frontier, the three were often out of sync. The simulation tool mirrored the locations for the entire healthcare network - but also provided imaginary "training units" for each hospital. Because of HIPPA privacy rules, the simulation software contained no real data, only test patients assigned to the training units. Unfortunately, the patient names, demographics, and medical data resembled "leftover test data" created by programmers more than they did realistic medical cases. As a result, test patient data did not complement the situated learning approach being pursued by many of the trainers. Many of the experienced trainers became adept in setting up their own realistic teaching scenarios with the test data. This required obtaining access to a number of different clinician roles (physician, pharmacist, nurse, etc.) which required a different login for each role. Allowing new clinicians to practice, experiment, and familiarize themselves in the train domain on their own (after a training session), was problematic, because they might choose a patient who was currently being utilized by another trainer for another class. While simultaneous electronic access to a patient is normal in a production situation where different clinicians (pharmacy, nursing, physical therapy) need to enter orders and chart results, unintentional simultaneous access in the learning environment can be quite confusing to both learners and trainers. This difficulty of providing additional practice time to new clinicians is unfortunate, because many wanted to become more familiar with various charting forms before they "hit the floor" - and none wanted to appear to fumble in front of a patient (or their colleagues).

The simulation software, referred to as "the train domain," was actually a clone of the production software - only several versions back, and had to accommodate the fact that different hospitals in the network were using different versions of Cerner. Synchronizing the train domain with the most common production features across the healthcare network required long build times that took the better part of a weekend to finish, and sometimes the better part of the following week to troubleshoot. Consequently synchronization only took place bimonthly. The test data in the train domain reset itself every night, a fact which had advantages and disadvantages. Advantages were that each new day dawned with a clean slate and students and trainers got plenty of practice and review in bringing their patients back to where they were the day before.

Simulation is an invaluable tool for teaching new clinicians, and the healthcare network has a good start with their train domain. Some relatively minor changes could make it even more effective. The test patients should have real names, and orders, tasks, and medicine administration records realistic to their diagnosis. Within the test population should exist a variety of ages and cases. (Conceivably setting up realistic scenarios in a virtual hospital could be a full time job in the EMR frontier!) Additionally the train domain should not only contain training units but also practice units - ideally one for each new clinician. These should be available from any computer whether at work or at home. The workbook exercises should sync with both the training software and the manual. To effectively set up for their classes, all trainers should be provided multiple logins that accommodate a variety of clinician roles.

A more profound change would be to have a train domain that was instaneously and completely up to date with the features in the production environment. The education department has started a collaborative project with the parent organization to this end, so the new hospital's train domain will become even more streamlined and effective over time.

Another disconnect experienced by new clinicians was access from home - both to the employee website in general (which had loads of clinical resources) and to the EMR simulation software specifically. While it is impractical for organizations to support any home-based desktop, laptop, or palmtop that comes along, they could at the least offer some hardware and software configuration standards to employees who want to connect from their home computers - preferably in the form of a handout during orientation. IT departments could also offer some minimal assistance - fielding general setup questions, while referring employees to outside vendors for more difficult problems. I believe the gains from providing wider home access for learners would offset expenses incurred in doing so. In my opinion, an optional training session for connecting from home should be included as part of an employee orientation.

In conclusion, access is tantamount to employee success. Removing access barriers to manuals and simulation tools in the end provides healers access to their own creativity, ingenuity, and problem-solving abilities, and even more importantly to their clinical judgment and critical thinking skills. In preparing clinicians to practice on the EMR frontier, the old saying still holds true: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Our new hospital is one small case of what is occuring with the EMR across the nation and across the world. Pioneering has always been a process of discovery that requires breaking new ground, navigating uncharted territory, and creating your road map as you go - as well as the uncanny ability to bring order to the relentless and ever-present chaos. Take my EMR trainer for example. At one point during my training, we had a scheduled session, however there was no room or computer available anywhere - so we made our way to the nurses' lounge, sat down on a sofa, and she taught me straight from the book while the nurses ate their lunches (Sort of reminded of me of the impromptu nature of the five day clubs and street ministries I participated in years ago as a Christian youth worker in Philadelphia - AND of the old adage "The Show Must Go On."). It's always a marvel to see someone pull this off. In my teacher's case, I think she could have taught me while hanging upside down from a flag pole if she'd had to, and she wouldn't even have batted an eye.

This series of articles is my own personal road map through the wilderness of the EMR frontier.

The Adventures of Kate and Annie among the English

2009-05-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

Or an impromptu tour of our neighborhood through the eyes of Kate and Annie ...

Monday evening around 7 pm, Benny was finishing up a fence expansion for the mules, and I, accompanied by my cat, had just plunked down on the white adirondack chair on our infrequently sunny back porch of late. With a glass of blackberry wine in one hand and my laptop in the other, I was ready to relax after a rugged day of landscaping, cleaning the carpets, and preparing for a flight to Dulles the next morning for my brother's surgery. I had barely taken the first sip from the glass when our neighbors Mike and Jacci pulled into our driveway. They climbed out of their Suburban to inspect the latest additions to our family, Kate and Annie - a team of Belgian mules who used to work for the Amish.

Benny, Bonnie, and I were getting accustomed to this recent attention from the neighbors, especially after Benny started hitching the mules to the antique wagon last week and driving it down the road to exercise them. We live on a highly visible corner of the county, and for the last month Benny has been sawing posts, stringing wire, putting up fence, and building stalls in preparation for Kate and Annie's arrival. So Mike and Jacci are not the first among the curious to stop and check things out.

Mike and Jacci live just down the road from us in a 150 year old farm house called Bren Bella that was part of the underground railroad, and they throw the best 4th of July neighborhood party ever. Last year Benny and I took the wagon and tractor to the party to provide free hayrides around the neighborhood. This particular evening, Mike and Jacci had a few hours to kill (they work third shift at the post office), and they happily accepted our offer to hitch up Kate and Annie for a ride. Benny proceeded to try to catch the mules who were peacefully grazing the pasture. They can be elusive, so Mike, Jacci, and I followed him across the somewhat soggy ground to help corral them. Tonight the mules walked into the barn where the wagon and riggings reside with no problem. Normally a good thing. But then they walked on THROUGH the barn, and out into the front yard. And then they trotted across the road into Charlie Gustafson’s field. As the four of us ran frantically after, they crossed 700 S into Greg Boesch’s yard – leaving big mule tracks in the bottoms because this spring has been so rainy. We followed them, coaxing and pleading, through the trees on the corner of Greg’s property into the huge field behind his house. With Jacci traipsing behind me in her sandals over the stubble and ruts of the unplanted field, asking a million questions about the best way to catch them, I responded lamely that this had never happened to us before - but that I was reasonably sure that if we caught one, the other would follow, because they didn't like to be separated. Although I wasn't certain if we caught one, which mule would follow which. After all, how do you get a Belgian Draft Mule to come to you? And how do you get him/her to stay? Up to this point in my life, "Here, kitty, kitty," or "Here, girl/boy," were about the only resources I had in my repertoire. I sighed. Kate and Annie were as new to us as we were to them and none of us were making a very good first impression on the neighbors this evening.

At that point Benny yelled at me to go get the truck and bring the other halter. The truck? Actually I had been thinking about getting THE BIKE. I wasn’t sure what good the truck would do unless these mules decided to stay on the roads – a prospect that didn’t seem promising. And the truck would mire down in the fields. But Jacci and I obediently circled back to get the truck and halter. By the time we caught up with everyone, Annie and Kate had almost reached 500 east - just north of the corner where we used to live. Penny Tarbox was standing out in the yard, her husband Mike had headed into the field, and their young son Christopher stood in the doorway as we drove by. I reflected that Benny had taken them on a wagon ride just the night before.

They went thataway.

As we climbed out of the truck, we saw that a couple of passers by had also stopped to join the chase.

We tried circling the animals holding out an oatmeal pie and some bread we'd scrounged up, but they pretty much ignored us, nibbling on the tasty green grass and clover instead. Time after time they would let us get almost within reach, only to deftly side-step us and scamper off. In fact they were downright crafty. They would see openings in fences that we didn't see. One of the passers by got close enough to pet Kate, but with no harness to hold her, she was free with one toss of her giant head. At that point Jacci pronounced both mules big teases and I agreed with her.

Mike and Jacci’s son Titus came sailing down 500 east on his bike about the time the mules crossed the road into the field behind Ray Wise’s property. By then we had gotten so close and lost them so many times I thought we were going to wind up chasing them all night. I wondered if Benny would be in any shape to drive me to the airport in the morning. Eventually the passers by who had been helping us had to get on to their destination and Titus left his bike laying in the field to continue the chase. So Jacci and I decided to wheel the bike back to the truck which was now sitting empty on 500 about a half a mile back. Once we got in the truck we decided to drive back home to retrieve a cell phone to call the Lumleys, Annie and Kate’s previous owners (one or two families after the Amish). Because as best I could tell, Annie and Kate were headed back to their old digs.

But before we could even make the call, Dale Jackson and Mike Tarbox pulled into our driveway in Dale’s suburban and said the mules had been caught at the Knowles’s by Crane Station where they’d turned in to visit Ron’s horses. So instead, I poured Jacci a glass of blackberry wine and we settled back to wait as the guys walked the mules all the way back from Crane Station on the halters and the leads. Eventually we drove the truck out to meet them. Benny was getting very tired (he did have open heart surgery three years ago) and thought he could sit on the truck bed and walk Annie behind the truck. She would have none of that. They told us that earlier when Mike tried to lead Annie so Benny could ride on Kate (Annie doesn't ride), Annie got skittish and dragged Benny about 25 feet on his belly. Benny refused to let go - that's my Ben. :)

So at that point they all decided to let him continue to walk Annie while Titus walked Kate. Huffing and puffing in Benny’s case. Well, he is the one who insisted on big draft mules. I wanted finches (yeah, like those would be any easier to catch).

We finally did get the mules home and safely stored away in their stalls for the night with their feed and water - by then it was going on 10 pm. Mike and Jacci were able to get on to work. As yet Benny and I haven't decided whose fault it is the mules got out in the first place. He blames me for leaving the gate open. I blame him for leaving the barn door open. Next day, when I told my brother Bert the story, he suggested that since there are two mules, that we share the blame. Fine. I’ll take Annie and Benny can have Kate. Or vice versa.

But we do know one thing for sure. Annie and Kate may be 17/18 years old, but they have plenty of spunk, spit, and life left in them.

Training the EMR: A Case-Based Perspective

2009-05-15T04:02:00.000-07:00

I have had some interesting and intensive encounters with hospitals in the past six months. I am currently sitting in the rarified atmosphere of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. My family and I are in the Family Surgery Waiting Area while my brother is two hours into a craniotomy for removal of a brain tumor. Only last December I spent about ten days on the East coast hanging around the Neuro ICU at Fairfax Inova Hospital in Virginia. Inbetween I briefly worked as a trainer for a Electronic Medical Record System at a brand new hospital built by a local outpatient care organization in our community. While I did work in a university student health center for two years in the 90's, my exposure to hospital acronyms was limited mainly to those we hear on television shows like ER, Scrubs, and Grey's Anatomy - ones like, well, ER and Code. Now I can add the acronyms that didn't sink in: PACU, Pre-Op, Peri-Op, NICU, NCCU, PICU, PCU, ED, etc - as well as sort out the ones that are unique from the ones that are interchangeable.

I'm still trying to sort out what purpose all this exposure to the medical field serves - what are the lessons I'm meant to learn, what tools are meant to accompany me in service down the road. I have a feeling I'll be discovering the answers to those questions for some time to come.

The timing was perfect, in certain respects, for the job opportunity I got at the new hospital. Last fall's historic presidential election has moved healthcare reform back to the front of the line, and along with it, the potential of the EMR to improve patient safety, provide better medical care, and to provide efficiencies that will help us in our quest for affordable health care.

The new hospital raised the banner high with their EMR - even though their quest to go paperless has, in actuality, resulted in their being "paper light" (to quote a colleague). However, they are still closer to a completely electronic medical record than any other hospital in their network, including some of the larger ones. Healers also raised the banner high in terms of patient-centered care. Over their past 50 some years of existence, the health care organization started a system of outpatient and urgent care and speciality clinics in our community. Building a new hospital to go along with those clinics represents a bold vision of providing integrated outpatient/inpatient healthcare for the community. The hospital itself provides a lovely healing space that includes private rooms with beds for family members to spend the night, accessible bathrooms complete with roll-in showers and toilets with bidgets, full time supervision by a clinician rather than use of restraints, and a cafeteria system where both patient and family can order from a menu and have meals delivered to the room. In mid January my husband spent a relatively comfortable night there (under the circumstances) after his hemorrhoid surgery and he loved it. The hospital still sits at this point in the middle of a cornfield where the winds blow across the prairie.

The hospital also raised the banner high in terms of management philosophy - they wrote a unique "healer's compact," in which all employees are considered practicing healers in every interaction they have with one another and with the patients they serve. It makes sense to me - even though my previous IT role at the university student health center wasn't clinical, it seemed natural to view ourselves as an extension of the clincial arm, subject to the same rigorous performance expectations requisite in so critical a field. Some of my favorite parts of the healer's compact are "practicing forgiveness, always assuming the best of intentions on the part of your colleagues, and embracing the healer - including being patient with yourself." It's an enlightened, inspiring, and holistic management philosophy that sadly has been somewhat trumped by the the parent organization's "Quest for Excellence" iniative that was rolled out shortly after I started. Our CEO told us that in essence, it was the same thing. It wasn't. However, our orientation package fortunately included a copy of the compact and our orientation class covered it in some detail. I was disappointed that I didn't get to cosign it with my supervisor and departmental colleagues for my personnel file as the orientation materials stated. Or that some of my colleagues, particularly the hired consultants, hadn't been introduced to it as well.

Ah, ideals and the process of translating them into reality - we tend to forget it's a pionering thing that involves a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And sacrifice, life, and death. We all hope to reach California, but some will inevitably die along the way. But, whether we reach our final destination, or our journey ends along the path, in the end we can count ourselves among those who helped break new ground for others to follow.

So before we continue, let me make very clear that I am not a health professional. I have only served a bit over two years providing technical services in support of that profession. This post on the EMR does not represent expert medical opinion. I just wanted to reflect on this exciting new development in the light of my recent encounters with the medical field and my cumulative thirty some years of experience and study in the fields of education, systems analysis, and instructional design. With a masters in educational technology, an A.A.S. in computer programming technoloy, a bachelor's in education, and experience helping various departments and organizations, including health organizations, pioneer and leverage technology, I feel I have reached a stage in my professional life where I am able to have an informed opinion and perspective about instructional and systems design.

That being said, I believe the EMR is still in the pioneering stage of development. And pioneering is the operative word when we consider ideals versus actuality. When I was growing up we couldn't imagine ever having the capabilities we have today. Calculators, desk top computers, and cell phones seemed a school child's pipe dream. Back then (I was born in the exact middle of the 20th century) we couldn't even imagine what to do with these things. But being born in 1950 put me in that fortunate position called the catbird's seat, inasmuch as it enabled me to watch a whole field evolve and "grow up". As a (relatively) young adult, I was able to ride the wave of the desktop revolution - from the very first isolated Dos (desktop) machines all the way to today's ubiquitous and inter-connected Windows, Macintosh, and Linux workstations, cell phones, palm tops, ipods, mp3 players, televisions, land lines, and even automobiles.

So it's only natural that I should see similarities in where the EMR is today with where we were at the eve of the Desktop Revolution. Remember those good ol' days (if you were there)? Remember when we had Word Star and Word Perfect and Word to mention only a few of the available word processors? Remember Visicalc, Quattro Pro, Excel, and Lotus 123 to mention a few of the spreadsheets? Remember dBase, Fox Pro, Borland, Oracle, Double Helix, and Filemaker being among the various database packages from which to choose? All with different interfaces, all from different vendors? Remember when we started to get DOS and Windows machines talking to Macs - and when we had to find ways to share documents between Word and Word Perfect? Remember what a crap shoot it was trying to figure out which software to invest in - which one would have the staying power and dominate the market share? Remember the days before standards and shared objects and usability studies and common interfaces? Remember the days when uploading PC data to legacy mainframe applications represented a big step forward, second only to downsizing mainframe applications to PC-Based applications?

To me the EMR is very much in the same place as the desktop revolution through the 80's and 90's. Only 5% of hospitals across the country even have an EMR. And it is not the same EMR. So in the iterative process of design, I look for lots of changes to occur in the EMR as it evolves over the next ten to twenty years. Based on the past we can assume and almost predict the direction it will take with the development of common medical objects, languages, and interfaces - and degrees, jobs, curriculums, and training programs.

A case in the EMR's current state of complexity is the new hospital where I was recently employed. Before the out-patient organization in our local community built their new hospital, they joined a larger network of hospitals based in our state capitol, a large metropolitan area. Standardization and hierarchy become important matters in such mergers - even with, or perhaps even more so with Joint Commission. Standardization resulted in the new hospital going with the parent organization's EMR software, (Cerner), while the outpatient clinics stayed with their EMR software (Epic). And that's the story of how our local organization with its bold new integrated inpatient/outpatient healthcare system ended up split down the middle with their EMR. One integrated inpatient/outpatient healthcare system. Two, count 'em, TWO different electronic medical records - from two different vendors - two different systems - two different interfaces - trying to share data about the same patient ... no wonder it feels like a rendezvous with the 80's.

Another complexity is that it's difficult to convince people to pioneer and Clinicians are people. When the new hospital started in October, Benny and I received letters from our doctors stating that they were going to practice only at the new hospital. Well, no wonder. There are two hospital systems in our county, and more in outlying areas. If you have to pioneer, albeit kicking and screaming, then at least try to simplify the challenge. Who wants to go to five different hospitals and have to learn five different systems just to be able to look at a patient's chart? In a way, access to medical information has become (at least temporarily) more complicated via electronic charting, even though everyone recognizes the long term potential of the EMR to make medical information more instanteously and widely accessible.

In April, our new hospital had to back off some of its Computerized Physician Order Entry policies and requirements because the facility was not operating at capacity and was losing money. Part of the problem? Locums (local physicians) were reluctant to bring in patients and to practice at the new hospital because of the "perceived difficulty" of learning / using the unfamiliar EMR.

Multiply this scenario by similar birthing pains across all the cities, counties, and states in the country and around the world, and we can begin to surmise how profoundly the medical field and profession is being affected by change. Add to that the mix of new employees needing training that I observed at the new hospital - lifelong practicitioners who are not conversant with computerized systems versus newer clinicians who have had previous experience with them. You might want to ask yourself, as a patient, who would I rather have - an experienced and compassionate clinician or a clinician who is computer savvy? (yes I realize there are variations inbetween - just answer the question.) What about technology dependence? Would you rather have the clinician who is computer savvy or one who chooses to exercise their critical thinking skills in a technological setting? And you may want to ask yourself - who and what is driving these hiring decisions?

And so it just goes to show the complexity of implementing the reality versus the simplicity of the ideal. It also hints of the opportunities and possibilities and pitfalls created in the new frontier of the EMR. Which brings me back to my brother's surgery - which in the end turned out very well amidst all the other families sitting around us in shared crisis. While I can step away from this article and then return to "word smith" it to my heart's content, that brain surgeon who operated on my brother had only one chance to get it right.

Meet Kate and Annie

2009-05-04T08:51:00.001-07:00

In my previous post, I said that I had unexpectedly entered job search mode again - after a successful two and a half years in my field and then taking a new job. But in every life along with a little rain, the sun must also shine. :)

It's spring! And while I lost my job, it's been wonderful to have time to catch up with friends and family and work on spring-cleaning the house and landscaping the yard - which have been so seriously neglected since the job hunt, job transition, and a couple of family illnesses involving prolonged travel and hospital stays over the holiday season.

I haven't had this much uninterrupted time at our new home since - well, ever! (we moved here 4 years ago.) So I'm giving her the old white glove, while I have the opportunity! Of course I'm job-hunting too.

Benny was so excited when I got my new job this winter that he finally decided to pursue a life-long dream. Ever since we've been married, he's talked about owning a team of draft horses or mules. He acquired an antique wagon several years ago that he's refurbished and we've used to advertise his antique refinishing on this corner. So this late winter/early spring he set about building stalls in the pole barn and putting up fence - and the opportunity came along to buy a team of Belgian draft mules from our neighbors complete with harnesses for a really good price.

Kate and Annie are 18 years old and still in wonderful shape. They pulled Benny's wagon to Stockwell yesterday. They worked together for the Amish their first six years of life and have been owned by 3 families (including us) since them. Actually they were separated when the Amish sold them to the next family. The second family reunited them and then our neighbors have owned them for about 6 to 8 years.

Even though I lost my new job, I told Benny I sincerely hoped he would go ahead and buy them. His brother died of a brain tumor at age 65 - the same year Benny had his open heart surgery. And last year his sister died of cancer at age 74. I told him he'd better be doing some of his dreams while he still has the health to enjoy them. I have hope we'll be able to financially maintain - even if I have to work in part time retail or part time factory again. Like Kate and Annie, I'm hoping I still have enough of my wits, skills, health, and vigor, that some employer in my field will still find value in me. Whether they do or not, we are still blessed.

So without further ado, meet Kate and Annie!

JuneBug

Changes

2009-05-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since I first started this blog to write about my job search and photography/scrapbooking interests. After working in a few interesting stop gap jobs I found and have been successfully employed in a job in my field for two and a half years.

Now I am in job search mode again.

I didn't expect this to happen. Even though the economy was going bad, I had gotten a wonderful offer to work with the new electronic medical software at a new hospital- albeit under somewhat questionable circumstances. I wouldn't have started looking except that the cost of benefits was going to double in my current position come January - and I knew I was going to have to start working two jobs or find a better paying job. The hospital had just started up in October and we had heard rumblings - the friends of friends kind of thing that happens in a small community. The gist was that people thought the hospital needed a lot of help with their new system. So when an educator consultant position was posted that sounded like a match to my experience, education, and interests, I finished my online application to the hospital around 2 am one morning in November/early December, and the hospital called me back the same day. That just never happens. Their HR interviewed me in early December and set a second interview date for late December. It was evident the staff were very excited and proud of their innovative new hospital and approach to medicine. During that period my then current employer, a not-for-profit, offered to bring me on as a 40 hour FTE (I had been a 30 hour FTE) if I would agree to end the job search and stay with them - with the understanding that if the hospital made an offer, I would consider that one. But I didn't hear from the hospital after the second interview. I did make the prerequisite one or two follow up calls - and they did sound encouraging - which gave me hope. But time passed and I didn't hear - and I felt that I would be okay since I was now working full time for my then current employer. At least as okay as any employee can be during these uncertain times. Then the hospital contacted me at the end of January with a really nice job offer. My new boss wanted me to start as soon as possible. When I asked my then current employer if they had ever heard from the prospective employer, turns out the hospital never contacted them at all. We all thought that was odd. But to be involved in the health field with the new medical record software (I had helped bring in a new billing and patient tracking system to a University Health Center several years ago) and to bring in my instructional design and educational background as well just sounded like a wonderful opportunity in spite of the warning signs that the position/employer might be unstable/a revolving door. I said I needed to give my current employer two weeks notice, but could start immediately after that. So I put forth a monumental effort to finish up with my old employer and leave my position in the best shape possible for the new person to start. I even skipped vacation - which now adds up to amost three years in a row that I haven't had one.

I started at the new hospital February 16th. They kept me barely over two months and then terminated me at an early 90 day review. The decision seemed based entirely on less than a day's time spent with my new boss one on one over the entire two month employment period - most of it after he had threatened and intimidated me about something that was really no fault of my own. None of the decision seemed based on the assessments (what there were of them) of the capable trainer consultants who were training me or the nurses I trained. I had gotten the sense from their feedback that I was making satisfactory progress in mastery of the material and in my training techniques. They were complimentary when they didn't need to be. I was learning things of value to the organization - I thought. I was beginning to connect with the healers, the people I was hired to train. Not that I didn't have things to learn - but I was making satisfactory progress in the overall scheme of that department trying to get things done and implementing a new instructional delivery strategy for the hospital. It was actually a really cool time to come on board- I got to watch how the team worked together to put the new delivery strategy into action in the most effective way possible. It was impressive. The department hired one person after me - from within the ranks. She was onboard during the startup in October - so she had considerable expertise with using the software and supporting clinical staff in the units - but like me, she hadn't spent her work life as a professional trainer consultant.

So ... it was all very odd how the job ended and I found myself unexpectedly on the unemployment line having left a job who wanted to keep me to help a new hospital break new ground. But it was still a very interesting learning experience - and I got to work in a brand new hospital, learn an EMR in depth, and be trained through various methods in technique and content by some really great, professional trainers.

So while the stint was brief, I don't want to lose what I've gained, and I will be posting about Electronic Medical Record software ... the benefits and the challenges facing us. With President Obama's initiative, it's a hot topic. Stay tuned ...

You are Invited to Serve!

2009-01-13T04:08:00.000-08:00

We're certainly living in exciting, albeit difficult times, aren't we? It's gratifying to see that my experience ten years back as an avid online campaigner and webmaster for an innovative television series hasn't been lost on the current presidential election, inauguration, and upcoming Day of Service which by and large have been managed online.

It all started for Benny and me before Christmas when, in response to an email request from the President-Elect's transition team, we hosted a Change is Coming Meeting at our local Barnes and Noble in which participants were asked to plan a service event. Up til then, our involvement in the 2008 political process had amounted to a couple of small donations and a sign in our yard - which was actually pretty good for two "old-timer" refugees from the 20th century, but fairly minimal compared to what others have done in this ground-breaking election.

However, when I read the the transition team's request in the December email, I thought, "This is something I can do. This is something I have done."

I had witnessed firsthand how people all over the world met one another online, followed up one another with face to face, formed friendships, and challenged and extended themselves to collaborate up close and over distance to get things done. So, I entered a Change is Coming event at the transition team site and seventeen people in the Lafayette area showed up to our Barnes and Noble meeting on a chilly December evening!

As already noted, at that meeting we were asked to plan a service event to coincide with the Martin Luther King Holiday and with the Presidential inauguration. Early in January, a member of the inauguration committee called and requested that we post our service event on their website. Just this morning I received a call to service and link to a video by Michelle Obama inviting us to join her and the President-elect in a day of service. She and President-elect Barak will perform their day of service in their new community Washington D.C. However, in her email she also included a link where everyone can search for service events (or add them) for their local communities at http://www.USAservice.org/. Our Change is Coming Service event is listed there - if you're from the Lafayette area, look us up!

During the presidential campaign and afterwards, there have been myriad sites - the mybarackobama site, the transition team site, the inauguration team site to name a few that I know of. It's nice to see the Washington folks have come up with some hopefully enduring names that communicate an ongoing, inclusive, and bipartisan collaboration for change:

http://www.usaservice.org/
http://www.change.gov/

JuneBug

More of Aunt Firma's Paintings

2009-01-02T17:48:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures of two really nice little paintings (9 1/2 x 7 1/2) by Firma Phillips on ebay over Christmas - from a seller in Springfield, Illinois. I wanted to bid on them myself, but didn't really have the money.

JuneBug

A Furniture Refinisher's Newsletter

2008-12-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

2008

Back when our furniture refinishing and antiques business was truly "on the road," I used to have a scrolling news page at http://www.secondlooks.biz/ called On the Road with a running account of our activities. When we cut back to do just the refinishing and caning work (after Benny's heart surgery), I took that page down. But now that I have this blog site, and because it's "that time of year (when people write newsletters)," I thought here might be a place to maintain news about our furniture refinishing business. This has certainly been an exciting and historic and, financially, a difficult year for all of us, hasn't it? We have not participated in any shows or had any ebay activity this year, but Benny stays pretty busy refinishing furniture and caning chairs. Here's a picture of a wicker seat from a governess cart that he repaired this summer. Unique!

I also have pictures of a very unusual sofa that he put a cane back in:

2007

Keep an eye out for our upcoming ebay sales - kitchen cabinet parts, old porch lamps, a Victorian Clock Shelf, and some great vintage clothing.

2006

Second Looks' last stop for the year was the HOLIDAY DREAM GIFT AUCTION November 3rd! This long standing annual event is a fund raiser for the Community and Family Resource Center, a not-for-profit agency in Lafayette, Indiana that offers many services and programs to help families and children. Lovely Antique furniture from us and many other items up for auction, and all for a good cause! The event took place at Sergeant Preston's Outpost, 2501 Old US 231 South and included a dinner, a happy hour, a silent auction, a live auction, and music and dancing! This year's theme was a "Solid Gold 80's Salute". The auction went well, and great fun was had by all. For information on next year's auction, email dtirrell@cfrc.org. :)

October Garage Sales a HUGE Success!

Well, we had our last garage sale of the year October 21-22! Saturday started out cold but warmed up nicely. Seven cars pulled in ten minutes after we opened our door! Sunday was cold, rainy, and windy and we thanked our lucky stars for a nice enclosed barn, a couple of heaters, and hot coffee and cold cider and Pay Less's left over Caramel Apple Cream Cake and two bite brownies and those yummy taffies with the peanut butter centers in orange and black wrappers that appear around Halloween and Manning's Maple Cookies from Canada (delicious!) from the dollar store and the three or four shoppers we had that day. The best things in life may not always be free, but they don't have to be expensive! Two more families set up with us, so we had lots to offer and sell. Jeanne sold her Royal Winton china and her two demitasse sets with mixed feelings - but she was happy they found a home. We'd like to thank our participating families and all who came and shopped for helping us make our barn and garage sales a success. It was fun meeting you all!

Simply a GORGEOUS weekend for the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, October 7-8, and a little windy and cool for the start of the Bridge Festival the weekend of the 14th. But Second Looks had great barn sales both times and we're looking forward to the next one!

Our next barn sale will be October 21-22 depending on the weather. We hope it's nice for the Bridge Festival's sake. We have two other families who have set up with some great items so we still have lots of items to offer - an English saddle and boots, a ping-pong table, a washer and dryer, a truck bed, a truck bed tool chest, Christmas items, a microwave oven, craft supplies, clothing, furniture, antiques, linens, books, home furnishings, kitchenware, and antiques.

We recommend calling or checking the website before you make the trip :)

September Garage Sales a HUGE Success!

We had two great three day garage, barn and yard sales in September! The weather was gorgeous, and the rain held off. Our friends and neighbors - Mark, Marilyn, and Judy and Charles - set up alongside us- so we had lots of different things to offer people. We had good prices and many people stopped to browse, to visit, and to buy. Jeanne actually met up with a classmate from her high school days! She also started restoring an antique sewing cabinet - tiger oak! We sold carpets, a lawn mower, clothing, a sofa, a restaurant booth, antiques, exercise equipment, and many other items!

Watch for the flags on the wagon!

Trial Run in August and Fair Weather Yard/Barn Sales in September and October!

We had our first "yard sale" this August in our new location! We sold a fine old Victorian Eastlake Dresser, a very unusual old Pressback Chair, and a Primitive Beadboard Washstand, and an old Washboard. Now that all the summer parties and reunions are past, Jeanne's getting the barn ready for a full scale barn and yard sale. We are planning for another run on September 9th and 16th, 8-6, and two more in October! Stay tuned for further details. There will be clothes, craft supplies, linens, dishware, furniture, microwave and other appliances. Benny's also been working on some very nice antique furniture including a cedar lined chiffarobe. Best of all, there will be good bargains and good prices.

Our First Yard Sale!	Eastlake Pine Dresser
Primitive Beadboard Washstand	Old Pressback Chair

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Walnut Sewing Rocker

Lafayette Jeff High School's Spring Antique Show!

The Lafayette Jeff High School Athletics Boosters Club sponsors two annual antique shows in the Lafayette Jeff High School gymnasium that are widely known and usually booked solid. One is in the fall and one is in the spring. Benny and I lucked out this year - someone canceled and we got a booth for the spring show Fri April 28 6p-9p, Sat April 29 10-7, Sun April 30 11–4p. It was a gorgeous show.

Rainy weather on Saturday and Sunday didn't deter shoppers and we sold a Duncan Phyffe parlor table from the auction of the old Sportsman Bar in Monticello, a rare beautifully restored black compo doll, an early 20th century elevator cart, a Summertime Royal Winton plate and salt shaker, and several other items, including some very unusual postal railway magazines from the 1930's and 1940's. Jeanne's granddad worked the mail on the trains - specifically the Chic & Cinn (Chicago-Cincinnati) run for most of his career. It's a small world because we ended up in a booth beside one of Jeanne's high school classmate's (actually that's who bought the Duncan Phyffe table)! It was a mini high school reunion!

We are Changing our Format at Leaping Leopard

Now that Second Looks has moved to larger facilities, we are changing our arrangment with Leaping Leopard Antiques. Instead of maintaining a booth, we will be featuring various pieces of furniture and antiques on consignment there. So be sure to drop by and browse the store. They have many wonderful pieces, and you never know in what corner you may find your next treasure!

need directions?

Back in Business!

Benny's on the mend from his valve replacement surgery in January! We've FINALLY "hung our shingle" out at our new place! Well actually it's a wagon, not a shingle. But it's freshly restored and sitting out in our new yard and Benny's been getting inquiries and REFINISHING SOME BEAUTIFUL PIECES!

We're in the process of weatherproofing our new pole barn and plan to have a garage/barn/antique sale sometime in May, we hope - so stay tuned!

Off the road til spring

Second Looks is off the road while Benny is recuperating from open heart surgery in January . Say a little prayer for our refinisher or send good thoughts his way. In the meantime if you need furniture refinishing work done, check out these links:

Furniture Refinishers and Antique Restorers (Indiana and elsewhere)

www.superpages.com
www.antiquerestorers.com
(caning, rush, wicker repair - search or scroll down to state of Indiana)
http://www.switchboard.com/bin/cgidir.dll?MEM=20006&PR=109&CID=159&S=IN
online yellow pages

2005

Great Moving Sale at Countryside Antique Mall!

Second Looks is closing its booth at Countryside Antique Mall at the end of November. Now that we have better facilities, we need to focus on the refinishing side of business closer to home. However, we do thank the folks at Countryside for a great three years there. It was lots of fun! We will be having a 25% moving out sale in our booth through November 27th, so drop in for some great bargains and don't forget, we still have a booth at Leaping Leopard Antiques!

New Address! New email! New URL!

Second Looks moved in August! We purchased an old farm house on the corner of 450 E and 700 S (just down the road from where we used to live). We have been remodeling and restoring all summer. Our new place has lots of nice outbuildings which will be great for showroom areas, garage sales, and for Benny's refinishing work. Please note that we also have a new email address and a new url http://www.secondlooks.biz/!

May 1 we set up in the Leaping Leopard Antiques parking lot for their Flea Market and Antique Car Show. It was a sunny Sunday and oh, so windy! Also going on was the Tippecanoe Fairground's first outdoor flea market of the season- so many people hit both places.

The Fairground flea markets take place the first Sunday of each month, 6a-2p.

The Fairgrounds are located in Lafayette IN on Teal Road between 18th and 9th street. need directions?

In January in addition to our booth at the thriving Countryside Antique Mall, Second Looks will be opening a second show room at a GORGEOUS new Antique Mall Leaping Leopard Antiques! This mall spun off Lafayette's Shabby Chic Antiques (formery at 9th and Kossuth) and opened its doors in 2004 in a spacious facility in Three Sons Shopping Plaza next to The Olde Country Restaurant. Parking is plentiful and convenient!

Leaping Leopard is open M-F 10-6, Sat 10-5, and Sun 12-5. They are located at:

Leaping Leopard Antiques
2145 S. 4th Street
Lafayette, IN 47905
(765-474-9100)

map it!

We got home January 15th to ice, snow, artic temperatures, and flooding after spending almost a month on the east coast visiting family for the holidays. Of course we kept our eyes open for antiques and collectibles during this period and managed to bring back several nice linens and other items from New York and South Carolina for our booth at Countryside Antique Mall.

2004

We've been selling (and buying) on ebay for a while, but in December we made our first internet sale directly from our own Second Looks web site! On our way to New York to visit family for Christmas, we delivered the kidney-shaped vanity and bench at Countryside Antique Mall to a customer in New Jersey who found us on the web!

Be on the lookout for some gorgeous items from Second Looks at Countryside Antique Mall, at shows, or on ebay this holiday shopping season and beyond! Benny recently visited with friends Denis and Judith who retired and downsized from their home on historic 9th Street Hill in Lafayette, Indiana. Benny bought a cherry gate leg (rope) table with four matching chairs (also rope), a dolphin dresser, and a marble -top Victorian walnut bureau from them, just to mention a few items! Hopefully, pictures will be available soon! And of course Jeanne had to scour ebay and the Bridge Festival for furniture, glassware, and linens for the Countryside Christmas shopping season. At the Bridge Festival she found an old pink art deco desk with bakelite handles! Judith and Denis may even grace our booth at Countryside with some vintage green glassware this November!

Another 10-day Covered Bridge Festival come and gone. We set up our tent at Janet's Flea Markets at Veedersburg on Thursday, October 7, and were open for business Friday October 8.

Janet's Flea Market is located at 305 Sugar St., Veedersburg, IN 47987 (take interstate 74 exit 15 onto U.S. 41and proceed 1/4 mile south to highway 136).

map it!

Next year we'll set up even earlier! We had a sunny, warm weekend, followed a week of wind, cold, and rain. Just the weather for colds! But the vegetable beef soup I took home for dinner one evening from one of the food vendors hit the spot and saved the day - as well as the chicken noodle soup Benny brought from Shellie's Cafe! Thanks also to our friendly food vendor for helping out in other ways such as lending us tools, and even helping me load a heavy dresser for a customer! All the folks who set up at Janet's Flea Markets are so friendly and helpful. A special thanks to our neighbors Sharon and Shirley for watching our booth the days I was alone and needed to step away as well as helping in many other ways - and a special thank you to Sharon for that fabulous mouth watering apple dumpling! Be sure to come next year and check out their booths - Shirley has a huge variety of antiques and collectibles, and Sharon does wonderful crafts and ceramics! All in all we fared well, even though we weren't able to be open as much because of the weather. Wednesday evening, Jeanne closed up early and headed down to Wallace to visit an old high school friend. If you want a beautiful fall drive, turn east off 41 onto 234 and head towards Wallace (3-5 miles). The drive is absolutely breath-taking. Jeanne grew up in that area and says the woods seem twice as full and the trees twice as tall as when she was a young girl!

We sold the 30's walnut dresser and vanity set with the semi circle lids and the sunburst veneer pattern (shown further below on this page) the first day, before Jeanne could even get pictures. In fact the lady came back for them, and Benny wound up following her back to Indianapolis with the trailer because she didn't have room in her car. We also sold the 1860s carved walnut dresser (shown further below on this page) later in the week as well as many other pieces of furniture, primitives ( among them a corn sheller, a sausage grinder, a grain scale, and an old bob sled with a Model-T steering wheel - again alas before Jeanne could get pictures), linens, and dishware. Our next door neighbor Judy Gustafson packed us a picnic lunch and came along with Bob and me on a rainy Tuesday. She had great success selling her walnuts, $1.00 a pound. We also had a section for our friend Tara's jewelry. Tara puts together a beautiful presentation - and it was our challenge to make sure the wind didn't wreak havok with it during the week! Our friend Bob threw in with us again this year. We couldn't have done it without him. He helped us so much, and also sold many of his items - so we had a lot of inventory! In fact, after three rain showers on Tuesday, Jeanne sent Bob on a run to the hardware store in Veedersburg to buy some rope and a roll of visqueen and clamps, so that we could cover the furniture when it rained and still have room inside the tent for people to shop!

At last! Benny's refinishing the old chest and vanity with the circular lids that Jeanne bought at auction last year! Watch for them at the Covered Bridge Festival at Janet's Flea Markets this October 2004 or at Countryside Antique Mall's Holiday Open House!

In July Jeanne attended an estate sale in Tippecanoe County conducted by Alan Goetz Auctions. She acquired a very unique old oak marble top bureau with a swivel mirror which was in pieces but with Benny's genius now looks like this!

She also acquired a very old high chair (which was in pieces as you can see from the picture below) but now with Benny's genius has a new life (as you can also see from the picture below), and a gorgeous and very solid walnut chest of drawers -all circa 1900's as well as a Rayo lamp and other collectibles. Once Benny puts all the furniture all back together, we will have some gorgeous pieces to show at the 2004 Bridge Festival at Janet's Flea Market or at Countryside Antique Mall! That is if they don't sell before we get them there!

In early 2004 Jeanne continued to shop ebay and other places for unusual collectibles and antiques to sell at our Countryside Antique Mall booth and at the Bridge Festival, such as this 19th century candle snuffer (she also has a deep affection for vintage bride dolls and Betty Boop).

2003

Our virtual season ended in December with the sale of an art nouveau deco vanity, a primitive empire curved bench, and a Hooser Cabinet pullout flour bin on ebay. Plus Jeanne bought a slew of stuff on ebay to sell at our Countryside Antique Mall booth during the holiday season and in 2004.

We finished out the physical season with a booth at Janet's Flea Market for the 2003 Rockville Covered Bridge Festival October 10 - 19 The weather was absolutely gorgeous! Jeanne wore shorts (and various articles of vintage clothing) and went barefoot that first weekend! Then the temps dropped and wind and rain took down some of the leaves, but the second weekend turned out to be as pleasant as the first! Our friend Denise threw in with us with glassware, books, and jewelry - she contributed the display tables which were a huge help!

It was an eventful week. In spite of Benny coming down with the flu and then having an emergency angioplasty ( =:o ), we did pretty well, thanks to some wonderful friends Bob and Marilyn who helped out at the booth all week. Thankfully Benny came through the procedure with a clean bill of health!

Tuesday was cold, windy, and rainy. Everyone secured their stakes Monday evening and put things away, and no one opened on Tuesday. Everyone was relieved to find their tents standing intact when they arrived on Wednesday.

We sold the old steamer trunk, the harvest table with the six rose leaf chairs, the horse hames mirror, the old high back rocker, and numerous other items, like Jeanne's Sweet Annie wreaths.

Jeanne also found some great stuff for our booth at Countryside Antique Mall! However, some items may be difficult to pry away from her ... like this dainty kidney-shaped dressing table, for instance. :) It's sooo convenient and functional for our little ranch-style home! Notice the apron arms which hide the drawers.

Here's a tantalizing preview of just a few items we hope to display at Countryside Antique Mall as time and space allow ... :)

By the way, you can find a nice variety of antiques, collectibles, glassware, furniture, and crafts at Janet's Flea Markets (directions) every Memorial Day Weekend, July 4th, Labor Day Weekend, and the Covered Bridge Festival.

In early October Jeanne attended an estate sale conducted by Alan Goetz Auctions. She acquired a wonderful drop leaf gate leg harvest table, two additional center leaves and six rose chairs and an old, old chest and vanity in need of repair (shown below). We hope to refinish and restore these for our booth at Countryside Antique Mall. Does anybody know what those semi-circular lids were used for? Jewelry? If so we'd like to hear from you. Thanks! :)

We now have a physical showroom (which means we will be giving up our ebay store for the time being)! We rented Booth 19 at Countryside Antique Mall and will move in March 1st. Countryside is in a lovely rural setting just off US 52 outside of Thorntown.

Lebanon is a close south and the Thorntown Dairy Queen is just down US 52 to the north. Countryside has 10,000 square feet of quality antiques and collectibles and is open 10a - 5p daily, so come visit all of us! The address is

Countryside Antique Mall
4889 N. U.S. Hwy 52
Thorntown, Indiana 46071-9286
( 765) 436-7200

Need directions?

We hope everyone had a joyous and blessed holiday season and wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year! New Years Day 2003 found us selling a 1940's Hoosier-style cabinet and other furniture at The Auction Gallery (located at the intersection of US 231 and Teal Road, Lafayette Indiana).

2002

We finished our "physical" Flea Market schedule with a great 10 days at Janet's Flea Markets, Veedersburg, Indiana (need directions?) from October 11-20, 2002, during the Rockville Covered Bridge Festival. While there were some other very unique pieces at Janet's, including a 1901 patented music chair (!), Our friend Denis's Victorian fainting couch/fold-out bed attracted a lot of attention and sold on the third day, and we also sold a set of lovely oak antique press back chairs before I had time to put them up on the web site.

Second Looks hit the "virtual road" this year and sold several pieces of furniture over eBAY - a mahogany china cabinet to a couple in Illinois, an Eastlake Victorian parlor chair to a physician in New Jersey, and a Sellar's kitchen cabinet and an old Primitive Jelly Cupboard to a designer in Michigan. A set of ladder back cane bottom chairs went to Sweet Water, Alabama. We've also opened an ebay store!

The weather was fair for Lafayette's Feast of the Hunter's Moon, and lots of folks also showed up at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds on Sunday, October 6th! This was the Fairgrounds' last outdoor flea market this year, however, they will host a monthly indoor flea market in two buildings from November through April. One of the items we sold at the Fairgrounds this summer was a beautiful old walnut dresser.

The Fairground flea markets take place the first Sunday of each month, 6a-2p.

The Fairgrounds are located in Lafayette IN on Teal Road between 18th and 9th street. need directions?

We showed at the Schuyler Avenue Flea Market at Star Lanes Bowling Alley in Lafayette, Indiana on Sunday, September 8. This was the last flea market of their season.

We sold several pieces at the Klondike Road Flea Market Grand Opening including a very nice old maple splat-back Boston Rocker, August 23-25. This outdoor Flea Market located on 2780A Klondike Road, West, Lafayette, IN, runs every weekend, Sat and Sun 8a-3p during spring and summer.

We're ready for the big time now! After getting our feet wet selling a treadle sewing machine and bedroom set at Lafayette Jefferson High School's famous semi-annual Antique Show athletic fund-raiser, selling a set of six gorgeous pressback chairs on ebay to a lady north of Boston, and trying out the monthly flea market at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds, we set up for the 2001 Farm Progress Show which was just down the road from us, and showed at the Rockville Covered Bridge Festival for the first time ever. We also sold a walnut eastlake victorian parlor table at the monthly Monticello flea market (in the armory) and participated in the monthly Flea Market and Antique Show at the Indianapolis Fairgrounds this past February and March!

if you arrived here through the back door http://www.secondlooks.biz/ is our home page

Maybe it's time ...

2008-11-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

With kudos and apologies to the Teen Haven Ministry which was started in inner city Philadelphia in 1963 by evangelist Bill Drury, and which has engaged and changed so many lives, and which remains a vibrant and viable ministry to this day - http://www.teenhaven.org.

During the years of 1972 through 1975 I worked in an inner city youth ministry right out of college. I joined the ranks as a summer staff member a couple of weeks after graduation, and stayed on as full time staff. It was during these years that I first started seriously keeping a diary. I think I started it because we had to write a monthly prayer letter to supporters back home and because I kept seeing and discovering so much, both without and within, and so many people's stories worth telling were building up inside of me until they just had to spill out.

For years I have wanted - and have even tried to prepare these stories. To me these simple diary entries seemed the skeletons - the outlines. I fretted about how to flesh them out with the vivid descriptions worthy of the setting, surroundings, and life happening all around me. How to come up with the poetry and language that a real writer would use to fully engage the five senses - so that my readers could see, hear, feel, picture themselves in this place and fall in love with these people. I felt woefully inadequate to the task. Also, because so much was going on both inside and outside my own head, how to sort out what was worthy to be told. The volume of material was daunting even as computers started to replace electric typewriters.

Another daunting task for me was figuring out what the story was about ... was it about a bold and vibrant and exciting new ministry and the dedicated and resourceful men and women who ventured out on the streets of the inner city every day (and night) to make it happen? Was it an introduction to a whole new culture and its beautiful and extraordinarily resilient citizens? Was it a love story? Was it a story about growing up or coming of age? Was it about inspirational Christian insight and theology? I just didn't know ... just as, sometimes, I didn't know, as a young woman rebelling and running in an opposite direction of where she'd just been, but with complete faith in what she'd learned, what I should be doing there. Was I supposed to be saving souls? Assisting new Christians in their daily walk? Eliminating poverty and social problems and changing the world? Raising children? Changing others? Or was I slowly learning and being changed myself? It was, all of it, much more than I ever realized or could have possibly known, about slow developmental process rather than sudden and dramatic changes. It was about a long term committment, for some a calling and the work of a life time.

Just recently I settled down to enjoy my early morning cup of coffee and an issue of AARP magazine before getting ready to go to work at the not-for-profit agency I currently serve. In an article, The Writer in Winter, author John Updike writes "Memories, impressions, and emotions from your first 20 years on earth are most writers' main materials; little that comes afterward is quite so rich and resonant."

Like Mr. Updike (if you read the article), I can now look back on those days from the perspective of a woman close to retirement, a woman who went on to enjoy multiple careers and earn two more degrees, a wife of 25 years, a step-mother and grandmother, a daughter, a step-daughter, a grand-daughter, a daughter-in-law, a sister, a sister-in-law, an aunt, a niece, and finally, a woman who once again is working in a social service agency, albeit in a much different role. It occurs to me now that the story is partially about the older woman meeting that young woman of thirty-five years ago - and finally allowing her to speak out in all her rights and wrongs and sometimes in her frustration at trying to deal with the challenges that life threw at her with the very limited vocabulary life had given her.

Yes, we had our Bibles, we had our various educations from a variety of good religious and secular institutions, and we had our gut feelings for how to get out there and make things work. We had our varying talents (and sometimes lack of them). And we had our demons. We had a good foundation but we weren't informed - or perhaps I should say I wasn't as informed - by other fields - the social services, education and modern research-based learning theory, psychology, and early childhood development. We didn't have the 40 developmental assets, the creative curriculum, zoo-phonics ... at least in their present form. While we did collaborate with other agencies and with schools, and with the justice system, back then it seemed like they were drowning and that we were trying to retrieve the people who had fallen through the cracks.

So after thirty-five years of false starts, short spurts, and long periods of dormance, why now? Why look back now? What confluence of cosmic events conspired to conjure the drowsing beast?

These are extraordinary times. We've just been through a historic presidential election and we've elected an African American as President of the United States. The little midwestern community in which I live and work is changing. Time is bringing similar challenges as the ones I and so many others encountered in that big city I worked in so long ago. I wonder, how will we handle it? Just recently I volunteered for the first time at our youth drop in program's halloween party. As I look through all the pictures I took and so lovingly and painstakingly developed before passing them on to the kids who so happily posed for them, I reflected, "Who were you looking for at that party, JuneBug? Who is it you hoped to meet in these faces?"

Even though both my upbringing and my experiences in the Teen Haven ministry and since have placed me at odds with the political Christian movement of today, one of the good things that has come about in the last 8 years is the legitimacy, tolerance, and respect given to the contributions and efforts of faith-based ministries. In short, we have now been given a voice and a place in the grand scheme. Finally, after a lifetime of trying to weave the many different colored strands of my life into some sort of meaningful pattern, perhaps now is my time to speak. Perhaps the time has come to let the people in these little skeketal diary entries tell their stories ... to let the world finally meet them ... to let them be heard.

In these remaining paragraphs, I will try to briefly lay some groundwork of how I ended up in this ministry right out of college- to give you an idea of who I was. Then hopefully if I have done my job and let the other people in these stories speak, you will meet them in the pages of this diary.

My parents were, respectively, PhD's in Paleontology and Geology. They met at Columbia University after World War II. Mom's roots were in rural Indiana, Protestant Evangelical Christian. Dad was the son of Italian Immigrants and came from New York City. He was agnostic as was his sister, my Aunt Joan, who was kind of a revolutionary. Or a beatnik. For 8 years I was an only child and an only grandchild on both sides of the family. Then my cousins started coming along, and when I was sixteen, my half brother Bert was born. I did not meet him until he was four. During my childhood Mom, Dad, and I moved around the country and in and out of it because he worked as a mining geologist for companies such as Kaiser Aluminum and Anaconda. I was closer to my mother and feared and hated my father. Actually it was sort of a love/hate relationship. He was at times both emotionally and physically abusive and at other times quite winsome and charming (although not usually to me). But when he wasn't violent, he was fun. And he taught me good things, what to stand for, and profoundly shaped who I was.

At the same time as I was hating my father, I was intensely missing my grandfather on my mother's side. I loved and adored him and knew that he loved and adored (and spoiled) me. My parents' marriage dissolved when we were living in South America, so at age thirteen I returned to rural Indiana to live with my maternal grandparents. I didn't see my father until the Christmas vacation of my senior year in college when he paid to fly me down to Argentina to meet him, my step-mother, and my little brother. I did't see my paternal Grandparents and Aunt until the summer before my senior year of college when my best friend Arlene and I rode the Greyhound bus to New York. Shortly after coming to live with my Grandparents in Indiana, Papo took me to an Easter week revival meeting at a small Baptist church where I came forward and became a Christian. From then on Papo took me faithfully to church every Sunday and Wednesday. Not the same church, mind you. On Sunday mornings we attended a small Quaker Church that just had a Sunday School. It was there that I first read David Wilkerson's The Cross and The Switchblade in a Sunday School serial handout. David's story made a deep impression on me - it both horrified me and fascinated me.

Although my grandparents were devoted, attentive, and undemanding, I was very driven in high school. I graduated valedictorian and was a National Merit Commended Student. A guidance counselor steered me toward Bob Jones University, a Christian School, in South Carolina. Bob Jones was segregated. I experienced quite a bit of cognitive dissonance about this, because it wasn't wasn't how my parents had raised me nor how I believed deep in my heart, but yet it seemed like the only choice or chance I was willing to take. I majored in Speech Education in college. For me that major was much more about the Speech than the Education, however. My senior year I tried out for a traveling evangelical drama group, but didn't make the cut. I had never really forgotten The Cross and the Switchblade and had again encountered the inner city in my sociology and education classes. In fact the summer before, when I was reunited with my grandparents and Aunt in New York, I actually paid a visit to the Teen Challenge Center. I attended an evening service there. I was scared to death. I had called ahead for directions. They told me I had a two block walk from the subway exit to the center. In my mind I pictured walking through a gauntlet of gang members and drug dealers two-blocks long and wondered if I would survive it. But I went anyway. After the service, a young man who had been in and out of the Teen Challenge program graciously escorted me back to the subway and to my Aunt Joan's apartment. You know, in all my years of going in and out of New York, visiting my family, at all hours of the day or night, I've encountered only hospitality and helpfulness at the hands of New Yorkers. But I digress. So when I didn't get to travel with that drama team, and while all my fellow education majors were interviewing at Christian schools affiliated with churches, many of them segregated, my thoughts turned back to inner city ministry.

At Bob Jones each room usually held four or five people - five roommates sharing two closets, two desks, and a double and a triple bunkbed. (Being tall, guess who usually slept on the third level? But I didn't mind.) My room leader my senior year was a very sweet girl from Lancaster, Pennsylvania named Mary Stewart. Mary told me about an inner city ministry in Pennsylvania that her home church supported. The upshot was that she got me the application materials, I applied, was accepted, and about two weeks after graduating from college, I went to Philadelphia to join Teen Haven summer staff doing day club and evangelism work in the city and counseling at their camp outside of York, Pennsylvania. I was the first BJU graduate to ever work for them. They had made a leap of faith in hiring me.

When I showed up for summer staff, I hadn't entirely gotten over being scared of walking down inner city streets. But the first week we were shuttled back and forth between the Broad Street Teen Haven Center where we stayed and the Susquehanna Teen Haven Center where we had a week long training and orientation. I remember one of the most interesting presentations was from a detective at the Philadelphia Police Department. He told us that in the old days before all the outcry about police brutality, they used to haul in gang members, kids, who hung out on the street corners, and work them over - to discourage them from participating in gangs. By the end of the summer I was feeling quite at home in the Philadelphia inner city. I was getting used to being the only white face on the trolley and the only pale body in the local swimming pool. The Philadelphia ministry's office manager Ann Deschler who worked out of the Mount Vernon Street Teen Haven Center (and who only recently retired in 2007 or 2008) once commented to me that the worst thing any staff member had ever experienced couldn't begin to compare with the traumas that people who were born and grew up in the inner city faced every day.

At the end of the summer Barb Staples, the Philadelphia Director of Women's ministries, asked if I was interested in staying on as a full time staff member. I was. I moved from the Broad Street Teen Haven to the 20th Street Teen Haven Center where she lived to begin my breaking in period as a rookie full time staff member. The five Teen Haven Centers were actually located throughout North and Southeast Philadelphia inner city neighborhoods, mostly in old brick rowhouses that the ministry had acquired. The center was located on the first floor - it had pool and ping-pong tables and Bible Study and Library rooms. The staff (yes, we lived in the neighborhoods we worked in) and sometimes live-in youth resided on the second and third floors. Essentially staff were provided free room and board - each center received $7 a week for each staff person and young person for groceries. Our stipends started out at $15.00 a week and senior staff had worked their way up to $60 dollars a week. Staff worked six days a week, days and evenings, and went to church on Sundays often taking kids in the neighborhood with us.

Those were the external facts - but who was I really and where was I at that stage of my life? I had a lot of idealism (as we all did back then), but as I've indicated in the overall intro, I was a bit short on vocabulary. How limited, I couldn't really know until it was put to the test. One major disadvantage coming out of my background was that I really hadn't dated much or learned to be friends with men - at least since my parents divorced. (Oddly, before then I did have boy friends and boyfriends). It's not that I stopped having crushes and dreams and desires in my high school and college, but as I've said, I was very driven and perhaps very angry - and I think I threw up walls that the occasional young man who was willing to try and even I myself didn't know how to surmount. It didn't help that I was the only ethnic kid with the weird last name that no one knew how to pronounce in my rural Indiana high school. Or that I had always been tall - and could never find clothes or shoes that seemed to fit. Or that my uncontrollably curly hair didn't come in to its own until Black people discovered the Afro. Or that my father's big teeth and my mother's small mouth didn't marry up well with my face (read should have had braces). Or that I was kind of isolated on the farm and that Bob Jones very rigid and formal dating system didn't exactly lend itself to relaxing and feeling comfortable - at least for me. So I entered the world upon graduation from college as a twenty-two year old going on fourteen - having, totally unaware of this, committed myself to work with fourteen year-olds going on twenty-two.

Yeah. It was tough.

In looking back not only at my Teen Haven and Junior High School teaching experience, but at all the work I've done in other fields and with other degrees since then - I realize another truth is that I wasn't all that comfortable with standing up in front of large groups of young people in the role of teacher and disciplinarian or of having to force them to do something or learn something when I wasn't sure of myself or my material. My raising and background did not give me good resources to call upon in those situations. Realizing this I often looked to others for example and fortunately many times I found them. But other times, I didn't. As years went by I learned I'd much rather work with adults and children where they are, and in a motivational and developmental way, and in smaller groups where there could be some one on one time. I discovered that I could be part of a team, and that I could work with and lead a group of people to successfully accomplish something we all could be proud of. But this lesson comes from a life time of learning and seasoning - the young girl who started out in the Teen Haven ministry right out of college over thirty-five years ago had just started to learn it.

Well, that's as much as I can think of to introduce you to myself - I don't know whether these writings are "finished." For now the great unfinished task has been to just get some of them out there. Once they are posted, I can improve on organization, presentation, and other housekeeping tasks - as well as reflect, remember, observe, and add new entries, for in truth, these are but a few and there are more stories to be told.

I hope that you'll enjoy meeting all the rest of the people - the truly interesting and touching individuals you'll encounter in these diary pages.

JuneBug

As promised, a posting about my Uncle Tom Durant's paintings

2008-07-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

My cousin Anna and I grew up with Uncle Tom's paintings adorning the walls of their Greenwich Village apartment. Anna of course lived there, and I visited there often.

Uncle Tom grew up on a farm or property on the outskirts of Chicago during the depression. His father's lineage was French. I believe his father was blind in his old age. Uncle Tom met my Aunt Joan in Detroit where they were both active in helping auto plants to unionize. After the war, they found an apartment on the top floor of an old brownstone in Greenwich Village (my aunt was from New York City, the Bronx) - and they have lived there ever since. Uncle Tom has a passion for gardening from his midwestern roots and I've enjoyed many a lunch on my aunt and uncle's roof garden with the sky scrapers towering all around us. One of us would carry the water, the wine, the cheese, the bread, and the condiments up the little ladder and hand it to the person already on the roof. My aunt and uncle's brownstone also featured a charming little exterior iron grill window seat, accessible from their bedroom window where one could enjoy a quiet cup of coffee or read. The noise of 14th street greatly diminished toward the back of the apartment. Sadly the roof garden is no more, because my uncle also has failing vision.

I believe I'm correct in saying that Uncle Tom's paintings were part of the Abstract Expressionist movement. I remember he introduced me to abstract painting when I was a child. His paintings have been described as dreamlike, often of trees, and fields, and woods, and rivers - and people frolicking in the water. The colors were greens and blues, sunlight and shadow. He once told me Illinois was so flat and dry, that trees and shade were valued and considered an oasis.

Here are a couple of pictures from his Gallery Exhibit in 1965.

I will also post a few pictures I have taken in more recent years. I don't remember this one as a child - Uncle Tom told me it was a shotgun wedding. Hee.

And this one hanging above my grandmother's clock ...

Another David Grossblatt Painting Discovered!

2008-07-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

I received the following email and photographs from Kyle Johnson who has graciously allowed me to share them with you.

Hey, I'm Kyle. So I was searching google for David Grossblatt because I'm here in Washington, DC helping my great aunt clean out her house and in the basement I came across a large painting sort of hidden in the corner. So I took it out, looked at it and say Grossblatt signed on the front and on the back it read David Grossblatt NY, NY. So here I am, searching google when i see that you have a blog about him and some of his finds and I thought I'd let you know I found one. Story behind it goes my great uncle's friend knew David, who at the time was trying to go to Paris. Before Grossblatt left, he wished to have a typewriter, which my great uncle's friend traded to him for this painting. And somehow it was traded to my great uncle where it was placed on a wall for a while till the wall was painted. This is how it ended up in the basement to be forgotten until I came upon it. Attached is some photos that I took earlier this morning. Enjoy

Here are Kyle's photos:

For those of you just coming in on this discussion, David Grossblatt was the co-owner of the Cafe Rienzi in Greenwich Village and he held quite an influence in the abstract-expressionist art movement. I have been posting tidbits of history about the Cafe Rienzi because my Aunt and Uncle helped to start it. I remember my Uncle Tom Durant taking me to his art studio one day and teaching me about abstract paintings. He let me try my hand at one - I was about 8 years old. Just from that little memory, and looking at the painting, I think David Grossblatt was a big influence at that time.

JuneBug

One of these days I'll get around to posting some of Uncle Tom's paintings.

Heads Up for All You Firma Duchene Watchers!

2008-04-11T12:28:00.001-07:00

Just thought I'd let you know that one of Aunt Firma's paintings sold on ebay for $350.00. Here's the link (for as long as ebay keeps it, anyway). And here's what the seller wrote about it:

Beautiful Southern Indiana Landscape by Indiana Artist "Aunt" Firma Duchane Phillips.

Oil on Canvas measures 36 x 24 inches - 42 x 30 overall in very good frame.

Painting is in excellent condition, very bright and vivid with excellent detail. No chipping or tears.

Cedar Waxwings and Robins

2008-03-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Just posting briefly to share some pix! Not great shots, but you can tell what the birds are. We had a tree full of cedar wax-wings and robins at work last week. And after just three days, all the berries on the tree were gone, and all the birds were gone. :)

The pictures were taken with an 8 megapixel HP camera, 3x optical zoom (not quite enough).

Little Masked Berry Bandit

Profile View of Cedar Waxwing

Waxwing and Robin

Heads up on SharePoint Services - A Great Online Collaborative Tool

2008-03-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

Per the title of this post, probably something many of you already know, but here's my story.

I currently work for two not-for-profits as a compliance specialist. With all the regulations surrounding grants and contracts, social services people have a boatload of information to keep track of. So we started off by tackling reporting - and I modeled a report tickler system in Outlook that went a long way toward gathering all the information we needed in one place and helping us meet our compliance goal of getting reports in timely. However, I remained convinced that a truly collaborative online work environment was what we needed.

By October 2007, I had been given charge and custody of a product called SharePoint Portal Server by my boss and the IT director. As I looked it over, I recognized the potential SharePoint Services held for giving our agency an intranet and a truly collaborative workspace for report writing, grant writing, and other endeavors. Best of all it was intuitively accessible through our web browser. But first it took a thoughtful observation from a co-worker to get the ball rolling.

One day a co-worker made a thoughtful comment about something I'd already started to realize and try to simplify during the formative evaluation stage of the Outlook Tickler System, namely that receiving all those information-laden tickler emails could feel overwhelming - particularly during a heavy reporting cycle - which for us came quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. During those times, we could have as many as 22 reports going out to funders in the space of a single month and involve 25 to 30 staff members from the different programs in the process. Since over half the reports had a financial component as well, business office staff might find themselves responsible for getting out 15 reports in a month's time after running monthly financials. With a tickler email going out for each stage of our compliance strategy, the business office person could receive potentially receive 60 emails in a month's time. At that rate, even with everything embedded in one email or Calendar entry for a particular report, it was still difficult to get a handle on what was due when, and where to find it.

"I know," I responded. Then, "But at this point I don't know how to fix it."

"I know you don't," she replied patiently - as if, "Who would?"

We left it at that, but that brief exchange started the wheels turning in the back of my head.

... I wonder if there's a way ...

As I've already stated, around that time, the IT Director came to me with a manual and a CD on SharePoint Services. As I looked it over, it dawned on me. Instead of a tickler email for each report, there would be a tickler email for each person - and the email would simply contain the due dates and a link to a worksite for each report. The link would be accessible through the person's web browser. There would still be a tickler email for each stage, but an individual would receive only four tickler emails at the most during a month's time. The report worksite would contain all the resources previously embedded in the tickler emails and calendar entries. . . report instructions, contact information, report formats, report procedures, previous period reports, and funder reporting schedules. Best of all, the worksite would be interactive. No more passing documents back and forth via email. We could all literally be ON THE SAME PAGE. There would still be a calendar but it would be primarily for me, to remind me to get the ball rolling. The calendar content would be much reduced, containing for the most part just the link to the worksite.

On the eve of one of our busy reporting cycles, I spent an intense week learning SharePoint and constructing worksites - which delayed send-off of the Stage One ticklers about a week. Generally, I prefer a piloting or phased implementation plan as opposed to quitting "Cold Turkey." But in this case I went with a gut feeling. While the Outlook-based tickler system had helped us achieve our goal of timely reporting, most of my report writers were still resorting to email as a main resource for finding and relaying what they needed- simply because using Outlook's public folder didn't seem to be catching on. So, relying on their knowledge of the web, I emailed each person a brief (and enthusiastic) STAGE ONE tickler email. It contained a list of their reports due with the links to the worksites, the compliance strategy due dates, and who currently "had the ball." I invited people to try out the links and to contact me with any questions. To make a long story short, the SharePoint Services worksites have been very favorably received to date. While SharePoint interactive worksites do have a singular look and feel, the fact that people were already quite used to finding information and interacting through their web browsers (as witnessed by the success of ebay, and blog sites) worked greatly in our favor.

From the Report Tickler System it has been but a hop, skip, and a jump for us to create worksites for other purposes as well and voila. Another intranet is born ... We still have a lot to learn about it - myself and the organization as a whole. Recently I was asked to do a presentation on SharePoint to get middle managers started thinking about the potential. Here's the link to the presentation and the notes.

Betty's Roses

2008-03-03T05:50:00.000-08:00

We drove away and left Betty buried on a hill in Slaughters, KY on the first day of March with the promise of spring in the air, but the ground still bare and stark. I so much wanted to take pictures but I didn't dare be inappropriate or intrude on the family's grief. I took some outside pictures of the old Slaughters Christian Church where the funeral service was held. Actually I've often wanted to take pictures in Kentucky - Betty and Hal have such a lovely place. The surrounding countryside is so quaint and picturesque with its hills and "hollers" and back country roads that wind up steep hills through narrow tunnels made of trees. We'd often sit on the front porch of Hal's home place where he'd retired and built a new house after working as a professor from Purdue and enjoy just looking out at the fields and tree lined hills across the way, and watching the birds in the stately trees that lined the long driveway and admiring the flowers and the garden. Hal and Betty named their place Morning Song.

I guess those pictures will have to remain as pictures in my mind and in my heart to be painted with words and perhaps incorporated into my dreamscapes … Like the images from the day we put Betty to rest. Granddaughter Amber standing tall and slender on that hillside, the wind sifting through her long blond hair as she held a red rose from one of the graveside flower arrangements against her dark plaid winter coat, her slightly freckled face and grey blue eyes surveying the grave sites of her ancestors with perhaps a newfound interest in her roots. Her mother Becky standing along side explaining who was who. Becky with her short dark curly hair and mischievous brown eyes was the one everyone called "Grandma Bonnie" at the viewing because she so reminded anyone who had known Bonnie of her.

Paula holding a red rose against her neat black coat, the daughter who looked so much like Betty, today her straight black hair and intense brown eyes contrasting against the pale winter sky. She had stood watch with Jenny and Hal the last few days of Betty's life. Becky and Mark were in Pennsylvania with Amber and her husband.

Daughter-in-law Penny, son Brian’s wife, an engaging young woman and mother with brown eyes that dance, and their two small boys, Colden and Hal Robert (Beau), the youngest grandchildren, had gathered roses from the graveside flower arrangements and handed one to each of us. These added sparks of color to the brown and gray of winter as people scattered to visit gravesites of family long passed on.

The expression of grief that always seemed to return to youngest son Brian’s face in the inbetween moments of chasing after toddlers and joking with family and friends – he had made frequent trips back and forth from South Bend, Indiana these past few months and had been fighting off the same cold as Benny the last two weeks.

Jack's face, his eyes red from weeping – the oldest son and the first grandchild, who had come back and forth from South Carolina during the few months of Betty's illness - but still functioning with composure, humor, dignity, and grace. And Mary Ellen his tiny wife who was keeping her mother who was suffering from Alzheimers. I had worked with her mother many years ago at Duncan Meter. Jack and Mary Ellen had brought her along but left her at Hal and Betty’s with the lady who came to clean their house.

All the men standing in front the old Slaughters church, gleaming white in the sunlight as we drove up - Jack, Brian, Benny, Tootsie, Mark, all dressed in solemn dark suits, there to direct the parking and to fit all the cars in a place not accustomed to such an attendance.

Donald Qualls girlfriend's dirge, the only song of the service, sung acapella straight out of 19th century Appalachia.

The wonderful country dinner at the church afterwards. Pecan pies and apple dumplings and chocolate cakes and banana pudding – ham and fried chicken and slaw and cornbread, corn from the garden and green beans …

Brother Gary Ashby's message about the pages of Betty's life - those we all were in, those yet to be written - Brother Gary always has a unique perspective in his sermons.

Amber's husband Brock, a seminary student in Pittsburg, who at the last minute was invited to speak and gave a thoughtful reflection and explanation of a passage in Ecclesiastes - the one that says that it is better to be in the house of mourning than in the house of mirth - the kind of foolish mirth that detaches itself from life ... whereas the house of mourning is a sort of reality check that touches our hearts and allows us to become better people.

Watching Hal Ray stand solitary beside Betty's casket graciously greeting and welcoming the long receiving line of neighbors and cousins and friends at the viewing, some from close by, some who had traveled distance - perhaps the professor’s longest and saddest lecture. As people came in, he greeted us all by saying, "I'm hugging all the pretty women tonight," then told his friend Bob, "That includes you," and hugged him as well.

He told me he'd first seen Betty when he was in second grade. They were high school sweethearts, someone else commented they had probably never dated anybody else. Someone said he'd told them, "I had my eye on that girl for a long time."

The eulogies and tributes to Betty included, of course, her cooking – I believe it was Brother Gary who said, "That woman could take dirt and make it taste good."

She had welcomed me into her lovely home and accepted me and fed me well and hosted me so graciously so often over the last twenty-eight years - if it was an imposition, it never seemed like one. Betty was always ready and she made everything look easy.

Sister-in-law Betty Winstead rode down with Benny and me - her first trip to Kentucky to see the family after Paul died. Paul was the first, but not the oldest, of the Winstead siblings to go. Betty has gone through a long mourning period. She says she journals and is on her third journal of letters to Paul. She said in her very first letter she asked him, "Well, what's your baby brother Jerry Alvin like?" Jerry was born between Betty and Jenny but had only lived a few days. She said Paul often mentioned that he wondered what Jerry would have been like.

I remember Betty Roach when Paul died. Everyone met at our "new" old farmhouse. Betty and Hal changed in our study. We all stood in the receiving line with Betty Winstead. I remember Betty Roach standing by Hal, her trim and slender appearance in her "little black dress" and black pumps belying her 72 years, as she greeted folks from Dayton she probably hadn't seen in a while ... Hal told me last fall that they'd gotten married when she was seventeen and he eighteen, and in his mind, Betty was still seventeen.

And I remember sisters-in-law Betty and Jenni busily cleaning all the marks off my new glass top range.

I discovered that Paul's Betty wrote Betty Roach every week of her illness - she said she knew she could write but just couldn't trust herself to talk on the phone after losing Paul to the same illness in such a relatively short time. Betty Winstead kind of stayed away from the family for a while ... to get back on her feet I guess.

When we pulled into Jenny's on Friday afternoon, there she stood stirring a big pot of homemade soup and pressure-cooking some beef. Jenny told us she had had about three hours of sleep in three days. The hospice people had been telling them the end was near for a couple of weeks – a few hours, a day, perhaps through the night. Tuesday night they’d had to call them late to increase the pain medication. The hospice people told them then it would be a matter of hours. By then Hal Ray wanted someone by Betty's side holding her hand the whole time and wanted everyone to do it in shifts so they wouldn't wear out - he and Jenny and Paula were the ones who stood watch those last few days and Betty passed shortly after Brian arrived back down there.

The thoughtful and inclusive obituary obviously written with what Betty thought important in mind. No one was left out. No one. I think if Willie, their little dachshund had still been alive, he would have been listed too.

Betty lay in a hospital bed in the living room the last two weeks of her life and Jenny stood by her bedside practically the whole time.

It's been a rough winter all around - Kentucky has had two ice storms in the last three weeks. Tree branches were piled everywhere, barely clearing some of the narrow country roads. Betty and Hal were without power for four days - Betty too sick to go to a motel so they had to tough it out, Hal said. Jenny's son-in-law Mike brought them in a kerosene heater and whatever else they needed.

But perhaps I digress. Betty has been on my mind frequently for the last few weeks and she and her family will remain on it for some time to come. She passed 1:00 am on Thursday morning February 28, 2008. We got the call at 8:00 just as I was leaving for work. I went on in to work and did a few things and then turned around and came home - cleaned the house and got ready for the trip to Kentucky. The neat thing was that I'd been feeding birds outside my kitchen window this winter. A pesky cardinal and his mate were the ones who started it all - he kept attacking my kitchen window last spring so I put out food to distract him. But Friday I looked out and there were all kinds of birds including a tiny black-capped chickadee - oh, he was so cute. First one I've ever seen around these parts. Betty loved birds. I think I've always taken them as a sign - silly, but the rare visitor reminding me of Betty's spirit on the wing, free and spry once again.