My Good Deed For The Night

Seeing those families made me feel really good. It was like a magical quilt with every shape, size and color of student included. This is very much a city where immigrants flock. The UC Irvine program attracts even more diversity. Call me nuts, but many of these new Americans inspire me.

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I’m doing some more work for UC Irvine Extension. They’re “how to” videos for potential students. Tonight I attended graduation ceremonies to get some students on camera.

IMG_20140617_205704The school planned for around 800 at the Student Center but needed extra chairs.

Lots of proud families. Extension isn’t exactly like the rest of UCI. There are many non-traditional students learning to get ahead at work. Motivated students. Grown-up students. Many brought large families to share this momentous occasion.

Let me hit pause for a sec.

Seeing those families made me feel really good. It was like a magical quilt with every shape, size and color of student included. This is very much a city where immigrants flock. The UC Irvine program attracts even more diversity. Call me nuts, but many of these new Americans inspire me.

I was sitting on my butt on the floor on a riser waiting for things to get started. Two cameras were set to shoot.

A man in a light colored suit, carrying a “phablet,” walked up. He spoke perfect English with a heavy accent. The man was obviously concerned about something.

He wanted to know if he would have access to the video after we were done? I told him yes, it would be online, but I could see his worry was still there. He walked away.

I saw him as the graduation walk was beginning. By now I had figured out what he wanted. He was at the ceremony alone. He needed documentation.

IMAG1158“Would you like me to take some pictures,” I asked? And I did.

He is Ali Khan. The photo is for his mother, in Pakistan.

You tell me how she will feel when she sees these shots?

What a great payoff for something I was glad to do. Good deeds are often their own reward.

Teachers Reading Tweets About Themselves!

I found this on YouTube. It’s priceless. I have read tweets about me. Some folks can be cruel. Now the teachers get their turn.

These teachers are from Los Alamitos High School. They’re reading tweets about themselves from their students. Please share this with your teacher (and student) friends.

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A Video About The Video We’re Making

UC Irvine shoot

My GoPro joined me on the UC Irvine campus today, shooting exterior stand-ups for a video I’m making for the university’s Distance Learning Center.

The campus was busy, especially as students changed classes. February 12th and many were wearing shorts! We ‘stole’ the crowd for our background as I walked toward camera.

It reminded me of what I used to do in Buffalo for PM Magazine. We called them ‘ins-and-outs.’ They were also done in the field.

Of course there are some small climatic differences between Buffalo and Irvine, especially on February 12th!

Back On Camera

I’m back from a few hours at UC Irvine. I’ve been working on a project, helping distance learning instructors teach on-camera. As a first time experience it can be a bit unraveling to them.

For me it was the first time in front of a ‘legit’ camera and lights in over a year. Yikes! It came back very quickly.

The project isn’t finished yet. There’s more shooting tomorrow, then some bites from professors. The final step will be editing–hopefully this week.

There’s a lot of satisfaction knowing I’m helping teachers help their students. What more could you want?

I Am The Punchline To An Old Joke

There’s an aphorism which begins, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. And those who can’t teach, teach teachers.”

That third one. That’s me. I’m the punchline. I’m about to teach teachers.

It’s an interesting project with UC Irvine Extension. As some of their instructors begin to teach online they face a challenge. How do they adapt to the differences a video camera brings?

We all think there’s a lot of low hanging fruit where small changes will bring large results.

I’m producing a video for the teachers. It’s a how-to of best practices and FAQ answers–a hand holder to help instill confidence in front of the camera. If it works they’ll become more effective reaching students via screens.

I think I can make a positive contribution.

A New Respect For Wrestling

Our cousins asked if Helaine and I would go with them to their son Max’s match this evening. Max is a sophomore at Beckman High School&#185. He wrestles!

My knowledge of wrestling is limited. I watched wrestling on TV as a kid. When I worked in Charlotte, we actually taped wrestling in the studio!

One evening I walked past a guy wearing a wrestling singlet, reading the Associated Press wire. It was a surreal moment.

What I experienced was meaningless. That’s not wrestling. What I saw tonight was and it opened my eyes.

What a crazy, brutal sport.

Beckman was visiting Northwood High School, also in Irvine. Think nice campus for a small liberal arts college and you’ve got Northwood.

The wrestlers are divided into weight classes. The idea is to pin your like sized opponent, though there are other ways to score points.

Wrestling on TV is violent, but it’s fake. This wrestling is violent too. No chairs are being thrown, this is much more controlled.

“Do people get hurt,” I asked? Max proceeded to explain they do and it was surprising there was no blood tonight!

It’s obvious while you watch, all the participants are deep in the zone. Everyone is pumping out maximum strength. Some, in pain and obviously losing, had an “I wish I was anywhere else” look on their face as their matches progressed.

Max won his contest. The Beckman Patriots won the meet. No one questioned my lying on my belly like a reptile to shoot 399 photos. It was a good night.

&#185 – As it turns out the Beckman High School wrestling team has a website designed by me.

They’re The Anteaters. Really.

I am the food gatherer tonight. Stef is with us. We called an order to the Lazy Dog. Sandwiches and other delights. Roxie rode shotgun and waited in the car while I picked up the grub.
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I wore a Yale sweatshirt. It kept me warm and made me look a lot smarter than I am.

On the way back I tuned around on the radio. There was a lo-fi sports broadcast at the end of the dial. UC Irvine was playing Pepperdine.

Yale has a bulldog. UCONN, a huskie husky. UC Irvine is the anteaters&#185!

I love that name!

A popular chant among UCI students during athletic events is “Zot, Zot, Zot!” Zot is the sound made by the tongue of the anteater in the comic strip B.C. as it flicks out to catch an ant. – Wikipedia

California has other unusual team nicknames. UC Santa Barbara’s team are the Gauchos. UC Santa Cruz, banana slugs.

I need something anteater to wear.

&#185 – Are the anteaters? I don’t know. And should the “A” be uppercase? Are they actually, The Anteaters? Quick, someone get me an English teacher.

School Speaking

Let’s face it, we’re near the end of the school year and it’s an outside day. It’s tough to keep their attention. How do the teachers do it?

I spoke this afternoon at the Middle Grades Academy at Rawson School in Hartford. It’s a school-within-a-school, a new concept I’m seeing more often. My audience was four classes of six graders dressed in casual school uniforms and sitting in the auditorium.

Let’s face it, we’re near the end of the school year and it’s an outside day. It’s tough to keep their attention. How do the teachers do it?

I told the teacher who invited me she was doing “sainted work.”

I brought hardboiled eggs to suck into Snapple bottles and my not particularly accurate air cannon. I showed my presentation on hurricanes.

There’s no way of knowing whether I broke through. If one kid watched and decided math and science might not be a bad thing to study I was a success.

My level of success was probably lower, but it is nearly always worth taking a shot.

Our Loss Is North Branford’s Gain

He also seemed a little too handy to be a teacher. I guess that’s my hangup. Aren’t they supposed to be all thumbs and nerdy?

My trip from the studio to our new control room pases through what’s left of our old control room–the ghost of television past! There are wires poking through the floor, a bank of now worthless black and white monitors and not much more. Yesterday while walking through I noticed a man dismantling the console where the director and producers used to sit.

“Scrapping it?” I asked?

He looked up from beneath the beaten console, then stood up to shake my hand. It was Joe Tenczar a teacher at North Branford High School and presumptive winner of any Mike Rowe lookalike contest.

Joe proceeded to tell me about the program at NBHS where students were learning to edit and produce their own newscast.

He seemed like the kind of guy you’d want to be a teacher. He was motivated. He saw purpose in what he was doing. He was genuinely pleased with his impact on young lives.

He also seemed a little too handy to be a teacher. I guess that’s my hangup. Aren’t they supposed to be all thumbs and nerdy?

It’s just a piece of old beaten up furniture Joe carted away with Phil Zocco’s help, but now I’m happy for it. It’s going to serve a higher purpose.

Hey North Branford, treat it well.