Airport disaster

I want to tell you DON'T FLY UNITED!!! I took 10 students and 5 adults to Europe on a student tour. We had a 14 hour delay due to weather on the beginning of the trip. United lost our 13 bags. They returned eight of them seven days into our trip. The other five finally made it back to Tennessee four days after we returned home. The worst part of the trip was the return flight. We were supposed to fly into Nashville Tennessee on June 13. We landed at Washington Dulles just as a storm hit and our flight was canceled. We offered to fly to Huntsville, Knoxville, Memphis, Birmingham or Nashville. Even with all these locations, we spent 56 hours at the airport.

We called our U.S. Senator Bob Corker who called United and we got booked on a flight to Knoxville June 15. Senator Corker also persuaded United to comp us rooms at the Hyatt and meal vouchers!!!

So far, United has offered to send us a $100 off our next flight on United for each person. We have sent them receipts for all the food that we had to buy in the airport as well as the clothes that we had to buy while on the trip. I will pack differently next time and make sure that I don't fly United!

NECC

Having just returned home from NECC, my brain is full of ideas of how technology can be integrated into the curriculum at my school. What is the best way to get the teachers excited about using Web 2.0? I have plans to work on the School Improvement plan using a wiki. I think that if the teachers use the wiki--then they will see the benefits and how easy it is to set up. I have hopes that this will work.

I have committed to blogging more about my experiences in the Ph.D. program at Walden. It is a challenging program that causes me to learn and think constantly. While at NECC, I attended a Walden residency at night. Dr. Shepard had great people to speak to us--David Thornburg, Vicki Davis, Sherry Toledo and Mark Wagner. These are leaders in their fields and it was so encouraging that they would take time to speak to us.

I am now home writing summaries of the sessions that I attended. Then I am going to start working on my next KAM (Knowledge Area Module). I am writing the one concerning systems theory. I am looking at different theorists at this point. I have picked out Peter Senge. I am looking for others.