by Krissy.Venosdale | Jul 18, 2013 | Reflect
Today was one of those days. You know the ones that you think were just some kind of a dream that you’ve woken up from? Nope. It was all real. My teammates and I boarded the ZeroG plane at NASA’s Ellington Field an took off toward the Gulf of Mexico. The plane completed 32 parabolas and each time the plane headed downward, we felt reduced gravity. We were on the plane to complete an experiment that our students have been collaborating on over the past six months. Even though we’re from four different states, on opposite sides of the country, we used Google Hangout, Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, and even a blog to bring our classrooms together. We tested the absorbency of fabrics on Earth and in microgravity. The five best moments of the experience today?
1.) Watching the water shoot out of the syringe and seeing a tiny glob of water stick on the end. The little drop just dangled on the syringe. It didn’t have gravity bringing it down.
2.) Seeing the water hit the wool. Since wool seems to have a low absorbency, the water created a sphere that stuck to the wool and the moment the plane went back up for the next parabola and we were experiencing hypergravity, the sphere fell to bottom of the glove box.
3.) Looking down and seeing my feet, dangling in the air over our experiment. It was strange to be mid-air, suspended, with no effort, and to see your feet just hanging.
4.) Experiencing what happened when I let my tiny stuffed fox, our school mascot, go. He floated right in front of my face.
5.) On the very first parabola, just as we crested the top and started to go down, we all just gently rose up to the top of the plane. It’s a feeling that I really can’t even describe, but even better than I imagined it would be.
A video of our experience today, with cameras shooting inside the glove box.
While these moments were all awesome and memorable, none are as GREAT as the people I’ve been lucky enough to spend this with. These 4 teachers, who I was fortunate enough to meet at Advanced Space Academy last summer have shown me what being a team is truly about. There is no way I would have had today’s experience without them. Collaboration? It’s awesome and leads you to new places.. even the kind of places where you feet don’t touch the ground.
Photo: The Convectionator
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Convectioninator/554506897906063
by Krissy.Venosdale | Jul 10, 2013 | Reflect
The relationships you build with those around you, on a daily basis, are far bigger than any paycheck, any thing you can collect, or any amount of titles you can earn. Our lives are really about the people we surround ourselves with. How they bring out our strengths, embrace our weaknesses, and somehow, together, we become a better version of ourselves. People matter. I think I just wrote about this the other day. I believed it then, but even more so now.
There are times in our lives when we are stopped, reminded, and suddenly take an even deeper look at our relationships and what the people we are surrounded by truly mean to us. Today was one of those days for me.
My grandma passed away.
Your life counts and the people in it? They are everything. Whether it’s your friend, your colleague, someone you collaborate with online, or even someone closer, like your Grandma, every person counts, because every person you meet becomes a part of who you are in someway.
I’ll always remember Christmas shopping with my Grandma, the way she’d eat chocolate donuts before bed, and when we used to dig through her purse collection to find treasures like lipstick and coins. And I’ll always remember how very much people matter to us.
I love you, Grandma.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Jul 2, 2013 | Reflect
It’s not a competition. It’s not about being better than someone else. It’s about becoming better because of someone else. Sharing doesn’t mean you know everything or even that you think you know everything. Sharing means that you are willing to seek out a better way, to reflect, to improve your ways by drawing upon the experience of others. There have been times throughout my career when I stopped sharing because the negative voices I was surrounded by became louder than my courage to share. Sometimes that negative voice was my own inside my head. I regret that. There will always be someone else that dislikes what you do, that misinterprets your intentions, that has lost sight of the true reason we are in education. It’s not a reason to stop. Keep sharing. Keep giving. Because, someone, somewhere will benefit from you having the courage to reach out. This isn’t about your light shining brighter than everyone else’s, but it’s always about the light that glows when we all shine together.
Thanks, Amber Teamann and George Couros, for sharing. 🙂
