Mr T's rants and ravings

Please excuse me while I test of few things out. BTW a reminder that Alfred Thompson’s Computer Science Teacher blog is now at http://AlfredTwo.blogspot.com Although these days I am writing more broadly about technology in education and even just education.

I was talking to a teacher, well chatting online via Facebook actually, and I described what he does as “thinking outside the textbook.” Speaking as someone who has written several textbooks I will easily admit that textbooks can be wonderful tools. They can make a teacher’s job a lot easier. They supply information, explanations, review questions and more. These days they often come with PowerPoint decks, test banks, and more. At the same time they can be limiting as well. It is easy to fall into the trap of teaching as if what is in the textbook are the only things that students need to know.

Few good teachers limit themselves to the textbooks that  students are assigned though. Most teachers I know have a collection of textbooks that they use to help them widen their curriculum. They borrow information, projects, quiz questions and more. This lets them make their courses richer and more interesting.

Computer science changes rapidly though. Textbooks change very slowly. Most districts can only buy new textbooks every five to seven years. This is hardly often enough to keep up with the latest developments in computer science.  Programming languages and integrated development environments (IDEs) seem to change annually if not more frequently. Sure you can stick with old versions and texts if you want. I know of teachers still using products that haven’t been supported let along sold in years and years. This works. Sort of.

And then there are the latest developments in application types: Games, Kinect and other new user interfaces, phone app development (I talked about this at To App or Not To App) and soon Windows 8 apps. By the time a textbook comes out that covers it there are new versions that may have breaking changes. And yet students want to learn about these things. Students often have little patience with the line “it may not be the bleeding edge but the concepts are for ever.” It’s a true statement but students always want to be current.

So what do you do? Well the easy way out is to stick with the textbooks. It’s the safe way to go. Going beyond the textbooks is scary. It’s hard work. It’s not required. So why bother and how to you do it?

First off it is exciting for students to be on the leading edge. When students are excited and motivated to learn they work harder, longer and learn more.  This is just the sort of thing that attracts more students to computer science programs. Those are some good whys.  But it is still hard.

There are resources available on the Internet to try the new things.  Lots of online documentation, sample code and even help forums. Few teachers have the time to learn this stuff before teaching it though. So what is a teacher to do? Ask their students to help them learn it!

One of the things I heard recently at an education forum was that teachers should model lifelong learning. By setting an example of being someone who is always learning new things teachers help students adopt the same attitude. For a lot of people it’s a bit scary to “give up control” by admitting that they don’t know something. It takes some courage to admit ignorance in front of teachers. Generally though students respond well to the idea of learning along side their teacher. Making the learning of a new technology a cooperative experience benefits students and teachers alike. In the long run everyone learns more.

There is more to learn than what is in the textbooks. Thinking beyond them and learning to learn with students opens new doors to learning. And best of all it helps students see lifelong learning modeled for them.

My late father was the senior fire department chaplain for the New York City Fire Department at the time of 11 September 2001. This is the report he made to the NYC Fire Commissioner of his activities at that time. I thought it was time it was shared more widely.

REPORT TO FIRE COMMISSIONER

Rev. Alfred C. Thompson

Senior Chaplain Fire Department City of New York

I arrived at Ground Zero about 11:20 a.m. September 11, 2001. The dust and smoke and ash had a brown tint and so thick that I needed to use my window wipers to see where I was going. The street seemed to be covered with two inches of ash, dust and litter papers covering the entire area. I could see flame coming out of the windows of several of the buildings.

Leaving the car I immediately put on my turn out gear and experienced difficulty in breathing. I hadn’t walked a block and my eyes began to burn from the heavy dust that had made the air a light brown in color I held a handkerchief over my mouth and nose. (The next day simple masks covering the mouth and nose were made available to those on the site. Later respirators and safety glasses were distributed to those on the site) As I walked closer to the site saw a group of firemen and asked where the triage area was located. The department had set up a triage area in the lobby of a building a block away from the WTC.

I met our Chief Medical Officer who advised me that a number of men had been removed to hospitals and that the men in the lobby had been stabilized and waiting for transport to the hospital. After visiting and ministering to each, I learned that one of our Department Chaplains, Fr. Mychal Judge, had been killed. A portion of the building had collapsed at the Command Center where he and 1st Deputy Bill Fehan and Chief of Department Peter Ganci and others were missing and presumed dead.

Firefighters had removed Chaplain Judge to St. Peter’s RC Church about 2 blocks away rather than send him to the morgue. I went to the location where Mychal had been laid on a white sheet, covered with a sheet, his badge placed on his body. Shortly thereafter Chaplain Delendeck arrived and together we knelt and prayed. I then went on to St Vincent and Bellevue hospitals to visit the firefighters who had been admitted.

About 5:00 p.m. I heard over my Handy-talkie that Building No. 7 was in danger of collapsing. Everyone within a block or two was order to evacuate the area. About 5:20pm the Handy Talky announced that the building was beginning to collapse and I ran north looking back to see the 47 story building begin to implode. Brown dust and ash began to rain down again as the floors pounded down on each other.

A number of years ago six persons fatally jumped from the Schlumberg Towers in the Bronx. Following that The FDNY began a Critical Incident Stress Training program, which I attended. Returning to Ground Zero I began inter-acting with the firefighters to minimize post-traumatic stress. There was no time for group or even individual debriefing and my ministry took on the role of trying to provide one on one support which included providing solace, encouragement, appreciation for their bravery and dedication as well as listening to them as they shared their anger, sorrow, hope, and their voluntary sharing of what they, saw, heard and their overall feelings and concerns and fears. On a number of occasions firefighters would come along side and ask for a personal prayer or request a prayer for a particular missing brother they knew. The request seemed to always indicate the personal stress the firefighter himself was facing.

That night I drove home, arriving about midnight, to bring back personal gear. I returned to Ground Zero at about 9:00 am the next day. Not having a place to stay in the city I slept in my Blazer with the front seat leaning back. Used the men’s room of the closed Marriott and went to the Command Center. Later that morning I was informed of the need for special ID. I went to the Sheraton Hotel on 53^rd Street, Headquarters for FEMA and the IAFF, obtained proper identification and cell phone, to be able to communicate with that Command Center. They also arranged for me to use one of the rooms that they had set aside for their use. From there I visited the Family Center at Pier 94 returning there regularly in the early evenings after leaving Ground Zero.

As the firefighters and others began searching and digging for the missing I remained at one of the command posts relating to the firefighters who were waiting for their tour on the “hill. When it was determined that what was found might be a firefighter a request was made for the Chaplain to respond to the location. I would mount the hill of debris (sometimes four stories high) to the location where I was summoned. There I would wait and provided encouragement and solace to those standing by and the others who were passing out buckets of debris. When the body was finally retrieved it was place in a red plastic bag, then in a black body bag and placed on the stokes stretcher covering it with an American flag. As I began to pray those present removed their helmets and when the prayer was completed four firefighters would lift and carry the stokes stretcher and follow me as we left the site and proceeded to walk to the temporary morgue. While walking to the morgue firefighters, policemen and would render salutes and others would stop and remove their hard recovery had to be dug out from between debris and twisted steel. While waiting for the morgue pathologists to make preliminary identification of the remains I would wait with the “bearers” offering comfort and encouragement until the remains were then carried through an honor guard to the “bus” to be escorted to the morgue at Bellevue by two motorcycle police officers. I then accompanied the firefighters back to the command center or location where further recovery was being conducted.

Between trips to the “hill’ or “pit” to perform the above I would move between the three site Command Centers continuing to provide encouragement, solace, and appreciation to those firefighters and others who were engaged in the rescue/recovery operation. From time to time I would leave Ground Zero to attend funerals for a firefighter. But always returning to Ground Zero before going back to the hotel for the night.

On many occasions I would accompany the boat bringing families from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the Hudson River pier, or meet them when they arrived, where they would be escorted to the southwest corner of Ground Zero to see the sight where their loved ones were still buried. After sharing knowledge about the area the family members were requested to take a brief time of silence to reflect, think about their loved ones and say in their minds and heart what they would want to share with their deceased. I would then offer and prayer and proceeded the Port Authority Memorial where the names and later pictures of missing firefighters were displayed. At that time brief comments were made indicating that as a result of these brave, dedicated firefighters who entered the buildings while guiding others to safety over 25,000 lives were saved. And then including the appreciation of the Mayor and Fire Commissioner and others. This short memorial ended with a reading of a Psalm and prayer. Members of the family then left cards, flowers and such mementos as they brought with them to leave behind before returning the boat.

I ate my meals at varied Salvation Army, Red Cross; St. Paul’s Chapel and others such as McDonald’s meal centers. This provided me with better opportunities to talk, listen, and counsel with the firefighters and others who were taking a meal or coffee break and they had more time and were open to talk, share their feelings, reactions and unburden themselves.

While our two Roman Catholic Chaplains were busy attending Masses (some days several) I spent most of my time at Ground Zero. Visiting, volunteer Chaplains were directed to me by FEMA/IAFF and the Mayor’s Office for advice/guidance as to how they could be used on the scene. Well over fifty such clergy met with me from time to time. I was asked by the OEM to come and give similar information to forty Hispanic clergymen who were given ID and permitted to enter Ground Zero.

Postlude

After my first day I returned home about midnight and was back at Ground Zero by eight the next morning. From September 12^th until October 14^th I stayed at the Sheraton where the IAFF and FEMA had make arrangements for visiting chaplains and counselors to stay. After three and a half weeks,. On October 13^th I was feeling weak and tired and when home. The next day I called my son, Erik, telling him I was having trouble walking and not feeling well. He came to pick me up and took me to the Crystal Run Health Care Center and within a half-hour I was sent by ambulance to Horton Hospital having been diagnosed with pneumonia.

I returned Ground Zero Nov 9^th to continue my ministry.

Rev. Alfred C Thompson, 87, of East Hampton, NY died Mon., June 25^th at the Colonial Poplin Nursing Home in Fremont, NH.

Rev. Thompson served in the US Navy during WW II in the South Pacific and years later joined the US Naval Reserves where he served as Chaplain for more than 25 years before retiring as a Captain.  During his ministry with the United Methodist Conference, he served the following churches, East Hampton (NY) UMC, Goodsell Memorial UMC (Brooklyn), Vanderveer Park UMC (Brooklyn), Yorktown Heights (NY) UMC, and Fairfield (CT) UMC.  He also was a Chaplain for the NY City Fire Department for more than 30 years and Senior Chaplain during 9/11, as well as a past National Chaplain of the American Legion.  He was predeceased by his first wife Louise (Penner) Thompson, the mother of his four children, and his second wife Rev. Sheila Robbins Thompson and his brother Rev. Garfield Thompson.

He is survived by his children, Alfred C. Thompson, II and wife Thelma of Danville, NH; Keith Thompson and wife Cindy of McKinney, TX; Carolyn Thompson and her husband Randy of Freeport, GB; Erik Thompson and wife Denise of Bullville, NY; sister Evelyn Naevestad and husband Roy of Speculator, NY; stepsons Leonard Robbins and wife Linda of Oro Valley, AZ, Eric Robbins of Tucson, AZ and ten grandchildren; Alfred C Thompson III and wife Tori; Jason, Morgan, Madison and Hunter Thompson; Jared Thompson and wife Alicia, Kirsten and husband Donald Brew Jr. and Matthew Thompson; and Kathryn and Erik-Jon Thompson.

Funeral services will be at the East Hampton UMC, East Hampton NY on August 18^th at 2:00pm.

I have been talking to people who have asked me questions like "what do you like to do in your job?" and "What kind of things are you good at?" It’s performance review time at Microsoft so this is a natural time for me to do some self-analysis as well. I tend to think better when writing things out so this document (or what ever you want to call it) was born out of my trying to think things out.

I should probably put it on my website or with my resume and maybe I’ll get to that. But I think I want to see what it looks like here and think about it before I do that.

Lately I remember a lot of my dreams. This is not really such a good thing. Not because the dreams are bad but because usually if you remember a dream it means you missed an important part of your sleep cycle. Happens a lot. But still it is interesting what your mind does with external stimulus when you are dreaming.

For example this morning every time my wife’s alarm went off my dream showed a software dialogue box to turn it off. This box seemed to work only because my wife was turning it off in real life. But it felt so real.

After that I had a long dream about a trip on a cruise ship. Nice ship but I kept forgetting the way to my (very nice and much bigger than I could afford in real life) state room.  I never used to dream about cruise ships but having taken a number of cruises over the last 5-6 years or so my mind apparently has enough data to work with.

The real bad part is that I don’t feel like I am as creative awake as when I dream. I just wish I could be. Now that would be cool.

Romney is in trouble for something he is said to have done when he was 18. But he doesn’t remember it or so he says. It has me wondering though how many of us did something when we were 18 that we really shouldn’t have done? And how many of us either don’t remember it or wish we didn’t? And how much have we changed since then? I am so different from the 18 year old me that it amazes me and I lived through it.

I hear talk that if I were to interview at Google I would be asked about my undergraduate GPA. Imagine people caring about something like that which happened before the Google founders  were even 2 years old. I wonder if I could judge them on what they were doing in 1975? Can you imagine “you couldn’t even read or count and still shat in diapers? And now you are a corporate exec?”

OK silly I know but we have so little appreciation for how people change over time. Now clearly if Mitt beat up a gay kid that was horrible and there is no excuse for it. But do bullies really remember the bad things they do as they grow older? I don’t know but I can imagine that as a person grows past certain adolescent indiscretions and attitudes that his memory of them might become dimmed.

Not that I am saying Mitt is a great guy or even that I am ready to vote for him. I’m still deciding. BTW why is no one asking Obama why he doesn’t go by Barry anymore and why he used to do so?

OK that is no surprise to anyone paying attention. The financial world is all messed up and in a screwy twist of fate the rich are doing fine and it is the poor and middle class who are in trouble. Schools are getting cut back just at a time when we need more and better educated population. And there is this whole health care situation which could be a lot better.  Oh and the government budgets are out of whack as well.

The financial mess is almost completely the fault of the big banks and investment companies. Oh sure they want to blame people who took out loans that they couldn’t really afford but honestly the banks should have known better. The people who took out those loans didn’t really understand what they were doing and in many cases were deliberately deceived. The derivative mess was a shell game to make bad loans look good and profit by moving money around without creating anything of real value. It pretty much had to fail based as it was on risky loans. And the people who made billions in the process either did know this or should have known this. It is outrageous that many of these same people were paid big money to stay and “fix” things afterwards.

Many parts of the country are trying to balance their budgets by cutting back on essential services. This is especially true in education. This is akin to eating the seed corn. In other words we are setting ourselves up for a major step backwards. If anything we should be spending more on education to make sure that we are preparing students for jobs of the future. Instead we are doing all we can to make sure they are prepared for manual labor and other jobs that do not move the country forward economically. What idiots think this is a good thing? Well apparently many governors and state legislatures. What’s wrong with them?

Healthcare? We pay more and get less than many other countries. Oh sure it is all fine and dandy if you are rich or have a really good insurance plan. But many are not rich, do not have any health insurance or have such high deductibles that they can’t see a doctor until things get really bad. Oh and did I mention that healthcare costs are making life difficult for many companies? It seems to me that some sort of government healthcare like they have in many other companies would be a good thing. And not just for individuals but for companies. If there was a national health insurance and companies didn’t have to pay for it themselves they’d be better off. Even if they had to pay more in taxes it would likely be less than their current healthcare costs. Even if it didn’t work out that way in outlay of money it would probably make for a healthier work force. If anything companies should be pushing for universal healthcare.

Back to government budgets. Sometimes you have to stop cutting spending. What if you and I had to cut out food spending, That would be too much after a while. What would be do? Try to increase income. At one point my wife and I had 5 jobs between us to make ends meet. Yes it took more time and energy but putting food on the table and educating our son was a priority. And yes we worked extra jobs to pay for a good education because that was the right thing to do. Cutting education when it was possible, though not always easy, to raise income was a good investment. We don’t regret it for a moment.

Government could raise taxes on the very rich. The rich can afford it. It is not what they would lose that you have to think about but what they would have left and they would still have plenty. Oh we hear “but the rich need that money to invest and create new jobs!” Heck of a theory. The problem is that they are not creating new jobs. They are waiting for someone else to fix the problems that they themselves have the resources to fix but refuse to do. The rich caused this economic mess we are in and they should be asked to pay some of the cost to fix it.

These are all old fashioned and dare I say it “Christian” values. Take care of the hungry, the sick and the poor. Educate everyone as an equal. Ask those who have been blessed with much to help those who have less. We could do it but for some reason those in power don’t want to. It makes me sad and I feel frustrated. This is my scream in the dark.

It’s been 40 years since I finished my four years at Brooklyn Tech but it remains one of the pivotal experiences of my life. Oh there were both good and bad things that happened but I really only remember the good things. I still remember the pride of getting and wearing my heavy winter coat with the huge letters TECH on the back. Man I was proud of that. I was a Technite! I was part of something amazing. Tech was a second home to me. From eating in the cafeteria and tossing paper airplanes out the window – only now do I really understand why that drove teachers crazy to being a part of the track team. People are amazed when I tell them we practiced the pole vault on the roof. I still have dreams that take place at Tech. Even after all this time. I run into other Tech alumni from time to time. rare since I live in New England these days but it happens. Each one is family no matter when they graduated. Male, female (boy did that take a while to adjust to), black, white, yellow, what ever. They are Technites and there is a bond there.

A couple of years ago I had business in Brooklyn. I rolled into town early and decided to chance a visit to Tech. As I walked up to the building I went to enter the same door I had walked through for four years as a student. It was habit – it felt natural. Where else would I go in? To no ones surprise I was stopped and sent to a door on the far corner of the building so I could sign in. OK sad but that is the reality. I visit many schools all over the country and visitors always have to sign in. Though it was hard to think of being a visitor. Once there I had to show my ID and sign in. Also not atypical. As I said I visit a lot of schools. Having to show an ID is common though not always the case. I have visited schools where no one even checks the name I sign on the visitor register. And others where a visitor badge with my picture on it is printed out. Oh and I was told I needed an escort.

That was the worst. I had hoped to spend some time just wandering and perhaps talking to faculty. I have done that at other schools where I was not an alumni. Many schools do not require visitors be escorted. At other schools a volunteer student will show me around or to the even where I am speaking. But pretty often I am pointed in a direction and wander off. Not at Tech. Eventually a person from the alumni office showed up and showed me around a little. I was told I couldn’t go visit one classroom we passed that looked interesting. I was shown a few things – the auditorium for example. But we stayed in the halls and visited the alumni office. I felt rushed. I felt unwelcome – an intrusion. I felt like I shouldn’t feel like I belonged. There was no place for me here. I was not at home. I was a stranger. 

It’s been a couple of years and I still think fondly of “my school” but I’m not sure that Tech of today is my school. Now some would say I don’t understand schools. But I do. I have taught in K-6 an K-8 schools. I taught for 8 years in a high school. I have been on a school board. I am on advisory boards for four different high schools. I visit schools all the time. I do understand. I just don’t think it is right and necessary or even good to treat all visitors as the enemy – as a threat – as guilty without proof. Alumni especially should be made to feel at home – like they are welcome.

I will not soon be back to visit Tech. I am not wanted there. My heart is broken.

I didn’t want to think about 9/11/01 today. I really didn’t. But that seems to be impossible. If for no other reason that my Dad lives with me these days.

I was sitting in my office at Bishop Guertin High School when I heard about the first plane crash. That didn’t sound good but I knew that planes had hit New York City skyscrapers in the past. Still I turned to the Internet for news. Soon after a second plane hit. A student came through my office and remarked about it being some coincidence. I replied that it was not a coincidence. One could be an accident but two meant deliberate action. I didn’t want to be right but I was.

Soon after I saw two girls, the Oganowski sisters, accompanied by a guidance councilor and a campus minister walk quickly by with tears in their eyes. I found out shortly after that their father had been the pilot of the first plane to crash.

Soon I started thinking about people I knew in the City. One of them I knew worked in one of the buildings at the trade center though I didn’t know which one. Also I wondered about my father. Dad lived on the eastern end of Long Island but he was still the senior chaplain of the New York City fire department. Had he gone to the City that day?

I was able to find out about my friend. He was late going to work and wasn’t at work when the crashes happened. He was safe. I couldn’t get in touch with my Dad right away.

It turns out that my Dad had been home when the first crash happened. He’d gotten into his truck (a  Chevy Blazer) and using red light and siren made amazing time getting to the WTC site. He knew a lot of firefighters involved including some senior officers and of course Fr. Mychal Judge one of the department’s other chaplains who died in the building collapse.

Dad was on the scene for pretty much 6 weeks straight. The first night or two he slept in his Blazer a block away from what came to be called “Ground Zero” by all. FEMA put him up in a hotel nearby at some point. After a couple of days masks became available and required. Still, my Dad’s lungs have not been the same since. In fact I wonder how many of his current medical issues  derived or were worsened by those weeks.

After about 6 weeks Dad was hospitalized with pneumonia. Oh did I mention that he was already 76 and had been spending 12 to 18 hours a day at Ground Zero for weeks with no breaks?

Dad spent his time in several ways. One was helping prepare the many clergy who volunteered to help. He warned clergy not to “shove the dove” as he put it. In other words not to use this as a chance to do a hard press on evangelism. First responders needed support and comfort.  Not judgment or hard press preaching. Living the faith was the important thing.

Dad also spent a lot of time with families of the victims. This is a role that Dad was uniquely prepared for. When one loses a spouse it is often easy to feel, and often correctly, that counselors don’t know what they are going through. Dad had outlived two wives by this time and really deeply did (does) know what it is like to lose a spouse. He’d also seen a lot in his years as a chaplain both for  the Fire Department and the Navy. These were not his first visits with families who had lost a loved one. And he’d seen some pretty horrible things during World War II where he saw more combat than most.

A lot has happened since then. Dad finally retired from the Fire Department – the last of several jobs he retired from. I’ve since left teaching and gone back to industry. Security theatre runs rampant throughout the country. We’ve still got fighting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to no apparent good for the US.

No one won that day. Everyone lost. What is important now is where we go from here.