Goals

I’ve always been goal-oriented. From my early days of school, I had goals planned, although not necessarily academic. Sometimes they were to do something physical, as in walking to school, climbing a particular tree, or riding my bike a long distance. Sometimes they were in other areas, such as reading a book a week (which I did for over thirty years, until non-fiction reading related to my subject areas took precedence), studying and journaling the feeding habits of a bird or a turtle, or tanning the hide of an animal. This carried over to athletics in high school, where I developed long-term plans and goals, such as competing in college and running in other areas of the country. Eventually, I developed life goals, and worked out somewhat elaborate five-year plans. Whether I actually achieved these goals was much less important than the effort. As I’ve aged, I still have retained this outlook, with some modifications. No longer will I try to break 32:00 for 10km, but I will try to work towards getting back to 20:00 for 5km. No longer will I try to read a book each week, but I will devote more than an hour each day to reading. I’ll learn and employ pedagogy at school designed to enhance my teaching and student learning, and will go to workshops as often as possible and research educational methods weekly and daily. And, most importantly, I will try to accomplish some project around the house to the benefit of the family each week. The major modification for me has been in the expansion of my goals from a direction only towards me, to goals involving more people, including my family, my students, and the athletes with whom I come into contact, as well as the public in general when possible.

Back to Blogging

Alright, back to blogging after a year, and back to the one I started last year…
As a person who has a major interest in science and math, I look for patterns in everything. Sitting on the porch with my wife (after a plate of home-grilled swordfish and broccoli) I began to think about the decades of my life to this point. Fifty years ago, I was preparing to become a Cub Scout. Forty years ago, I was running 100+ miles per week, getting ready to join the cross country squad at the University of Richmond upon graduating from high school. Thirty years ago, I was moving to Durham, NC, to take a job as an assistant cross country and track coach at Duke University. Twenty years ago, I was beginning studies in microelectronics, and introduced robotics into my Applied Physics curriculum, using the programming language BASIC. Ten years ago I began teaching C++ to the AP Computer Science and Computer Programming classes I had just taken over. My oldest son Thomas was a student. This year, I’m learning Game Development and Simulation to teach in a new course I’m putting together. Each decade was a new beginning to some part of my life. Each beginning was a major chapter in my life. Other years have memories as well, but these were significant. Each of these periods involved taking a chance, and using that chance to better myself, and perhaps to help others. Taking chances can produce great things, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have gained some measure of success with few dismal failures.