Author: drewmillikin

We try to fight that rural reputation that Vermont has. There was a time when there were more cows than people, but those days are long gone. Burlington is a happening place with a great music scene, vibrant night life, etc. I mean, Wyclef was on campus last week!

But then there are times when you’re reminded that Vermont still can be a pretty wild place. Today was one of those days when Bullwinkle made an appearance just outside the president’s house this morning. This really never happens here. Really.

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Now playing: Jerry Garcia & David Grisman – Drink Up and Go Home
via FoxyTunes

Just a gorgeous spring day today! High 40’s, sunny, it was a perfect day to spend the lunch break outside.

I just bought a fly rod, and I really want to learn how to fly fish this summer. One of our swimmers is also an avid fly fisherman and a member of the Fly Fishing Club here at Saint Michael’s. I mentioned to him back in February that I wanted to learn how and he agreed to help me out. Total role reversal! Coach became the student and the student became the coach.

It was great. We went out on campus and cast out to a 2 liter bottle on the grass. It’s only the second time I tried to cast, and I think I’m catching on pretty quickly. There is definitely a meditative element to fly casting. For me, one of the most difficult past is to slow down. As you pull out and cast with more line, you have to slow down and there is more pause between your strokes forward and back. It goes against your instincts, or at least mine.

Rob’s a great teacher and knows a ton about fly fishing. We were out there for an hour talking about what flies to use, different casting techniques, and fly lines to use and where to find the fish. It was a great hour.

The Fly Fishing Club is heading down to Deerfield, MA in a couple weeks. I’m not sure I’ll make the trip, but Rob said there’s some great fishing right near campus. Once the water level goes down (the melting snow causes the rivers to rise pretty significantly here), we’ll be able to get out catch some trout!

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Now playing: Grateful Dead – Eyes Of The World >
via FoxyTunes

I’m so fed up with “change: right now. It’s not the idea of change or an actual change that’s bugging me, but it’s the talk of change. It’s talking about change, but not really changing. Here’s an example of what’s driving me batty right now.

We have a very labor intensive application review process. Each reader, when reviewing a file, transposes grades on the transcript onto a separate chart in the file. The reader then reviews the file and adds his or her vote along with comments. the chart is a major time consumer, and essentially is just a duplication of data already present in file. Frankly, most of the decisions are made based on a formula output that we call Predicted GPA which is based on a student’s overall weighted GPA, test scores, and class rank. In my opinion the chart is a total wast of time and consumes over 50% of the application read.

You’ve probably heard me say that we’re going to a paperless system next year where all paper is scanned and applications are stored in a database accessed via a web ap. This should speed up processing time.

The big conversation in my office right now is how we recreate the chart electronically or should we just use a paper chart!

To me, that’s not change. I think of change like a hierarchical organization chart. Real change moves vertically. This, to me, is a horizontal move. It’s making a move into something that is completely new and could have a real positive change in the way we do things, but then snuffing it out by holding onto an old comfortable process.

It makes me want to pull my hair out!!!!

“The trouble with you is the trouble with me,
Got two good eyes but we still can’t see”

-”Casey Jones” by the Grateful Dead

It’s funny how we can see what’s right in front of our faces sometimes. Seth Godin has a humorous video posted on his blog that makes the same point. Sometimes we get so distracted by the noise around us that we miss what really important.

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Now playing: Grateful Dead – Casey Jones
via FoxyTunes

A bad back and Daylight Saving Time have me in a bit of a mood today. Reflection isn’t on the agenda, so I figured I’d share some links with you all:

  • Why again, do we continue to use Daylight Savings Time? It was rather depressing this morning, waking up and not seeing the sun. Proponents will argue that the are concrete energy savings because of the longer day Indiana, the only state to give the one finger salute to DST is a real world laboratory for this experiment. According to this, actual savings may not be as great as once thought. It turns out that while our light bulbs may be off longer, things like A/C run longer. I wonder if that makes a difference to us in the VT where summers are shorter than most.
  • A nice blog on, well, blogging. She writes about a lot of what we’ve been talking about as far as taking the time to be reflective and changing your perspective.
  • Apparently, blogging is good for you social life.
  • http://www.lifehack.org/ part of the 43 Folders, Getting Things Done movement. Speaking of Getting Things Done, I got through four pages this weekend before falling asleep in front of the wood stove. Maybe I’m just not cut out for a world of structure and organization.


I have a couple of blogs. One for a class, one for Saint Michael’s Admission and this one, which I’ve had for a while, but have largely ignored.

Writing is something that I’ve always loved to do. I’ve also hated it. It’s a terrible chore for me, but at the same time, it’s often my best medium of communication. It happens so often, I sit down to write, and immediately, I feel like a garden hose, stuffed with dirt, or kinked, with water straining to get through the blockage to the other side.

There is no better motivation for me to check faded items off of old to do lists than the prospect of having to write – especially write something that will be read by an audience. Yes, even a 2 – 3 page reflection paper will encourage me to clean out the pellet stove, help my wife with the laundry, shovel the off the porch, brush the dogs, walk the dogs, brush the cat, change the litter box and a handful of otherwise forgettable chores.

Blogging, it will come as no surprise, is something that I had done rather infrequently in the past. Perhaps I’d be in a class that required it, or perhaps, that clog in the garden hose would give way from the pressure and the creative water would flow, exploding from the hose in a quick burst and then returning to a slow trickle. But by forcing myself to blog a few times a week, I have found that the hose clogs less frequently, inspiration comes less sporadically, and I believe I’m writing better than I did before I blogged. It has become harder now to find the time to get all of my ideas out than it has been to come up with them.

I think this is because it forces me to reflect. It is easy to slip into the habit of going through the day in a totally reactive manner or to go through the day in a routine – going through the motions. Stress and a hectic work day increase the probability. By taking time to sit, reflect, and write (perhaps not in that order) you develop a greater sense of self awareness, I find I’m able to glean lessons and insights almost every day.

I have to think that this would be a beneficial practice in a classroom. I can think of plenty of articles and books that I’ve read, and almost immediately forgotten. It is information that I may have stored in short term memory, but it didn’t stick. I have to believe that if I took the time to reflect on the material in a blog (and it wouldn’t have to been a huge entry rather just a few sentences to summarize key points) the information would stay with me longer. Students I’m sure would find this beneficial. Best of all, by far the biggest benefit is that it would create a habit of writing and reflecting, and it is so much a habit.

I interpreted a good portion of yesterday’s class as a discussion about control, and how to teach in a completely different environment than what we consider normal or perhaps traditional is a better word. I thought about this and remembered an experience that I had coaching little league one summer.

One summer my buddy asked me to help him coach a little league team in Burlington’s North End. I figured coaching’s coaching and I’ve coached swimming since I got out of college. What’s the difference? Have them run some drills, play some games, should be fun.

It was a nightmare.

Coaching swimming is a piece of cake compared to little league. In swimming, the kids are separated in lanes in groups of 6 or so and they swim back and forth. Occasionally you get the kid who keeps diving under the water, but you know he’s going to have to come up for air sometime. With little league, it’s like the field is infinite and there are no barriers. Just kids everywhere – running around, throwing the ball at each other, hitting each other with bats (yeah, there aren’t a lot of hard objects to throw at each other in swimming). It was complete chaos because the kids where running around everywhere and it’s difficult to keep them focused and on task.

Add to that my inexperience in coaching little league. I was an awful athlete as a kid and never made it past farm league. I love baseball and play softball now, but I never learned any drills or exercises. I had no idea what a little league practice looked like. These 5th graders had more experience playing on an organized baseball team that I did.

I think of new media and the new classroom as that little league practice. Students now have a huge little league field (www) and they know more about the game (technology) than the coach. It’s way easier for me to do what I know -coach swimming. It’s organized the kids are limited to what they can do (in a lane, back and forth) and I know it. What about those kids in the North End, many are poor and need that positive role model and positive experience? Am I, by not stepping out of my comfort zone, doing them a disservice?

That’s clearly big picture thinking and I know there’s a lot more to it when it comes to dealing with No Child, the administration and parents. You just can’t teach little leaguers how to play baseball in a pool.

Oh, and I learned that Jackie Robinson was once a VP for Chock Full o’ Nuts.

We’ve been talking a lot about Facebook in our communications meetings recently. I’ve also been talking about it in the grad class I’m taking as well. Discussion have been around, use (should we -SMC- have a presence on it, should admissions counselors be on it, should teachers have profiles, etc) and if we are on it, then what is the appropriate level and what should we do with it. I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting and blogging on the subject for work and class. My opinion evolves everyday.

I think Facebook is a great tool. I have to admit that since creating my profile over 2 years ago, I’ve become totally addicted to it. I like to connectivity that it offers. For example, I’ve been playing a Scrabble game on Facebook with my sister (a student at Colby) and my brother who lives in San Francisco and has been traveling back and forth to China.

Another aspect of Facebook that I like is its design. It’s simple (although it’s becoming less so now that it’s open to non .edu’s and the application clutter is getting obnoxious). To me, that is what set Facebook apart from MySpace is the simplicity of it’s design. There were lot’s of complaints form webbies about the stiffness and lack of flexibility of Facebook, but IMO, 99% of MySpace pages look awful because they allow for customization. When it comes to web pages regardless of if it’s a college website, a blog, or a Myspace page, simple is always better.

So if Facebook is a good thing, then should Saint Michael’s College have a presence on it or should we leave it for the students?

I haven’t figured that one out yet completely, but for now, my answer is yes – with a few caveats.

Right now we have a presence in two main mediums. We have a generic Admissions page and a Class of 2012 group. I think those a two great methods for us to get important information out, and especially as the 2012 group gets bigger and as we get closer to the end of the summer it will be a great way for students to meet and get to know each other.

I don’t think you’ll ever find us actively looking to “Facebook” people or invite them to groups. I don’t think that’s our role here. IMO Facebook is your space and although there has been a proliferation of ads there recently, it’s not a place to be actively marketed at or to. The idea of going out and “Facebooking” students to get them to our site just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The Facebook is going to be a hot topic for a while, or at least until the new big thing comes around. I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and opinions on our presence there and who we use Facebook and MySpace. Check out the Admission page and the Class of 2012 page, and you can find me there as well. Let me know what you think.

Cheers!