Our fourth belief is all about meetings - challenging and changing existing structures. Steve and I have learned and experienced a lot more in this arena since we published the first edition of our book and we have lots of fun new ideas to add. One line of thought that has stuck (with modifications of course) is the idea of leaders best utilizing people's time and talents. This week's infographic takes a brief quote and pairs it with the original sketch note done by Brad Ovenell-Carter who we are excited to say will be doing more sketches for us in the second edition.

I'll be visiting a 3rd grade Social Studies class this week who are exploring different kinds of communities: rural, suburban, and urban. An idea I hope to try with them is to create animated 'scapes' where they can tell me (and each other and their teachers) what they know and what they have learned about each community. Students can work in groups of three with each member preparing one of the communities. The background image can be a long, narrow drawing on the stage (see image below). The reason is so that it can be moved along the stage slowly to create a panning effect.

The background image can be recorded moving first, and then the record mode switched to 'Mix' mode. Then, a new character can be drawn in and animated on top of the already moving background. Below is a proof of concept video of the end product. Note: there is no sound because I created this while on an airplane so I didn't record any audio!).

First off, I realize that this is the hardest post to write each week mostly because I don't have a smart way (yet?) to keep track of all that is going on each day and week. I can look at pictures and saved emails and files uploaded and craft an interesting story, but I am not so certain that will be interesting to everyone. I have to continue to work on this. I have been watching Narcos on Netflix and am constantly looking up the stories of all the people and events depicted. It's interesting to think about things taking place in the world while you were alive (I was just a kid) but had no idea about.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I didn't know that the Cincinnati airport (CVG) was actually located in Kentucky and that the CVG airport code most likely comes from the nearby city of Covington. This little tidbit gives me the opportunity to use the Map widget in Weebly. Fun.

On my trip to Booneville I flew through Cincinnati in Kentucky
On my trip to Booneville I watched an ATV cross four highway lanes
On my trip to Booneville I got the key to my room from under the doormat
On my trip to Booneville I at a sausage ball
​Direct flight home

The Cincinnati, OH airport has the airport code of CVG, which according to Wikipedia is really Covington, a few miles a way from where the airport is...in Kentucky. I looked up all of this information after I received not one, but two, receipts at CVG that included the phrase 'Cincinnati Very Good.' I became very curious. Here's a happy tune in honor of CVG.

I put some final touches on the "preview" text of the book which we'll be sharing with people ahead of the publication. Here is a quote from our chapter on asking for, and accepting, help.

I don't have "perfect pitch" when it comes to listening to things and immediately being able to know the note/key/chord being played though two of my good friends do and I am incredibly jealous. However, through practice I did eventually get pretty good with relative pitch. That is, if given the starting note of a melody or starting chord of a progression, I can usually figure out what follows from there as long as its not too complicated. I've created a model for how one might use Explain Everything to create simple Ear Training listening and notation exercises. The melody was recorded using GarageBand and exported directly into Explain Everything via Open In. Then I created the musical staff with the shape tool (thin lines) and also downloaded image files of the notes and treble clef from OpenClipart.org (the user who made these is jaschon).

I think if an instructor got into a rhythm of creating these, it would be easy for students to record themselves as they notated on the staff. By setting the music clip to loop, it makes it easy to listen to the melody over and over again - another thing you end up doing quite a bit when training your ear! The video below is an example of what a student might produce. The empty project file can be downloaded here.

After all of the attention to the story of Ahmed the clock-maker, it's made me (unfortunately) realize I might have to think twice about bringing Makey-Makey kits when I travel. Now I know why the TSA inspected my bag last time I flew. Oops. I Googled "Makey Makey TSA" and apparently @adambellow made a joke during his ISTE 2013 keynote about such a thing. I'll have to go back and watch it. Speaking of Adam, he just released a cool mobile game called Circuits! The exclamation point is part of the app name (I think) but I probably would have added it anyways. It's a clever level-based puzzle game that asks you to create connecting lines from point to point on a grid while "using up" all of the visible touch points. It's not as easy as you might think!

Steve (Valentine) and I had a call with our editor last week about the manuscript we submitted for version 2 of Leading Online. The final title is still to be determined but I think its going to be "Blending Leadership." Being my first official print book publication, I enjoyed learning about all of the steps that happen between manuscript submission and the work being "ready-for-sale." 

All of the new payment and subscription options for iPhones are a bit overwhelming. I've always just gone with the flow (without much research) and realize I've probably been overpaying in some shape or form. This time around I think I'm going to try the subscription based service that comes with Apple Care and the option to upgrade phones each year when a new one comes out. I'm also going to increase from 16GB to 64GB storage. I don't know if I have actually "learned" what the best plan is, but at least I am doing a lot more research than I have in the past. So that's learning!

You may not know this, but you can get great hi-res product images directly from Apple on their PR section. Of course you have to follow their terms and conditions, but it's perfect for blogs.

As I approach the road
I know I don't know the code
Waiting for a car
There's one, but I'm far
I pick up speed
The car leaves
The closing of the gate
Determines my fate
 Make it back or wait

and miss the train

I've been enjoying reading Andy Weir's The Martian during my commute — waiting for the train, riding the train. I didn't know about the book until I saw a trailer for the movie and knowing I probably would not get to the movies anytime soon I'd read the book! There are lots of fun math and science terms  - some real, some creatively invented for the story. In this track, I used all "live" instruments. I recorded the drums on my son's mini-Ludwig kit. And I used my Rocksmith cable to add the bass and two guitar parts. One of the parts used a GarageBand preset called "The Condensator" which sounded like something the protagonist on Mars (in the book) would use.

The source video I used with Explain Everything in the creation above is from a royalty free collection offered by NASA and I guess the Department of Defense. I needed to register for an account and state that I was a member/associate of the military or a reporter from a media outlet or a blogger. I believe I qualify for that last one, It is called "The Mars Show."

The credit information is: A collection of pans and zooms on highlight images from the Spirit and Opportunity missions. Compiled for display in von Karman Auditorium at the 2004 JPL Open House. Master: DVCPro50. Audio 1: Mono mix. 2: Mono mix. NASA Identifier: AVC-2005-012-1.