Seven things about me -- Meme

[Ernie Easter]

Mark Spahr who writes on Cooked on Education tagged me. He was tagged by Richard Byrne of the award-winning Free Technology for Teachers blog who was tagged by Beth Still. The idea of this meme is to share seven things that your readers and / or your PLN might not know about you.

1. I was a not so great high school skier & ski jumper who has turned into a decent skier and ski coach who has had 4 Aroostook County Middle School championships. I never did compete my senior year and instead spent every weekend I could climbing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire during the winter. There was nothing like it to be on top of Mount Washington in February with my crampons and ice axe.

2. I am an Eagle Scout and a past scout master (before kids). After we moved to Aroostook County in Maine and my son was old enough to join, we got involved in 4-H. My wife and I become leaders in the Clover Power Club.

3. My first experience with a computer was at the University of Maine at Orono in 1971 when during a Calculus class we had to write a program. This was done on key punch cards that were delivered to a grad assistant who intern fed them to the computer. I was presented with a pile of computer paper with ??? random numbers ???

4. My first personall computer was an Adam by Coleco. The word processor and other software that came with it really got me hooked on computers. I thought it was a head of other computers I would use later. I'm now on a Mac.

5. Over the years as a family we have raised horses, pigs, chickens (meat & eggs), rabbits (for meat & Angora wool), beef cattle, and milked a lovely Jersey cow named April. During this 5 year period we raised all our own food. We no longer have animals (except for 6 cats), but there are times when I miss that.

6. During my high school years I learned how to technical rock climb with my best friend Mike. We climbed a lot in New Hampshire and Western Maine. When you climb with a person you put your life in their hands and the bond you develop is like no other. We climbed together for 7 years with my last real climb was a short one. As I repelled, I saw my wife and 2 week old daughter standing at the bottom. It was at that point I realized I needed to find a less risky sport. Since I've been teaching middle school I've had the experience of working with Camp Kieve at my school. They will bring a portable climbing wall (my photo here on Seedlings) with them. My students are always amazed that their teacher can actually climb it and so fast! Later I let them in on the secret that I use to climb as an young adult.

7. One of my most amazing, and life changing, experiences was traveling to Germany and Poland with the Maine Holocaust Human Rights Center where we visited a number of Concentration / Death Camps including Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Trebinka. My own interest in knowing more about the Holocaust started when my father began talking about visiting Dachau after it was liberated at the end of WWII. He was a driving an officer who need to visit the camp. I have built a Holocaust unit into my World History curriculum as well as an unit on Tolerance. My students and I put together the Maine Holocaust Education Network (a ning) last spring. We were nominated for an edublog award for the Best Educational Use of a Social Networking Service.

These are the seven people I would like to see participate.
@debwhite
@principalspage
@ClareLane
@mscofino
@EstieC
@pgeorge
@zecool

[coakes]

Ernie, a rock/mountain climber, no wonder you have such high aspirations and set such high aspirations for your students. So glad you shared! I can wait to read Deb White's.

[Scott Shelhart]

Thanks for the interesting post, Ernie. An Eagle Scout? I knew there was something I liked about you :-)

Have a great day!

Scott Shelhart
(Eagle Scout '84)