Is this the problem or just a symptom of something larger?

There are three things that really hit over the past two weeks. These new ideas have me thinking about how I approach problems and then move to solve them.

For years Mariano has been coaching me along this pathway and now it is all coming together. The big idea he was guiding me towards was to stop jumping towards solutions before fully understanding the whole problem.

Water
Last week I was in a stream with a biologist studying the issues surrounding stream erosion. He told us a story about New York City. The city had a growing issue of the declining quality of the drinking water. One solution was to spend many billions of dollars building a treatment plant, a solution that would require significant and expensive maintenance every year.
The solution they deployed was to go way up river and fix a few issues. This greatly improved the water quality making it much easier to fix in the city. This solution was much cheaper and has a lasting impact all along the river.

The Body
The last two came when we took a trip to St. Louis University. We participated in a demonstration of how certain body parts work together as one. Someone in the audience asked how planter factitious happens and impacts movement. The presenter showed us on the cadaver where the symptoms manifest then pointed to where issue is actually located. These two points where nowhere near each other.
The final event was during our pig heart dissection. The instructor was showing us three actual human hearts and pointing out the issues in two of them. He mentioned his frustration with school banning things like chocolate milk. While the underlying idea is sound, it misses the larger point which is movement. He is starting to see elementary kids with heart issues due to inactivity. While we ban certain foods it does not solve the underlying issue of inactivity.

These big ideas were a great reminder to me about slowing down and thinking before offering a solution. Sometimes I jump to solve the issue without really determining if what I am seeing is just a symptom or the root of the problem.

I am hopeful I can remember these lessons as the year starts to get busier. I hope to stop and think way up the river to see if the solution is really miles away from where I am.

Like your ELMO but with an iPad (elementary classroom teachers)

I used AirServer to create the infinity mirror effect. We were in a meeting today and Dominic told us about this fantastic idea. As we discussed all things technology he explained one method of using the iPad as a portable ELMO. It was too cool not to share. Step 1 Make sure you have AirServer running on your laptop. 1. Click the Windows key on your keyboard or click the icon in the lower left of your screen. 2. Just start typing AirServer. 3. Click AirServer. Don't see it? Contact technology or your building tech person. Step 2 Connect your teacher iPad to your laptop. 1. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Start by swiping in the bezel, the black plastic part surrounding the screen. 2. Click AirPlay Mirroring. 3. Click your name. Step 3 Open the camera app and instant portable ELMO! Anything you see in the camera's len will be broadcast to the big screen. I just used this method to take a picture of my notebook as a demonstration of how co

Who is emailing me? The Blue Man Group??? (Add an image to your Google account.)

WHY It is always nice to put a face with a name. Sometimes we need a tiny little reminder of what someone looks like because we don't see them very often. Follow these steps to add/change the image associated with your Google account. HOW Open your email. Click your image. It might just be a blue circle if you have not added something already. Click Change . Find an image you like. Your amazing new image will appear. From now on everyone can put a name to a face!

Annotate PDF? How might I do that?

So I have a PDF and I need to edit it. Here is one method that works pretty well for me. Open Word. Click File . 1. Click Open . 2. Click Browse . 3. Find the PDF you want to annotate. 4. Click Open . Click OK when you see this box. Bam! Your PDF now opens in Word. Note: you maybe have to click Enable Editing at the top of the screen. Finished editing and want to turn it back into a PDF? Click File . 1. Click Save As . 2. Click This PC . 3. Pick a location. I usually save things to my desktop. 4. Click Save as type - and choose PDF. 5. Click Save .

Learning in the Lou

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