In Pursuit of Excellence

According to Annika this morning, she is "very good at three things". 

1. Art

2. Swimming

3. Being a cat lover

Last night, she got a chance to hone her skills for #2, with swimming lessons. Not only did she go off the diving board without a life jacket, she swam with no fear in the 10-foot deep water! 

Annika was so proud that she is no longer afraid of swimming in deep water. She is now back to where she was about two years ago fear-wise (or lack of fear, I should say). Hurrah!

This morning, I had to drop the kids off at school earlier than usual so that I could make it to the keynote presentation at the K-State Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference. David Progue from The New York Times was presenting.

Annika - "Why do you have to go in early?"

Me - "Because I need to attend a lecture on teaching. It will help me be a better teacher."

Annika - "Well, you don't HAVE to get better. You just WANT to do that."

The Pursuit for Excellence seems to remain elusive among our offspring. :)

I made it in time for the presentation on science education in the U.S. Progue was pretty snarky in person, almost a bit too snarky for me :), but I really enjoyed the presentation. His five reasons Why America is Failing Science:

1. It's cultural.
2. Lower education.
3. "It's the kids"
4. It's political.
5. Higher education - one in four students wants to major in STEM when beginning college, but 75% will switch to another major while in college. Needless to say, given the audience, most of the focus was on #5.

And, did you know that David Progue used to be a Broadway composer? I did not. After his formal presentation he played the piano and sang songs redone with technology themes - "I Feel Pretty" was all about Twitter, and "American Pie" was redone as a history of the music industry. :)