It amazes me what I learn, and how I learn, as I read my blog subscriptions. In just a few moments I went from reading a blog about using gaming to improve creative writing to finding an amazing sight about words. And now I’ve stopped to share this with you.
Visuwords makes graphical representations of any word typed in the search window. What an incredible tool in the classroom for teaching vocabulary and improving writing. At one click of the mouse you can see how the word you typed relates to other words. You can see both synonyms and antonyms and, with a mouse over, you get a more precise definition. It is absolutely brilliant, really. Look brilliant up on Visuwords (of course) and you will see how accurately this word describes this sight on many levels. Also try emotional while you are at it, if only for a beautiful visual representation. Try others too. My favorite (so far) is crank.
Was reading some of the blogs I subscribe to and somehow ran into Tejvan Pettinger’s and John Wesley’s posts about happiness. Don’t ask me how I came across them, but one post led to another, and here I am, reading about happiness.
John tries to define happiness, or at least to give it some substance that can be grasped. He explains that one is happy when one has hope, a sense of purpose, and outlets for creative self expression.
Tejvan in “The 6 Components of a Happy Life” identifies six ways that lead to happiness; simplicity or being content, living in the heart and not the analytical mind, control over negative thoughts, gratitude, calm activity from a sense of purpose, and physical exercise.
Here’s one more thing that leads to happiness: Picturing specific examples of each aspect in your life.
What will it look like? If the past is any indication, it will not be much different than it is today or has been since the early 1900’s. According to Will Richardson it will look much different in ten years. Part of me say it will not, the realistic part, the part that comes from being in the public school system since I was 4 years old. Another part of me says, “Hooray! It needs to change.” This is the part that has been disillusioned by all of the restriction put upon us as teachers in the guise of “protecting the children.” For example blocking social networking sights, blogs, and podcasts. Don’t even get me started on political and social changes that have occured that are destroying public education.
David Byrne (formerly of the Talking Heads) had a recording called In the Future. Here is my take on it as the future pertains to education.
In the future, a student will go to school in their house, probably in pajamas
In the future, learning will be done on-line.
The teacher may not ever meet the student face to face.
In the future, learning will be collaborative and independent.
In the future, schools will be used only for sporting events, physical education, instrumental music, social gatherings and maybe art.
There will be no need for busses, bussing, magnet schools, heating bills, snow days, and cafeteria food.
In the future, teachers will be students and students will be teachers.
In the future, education will be personal, not public nor private.
Everyone will be able to see what you learn.
In the future, school supplies will include a laptop computer, internet access, head set with microphone, a blog, and a My Space page.
Video camera optional.
In the future, students will learn about school while studying history.
My last post was entitled The Light at the End of the Tunnel. I felt I could begin to see a time when I would have this deck finished. Not that I hate working on it. Quite the opposite. I get involved in what I am doing and literally lose track of time. It is like putting together one big puzzle or solving a giant sudoku. Building it is mentally and physically stimulating.
Yesterday and today however, the tunnel expanded. You see, the deck I’m building is not rectangular. It is actually an irregular hexagon with right angles where it attaches to the house. To get an idea of what the side opposite the house looks like, imagine a rectangle with two corners on one side cut off and the sides connected by the hypotenuse of the the removed right angle. This is where the tunnel expanded. Up until now I was working with right angles. Now I am working with forty-five degree angles, miter cuts, as well as two levels (even though they are only one foot apart).
Yesterday, I fixed problems. The headers were attached to the two angled sections of the upper deck. That meant two 2×8s has to be fastened together then bolted to the posts. Sounds easy, but the header met the posts at a 45 degree angles. No problem. All I needed to do was to cut the boards long and draw the lines where I need to cut and have at it. Well, just before I started to cut, I noticed the bolts holding the header parallel to the house were in the way of the cut. “No biggie,” I thought, “I’ll just move them over a bit out of the way of the cut.” Just as I had this solution, I remembered I had burned up my drill. So, I bought a new, heavy duty drill. Once the bolts were moved, I began cutting using a hand saw. It took forever. So, I went back to the store and bought a long enough blade for my reciprocating saw to cut through the lumber. I had at it, but before I got through half of the header, the battery of the saw had it. Mind you, there was a second post that I had to fix, also. All in all, I charged each of the four batteries twice to get the header up (even though it still needs a small cut on each end) thus completing the frame of the upper deck. And I thought I would be able to put the joists up too.
Today, once the rain stopped, I spent a lot of time fitting a header into one of the angled sections of the lower deck. I began by installing the post for the this part of the deck. Then, starting with the easier square end, I put up the end joist that will also hold the stairs. Off of this, I installed another square piece, the ledger, and off the this, the other end joist (also square). I was making progress despite a rain delay, then I got to another angled section and everything slowed down. This board, the ledger for this section, had to be mitered and notched to go around the corner of the girder. It took some time but the board is up. Now, I only have two more boards that need mitering for this section, then the last section of the lower deck is square so that will be cake.
The deck I am building is looking more and more as I had planned it. This amazes me. I had a vision and it is coming to fruition. During the process of building the footers I was doubting whether I wanted to see this through. Now that I am working on the frame of the deck, and it is looking like the drawings I made, I am excited to see it through to completion.
Today I put the header up and the end joists and in the process burned up my drill. It had been with me since our first house which would put it back in the early nineties. It has seen a lot of work. I guess it is time to get a 21st century drill. Looks like I’ll be heading back to Home Depot tomorrow.
Our neighbor, who has been stopping by each evening to see the progress was surprised at how much I had gotten done today. She even commented on how it is looking like a deck and how she now understand the design. The building plans did not help her see my vision. My wife was also admiring the progress I have made. I think she doubted my drive and abilities to build this thing but she has never said as much. It was just nice to hear some encouraging words. Believe me I have needed them. There have been a few times I have wondered whether I was up to the task. Well, we shall see.
The deck is really starting to take shape now. The four posts to support the pergola are up and the girder is installed. Now you can start to see the shape and height of the deck.
One long post to support the pergola beams is not as sturdy as I’d like it to be though. It wobbles very slightly in one direction. I am debating whether to support it by sandwiching it between the end joist and another joist using carriage bolts or to pull it out and try to fix the problem before I go on. Find out in the next post what I decide to do.
The girder is made of two 2×8 boards sandwiching the 6×6 posts. They are bolted to each of the four posts with two 1/2″ carriage bolts. To do this ran a level line from the bottom of the ledger (which would be the top of the girder) to the corner post. Once I leveled it, I marked the post. Then I propped one end of the board up and clamped to the post at the level mark. I did the same thing to the other end of the board. I checked level again. This time with a 2×4 that was long enough to span the distance from ledger to girder. Meagan helped by holding the 2×4 at the ledger. Once I was satisfied with the level, I tacked the board at each post. I repeated this process with the second board of the girder. This went a bit faster with Meagan’s help lifting the ends and clamping the end opposite from me. I checked level of this board with the ledger and with the other board. After a few taps with the maul to get it perfectly level, this board was tacked into place.
With the girder boards in place, all that was left was to drill and fasten them with bolts. Easy? No? I thought it would be. I have drilled holes into all kinds of material and it was alway a snap. Never before though had I drilled such a wide hole (1/2″) though so much lumber (more than 8″). I decide to drill and bolt at one post at a time so if there were issues, I could solve the problems as I went rather that drilling all hole first then bolting. The one and a half inche counter sink was easy once I marked the location of the holes. I switched to the 1/2″ by 12″ bit and began boring. The hole started OK but, as I got deeper, the bit began to bind up. The drill motor was beginning to burn up. What I had to do was pull the bit back out enough to let the shaving fall out of the hole. The whole proces for each lag bolt hole was push to bore, pull out to clean, push to bore. This took more time than I had expected but it is finished and the drill is still working.
For two hours last night I wrote down every step and problem I have encountered since starting the construction of this deck. I was typing for two hours! I saved the post, published it, and, when I went to view it, the post had vanished. All my hard work gone. Today I tried to find it, but it is lost. Oh well. Time to start anew with an account of events in reverse order.
Today (Sunday) - Installed three short 6x posts that will support the upper deck. This was rather easy. I stood the post in the anchor, attached a post level to it then used stakes, braces and clamps to hold the post steady while I plumbed the post. Once they were level all around, which they pretty much already were because of all the time I put into leveling the footers, I drove nails through the anchor and into the base of the post to fasten the post to the footer. The only problem that I encountered was that the force of the pounding seemed to move one of the anchors. To try and stop this movement I retightened each bolt on the anchors, and, when pounding the nails, I used the maul on the other side of the post to check any movement.
Once these smaller posts were set, I measured and cut the four long post to support the pergola. Using pretty much the same technique, I installed one of the pergola support posts by myself. It was rather heavy so the only thing I did differently was to attach the brace to the post before lifting it into position so it could be used as a deadman to support the weight of the post. Once the post was upright, I supported it with the braces and stakes to level it, then drove the nails.
I realized that I have less than a week before I need to be at school. I doubt I will be finished before then, so it looks like I will be spending some weekends finishing the deck.
Tomorrow, will be putting up the opposite corner post for the pergola. Once that is up I will construct and install the girder then the other small upper deck posts.
8.11.07 Saturday
Today I am officially finished with the footers. I dug the last hole (the one to solve the mistake) by hand (a two hour task), installed and leveled the concrete form tube after a lot of chipping away at the side of the hole, and finally was able to fill it with concrete.
8.8.07 Wednesday - 8.10.07 Friday
Took a few days off. I had just finished the footers and my wrists were killing me. Completeing the footers took much more time than I had anticipated so, Wednesday I read and got ready for hosting the prayer group. On Thursday, I spent the day online and on Friday, Meagan and I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. Back to work on Saturday.
This also gave me time to figure out how to solve the problem of the post in front of the kitchen window. I could either move this footer further away from the house, which would mean moving the other footer too or I could make the span between supports longer and move the footer next to the patio to the end of the lower deck. Doing this would mean another footer would need to be dug midway between the two end footers to support the longer beam. Moving the footers away from the house wouldn’t really solve the problem. The post would still be infront of the window. Moving the footer next to the patio wouldn’t work either because the middle support beam would be in the middle of the deck. What I decided to do was shorten the distance between the footers by digging a new one beween the window and the end of the house. The beam would then be cantilevered and the cantelever would be supported with a brace.
8.7.07 Tuesday — I poured the concrete for the last two footers today. Yahooo! But, first, I had to fix the cave-in of the footer next to the patio. The loose dirt had to be removed and the forms, which had to be cut to fit the oblong shaped hole next to the patio, needed to be replumbed. This took a lot of time and patience because I had a lower section of the form and an upper section. As I moved the upper section to level it, the lower one would move the opposite way and throw the form out of level. Eventually I got it level and gingerly back filled. As I did this though, the soil was seeping through the gaps where the cut was made. To stop the leak I inserted the cut-out piece of form perpendicular to the opening.
To prevent another cave-in, I mixed the concrete away from this footer and hauled it several feet in a wheelbarrow. As I did this, I realized it was a bit more efficient because I could dump the mud from the mixer into the wheel barrow without stoping the mixer. If I did this over a hole the torque of the mixer would cause a lot of the concrete to spill onto the soil. The spinning of the mixer as it was dumped loosened the concrete from the sides so there was also less scrapping of the mixer needed.
Another way I prevented a cave-ing was to add concrete as I added backfill so the pressure on the inside and outside of the form would roughly be equal. That meant I had to have a wheel barrow of soil and one of wet concrete on hand. This really took a lot of time but it is finished.
8.6.07 Monday — Today I poured concrete into four of the footers. Into each hole I put a concrete form tube that was cut to a 32″ length. In every case, the form was neither level nor centered. That meant I had to chip away at the side until I could center the form and level it.
How did I determine center? Well, that meant running a line from the ledger to a batterboard setup just past the hole. This line needed to be squared with the ledger using the Pythagorian theorem. Another line was set up parallel to this over the other holes. A third line ran perpendicular to the first two and over the hole at the precise distance away from the ledger that beam would run. The diagonals of this rectangle were measured and the line parallel to the house was adjusted until the diagonals were the same length. Where the lines crossed was the center of the footer. So, I put a ruler across the diameter of the form and dropped a plumbline right where the lines intersected. The plumbline only hit the center of the tube for one tube. For all the other tubes I had to chip more dirt from the side of the hole and find the center of the form again while keeping the tube level.
8.5.07 Sunday – Took the day off.
8.4.07 Saturday — Poured five of the footers. Not one was exactly where it was supposed to be, so I needed to chip away at the side of the hole to get the tube centered and level. Pouring the concrete is grueling work. I would get the mixer set up over the hole I was filling then put four 80lb bags of concrete into the wheel barrow and haul them to the mixer. Then, I’d heave a bag up to the mixer and dump it it in. A gallon of water was poured in and the mixer was turned on. While the mixer was turning, I would fill up jug of water and take a drink myself. When the concrete was ready, I’d pour it right from the mixer into the hole. Then I’d scrape off whatever concrete had stuck to the side and blade of the mixer. I repeated this five or six times for each hole until it was filled. Once filled, the mud was scrapped off the top so it was level with the form tube much the way a cook would us a level teaspoon of an ingredient. The center was marked by finding three diagonals and the j-bolt was pushed into the mud at the center point.
During a break, I was admiring my work when I just happened to look up. It was then that I noticed that the corner post of the pergola would be directly infront of the kitchen window. This problem had to be solved.
8.3.07 Friday — Filled the first two hole with concrete.
8.2.07 Thursday — Cut the form tubes to size and put the first two into hole. Centered and leveled them.
8.01.07 Wednesday — Sixty one bags of concrete were delivered, bringing the total to 81 bags. And each bag is 80lbs! House cleaning.
7.31.07 Tuesday — Picked up the concrete mixer from Jeff and 2o bags of concrete from Home Depot.
7.30.07 Monday — Called around getting prices for concrete while waiting for the footer inspection. I was deciding between having a truck bring the concrete, getting it already mixed and hauling it to the site myself, or getting bags and mixing by hand.
If I used the truck, then all the forms would have to be in and ready to fill. Posed a problem because the form tubes are cardboard and cannot get wet. So if it took several days to do all the form tubes and it rained, all the work would be ruined. Also, if I order a truck, I would need a small army of helpers with wheelbarrows moving mud from truck to tube because I could only have truck for thirty minutes. Ordering a truck would also involve a lot of waste because I would have to buy 2 yards and I only need about 1.5 yards of concrete. Half a yard would go to waste and I’m sure it would have to come off the truck and be dumped in the backyard somewhere.
Hauling ready mixed concrete by myself would also mean having every thing ready and needing a lot of help, but there would be less waste because I would buy what I needed. The time it would take to get it to the site was way too long and would mean I would only have 10 minutes to fill the holes before the concrete hardened.
Buying bags would mean a lot of work but I could work at my own pace and have the time to solve problems if they arose. I went with the bags.
The insopector came about 2 o’clock and the holes passed!
7.29.07 Sunday — Took the day off.
7.28.07 Saturday — Rented the post hole digger for the second time and dug the last seven holes with help from Dad and Jack. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Every hole except the last was a bear. I was on controls and Jack and Dad were stability. We’d go down about six inches and the auger would get bound up on rocks. We tried wiggling it free but the only way to dislodge it was to heave it up and out of the hole. Then we’d get the loose soil and rocks out of the hole and drop the auger back in for a few more inches until we got to 30″ bellow the surface. Each hole to four to six drops of the auger. The last hole reached 30 inches in only two attempts.
7.27.07 Friday — No helpers so I took the day off. I needed it. The vibrations of the auger aggrevated my carpal tunnel syndrom and my wrists were alternating between aching, tingling, and burning all day. Picked up Meagan from band camp at 4:00pm.
7.26.07 Thursday — Finished laying out the last of the footer postitions. Dad and Russ came to help did the holes. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I could not have done this by myself. Rented a post hole digger and started digging. It was a lot harder than I thought. We were only able to do five hole before Dad and Russ had to leave. Each hole was rough. We had to bore through very hard, dry, rock filled clay. Russ cut his arm on the flashing and we all wiped after just two hole. I was wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew with builing this deck but we persevered and got five done.
I was able to save some money on the post hole digger since I only used it for four hours instead of 24.
After Dad and Russ left, I dug the hole for the footer next to the patio by hand. A two hour job but it was the only way as it was too close to the concrete patio for the post hole digger.
7.25.07 Wednesday — Got back early from our little vacation in Oxford, Maryland so I put up the ledger for the lower deck, solved some fastening problems with the upper deck, and began laying out the position of the footers. The ledger I figured would only take a couple of hours. Actually, it took about six. I had to line up six holes through the ledger into the cinder block foundation wall and into two 2×4 backer boards. I measured and marked the position of the holes several time before drilling, and the bolts which were too short (went to the store and got the right length) still did not line up. But, after about 20 trips into the smelly, buggy crawl space, I finally got the ledger up.
The ledger to the upper deck needed to be fastened to the stringer of the house every 16″ on center. All the holes drilled into the stringer were good except for five. One was right against a floor joist, two were right into them and two neither went into a joist nor the stringer. Strange! I moved the holes for the two in the joist over a couple of inches and secured with bolts. Two did not bite with screws and I discoved there wasn’t a stringer at these points so I drilled into the nearest floor joist and fastened with a lag screw. The last hole I left alone since it was above a successfull fastening and code only requires the bolts to be fastened in a staggered pattern.
With both ledgers up, I could now lay out the position of the footers. The ledgers needed to be up before doing this because all the lines to determine the position of the holes had to be squared with the house i.e. the ledger. This meant I had to run lines from the ledger at the center point of the posts, square the lines up, run a perpendicual line at the point where the center of the post would be and square this perpendicular line by measuring the diagonals. This was very tedious work with a lot of measuring and adjusting. It also took much more time than I thought it would.
7.23.07 Monday — 7.24.07 Tuesday — Short trip to the Eastern Shore
7.22.07 Sunday — Day off
7.21.07 Saturday — Dad came and we put up the ledger to the upper deck and covered it with flashing. We cut the legdger to size, marked the position of the deck joists and the position of the holes for the carriage bolts. The ledger was then used as a template for where to cut away the siding. With siding cut (the point of no return), the ledger was tacked into place and the holes were drilled into the ledger and through to the stringer. Once the holes were drilled the ledger was secured in all but 5 holes.
I saw this video while reading some blogs yesterday. It reminded me of a message about life from a book I am reading and discussing with some guys at my church. The book is Wild at Heart by John Eldridge and it shows men how to find themselve in Christ and explains what it means to be male and a Christian. It is very enlightening and the book is helping me sing and dance, or as John would say fish, hike, mountain climb, ride horses, and raft, once again.
Ten or fifteen years ago I bristled when multicultural pundits stated how terrible it was that the majority of students socialized with people of their own race. The inference here was that their social groups were not racially, ethnically, or socioeconomically diverse. The reason for this was obvious to me. You hang with people who are like you; people that will understand you.
At that time, I felt that someone of a different social economic background, for example, might not understand my station in life, so I would not associate myself with them. Not because I felt they were better or worse than me, or that I harbored ill feelings to people like them, but because they were different and, because of that difference, they would not understand me. The same sentiment was true for people of different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.
Although I had acquaintances of different races, they were not part of my closest social network because either I felt they could not understand where I came from because of our racial differences, or because I could not understand where they came from. We were cordial toward one another, and even friendly, but they were not the friends in which I confided.
I also had associations with people of different religious beleifs. Again, even though we did not discuss these beliefs, they percollated into our discourse, our way of relating to the world around us. This is only natural. Each of us have been raised with one beleif system or another. It is our compass and, as a compass, it is sometimes quite pointed. This difference in the way we read our world made a deeper association unlikely.
I read an article today, Critical Issues: Educating Teachers for Diversity,it brought all of this back to my mind. It also made me think of how far we have come. I see diverse social groups in my classroom where as I did not see much fifteen years ago (I have been at the same school for seventeen years). The students today have been taught to understand differences in their classmates and to value those differences. Therefore, their social groups are diverse social-economically, racially and ethnically.
I saw similarly diversity in my daughters social groups in middle school. Again, this generation grew up with the multicultural movement. Interestingly though, that diversity is not as prevelent in her group of friends in high school. Is that because of the greater numbers of students with which to associate? If there are more people like you, do you gravitate to them instead incorporating diversity in your associations? Or, is the lack of diversity in her social groups due to the foibles of the adolescent mentality?
I also began to think about the impact technology may be having on bringing diverse people together. For example, only those who know who it is writing this know my race, my religion, my ethnicity and my socio-economic status. If you don’t know me, you may not have a clue as to my diversity or lack thereof, and if I did a good job editing out those references you have no clue. Maybe you will be more apt to listen to what I am saying if I am just black characters on a white space and therefore more inclined to understand my ideas without the preconceptions that differences carry with them. If this is the case then there is much potential for the read/write web to positively effect how we deal with people who are different than us.
If your child has a MySpace page, look at his or her friends. I bet you will see more diversity than the even the public school system affords. My daughter’s does. Is that because she first sees her friends thoughts and ideas before she see there photograph?
