Yorktown (6/29/2015)

So going to work on the boat we got stuck at the railroad overpass by a train with tanker cars.  The railroad is owned by CSX and serves the heavy industry in York County.  With heavy industry I am referring to our power station and what used to be the refinery.  Both are and have been changing a lot lately.

The power station is owned by Dominion, and it is my understanding that it is partially coal and partially natural gas.  From what I understand, it is or used to be one of the most polluting power stations on the east coast, and we know that!  After a few days without rain we have a (not so) nice, thin, black dusty coating on our white boats, and the only thing that could possibly contribute to that would be the power plant.  Hopefully it is not the hexavalent chromium that was found by the EPA in the waste site.  I also hope that they’ll make good on their promise and discontinue using coal.  But then they are complaining that they cannot generate enough electricity for the Peninsula and have to construct a power line over the James River, in view of historic James Town, but more importantly Kings Mill a neighborhood with million dollar homes.  Dominion is threatening rolling blackouts if they don’t get what they want.  It seems somewhat childish, but of course we the common/middle class man will be the victim.

There is one nice thing about the power station: it is a great beacon for us sailors.  If we aim for the smokestacks we know we are on our way home.  That time we sailed across the Bay it was a very clear day and we was able to see the stacks all the way from the eastern shore.

The refinery has been closed for some time, and the current owners have been retooling it as an oil storage and shipment facility.  CSX is the major transporter of heavy crude from the wells in North Dakota to the Yorktown facility.  We have heard of two major accidents in the past year.  Both of them, the one in West Virginia and the one in Lynchburg, involved CSX trains that were on their way to our sleepy county on the York River and Chesapeake Bay.   This was somewhat concerning to some of us because we had discovered some issues with a stream crossing in our county.  Finally after all the accidents, CSX fixed the problem.  The photograph above shows the railroad crossing, one of the big storage tanks, and a train on its way out of the refinery.  I assume it was empty and on its way back to North Dakota to pick up another load.  The tanker cars looked new (no graffiti), so hopefully they are the double walled type, although I am not sure if that would be any help if you roll down a cliff in the mountains. 

No real message here today, but just a record of some of the things that we saw over the weekend.  It illustrates how this little county, that we live in, is connected to the world (remember my post on the Dolly Sods?).  This interconnectedness includes the electricity that is generated in the county and its influence on the construction of power lines elsewhere, or even as far as North Dakota and exploding railroad cars in West Virginia and Lynchburg.  We are amazingly interconnected in this world and it feels like things that affect us in York County may have nationwide or maybe global impacts.  The photo below illustrates that as well.  It was taken a few weeks ago and shows the visit of the Hermione from France.  In front of it is a small cruise ship; I wonder if it’s visit was planned or if the passengers had a treat that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, and most likely they will remember Yorktown as well.

Photo taken June 7, 2015.

Yorktown (6/25/2015)

I’ll be mixing work and pleasure in today’s blog entry.

The more southern part of York County or lower York County (we divide county into the lower and upper part, with the division being the Yorktown Naval Weapon Station) is very flat, and we experience a lot of flooding during heavy rainstorm events.  Flooding was so bad that the county started a Stormwater Advisory Committee (a citizens group), of which I was a long-term member.  We advised the county on where to invest in projects that improved the stormwater infrastructure.  We also served as a conduit between citizens and the county and developed a set of publications that citizens could use in managing stormwater in and around their homes and in their subdivisions.  Regretfully, the County Commissioners decided to disband the committee a few years ago, and I will not go into why they did that.

Fast forward to this week.  The county has been building this huge bioretention area near one of our high schools.  Bioretention areas are what they are called.  They store and retain stormwater in an area for some time to allow it to infiltrate into the soil.  Excess water is slowly released into a drainage way, creek, or stream.  The word bio stands for that there is some biology involved with all of this, and in stormwater that means plants.  The photo below shows the area just after it is planted.

Regular readers of my blog know that I teach all things stormwater in my current job.  Lately I have been teaching about plants that can be used in exactly these kinds of projects and I was encouraged to see what plant species they used in their planting.  Why plants?  Well, plants have all kinds of benefits: 

• they shade the water and keep it cooler compared to when it runs off a parking lot; 
• it slows the flow of the water down and allowing sediment to settle out; 
• plants assist in the settling and breakdown of pollutants and contaminants in the runoff; 
• plant roots open up the soil thus allowing for more infiltration and recharge of the groundwater;
•  plants bring oxygen into the soil which greatly enhances the breakdown of contaminants in the water; 
• wetland areas are among the most productive ecosystems in the world and are great in removing air pollutants and CO2 out of the air; and finally, 
• all these plants provide great habitat for all kinds of critters such as insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and even mammals.  

The more diverse their plant selection was the better the chance is that some of these plants will survive, but also the more (different) critters it can support.

Another wonderful thing to see is that the bottom of the area is not flat and uniform.  You can see islands which will be flooded temporarily during a storm and some permanent pools (the darker areas).  This greatly enhances the diversity of the area and all those functions I talked about above.

Why is this so important that I run around the state to teach it?  Well, in the old days when there were less people and less impervious areas such as roads, roofs, parking lots, sidewalks and driveways in our country, rainwater was able to infiltrate into the soil and recharge the groundwater table.  Nowadays, we are pumping the groundwater faster than rainfall can recharge it.  In addition all that rainwater runs off as stormwater and because it did not infiltrate the amount of water that runs off has greatly increased.  Streams cannot handle all this water and we see increased flooding, erosion in streams and increase damage to the stream banks.  All these bioretention areas and stormwater ponds are designed to lower the impact of development, decrease flooding as much as possible, clean up water and recharge the groundwater.

Fredericksburg and the events that happened this week (6/22/2015)

It was my birthday this past Thursday (18th) and I was really looking forward to it.  This was not because I would be a year older on the calendar (maybe not wiser), but because the pope was going to publish his encyclical on climate change on the 18th; something important for the world.  I thought that is was so cool that this would take place on my birthday.  Moreover, I finished my book about the sixth extinction which in a way is very disturbing.  The Sixth Extinction has me appreciate life; the book taught me that I should be living in the moment since changes are inevitable and that they will be occurring rapidly.  Yes, everything will be changing, and most likely for the worst.   I often think of the time we used to work and live in East Africa in the late 1970s.  Back then we already realized we might be the last generation to see the rhino in the wild.

In addition to these thoughts, I had visited Fredericksburg that week to teach two classes.  I had come out the class on a high.  Again, I got a standing ovation after teaching, which made me feel embarrassed and really happy at the same time.  I teach to educate and not for applause.  I really try to teach people respect for nature and the ecology of the area we live in.  On my birthday, someone wrote the following review of me on my LinkedIn page: "Jan is a knowledgeable person and a great teacher and has a true respect for the environment!"  As you can see these are all reasons of my interest in the encyclical.

Sitting on the 5th floor in my motel room on the 16th I could see the huge thunderstorms building in the area, and I hoped to capture one of them with the Rappahannock River in front of it, as you seem I was able to capture exactly what I had hoped.  This photograph was taken downtown from a bridge over the river.  Again I had this feeling of love and appreciation of what life or nature was giving me: the simple beauty and being in the moment.  Traveling can be lonely,  but it can be full as well if you appreciate the beauty, live in the moment and try to explore.  The second one is a scene from downtown, sitting at a coffee shop after dinner.  Just fun, watching people stroll by.  One woman was discussing with her husband how many steps she had on her fitbit.  People watching is my favorite!  It's a shame that some of these places downtown close by 8, but then the University is out and most of the students probably went home for the summer.

Little did I know what was to transpire driving back from Fredericksburg the next day.

Waking up the morning of my birthday I was greeted by news of another mass killing; now in one of my favorite cities: Charleston, SC.   I am so angry about the murder in Charleston that there is no way for me to express that.  I agree with John Steward that describing it in such terms as terrible takes it away from the fact that it is something much bigger.  The hatred by groups in our society must end.  We spent trillions on fighting terrorism directed at us from the outside without dealing with it from inside our country.

It is amazing and such a shame that the pope's important message is being hijacked by the murder, and then see the wing nuts on the right trying to steer the attention of their conservative buddies (we don't want to talk gun control or examine the undercurrent of racial hatred) away from the murder back on the pope.  The right wing fringe (wing nuts) call the pope names and say he is a "wolf in popes clothing" and worse.  One hate crime is not enough and they are already motivate their fans into hating others (Catholics?) and this hatred inevitably leads to crimes.  I have written about this some other times as well (see also this post, and some of the other posts of mine with the label tolerance).

The pope's message has little to do with me, except that I - a non-catholic - was looking forward to hearing what he had to say in the encyclical. Truthfully, I am reading it right now, and the pope is not as nuts as they make him out to be.  But again, it does not take away from last week's horrible news, we need to fight racism and preach tolerance.

Yorktown (6/14/2015)

Life in Yorktown has slowed down after last week's visit of l'Hermione.  Walking through Yorktown those days I came to the conclusion that there are now so many pictures of the boat floating around the internet (pardon the pun), that I do not need to contribute to the glut (I guses I did below).  It was a madhouse, but it did put our sleepy village on the map.

We were actually sailing that day and watched the Hermione leaving the York River this pas Mon day June 8. 

Not that the town slows down much on a hot day on the weekend.  There were already plenty of people laying on the beach, soaking in the sun when we walked by the beach around 9:30 am, Sunday morning.  We tend to stay away from the madhouse, although in no way do we stay away from the water!  But still visiting Yorktown is fun (and our beagle lover to swim).

The photo below show you a little bit about the architecture.  I love the pineapple; it's a great fruit and it also serves as a symbol of hospitality.  It is difficult to find out why, but it seems that Christopher Columbus was given a pineapple when he first landed in the new world, and it seems that's how it started.  Naturally it is a exotic looking fruit as well.

Well, Yorktown is fairly hospitable.  We have one hotel on the water, and at least three Bed & Breakfasts.  It has a town dock where you can stay overnight with your boat.  Our little town has at least 6 places to eat and/or drink, and even a Ben and Jerry's.  Personally I would not mind a different more experimental restaurant or even a microbrewery, but heck, it's not a bad place to hang out.  We even have a farmer's market and on Thursday evening they have a concert (Shagging on Main).  We are very happy we moved here 15 years ago.

I try to drive through the town every chance I get on days I commute to Richmond or when I return.  I love the view of the water, the sailboats on the river or at the town dock.  The town is vibrant on a summer evening, but pretty darn dead in the winter.  Oh well, something to work on and make it a year round attraction.

On trainers and teaching, Part II (6/11/2015)

As a teacher/instructor I am getting this feeling that I am becoming overly-critical of how others prepare their lectures, prepare their materials, or do their teaching jobs.  This sounds horribly arrogant; I caught myself being critical yesterday when I reported on the various classes and seminars I attended in the past few days.  I am aware that I am becoming a curmudgeon in my old age and it is something I want to avoid at all cost, but I often wonder why people just plainly accept lousy teachers and sit through a class or seminar.  I have a lot of very good fellow teachers in our group (and then to think we are not professional, or I should say formally trained instructors); we all have our own style (thank God), but it is more about classes and lectures given by people outside the agency I work for.  Some of these courses have nothing to do with the subjects I generally teach; they even include some of the sermons I see at the church I visit.

One of my fellow teachers in the class for inspectors that he and I taught.

That my criticism may be off base and/or lead to (the perception of) arrogance became more apparent after talking with my supervisor and after reading reviews from various classes I taught and some of the classes that other people taught while I was observing.  They really loved the latest class that I was somewhat critical about (in my head but not vocally to the instructor, in particular since the reviews were very good).  I really wonder what I missed, but it appears that students were glad to learn more details on subjects they learned in a previous classes, in particular in preparation for the exam they have to take.  So yes, while we say that we don't teach them to take an exam, in reality we probably do, or that is what our students want us to do.

Teaching is something I truly enjoy and talk about in my blog (look for the keyword/label: teaching or training).  I too tend to get very decent reviews and some not so good reviews (see the photo below; yes, there are always a clown or two in your class).  I take serous reviews seriously and try to learn from them, but these were somewhat rediculous.

The joker

The angry person

I am still not aware that I have an opinionated liberal agenda, other than on that specific day, I talked about evolution and the need to preserve trees.  However, I suspect this was the guy I asked to stop having very loud side conversations with some of his fellow students while I was teaching and others were trying to listen to me instead of to him.  So yes I do take reviews personal and try to learn from them.  Another one of my favorite positive reviews went something like this: "My supervisor forced me to come to this class.  I did not expect much, but I actually learned something."  I really do think there is a joker in every class I teach.

An online search on teaching strategies and instructional design brought my attention to a few things. Deborah Davis gives the following recommendations in here book: The Adult Learner’s Companion: A Guide for the Adult College Student:

• Use the adult learner’s experience and knowledge as a basis from which to teach.

• Show adult learners how this class will help them attain their goals.

• Make all course and text material practical and relevant to the adult learner. 

• Show adult learners the respect they deserve.

• Adjust your teaching speed to meet the needs of the older learner.

• Motivate adult learners to learn new information.

In his "Rapid Elearning Blog" Tom Kuhlmann gives five little nuggets:

• Instructional design is more than just putting information in front of learners

• Instructional design has clear goals and gets learners focused on the right things

• Instructional design provides context and perspective

• Instructional design compresses the learning process and saves time (this is probably the one I violate the most)

• Instructional design engages learners with clear and meaningful content

I really like to do all these things in my class design and teaching; maybe subconsciously, but I try.  As I tell some of my students, "I have sat through classes that were so boring that I promised myself that if I ever had to give a talk or a class, I would never be like that."

I have two questions for the readers of my blog:

1. Do you also notice that you've become overly critical (in a positive way) either with age or since you have become more seasoned in your job?
2. If you are an adult educator or attend a lot of training classes, do your agree with the two bulleted lists above or are there any other bullets you would like to add?  

Thanks.

Jan