However, the real excitement begins for me next Friday, April 6, 2012, when the New York Yankees take on their division rival Tampa Bay Rays in Florida.  The Yankees will then make their way back up the coast to the Bronx after a brief first series stint against the orange birds of Baltimore.  With the anticipation of Andy Pettite back in the rotation and newbies Kuroda and Pineda looking to take a lead role, I feel the spark of Yankee baseball in my heart and in my bones.

I am hopeful for a seamless transition this spring with injuries at a minimum and spirit at an all time high.  Following a disappointing post season, and need analysis by management that lead to new pitching and a bigger bat in the DH slot, 2012 could prove to be a great one for the Yankees.  Derek Jeter, our all time hit leader, will take center stage again fighting off critics who say he is past his prime and reaching into his heart for passion to lead the 2012 Yankees to a winning season.  With Boston’s new manager Bobby Valentine already talking smack about the Bombers, Jeter and his team will have to shut down the Sox with results.

The battle of the East again is down to three iconic teams- Yankees, Red Sox and the Rays.  Yet, the AL West certainly was not short of headlines beaming of powerful moves in pitching and hitting.  You can’t underestimate the power of the East though, which includes a very worthy contender for big wins this season, the Toronto Blue Jays.  The Yankees are definitely frontrunners for the best bull pen while other division rivals tout the big bats and arms.  If Nova, Hughes, and CC  gel nicely with our two new Yankee pitchers and back of retirement veteran Pettite, with Garcia moving in and out of the bullpen as a steady long reliever, we may have something that the others don’t- consistency and leadership.

Sharing my enthusiasm for the upcoming season is my 14-year-old son who recently made his high school freshman team as a catcher. Last year, Chris and I blogged after Yankee games up until the All Star Game.  This year, we may take on a new social media challenge- Tumblr and Twitter posts aimed at sharing information about the Yankees and baseball.

Baseball is finally here and despite the New York Football Giants road to the Superbowl and eventual win, nothing gets my blood going than the signs and sounds of the ballpark readying itself for a new brand new season.

You are never too old to get scared.  The juxtaposition of fear is acting fearless or brave.  I teach college students and MBA candidates how to construct speeches and deliver them with professionalism and confidence.  According to the Book of Lists, speaking before a group is the number one human fear.  That means that people would rather be the dead corpse in the coffin than the person at the podium giving the eulogy speech.  By the way, dying is seven on the list.  Many of my students can identify with this fear of public speaking and relish the opportunity to put that fear in the past.

Conquering your fears is something you are also never too old to do.  I see many career changers join the ranks of graduate students daily.  They often are feeling hopeless at that current job, they’ve been downsized, or they simply quit.  Many of these new students fear failure and therefore look to find something new that they are “good at.”

Personally, I fear two very different things:  heights and the dentist.  Now, heights, I have had the chance to go toe to toe with over the last five years- choosing roller coasters, tall buildings and even the winding staircase of a light house in Barnegat, NJ.  “Old Barney” almost got the best of me, but I soon recovered from its narrow, steep corridors with a breath of fresh area at its ocean banks.  But the dentist, a very different story.

Firstly, let me say that I did have a bad experience when I was a freshman in college.  A partially impacted wisdom tooth became infected and when the dentist tried to extract the tooth, the novacaine just didn’t take and I felt the entire experience.  Needless to say, it was an aching pain that I will never forget.  I have gone to the dentist since, but it was always an endeavor and eventually, I just gave up.

Today, I went- let me preface however, that I did not make the appointment, drive myself to the appointment, nor did I really willingly take the elevator up to the office.  I told my best friend to treat me as a “hostile patient.”  And so she did, an hour later, I learned that my teeth were in good shape, but I had work to be done.  So, my next visit, if I accept the challenge, will be another chance to conquer my fear.

We can’t let fear get the best of us, we just have to keep trying.  And if that means we have to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations in order to be healthy or hop a plane to NYC to visit a friend or family member, then so be it.  We just can’t let fear get in the way of living.

Two colleagues recently turned me on to Google Hangout, a relatively new feature of the Google+. The “hangout” allows you to have a conversation, share your desktop, and even create something collaboratively with a group of people you choose.  This group is called a circle and you invite people from your circle to this synchronous chat.  You can also follow celebrities, athletes, and other artists, adding them to a circle.  A giant leap above the popular Skype, Google Hangout touts “real life sharing”, giving many participants a new way of bringing together the popular features of Facebook, Twitter, and Google Applications all in one tool.  Speaking of the popular, now publicly traded Facebook, the once had to have connection tool seems to have become overly saturated.  A younger audience seems to be pushing out the early adopters who are growing tired of the updates- a fatal fate of the once popular AOL.  In addition, applications like Tumblr, Twitter, and Google+ seem to be grabbing the tech savvy’s attention away from the once dominant social media tool.

These are just cloud applications but what about your next technology purchase?  To be clear, you have to buy what you think you will use and what will fit your lifestyle.  This March Apple will launch the iPad 3 and rumor has it that an iSmall, a smaller more affordable version of the iPad, will launch later in 2012.  So if you haven’t entered the tablet market yet, you have a interesting ride- Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Galaxy Note (7 inch version), Kindle Fire, and Blackberry’s Playbook are other more inexpensive options.

Net books are definitely dropping in price, some are only $99.00.  Apple’s new MacBook Pro will be smaller, lighter, and faster- no hard drive, everything is up on the iCloud.  And with cloud space, your need for computers with large, heavy hard drives, seems to be a thing of the past.  As a matter of fact, you could buy a portable hard drive for about $20 bucks- a terabyte is only $79 bucks.

If fitness is your thing, Nike just launched its Fuel Band- a black rubber Live Strong-style bracelet, jam-packed with goal setting tools.  Syncing to the nikefuel app, Nike Fuel Band might be just the thing you purchase to get yourself back on the fitness track for $149.99.

So before buying into the next technology trend, think about what you need, how you will use it, and how it will fit into your lifestyle.  And don’t forget that no matter what Smart phone, web app, or computing tool you use, you will never stop communicating, you may just change the way you do it.

The series of talks and discussion afterwards reminded me of the importance of being a lifelong learner.  We have to continue to evolve and re-invent ourselves as we progress through life.  Steven Convey says highly effective people must continue to “sharpen the saw”.  According to the Harvard Business Review article “The Future of Shopping”,  by 2014 almost every mobile phone in the United States will be a smartphone connected to the Internet, and an estimated 40% of Americans will use such tablets as the iPad.  With that kind of progress, we need to stay on top of the latest trends, and be aware of how they will be infused into today’s culture, including today’s schools.

Many politicians have weighed in on the current climate of education in the United States.  Just a week ago, 10 states were granted waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act giving them a chance to meet the needs of their students in their districts using different means.  Governors in these states have the needs of their schools at heart.  And GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum drove home his stance on today’s education system stating that he would home-school his kids if he were elected president.  The Los Angeles Times stated in a recent article that “while industry has evolved, the U.S. public education system has remained “stuck in the factory era.” Santorum seems to echo this sentiment.

To stay fresh, we have to be out there, this includes educators.  We have to up up on the current perspectives in education by reading, taking classes, attending workshops, listening to our students and kids, and putting ourselves on the social media sites.  We can’t ignore what’s happening today in education, we have to be a part of the greater good and support our schools and legislation that will help our students grow academically, socially, and emotionally.

Since moving to a small community in Central New Jersey, I have met some really wonderful and giving people who have made a difference in their community. None more passionate than a teacher from Hamilton, New Jersey who gives back to her students and community through her dedication and commitment to learning.  This young girl graduated from the College of New Jersey and  decided to work, volunteer, and live right in her local community where she received her degree in elementary education.  What wows me everyday is how she is able to bring her passion into everything she does.  She works with students with special needs, motivates kids to learn, and believes in the abilities of all her students and co-workers.  She inspired one of her kids to rise above his challenging and poor living environment to apply to a local preparatory high school.  She helped him with his application, bought him some supplies including an interview shirt, and tutored him- both academically and socially.  Needless to say the young  14-year-old got into the school and is doing well in his new learning environment.

This passionate teacher works harder and longer than any other educator I know.  And when she is not working in the classroom, she can easily be found at the local bowling alley coaching her Special Olympics Bowling Team or at a Teacher Leadership Community meeting at Rider University mentoring other teachers from across the state to improve their practice.

Passion can be contagious and I know that as a passionate person myself, I have inspired many people to go out and find success using what they know and can contribute to their community.  I am thankful for the people of my past and those in my present who inspire me with their good works and contributions to others.

Reach for you this 2012!

I know from experience that I stopped doing for me in between doing for others.  I just said yes and yes and yes and never once said yes to me.  So I gave up things that I needed to do for me- including blogging.  @Suzieprof suffered a bit too- my Twitter account seemed to have less tweets being pushed out despite me having a lot to say.  I stopped reading my favorite genre of books- those reinvent yourself, innovations for today’s self-starter books.  Then I came across this:  Stephen Covey’s The 3rd Alternative- after reviewing this USA Today article: http://www.usaweekend.com/article/20111111/HOME02/311110005/Family-feud-How-resolve-conflict-during-holidays?odyssey=nav|head  I sort of reacted a little like Lucy VanPelt from Charles Schultz’s world of the Peanuts, “That’s it!”  This is the just the thing I need to begin my 2012- my New Beginning.  And the bam- I opened my blog and got blogging.   I would be lying however if I did not acknowledge a short conversation I had earlier today with a wise friend who said, “Suzanne, you need to learn how to be by yourself again.”  I used to spend time with me when I was in graduate school in Boston.  I often reflect on those alone times as being very therapeutic.  Walking from Kenmore Square to the North End was a regular routine for me and it was something I planned to do with just me.  So why is it so hard to find that young graduate student from 1992 in 2012?  Life’s curves, although can be positive new transitions, can distract you from what is important.

To let myself off the hook a bit, I did start a new full time job two years ago after only teaching a few classes and raising my kids for 12 years, graduated my son from middle school to high school, buried my dad and along the way got lost in the tailspin of the curve.  Any pitcher, including AJ Burnett who has not been the starter of the future for the New York Yankees, would love to take a tailspinning curve and make it a winning pitch.  Hitters, much like us, are often tricked by the curve.  So, I know I am not alone.  But this New Year, I want to ride the curve back to me- reinvent me, and reach for me in 2012.  I also look forward to blogging, tweeting and reading…so stay tuned!

My 13-year-old son, Chris, is transitioning from middle school to high school from public school to private school and from tween to fourteen.  Maria Shriver recently posted a video on YouTube describing what it feels like to transition and calls for others to share their experiences and how they can contribute to others in 2011.

I myself feel a need to transition from today’s mother to an individual seeking new opportunities to grow.  So often mothers lose themselves in their own homes to their own children, their commitments and somewhere from here to there.  Transitions are about claiming oneself in the midst of everyday disappointments or rites of passage.  Some transitions are harsh, abrupt and unsettling like the sudden death of a parent or close friend.  Some transitions are anticipated, and can be smooth or bumpy.  No matter the course, transitions are necessary for an individual to advance in strength, maturity and wisdom.  So as the opportunity bus pulls up at your stop, don’t let it pass you by because you are afraid to Attraversiamo- as Elizabeth Gilbert from the movie Eat, Pray, Love so desperately needed to do.  Let yourself cross over, reinvent yourself- you will be surprised how much you can do if you just let yourself do it.

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For the past few weeks, my 13-year-old son and I have been organizing ideas and blogging together on one of our favorite subjects: The New York Yankees.  It has been an amazing experience- seeing the world through his eyes, watching him come up with creative ideas to boost the blog’s worth, seeing him get excited when he comes out with a clever sentence or description for a terrific play.  This has been a great gift, blogging with Chris.  The site, http://cmdyankees.wordpress.com has been getting a lot hits as well.  Jack Curry of the YES Network even peaked at us a bit.  We are still trying to figure out our nitch, our big idea, if you will, but we are posting and it is great fun.  I also get to work with my best friend, who is a lover of sports, particularly Notre Dame football, but traditionally Yankee fans are also Irish fans, so the formula works!  What also works is that Chris is writing better.  He was a good writer to begin with but now, I am very impressed with the level of writing and critical thinking he is doing as he prepares his post drafts.  We alternate writing, so that it is always fresh and the task does not become a “job.”  Educators, parents and families, you may want to try blogging with your kids using one of many blog interfaces currently on the web.  Try out Blogger, WordPress or Typepad to name a few and get blogging today.  You never know what you will learn about your teenagers- and it may be a breath of fresh air!

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Spending the evening with a group of high achievers from the class of 1986 made me reflect on the way our kids learn today versus how we 40 somethings learned during our school days.  We didn’t have Google, we had encyclopedias, we didn’t surf the web, we went on school trips, we didn’t access on-line databases, we went to the library.  Ben Stein talks about today’s kids being in crisis because they don’t know simple history or geography facts or they don’t value a college degree perhaps like Generation Xers.  Today’s students in middle school, high school and college find ways to gain access to facts without having to apply them, learn them, experience them; they just find them for the moment, use them to complete an assignment and they move on.  Will Hunting a character from the movie Good Will Hunting was one of those students who found facts through just reading about them, but never truly experienced them as his counselor pointed out:

“So if I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I’ll bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you’d probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can’t tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You’re a tough kid. And I’d ask you about war, you’d probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, “once more unto the breach dear friends.” But you’ve never been near one. You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help.”

One of the ways students can do more than just learn about facts without truly applying them or experiencing them is through interactive white boards such as SMART.  I have had the opportunity to work with school districts in New Jersey through professional development sessions.  These hands on workshops afford teachers the opportunity to develop the skills to engage students using interactive whiteboards coupled with today’s latest technology tools.  One of presentations, Interactive Teaching in the 21st Century Classroom, challenges teachers to step out of the comfort zone that PowerPoint created several years ago and to find a new way to engage learners where they are today: on Facebook, on Twitter, on Club Penguin, on their cell phones, their iPhones and on Xbox.  SMART Boards give teachers an opportunity to work with diverse students and provide a more interactive interface to engage them.  Learners today expect content to be at their finger tips.  They expect to be able to use touch screen technology, access the Internet at anytime and see images that will help them learn.  They have been accessing these media for some time and teachers need to meet their students where their students live.

Universities are a good place to find professional development opportunities where technology embedded curricula can be introduced, played with and taken home to your district.  Rider University through its Summer Institute for 21st Century Educators gives teachers an opportunity to be exposed to and challenged using today’s cutting edge tools.

So yesterdays high achievers are today’s leaders.  We found ways to learn and this learning has served us well.  What about today’s students?  How can we help them be our leaders of tomorrow, today?

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Working at a School of Education in New Jersey, you meet a lot of interesting people.  First you have the administrative team- the dean, coordinators and office support staff.  Each person has a unique set of skills and personality.  Then, there are the professors who scaffold the curriculum and cultivate the learning.  Finally and probably most importantly, there are the students or candidates for teacher certification.  They come from all walks of life, with baggage, dreams and goals.  One of the important things I have learned as part of the administrative team at this university is that everyone has a story to tell.  And these stories have deep meanings.  Success stories always give me a lift- whether they be inspirational student anecdotes or faculty fictional narratives, I enjoy hearing someone talk about how he or she got to where him or her are today and what he or she hope to accomplish in the future.  I love to here how people decided on a particular career path or why a certain person chose to join a sorority or intramural team.  Love stories are also good for a touchy-feely break from reality.

Two stories stand out to me over the last couple of weeks in particular.  One came from a student who lost her way.  She is the president of the freshman class at a university.  She is bright and eager.  She is always, as Jennifer Nettles in the hit country duo Sugarland sings, looking for “something more.”  This young woman told a story about her passion- to love.  She talked about what it feels like to not be loved, to always be looking for love and to give love.  She talked about a long distance relationship with another undergraduate who goes to school in different state and how Skyping him on a Friday night makes her happy but also keeps her from doing other things a typical 18-year-old undergraduate would like to do.  This rising star talked about how she wants to feel affiliated with something and how she knows that whatever she does in life, it will be big, really big.  But she, a bright, 3.8 grade point average, beautiful young lady felt lost; unsure if she belonged at the university she attended because the others around her wanted different things, had different priorities and did different things- things that she just didn’t want to do.  She looked to escape and find someplace else where she could better fit in and reach her goal to do something big.  Instead of running, this young lady called out for help and she got it from the university family.  Now, with a new major, new on-campus job and new direction, she is back on track.  She told her story and it resonated with the people around her.  Her visual presentation touched her audience and her audience responded.  They understood the story and found its meaning- passion to love.

Later in the month, a friend of mine told me a story about a young man and woman who fell in love.  They just clicked.  It was like magic.  They didn’t fight, they just fit.  But, priorities changed and although the two were in love, they could not be together- their lives had different directions to take.  They could not find a common path and they needed to move apart.  Their connection, although deep, could not move further.  But, although they moved apart physically and emotionally, their spirits still stayed intertwined and their hearts forever felt love.

Both stories have deep meaning for me.  As I work through the personalities of my everyday, manage their intricacies and seek to understand, I realize the impact that the stories they tell have on me.  Whether they be stories like the freshman undergraduate who called out to her universe for help or the story of the two hearts that could not continue to beat as one, I see the deeper meaning of a story that yearns to be told- passion.  Passion can drive decisions, create energy and develop relationships.  Passion is at the root of every story, whether it be sad or happy.  Stories are anthems of strength, snapshots of reality and are embedded with passion.  Listen in, you never know what you might learn from a simple story.