Circles

Michael Jackson
August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

There comes a time
When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can’t go on
Pretneding day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God’s great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart
So they’ll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me

When you’re down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There’s no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me

Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie

http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/home-waters/101-new-england/236022-rich-wilson-the-great-american I was just reading an article by Elizabeth Ellis entitled ‘Rich Wilson: The Great American.’ One interesting quote that she included was from a friend of Rich’s named Sisk. He said ‘“But I can tell you it was the best-looking boat that came into the harbor at the end of the race.” That was my first impression when I saw the boat too. It looked like it came right from the Marina rather than from an around-the-world journey. Rich’s attention to every detail helped to maintain the Great American III in exceptional condition. I’ll attach a photo of Rich back in 2007 when he was up in Portland working with his team just after the boat was put out on the water.

In her article, Elizabeth writes: Wilson says he couldn’t do this race again without sponsorship money, and he has doubts about his physical ability to do it all again four years from now.

“I would be age 62 for the next one, and that’s pushing it,” says Wilson. “I’m one of the only people that can make that statement because I’ve done it and I know.” http://www.soundingsonline.com/news/home-waters/101-new-england/236022-rich-wilson-the-great-american I wonder if there are other 59+ sailors considering this Vendee Globe challenge in 2012.

Here are some images and sounds from the Fourth of July parade in Needham, MA.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A view from the train window as we headed toward the fireworks at the Esplanade.

I was reading a press release from June 17, 2009 from the US Sailing Communications Manager. It was the last in a four part series of interview questions with Skipper Rich Wilson, the US competitor in the Vendee Globe. Rich, the oldest competitor in the race, placed ninth out of 30. 11 finished the race. In this interview, I was honored to read that Rich mentioned my name.

I’ve never actually sailed in a sailboat before so it would be highly unlikely that my name would be included in a US Sailing press release. One time I did have a chance to get on the Great American 3. I sat on it when my students and I were invited to Boston to tour the boat before it left Massachusetts back in September 07. We didn’t go very far from shore–perhaps about 6 inches from the dock! Nevertheless for the past 10 years, I have followed Rich with many, many students both here and abroad. Each time that he sailed, I tried to connect with people in the country he was sailing towards. When he went from NY to Melbourne in 2001, I met Stewart Barclay in Melbourne, AU. We still keep in contact! When he sailed Hong Kong to NY, I met Yaodong Chen, (Liuzhou, China) Marina Balducci, (Italy) Paola Crevola, (Italy) Michael Macnamara, (South Australia) Venny Su (Taipei, Taiwan) and a few others as I made it my mission to promote his voyage to teachers across the planet. When Rich sailed from Plymouth, UK to Boston, I followed with a teacher in the UK. And somewhere along the past few years I became friends with Gabriella Rossa Zecca in Buenos Aires and Roxan Cosico in the Philippines. They were invited into the friendship circle and supported me during the Circle Song project and through the preparation for the voyage of the Vendee Globe. All of these teachers followed the race with me and most importantly have become my lifelong friends and a vital part of my personal learning network. Rich and I traveled virtually via the DiscoverE virtual classroom thanks to Geoff Kaye of Compued.com to Buenos Aires, Argentina; to New Zealand, to Bucharest, Romania, to China and to the Philippines to encourage teachers to be a part of the Vendee Globe program. These connections were important because as Rich traveled, the teachers who had met him, were following along via his website. We became a support team for each other as he endured some of the most difficult challenges one could imagine. Since this voyage began in France, I had the pleasure of working with Vincent Mespoulet and his School Beyond the Walls and with Sandrine Gelin in Les Sables d’Olonne. Both of them helped me so much in translating some of the French and sharing the excitement of the Vendee Globe from the perspective of the French people. In addition we were joined by Tanja in Latvia, Anne Mirtschin in Victoria, AU; Amalia Casas in La Coruna, Spain and Terry Marshall in Rossland, British Columbia. We created voicethreads wishing Rich good luck, we sent him questions, plotted his points on google earth, estimated his time of arrival, listened to his podcasts and watched his videos. We drew lots of pictures of boats, learned alot about albatrosses, flying fish, and the effects of weather on travel and really got a perspective of what it meant to sail around the world… quite incredible!!! I would have to say that I was never so relieved as the day when I watched Rich on the video as he landed safely on shore again. He deserved the incredible welcome that the people in France gave to him on this most amazing voyage.

Back in 1999, I went to a technology conference in Sturbridge, MA and met a woman named Cindy Collins. At that time Cindy was the marketing and educational director of sitesALIVE! it was because of her encouragement and her mentoring, that I became interested in following Rich and his voyages. Cindy saw the benefit in real world applications of math, science, geography, navigation and history in following these voyages. She encouraged my students to imagine what it would be like to be on a boat for so many days. She cheered us on when created projects and drawings about the voyages, and she celebrated our learning with words of encouragement and her wonderful smile of support.
In 2005 Rich told Cindy about the Vendee Globe and showed him a photo of the Great American 3, the monohaul that he would sail. Cindy told me that she was ‘all for’ Rich participating in the Vendee Globe. She had been a part of his voyages from the start and was supportive of every new adventure that Rich embarked on. She would have been very, very proud to know that he completed the Vendee Globe voyage safely in 121 days. Her spirit lives on in the friendships that continue to thrive in the community of followers of the Great American 3 from around the globe. In her honor and dedication, I created The Circle Song Project.

And as I tell my students at the end of each year, it is up to us… to keep the circle spinning. http://earth.edublogs.org/circle-song/ Thanks to Rich for his tireless efforts in sharing his experiences at sea with students from around the globe. He has given them a unique opportunity to follow him and be a part of his ‘team’ in these most amazing
endeavors.

Here’s a recent example of how we keep the circle spinning. Roxan Cosico, a technology teacher in Claret School in Quezon City Manila did a presentation for teachers in a school near Manila. He invited Yaodong, Geoff and I to stop by to join in virtually from Perth, Western Australia, Liuzhou, China and Boston to talk with the teachers.