Technically Educ8ed

I Take Medicine

May 31, 2020 chadkuhn No Comments Medicine

I take medicine for ADHD. Usually the subject comes up casually; I mention that I have a doctor’s appointment or I have to pick up a prescription and the other person asks if everything is ok or what is wrong. Often they are surprised and ask why or how I came to that point and what it does for me.

I was never the kid that was bouncing off the walls (at least I don’t think I was), but I did struggle with some organization and with procrastination and not completing tasks. For the most part I was able to compensate and was successful in school and in getting a job and performing as a teacher.

I looked successful anyway. I didn’t always feel successful. I felt what I now know as imposter syndrome. I felt like an imposter teacher because I would share with other teachers cool concepts for teaching, or grading, or leading- but didn’t think I was consistently doing those things in my own room. I didn’t get graded, everything I felt like I should and didn’t write out detailed lesson plans like other teachers. I wasn’t the teacher, husband, or father I felt like I could be or should be.

When commercials about adult ADHD came on tv, my wife would point out, “His desk looks kind of like your desk.” I would mentally plan to follow up, but like other big plans I made, I couldn’t bring myself to follow through.

Then my youngest son, Miles, was diagnosed with ADHD and started taking medicine. Without medicine he has almost no impulse control and acts “acts as if driven by a motor.” A couple of years later my middle son’s doctor suggested that we begin treating Joel for ADHD instead of assuming that all of his difficulties came from Asperger’s (now called Autism Spectrum Disorder). Joel couldn’t be motivated to do anything he didn’t like and had major issues attending to difficult tasks. The medicine made a huge impact for both of them.

I began to recognize my own struggles in theirs. While my ADHD is a little like Miles’s, it’s a lot like Joel’s. Finally, I made up my mind to follow through and see a doctor. My doctor told me that most people have a little bit of the symptoms of ADHD, and what I described definitely fit the definition. The thing was to decide if it was significantly affecting me enough to do something about it. I decided it was and we went about treating it.

Medicine changed a lot for me. Now if I miss a dose, I can tell, AND so can Rachel. “What’s up with you today?” she’ll ask as I miss a turn, am obviously zoned out, or can’t get a small task accomplished before wandering into another room and starting something else. On medicine I get more done, am more willing to undertake tasks, less likely to procrastinate, and feel more present with the people around me. It didn’t change everything though. I still have a tendency to put off tasks I don’t feel confident about. I still have bouts of imposter syndrome: doubting my ability to be good enough, feeling like I’ve been faking my way through.

I wasn’t any less loved by God without medicine than I am with medicine. I’m not any less of His creation than someone who needs insulin or cholesterol medication or glasses or contacts. Medicine; like sleep, food, and exercise; allows me to be more productive and effective in what I do, and I try to do everything for His glory- including telling this story.

Beyond Good Enough

March 31, 2017 chadkuhn No Comments Teaching and Learning

People in general are too easily satisfied. We have the temptation to stop short of excellence, and I hate that. I see it in my students and players often.

I teach a class called Evolution of Games where students recreate, modify and play many different games across a time line of civilizations and cultures. They also learn about the people who played the games originally and how gameplay and culture are intertwined, each influencing and reflecting the other. But sometimes students just want to check the box and move on, even in a class where they get to play games!

Recently they were to modify the game tic-tac-toe. Several pairs were convinced that their new version, conceived in 10 minutes, was sufficient to satisfy the the assignment. I tried to challenge them with questions:

Are you sure it’s different?
Is it challenging?
Is it balanced or does the person going first win all the time?
Is it fun?

I continued to hear back that the new version was good enough. I tried sharing (vaguely to avoid taking away creative options), what had been done in other classes. Finally I told them that the rest of the class period and the next would be spent playing tic-tac-toe. If their game was really ready then they would have a blast playing it and challenging others the entire time. If that didn’t sound like fun, then they had some work to do.

Finally, we turned the corner. I began to hear real play-testing going on. I heard:

What if…
That’s too big an advantage…
Player one has won more than 75% of the games…
How can we…
That helps, but we still have…

But then I heard, “Who is the first president of the United States?”

“Come on guys. I said play tic-tac-toe. This isn’t a study hall for other classes.”

“Oh, we’re not studying. We’re playing Trivia Tic-Tac-Toe. We started using Trivia Crack, but we ran out of lives. So now we are making up our own questions. It’s Trivia Crack-Tac-Toe!”

How about you? How do you challenge students to excellence?

Parenting (not Aggravating) in the Wonder Years

July 29, 2016 chadkuhn No Comments Life, Netflix, Parenting

I love Netflix. I love the freedom to watch what I want, when I want, to pause or rewind (do we still “rewind” anything?), to let let the rest of life to take priority over my entertainment. When I sit down to watch something, I love the selection. Rachel and I have really enjoyed watching Blue Bloods. I like shows with strong male figures, and enjoy studying their strengths and weaknesses, the ways they engage their work and family. I often compare the roles I see the Blue Bloods with the writings of John Eldredge and the stages of manhood he describes in The Way of the Wild at Heart.

But recently I found the Wonder Years on Netflix. I completely missed it when it was on TV when I was a preteen. The show’s use of language, and realistic exploration of sexual themes meant it was something I wasn’t allowed to watch. I didn’t even realize that the show (based in the late ’60s and early ’70s) was on TV in the late ’80s until I noticed Mark Paul Gosselaar in an episode and found that he was in Saved by the Bell (which I did watch) just one year later.

The Wonder Years turns out to be another show where I study men and boys and their roles and interactions. Just a few episodes in and I already see too much of myself in the grumpy, self-absorbed Jack. He’s the dad who comes home from work, barks at the kids for being kids, has little time for questions, and wants to be left alone. In one episode, the narrator, the adult voice of the 12 year-old main character Kevin, reminisces about the times, few and far between, when his dad dropped the grumpy, self-absorbed personality, and played, having fun and delighting in his family and kids. Kevin wished those times would never end. But they did. Kevin hoped that they would return often. But they didn’t.

Way too often, I’m pretty much Jack- at least I feel like it, whether I completely act it out like he does or not. I don’t want my children to be afraid to approach me. I don’t want to miss out on their wonder years. I don’t want them to grow up to wonder if things could have been different. As I was dealing with these thoughts and feeling my shortcomings, I sat down to read my Bible this morning and came to Paul’s instructions for Christian households in Colossians 3.

Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged. Colossians 3:21 NLT

Lord, help me to parent in a way that is not aggravating, help me choose to delight in my children and encourage them in Your ways. Continue to speak to me through Your Word and Spirit.

Teaching My Boys Life Lessons

May 10, 2015 chadkuhn No Comments Life

I have a 13 year-old son who will be in 8th grade this fall, and we haven’t had “The Talk.”¹

We “Talk” all the time, at nearly every opportunity. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s short. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s serious. Sometimes I’m ready. Sometimes I’m not. Sometimes I’d rather not. But it always worth it.

The world provides countless stimuli for me to teach my boys about creation (and procreation), values (and trash), and terminology (and innuendo). I try to take those situations and cultivate conversations that draw out what they think/know and then explain relationships, and respect, values and love, natural and perverted.

Once riding in the van with only my oldest, “Blurred Lines” came on the radio. Rather than change the station, we listened. Then I explained about every clinical and street use of the B-word. We made a quick stop immediately after the song (I think we had even waited in the car for it to finish). When we got back in the car, the station was immediately changed to K-Love, and not by me. Apparently, that talk was over and guy on the other side of it wasn’t eager for another one any time soon. But I had conveyed a message about treating women with respect.

A few days ago, I tried to run a hose from our basement dehumidifier to the sump pump, but the appropriate end of the hose wouldn’t fit in the dehumidifier. Turning around, I noticed my oldest walking by. “Hey, Bud, are you ready for another short sex talk?”

“Uh, sure. Why not.” He responded, with a grin that said, It doesn’t matter what I say. I just hope it really is quick!

Two minutes later we had finished a discussion of male and female parts and adapters in plumbing, electrical, A/V, etc. “Well, that sure makes sense and is the quickest way to explain what part you need.” And I had demonstrated that we don’t have to giggle and snort about like Beavis and Butthead when sexual terms are used.

Then our TWO of our cats got pregnant. My middle son, the one with a literal, logical, “black-and-white brain,” asked how they got that way. Well… I wasn’t ready for that one right then, but he had recently had a conversation with Rachel that when something like, “Dad hasn’t told me about sex yet. Ryan knows about sex, but I don’t. When is Dad going to talk with me.” So a few days later, he got to run an errand with me. and we talked (about CATS, I emphasized). Then, he asked, “Wait, is it that way with humans, too? So you had to do that to Mom to make us? OUCH!” Ready or not, I got to convey that God made sex for specific situations², and in those situations it is not gross and should not be painful.

Then there was today with my nine year old:

Facebook Post — If I call that number, I get something free. I just don’t understand what.

Like my rambling hashtags demonstrate, this situation didn’t call for anything more than “need to know” information. I hope he (and his brothers) learned that there is stuff out there that they don’t need to know yet, but that they will learn at the right time.

We’ll have the next “Talk” soon enough, ready or not.

1- I wrote this opening sentence and realized it reads like a “clickbait” headline on Facebook, but I’m leaving it anyway.

2- I almost ended this conversation, when I remembered which child I was talking to. Joel’s Aspergers gives him that literal mind I mentioned earlier. It also limits his filtering and hinders his understanding of what is socially acceptable, so we talked about avoiding judgemental speech. We talked about how the difficult situation for Hattie’s birth mother had been used by God to bless us with the sister he was sitting beside in the car.

Evolution of Games: A Creative Way to Learn

September 4, 2014 chadkuhn 1 Comment Teaching and Learning

This year, I’m teaching a completely new course, called Evolution of Games, for 8th graders. This course is a total shift in classroom management, teaching and learning, and planning. Evolution of Games is the basic course from Zulama, a company creating courses around technology and games with a project-based learning philosophy. Computer skills are taught and used along the way as the entire course is set up online. Going forward we hope to offer high school students more Zulama courses on 3D-Modeling, Game Design, Programming, Screenwriting, and Mobile Game Programming.

Each course contains:

Interactive class discussions
Online and offline activities
Hands-on project-based learning
WebQuests
Formative and authentic assessments

We help students find their passion and give them a framework in which to think, study, analyze, explore, and invent so they can fulfill their dreams. We help teachers and schools manage and embrace change. – The Zulama Mission

In Evolution of Games, students study six different Ancient Civilizations and how their games were a reflection of their society, religion, geography and technology. They continue to study how games were influenced by Europe and the printing press, then move on to card games, war games, modern games and computer games. Students take charge of their learning, researching what interests them, representing what they have learned in various computer projects. They also cover Social Studies, English and Math standards as they read, research, communicate through online discussions and class presentations. Creative, strategic and higher level thinking is encouraged as students create and modify games.

We started with ancient Babylon and the Game of Ur, creating our own game boards and playing them. Now we are into our second full unit, digging through ancient Egypt and the Game of Senet, comparing it to Checkers and Draughts (international checkers). Each lesson has an essential question that guides the students thought process through everything they do. Check out the gallery below to see examples of student work so far.

A collage of a student’s favorite games shows a wide variety of interests.

A time capsule encapsulates the important info about Babylon.

This archaeological field journal from Egypt focuses on hieroglyphics.

I shared one group’s Game of Ur board on Twitter and got a quick response from Zulama!

Airport Romance

August 5, 2014 chadkuhn No Comments Life, Marriage

Almost fifteen years ago I picked my wife up from the airport for the first time. She was my fiancée then, and was coming home early from Guatemala to surprise her family for Christmas (a great story in itself). I had not seen her for almost 3 weeks, since we left school for Christmas break. I got there in plenty of time, mostly because I have a penchant for going the wrong way, getting lost and even more lost. Everything had gone well, even without a smart phone and GPS (I don’t know how I ever did it!). I bought a best-selling paper back from the book store and started reading Harry Potter for the first time. And I waited. I waited anxiously for her to come through the gate. This was of course, before 9/11, so I could stand right in front of the gate and watch as each person came through the door. The moment I saw her, I was struck by how beautiful she was, the most beautiful face getting off the plane.

Now 15 years later, I no longer get to stand right at the gate. I have picked her up and dropped her off for more flights than I ever could have imagined and I no longer go alone. Tonight I’ll be picking her up when she returns from the Dominican Republic, and I’ll have all four of our children with me. But, she is still the most beautiful face getting off the plane.

I guess is true what they say about absence, because homecomings are awesome. I can’t wait to see her face tonight.

Lost: Praying for Spiritual Awakening at Parque de Las Condes

July 24, 2014 chadkuhn No Comments Life, Mission

As those at Love Extreme Ecuador (#LXEcuador) embark on a prayer adventure in Ambato, Ecuador, I am reminded of my prayer walk at Love Extreme in Peru last year. Today, I pray with those in Ecuador. Below is a post I wrote July 19, 2013.

Our first full day in Peru started with a prayer walk. We were told that we would be taken around the city and given different prayer topics and information at each stop along the way. I was looking forward to intentional prayer, some decent exercise and several interesting views of the city.

Our first stop was almost more than I could handle. When I take the time and really focus on God and what He wants, amazing things happen. I entered El Parque de Las Condes (The Park of the Condors) and began walking around the park, past elevated flower beds, trees, a giant bird cage and a complex system of concrete irrigation channels. As I approached the far end of the park, with its now-dry pool surrounding an island reachable by concrete (everything is concrete here) bridge, and its dusty soccer field, I noticed a flyer taped to a pole. “Perrito cocker spaniel perdido.” (Lost little cocker spaniel dog.) The flyer was dated February 1. Behind my sunglasses, tears began to well up.Now I haven’t been always been a pet person; in fact I wouldn’t say that I am quite one now. I used to do a quiz about Mr. Kuhn to start the school year. One of the questions was, “Does Mr. Kuhn like cats or dogs?” The trick answer was, “No.” But now, we have two cats and nine chickens. And I have a wife and three boys who are very attached to those pets. We’ve experienced loss, with animal life taken by a car, various creatures of prey, carelessness, and a horrific event that involves a curious, rambunctious kitten climbing a ladder and jumping from the attic to the garage below. We haven’t however, become callous to death or loss of animals. The opposite has happened. We’ve learned to be as responsible as possible. The boys double check coop doors, they ask if we have made arrangements for someone else to close up the chickens, they wake up in the middle of the night afraid the cats are still out and not in the garage. Their concern has worn off on me. I more than tolerate the pets. I… I… I at least appreciate them… most of the time.As I stood prayerfully at the pole and read the sign, my thoughts bounced from how my boys would feel over a missing pet, to the despair that some child must be feeling, to how God views each and every Peruvian that walked past that park and every person who walks on this earth. LOST. Lost like the Sheep, Lost like the Coin, Lost like the Son. (Luke 15).

It breaks God’s heart.
And it broke mine.
I pray it continues to break mine.
Is your heart broken for those who are lost?

Operation: “Add a Kuhn” Birth to Finalization

July 7, 2014 chadkuhn No Comments Adoption, Life

I have really got to be more consistent with these adoption updates. Oh, wait! We are almost to the end of the adoption process.

Let me catch you up… Hattie Jo was born November 25. We took her birth mother to her scheduled appointment (she had already been dilated 5 cm for two and a half weeks) and from there straight to the hospital. Within 40 minutes of check-in Hattie was here, well before the doctor. The action drama of those moments from leaving the office up until delivery is quite a story, but one we usually just tell in person. The emotional drama of the next two and a half days was quite draining and incredibly rewarding.

First the hospital checked with the birth mother and then immediately offered a room for Rachel and me to stay next door. We were able to see Hattie almost anytime we wanted, while the birth mother took care of all the all the feedings and diaper changes. People came and went, more than were expected, and each brought about a stronger feeling of uncertainty for Rachel and me.

We became more and more concerned that we would not be going home with Hattie, that her birth mother was experiencing a change of heart, would ask a family member to take the baby instead. When it finally came time to leave, she revealed her true conflict, “Don’t let her hate me. Please don’t let her hate me,” she begged.

What a revelation. We drove home in tears of happiness, and arrived home at 12:30 am Thanksgiving Day. What a Thanksgiving it was.

And now 7 months later, our little girl is the greatest blessing I can imagine. Two weeks from today we will finalize her adoption, tying up all the paperwork, getting a new birth certificate, allowing us to get her social security number. AND we will officially dedicate our little girl to God, surrounded by friends and family and church at our home.

Both ceremonies will formally and officially acknowledge what is already a fact. Hattie Jo is already completely a member of our family and we daily pray that her life will honor God. That said, I am excited for both and can’t wait for July 21 to get here.

I Thought Your Face Fell Off!

July 5, 2014 chadkuhn No Comments Funny, Life

I’ve shared this story several times and decided that it was time to share in writing.

Since I started shaving my head in 2004 (at 24 years old), I have had lots of different reactions to my bald head. One lady told me that one day, when I couldn’t grow hair, I would regret shaving my head now. Several kids have been scared of the bald guy. Some people want to rub my head, while others are amazed that I have to shave it every day with a Headblade to look this smooth. The best reaction was from a lady out in Missouri, several years ago.

The lady walked into the school’s front office right after I had hung up and began looking up the next number. I was making phone calls to the students who would be attending my summer school class the next day. This was in a school that didn’t have phones in the classrooms, so I was at the front desk, behind the high countertop that many schools have. Since I had just come back in from lunch on a sunny summer day, I had my sunglasses on, but had pushed them up on top of my head. Make sure you picture this. Sunglasses on my head, phone to my ear, looking straight down at a piece of paper, half-hidden by the high countertop.

Suddenly, I heard her gasp. I looked up at her in surprise.

She covered her mouth with her hand. Then whispered, as if she had just seen a ghost, “I thought your FACE FELL OFF!”

Daylight Saving Time: Do We Still Need It?

October 31, 2013 chadkuhn No Comments Uncategorized

We’ll “fall back” and hour on Sunday, November 3, 2013 at 2 a.m

I recently had a discussion with a friend about Daylight Saving Time and it reminded that there is actually a lot of misunderstanding about it. Most of the complaints I hear about DST come in the fall when it ends. I hear people complain that, with the time change, it will be getting dark sooner, and because of that they hate Daylight Saving Time. They shouldn’t “be hating” on DST for the early darkness, because the early darkness is a result of our return to Standard (that means unaltered and un-adjusted) Time.

Why do we use DST?

The rational behind DST is explained simply in the Wikipedia article Daylight Saving Time, “[DST] is the practice of advancing clocks during the lighter months so that evenings have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn.” *There is a whole lot more to the original motivation and the motivation to expand the date range for DST, but I wanted to keep it simple here. If you really want to learn about DST, check out the link above and do some reading on your own.

When someone complains about DST and says they are not happy that the sun will set at 5:18 pm on November 3, they are actually saying that they wish the sun had set 5:19 on November 2 and 5:20 on November 1, instead of 6:19 and 6:20. (You can find sunrise and sunset times here.) What they really mean is that they wish we used DST time all year long, so that the sun would set at 6:18 pm on November 3 just a minute earlier than it did the day before. DST always means that the sun sets later than it would on ST.

What if we didn’t use DST at all?

What would the spring and summer months be like? The chart I shared earlier shows that for Ohio, the sun would be rising at 4:51 am (That’s EARLY!) in the middle of June and setting at 8:03 pm (its latest) at the end June. Daylight Saving Time was instituted to help people use that hour of sunlight between 5 am and 6 am by moving it to the end of the day between 8 pm and 9 pm, which makes a lot of sense to me.

What if we used DST all year long?

We could, but it would mean really late sunrises in the winter. The chart shows sunrises as late as 8:52 am in December and January. That seems awful late to me.

What do you think?

When we do time changes in the spring and fall, they feel really drastic and maybe unnecessary, but when we look at what those time changes do for us in June/July and December/January is makes more sense. What do you think? Feel free to comment below and answer the survey below.