Where did July go?  I just blinked and POOF!…It’s gone!  My computer and I parted ways for much of July.  It was a great time to reboot while I started my sabbatical.  I had lots of conversations with like real spoken words and everything.  It was fabulous!  Well – not like I didn’t use oral language before, but it gave me a chance to GO talk to people – family, friends, and even strangers in the produce aisle.  It was a strange time for me as I actually do like my computer.  It has a hot pink cover with chevron-covered keys.  It is actually a great conversation piece when I am in public or working with others.  My line is “If it looks like fun, it can’t be work.”  Now, you and I both know that isn’t true, but I continue to be an optimist to a fault.

So I missed my computer actually…and I missed all of you.  Dr. Wendy did a fantastic job blogging her way through the month and is now on her on self-imposed sabbatical in August.  She is rebooting before the semester starts up, and that is so important as she connects super well with our teacher candidates so we need her jazzed up and ready to run.  Go Mustangs & Dr. Wendy!

Speaking of connecting with students, I started this blog entry in my head a few weeks ago when Pokémon Go first exploded onto the streets of the USA.  Talk about a cultural Pokémon, er, I mean phenomenon.  My family was riding in the car one Sunday after church on our way to GO to brunch when my middle son yelled, “Dad, turn around, we just missed ________.”  (You can fill in the blank with any Pokémon character of your choice.)  Well – supposedly this was a rare one that my son needed.  My patient husband actually turned the car around to retrieve the lost Pokémon.  I paused in disbelief, and thought to myself, “WHAT JUST HAPPENED?  Self, you are so going to write about this.” You may be thinking, “who let the kid play video games after church anyway?”  That is a great question – not me clearly!  What my takeaway from this experience was that we actually listened to our kids and participated in this crazy activity together because they were so excited about it.

I attended a National Night Out event in my sister’s neighborhood and even the sergeant shared Pokémon jargon in his talk with us – while an adolescent hoverboarded by us in search of Pokémons.  It is simply everywhere, and you just can’t Go anywhere without hearing or seeing or playing.  As of the KARE 11 news report last night at 6PM, there have been over 100 million downloads – wow.  According to the Star Tribune today (8.3.16) and confirmed by my kids, there are certain locations that are better than others to play Pokémon Go.  So I guess we can go anywhere to know about it, but go to urban areas to really get your game on.

So what is so fascinating about Pokémon Go?  I remember raising a similar question when the first Harry Potter book was published, and I was a brand-spanking-new teacher.  I was not about to skip the read while my students were devouring it.  I had to find out what the fuss was about – at least so I could be cool with the lingo.  By the way – have you read the latest HP book just released this week?  I haven’t but I intend to at some point just so I can HP-speak with the kidz.  But back to P-Go…  How can we make this excitement happen in life?  With real life that is?  With school? We need to get excited too!  We need to stand up and get moving.  We need to Go connect.

Want more information on Pokémon Go? I opened up my email after a little vacation and found an email from Dave Burgess, Pirate-Master, who recently blogged about Pokémon, and it fit almost perfectly with what I am sharing.  Check it out – Go to : http://daveburgess.com/pokemon-go-how-can-we-use-it-and-what-can-we-learn/

Well, I can’t give you all of the answers – Love or hate it – just let GO.  Just Pokémon Go!

Stay Calm & Go!
Profs Dr. Wendy & Dr. V.