Caring for my roommate, Red Robin

Meet Red Robin. I worked with a pet rescue organization to connect him with me several years ago. He had been abandoned by three successive so-called owners. You would think he was some evil entity. He ended up in a kill animal shelter in Texas and was just weeks away from relocating to kitty heaven.

He is the sweetest cat. Very affectionate. Loves to be petted and purrs like a motorboat. He follows me around the house like a little putty dog. Red reminds me of when I have been working too hard on the computer for too long by gently lying down on the keyboard. That is my cue for cuddy time. I really think he has helped me to reduce my blood pressure. Really.

As a single person, he has become a wonderful companion. That is why I have been so upset about his infection, which is causing him to not eat much and lose weight. Both of those are deadly for any pet. The vet prescribed antibiotics and a pill to encourage more eating (maybe that substance is what coats junk food to encourage me to overindulge).

In the future, I will devote a blog post to the lessons that Red Robin has taught me. But, not for today. We are hopeful that the medication will help him to recover. And I am providing plenty of hugs. People often use the expression of being a pet owner. In my case, I say that I am the pet servant to Red Robin. He has had a hard life and I am dedicated to the highest quality of life for the limited time he has left. Pets are people too!

Not Another Pateron Website

Pateron membership websites can be wonderful ways to provide information or services to subscribers and provided income to the creators. I pay a modest $6 monthly to receive detailed learning technology videos each much. I am grateful for what I have learned and happy to support his globe-trotting ministry of teaching how to use technology for improving learning.

Another content creator has an amazing array of membership benefits depending upon the monthly fee. Those range from five to fifty dollars a month. From each subscriber. I have no argument with what the content creator does and charges. The person and the production team need the revenue to produce an amazing experience.

I thought that maybe adding a Pateron program to this website might be another way to share what I am learning with others. The current website can be a confusing collection of everything that I have learned, published, and spoken. Maybe a Pateron program with differing levels of service could make it easier for interested educators. I could charge the minimum of one dollar each month rather than higher membership levels.

After thinking about it, I decided for not another Pateron website. While many of the technologies used in my work range from moderate to expensive, I can handle it for now. Blog postings can provide a free system to share short and long videos, new publication announcements, and sharing what I am learning.

I will also share a few personal stories along with way as well. My current crisis is helping my cat to recover from an infection that has reduced his appetite and subsequent loss of body weight. That can be deadly. I care about many things, including my roommate and companion. Currently, Red Robin (that’s his name), is sleeping on his cushion beside my computer monitor.

Well, that is enough for this posting. I will be also posting to X and my LinkedIn profile page. Feel free to share comments. That is a way that we can build an online community. Thanks for reading.

Essential Glossary for Increasing Student Success

The College Reading & Learning Association (CRLA) Publications Committee is delighted to share with you a new free resource, "Essential Glossary for Increasing Postsecondary Student Success: Administrators, Faculty, Staff, and Policymakers (3rd ed.)," which was a project that I was honored to serve as editor for this third edition. There was a big team that produced this resource. I wrote in the introduction, “Developmental education and learning assistance have changed dramatically in recent years, and so must also the language used to describe and define them. This glossary is useful for the wide field of educators involved with promoting student success. It provides precise language and definitions to use when communicating with peers and more effectively influencing administrators, legislators, and the media” (p. 2). This glossary is vastly expanded from the second edition. Rather than saying more, click on the link to it provided below.

This resource is free to download and disseminate. Click on the following URL for the document from the CRLA website, https://crla.net/images/whitepaper/CRLA_2023_EssentialGlossary_FA.pdf

New Podcast: Peer Group Library Podcast

This is a new podcast that I am providing. The topic are audio summaries of articles and research studies about college peer study programs. Each episode is focused on a different topic. The narration is provided by me and my synthetic voices. I hope you find it interesting and useful. The podcast is available through Apple, Google, and most all the other podcast apps. Happy listening.