First, thanks for the reply. Second, feel free to digress at will. I love when a quick blog post leads to a deeper discussion and you definitely took things in that direction.

Metaphor: I love this and I have a blog post coming “someday soon” attacking my views on this. Just checked, yep it is in the Drafts folder. #sigh

I think setting the stage is great and I really love what you and Brian did there with YouShow. What I love even more is that you have the ability to spin or pivot to focus on whatever comes up. You have a plan but you don’t make it with pen but an erasable marker. But don’t sniff them…. (see evidence here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/16361480425 )

Related: Cheryl Morris tweet on Monday’s #flipclass chat:

https://twitter.com/guster4lovers/status/585243866736959488

So yeah, I think the syllabus is needed but is a loose plan.

Crazy teachers: I used to teach different courses almost every semester when I started teaching here at the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Guadalajara) back in the 90s. Heck one semester I taught 8 groups (5 is the normal full load) of distinct courses (4 math, 4 computer science) but I was young and crazy then. Now I’m just older and still crazy. I embrace change and don’t think I could keep rehashing the same course over-and-over. My colleagues used to contact me (via email. Look it up kids, it is what old people use to communicate) asking for my slide-decks and my answer was always “I don’t have any”. They thought I was holding out but I always loved walking into my class with my chalk (multiple colours of course!) and just go nuts working on whatever my students wanted to talk about.

I just can’t stop learning and doing new things. That’s why I am still in school after all of these years.

Manic energy: check. My colleagues often ask where I find the time to do so many projects. Time is finite and I just cut out the time sinks that just don’t make me happy or the people I care about (family, friends and of course my students) happy.

Yep, the payoff gives me energy. I was having a “Negative Nancy” day (apologies to any Positive Nancys) and the moment I read your comment yesterday it gave me a positive high. I live for education and sharing what I do in education (which is education I guess, infinite recursion and all).

Yep, I think my own comment is longer than the original post. Achievement unlocked thanks to @cogdog.