Life Shouldn't Be This Good

I spent last week camping in San Antonio while I was doing educational motivational school assembly programs in Northside ISD.

And on an unrelated note, why is Northside ISD on the WEST side of San Antonio while North East ISD is on the NORTH side?

Anyway, I got to spend some more time camping in the new RV and loved not having to run the AC. I actually had to run a little space heater for a few minutes each morning to warm the place up a bit!

I am a morning person, and I am a cold weather person. I even take cold showers from May through October. I'm a polar bear at heart. I love the cold weather and I love being able to camp in it while still getting to do a job I love so much.

I leave tomorrow for a few days in Huntsville ISD and I'll be camping at Huntsville State Park. My family and I have several upcoming trips planned including a short stint at Galveston Island State Park, another trip to Huntsville State Park, a trip to Falcon Lake state park (near Roma, Texas on the Rio Grande River).

All this before the end of the year. We have even more trips planned for the spring and summer.

Maybe we should just sell the house and live in the RV?

Camping With Coyotes

I just spent a week camping in Cedar Hill State Park just outside of the Dallas, Texas metroplex. The park sits on Joe Pool Lake.

I was in this part of Texas doing a week of motivational speaker school assembly programs in Mansfield ISD and Family Literacy Night activities in Fort Worth ISD.

I blogged last month about our new RV and how I was using that instead of staying in a sterile (or NOT so sterile!) hotel room whenever I travelled out of town. Well, this past week was hands down, the BEST week of work I've ever had.

Not just because it was a very busy week (and I LOVE my job!). Not just because my business continues to grow during this recession because I have such loyal clients who continue to hire me and continue to tell others about me. Not just because the kids in the audiences were well-behaved and seemed truly excited about learning.

Yes, all those things are true, but this week, as I stayed in our little RV every night, cooking some meals over the camp fire and others on the stove; as I lay in bed every night with the windows open basking in the glow of the full moon this week; as I listened at night to the howling of the coyotes in the distance and the soft, steady hum of ten thousand chirping crickets while the cool wind drafted in and kept me just cool enough to want to snuggle deeper under the thick blankets on the bed; as I drifted in and out of sleep to various sounds of nature including the lone coyote who ran straight through my camp site at 1:06 AM yelping and barking I knew that somehow I was home. Even though I was hundreds of miles from my house, and hours of driving from my family in a campsite I had never been to before, in a park I had never visited before...I was still at home.

New Business Travel Strategy

Every year I spend about 80 nights in hotels as I travel around doing educational school assembly programs in Texas. This is great because I rack up lots of hotel points that I can use for vacation with my family.

Unfortunately, my family and I prefer to go camping and stay in cabins rather than hotels. So every vacation we've been on for the past three years I've told her "When I travel for work, I'd rather stay in a campground like THIS than to be in a hotel somewhere; even if it meant I had to drive a little farther each day to get to my school".

So after years of talking about it, we finally decided to bite the bullet and buy an RV. Nothing fancy, mind you. I tow it behind my truck, set it up for the week, then drive the truck back and forth to work each day and return "home" to a familiar bed and beautiful surroundings.

We bought the camper this summer and broke it in on a 3 week vacation to west Texas and southern New Mexico. This week I was in San Antonio and I got to stay at Guadalupe River State Park. There was horrible rain, tropic storm force winds, and a few scattered tornadoes. The river was totally flooded.

The good news is that I had the whole park to myself!

I'll be back next week to San Antonio again, but I'll be trying out a different park. I want to sort of get the feel for some of the places available. I'll keep you posted.

Is there anyone out there?!

I was wondering if anyone ever read blogs any more. I used to spend a lot of time checking out blogs and posted on mine much more frequently than I do now. I had a blog early on (for almost 5 years now!)

But it seems that Facebook and Twitter have taken over the role blogs used to play. Shorter, faster, more interactive, less cumbersom, and easily integrated with the current smart phones.

So, if you are reading this...thank you.

But you might want to also catch me on the "trendier" social networking sites:

http://Facebook.com/JulianFranklin
http://Twitter.com/JulianFranklin

Hope to see you there!

Wrapping up another Summer

I still have a few more shows to go before the end of the Summer Reading Club programs in Texas. It has been a great year. Normally I complain regularly to my wife about the heat and humidity, but for some reason it didn't bother me so much this summer. Maybe the A/C in my new truck blows colder than the one in my old truck?

Anyway, the show this year turned out really well. I introduced a new puppet (Nigel, an ape with an English accent). His personality has developed quite nicely and I really like the reactions he gets with audiences.

I'm looking forward to some time off in August and really excited about the new school year.

Most of the summer of 2011 is already booked for our show "Work Smarter" which is a perfect tie in with the theme for Texas Libraries in 2011: Dig up a Good Book.

A Really Short Shadow

Okay, I'm a geek and I know it. I'm proud of it. So here's the deal.

Today is the Summer Solstice--the longest day of the year. The sun is as high overhead as it will ever be today at noon (15 minutes ago since we are talking Solar noon, not Daylight Savings Time).

So I went outside and drew an outline around my feet with sidewalk chalk and then had my wife draw an outline around the shadow my body cast and the shadow was SMALLER than my footprints!

That's cool...if you're a geek.

New Truck

Well, I finally had to do it. I didn't want to, but after 267,000 miles by old truck just couldn't pass the Harris County emissions inspection required to remain legal to drive.

She still runs great but if I can't legally drive the old pig, I was forced to buy another one.

My family is glad. The old dog was more than ten years old and had been rear-ended so badly two years ago that it was totalled. But the truck still ran so good that I kept pushing it in service thinking I would trade it in when I got to 250,000 miles.

But at 250, she just kept cranking up like she was brand new and running great like she always had.

I've rather enjoyed not having a truck payment these last seven years. I've gotten spoiled, in fact.

But my new ride promises to spoil me in new ways. V-8 (compared to my old V-4) makes for really quick starts when I need them (I never do). A diesel engine provides far more towing power than I'll ever need. I have to mention these engine things because I am a man, but I really appreciate the cabin.

Four doors, leather seats, power everything. This is all new to me. I've been driving a stripped down, bashed-in model for more than a decade. My wife assures me that I deserve it, and I allow myself to enjoy driving now even more than I did before. But I still sometimes feel a little bit out of place in a truck that is almost twice the size of my old faithful.

It will take some time for me to learn where everything is by touch, the way I used to access things in my old truck. But it will come with time. My brother tells me that because diesel engines last much longer than gasoline engines and that because I'm notorious for driving a car until the wheels fall off (the truck BEFORE my last one had 252,000 miles and ran great when I sold it), he's quite sure that this will be the last vehicle I ever own.

That would suit me just fine.

NOT a choice weight loss system...

I am recovering from some sort of really nasty flu virus. I don't think I've ever been that sick before. You don't need (or want) details, just know it was bad.

But after 6 hours of vilently purging my body of everything I had consumed over the previous 24 hours...followed by 36 hours of virtually uniterrupted sleep, I woke up to realize that I lost 2 days of my life along with 5 pounds.

Trust me, there are better ways to lose weight!

Don't Mess with Me!!

A spy made a comment on my blog that bothered me so I put them in their place. My wife said I "ripped them a new one" but I don't think it was that bad. I'll ask you what you think, but first, here's the basic scoop:

In addition to being a motivational speaker for children, I'm also a professional speaker for adults. In fact, many of you are aware that I offer Teacher In-Service and Staff Development programs that are as fun for adults as my Texas reading school assembly programs are for children.

So I have this blog where I write about things related to school shows and summer library programs and I have another blog (JulianSpeaks.com/blog) that is directed more at the clients who hire me for my speaking engagements. So I wrote a blog entry and this guy made a rather snarky comment about it.

But the guy isn't a client, he's a spy. He's another performer using an assumed name and he's no doubt bothered by the fact that my business continues to grow even though we are in a really bad recession.

Enough chatter, here's the link to the other blog entry: CLICK HERE

Scroll down to read what he wrote and then you can read my lengthy response. Feel free to comment either there or here (or both) about whether or not you think I was too hard on the guy. I promise that no matter what you comment, I will NOT be in the least bit mean to you.

Just don't mess with me...

Earliest Snow Ever!

So it's snowing now, like it has been all day. Several districts cancelled classes and even more had early release in an attempt to get the kids home before the streets got icy.

Library Rat productions was at two schools today (we have four performers so this is not impossible to be in two places at once). Both of our schools decided on an unscheduled early dismissal due to the snow. In Wharton ISD we were able to group everyone into 3 shows and finished up in the nick of time. In Spring ISD we were not so lucky and so one of us will be going back next Friday to finish up for the students who missed the show today.

But I feel partially responsible for this whole thing.

Back in 2004 I debuted a show called "Arctic Express" and that year it snowed on Christmas Day from Dallas all the way down to the Rio Grande Valley. It happened again the year before last with some snow down south and now it has happened again with the earliest snow ever recorded in this area.

I wrote a blog entry about this back in 2006 but it deserves being re-addressed.

As the world gathers this week to discuss global warming I'm actually out there DOING something about it! You can help by doing your part. While it is probably too late to book us for this winter season, it is definitely NOT to early to start booking for NEXT winter.

Contact the Library Rat for all your school assembly needs.

And let your PTA know about us. They have money to spend and need to know good places to invest it.

Fun Teacher In-Service

In 2005 I wrote a book called Kid Control that is now the foundation for a very funny powerful motivational Teacher In-service / Staff Development. If you think this is something that would work at your facility, call our office.

Sorry, this blog entry is rather commercial, but I do want to keep you all updated about what's going on and during this slow down, I've finally had enough time to put together some of these projects I've been planning for so long!

Where the Wild Things Are

I keep hearing good things from all the reviews, but everyone I know who has seen the movie says it is too dark for children. But the book sort of had dark overtones, too. I guess I'll have to see it and decide for myself but I don't know if I should bring my 7 year old daughter or wait until I've seen it alone first.

I think sometimes they do just the opposite. Chris Van Allsburg writes pretty dark books but when they turn them into movies they seem to put a light, funny spin on things. But his books are really deeper I think.

I'm on a Chris Van Allsburg thing right now because we are debuting our newest show which is a tribute show to Chris Van Allsburg called Catch The Reading Express. I hope it to be a great winter celebration show as well as tie into the theme for public libraries this summer.

What's up with this weather?

It's supposed to be fall but it still feels like a muggy summer day. It was cool there for a while, and I know it will eventually come back, but I'd really like it to feel like fall for just a little bit. Houston, Texas is tough that way.

Most of you know that I do Texas Educational motivational school assembly programs and many of the people who read this blog have hired me to do their Texas summer reading club programs. I love doing these shows and I'm really excited about a new program that we're offering for THIS DECEMBER that will also be the program of choice for the Texas SRC in 2010. It is a tribute to Chris Van Allsburg and since so many schools do a unit on The Polar Express during December, this is a great tie-in.

It's just hard to get into The Polar Express mode when it is 80 degrees outside :-(

I'm thinking cold because I'll be flying to New York in a few days to visit a friend who is a New York, New Jersey and Connecticut school show presenter with a new program on the six 6 pillars of character education and he wants me to check it out. I'm looking forward to it. He's a great performer who has helped me in several of my shows.

I got to see Taylor Mali live

Last week I was at a convention in Phoenix, AZ and got to see Taylor Mali recite his poetry live. You've probably read some of what he wrote as it circulates through e-mails around the world, but he deserves to be recognized for being the original author.

His CDs are very inspiring and funny. Here is a small sample of what he performed for us (this was recorded long previous to last week!)

TWO MONTHS GONE!

Wow! It has been more than two months since I've posted a blog entry here! I have two excuses that I'll share with you because one is fun and the other is relevant. I'll leave it to you to determine which is which.

First, I've been spending far too much time updating everyone on my Julian Franklin Facebook page rather than here on my blog. That's good because if you're on FB then we can kind of keep track of each other in a very convenient way. So, if we're not yet friends on Facebook, send me an invite and we can catch up efffortlessly!

FYI: I'm also on LinkedIn and Plaxo as well so feel free to connect with me there if you want. I'm not on Twitter because I update Facebook every 1-2 days and that is more than enough "Julian Franklin" for anyone.

The second reason I haven't been posting is that May always kills me. Once the TAKS test is over everyone wants to hire a fun assembly program to reward students. I have two performers working for me now and we were all working pretty much every day in May and still had to turn a few schools away.

Don't stop checking here. I'll post stuff here more regularly again, but if you feel like you really need more regular updates then join me on the social networking sites. Then I get to check on you as well!

Summer Reading Club is well under way and I'll be writing about that very soon. We've already done 5 SRC programs so far in 2009..."only" 107 remaining!

Madeleine's First April Fool's Joke

So my 6-year-old daughter has a little bit too much of her dad in her. She's been dying to do a good April Fool's Joke since she really grasped the concept of the holiday last year. So she's been plotting this thing since she got a cookbook for Christmas and finally got to launch it on her mom this morning.

We took some pound cake (it's better with angel food cake, but the bakery was having a sale) and mixed food coloring in some icing until with got it the orange of processed cheese. We sliced the cake and trimmed it to look like slices of bread and put the icing inbetween like a grilled cheese sandwich. The result looks pretty convincing and my wife is pretty accomodating so she bravely bit into the strangest breakfast-in-bed ever offered. Braver still that this is April 1st.

Walking Barefoot

I love walking barefoot. It's really too cold this morning and I should have shoes on, but I don't care. The ground is wet and it has made my feet a little muddy.

Muddy and cold.

And there were some sticks and sharp rocks that weren't particularly comfortable to walk on.

But I like being able to FEEL the earth under my feet. I just feel more connected. This is not a spring time thing with me either, though it gets easier to indulge myself as the weather gets warmer. No, I'm a barefoot kind of guy pretty much all the time.

The first thing I do when I walk through the door each day is kick off my shoes. I'd do well in Japan or Korea.

Don't reply to remind me of the dangers of contracting worms, getting infections, or cutting my foot on broken glass. I'm well aware and am willing to take the risk.

Now, excuse me while I go back outside and explore the sights, sounds, smells, and FEELINGS of spring.

Reward or Inspiration?

Last week I had a conversation with a friend who provides Upward Awards Night Entertainment and another friend who does Arizona Reading School Assembly Programs. We discussed the value of rewarding behavior as a method of increasing that behavior.

This is a very important topic to me for several reason. Firstly, I make my living in large part by providing Bluebonnet and Accelerated Reader Incentives in the form of educational and motivational assembly programs. Secondly, my BA and most of my masters level coursework has been in the field of behavioral science in one form or another. When it comes to Kid Control: Behavior Management for Unruly Children, I literally wrote the book!

So the conversations I held with my friends on these topics were more than just academic.

I was impressed with the idea brought up by Tommy that when the reward is, in itself, an inspiration to continue the behavior, then it becomes a more effective behavior loop.

Think of the difference between exercising for three weeks so that you can eat a huge and fattening meal (rewarding, but not circularly reinforcing the original behavior), verses exercising for three weeks so that you can buy yourself some new workout clothes or a desired piece of gym equipment (reward AND circularly reinforcing of the original behavior).

The programs I offer as rewards and incentives are the same programs I offer as my regular Reading School Assemblies and also the same programs that I offer during my Family Science Night and Math Night Activities. These assembly programs are inherently funny and entertaining, just like Kyle who does some hilarious but very effective Arizona Family Science Night and Literacy Night Activities.

I think doing a program like this (i.e. Inspirational) is so much more effective than just a fun, rewarding show. I mean, from the perspective of the audience, the results are very similar (everyone laughs and has a great time and feels rewarded) but when it comes to LONG-TERM results, I think an inspirational assembly program is more effective than one that is just a funny children's magic show puppet show.

The Dot

Yesterday I was at Saegert Elementary in Killeen ISD. I was doing a school assembly program teaching the scientific process / scientific method and the kids were loving the puppets and magic so much they had no idea they were learning all sorts of new vocabulary and important curriculum-based concepts.

Of course, because all my shows are reading motivation programs encouraging children to read, I usually perform in the library. And Jennifer Brown, the librarian at Saegert does a great job of creating an environment rich in reading possibility. Her displays of books were simple, but quite effective. Between shows I wound up reading several short books, as frequently happens when I am in the library.

On this particular morning I picked up The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.

What an amazing book! During my lunch break I skipped lunch to run to Barnes and Noble to buy my own copy of the book. When I got back to my hotel room that evening I got on-line and ordered another copy to give to my daughter's art teacher. It is such a profound book and really quite moving.

People look at children's literature and see that there are not many words and think "Oh, I could write a book like that!" But the truth is that it is MUCH harder to convey important messages with few words than it is with many words.

Peter Reynolds did a MASTERFUL job and this book is a great addition to any library. It is a perfect gift for any teacher, but if you have an art teacher you love, you are obligated to get this book for him or her. I can't believe it's been around since 2003 and won awards and I hadn't heard of it until yesterday.

Thank you Ms. Brown for having me educate, entertain and inspire your students yesterday. But I thank you even more for educating, entertaining, and inspiring me by introducing me to this book. I owe you.

I'm the biggest geek

It was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today. I guess it still is for another 90 minutes or so.

But unlike most people who celebrate the fact that they get the day off from work, I celebrated by reading a book. Now, granted, I'm the sort of geek that really enjoys reading and so it's probably about the equivilent of a normal person cooking barbecue and blending frozen drinks, though I like to do those things too.

Anyway, today I wanted to read something appropriate but not so blantantly obvious as a biography of MLK or a transcript of one of his speeches. Great stuff, but I wanted to step out a little.

I wound up grabbing a children's book (I'm a kid show performer and a father of a 6 year old so cut me some slack!). The book I got was an anthology of American Folklore called "From Sea to Shining Sea" compiled by Amy L. Cohn. I read a few things to my daughter and one of the stories reminded me of a video I had seen that I cannot watch without tearing up. It is really powerful.



Then I spent the rest of the day cherishing my beautiful daughter and the great weather we had here in Houston today. It was in the very high 60s and bright sunshine so we inflated an air mattress and played and napped in the back yard wearing just swim suits. I'm a little pink on my back and the top of my head.

America is great.

I can't wait to celebrate the other major holidays like Texas Public School Week, National Library Week, and Children's Book Week. Yeah, I'm a geek alright.