If you aren’t a “Long Blog Reader” skip down to the “Based on a True Story” and answer the questions.

 

About a year ago, I received a comment from an RS member that said I might be the first public school teacher that he has met that is willing to criticize teacher unions, and he gave me big a thumbs-up.

I now find myself fighting on three fronts as my teaching career may be winding down and we head back to the mission field of China and Nepal.

The first- Unions; I understand them and have been around them (on both sides) since kindergarten. My mom was a teacher and my dad was the School Board President of one of Michigan’s largest districts, for all 12 years of my public school education. In 1977, I voted in my first teacher’s union meeting and the count to “strike” was 399 to 1! That ”one” is spelled GB.  It is often not very difficult to put my finger on a problem I observe with many Union choices because it is often about flawed human decisions, and being one of those flawed creatures I can see the how and why of a decision. Union decisions usually are very much “in the present” decisions and can be observed by anyone that is willing to take a close look.

The second –Technology; Union decisions that are made to protect the wrong population that Public Schools were brought into existence for, I can identify and I can confront, but technology often is a tougher issue as it often has the “right look”, with so many “positive contributions” to the educational process, and the negatives get buried below the “new” and “cutting edge” steps that all seem to say, “Forward Motion”. Technology is plain and simply a different “animal” altogether and to put your finger on “the” problems requires some probing well below the surface of the apparent contributions; nonetheless they are there. We should question more and assume less, but “change” has often been our Achilles heel.

If you put the two together, “Unions” and “Technology”, we are now looking at a creature that doesn’t even have a name yet!  Unions have acted inappropriately on many occasions and fought for decisions that were compromising the “needs of the student”.  I have observed Technology replace the  “needs of the student” with something that has the appearance of being wonderful, when in reality it has become, when placed in the wrong hands, an instrument of dependence, and a “shortcut” that robs the student of a drive for more knowledge; in short, technology can be the thief of curiosity. It is this third front, to use a technology term, a “modern program” that has found its way through an eroding “firewall” and is now one of the program files installed in the Operating System of Education. Add/ Remove won’t touch it, and Revo Uninstaller Pro could potentially “remove” the program but it might take more of the registry than we want removed, and so the program- it stays. And eventually the program is actually used with no apparent ill side-effects.

Let me give you an example. Unions want teacher jobs saved. To save teacher jobs in Michigan, scores in math have to reach a certain level or the school now can be taken over by the state. Teachers with 30 years of experience can be fired in a heartbeat by the “Private Business” that bought the district from the state and staffed it with its own new employees. To keep this from happening, decisions will be made to bypass the deficiencies of students entering schools that offer “open enrollment” and technology will be utilized that will “help” the student master what he hasn’t really mastered, so that he can “give” the district enough of a % kick upward to keep the “Evil Ones” at the state level from entering in and shutting down a Union and all of its teachers.

We are rolling students off of the assembly line of Union strategy and Technology innovation that can take a Texas Instrument graphing calculator and graph a quadratic function. Yet these same students cannot spell the words used in the problem and the answer has little meaning. It is a “false kind of learning” and there isn’t any evidence of knowledge stored in living k+ gates to fall back on if the technology should fail (dead batteries!). And then throw in the ridiculousness that we no longer remediate any student at the high school level if they can’t add, subtract, multiply, divide, solve fraction problems, calculate percentages, or find the square footage of a room they want to paint, and you can’t help and wonder: what went wrong and how did we ever get to such a place? Imagine dropping a 10 pound Algebra book on the desk of a 3rd grader. I do it every day. I teach high school by the way!

Technology has outpaced ethics and gone are the days where we ask before we build, “is this use of technology going to be in the best interest of our students?” Unions have for decades led teachers down paths of “self-preservation”, and found a way to also outpace the ethical implications of what they are actually “forcing” upon future generations of teachers and ultimately the students.

We currently are moving toward an educational system that is highly technology-based. Did anyone ask the question 30 years ago, “Is this the road we want to travel?” and “If we travel a road that is full of technology, will it be “technology based/enhanced”, or “technology driven”? And most importantly- was the question asked, “How vital is this technology to a child’s development so that he can read and wants to read more, has mastered the basics of math and has a number sense that is developed, and is able to write whole sentences that make sense?”

Will we behold the wonder of a student who “holds on with dear life” to that “human component” of what we used to call “learning”? Will we observe students coming off the “assembly line” that are highly inquisitive, with knowledge-packed nervous systems that were a result of good ole’ fashion learning, and curious minds, that couldn’t get enough?” For these students technology was simply one of their tools at their disposal that served them rather than robbed them.

Unions were implemented at a time when employees were often mistreated and taken advantage of.  As they grew was anyone asking the questions that could have prevented unions from dictating educational implications that would go far beyond the “protection of the teacher” and ultimately have the power to deprive students of their right and “need” to master those skills that would serve them in life and their ongoing pursuit of knowledge, rather than providing students with test taking “shortcuts” that embraced the power of technology to boost the scores of a district.

Like it or not, Moore’s law very well could be Moore’s curse and the rapid development of technology is creating a shooting gallery within the walls of education where we are trying and implementing so many new and changing “methods” of  “learning through technology” that there is no doubt that we will be sweeping up a whole lot of debris that looked exciting at the time,  but helped produce a student that cuts and pastes is way to an “A” paper (teachers can’t keep up), and  who really don’t have a clue how a quiet moment in a forest with a good book, could be the key to unlock the genius of a highly gifted human mind, that technology simply was unable to  produce the right chemical neurotransmitters between the 100’s of Billions of nerve synapses that make the latest 32 nanometer CPU look like a first grade connect-the-dots coloring book. Like it or not; sometimes the greatness of a mind is opened up to do amazing things by a hand-written poem from the an author who never worked under the glow of a light bulb.

Seriously does anyone really care about the 140 character limit of someone’s Twitter, other than it is just one more evidence that we humans like to be the first to the top. Has anyone asked the question, “Is the concept of Twitter absolutely foolish kid’s stuff that has managed to make politicians and CEO”s felt that they are deficient because they don’t have 35,000 followers?” If you twitter or don’t twitter, does it produce different types of on-going learners? Do we Tweet out of curiosity driven my an unquenchable thirst to learn? Do we want to “Be Read”, or “Read” Tweets? How many unanswered questions are there as we just passed 10 billion tweets?  When McDonalds sold their Billionth Hamburger was that a boost to the national SAT average?

Maybe we all need a little more of “my space”, where my curiosity, learning and quest for learning is protected and not crowded out by on-line activities.  Read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html

Are we in jeopardy of twittering away a wealth of human intellect, because Technology is calling us to follow, and Unions don’t have the guts to say “NO!”?

I have been fighting a difficult battle for the past 3 years and ironically, technology (something that we are all “into” here at RS), has made it exponentially more difficult to produce change that benefits many of today’s youth. The American Public Schools System is in trouble and few will argue against that statement. But so is the Auto Industry, the Housing Market, Wall Street, and… Well the list is endless. I have been monitoring the impact of technology and the response of educators to that impact and it is glaringly apparent that technology is no longer “the tool”. Technology has become the “dictator”, and even Unions, who have had, what many would say, far too great an impact on what happens within the Public School System; even Unions are helplessly surrendered to the power of technology’s demands and expectations.

Technology has outpaced “ethics” and Unions, who often cast “ethics” to the wind, are more than happy to borrow from technology whatever will help them with their teacher centered objectives.

And now for the “Based on a True Story” illustration; you decide.

For those that aren’t big fans of Teacher Unions, here is a thought to think over.

For those that support the role that Unions play in public school education, here is your chance to defend your position.

If 80 high school freshmen fail the first semester of a one year Algebra I class, what are their chances of passing the more difficult second semester of the course?

Because in high school you can get a 1/2 credit for passing a semester class, would it make sense to have one of the two Algebra teachers in our school teach the first semester Algebra I during the second semester, for all those who failed and received no-credit?

Would it be a better work environment for those who passed the first semester to continue on in a room of students that have mastered the content and are capable of moving on at a quicker pace?

Does it sound reasonable to not only teach once again, the material that wasn’t fully grasped by the failing group, but also at the same time identify the individual reasons for the failure and simultaneously work on those issues that contributed to the failing?

If you were a parent of a child who failed the first semester, would you rather pay for two summer school 1/2 credits or just pay for one?

For those that can’t afford summer school, does it make sense to catch them up during the second semester of their freshmen year as much as possible and during the following fall offer a 2nd semester Algebra I course and have these students take two math classes during the first semester- Algebra 1 2nd Semester, along with a year of required Geometry? (The first semester of Algebra I is the critical portion as far as preparing a student to handle Geometry.)

Do you think that those that failed the first semester of Algebra I are going to enhance or become a distraction to the students that did pass and are now moving forward with high hopes of getting the entire credit?

And  how did we manage to take a group of students that were anywhere from 3 to 6 years behind in the math and reading skills manage to even teach from a 9^th  grade Algebra book? (If your child is using a calculator in elementary school, may I suggest you consider putting it in the fireplace!!)

What do you think we did?

Why?

 

I’d like to introduce you to a book that has been of great encouragement on a number of occasions in my life when I was struggling with something we all face; pain.

Here is the first review I saw when I went to  this link : http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Pain-Paul-Brand/product-reviews/0310221447/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

(Shell, Ecuador)

“In this combination memoir/medical ruminations - originally published under the title Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants - Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancey share Dr. Brand’s work as a physician, with reflections from a lifetime of thinking about pain. It is natural for Dr. Brand to explore the subject of pain, for in a career as a surgeon working among leprosy patients, he has seen the devastating effects that come upon people who lack pain - damaged feet, fingers, noses, or eyes, often leading to infection, misery, and death. Part one of this book traces Dr. Brand’s path into medicine. Part two explores his career in pain, and part three shares how Dr. Brand has learned to befriend pain, seeing it as a gift, an essential requirement for health. As a Britain who has spent roughly one third of his long life in England, one third in India, and one third in the United States, Dr. Brand’s life on three different continents have given him first-hand glimpses of how people view pain.

People of any philosophical or religious persuasion will enjoy this ecumenical book, especially since it addresses an issue common to us all. The writing is not overly technical or heavy, and numerous illustrations/stories make this a very readable book. I found the book helpful for understanding the dual nature of pain (”For good and for ill, the human species has among its privileges the preeminence of pain,”), and appreciated the helpful discussion about learning to cope with it.”

 

 

 

 

The last message I wrote on the blog sat there for about 5 minutes and then I deleted it. I realized, as I read my own post that I was winging it and shooting from the hip and that I needed to start looking in the mirror and thinking about what was my purpose every time I posted. I yanked the post and replaced it with Merry Christmas. That was nearly a month ago now.

I had invested a great deal of time and energy over a four year period in a large corporation and many of its customers and then it spilled over into the beginnings of RS. Along the way and I began to realize that everyone and their brother had something to say on a blogs, forums, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and all the other mediums out there, and I had to ask myself, “what made my comments and posts and blogs any more read-worthy then the millions of messages that get tossed out into cyberspace every minute?”

My answer back from those moments of reflection was not encouraging. Basically I saw a reflection in the mirror that looked like just another face in a sea of 6 billion and my thoughts on the net were not the reflections of the same person that jumped into this several years ago.

It seems that so many are hoping to “strike it rich” with their slice of the Internet pie and I think that I was in danger of slowly losing my perspective. Rampantspeculation.com was not started so that I could find fame and glory and “recognition”. It came into existence because there was a group of very caring and kind people that emerged out of our time together on the Dell Community Forum, and we each had a desire to build a community where people could come and feel encouraged, helped, and give of their gifts and talents and ideas to others in need. It was designed to be a watering hole in the desert; a place for people to hang out and feel safe. I knew what it was like to get “flamed” on a forum and it wasn’t encouraging!

I am about ready to jump back into this huge pool of thoughts and ideas and comments and opinions, but I really want it to be a reflection of what Rampantspeculation.com was founded upon. I don’t want it to be different or better just so that it can be different and better. This site, which includes a Forum, a Folding Team, and a Blog should only grow and get bigger and be different because it is in pursuit of something much greater and more important than “big to be big” and “different to be different”. If we do it right and put the value of the individual person at the heart of all that we say and do- then size and uniqueness will be something that spills over the walls of this building project. Greatness cannot and should not be mine or Rampantspeculation.com’s incentive for existence.

This site may be best described by the words, “kindness” and “servanthood”; two words that rarely make the top ten of what makes for greatness- but go to our Forum or Folding Site and you will find it.

No one should come to this site and not feel valuable. This can sometimes be tough world to find shelter in time of need and I can’t help but think-“Build it and they will come.” For me that means “don’t post unless I have something good to give.”

 

Merry Christmas!

A student of mine from last year got a 4% the first quarter. I began working with him one on one and learning more about his “empty” home and miserable juvenile home experiences. We met often and came up with a plan for change. He got a 95 % the second quarter and the best score of 150 students on the final exam. Beginning the second semester I had math meetings and was out for two days with a female sub. Charlie ended up with two referrals and the VP without discussing it with me moved Charlie into another class. I fought but to no avail.

This year kids came to me and said Charlie wasn’t doing well. I tracked down his transcripts, discipline reports, and talked with his teachers who all basically didn’t know he existed. We had two one hour meetings in my room. It is a moving experience to watch the “model” of tough shed tears of helplessness. Charlie knew he was in over his head to “thugs” selling drugs but would never “ask” for a road out. We were to meet and bring his mom into the discussion and he was going to work at my house to get out of dept and then future steps would have been legal recourses etc.

The day we were to meet, he didn’t come to school. That night, before we were to meet, he was arrested for armed robbery and faces 10 to life in prison. What we see happening to our country is happening in the homes and lives of our kids and I really believe that we are in way over our heads. No charismatic leader is going to dig us out of the whole that charisma dug.

It’s a good thing health care was our first concern before fixing the reason we need free health care- showing real care to the next generation before they are they become the next generation.

The Earth is getting colder. Al Gore is getting richer. African Americans are voting for a person because of a person’s color, we are exporting American tax payer’s dollars to abort babies in other countries, we are giving out Nobel Peace Prizes to someone who may so destabilize the world due to loss of power that we end up in WW III, and we are now actually doing what little kids suggest: growing money on trees. We told our youth one year before Woods went on the PGA tour that he was a Hero before he acted like one, and the cross’s in Arlington Cemetery are being considered to be replaced with stones.

We seemed to have lost our direction. You know: the ones that the pilgrims followed when they fled this kind of foolishness 300 years ago. And we just can’t reconcile the fact that our founding fathers actually read their bibles before they wrote up any of these documents that we see anti-God chanting interests groups hanging onto for dear life. It is all so ironic, but even more so-saddening.

 

 

I have been teaching math in the same high school for the past 9 years. From the beginning I requested to teach the low end courses and many of the math teachers wanted to nominate me for Sainthood! The obvious conclusion that one can come to is that those that are entering high school with a 3rd grade math level and a 4th grade reading level, probably are caring a lot of extra baggage. That extra baggage leads to some very rough edges and some habits and values that can be really difficult to change. And during the changing process there are a considerable amount of discipline issues to handle.

But for me, it was not any different than what I had been doing all of my adult life. I spent nearly 20 years in ministry/missionary work and most of the people that I  spent time with were hurting, were very uneducated and there was a barrier that had to be broken down before any help could be provided.

What made my job as a math teacher a perfect fit for my gifts and passion was that the state of Michigan had no high school math requirement for graduation. In fact the only state requirement for a school to hand out a diploma was a semester of government!

As many know, Detroit is probably the hardest hit area in the United States. Detroit had nearly two million people when I was a kid growing up in the 50’s and 60’s and today it is dropping below 900,000. The unemployment rate in this area is 2 1/2 times the countries 10%+.

Our brilliant leaders decided that we needed to address the loss of industry by upping the graduation requirement. They jumped it from 1/2 credit to 18! And the real killer is this. A student in a Michigan public school has to have 4 years of math and the student cannot get any math credit below 9th grade Algebra!

Before the low changed, Detroit had a graduation rate of 20%! Imagine 80% of the student population not graduating from high school. Then imagine this statistic- 50% of the males that don’t graduate will serve time in prison.

So where does that leave a person like me that cannot in find a way to justify treating a 14 year old student that reads, writes, and performs math at a 3rd or 4th grade level as if they are prepared to make a 6 year leap in his/her academic performance. Imagine taking a 4 pound Algebra book to a third grade classroom and telling the kids to finish it or you stay in 3rd grade!

For 7 years I had the joy of seeing  a “child left behind” make tremendous progress. Why? Because I could meet them where they were in life and not treat them the way the state wanted them to be. When a child cannot see any way of finding success the discipline issues sky-rocket and the self esteem plummets.

If 80% weren’t making it when the schools could offer courses that were within the reach of most, what is going to happen when the first graduating class of 2012 is due to graduate with a year of Algebra, Geometry, Advanced Algebra, and then one more course along the lines of Statistics or Business Math?

I have spent the last 6 months watching tremendous amounts of energy going into providing for a health care plan so that those that cannot afford it will be taken care of, and I just keep saying to myself-”Why not pour that money and effort into education so that the day won’t come when 80% of our population is going to need free health care for a lifetime.”

I agree that the standards in education in America need to be elevated. But what I don’t believe is that we elevate the expectation before we elevate the child.

Here is my Rampant Speculation. America is a mess! We have turned our back on our Constitution and it all trickles down into my classroom. From where I sit (or should I say stand, since I never have a moment to sit during a teaching day), I give my school and many others like it just a few years.

I have never seen such obvious signs of internal collapse. We are so blind about the real problems we are facing in our country that we elevated a man to power and such celebrity that only 14 days into office, having accomplished nothing to promote peace, the illusion was strong enough to captivate the eyes of a watching world and “we” won the Nobel Peace Prize! There was a whole lot of Rampant Speculation going on there. While at the same time, millions of kids are starved for a real education.

How many Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen send their children to the kind of school that I teach in?

After my recent visit to the Dell campus and after seeing Lionel’s Mini10 up close, I decided to buy a Dell Mini 10v.  I chose the 10v model for two reasons: first, it is cheaper that the 10; second, it can run Mac OSX.  I purchased this from the Outlet with a 15% off coupon.  The final price was around $235 shipped (tax included). 

Let me start by saying this is a great system for both the size and price.  I was shocked that I could actually play World of Goo.  I love that game.  The track pad is pretty bad at first, but works well with a little tweaking.  The keyboard is probably among the best I have seen on a laptop.  Considering the size, the keyboard feels good.  It doesn’t seem cramped like many others I have used.  I would advise the 6 cell battery upgrade as the 3 cell won’t last very long.  You might also consider either wireless N or a 3G provider.  I found that I do not get any wireless internet at work :(  No problem though, I just hacked my iphone to tether 3G.

So my goal was to upgrade to 2GBs of RAM, rollback the Bios to A04 and load Windows 7 Pro and Mac OSX Snow Leopard.  This ended up being quite an adventure.  First, let’s start with the upgrading to 2GBs of RAM.  On many laptops this would require removing screws and a plastic cover on the back of the device.  On the Mini 10v this requires removing the keyboard, track pad, battery, HDD, wireless card, interior bracket, and mobo.  This seems a little much to upgrade RAM, but it made the process more exciting.  Here are the YouTube videos I used to guide me in the process:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXOZDNVRkZo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGxwGUdOsw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYo1Vbk-_5I

If you haven’t chickened out yet, next we will look at the process to downgrade the BIOS.  This is ONLY needed if you decide to load OSX.  If you are staying with Windows or Linux, you can leave the A06 BIOS.  Please not that there is a possibility of bricking your mini during this process.  I followed this guide from the VERY helpful www.mydellmini.com forums:

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/dell-mini-10-guides/12408-downgrade-your-mini-10v-bios-a04-requires-windows.html

Finally, it was time to create my dual boot system.  There are multiple options and methods to doing this, but I will show you my combined method.  You will need a PC, a 4GB USB flash drive, a 8GB USB flash drive, a small USB flash drive, a retail copy of OSX, a retail copy of Windows 7 and a lot of patience.

First, you need to create a dos boot disk.  Credit to Matrix Plasm @ Mydellmini for the following part of the guide:

Items Needed:

• 3 USB Flash Drives (128+MB, 8+GB, 4+GB)
• 1 Retail OSX DVD (10.5.6)
• DellMiniBoot (v8.0.2b1) - http://osx.mechdrew.com/downloads/

• SysLinux - http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/
• TransMac - http://www.asy.com/sharetm.htm
• EasyBCD - http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Preparation:

• Format 128+MB USB Flash Drive as “FAT” and name it “OSX-BOOT”
• Extract “DellMiniBoot” files to it

• Open Command Prompt (as Administrator)
• Navigate to SysLinux “win32” directory
• Type: syslinux.exe –ma XX: (where XX is your 128+MB USB Flash Drive Letter)

• Install “TransMac” (to make a copy of your Retail OSX DVD)
• Insert Retail OSX DVD
• Right-Click on DVD drive
• Select “Save Image of Disk” to Desktop (–8GB image will take awhile–)

• Format 8+GB USB Flash Drive with “Disk Image” and name it “OSX-INST”
• Choose your 8GB image from your Desktop

• Format 4+GB USB Flash Drive as “FAT32” and name it “WIN-INST”
• Extract Windows 7 files to it
• Copy “BOOTMGR” file and rename to “NTDLR”

Configuration:

• Boot Dell Mini 10v, press “F2” to enter BIOS
• Set USB BIOS Legacy Support to Enabled
• Exit BIOS, Saving Changes

• Insert “WIN-INST” USB Flash Drive
• Boot Dell Mini 10v, press “F12” to select USB Drive
• At Windows 7 install screen, press “Shift+F12” (to bring up the Command Prompt)

• Type: DiskPart (start Disk Partition tool)
• Type: List Disk
• Type: Select Disk 0 (select the main HD)
• Type: Clean (clean all files from it)
• Type: Convert GPT (setup GUID Partition Table)
• Type: Create Partition EFI Size=200 (Win7 EFI Boot Partition)
• Type: Create Partition Primary Size=40000 (Mac OSX Partition)
• Type: Create Partition Primary Size=40000 (MS Win7 Partition)
• Type: List Partition (show HD partitions)
• Type: Select Partition 3 (MS Win7 Partition)
• Type: Format FS=NTFS Quick (format it as NTFS)
• Type: Exit (exit Disk Partition tool)

Please note, I did not have a MAC available so the method to create the OSX USB drive did not work for me.  After you have created the partitions, you will need to create your OSX USB key.  If you own a Mac, use the method posted above.  If not, I found this method from moocat.

1) Installed VMware workstation on my PC.
2) Installed OSX leopard virtual machine.
3) Booted into the OSX leopard virtual machine (Settings: 2 GB ram; 10 GB Virtual Hard drive - you can use less ram but it will be time-consuming).
4) Saved .DMG of Snow Leopard Retail to virtual hard drive with disk utility.
5) Restored .DMG image to 8 GB usb drive with disk utility (selected options: Master Boot Record).
6) Downloaded Netbook Maker and ran program to patch the usb.
7) Ejected usb and installed on my 10v

After installing OSX, restart to your Windows 7 USB key.  Choose a new install on your partition you setup earlier.  After you finish this install, boot into Windows 7.

Here we will look back at the first guide:

Boot Manager Installation:

• Install EasyBCD (to setup dual-boot with OSX)
• Click on “Add/Remove Entries”
• Click on the “Mac” tab
• Select “Generic x86 PC” from the “Type” Dropdown
• Name the selection what you want (as it will show on the boot selection screen)
• Click the “Save” button, and Exit EasyBCD
• Restart the Computer

Some guides require further work, but if you followed each step, you should be finished.  You can now restart and choose your OS.

Here are some pics of my system:

I just put the free Apple sticker on temporarily.  I purchased a nice metallic vinyl sticker from Ebay.

Here is the boot screen where you choose your OS

Windows 7 Desktop

Mac OSX Desktop (with a Hackintosh wallpaper from Google images)

Both OS’s are very usable on this system.  The track pads need to be tweaked for each setup.  Windows 7 needs some Dell drivers.  OSX is able to use my tethered iphone for emergency internet access.  I have not found a way to use this in Windows 7 yet.  OSX has an issue where it will occasionally freeze on the boot screen.  A reboot will fix this.  Windows 7 boots MUCH faster (that surprised me).  I have played World of Goo and Dark Forces on the Windows 7 boot.  Garage Band have been used quite a bit on the OSX boot.  Both are fun and I am glad to have been able to build a dual boot system that is so portable.  If anyone wants help doing this, I would be glad to try and point you in the right directions.  MyDellMini is an awesome website for any Dell Mini owner.

Thanks again to Lionel.  I might have never made this purchase if it were not for you bringing in your mini10.