Author: Greg Boone
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Content design and education
A couple friends of mine work as teachers here in Denver (by the way, we made it to Denver!) and we recently started talking about design in education. One friend told me he proposed some design standards for his fellow teachers. The problem he was trying to solve was relatively simple: Each teacher makes a…
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The delinquency forbearance
I have fortunately been able to make on-time repayments for my federal student loans every month since they went into repayment. So, I was only a little confused when I got a letter in the mail from my loan servicer telling me that a “delinquency forbearance” had been placed on my loans. It turns out…
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A journey to the UP
This post is about a trip we took to the UP from Northern Wisconsin. Tips: Day passes for Michigan State Parks are good for unlimited parking in any park for 24 hours. We managed to see 3 in one trip: Gogebic, Porcupine Mountains, and Bond Falls. There are two campgrounds on the southwest side of…
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Leaflet and Stamen on the blog
I changed the tagline of my blog to “Nomad public servant, learning out loud” when we moved out of DC. In addition to writing about the different places we’ve visited, I also end up writing a lot of these posts from places other than where we live. So over Thanksgiving weekend I decided it was…
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Service design in the schools
My mother in-law was a PE and special ed teacher for about 30 years and during most of that time she was also a swimming coach in Sun Prairie, both within the school system and for local club teams. Since living in her house in Northern Wisconsin, I’ve been able to watch her process results…
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College Scorecard: The value of data in higher ed
A few weeks ago the Department of Education released a trove of data about colleges and universities around the country. The site itself does a pretty great job of showing some high level information about how much a school costs and a few statistics about retention, graduation rates, and financial success after leaving. Earlier this…
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Autumn in lake country
The colors are starting to change on the trees already. Not everybody knows this but some pine trees drop their needles, too. In fact, according to my cursory research most do drop their needles somewhat regularly. Danielle has a great story from one of her college professors, a noted tree expert in Minnesota, who got…
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One Year of 18F
A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting with some amazing public servants working for Minnesota’s Hennepin County government. I talked a little about 18F but most of our time was spent learning about the work they were doing for the public and taxpayers they served. One program that stuck out as particularly…
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Escanaba
On August 6 we left DC. I’m still reflecting on my feelings about leaving Dream City (A.K.A. the Federal City; A.K.A Chocolate City; A.K.A. The American Rome; A.K.A. The District; A.K.A. New Columbia) and hope to solidify those soon. We didn’t leave because it was too expensive, or because we both “made it” and moved…
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Don’t make me think! (But please allow me to.)
My friend Brendan visited me from New York this past weekend. Brendan is a CCT friend and so naturally we talked about “CCT stuff.” I started the Apple Music three month trial earlier that week and was telling him how amazing the curated playlists are on that service. My colleague Noah captures my feelings on…
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Riding the Great Washington Loop
This weekend I did a ride that’s been tempting me since we first moved from Arlington into the District three years ago: The Great Washington Loop. Starting from Georgetown, the loop takes you up the Capital Crescent Trail into Montgomery County and then circles the District via the Georgetown Branch Trail in Bethesda, Sligo Creek…