Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Obituary
James Davis Renner of Elkhart, Indiana died on July 11 at the age of 67, following a courageous battle with kidney cancer.
James (Jim) was born on July 28, 1941 in Dover, Ohio to the late Dorren Leander Renner and Jane Francis (Davis) Renner. He is survived by his sister Ann Barger Renner of Winter Haven, Florida and his wife Jeannette Diane (Hepler) Renner. His three children are Jennifer Renner Howell (Ronnie) of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jessica Renner Weers (Gerald) of Virginia Beach, Virginia and Jeremy Davis Renner (Jeanna) of New Albany, Indiana.
Jim's childhood was spent in New Philadelphia, Ohio, where he played baseball, football and was an Eagle Scout. He graduated from New Philadelphia High School in 1959. After graduating from Heidleberg College in 1963 he served his country in the United States Navy, where he earned the rank of Quartermaster Second Class and had cruises on the USS Harlan R. Dickison and the USS Gearing. He completed his service in the US Navy Reserves. After his time in the Navy he returned to school and obtained a Master's Degree in Education at Edinboro State College.
James taught in New York and Pennsylvania before teaching overseas with the Department of Defense in Okinawa, Japan and Würzburg, Germany. He also taught in Elkhart, Indiana and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Jim's love of teaching was passed on to his children as all three of them have become educators.
James and Jeannette were married in Okinawa, Japan on October 21, 1969. They shared a love of their children, antique collecting and world travel. In retirement they enjoyed visiting and travelling with their nine grandchildren.
JIm was a beloved government and economics teacher and basketball coach. While he taught in several schools, most of his career was spent at Wuerzburg American High School in Germany, where all three of his children attended. While at WAHS his former students will recall his catch phrases such as "There is no such thing as a free lunch!" and "You have to make an economic decision!" for years and years after leaving his classes. He frequently sponsored the student council, junior and senior classes, and Model United States Senate. In the classroom Jim's subjects came alive for his students. He announced wrestling matches and football games as "The Voice of the Wolves" and received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to the school.
When he wasn't teaching James enjoyed the sport of walking. He served as president of the Tulsa Walking Club and participated in organized walks in ten countries and 45 states. He was also a bowler and an avid sports fan. He participated in football pools and cheered for the Oklahoma Sooners, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Ohio State Buckeyes and professional teams from Cleveland. He was especially proud when a former student became the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jim was a member of the Osceola United Methodist Church and a leader of the Men's Ministry there. He belonged to the Tuscarawas County (Ohio) Historical Society, the Green Country (Oklahoma) Water Garden Society, the Boy Scouts of America, the Mayflower Society and the American Legion.
There will be visitation at Zimmerman-Inman Funeral Home from 4:00-8:00 PM on Friday, July 17. Zimmerman-Inman Funeral Home is located at 1109 Lincolnway West in Osceola, Indiana.
The funeral will be at Osceola United Methodist Church at 11:00 AM on Saturday, July 18. The family will be there to greet visitors at 10:00 AM. The Osceola United Methodist Church is located at 431 North Beech Road in Osceola, Indiana.
Jim will be buried in Ragersville (Sugarcreek), Ohio. There will be a service at on Sunday, July 19 at the Ragersville Zion United Church of Christ. On 8831 Crooked Run Road SW Sugarcreek, Ohio. The service and burial will be at 1:00 PM.
Memorial contributions may be made to Tuscarawas County Historical Society 325 East Iron Avenue, Dover, Ohio 44622 or Osceola United Methodist Church 431 North Beech Road in Osceola, Indiana 46561.
Jeannette Renner's home address is 55327 Osborn Avenue, Elkhart, Indiana 46514
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Jeremy Renner
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Grieving 2.0 Explained
Grieving 2.0
Grieving 2.0
I may be half the teacher my father was, but I am twice the geek. My dad was loud, confident and his voice and presence could fill a room (and at times, seep into the halls). I am more reserved, shy and am most comfortable troubleshooting your computer. He was likely to be found coaching basketball, where I am more likely to help you set up a classroom web page. At any rate I am proud that I followed my dad in to the education field.
My dad passed away this morning, and I thought I would share with you some of the technology that has helped my family and me through a difficult spot in our lives. I am a teacher first so let me share some of the ways I have used technology in the last weeks and months. It is my hope that you will see some use for this in your classrooms this fall.
I will start off with facebook. My dad just barely got started on facebook before his treatments and exhaustion began to take over. Trust me, he would have loved it. Having taught in Germany he had students that wound up scattered all over the globe. These same students were classmates to my sisters and I and we all three have reconnected with many of them through facebook. As his cancer progressed we would post status updates and notes which we knew would be read with interest by literally hundreds of former students and colleagues, as well as out family, friends and neighbors that we had 'friended' on facebook. Check out the social networking site at www.facebook.com You might find it enjoyable to connect with professional colleagues in this way.
Pandora streamed his favorite show tunes and country music to him when he was stuck in his hospital bed. I didn't even build him an account, I just used mine and set up a new station. I bought a $12 pair of speakers and he had a commercial free, personalized radio station with only his very favorite songs to listen to while he lay there. Pandora has recently changed their structure, they aren't totally free any longer. You can still stream 40 hours of music for free a month and pay .99 after that to finish the month. It is still a great service and bargain. Build a station of your own at www.pandora.com and expose your children to music that they may not usually hear, such as patriotic, classical and big band.
As my dad's illness progressed we set up an online memorial for him. I chose www.wallwisher.com because the people 'writing' on the wall didn't need an account, it was visually appealing, and simple to use. We published the link to the wall on facebook and through email and enjoyed hearing from the many old students, neighbors and colleagues as they posted up funny memories and goodbyes. Up until the last two or three days we would read the funny ones to him and he seemed to acknowledge and enjoy them. I grew a little frustrated with this service, as for a while it seemed to work in any web browser with the exception of IE and a few of his very good friends were unable to post up at first. To be fair, the owner of the site did a lot of trouble shooting and communicating with me for which I was thankful. I intend to use wallwisher in a professional capacity in the future, but as I teach people about it I will throw out the possibility that their wall may become corrupt at one point and to keep that in mind. Hey, it's a free site, and one of my dad's euphamisms was 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' so it was fittingly appropriate. Check out my dad's wall at http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/JimRenner or build your own for homework assignments and the like.
Our old high school hosts an "All Class Reunion" every three years and several of his former students created YouTube videos with greetings and well wishes. We played every single one of them for him and he seemed to recognize some of the faces and his eyes lit up, rolled and furrowed depending on which former student it was on the screen. A lot of people think of YouTube as a collection of useless video clips, and make no mistake about it, there are some goofy things in there. But there is no other site that is free, user friendly and widely known for sharing short videos. Consider using YouTube to either teach with or to show off some of your student work with.
If you aren't quite to the point where you are wanting to share videos of your students, you might start with images. I have found Picasa Web Albums to be user friendly and enjoyable to use. I posted pictures of my dad that I scanned that were old and also recent ones as he made his final stand. One web album that is special to me is when he decided he wanted to go for a walk around the neighborhood and to the creek near his back yard. It was the second to last time he was ever outdoors before he passed, but it was a special moment. We took pictures all along the way and were able to share the web album via links from each of our facebook pages and our family blog. Imagine how much the parents of your children would enjoy seeing day to day class activities, as well as special events like field trips. Be sure you have photo release forms before doing so, but consider publishing more of your students' activities this year via Picasa Web Albums.
Speaking of Picasa, I found the Picasa program, which is a free download from
Finally etherpad is located at http://etherpad.com and is a handy little online word processor. You do not need an account to use it, and you can invite multiple editors to help you draft what you are writing. My sister and I sat on two different couches and crafted his eulogy, and when we had a good draft of it done we invited our sister in England to collaborate as well. Then a colleague of my dad's, who was also my 8th grade english teacher said something to the effect of 'What can I do to help?" I sent him a link and he proof read and edited what the three of us had written. There were no attachments flying back and forth and at one point several of us were writing at a time.
Did I mention this has been a miserable summer? Right before my dad really took a turn for the worse, my young son spent over a week in the hospital. We used our family blog to keep people apprised of his various surgeries and at one point even had a cheap webcam focused on him, used UStream http://www.ustream.tv/ for a free webcast channel and his concerned grandparents and other out of town relatives could monitor him as he recovered. Is there anything you would want to webcast in your classroom this year? Consider your special events such as school plays and chorus concerts if you have parents serving their country overseas. There are several sites which will help you accomplish this goal, but I have found UStream to be the most easy to use and I enjoyed the ability to embed the feed into my blog.
My dad was a teacher until the very end. I could fill volumes with the things he has shown me and taught me. He would find a silver lining in all of this if I could use this miserable experience to teach others something new. He would find pleasure in knowing that the same tools that kept our family connected could be used to build community in a classroom or school building. Thank you for reading and thanks, Dad, for everything!
Sad News
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Quick Update
and seems to be working on any web browser except Internet Explorer. (insert your own MS joke or curse, I have) Sorry for the inconvenience, but we have enjoyed the tributes that 125 of you have posted so far, and are working to get the site back to where you can view an post from any browser.
2. My dad's condition is about the same as the last time I updated. He continues to grow weaker and sleeps more and more daily. He is speaking about 3-4 words a day and those are laborious to get out. Sometimes he acknowledges visitors and other times doesn't seem to know they are here. My girls are here and every once in a while he'll manage a wave or blow a kiss, but even that is coming less and less frequently.
3. Having said that, miracles happen and he has fought bravely for a long time. Stranger things have happened and I know many, many people are praying for him.