Early Voter

I'm still here. All alone. How to get noticed? Blogging is more interesting when it's shared, although I'm fine with the "private journal" take on blogging. Anyways, I wanted to say that I have already voted in the big presidential election, and it's a relief to do my part, and not have to weigh in any more on these ridiculous campaign speeches and false debates. I pray that our new leader will have the wisdom and competence to "preside" wisely and the moral strength to make difficult decisions with compassion. I also pray for his safety.

And you? Have you made up your mind about whom you will vote for? Have you "early"-voted? Using the voting machine is pretty easy (but not as simple as the old pencil & paper ballot!), yet the technology seems somewhat magical; I know my vote counts--I just hope it gets counted!

Obama or McCain or...???...

The big election is less than a month away! Are you registered to vote? Who will you pick? Who will be our next president? It's pretty exciting!

Hurricane Ike

I'm sure most of us have bigger fish to fry, but with progress reports due and Hurricanus Interruptus, I wonder if a training or an upgrade or whatever on how to do progress reports/report cards/etc. remotely (from home or from a Red Cross shelter) is anywhere in our near future. I mean, isn't that one of the big reasons why the district issued us all laptops in the first place? Hurricane or not, the show must go on; the education/future of our children is at stake...

SBISD Lesson Plan, anyone?

Is it just me, or is this district-mandated lesson plan format clunky and awkward? If we teachers were to present a document in this style to our students, wouldn't they rebel? After all these years of "research", haven't we all learned by now to "keep it simple"??? 4 columns, from left to right: days of the week, objectives, activities/procedures, homework/assignments. Done. Alas, this is another one of those mandates that tries to re-invent the wheel, and worse, tries mold all of us into the one same robotic teacher. Or is there another practical purpose to this that I'm just not seeing?

Still Here

Check out my updated Avatar; still couldn't get the hairstyle I wanted, but that's just like Real Life, isn't it?!

Check out, too, my updated Library. You'll see my faves there!

I'm still here, playing, now that I have a little free time w/o deadlines, and can concentrate on one or two things at a time...

Just so you know, it's a rainy day...

Thing #23 Last Thing: Summary

1. My favorite discoveries/exercises included The Blog, all the Google tools (notebook, docs), wikis, and the Blinkx search for videos. I already have wonderful--the best!--friends & family who exist in my real world, so the social/community/networking building activities weren't too appealing to me, not to mention how difficult they were to understand and complete.

2. I have never been one to shy away from innovations to my teaching if I think they will help. This experience has opened a whole new awareness of innovations out there which I'm eager to try out in the classroom. As a life-long learner, I suppose that when I'm old and decrepid and all my real friends-and-family have passed on, maybe I'll remember...ah, the Internet...as a source of companionship.

3. The one unexpected outcome that surprised me the most was my experience with Blinkx. I was trying my best to follow the Captains' instructions with no luck, and when I used Blinkx--poof! It was like magic to get my chosen videos to appear in my Blog! Also, there were some fun surprises in my blog searches.

4. To improve this program, you definitely need to cut back on the number of "Things" to complete. I would've like to have been more skilled in some of the seemingly requisite "Things" before falling flat on my face on the more complicated ones. Some sort of "Geek" service, phone help-line would be helpful. More step-by-step instructions are needed, or have different levels for us to register (novice, beginner, intermediate, advanced). Provide follow-up "courses" in various areas so that I could have more opportunities to practice--and ultimately master--my newfound skills, because I'll need a certain level of self-confidence before I attempt to implement them in the classroom. I would be interested in follow-up sessions, for example, called "Be a Better Blogger" and "Blogging in the Classroom". Or similar ones on Podcasting, at which I failed miserably on this Library2Play program.

Before I leave #4 here, I would like to request that consideration be given to granting us some roll-over hours beyond the 18 that could be applied to next year's Prof Dev requirements, as I am not the only one who spent WELL MORE than 18 hours on this project. Thank you.

5. I would choose to participate in another discovery program like this ONLY if it were smaller in scope, maybe focusing on just one or two tools. The hours to be granted would have to be MUCH MORE FAIR & REALISTIC!

6. The one word that comes to mind: FRUSTRATION. This whole thing brought out the worst in me. This honesty probably wouldn't do much to promote this project.

7. Check out my comments on, and the insightful postings of, the following blogs: Belle of Books, Eager Reader, It's Greek to Me, Never too Old to Learn, Paddywack, Reluctant Blogger, and Writing from the Woods.

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, and now it's back to LIFE in the REAL WORLD!

Thing #22 Nings

I explored all 3 Nings mentioned. The librarians' Nings were interesting, but for me, a non-librarian, the classroom teacher Ning appeared the most useful. I was able to type in a word in the search box to find a limited supply of lesson plans in my field. I also found a lot of plans from other fields that could be adapted to my field. In any case, Nings are a source of inspiration. In a classroom situation, a Ning could be used as a way for students to share their evaluations of various topics, such as literary criticism.