Let's Get it Started, YEAH!
I've entered the season of perpetual wakefulness that will only be cured by getting my first day under my belt. I've been working on the wiki and other plans. I've also been reading up on bloglines since I CAN'T SIT STILL!
Here are some great blog posts for getting started:
I'm really enjoying reading Caddickisms,
I had no idea that Steve Martin played the banjo! In other incredulous news, MarshallK talks about a study that states that 78% of US Youth have blogs? What? Too bad they will not have learned how to do this ethically because it will be non gratis in American public schools if DOPA continues. (Sorry, I couldn't help it!)
Meanwhile, many of you know how important I believe that face, voice, and body language (The overlooked lethal weapon of teaching) are in the classroom. It seems that there are calls for voice coaching for teachers! As long as it is coupled with reading body language of students who are asleep, it will be GREAT!
More Views on DOPA
I get disgusted with name calling and partisanship with DOPA. It really diminishes the message of those of us who are against DOPA. I was overjoyed to read Jennifer's well versed DOPA thoughts. She and I agree on many things.
OK. I'm really awake now. Where is grading when I really need to go to sleep?
The towers I ordered in June will finally be here on Friday, so I may go offline a little while this week! Meanwhile, we're working on gradebook implementation and do training on Monday. I'm fortunately the second in command there, but the first one in charge called me and thinks she's in labor. Can it get any more comical?
Oh, and I forgot. I have an IBM Blade server that I have to finish installing tomorrow. Just a few little things before school starts.
But isn't it always like this. The truth is that we're all uptight because we're nervous. My son can't sleep because he starts sixth grade next week. I've been doing the school thing for a seeming eternity and I can't sleep either!
I sure do love my students and I'm so excited about seeing them again. My curriculum keeps getting better and better (and more tightly packed.) I'm getting close to completing my plans and day 1 is coming! (August 11th).
Are you ready?
Here are some great blog posts for getting started:
- Language Arts resources from SEGA Tech.
- Math - Totally free Math from SEGA Tech. (These guys are good!) --This is a site created by math educators that is totally free! Great lesson plans and even will be adding video and audio lectures.
- Online whiteboard - Budget strapped folks with Internet access. If you want a whiteboard, Karyn has blogged about an amazing new FREE online white board!
- Sociology -David McDivitt shares how he is using the Sims in sociology.
- Video Game innovations - Some innovators are using Second life in education. This great blog entry has the complete rundown.
- Libraries - Want to get your librarian jumpstarted, share the incoming ALA president's inagural speech courtesy of The Shifted Librarian. Leslie Burger ends her speech with this:
"Change isn’t easy, but it is the key to our future. Here’s a prescient quote from Apple Computers back in 1997 'the people who can crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.'"
- Current Events - Jennifer at Technospud tipped me off to a blogger in Israel in the war zone named Yves Shefner. I'm the second subscriber to his blog. If we want our students to be empathetic to others, they should read up front blogs like this. It makes me appreciate my sleeplessness over school and really puts me in my place. Today, Yves Shefner says...
A lot of people went to work today and there even reports of heavy traffic downtown. It seemed that life in Haifa seemed to return to normal. Almost. In addition to the missing of the sirens by some of us, we were also grateful for the quiet and what it meant - no one will be hurt or killed today. At least not in Israel. As I also drove through the city streets doing some errands, I didn't trust the quiet. I was sure that at any moment I would hear a siren and have to brake quickly and run into a building to wait it out....
I'm really enjoying reading Caddickisms,
"For me, YouTube is like walking into a hospital with no immune system. I go in with one thing and come out with a hundred others."
I had no idea that Steve Martin played the banjo! In other incredulous news, MarshallK talks about a study that states that 78% of US Youth have blogs? What? Too bad they will not have learned how to do this ethically because it will be non gratis in American public schools if DOPA continues. (Sorry, I couldn't help it!)
Meanwhile, many of you know how important I believe that face, voice, and body language (The overlooked lethal weapon of teaching) are in the classroom. It seems that there are calls for voice coaching for teachers! As long as it is coupled with reading body language of students who are asleep, it will be GREAT!
More Views on DOPA
I get disgusted with name calling and partisanship with DOPA. It really diminishes the message of those of us who are against DOPA. I was overjoyed to read Jennifer's well versed DOPA thoughts. She and I agree on many things.
I 100% believe that the internet should have filters -- but I also 100% believe that one of those filters is in the brain and integrity of the each student -- wherever they use the internet!!!!Get ready!
I think that many parents are naive -- or perhaps they are ignorant -- about their child's use on the internet and they need to be made more aware of what is going on. But, I also think that that is a parental issue -- not a student issue -- and too many parents are walking away from our kids during the hardest times -- and they need to get back involved.
OK. I'm really awake now. Where is grading when I really need to go to sleep?
The towers I ordered in June will finally be here on Friday, so I may go offline a little while this week! Meanwhile, we're working on gradebook implementation and do training on Monday. I'm fortunately the second in command there, but the first one in charge called me and thinks she's in labor. Can it get any more comical?
Oh, and I forgot. I have an IBM Blade server that I have to finish installing tomorrow. Just a few little things before school starts.
But isn't it always like this. The truth is that we're all uptight because we're nervous. My son can't sleep because he starts sixth grade next week. I've been doing the school thing for a seeming eternity and I can't sleep either!
I sure do love my students and I'm so excited about seeing them again. My curriculum keeps getting better and better (and more tightly packed.) I'm getting close to completing my plans and day 1 is coming! (August 11th).
Are you ready?
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