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Mama's birthday was yesterday. Three years a go we didn't know if she'd live to see another one. Somehow all my other worries are little things. My present is her presence. Take a minute to think about the big things and how sometimes the many things we get so stressed out during the day aren't quite as big as we make them out to be. Perspective helps. I just had to say this before November turned into December. It was on my mind. The C Word: Salve or Sandpaper, Which are you? - October 2008 Put your finger to the saw. How much do you trust technology? - December 2008 Life is Fragile - Meet My Namesake - Aunt Vicki - July 16, 2008

A cross post with my blog over at the Balancing Act on the Lifetime Channel. (View part 2 life on the Lifetime blog) The fact is that student success is more highly correlated with the parent than the teacher. A 2005 study through Harvard ( Parental Involvement and Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis ) that looked at all research studies about parenting and school success found that: "Two of the patterns that emerged from the findings were that the facets of parental involvement that required a large investment of time, such as reading and communicating with one's child, and the more subtle aspects of parental involvement, such as parental style and expectations, had a greater impact on student educational outcomes than some of the more demonstrative aspects of parental involvement, such as having household rules, and parental attendance and participation at school functions." Have you ever heard the statement: "How do children spell love? T-I-M-...

It is hard for a fussy teacher (or parent) to teach. Our negative body language is hard to overcome. Kids need to know we care. When I find myself going down this thorny path, this is what I do: 1- Start smiling You feel better and somehow forget about the reasons you had to be fussy in the first place. 2- Do something kind and totally random Find a stewardess or service person and call the company to give an honest compliment. Call a product support line of something you love just to tell them. 3- Give a public compliment to a person who has no clue it is coming. Blog or tweet about someone. ( @angelamaiers ' hashtag #youmatter is a great one to include!) 4- Go "Little House" This is what my family says I do. When I overload and I go home, I put on my favorite soft socks and sweats and crawl in my bed to watch a few episodes of Little House on the Prairie on the Lifetime Channel. I let myself go to sleep early. This uplifting show gives me perspective. The ex...

International classroom collaboration on the worldwide web An overview of International collaboration on the World wide web. It does mention our Flat Classroom projects, although they left out our biggest projec t- "A WEek in the Life" elementary project which is almost topping 1000 this semester!  tags: education flatclassroom globalcollaboration Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

As I think about being thankful, I'm grateful that I get to write. Here I am sitting in the den, watching the screensaver on my Roku box paint the plasma into a rainbow because I'd rather write than watch. As I look back over this year, there are some blog posts that I'm thankful to have written. These are the posts that help people. In case you missed them, here they are, in order of most traffic: QR Code Classroom Implementation Guide - May 5, 2011 Facebook Friending 101 for Schools - May 25, 2011 Finding Your Beautiful Moment the Last Week of School - May 21, 2011 10 Ways to Be a Terrible Teacher - October 20, 2011 (trending to be one of my most popular posts ever) Top 10 Coolest (mostly free) things for Teachers - April 15, 2011 iPad apps for Teachers - January 25, 2011 50+ Fantastic Tools for Schools  - November 11, 2011 11 Lies Social Media Hides - November 21, 2011 Some older ones that are still very Popular this year: Making the case for ...

Diigo It! | 21C Global I love Suzie Nestico's explanation of how we use Diigo for the Flat Classroom projects and her alignment with the common core writing standards. (She's a social studies teacher, by the way.) She impresses me more and more. tags: education flatclassroom diigo One in Four Hackers Works for the U.S. Government | Techland | TIME.com 25% of hackers work for the US FBI. tags: education hacking The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education | Center for Social Media An excellent guide from the Center for Social media for Fair use in the classroom. I use this as a go-to source for my student work. ...

The holidays arrive and I wonder how I'll survive. So many things to do how will I every get through? Grading period ending and holidays are pending. Red rover, red rover, send her right over right over the top pushing up clover! Mom of three teacher of many I'll take some holiday cheer if you've got any. But, I must stand back and look these times are too short. Life is so fleeting and life's not a sport. In three years, I'll have two off at school my house will seem empty and the car will be cool. I will take time to enjoy the time where life is just nuts the joy's in the busyness and there are no ruts. Though I often long for a moment to breathe and be me it is best if I take the time to see the joy under my tree. Christmas started with a Person and it continues with four more my biggest present is their presence coming through my door. Family is the present their laughter is my bow I'll rejoice they are with me ...

E-WOT A teachers's pondering on QR codes with some nice links. tags: Qrcodes education paperless Nook App Love - Teacherbytes - johnwoodring Information on using the nook in the classroom. tags: education tablet Phonics Phase 3 Christmas Activity - Resources - TES This lesson uses a letter from Santa to provide phonics reinforcement and reading. tags: education phonics english teacher 12 days of Christmas numeracy - Resources - TES A counting and numeracy activity based on the 12 days of Christmas. Th...

Shocked and agast, my son's pants were agape. Last night was the final game on the season and, the 26th straight win for the Westwood Wildcats and my son blocked a 270 pound behemoth with his pants flapping in the breeze. My Westwood Wildcats Football Team 2010, 2011 State Champs winner 26 straight football games We were picked to lose by 13 or 20 points depending upon who you asked. They had 10 boys over 200 pounds and one over 300 and we had barely 2, maybe. My son's pants ripped during the last football game. When I say rip, I mean a big old tear from crotch to way up the back. My son's gray sliding pants were his only salvation from indecent exposure. Last week I had snatched up the pants and was preparing to mend them when my son interrupted emphatically: "We're wearing the orange pants for state, Mom, don't touch 'em. They'll get fixed in the off season when they send them in to the shop." OK, so the word "shop" shoul...

Books and Glitter: I Symbaloo--do you? Many teachers are raving about symbaloo, here is a another one. tags: education app teaching web2.0 Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

acrosstheglobe - home This across the globe wiki was created as a result of the "Create the Future" workshop in Japan in 2010 as a result of the work of Kim Cofino and Julie Lindsay. This wiki is still active and full of recommended books for middle schoolers. tags: education flatclassroom Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Five years a go I was working with Julie Lindsay to create the first Flat Classroom wiki . Now, I'm proofing the final chapters of the book . Twenty five years a go I was laying in tanning beds and doing "jazzercize" to get in shape for the beauty contests I entered as a senior in high school. Now, I'm sitting here getting ready to proof the book with four stitches just next to the smile line that runs between the corner of my mouth and nose where a small skin cancer was removed. (Yes, it hurts. Yes, when we feed everyone tomorrow I'm going to hide in the kitchen. ;-)) A year and a half a go I got fed up with myself when I couldn't even jog to the mailbox and started running. Then, I did weight watchers. Now I'm 50 pounds lighter. Six weeks a go I became too busy to work out with a crazy schedule so I've gained five pounds. Most Saturday mornings, I like to go see my Mom and have coffee with her. I try to call her as much as possible, so I am...

Goodies - Buffer There is a new site I'm seeing called Buffer. It lets you find things and put them into your "buffer" - another autotweeting type service. You can use with facebook but beware that often Facebook makes things not typed "live" into facebook have a lower priority and not put them on homestreams. tags: education tools twitter web2.0 socialmedia 5 Keys To Making Google Plus Work For You | Twitter Tips And Updates From Buffer Good post if you don't get Google plus. This post is helpful. tags: education google+ google The Best Apps on the Planet for a Holiday Shopping Trip I like this blog ...

Today, November 22 is a big day in my life. The birthday of something big for me and for others who have joined into this. There are days that change everything. Wedding days. Birthdays. Well, for me, this is a very special birthday: the birth of Flat Classroom (tm) projects . Today was the day we created our first Flat Classroom wiki , five years a go in 2006. So many things have happened since then. But today, we're getting together for a little drop in birthday party and have a few announcements about our future direction with things in light of our book ( Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds ) coming out in January. (Available on Amazon  - it has kind of been cool to see a few days a go it broke one of the 200K top selling books on Amazon - don't know how many are listed but it was cool nonetheless since it hasn't been released yet. You can preorder now to get it in time for our global book club that will kick off February 1.) For those who have been involved...

A Guide to Sniffing Out Passwords and Cookies (and How to Protect Yourself Against It) How to protect your passwords. A handy guide from lifehacker that also shows how easy it is to snag those passwords. Read and learn. tags: education privacy security identity theft. Lying on Facebook could become federal crime | News To Me with George Mathis The US department of justice wants to make it a federal crime to violate terms of service. Do they have room to lock up all the 10-12 year olds I know who are on Facebook under age? tags: education privacy Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here .

Searching for Facts image from Bigstock . Social media impacts lives. When you have someone in a controversial matter like the wrong thing or say the wrong thing it can cause a snowball that can influence and even harm. I've seen this first hand. I know people who've lost jobs, seen marriages destroyed, and organizations teeter on the brink of nonexistence through poorly thought-out likes, unfriending, and comments. Perhaps it is because I live in a small town where there are no secrets. It makes me angry when people who should know better casually post or comment and assume things that just aren't true. So, I'm going to get these lies out on the table. Every one of these 11 has a example  that I have personally witnessed. This is real and real life. Please wake up and understand what social media is and is not. #11 Social media is free. Everything comes with a price. Facebook is funded by advertising. In the advertising model they need to sell advertising a...