Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

Today was the first day of having a virtual assistant (shout out to Karen) start helping me and I must admit although it was quite a tough day overall, it was so incredible to go in my inbox and have a nice little summary of the many emails that came into Cool Cat along with a tidy action list. Outsourcing is something that you can do and it can be affordable for you. Certainly some things aren't appropriate to have help on, but for me, it has already paid dividends on day 1.  We're still not "caught up" on my email and we're working through it, but it will happen. I think that this is something that we'll see more and I hope that we'll also see some sort of outsourcing firms that specialize in the needs of education along with meeting our higher standards of privacy requirements, etc. There are many things like updating the website, answering all the email that comes into the school and forwarding it to the right place, etc. that truthfu...

What is digital literacy? - Digi Teen This is such a great conversation about digital citizenship with Terry Freedman on the Ning and 158 commenters (mostly students.) Great reading. tags : education digital_literacy digiteen I lurk, therefore I am -- Federal Computer Week "> - Annotated This excellent article delves deeper than just the 1% of people who contribute active content, the 9% who contribute and 90% who supposedly just "lurk" to point out that an MIT student says that: "Upon further research I found, in an MIT study, a defense of lurking that was better than anything I could make up. The study found that active lurkers in an online community might constitute closer to 40 percent to 50 percent of members and, while these people might not contribute directly to the online forum, they contribute by taking some of the ideas from the specific commun...

Does anyone else find it ironic that when I follow this link that I cite in my highly trafficked post Making the Case for Cell Phones in School that it would take us to the Center for Digital Democracy and a page that is now firewalled?

We are sending this message out through our networks, but want to make sure that all of you who are collaborating on a global basis have this invitation to share your story.  This is the email we're sending out today. Consider this an invitation to tell your story!  Thank you! **************************************** Hi everyone! We're so excited to be publishing a book with Pearson Publishing teaching how to connect classrooms on a global basis and we want your stories! Please share your story of collaboration by emailing it to story@flatclassroombook.com !  If your story is selected, we will email you with a permission form and confirmation of the text selected for the book (whether it has been edited or not!) Has global collaboration changed your view of the world? Improved some area of your life? Established friendships that you still maintain? Was it a positive experience? Negative? What lesson did you learn from the project? Please share -- we want ...

Programs for Educators Resources and Curriculum for Teachers Common Sense media has acquired CyberSmart curriculum. tags : education digitalcitizenship curriculum Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Image by kharied via Flickr "H--o---oooooo---pe!  Where are you?" I called as I looked in my desk drawer, under the manuscript sitting on my desk, between the books I'm studying to teach in a few weeks. "Hope. Are you in there?" As I looked in the kitchen sink, among the laundry around my recliner.  I see a lot of work.  A lot of signs of life in these places, but no hope. "Hope? Where have you gone?" I said as I booted up my computer and searched the Internet. Maybe I should just stop looking for her.  I'm so tired and have been working so unbelievably hard this summer. My shoulders sagged as I went to preplanning and worked through my days.  She wasn't here either.  Hope must be gone. The bell rang and students filed into my room for the first day, looking me in the eye with eager anticipation. It was then that I saw her reflection in the pupils. The eyes of my students reflected her so that I was almost blinded like a spotlight...

About Ning - Pricing Plans Final ning pricing plans. Make your decision. tags : education ning NASA - Moonbase Alpha Game NASA's MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) has been released and has tons of uses in science. This is perhaps the first of some really amazing online roleplaying games for STEM and I believe we will have more! So very cool. Please let me know if you play it and any information on it. tags : education learning mmorpg nasa science science_teacher Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Image via Wikipedia Tomorrow is "b" day -- the day I have to buy the new laptop at school for me.  Yes, it has to last me another five years. The trusty Toshiba I got five years a go lasted until the backlight went out.  I don't have a lot in my budget for this, but here is what I'm looking at right now. 64 bit Windows 7 8 GB Ram fingerprint reader Media card reader docking station (so I can hook to external monitor) Adobe Suite New MS Office Pinnacle 12 (Man, I love that movie program.) Ok, these are just some of the things and I looked at a Tablet PC but all of my machines HAVE to be able to edit video and the Tablets seem to have a lower power processor of some kind that has issues. Now, those of you who read my blog know that I don't really ask for too much, but today, I'm asking.  Throw it at me -- give me advice. What advice would you give a geeky kind of teacher who doesn't have a ton of money ($1100-1200 probably not including adobe) bu...

Apple - Magic Trackpad - The Multi-Touch trackpad for your desktop. There is now a multi touch trackpad for the Macintosh. tags : education learning Experts: Ansel Adams photos found at garage sale worth $200 million - CNN.com "> - Annotated Lost photos by Ansel Adams turn up from someone's garage. tags : education learning Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Image by exfordy via Flickr Taking time to focus on the most important thing, especially first thing on Monday morning is a great way to start the week. It is a gift to yourself for the rest of the week. So, since Julie and I have four more chapters of our book on Global collaborative projects due Friday, I'm focusing on the main thing today -- WRITING. What is the most important thing you SHOULD be working on right now? Stop what you're doing (you're in your RSS reader) and DO IT. OK, I'm listening to myself and getting back to the book -- Bye now, Friends! Related articles by Zemanta Share This : GTD + Your Emotional Life (lifehack.org) 12 Healthy Habits to Grow Your Online Presence and Keep Balance Your Life (coolcatteacher.blogspot.com) Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals   by Brian Tracy

Live Streaming TV and Events for July 24, 2010 The Live streaming tv catalog on Clicker is totally incredible. Wow! How useful. This is just a sample day. tags : education entertainment coolcatteacher's Profile - History I"ve been "Playing with" clicker and think that this site is going to be a fascinating one. Right now, I'm the first one of my facebook friends on the site and it is pretty new. It will be interesting how this works out - it scans all the websites and tells you where shows are available and you can create a playlist. It is sort of like an aggregator for media that is also social. I think there is a a lot of potential here. Will just "Play around" with it for now. tags : education entertainment Watch TV Shows & Movies Online - Clicker.com New "social television"...