Tag–I’m it! I was tagged by Karl Fisch for this “5 Things” meme. Sounds like fun, so I’m in. First, I was shocked to see my name at the bottom of his list. I feel like I really belong. (Sorry–having a little Sally Fields moment…remember “They like me.” I’ll try not to be that pathetic.) Oh, while I’m baring my soul here, I’ll admit that I had to look up the word “meme” to get an accurate definition of the word.

So, the way this works is that I’m supposed to list 5 things about myself that most readers of this blog (all 6 of you) probably wouldn’t know. While this may be a blatant attempt to get people to link to my blog, I hope that it might be a little more interesting than that. As a relative “newbie” in the world of edu-bloggers, I enjoy learning more about those I admire and read. This is my own small contribution to that new and growing circle of friends and colleagues. So, for what it’s worth…

1. I love to sing, and music has always been a big part of my life. My parents started me with piano lessons when I was 5, and I’ve always loved singing. In 2004, a friend helped me record a CD, and he thought we should make maybe 25-50 copies of the album. It was just for fun–a “friends and family” thing. We ended up making 100 and actually ran out. We did a second run (I still have some, BTW, if any of you are interested… Sorry–shameless self-promotion.) The album is like me, a weird mix of things–a little Shania Twain, some Karen Carpenter and Moulin Rouge, and my favorite, the Andrews Sisters.
2. I’m a high school drop-out. Yup. I admit it. In the same breath, I’ll tell you that I graduated from college when I was 18. You see, when it came down to my senior year, I needed just 2 gym credits and an elective to graduate. So, we called the Christian college that I wanted to attend (York College) to see if I could finish my classes in the fall and start college in January. When they found out what I needed to take, they told me, “Go get a GED, and we’ll see you in 3 weeks.” I’d never heard of a GED. We got all the paperwork going, but I couldn’t take the test until I turned 17, in mid-August. Less than two weeks after that, my mom dropped me off in the middle of Nowhere, Nebraska, and I was on my own. At that time, York had only two-year degrees, so I graduated with an A.A. when I was still 18. Then I returned home to Pueblo (my dad had died, and mom couldn’t send me away to another Christian college), and got a B.A. in English. In my late 30’s, I was blessed to receive some inheritance money from an aunt and was able to get an M.Ed. I’m quite proud of that one. I maintained a 4.0 throughout while teaching full-time, commuting 75 miles a day, and raising two middle-schoolers as a single mom.
3. I LOVE my life and my new roles as wife and grandma. Yeah–I’m a grandma. I married my darling Lee in July 2005, and the package deal includes a wonderful step-son, daughter-in-law, and 2 precious granddaughters. My own two teenagers love being “aunt” and “uncle” now. The age structure of our family is a little different. My husband is 13 years my senior, so I am right in between him and his son Casey. His wife is older than he is, so I’m only 9 years older than my daughter-in-law. We’ve got the teens, 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s covered!
   
4. I am the Scrapbook Goddess. I’ve always enjoyed crafts, especially crochet, cross-stitch, and paper crafts, but scrapbooking is my favorite. Our new home is big enough that I have my own scrapbook room/office. It’s my private slice of heaven. The room is filled with antiques which I love.
5. I am an Alpha-Geek, the number one nerd according to my daughter. I can’t function without my Palm Pilot, and I get nervous twitches when the Internet is down at school. My husband says he created a monster when he gave me a video iPod for Valentine’s Day. And now I’m a MySpace junkie. I originally got a “space” to snoop on my own kids and invade their space a little. (You can’t be too careful as a parent, says I.) Over the past few weeks, more and more of my students have invited me to be their “friend” and I’ve found it’s a wonderful way to connect with former students as well. It’s also been handy for posting bulletins about snow days. Another teacher at our school said he has received an assignment from a student sent to his MySpace. Cool, huh? In the last five years, I’ve watched the change from students handing in their work on those little black disks, to CD’s, to jump drives, to iPods, and now MySpace. To demonstrate my extreme geekiness, I’ll tell you a little secret. I have a goal for my blog. I can’t tell you how excited I was the first time I got an unsolicited comment. Somebody actually read the darn thing! You see, I have this “wish list” of people whom I would love to have comments from. Hey, some people collect autographs–it’s the same thing. I was so excited when Vicki Davis (The CoolCat herself) commented on my blog. I nearly passed out when David Warlick posted. For me, that was the “Holy Grail” of blog comments. Still on my wish list are Will Richardson, Dr. Tim Tyson, and many others I’m learning so much from. I would probably roll over and die if ever Maya Angelou wrote a comment.
   For your enjoyment, here’s a pic of the bulletin board in my classroom.

So, now it’s my turn to tag 5 of you. Please don’t leave me hanging on this… Let’s hear from Ray, Chris, Cheryl, Tim, and Midge.

Technorati Tags: KarlFisch VickiDavis DavidWarlick WillRichardson TimTyson MabryOnline MayaAngelou RayDavis ChrisHarbeck CherylOakes MidgeFrazel meme YorkCollege scrapbooking music

I just love reading what my students have to say in their blogs. Take Grogan for example. He usually has some very thoughtful ideas as well as interesting comments to make to other students. He’s one who typically takes time to post responses to the writing of other students, including those in a different class. In his latest blog post for class, he made a comment that struck me:

Take, for example, this blog itself. No longer are we limited to just our teachers’ opinions, we are open to the critique of our peers.

They were writing in our weekly class blog. First they watched this awesome video by Karl Fisch called 2020 Vision. You’ll just have to watch this one for yourself–it’s amazing! The students loved it and a lot of their blog posts were interesting to read.
Anyway, back to Grogan–He is a real leader for us as we begin our adventures in blog-land. He’s made many great contributions to our class “blog-discussions” and really helps keep things rolling. So thanks, Grogan. Keep sharing the light. Keep showing us by example how we can learn together.

Technorati Tags: learning KarlFisch 2020Vision