So we’re in full swing at school this week, and the laptops are everywhere. It’s really cool to have these tools in the students’ hands. We’ve had a few glitches, but from what I’ve seen, things are running pretty smoothly. We still need to add a couple more wireless access points to some areas of the building and an antenna to the roof so that the modular classrooms have access too.

What I find interesting is that when the kids walk in the classroom, the first thing they do is whip out their laptops. Yeah, we will use them a lot, no doubt. But it’s a TOOL. Not everything depends on that one tool. If only they were that ambitious about opening a book….an English teacher can dream, can’t she?

Stay tuned as we continue our adventures in 21st century learning.

Another summer rapidly disappeared, and it’s time to get back in the classroom. Lately almost everyone I see who knows I’m a teacher asks the classic question, “Are you ready for school to start?” Well, yes and no. I’ve worked a lot over the summer to prepare materials in Moodle for my classes, but I have tons more to do. I’m ready–sort of. Of course, I can’t just stay in prep mode all the time.So, ready or not, here we come.

I’m really  excited (and a little bit nervous) about the huge technology initiative our district is implementing. It’s sooooo cool. High school students will each get a laptop. Teachers will have tablet PC’s, and all elementary and middle school classrooms have Promethean interactive boards. How cool is that?!

We’ve spent the summer training and preparing for the new year. I know there will be a huge learning curve for all involved, but what an awesome opportunity. We’re preparing our students to thrive in this century using the tools of this century. For the most part, I think a lot of schools do a great job or preparing kids to do quite well for the 1980’s. You have to admit, the 80’s did have some good points, but I really don’t want my children educated that way. I’m so glad I work where I do. I’m glad our school board and administration have a vision and the courage to follow it–to take risks and make this step. I think other districts may wish they were doing something like this, but I don’t see it happening just yet. BTW, before anyone (like anyone reads this blog anyway……) gets any wild ideas about our district having a lot of money and resources, let me clarify where we stand. Last I heard, our district is the third-lowest funded school district in Colorado, and Colorado is pretty low on education funding too. By no means do we have tremendous amounts of money to spend. This technology initiative has taken a lot of creativity and determination on the parts of many people in our district. It would have been very easy for us to join so many others in simply wishing we could do something like this—get technology tools in our students’ hands, train our staff, and so forth. We coiuld have become discouraged and left the idea sitting there on the table in the board room. But that didn’t happen. And we’re all the better for it.

So, everyone, ready or not, time to saddle up. Be confident and try some new things with your classes. Have some fun and trust yourself. Be willing to make some mistakes and learn from them. The question isn’t “what’s the worst thing that can happen?” It is “What’s the best thing that can happen?”

Our school district is going to a one-to-one laptop initiative for all high school students next fall. I am lucky to be one of the trainers who will help train the rest of the staff about their new laptops and using Moodle, a popular course management system. We are in a Moodle training class this week, and another teacher was interested in my thoughts about online vs. traditional learning. I am one of the few who has much experience with online classes. I want to keep track of the thoughts I put on that discussion board, so I’m copying my rant here.

Some thoughts on online vs. traditional classrooms….
<rant>
My online teaching experience has been with adult learners, but honestly, they aren’t all that different from high school students. They may be a bit more mature in some areas and have different issues to deal with, but I still see the same types of learners and trends in behavior that exist with 17-year-olds.

I don’t see classroom teachers becoming obsolete ever. Scratch that—some individual classroom teachers can make themselves obsolete if they continue to work the same old way all their careers. I think that concept would apply to most jobs. My husband has been a lineman for 30+ years. He doesn’t work on a power line or transformer or sub-station today the same way he did in 1980. If he insisted on doing so, he would not have a job.

Sorry–getting off track. Back to the originally scheduled topic of online vs. traditional classrooms….

It takes a LOT of discipline to be an online learner. We’re all seeing that this week, aren’t we? It takes time, handling distractions and interruptions, etc. I don’t think the general population has the discipline necessary to be completely online learners. Teaching is a very hands-on, relationship-building kind of career. I guess if you were the kind of teacher who just writes the assignment on the board and sits at the back of the room reading your newspaper and let the kids figure it out on their own, then you could easily be replaced with an online class and no one would notice you weren’t in the room any more. But do you really know anyone like that? Yeah, it makes for a funny movie, but that’s it.

Frustrations can run high with online courses, especially for those who are less tech-savvy or who have any kind of learning challenge. They give up, disappear, and the teacher may not have any other way to contact the student. If they don’t log in to the class, you can’t contact them. They’re just gone.

Now, online learning certainly has many benefits. One of the greatest that I see is that students can access the material as many times as they want/need to comprehend. They can slow down or speed up through material as best suits their learning needs. In a classroom, most of the time it all happens at one pace.

Students have more time to compose their thoughts when responding to a discussion posting. They tend to revise more, go back an tweak their message a little more, before posting or sending an e-mail. More students participate in online discussions than live conversations in a classroom. We all know the one or two kids who will always answer a question or participate in a discussion. But when you take away the pressure of speaking up in front of a group of peers and give them time to process their ideas, many more students will open up and write their thoughts/feelings/ideas/concerns in an online environment. I’ve watched my juniors do that for the last two years when we blog every week. I guess I would fall into that category too. I would never speak this much in a class.

Another benefit I’ve noticed with online learning is that students will go back and work on something more than once. Again, I see my juniors do that a lot with their blogs. They’ll post one thing, but then later that day or week, go back and add to it. They won’t ever do that with an assignment given to them on paper. They do it once (hopefully), turn it in, and forget about it. They also read each others blogs or discussion board comments, and they write to each other. These same people may never speak to each other in class. Or they may be in different hours and not have the opportunity to comment to each other were it not for the online tools. Online learning opens up HUGE opportunities to expand their learning beyond the classroom walls and time.

We’re very lucky. We’ll have the best of both worlds. We will continue to have face-to-face classes and relationships with our students, and we will have all the power and benefit of online learning tools to add to the experience. What an amazing future we have ahead of us.

</rant>
Nancy

***DRAFT***

Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of what we can’t control–these are all valid concerns. Many people who do not understand or use social networking tools have fears about them. Some of those fears are well-founded. Yes, child predators have used MySpace to stalk victims. Yes, bad people have done bad things using these tools. Yes, we are obligated as parents, as educators, and as a society, to protect and monitor our most precious resource–our children.

MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking tools are not intrinsically bad. How some people may choose to use them can be bad. They are useful communication tools. Similary, cars are not bad, but some people choose to drive while intoxicated or in an unsafe manner. They use their cars in a harmful and irresponsible manner; however, the cars are not bad. They are useful transportation tools. Most people use their cars safely and in a responsible manner. Most people use their MySpace and Facebook accounts in a responsible manner as well.

These social networking sites are powerful communication tools that allow people to remain in contact with one another, regardless of time or location. Now when kids leave home and their friends to go to college or join the military, they don’t have to “leave behind” those relationships. They can remain in contact. They can share pictures and videos. They keep their relationships alive and thriving by using their social networks.

I feel a responsibility as a parent to have MySpace and Facebook accounts to keep tabs on my teenagers’ online activities and relationships. This excellent blog post by Vicki Davis gives great advice to parents for monitoring their children’s online behavior. The nature of communication allows for many ways to do so. We always pick the best and most efficient way to communicate. Young people (and a few of us older ones too!) are finding that Web 2.0 tools like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and others are often the best, most efficient ways to get our messages out, to keep in touch with others, to build our personal networks.

As an educator, my accounts have become avenues for former students to re-connect with me. Sometimes current students use MySpace to contact me with a question or to turn in an assignment if they were absent from class.

As educators, we are in a “position of trust.” We have a strong influence on the young people entrusted to us. It is a responsibility we do not take lightly. Because of that position, we are held under scrutiny, examined by the communities we serve. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Part of choosing this profession is choosing to live under that public microscope. It just goes with the territory. Do I want parents of my students to look at my website? Of course I do! It’s just another place for them to be involved in their children’s education, to get in touch with me. Do I have anything to hide on my website or MySpace site? Nope.

Technorati Tags: VickiDavis InternetSafety Educators Responsiblity MySpace Facebook

Wow–I can’t believe this is really happening or how quickly it is taking off. I have neglected my blog here while attending to class blogs and getting this GIFT program off the ground.

About a year ago, my daughter was bemoaning the fact that she was the only girl in the video class at our high school. I posted a couple of blog articles here about it and got some feedback from girls in one of Ray Davis‘ classes (thanks, Ray). Their answers about why they don’t get involved in technology classes at school was informative. I also tossed the idea out to the WOW2 blog and got a little bite there too. We talked about how cool it would be to have a club or a class for girls to introduce them to different areas of technology and let them build some confidence, explore some new things.

And that’s about as far as the idea got. Just a few discussions, and then it was shelved and forgotten.

About a month ago, a science teacher and I met with some people from GCC, the new cement plant in our area. They want to find ways to connect with the schools and collaborate to bring math and science classes some great hands-on opportunities. Toward the end of that meeting, one of the engineers, Gina, said something about wanting to find a way to get more girls interested in engineering fields.

“Oh yeah,” says I. “We had this idea about a year ago for a program called GIFT–Girls In Fun Technology. And we wanted to start a club or something for girls to get involved in….” Well, all the GCC people were out of their chairs, and for a minute, I thought Gina might kiss me. (just kidding…) They were so excited about the idea, and they have really helped drive this program into existence.

So here we are, a few weeks later, and it’s actually going to happen. Everyone we have talked to about this is totally excited and supportive. I can’t get over the enthusiasm. We have our kick-off scheduled for Oct. 19, and we are having all of the girls from our high school plus the 8th grade girls from the middle school there. We have been making contacts (each person I call has about 6 more people that I should call….this thing is snowballing…amazing!) and getting people from all over to commit to working with our girls. The overall plan is to meet one afternoon a week and have our partners/sponsors come and present information about all kinds of opportunities for the girls. They can get a chance to try out all different activities from technology, math, science, and engineering disciplines. That will run Oct. - Feb. Then for March, April, and the beginning of May, the girls will choose a particular field to explore more in depth. This will be more of a mentor situation, with the girls working on real-world, hands-on projects. Then we’ll have a huge celebration at the end of the year for the girls, parents, partners, and community.

It seems so simple, but, honestly, I alternate between excitement and panic about getting this up and running.

Last night, I was speaking with a friend who is an engineering professor at CSU-Pueblo, and he made the remark that many people would probably wonder why an English teacher is doing this. I told him that it was simple: I don’t want these girls growing up like I did, convincing themselves that they “can’t do” math and science.

No one ever came out and told me that I was bad at math or science or gave me any reason to think I was dumb, but I tell you what, by the time I was in 5th grade, I had convinced myself that only the “smart” kids were good at math and science, and that I wasn’t good at math and science, and therefore, I was dumb. Just give me a book to read or throw a spelling test my way–I’m all over that.

Middle school didn’t make it any better. I had only one science class–7th grade. I hated it. I was so psyched out that I made it miserable for myself. My next science class after that was biology when I was a freshman in college. That’s right–no science in high school for me. I’ll explain that later.

Before I started 8th grade, we were all tested to see if we should be placed in pre-algebra or 8th grade math. I was right on the border to go into pre-algebra, and I was so relieved when they said the class was too full and I would take regular 8th grade math. Even that was bad. (Again, no one ever told me I was no good at this…I just convinced myself.)

So high school….I took algebra my freshman year and geometry the next. I struggled through algebra, and I have no idea how I got through geometry. Honestly, I don’t think I learned a thing in that class. All we did was correct our homework from the night before (meaning we filled in the answers to our homework from the night before) and then were given the next assignment. It’s anybody’s guess how I got a decent grade. I still needed one more math credit my junior year, and I just couldn’t bear the thought of another math class. That was 1981, and our school was offering a basic computer programming class that year that would count for a math credit. SIGN ME UP! I could get a math credit and not have to do another math class–that was the ticket for me! It was challenging, but I’d take that over trig any day!

So now it was time for my senior year. All I needed to graduate were two P.E. credits (I hated gym even more than math or science!), one more elective, and one science credit. I already had 6 English credits in three years (we needed 4) and all the other classes I needed to graduate. I hated the thought of spending my senior year taking P.E. and Astronomy (the easiest science class I could find) just to graduate. I had accomplished the other goals I had set for myself in high school. I had already taken college-prep English and all of the performing arts classes (several times). Why should I stick around for that? It’s not like I was going to be the prom queen or something.

So we called the little Christian college in Nebraska that I wanted to attend, and asked if I could double up on my credits in the fall, graduate a semester early, and start college in January. They said, “Sure! What do you have left to take?” “Uh, well, P.E. and astronomy.” “You’re kidding, that’s it?” “Yup, that’s it.” “Don’t wait until January. Go get your G.E.D. and we’ll see you in three weeks.”

What? I’m going to college in three weeks? But I’m not quite 17 yet! Can I do that?

Well, we got all the paperwork started, and mom took me up to the high school so I could formally drop out. (Yep, kiddies, I’m a drop out.) The principal had a fit. How could I drop out? I was in the top-whatever percent of my class. I was a good student–all A’s and B’s.

Well, everything was set except for the G.E.D. testing. I had to wait until I was17 to take it, which was about a week and a half before college would be starting. The day after my birthday, I went up to the university to take the tests. There were 5 of them–reading, writing, grammar, math, and science. I was terrified of the math and science. tests. I knew that would blow it for me, and I wouldn’t be able to go to college. They wouldn’t let me take all 5 tests in one day, so I had to go back again. I finished early enough the second day that they let me take the last test. Then the grading…I was terrified when they graded the math and science. “Here we go….I’m not going to be able to go to college. I just know it. I’m dumb. I can’t do math and science.” and on, and on, and on….I just kept beating myself up about it.

To this day, I will never figure out how this happened, but it turned out that my highest score was in science (WHAT? How did THAT happen?) and my second highest score was in math. Okay, G.E.D. lady, what’s going on here? How could I possibly score higher in math and science than in language arts? Don’t you know I’m dumb? I can’t do math and science!

Fast forward a bit–I ended up in biology that first semester in college, and I was terrified. It helped that I had a truly wonderful professor, and I studied my butt off for that class. I received a 98% on my first test. (Yes, I still have that test tucked away somewhere.)

Well, at that time, York College offered only 2-year degrees, so I graduated with an Associate’s Degree when I was 18 years old. Of course, I was still convinced that I was dumb because I struggled through math and science.

It wasn’t until 2004, 20 years later, when I finished my Master’s Degree with a 4.0 GPA that I finally began to think that maybe I wasn’t so dumb after all.

I don’t want these girls to be 38 before they figure that out. I want them to know RIGHT NOW that they are smart, that they can do math, science, technology, and engineering.

And THAT is why an English teacher is doing this. I have to. I owe it to my daughter and all the other girls that I can reach.

Technorati Tags: GIFT WOW2 girls technology math science engineering
wow2blogs

I posted this yesterday, but for whatever reason, it vanished by this morning. Let’s try again…

This prompt came from Sage Advice, a column in Edutopia. Some of these ideas have been bouncing around in my head for a while, but this made me put those ideas into concrete goals.

These are my resolutions for the 2007-2008 school year:

• Incorporate more podcasting in my classes
• Instill a sense of selfless giving and service in my students
• Promote the concept of “Making a Difference”
• Clean out old files and materials (What list of resolutions would be complete without the obligatory goal to “lose weight” or “get organized”? Since weight loss doesn’t really apply to a list of school resolutions, I’ll go with the one to declutter.)

So what are you reading this summer?

I LOVE summer for many reasons, but one of the major ones is that I have time to read what I want! Yeah, I’ve got some professional development reading on my list for the summer, but mostly I’m reading books just because I want to. In the first week of summer break, I read almost 1000 pages, and my goal is to read much more during the remaining weeks.

The big winner this summer for me is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It was just released May 22. His first novel, Kite Runner, is the the best book I’ve read in 20 years. A Thousand Splendid Suns is just as good. You won’t be disappointed. I promise.

I also read Freedom Writers Diary, which is even more inspiring than the movie, and now I’m reading Erin Gruwell’s new book, Teach With Your Heart. I desperately want to attend the Freedom Writers Institute and learn how to incorporate her techniques and lessons with my own students. That would be the most amazing thing. I’ve never been nervous about applying for a job or to get into a school or program before, but I’m really intimidated about my application for FWI. It’s very competitive, and I want to go so badly I can taste it.

I have a habit of re-reading all the previous Harry Potter books before a new one is released, and since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) will be out in less than 6 weeks, I’ve got some work to do! I’m on book 2 now, and if I’ll just sit still for a few minutes, I can get through them pretty quickly. J. K. Rowling is such an imaginative author, and I truly enjoy this series. (I was in a serious funk for about three days after I finished book 6.) BTW, Amazon guanantees release-date delivery on July 21. Pre-order yours today!

That’s just a start…my reading list gets pretty long. Some books I’ll read (or in many cases re-read) this summer for professional development include Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, and Classroom Blogging and Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century by David Warlick.

Other activities that make my brain happy….

Playing the piano. My whole brain just feels better when I’m working on a challenging piece of music. I love playing my “standard favorites” but my brain really feels like it has had a good workout when I’m trying to learn a new piece.

Crocheting. Last summer I made a curtain for one of the windows in my scrapbook room, and I still need to make curtains for the big window in that room. I haven’t started on those yet, but I’ve really had a great time making baby blankets and hats for Warm the World. It’s one of those really cool ideas that I wish I had thought of. Anyway, I’ve had a lot of fun trying out new baby blanket patterns and feeling like I’m doing something for someone else.

Organizing. I try to follow the great advice I learn from FlyLady to keep our home and my life running smoothly. Two of the best concepts I’ve learned from her are the 27 Fling Boogie and using a timer to work for 15 minutes. I’m truly amazed at what I can finish in 15 minutes. You should try it.

Technorati Tags: KhaledHosseini KiteRunner ThousandSplendidSuns FreedomWriters ErinGruwell HarryPotter WillRichardson DavidWarlick ThomasFriedman WarmTheWorld FlyLady

It’s been a while since I had any thoughts that I considered worthy of blogging. But this morning I had one that I want to explore more.

So now, at age 41, I’ve finally figured out what I want to do when I grow up. What I really want to be is a pyromaniac. As a teacher, as a mother and grandmother, as a wife, and (most importantly) as a Christian, I want to go around lighting fires in the lives other people. I want to get the sparks going and watch them blaze into glory.

I think that’s one of the most important things I can do–light a fire in other people.

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

This interesting post from CoolCatTeacher got me to thinking (as Vicki Davis so often does…)

What else can I compare blogging to? Since I was born without a sports gene, I’ll have to make my comparisons to something else. I think I’ll go with scrapbooking.

Blogging is like Scrapbooking

1. It’s a creative playground.

Although I’m fairly new at this, I’m finding that blogs are a good place to play and try things out, whether they be new tools or new ideas.

2. It’s a place to express myself.

If it’s on my mind, I can sit down and write a blog post about it. I can get my thoughts out, look at them, and maybe go back and make some adjustments. I don’t feel like I’m going to be judged here. It’s my blog, and I’ll do what I want to with it. If someone else likes it, cool. If not, oh well. I still like it.

3. It’s something to be shared.

Watching my 11th graders blog this year has taught me how much they like to share their ideas. I do too. It’s great to watch them interact with each other and respond, checking back several times throughout the week to see what’s new.

4. Don’t be afraid to try something new.

I see the awesome things other people are doing with their blogs, and I want to try to do that too. I may now know how, but I won’t figure it out if I don’t jump in and give it a try. Besides, I can always go back and change it later if it doesn’t work the way I want it to.

5. There’s only one way to do it wrong–not to do it.

Yeah–the only way to screw it up is just to leave the ideas in the box, just like the box(es) of pictures I know you have sitting in a drawer or a closet, unseen and forgotten. And don’t just “collect” supplies (or ideas)–USE THEM! They won’t do anybody any good if you leave them in the drawer!

6. The best way to learn is to see what others are doing.

See what’s out there. What do you like about what you see? Try it out. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? We like to call it “scrap-lifting” so I guess in this arena, it would be “blog-lifting”???

7. Make your mark–be unique.

Develop your own style. Let your personality shine through. Don’t be afraid to share yourself with others–believe it or not, some people actually want to get to know you. Open up and be yourself. Emulate the things you admire in others, but make it your own. Don’t just be a copycat.

8. I don’t have to be a “superstar”–Good is good enough.

As Ken Jennings once wrote in his blog, “Carpe Blog-em” Seize the blog. Grab the opportunity. I’ll never be a Will Richardson or a David Warlick or a Vicki Davis, but I can be a pretty good Nancy Scofield. Actually, I can be the best Nancy Scofield in the whole world. The more I practice at this, the better I get at it. Of course, I strive for excellence, but I can’t compare myself to others whom I respect so highly. I don’t think I’m in that league yet. But, if I keep working at, I could get there.

9. I can teach others what I’ve learned.

I can share what I’ve learned to do. I’m a pretty good teacher, and I can get people excited about (scrapbooking) when I teach a class. I can help them learn to find their own talents and explore their own creativity.

10. It feels pretty good when someone appreciates your work.

Gotta admit I was pretty cheesed the other day when Cheryl Oakes posted a comment on my blog about developing a technology class just for girls. It was my first unsolicited comment! The first comment that wasn’t an assignment! I was so excited I almost tinkled a little. (blush) Then it happened again–a math teacher from Littleton, Colorado named Barbara S. found my English 3 blog and posted a comment to the kids. WooHoo! Check out her very cool math idea here (it’s the entry titled A Math Teacher’s Experience dated 10/31/2006). Small, flat world we live in–I read the blog with her math idea the day after she posted to our class. Then on Saturday, I jumped onto the K12 Online Conference culminating Skypecast called When Night Falls… There I “met” several of my ed-tech heroes, including Vicki Davis. Long story short, she asked for my blog address, and when I posted it, she said that she had already read my blog! Oh my goodness! And then she said that she was impressed with my blog–I nearly died right there!

Okay, well, it’s not as insightful as Vicki’s original post about how blogging is like football, but it’s my bit for tonight.

Technorati Tags: blogging

Technorati Tags: blogging VickiDavis scrapbooking CherylOakes KenJennings WillRichardson DavidWarlick
k12online06 k12online