Fooling With Words

TKAM - PERIOD 2

2010-10-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog! We'll use this forum throughout the year as a way to encourage discussion between all students, leaving behind the boundaries and borders of the traditional classroom: hopefully this blog will bring together students from a variety of background experiences, personalities, thought processes, etc.

THE OBJECTIVE
For our first assignment, we're going to create a virtual database. Each student will research a topic related to the time period and/or content of Harper Lee's novel, synthesize the information, and report in the form of a blog response. By the time we are done, we will have created a veritable research library of our own. Anyone interested in studying the important people, places, and events related to TKAM need look no further than our own blog!

THE RESOURCES
Using the credible resources available through the library's website (NOT GOOGLE!!!), each student will consult at least two sources to gather information on the assigned topic. Once gathered, the students will synthesize the information and respond through a blog post.

A link to the library's website is provided here:
http://library.springbranchisd.com/library-resources/

A link to the passwords is located here: (Shhhh! It's a secret...)

THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE RESPONSE:
Your responses must include the following:

1. A basic identification of the subject that answers the journalistic questions of "who, what, where, when, why, and how."

2. A more complex explanation that includes the significance of this particular person, place, or event.

For example:
Why does this topic remain important after all of these years?
What is the ongoing effect or relevance of this topic?
What trends, patterns, or themes of the time period are reflected in this topic? (Injustice, Innovation, Peaceful Resistance, etc.)
How does this topic relate to the novel?

3. Internal citations that identify the two sources from which you gathered your information. For example, you might include a sentence like "According to Facts on File, Medgar Evers fought for...". A works cited page is not required to document these sources, though.

4. A reflection of Advanced Placement work, not simply getting by with the least amount of work possible but striving to give the best and most thorough explanations possible. Responses should be at least 8 sentences long, but they certainly may be longer in order to provide ample information on the topic. According to our usual practices, responses must be written in complete sentences with correct use of spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Note: Students may want to compose their responses in a word processing document, then cut and paste the completed writing into the response window.

5. Students should respond to their individual class period's post. Also, each student should sign his or her post with first name, last initial and class period; for example: Susan K, Period 1.

THE DUE DATE
Posts must be added by the time your come to school on Wednesday, October 20. This assignment counts as a quiz grade.

TKAM - Period 1

2010-10-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog! We'll use this forum throughout the year as a way to encourage discussion between all students, leaving behind the boundaries and borders of the traditional classroom: hopefully this blog will bring together students from a variety of background experiences, personalities, thought processes, etc.

THE OBJECTIVE
For our first assignment, we're going to create a virtual database. Each student will research a topic related to the time period and/or content of Harper Lee's novel, synthesize the information, and report in the form of a blog response. By the time we are done, we will have created a veritable research library of our own. Anyone interested in studying the important people, places, and events related to TKAM need look no further than our own blog!

THE RESOURCES
Using the credible resources available through the library's website (NOT GOOGLE!!!), each student will consult at least two sources to gather information on the assigned topic. Once gathered, the students will synthesize the information and respond through a blog post.

A link to the library's website is provided here:
http://library.springbranchisd.com/library-resources/

A link to the passwords is located here: (Shhhh! It's a secret...)

THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE RESPONSE:
Your responses must include the following:

1. A basic identification of the subject that answers the journalistic questions of "who, what, where, when, why, and how."

2. A more complex explanation that includes the significance of this particular person, place, or event. For example:

Why does this topic remain important after all of these years?
What is the ongoing effect or relevance of this topic?
What trends, patterns, or themes of the time period are reflected in this topic? (Injustice, Innovation, Peaceful Resistance, etc.)
How does this topic relate to the novel?

Note: Students may want to compose their responses in a word processing document, then cut and paste the completed writing into the response window.

5. Students should respond to their individual class period's post. Also, each student should sign his or her post with first name, last initial and class period; for example: Susan K, Period 1.

THE DUE DATE

Posts must be added by the time your come to school on Wednesday, October 20. This assignment counts as a quiz grade.

College Essays - Class of 2010

2010-09-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog! We'll use this forum throughout the year as a way to encourage discussion between all students, leaving behind the boundaries and borders of the traditional classroom. It doesn't matter which period you are in or who you sit next to: hopefully this blog will bring together students from a variety of different periods, background experiences, personalities, thought processes, etc.

For our first post, I'll ask you to read at least two of the following articles regarding the college essay. Choose any two from the list provided, then respond with your insights, observations, comments, etc. Try to move beyond simple responses like, "I knew that" or "I didn't know that." Instead, reflect on your own experiences and expectations as a student readying for college admissions. What insights do these readings offer on the development of those essays?

Please refer by title to the articles that you read and use direct quotations where appropriate.Each person is required to post an individual response, but feel free to comment upon the observations and insights of your classmates, as well. Oh, please include your first name and last initial as well as period number in your post. I look forward to reading your responses...

The Links
Blurring the Line Between a College Application and a Slick Sales Pitch
Getting In Gets Harder: The children of the baby boomers are flooding colleges with applications, making the process more competitive than ever.
Colleges, Awash in Applications, Turning Away Even Top Students
Writing the Essay: Solid Advice From an Expert - UVA
Holding College Chiefs to Their Words
The Perfect Essay Eight secrets to crafting a memorable personal statement.
The College Essay: Expert Advice
Tip Sheet: An Admissions Dean Offers Advice on Writing a College Essay
Admissions Essay Ordeal: The Young Examined Life
College essays: Nerve-racking search for just the right words
Making a hard-life story open a door to college
Controversy over College Essay Sites
College Admissions ... A little guidance
U.Va. Office of Admission Essays
Advice from an expert -
College applications can be too good -
How much do college admissions essays matter -
Teacher Says College Admissions Essays (washingtonpost.com) (2

"Oh Lord, Berta... Berta... Oh Lord, gal..."

2010-02-16T07:46:00.000-08:00

Today's in-class essay asked you to discuss the complexities of your 20th century novel, to move beyond an obvious or superficial reading of the text and to examine it on a more subtle, a more critical, level.

Tonight I ask you to apply the same type of thinking to August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." In your blog post, describe three different complexities that were revealed to you throughout the play. Use specific details from the play to back your assertions.

Also, use your post to respond to the comments of your classmates. If one of the Katies or Kates posted something that you agree with, respond to that (Like Katie, I thought that Doaker represented...). If one of the Dylans/Dillons posted something that you had never even considered before, comment upon that! If you find the observations of "one who shall not be named" to be tragically misguided, argue (gently and with all of the compassion you can muster, knowing that your observations are open to criticism as well...) against that perspective, offering something else instead.

Got it? Good! Now get to work...

OH, don't forget to include your name in your response. No name, no credit, no bueno.

Midyear Update

2010-01-08T13:48:00.000-08:00

I know that one of you is out there, just waiting for me to post this assignment. For that reason, I'm just going to cut to the chase, give you the straight-skinny, get right to the point, or maybe not. You know by now that I am a woman of words who appreciates the intricacies and turnings of language, and I will usually find a way to wax poetic about any topic that presents itself. (You all may consider this lunatic rambling, but you are entitled to your own (misguided) opinion.)

Anyway, here's what I'd like to know:
1. In this year of language and rhetorical analysis, what have you learned? Or if not learned, grown more aware? What have you attempted in your writing and/or reading that you never did before? Conversely, on what do you still need some work?
2. One of the things I have hoped for you is a growing awareness of language. So, to that end, include a bit of found poetry for us: a phrase, a slogan, a song lyric, a word, any use of language that catches your eye and tickles your ear.

20th Century Novel Weblist

2010-01-08T13:44:00.000-08:00

BeoBoast

2009-10-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I'd hoped to pen a new boast this year, one that glorified the defeat of the N1H1 virus, but since I'm still trying to get caught up on all of my required paperwork, I'll have to settle for a reprint of last year's ditty.

Here it is, for those of you who need to see a sample. As always, I can't wait to hear what you will write: I am always amazed and gratified by your work...

Fondly,
Mrs.K.

The Battle with Phoenix

1. Hail, harriers, followers of Mercury and Nike!
2. I am Laura, daughter of two, sister of four, wife of one, aunt to many.

3. On this historic day I stand amidst legions
4. All engaged in the same battle,
5. But each of us fighting our own epic struggle
6. Against the paved-concrete current.

7. Gallons of body-salt glistened in anticipation of this day,
8. Sunrise and sunset, the solitary observers of
9. Measured footfalls across many miles.
10. Distance, speed, tempo, hills, cross, rest:
11. These weapons stockpiled and stored.

12. Other days, other challengers,
13. Rose against me:
14. Orlando, Dallas, Memphis, Chicago, Las Vegas.
15. Worthy competitors were they all,
16. But none so daunting as to stop
17. The flight of fleet feet traveling afar,
18. Across 26.2 miles of hills and flatlands alike.

19. Legendary Phoenix, time and time again you rise from the ashes
20. Immemorial, invincible and immortal.
21. But the race that bears your name will fall
22. To my strength, to my skill, to my persistence,
23. Step by step by step.

How much punishment can you take?

2009-09-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when you finally figure something out? When the light comes on and suddenly you understand? Eureka! Hopefully, some of that is beginning to happen with Crime and Punishment. Hopefully, the pages of dense text that you dutifully trudged through over the summer are beginning to open before your eyes, revealing what they may have formerly concealed.

And have you noticed that each time you pick up the book, each time you engage in discussion, each time you read a piece of criticism or hear a classmate report on their own, that your own understanding grows? During our discussion today, I almost felt the tiny folds of my cerebellum expanding, making room for new ideas and justifying them among the old.

So, what is it that you are beginning to understand about the novel? What are your epiphanies, your ah-ha! moments, what light have you seen? Please respond with specific references to the class discussion, arguments presented, textual evidence, your own opinions, etc. I'll do the same, that is, after I finish grading those last 10 college essays. (Yup, I'm still working on those...)
As always, I wait with great anticipation...

Oh, and don't forget your first name, last initial, and period number!

Epiphanies, Part II -

2009-09-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Throughout your mind map presentations today, my ears and brain fought to keep pace with each other, one intent on taking in new ideas and the other trying to organize them in accordance with those already crowded in the folds of my cerebellum.

One idea mentioned that really caught my attention was the alter ego, a second personality that exists within one self. Most typically this might be associated with the doppelganger, ala Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, but I don't think it has to be that obvious. Instead, on a more subtle level, consider the Revered Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth: both have outward personas that they willingly reveal to the public, but both have a hidden personality as well.

Well, maybe this applies more to Chillingworth than it does Dimmesdale. Chillingworth clearly hides his malice and desire for vengeance from the people of Boston: for all appearances he is the kindly although misshapen doctor who tends to the ailing health of their beloved reverend. Other than to Hester, his true intentions are never revealed.

You know, the more I consider it, I think that Dimmesdale escapes this condemnation: although he has a secret, no other heart drives his actions; in fact, it is his weighty conscience that punishes him inwardly and at the same time demands his outward humility. He even goes so far as to admit his sinful nature on the pulpit, something that Chillingworth never does. Furthermore, if what he says is to be believed, he resists admitting his sin because of the detrimental effect it might have on the faith of his parishioners, not because he fears any repercussions for himself.

As for Hester, I'm uncertain. Does she have an alter ego? She seems so stoic throughout her ordeal, stiff backed and unyielding against Puritan judgment. But then again, when she removes her cap in the safety of the forest she is flooded with softness and femininity. I'll have to think about this some more...

As always, I'm curious to hear what you are discovering. Write on, my friends!

Oh, so that's what he meant...

2009-09-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when you finally figure something out? When the light comes on and suddenly you understand? Eureka!

Hopefully, some of that is beginning to happen with The Scarlet Letter. Hopefully, the pages of dense text that you dutifully trugded through over the summer are beginning to open before your eyes, to reveal what they may have formerly concealed. Hopefully, connections are being made and synapses are firing and the light is coming on and... Eureka! Now I see!

And you know what is especially neat? No matter how many times I read The Scarlet Letter, each reading offers something new. Case in point, I was thinking about the mind map that we constructed on the chalkboard (remember that great tangle of ideas??): we discussed the role of human behavior, the motivation behind different character's actions. Dimmesdale's guilt and Chillingworth's vengeance were obvious to us as a class, but it later dawned on me that we hadn't discussed Hester's motivation in any great detail. Certainly, it is more complex than one word can express: understanding Hester's motivation requires a full appreciation of all the roles she fulfills in the story and all of the obligations implicit within them. Best known as the town adultress, certainly she would have acted in response to that label, but think about all of the other functions, labels, or roles she fulfilled: estranged wife, mother, secret lover, etc. How did these roles shape her actions? I hadn't really considered that before... huh! Curious, isn't it?

So, how about you? What are you beginning to realize about The Scarlet Letter? I am anxious to read your responses...
Mrs. K.

Thoughts on College Admissions - Class of 2010

2009-08-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog! We'll use this forum throughout the year as a way to encourage discussion between all students, leaving behind the boundaries and borders of the traditional classroom. It doesn't matter which period you are in or who you sit next to: hopefully this blog will bring together students from a variety of different periods, background experiences, personalities, thought processes, etc.

For our first post, I'll ask you to read at least two of the following articles regarding the college essay. Choose any two from the list provided, then respond with your insights, observations, comments, etc. Try to move beyond simple responses like, "I knew that" or "I didn't know that." Instead, reflect on your own experiences and expectations as a student readying for college admissions. What insights do these readings offer on the development of those essays?

Please refer by title to the articles that you read and use direct quotations where appropriate.Each person is required to post an individual response, but feel free to comment upon the observations and insights of your classmates, as well. Oh, please include your first name and last initial as well as period number in your post. I look forward to reading your responses...

The Links

Blurring the Line Between a College Application and a Slick Sales Pitch

Getting In Gets Harder: The children of the baby boomers are flooding colleges with applications, making the process more competitive than ever.

Colleges, Awash in Applications, Turning Away Even Top Students

Writing the Essay: Solid Advice From an Expert - UVA

Holding College Chiefs to Their Words

The Perfect Essay
Eight secrets to crafting a memorable personal statement.

The College Essay: Expert Advice

Tip Sheet: An Admissions Dean Offers Advice on Writing a College Essay

Admissions Essay Ordeal: The Young Examined Life

College essays: Nerve-racking search for just the right words

Making a hard-life story open a door to college

Controversy over College Essay Sites

College Admissions ... A little guidance

U.Va. Office of Admission Essays Advice from an expert - The Boston Globe

College applications can be too good - The Boston Globe

How much do college admissions essays matter - USATODAY.com

Teacher Says College Admissions Essays (washingtonpost.com) (2)

Thing 11.5 What do you mean the Ipod is dead? I just got one!

2009-07-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

Fresh from the Yahoo! Homepage this morning is the following headline: "The Ipod is dead. Long live the Ipod!" . It seems that even the Ipod, icon for the millennium, is now passe, at least in its most traditional form. The article discusses the metamorphosis of the device and makes predictions of what it will become, ending with these words, "However Apple answers that question, what's clear is that traditional versions of the device are a thing of the past—and future iterations will have a long and vibrant future."

Although the author of the article intended that statement for the Ipod only, I think it has fair application to teachers, too: traditional teaching, in theory and practice, is as outmoded as the first generation of Ipods introduced in 2001. Consider the following quote taken from the article, but with educational terms replacing the language of technology: "The teacher as many of us have known it is on the wane and giving way to a more feature-rich educator that in time will bear little resemblance to the traditional models." Like the first generation of portable music devices, teachers are evolving, growing sleeker, more efficient, more capable.

In the name of a well-considered argument I must acknowledge that those terms don't apply to all teachers: there are plenty of nay-sayers out there, resisting every advance of the 21st century, those who believe that technology is just some passing fad that will go away with due time. We'll see which passes away more quickly: technology or those who doubt it.

And I'm not suggesting that I am on the cutting edge when it comes to technological advances: it does take the Library2play summer programs to keep me current. Okay, current might be stretching the term a bit: case in point, my favorite discovery of the summer was Facebook. Anyone under the age of 30 is either laughing hysterically or rolling their eyes at this point, but really, until this summer I didn't understand the impact of the social network. And I have to admit, I am still hesitant about FB protocol - some of the possible FB fun seems to presume goodwill on the part of your friends, seems a bit intrusive, but I guess I will get over that...

My personal skepticism will have to take a back seat to possibility. And that is my lifelong learning goal, really: to embrace progress rather than adhere rigidly to the past. Ask the dinosaurs how well it worked for them!

Change is never easy, even for those of us who willingly face it. It has been a great relief to have my sister and a few friends along on this summer's journey. I think we were encouraged by each other's successes. And, when certain "things" proved difficult, we were usually able to help each other along. Either that or commiserate with each other...

And we were lucky to have some young'uns along with us, as well. My niece, in preparation for teaching career, is completing the original library2play class. Her enthusiasm for teaching and technology alike has been a breath of fresh air! Anyone out there want to give her a job? See Notes from a Texas Treehouse for further details.

So, whether we are oldies trying to stay young or youngies just doing what comes naturally, things are looking up. The Ipod isn't dead, it is just changing with the times. And so are we...

Digital Citizenship - Am I boring you?

2009-07-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

My father, in paradoxical effort to amuse/annoy my mother, used to stick his finger in her ear and ask, "Am I boring you?" Chances were that, yes, he was, but not necessarily because of the offending finger intrusion. He was and remains a very predictable man, routined in more ways than I can even describe, and I'm sure he thought his little prank a way to both acknowledge and combat such a routined existence. And dang it if I haven't become very much like him. Don't you hate when you become like your parents - aaargh! Anyway, imagine my delight when in response to my earlier post, my sister expressed surprise that I wrote about Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) instead of the likelier topic for an English teacher, choosing reliable sources. At first I was happy to have surprised her, but then I worried that "surprise" might have been code for "What a boring post!"

So here I am to defend a potentially boring topic. Let me start by acknowledging the importance of choosing reliable sources, and I can see using GoView as a way of leading students through a discussion of choosing and critically examining sources for reliability, quality, etc. Really, I think that is a neat idea and am anxious to try it. You see, despite my resistance to Second Life, I am in full favor of using technology for both content and delivery.

The problem is, though, that if for some reason kids have restricted access to technology because they have violated some part of the dreaded and possibly boring AUP - and they do, as we are reminded by SBISD students own sabotage of Wikipedia - then by the logical consequence of the AUP they are limited from full participation in the educational process.

If we really believe that technology is a fundamental part of the modern educational process, then learners must be allowed access to it. Punishing a student for misusing technology by removing his/her license to use it is as flawed as punishing for misbehavior in math class by taking away his textbook! Another blogger who wrote that technology is a privilege, not a right, but really, after all that we have learned over the last two summers, can we really fall back on that too-easy response to student misconduct?

It seems that if we are going to teach students to "act with respect to technology," that we have to begin with a basic belief that technology is fundamental to modern education, that it is a means of accessing content and a means of delivery, that everyone must have access to it, and that there are certain standards - behavioral, ethical, etc - that support said access. Maybe to reduce this idea to the AUP is too pat. Maybe what we're really facing is another type of character education. Or maybe it is part of the character education that is already ongoing in so many of our schools. Here's how we behave at home, at school, in the community, in cyberspace...

Well, there you go: my explanation. Am I boring you?

Thing 10 - Digital Citizenship and Pie in the Sky

2009-07-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

Pie in the Sky: that's me! Well, actually it is the name I am holding in reservation for my bakery, the one that I will open some years in the future when I've retired from teaching. I also like A Slice of Heaven, but it doesn't work as well in this particular blog post about digital citizenship. Oh, and Pie in the Sky does? Well, yes Virginia, it does. And how, pray tell? Well, because my response to the problems of digital citizenship, especially the Acceptable Use Policy may seem a tad idealistic. So, if you all will join hands, we'll sing a few lines of Kumbaya, and then I'll elaborate.

I'm sure that in all of the links and blogs about DC, it seems odd that I should fix on the AUP, but it seems like it may be the vital link in the relationship between the user and technology. If your school is anything like mine, the AUP is distributed within the first few days of school, along with the reams of other paperwork that must be signed: the clinic card, the emergency information card, the directory form, etc. It is just one sheet of paper that kids carry home in their first day folder, just another form that parents and students mindlessly sign and return. Check. Done. Right-o.

However, if we really expect students to become responsible digital citizens, if they are going to "act with respect to technology," then we're going to have to make the AUP an important document based on a shared educational philosophy that promotes technology as an integral part of both curriculum and delivery. As it stands now, it seems that most AUPs are just a bulleted list of do's and don't's that students agree to follow. Unless, that is, they can figure out how to get around the rules and restrictions.

Because, let's face it folks, that is what kids do: they spend countless hours calculating the best way to circumnavigate what authority figures want them to do. I'm not being negative, just realistic. I did it, you did it, (or at least we thought about it. Maybe we weren't the type to actually break the rules, but we could have if we wanted to. Or were brave enough to. Or didn't fear getting caught...) since the beginning of time kids have resisted authority measures. It is a normal part of adolescence.

So, ok, what does this mean for the fate of the AUP? It means that it must be a shared document, constructed and agreed upon by students, faculty, and administration alike. Ownership, by-in, whatever jargon you care to apply here will work. It would have to begin with a philosophy statement about the role of technology in modern education. Can you imagine what it would include? I have some ideas but would be curious to read your thoughts, too. Anyway, once a foundation was in place, then practices, limitations, even rules and consequences would follow in natural order. Kids might be willing to follow the AUP because they had a hand in its construction. What do you think? Too pie-in-the sky? I look forward to your responses.

The Voyeurism of Trash Day

2009-07-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

My sister called me yesterday evening and read aloud a snippet of our assigned beach novel, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. (For those of you wondering, neither of these practices - assigning a beach novel or reading aloud over the telephone - is considered unusual behavior in our family. Let it go and move on... )

Here is what she read, the words of a character I have yet to meet, Juliet: "I don't consider myself a real peeper - they go in for bedrooms, but it's families in sitting rooms or kitchens that thrill me. I can imagine their entire lives from a glimpse of bookshelves, or desks, or lit candles, or bright sofa cushions" (Shaffer and Barrows 14).

Don't you just love that? So evocative, it immediately brought to mind several other intimate scenes. Remember at the end of The Great Gatsby when Nick watches Daisy and Tom eating cold chicken and drinking beer, trying to regain some control, some sense of equilibrium in their desperately shallow lives? Or in Angela's Ashes when young Frankie runs through the nighttime streets, desperate to find lemonade for his sick mother? Remember how he ran through the streets, past the homes of those who lived in relative luxury compared to his own dismal circumstances? The yellow light poured out of the windows, illuminating the charmed lives within: Ach, aye, poor Frankie! Or in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, (the movie), how the director Richard Brooks shot so many of the scenes from the wide veranda, through the great shuttered doors and into the true ugliness that lay at the family's core? Oh, what a window reveals!

I was reminded of this idea - intimate revelation - again this morning. In many of the neighborhoods through which I ran, it was Trash Day. Moving along at my stately pace amid city-approved receptacles and recycling containers, boxes and bags and other makeshift containers, I found myself privy to the details of strangers' lives. I didn't have to creep up a lawn or tiptoe through a dark alley to know what was going on within these homes: their trash made clear the stories of their lives.

Take age and station of life, for example: rites of passage litter the sidewalks - the "It's a Boy!" stork once displayed in the lawn now finds itself head first in the dumpster. Tiny newborn diaper boxes give way to bulkier "crawlers" and "walkers", baby formula gives way to nuggets, convenience foods, and fast-food sacks.

It is simply amazing how much trash growing families generate, especially in contrast to the single and empty-nesters; their status is made obvious by their unusually small amounts of refuse. A single plastic grocery bag with handles tied together sits lonely at the edge of their drives.

You don't need to rifle through someone's refuse for an old bank statement to know how some people spend their money, saving a few cents by buying Beer-30 or Natural Light instead of a more costly brand.; others, though, still have room for luxury items like a new electric toothbrush. You learn who acts on impulse or is lured in by fads; the Shamwow box and empty Acai juice bottles proudly poking their heads out of overstuffed cans. Some people buy generic cranberry juice; others still pay more for Ocean's Spray. You know who has a cat, dog, ferret; you remember that the charm of a fish tank quickly gives way to stink and noise.

Who is timely and who the procrastinator? Next to Ned Neatnick's line of carefully secured bags is his neighbor's long-forgotten Christmas tree, hidden behind the tool shed and finally dragged to the curve in late June.

Do these innocents realize what they leave open to the public eye? Do they know that someone is scrutinizing the remains of their day, creating something out of seemingly nothing? Maybe I'm making too much out of the trash -- taking recycling to a ridiculous new height. Maybe, looking back, all of the examples of windows that I gave earlier in this post were just fiction, that all that was revealed was the writer's own sense of fiction and fantasy. Maybe that's all that was reflected here, but I doubt it. Life has a funny way of making itself clear...

Was July 9 really the last time I posted???

2009-07-21T04:04:00.000-07:00

Yup, I guess it was. When I haven't written in a while, I find a list a good way to get the old juices flowing again. So, here you have it:

Things I have done since July 9, in semi-chronological order:

1. Saw my 98 year-old friend through a four-day stint in the hospital. Favorite quote: "And then they stuck that catheter in me: that was no picnic, let me tell you!" (Please note the use of stint in the line above. Stint, not stench. That part came later...)
2. Came into close contact with some 98 year-old body parts that left me laughing, crying, and gagging all at the same time.
3. Was surprised to see a large group interested in taking a summer membership class at my church.
4. Met more than one cruel person anxious to remind me that "summer is almost over" and/or "school starts soon!" Sadists. For those of you who are not teachers, do not fall for the misconception that good teachers are the ones anxious to return to work. More than likely the good ones are those just beginning to recover from the previous year. I'm just saying...
5. Saw a number of movies in a number of venues: theater, on-demand, HBO/Encore, and red box: Public Enemies, Paul Blart Mall Cop, He's Not That In To You, Run Fatboy, Run, Enchanted, A Time to Kill, just to name a few. Any excuse to eat popcorn, really...
6. Taught a Friday/Saturday New Member Class at my church.
7. Missed my sister as she lay on her sickbed. (Far less romantic than my visions of breaking her out of a Louisiana casino's stronghold.)
8. Baked two cakes and two batches of lemon squares. (Dirtied just about every dish in my kitchen, ran the dishwasher about a thousand times, got hot/frustrated/cranky in 1000 degree heat).
9. Declared kitchen closed until after beach vacation.
10. Discovered that a shopping cart offers surprising speed and stabililty to an otherwise tottery older woman.
11. Sat through two committee meetings.
12. Heard two really good sermons.
13. Discovered that watching someone else sing can melt your heart.
14. Spent some time on Facebook. Still new to this and afraid of breaking protocol.
15. Held a tiny baby. (Everyone should do this on a regular basis)
16. Took my cat to the vet. There is a reason this only happens on an "as needed" basis. Coach is surprisingly agile for a fat boy.
17. Enjoyed the sound of distant thunder, the crack of lightning, the promise of rain, the satisfaction of fat rain drops hitting the pavement.
18. Almost stepped on a snake in park; was threatened with fangs and all!
19. Talked to several long-distance friends.
20. Ironed clothes. (Ill-advised on a hot Saturday morning)
21. Attended one funeral.
22. Rediscovered the joys of jello.
23. Finished one book; started and rejected another - Coastliners; started and am limping through another - The Bookseller of Khabul; issued a call for suggestions from my friends; made a disappointing trip to Katy Bargain Books - overrated; bought a couple of new titles but am still uninspired.
24. Bought anniversary tickets to Cirque du Soleil.
25. Got haircut. (A little too short, but it will grow)
26. Colored hair. (Light ash brown)
27. Cleaned. Daily. How.does.my.house.get.so.dirty?

Ok - the brain is working now, the juices are a-flowing. Thanks for indulging me. Look for my post on digital citizenship soon...

Thing 10 - Reflections on a morning's run

2009-07-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

8:17; Thursday, July 9.

I'm just in from an early morning run before the day heats up to its projected 106 degrees.

A variety of running paths at my disposal, this morning's route led me through the wilds of George Bush Park. The wilds exist between the freeway and another major thoroughfare? Yes, to a small degree. While only three miles across ( at least on this extension of the trail), the park is home to woodland, wetland, and grassland alike. Though just a few hundred feet away from civilization, one can't help but be awed by this little haven.

On this morning's trek alone, I was greeted by the songbirds already busy with the day's work, saw a small deer bound across the trail ahead of me, discovered a nutria or other varmint gliding along with the current of the bayou, and watched some pike-like fish making a meal of unsuspecting bait fish. I heard hoots and howls of every order, small splashes of water, the rustling of light (very light) winds through the trees.

Occasionally a cyclist or two would whizz past me, heads tucked down and legs pumping, inspired no doubt by Mr. Armstrong's gains in the Tour de France. Others , though, adopted a more stately pace, allowing me to hear snippets of their conversations: "So, when they say 'the eagle flies on Friday night' they are talking about a paycheck?"

But mainly it was just me and my thoughts alone on the trail, trying to make peace with each other. You see, I'd been up since the wee hours of the dawn trying to compose this post about Second Life, and I still hadn't come up with anything satisfactory. I hesitated to express my real opinions, fearing that I might seem unduly prejudiced or jaded or antiquated in my notions about social order.

And I still hesitate to do so, but I will say this: I think of all that I experienced this morning in a 50 minute run -- all of it was real. Everything I saw, heard, and smelled occurred naturally, without the halting and exaggerated effect created in cyberspace. My eyes blinked naturally in their protective fashion, my arms swung easily at my side. My head always turned the direction I intended it to and never once did my body continue to move forward while my face was turned 180 degrees in opposition. Sounds and sights came as they should, moving in and out of perspective with the appropriate speed or distance. Footfalls sounded like footfalls, tires turned on gravel with a certain crunching that only real force can create. Humans and animals alike moved with the grace and symmetry that only the living can appreciate, and none of them were marked by oddly angular features.

As for that other world, the Second Life world, my time there was marked only by anxiety, frustration, and a loss of equilibrium. Maybe with enough practice I could get comfortable there, but do I really want to? Is that really how I want to spend my time, even in the name of education - a seemingly noble pursuit? I don't think so. I have bigger work to do, and it rests firmly on this side of the keyboard.

And so, since I haven't quoted Thoreau this year, let me conclude with his wisdom:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. ( from "Life in the Woods --Where I Lived, and What I Lived For")

The Birds and the Bees!

2009-06-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who have wondered just what your baby might look like, take a look at the Routan Babymaker 300, brought to you by the fine folks over at Volkswagen. Just enter a picture of the mother, a picture of the father, and voila: a baby is born! This is our firstborn, affectionately known as Kip. He's cute, isn't he? You'll see that he has my nose and Joe's hairline...I'd really hoped for a girl, so I'm going to go back and try again. (I know it is risky at my advanced age, but what the heck. Let's see, when they graduate from high school I'll be what? 60? That's not so bad...) Why don't you try to make a baby of your own? I never dreamed it would be so easy!

http://www.vw.com/vwhype/babymaker/en/us/

Thing 9: The Sippy-Cup Conundrum

2009-06-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has ever had children or, as I, spent innumerable hours with those of the toddler set knows the sippy-cup paradox: one lid does not fit all. Although those cheerfully adorned little plastic tumblers appear similar, there is no shared design which allows the sleepy mother or frantic babysitter to apply a Gerber lid to a Playtex bottle or vice-versa. The lids and stoppers do not, under any set of circumstances, applied force, or gentle pleadings, fit the other cups. The Playtex? No. Avent? Nope. First years? Not on your life. Each brand's cup and lid is uniquely (diabolically?) designed to work only in harmony with the other.

But (and there is always a big but out there, isn't there folks??), but, someone could make a killing by inventing just such an object: the universal sippy-cup lid! One that crosses the engineered boundaries of design, the "uni-lid" would provide a user-friendly solution to the wrong lid conundrum. Oh, but this is just pie-in-the-sky musing, isn't it? I mean, who would create one product just to solve the problems created by the limitations of others?

Well, slideshare would, and slideboom and authorstream and 280 slides, as well. You see, those bright young minds in the ever-advancing world of technology have recognized the untapped bounty created by competing applications. Can't open power point? Can't get googledocs to download? Need to send a slideshow to your compatriate presenting in Kuala Lampur but your e-mail can't handle the bulky file? These online collaborative tools provide the solution! And that, my friends, is really cool, not to mention smart, forward thinking, and profitable.

So, those of you looking to make your millions, get started on the uni-lid right away: I formally cede all intellectual rights I might have to the idea. There's definitely a need, definitely a market, and definitely a model for you to follow...

Good luck and God speed!

Thing 8 - If Everything in Life were this Simple...

2009-06-25T11:18:00.001-07:00

http://goview.com/?id=a3012afe-a9fa-467d-9595-a6de4626251b

Thanks for your patience, my friends, as I worked through this particular "thing." Actually, this particular assignment was not that taxing; in fact, it was pretty simple. Now don't get all excited about my end product: it is pretty ragged around the edges, but talk about user-friendly! The whole process from downloading the software to publishing the screencast was remarkably... pleasant! There were no quirks or hitches or glitches or jumbles that might otherwise entrap and discourage the gentle user. (Unlike Promethean's Activboard software...Yes, I'm still caught up in that quagmire!)

You know, that last comment should be taken out of parentheses; quite to the opposite, it should probably be in bold print. You see, my dealings with the Promethean pits of hell have quite colored any other technological adventures that I have undertaken this week. I sat through six hours of activboard training, thinking that I knew what was going on, and then once on my own - poof! - anything that I might have learned was rendered useless by what I forgot, and there is no one to help me. Yes, there are links a-plenty, and videos galore, and templates that can be downloaded, but none of them are really that helpful, nor do they directly answer the questions that I have, and they are slow and cause your computer to freeze, and I want to have all of my school stuff done by July 1 so that I can spend the remaining summer months school free, and...

...big pause for breath... and that is why I was so impressed with the screenshot software offered by Wink. It was welcoming to the new user, easy to install, simple to operate, and immediately gratifying in outcome. Promethean, eat your heart out!

Thing #7 - Video Heaven

2009-06-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

Abandon hope all ye who enter here...

After a harrowing afternoon trying to escape Promethean's own special circle of hell where those sinners who have naively ignored the ever-growing, ever-changing demands of technology are punished by making the same stupid errors over and over again, never able to progress beyond page one of their five-page flipchart, it is nice to sit down to something manageable.

Ironically, earlier this week I felt frustrated by what I considered video overkill, but the fact that I can access, embed, upload, and even create if necessary videos of all sorts -- this, my friends, is like drinking the sweet nectar of the gods...

To leave behind the infernal Promethean software and all of its related pitfalls and seek safe harbor in the safety of PBS's video archives, better yet to invoke my muse, Bill Moyer, and to watch some lively, intelligent men discussing poetry -- pure manna, my friends.

I was delighted to find two videos in particular: one, an interview with actor John Lithgow, details the actor's fondness for poetry; the other, featuring the Dodge Poetry Festival, suggests that poetry is not just appreciated by classically trained actors and other odd sorts but an art form appreciated by the common man.

If you have time and are so inclined, if your heart is weary and your brain addled, a little poetry might just soothe your soul... Ironically, just one click away!

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01022009/watch2.html

Thing 6 - Apps in a snap!

2009-06-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

I can’t really think of a way to start this post. Answering the assigned question about I-phone and I-touch apps in the classroom seems like the obvious choice, but through the hard work of the featured blog posts and websites, the question has already been answered!

To me, the bigger question will be whether the educational establishment will ever embrace mobile technology in the classroom. The administrative offices and classrooms of so many schools are still reigned over by people of a certain age and mindset, people who see technology as a novelty instead of a significant icon of the new millennium. As quoted in one of our suggested readings, E.D. Hirsch of cultural literacy fame refers to mobile devices as “technological gadgets.” To refer to emerging technology in such minimizing terms shows a lack of understanding of its true weight and importance in our modern culture. At the risk of repeating myself, I will say again that technology is not going away. Period. You can deny it, resist it, declaim it, decry it, ignore it, bemoan and bewail it, but it is (and I repeat) not going away.

Yes, I know that there are many procedural issues that have to be resolved before this type of handheld technology can be seamlessly integrated into our classrooms – consider the battles that many districts wage with cell phones alone – but we have to quit considering these applications as the wave of the future and relegating them to mere frivolity.

If our goal is to meet our students where they are, to engage with them, to connect with them on a level that they know and understand, then we’re going to have to put the chalk down and begin scrolling from one screen to the next…

Thing 5 - Twitter!

2009-06-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

June 20, 2009:

5:00 a.m. – I’m up finishing the end of Meredith Forester’s Diary of an Ordinary Woman. Dang it – just as the title states: ordinary! Not to mention long...

7:00 – Going out for a run, hoping to beat some of the Houston heat and humidity.

7:50 – Post-run report: five miles, five snakes, one turtle, one rabbit, a gazillion cyclists…

8:45 – Hazel and Joey are here: Everyone should have a lovely British lady for a neighbor.

10:00 – At La Centerra Farmers’ Market – hot pavement is bad for business!

11:00 – What farmers’ market lacks, Campbell’s soup will provide. Mmm, mmm, good!

12:00 –Sobering news is only one phone call away.

2:00 – Happy Anniversary, George and Theda!

4:30 - Distress call from Marjorie: needs groceries and prescriptions.

5:30 – At the grocery store again. Cantaloupes look nice, but two dollars apiece? Is this Kroger or Whole Foods???

7:00 – Nice to cook dinner for someone who really loves to eat!

7:45 – Trying to watch movie with Joe while blogging, but find I can’t multitask. Blog is better than movie…

7:52 – Movie is boring; Joe and Coach have both fallen asleep.

8:00 – Trying to compose some sort of response about Facebook and Twitter. Can’t figure out why people would want to read about the minutia of my life.

8:15 - Still thinking… 8:30 - Still thinking… 8:45 - Still thinking…

9:00 – Just remembered that I spent 7 days reading every excruciating detail of Millicent King’s life. Maybe someone might be interested in the details of my life.

9:01 – Begin mock twit (twitt?)

9:37 – Realize that there might be something to this Twitter stuff…

10:00 - Realize that I have spent far too much time on this post! I must rescind my comments about the length of Forester's work. Some lives will require 385 pages; others, hourly updates.

Thing 3 – Skype

2009-06-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

An unfortunate name, don’t you agree? I wonder how some advertising/marketing guru let that one slip by… , but already I digress.

On to the point, if there is something I have learned about technology over the last few years, it is that avoiding it will not make things better: one, whatever the application, it is not going away; in fact, it will only be replaced by something more sophisticated and multifunctional, and two, there will come a time when you will be so behind the times that it becomes difficult to catch up. This seems like the perfect place for some axiomatic reminder about the inevitable, but sadly all that comes to mind is Ross Perot’s ill-conceived comment about Texas weather. So, lacking a pithy quote, perhaps an object lesson is more appropriate. Why learn to Skype?

Let me offer in the form of an analogy, my experiences with the MP3 player.: growing up in the era of the Sony Walkman (purchased at Houston Jewelers for nearly 100 dollars in 1984), the concept of portable music was not entirely unheard of, but I just couldn’t wrap my brain around the MP3 player, mainly the idea of purchasing and downloading music. So I just skipped it, moved on, didn’t concern my pretty little head about it until about three years ago. For those of you needing a history lesson, the iPod was launched in 2001, leaving me roughly 5 years behind the times.

How far behind the times? Well, the MP3 player I purchased at Costco (watch out, I feel another digression coming… I love Costco…) only came with operating instructions, no instructions for downloading music! Of course, my students reassured me that it was easy, all I had to do was “blah, blah” – they might as well spoken Greek.

I suffered through hours of seat time in front of my computer, desperately trying to get the stupid music downloaded before admitting utter defeat, asking for help from anyone who could offer some, and then resorting to Google. And do you know from whence the rescue came? Who offered technology help for the weak, the tired, and the huddled masses? WALMART.COM!!!

Now you can take that anyway you like, but I’ll just say this: when you have to rely on the home of “rollback prices” for your technology savvy, well, that’s pretty sad!

So I’m going to learn to Skype now, no matter all of the unknowns, the difficulties, the distractions. I’m not going back to Walmart!

Thing #4 - My first upload!

2009-06-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Although I always though the words "Hey, Mrs. K! I saw you on YouTube last night!" would mean that my checkered past had been exposed (just kidding - I wanted to see if you were paying attention!), I am now growing more and more convinced that video hosting sites are perfectly appropriate mediums for lessons and lectures. Missed class on Tuesday? You can watch a rerun of it on YouTube! Need to see how to solve that calculus problem again? Just search for Mr. X's lessons on teacher tube. Ok, maybe it is a bit ambitious, not to mention unrealistic, to think that any teacher would have a) the time, b) the resources, and c) the inclination to record and post lessons, but wouldn't it be nice? And isn't it something to try, at least once?

Yeah, yeah, I know that there are myriad reasons why it wouldn't, couldn't and shouldn't work, but after Activboard training, skyping, and posting videos all in one week, I feel like now is the time to begin considering, at least in some small part, how to begin using these resources.

And for those of you who remain skeptical, here is one of my favorite articles from last year's 23 Things initiative: "Is it ok for teachers to be technologically illiterate?" http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/ If our students are making videos, uploading them and viewing them with ease, isn't it incumbent upon us at the very least to understand the process and maybe even give it a good old try?

That said, does anyone know how to make a video?

http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-06-11/news/one-woman-wrecking-crew

Thing 2 - The blackbird is involved in what I know...

2009-06-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

Though I loved making my book(r), getting my post published has proved quite an ordeal! After an immensely sweaty run this morning, I came in ready to crank out my response. Why the rush, you might ask? Well, certainly not in response to a time crunch, but instead in response to a brain crunch.

When I looked at the options for thing#2, I found myself a bit dismayed -- more image makers? really? Don't get me wrong: they are great fun, and I love anything that combines words, images, and creative license; however, I have wondered about the power of the image maker to do more than just illustrate, a low-level cognitive task. Could an image generator be used for something more critical?

I used Voki and wordle last summer (their vestiges can still be found in the borders of my page), so I decided to just plunge ahead with bookr. And, to test, the "critical" factor, I applied it to one of my year's most challenging lessons, an analysis of Wallace Steven's "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." (Can you hear my students groaning right now? Oh, but look: there are a few of them smiling -- they really did like this assignment!) Anyhoo, one of the ways that we approach this very complex poem is by drawing out each stanza, sketching the images and details, letting some of the pictures come forward while relegating others to the background, all in the effort of seeing what it is that Stevens emphasizes in each stanza.

You ought to hear the conversations that we have: "No, it shouldn't be the blackbird's whole body, just the head and eye against the white mountain so the contrast is really exaggerated." (I live for these days, by the way...) I digress again: my goal with bookr then was to try something more than a mere illustration but to achieve something more complex.

Fortunately, flickr has a wide stock of bird photos, so away I clicked, finding satisfaction with some of the stanzas but more often a disappointment with the produced effect. In most other flickr photos, the birds featured most prominently, although in Stevens' work the bird is often tangential to the subject of the stanza. That proved most difficult to capture. I longed to layer on image over another, to crop and cut and paste and combine, just as my students did with their own sketches.

Anyone who dabbles in the creative process knows that dissatisfaction often accompanies a finished product, so I wasn't too devastated that the result was less stellar than I had hoped. Content to call this thing done, I closed down for the night and planned to write my response this morning.

I wasn't sure what I was going to write, but I envisioned the words "cute, but not critical," featuring prominently in the response. Fortunately while running this morning, it occurred to me that though the outcome was superficial, the thinking that it inspired was indeed more complex. I was forced to admit that the definition my students most often give for imagery, " words used to create a picture in the reader's mind," is so poorly informed. You see, words are not intended as a poor substitute for pictures; indeed, just the opposite is true: pictures are a poor substitute for the words that inspire them, lacking the depth and subtlety that only words possess.

I wouldn't have realized this if I hadn't created my book, and that is critical enough for me!

Thing 1: Tenzing Norgay, ready for duty!

2009-06-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

In case you missed the allusion,well-renowned sherpa Tenzing Norgay earned his fame by escorting Sir Edmund Hillary to the summit of Mount Everest. Ok - thanks for the bit of minutiae, you might be thinking. What, exactly, does this have to do with education in the 21st century.

Well, according to the folks over at Commoncraft (love those guys, by the way) one of the many roles of the millennial teacher (among the multitude of others) is the Network Sherpa. As the narrator rattled off the list of responsibilities of the teacher in the networked classroom -- learning architect, communication specialist, etc. -- the role of the sherpa really caught my ear.

Given greater thought, perhaps it was the mental image of the loyal Tenzing Norgay playing second fiddle to the virtuosity of Sir Edmund Hillary's glory? Humble, understated, dutiful... yes, I like it! Consider the following quotes by the two men: Hillary is reported to have said, "People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things"; Norgay, "If it is a shame to be the second man on Mount Everest, then I will have to live with this shame. "

That quote, in my eyes, captures the constantly evolving role of the teacher. No longer will we be considered the experts, instead we will be the guides, fearlessly leading our students toward the accomplishment of their own extraordinary things.

With that in mind, I'd better get started: I'm afraid that the ascent might be more difficult than I anticipated. As Hillary sagely advised, "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."

I'm no Jim Cantore, but I do have a story to tell...

2008-09-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

Those of us living along the Texas coast find particular interest in the weather. At the mere mention of the terms "tropical depression," "tropical storm," and far worse "hurricane," we feel our collective pulses quicken. Other news, domestic or foreign, political or economic, pales in comparison to reports of meteorologic and atmospheric conditions. Sarah who? Goldman-Sachs what?

Well, given recent events, it would be obvious to say that the weather holds an immediate effect over our daily lives. Will the day require raincoat or light sweater, sunscreen or snow tires? Perhaps the location of batteries, a supply of bottled water and knowledge of Red-Cross Centers? Certainly, knowing what to expect helps one plan for the day (or in our case, weeks) ahead. But perhaps that is an over-simplification: certainly there is more to weather than our immediate self-interest and self-preservation.

Some people might dismiss the topic of weather all together. True, it is the least common denominator of conversation... Got nothing better to discuss? How about the weather? Stuck in a socially awkward position? The weather is always a safe topic! Yes, it is safe to say that some of our most banal and insipid conversations revolve around the weather. Boy, it sure is (fill in the blank) out here!

Others might argue against weather on more intellectual grounds. A reductionist might simply consider weather as a report of meteorologic and atmospheric conditions. A sceptic might emphasize that weather is "predicted," that it is as much quackery as it is science. Alarmists might add that weather is nothing but another for of media- induced hype.

I, on the other hand, offer a different view of the weather, the story-teller's view. In some way, weather seems to fulfill our desire for tension, for our expectation that something is about to happen, for our sense of anticipation! Yes, weather, in some way, forms the conflict for the world's stage.

Now, don't take those terms - tension and conflict- too seriously. I'm not talking about confrontation; instead, I'm talking about tension and conflict in the dramatic sense, in its narrative function. Drama, by its classical definition , gives any story form and purpose.

But wait, you don't believe weather breeds drama? No better evidence can I offer for the intimate connection between weather and drama than The Weather Channel. Consider The Weather Channel's feature "Storm Stories." Seasonally, survivors of epic weather events recount their own sagas, be they the result of a hurricane, tsunami, blizzard, or heat wave.

Wind-whipped, cold-chapped, or heat-shriveled, they begin their tales of woe (aided of course by filmed footage and sound effects), and we viewers sit on the edge of our sofas ,the suspense, the tension, the angst mounting, wondering how, how, how they survived! How did they make it for five days in a storm cellar? What do 100 mile winds feel like? Will the dyke hold? Will the roof last? Will the walls continue to stand against the buffets and bruises of gale force winds? Will they be alright? And just when we think we can't take it anymore, aaahhh: sweet relief comes. The winds subside, the blizzard breaks, the raging waters calm, and the survivors come out to tell their stories.

And we love those stories - stories of victory and loss alike - stories of our frail human condition and our struggle against unseen, unknown, and uncontrollable forces. Drama, my friends, pure and simple drama.

Need further proof? According to the Nielsen Rating System "More than 62 million people watched TWC during the approach and landfall of Hurricane Ike on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 12-13." 62 million people! That's about 9 times the population of Houston, Galveston, and the affected parts of East Texas combined. Sure, we Texans were keenly interested in Ike's arrival, but so was the rest of the country. You tell me people aren't interested in the weather now!

Why? Well, according to Debora Wilson, president and CEO of Weather Channel Companies,
"There's a deep-rooted, a primal relationship, that a lot of people have with the weather. It's about connecting to Mother Nature and about the awe and the majesty related to that. It helps people understand their place in the world."

Pretty high-falutin, isn't it? I've got a different explanation: I'll say it again: drama! Everyone loves a good story, we crave tension and suspense and fear and storms and floods and zephyrs, oh my!

And so, I'm left wondering what your particular storm storm story is. Wont' you tell us? None is too big or too small, too insignificant or too monumental: each one of us experienced Ike, each one of us realized something about ourselves or the world in which we live, and each one of us is left with a story to tell...

As always, I anxiously await your response...

Storm Lingo

2008-09-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, friends: I've got a little game for you! (Everyone loves a game, don't they???) No, it is not Storm Bingo, although that would be fun, it is Storm Lingo!

Now that we are through the first wave of Ike's drama, let's begin a list of words related to his presence...

I'll start with a few of my favorites:

hunker
storm surge
commodities
push (as in "push the commodities")
pods

And your favorites?

What did you learn at school today, dear?

2008-09-05T03:14:00.000-07:00

NOTE: I apologize in advance for the random formatting of this post. For some reason, paragraph breaks are not being registered, and you can imagine that just drives me CRAZY. So, to amend that situation, I have color coded each paragraph. New color? New paragraph! Thanks for your tolerance...

I have probably already mentioned that I grew up in a family where learning and knowledge were very important. My father was a chemist and my mother a nurse, so our dinner table conversations always took on an elevated tone.

I don't know what other families talked about as they reunited at the day's end, but I envisioned lively conversations where each member shared amusing anecdotes from their day... Pretty idealistic, huh? However, this Utopian vision stands in stark contrast to my own family's evening ritual. My parents would talk about their own days, their conversations peppered with words like "renal failure" and "ketoacidosis", "diatomaceous earth" and "titration." Yes, I knew more about diabetes treatment and waste-water filtration than the average teenager, and I could keep up with their discussions, but I was expected to do more than just listen politely: my parents expected that I participate.

Instead of "How was your day?", the benign question most kids heard after school, a question that could be answered with a simple "Fine" or even "OK," my parents asked a different question: "What did you learn today?" Oftentimes I struggled for an answer. I couldn't say that I learned that teenage girls are mean, or that my Spanish teacher always had chalk fingerprints on the side of her slacks, or that after three years the cafeteria still smelled like a wet dog: no, Norma and Duane expected a real answer, an intellectual response.

Some days the answers came easily -- lessons and their purposes were clear... "Well, I learned about the structure of the DNA molecule" or "We learned a new dialogue in Spanish: Esta Susana en casa? Si, esta con una amiga. Donde esta, en la sala? No, en la cocina!" Other days I had to reach a bit: What was the purpose of that Trigonometry lesson? And what is a parabola, anyway? And will I ever actually use this information?

So, we've been in school for almost two weeks now, and I'm posing the dreaded question to you : What have you learned so far? What have you taken away from our lessons in AP English? What have you gained about our approach to literature, to language, and/or to writing? What questions or concerns do you have?

You see, I think my parents always wanted the reassurance that their youngest child was actually learning something, that the hours and days spent in school were not in vain, that I wasn't utterly confused and lost, that I didn't waste my days searching for split ends and doodling in the margins of my paper (although I'm sure I was guilty of both...), and I'm afraid that I've inherited some of their concerns. I want our time together to be meaningful. I'd like you to gain something from each and every class. I hope that you'll understand the goals and outcomes for this class and see the purpose for our activities; however, I won't know for certain until you respond!

And so, I anxiously await...

The College Essay...

2008-08-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! As you can see from perusing my previous posts, I am relatively new to the world of blogging, to the use of technology beyond the most rudimentary of tasks, but I am so excited by all of the possibilities that this blog might offer our classes!

For our first post, I'll ask you to read at least two of the following articles regarding the college essay. Choose any two from the list provided, then respond with your insights, observations, comments, etc. Try to move beyond simple responses like, "I knew that" or "I didn't know that." Instead, reflect on your own experiences and expectations as a student readying for college admissions. What topics do you plan to explore in your college essays? What events, experiences, etc. seem like appropriate content for your essays? What insights do these readings offer on the development of those essays? These are just a few questions that you might consider...

Please refer by title to the articles that you read and use direct quotations where appropriate.

Each person is required to post an individual response, but feel free to comment upon the observations and insights of your classmates, as well.

I look forward to reading your responses...

Links:

TheAdmissions Essay Ordeal - The Young Examined Life
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4D81331F932A05751C1A961958260

College Essays Nerve-racking...
http://www.startribune.com/local/11555871.html

Making a hard-life story open a door to college
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/education/27college.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=college%20essays&st=cse&scp=2

Controversy over College Essay Sites
http://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/06/cyber/education/23education.html?scp=26&sq=college%20essays&st=cse

College Admissions ... A little guidance
http://questions.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/edlife_qanda/?scp=21&sq=college%20essays&st=cse

U.Va. Office of Admission Essays

Advice from an expert - The Boston Globe

College applications can be too good - The Boston Globe

How much do college admissions essays matter - USATODAY.com

Teacher Says College Admissions Essays (washingtonpost.com) (2)

The Worst Teacher Ever...

2008-08-19T03:57:00.001-07:00

During yesterday's district-wide convocation, the keynote speaker Clay Parker stressed the relationship between teacher interest and student success. Now this isn't ground-breaking theory, but it does express an idea best repeated on a regular basis.

As his presentation ended, I made my way across the rows - a salmon swimming against the tide of teachers rushing headlong to the parking lot - to one of my own high school teachers, one who embodied the qualities which Mr. Parker had described. I thought that she might want to know the impact her interest and enthusiasm had on my attitude toward learning. I didn't love Government and Economics, but I felt compelled to meet her high expectations. I didn't necessarily relish the hard work she assigned, but I felt a great satisfaction in succeeding in "Killer Miller's" courses.

There were two others teachers, now long-retired, that I wished were there as well: Minerva Upchurch and Mildred Bowries. It was Mrs. Upchurch's gentle ways and friendly honk and wave each time she drove down my street that won my affections and untimately my respect and willingness to achieve. Mrs. Bowries - she spoke my language! She combined literature with real life and made me feel the plight of Hester Prynne, still one of my favorite heroines in all of literature.

Those three names and faces stand out against all the others that Spring Branch ISD offered during my twelve years there. Human, compassionate, humorous, energetic, and enthusiastic, I would have died rather than disappoint any one of them and indeed felt a failing when I did.

I should add, though, that I had a alarmingly high number of ambivalent and disinterested teachers, too. I can think of two in particular whose character alone stymied any growth on my part: one, a five-foot chemistry teacher who wielded anger and cynicism as effectively as any weapon; the other, a dance instructor who belittled and beleaguered her students to the degree that her own program was left abandoned. Their collective cruelty stands out in harsh juxtaposition against other fading memories of twenty years ago.

Fortunately, my own students will have better teachers than I did. Looking around the crowded colliseum, I see teachers with whom I am proud to work, teachers I would choose for my own children.

I don't mean to be too maudlin, sentimental, or romantic in my depiction of teachers. I know there were those who rolled their eyes during Mr. Parker's presentation, those who said "I don't want to be my students' friend. I just want to teach and go home."

Well, I'll brush over the gross misinterpretation of interest as "friendship" and ask instead, "Really? Just transmitting the facts of French, Calculus, English, World History - whatever you teach - is enough? You could teach any audience - it matters not who they are? You don't care whether your audience is interested, engaged, and successful? Is it really just about you and getting the job done?"

Allow me to qualify for a moment: I do empathize with that kind of thinking. As teachers, we spend so many hours preparing, grading, in meetings, inservices, etc., that it would be nice to say "I am doing this much and no more." But let's try to keep our students in that list of things that we are willing to care about, shall we? Let's cut out something else, like bulletin boards, or one more worksheet, or whatever we spend our time on instead.

Mr. Parker suggested that we are all teachers because of one or two great teachers in our own lives. We live to model their actions and attitudes. But, I think we also work against the specters of those bad teachers - those who did anything but inspired.

I'm not here to teacher bash or to suggest that I am as good as or conversely any better than those mentioned above; instead I use Mr. Parker's comments as a cautionary tale of what I could become. Of what any of us could become.

Although I hate cliched expression and would accuse my own students of going for the Miss America/Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul conclusion, I will adopt one this time: When your students look back on their years of education, how will you be remembered? They will remember, you know. I did. You did. They will...

It's Your Move...

2008-08-05T04:42:00.000-07:00

Always on the lookout for new books, I regularly check in with fellow blogger, Readerbuzz. A librarian and an avid reader, she always has some interesting reads posted on her site. This morning, while noodling around her page, an unknown term caught my eye: meme.

Well you can imagine that my first issue was proper pronunciation: /meem/ or /mim/ or /meemee/ ? Like any self-respecting web-crawler, I scurried to the source of infinite wisdom and googled it.

Here is what I found: as for pronunciation, the first two phonetic spellings seem to predominate web discourse. Ironically, pronunciation is the most complex aspect of this web2.0 phenomena.

Originally used in sociological and psychological constructs (Google it if you want the full discussion), the web application refers to an exponentially expanding discussion that revolves around a series of questions and answers. An author creates a series of compelling queries, publishes them, and hopes that readers will read, answer, and spread the news.

I'm not sure what the true motivation is: the thirst for answers to some of life's great questions or the desire to start a trend, to be noticed, to be noted and/or known. Somehow I'd bet on the latter. Who wouldn't want to give birth to some kind of cultural revolution? To be able to say, "I invented that move."

Not surprisingly, one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes, "Fusilli Jerry," explores the importance of having a "move." Although directly referring to sexual techniques, George makes an important point about "moves" in general: to Jerry he complains "You told David Putty your move and you didn't tell me? I need a move. You know I have no moves, Jerry. "

We all want something that will make us special, set us apart, define us. So, what is your move? Wait -- before you answer that question, let's put some parameters on this discussion!

First, we don't want to know about the intimate moments of your life. I'm sure there are other forums for those discussions, but you'll have to ask someone else: this blog is strictly "pg" or perhaps "pg-13."

Second, let's decide how a "move" is defined. For our purposes, a move is some act that either defines or is defined by the mover. For example, Elvis' move involved the swaying of the hips; Kramer's, falling; Johnny Carson's, the little salute... A move is some action that implicitly bears a signature.

So, I ask again, what is your move? What words, actions, habits, and/or ticks help to define you?

Questions to consider:
1. Do you have a signature move or movement?
2. A saying, phrase, or idiom which peppers your parlance?
3. An identifying mark or brand?
4. A particular article or artifact that people would associate with you?
5. A theme song?

Don't worry about sharing your carefully cultivated characteristics. We, the readers of this blog, collectively agree to attribute any moves we adopt to the original source. For example, the shoulder dance: that move belongs to Nancy. The gumbo recipe? Grandpa's, of course.

As Jerry remarks to George, "The point is when something like this is passed along, one must be certain that it's going to be used in a conscientious way. This is not some parlor trick to be used---" (http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheFusilliJerry.htm).

So give us your best, fair readers. We won't steal them, we won't adulterate them, but we just might copy them!

Oh, my answers?
1. Do you have a signature move or movement?
Clinched fists - my body language of choice for any activity from teaching to running to chatting at a cocktail party. (Best executed with a little wad of Kleenex or paper towel inside.)

2. A saying, phrase, or idiom which peppers your parlance?
"For lack of a better descriptor," "Well...," and "All that good stuff."

3. An identifying mark or brand?
I have lots of freckles and (I hesitate to even admit it) moles. I didn't choose these, of course, and find them enough on their own. No further embellishment needed.

4. A particular article or artifact that people would associate with you?
A can of Diet Coke. In fact, in a caricature drawn by one of my students, the "ubiquitous Diet Coke" (her words, not mine) featured prominently.

5. A theme song?
"Brick House."

Again, here are the questions to consider:
1. Do you have a signature move or movement?
2. A saying, phrase, or idiom which peppers your parlance?
3. An identifying mark or brand?
4. A particular article or artifact that people would associate with you?
5. A theme song?

My Web2.0 Training Plan

2008-08-02T05:39:00.000-07:00

It seems that late summer and early fall are made for planning. Time to mark the calendar, to look ahead, to pencil in some events and to commit others to ink. The summer grants the luxury of taking each day as it comes, living spontaneously and as the spirit moves, but the fall demands greater focus and deliberate choices. Oh, how I hate the advent of fall...

I usually follow other people's schedules rather than develop any of my own - with the strictures of school-year calendars, lesson plans, athletic schedules, social events and training plans, what time is left for self-made plans anyhow? (I must sound much the victim here - forgive the plaintive tone: it is not as I intended, and I will see if I can right the situation as I go...)

A great fan of the calendar, my husband's planner gleams with dates color-coded by event, organization, and/or key player. and Want to know where we will be in January of 2009? Well, the chances are that his Alma-mater (The University of Houston) will play in one of three bowl games, and they are likely to play in cities x, y, or z, so those dates and places are already penciled in...

I will admit that this detailed planning does help to add some structure to our lives. To play off of my beloved, Robert Frost, something there is that loves a schedule!

Rather than a rigid graphic depiction of life's commitments, I like the idea of the calendar as a plan for my future - a way to achieve my goals. Some of you are thinking that the difference exists only in semantics, but I beg to differ: the difference is in philosophy. Although I resist being tied down to dates and times, I embrace the idea of growth and progress. And, if a calendar or training plan will help me progress toward those ends, then I embrace it.

Along those lines, I am developing a plan for my nascent web2.0 skills. A firm believer in the adage , "Use it or lose it," I worry that all I learned this summer will fade into the institutional, antiseptic mist of the school year. I hope that our friends at library2play will continue to augment their blog and training plans, but in case they don't I have come up with one of my own.
My ideas follow, ordered only by the chronology of the Library2play blog. I welcome any ideas or further suggestions that any of you learn2players or any other technology-savvy readers might have...

Well, that's enough for now. It is still summer, the temperature has dipped below 100 degrees, and the overgrown bushes on my back patio beg for trimming.

Items in black print have received no action; green, done; pink, in progress.

1. Modify my avatar and maybe put one on my mhs website? Is that possible?
Yes, this is possible, but I haven't done it yet.

2. Put a link from on my mhs website to my blog?

3. Ask vwb how to put the proper citations on my flickr photos.

(Since I am always after my students about proper documentation, I can hardly demand less of myself.)
Received instructions but haven't executed them yet...

4. Limit the time I spend on mashups or image generators to 10 minutes. Seriously!
Nice thought, but have you seen my voki? Hamnet, the cyberpig?

5. Figure out how to retrieve files from Google notebook;

figure out how to delete items from Google reader;

decide whether I really want to have an rss reader.
Have contacted a fellow blogger who reported success w/ Google reader; waiting for response.

6. Delete my account with Library Thing and update my account with Shelfari.
Deleted account with Library Thing,

started updating Shelfari account,

removed Shelfari widget from my blog.

Thinking of another way to include my novels and reading list.

Will have to consult librarians' blogs to see what they do...

7. Decide who to include in my "circle of the wise."
I added a two blogs that deal w/educational technology to my list.

There is a third that I want to include, but it is not one that is regularly updated, so...
Change in plans here: Since very few of our learn2players are still blogging, I deleted my bloglist, at least for now. Once people are up and posting again, then I'll start adding again.

8. Find out which learn2players are going to continue to blog.

(This seems inextricably tied to number 7).

9. Completely revisit Delicious and Technorati, Rollyo as well.

I didn't pay enough attention to these topics the first time.

I think, though, that Delicious really serves the purpose that I want Rollyo to...

10. Decide which to pursue for use with my class:

a blog, a wiki, or a ning?

Maybe get some group feedback on this one...

11. Look at the list of 43 things that inspired this initiative,

and see what I can add from that list.

12. Get the advice of other learn2players

and see what their recommendations are.

13. Seek students' advice on new and emerging technologies.

They are always ahead of the curve.

(As was so painfull apparent this afternoon as a former student

informed me that the term web2.0 is already passe. Huh!)

14. Find out what a meme is...
Done. See 8/6/08 post.

15. Update and revise newsfeeds.
Ahthough I never linked these to my blog, I have updated my google reader,

eliminating those that I rarely read in hopes that I might

actually read the ones remaining.

Maybe I need to put these widgets on my blog.

I'm more likely to check them there than the google reader page.

16. Clean up my blog!

I have started this process, eliminating my blog list, list of students' favorite words, and Shelfari widget.

Web2.0 Wordle

2008-07-31T03:23:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I am going back and reviewing the 23 things, hoping to crystallize my summer's learning, beginning with the difference between web1.0 and 2.0.

In yesterday's comments (Misty2.0), I gave a general overview, but this morning I went back and looked at specific comments made in connection with each of the "things," highlighted key words or ideas associated with each application and the web2.0 movement overall (see specific quotes and highlighting below), and then from those key words, I created a wordle.

(Haven't seen wordle yet? Give it a google, and it will pop right up. Hours of great fun to be had there, so make sure you have some time to spend...)

Anyway, I like the effect created: the words really capture the essence of 2.0 technologies. What would a wordle for 1.0 look like? It would probably be limited to a few words like "log-on, " "read," "link" and "log-out." Simple, one-sided and limited in comparison to 2.0, huh?

I think I've got it now? Do you? Could you really explain to a colleague, better yet a parent or older friend or relative what the difference is? Even more important, could you hold your own in a conversation among the technologically literate? Let's try it today and see if it works!

_______________________________________________________
Quotes that formed the creation of the wordle...Keywords in orange!
"Flickr is a photo-sharing website where anyone can upload and tag photos, browse others’ photos, and add comments and annotations. Users can create photo sets and collections to manage content, and participate in topical groups to cultivate a sense of community. Launched in February 2004, Flickr embodies what has come to be known as Web 2.0 technology. The site provides the tools, but the value derives from the contributions of the user community—photos, comments, ratings, and organization—and the connections that the site facilitates between individuals. Flickr also provides a range of privacy settings, giving users considerable control over how their photos can be used."
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7034.pdf

In technology, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool;The architecture of Mashup web applications is always composed of three parts:- The content provider: it is the source of the data. Data is made available using an API and different Web-protocols such as RSS, REST, and Web Service- The Mashup site: is the web application which provides the new service using different data sources that are not owned by it.- The client web browser: is the user interface of the Mashup. In a web-application, the content can be mashed by the client web browsers using client side web language for example JavaScript.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid)

Web Mashup = API [1] + API [2] + API [N]
A web mashup is a website or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service.
Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or so called API. http://www.webmashup.com/

Flickr has an open Application Programming Interface (API for short). This means that anyone can write their own program to present public Flickr data (like photos, video, tags, profiles or groups) in new and different ways. There's a long list of API methods available to you to work with, and we love it when this happens, so... go forth and play! http://www.flickr.com/services/

Too often the debate over creative control tends to the extremes. At one pole is a vision of total control — a world in which every last use of a work is regulated and in which “all rights reserved” (and then some) is the norm. At the other end is a vision of anarchy — a world in which creators enjoy a wide range of freedom but are left vulnerable to exploitation. Balance, compromise, and moderation — once the driving forces of a copyright system that valued innovation and protection equally — have become endangered species.
Creative Commons is working to revive them. We use private rights to create public goods: creative works set free for certain uses. Like the free software and open-source movements, our ends are cooperative and community-minded, but our means are voluntary and libertarian. We work to offer creators a best-of-both-worlds way to protect their works while encouraging certain uses of them — to declare “some rights reserved.” http://creativecommons.org/about/

Although we generally equate Google with web searching, that's not what this "thing" is about. Google also has a variety of free web tools that can be particularly useful in education.Calendar - lets you organize your schedule and share it with family and friends.iGoogle - gives you a customizable home page where you can add links, news feeds, gadgets, etc. (Be sure and look at the gadgets - these are really fun!).Google Notebook - lets you clip and collect information into an online notebook as you do research on the Web. It can be shared with others.
http://library2play.blogspot.com/2007/11/thing-7-cool-google-tools.html Google

In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information. As leaders in the acquisition of information, it is one Web 2.0 tool that you MUST know how to use and use regularly.

What is LibraryThing?
LibraryThing is a site for book lovers.
LibraryThing helps you create a library-quality catalog of your books. You can do all of them or just what you're reading now.
And because everyone catalogs online, they also catalog together. LibraryThing connects people based on the books they share.

The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs according to the article about blogging from Wikipedia. A blog is a vehicle for a group of people with common interests to communicate, share, and learn in spite of barriers of time and distance.http://library2play.blogspot.com/2007/11/thing-12-roll-your-own-search-tool.html

My sister's podcast

2008-07-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.switchpod.com/users/nmcmath/summerditties.wav

Misty2.0

2008-07-30T04:24:00.000-07:00

Have I told you all about my nephew Jimmy? (Good Lord, you may be thinking, How many nephews does this woman have? Five, to be precise, and five nieces, too!) Twenty-three and blessed with a college degree, a good job with an oil-field support company, the love and support of his family, a cute little house, and a loyal dog, Jim lives a pretty sweet life.

Add to the aforementioned qualities his classical good looks, and you have what matchmakers and mothers of single women refer to as " a good catch."

Although girls have always flocked around Jimmy, I particularly like his current girlfriend Misty. A dark-haired, dark-eyed nursing student putting herself through school while working at a fast food restaurant, she should not be mistaken with the other Misty, the one he dated a few years back... In fact, to lessen the chances of confusion, the family affectionately refers to the two girls as Misty1.0 and Misty2.0.

When I first heard the moniker, I understood 2.0 to represent an newer (and hopefully improved) version of the original, but my knowledge was limited to Jimmy's dating life - I had no real comprehension of what these terms meant in the world of technology. That is, until I started to learn2play.

Looking back, there was no "thing" that required us to define web2.0 and explain its fundamental difference from web1.0, but it seems like it would have been a good idea, in fact a good place to start, an organizing concept of sorts. It could have been one of the 23 things: explore the basic differences between web1.0 and 2.0. Surely Wikipedia has some quick entry on the topic?

(I'm going to be embarrassed if there was and I just missed it, but honestly I don't think there was... I'll go back and double-check just to be sure. Well, you know what? Even if there was and I didn't give it full attention, I am now, so there! I stick to my principle that learning occurs when it is needed! Anyway, I digress...)

So, just for my own purposes, and yours too if you care to play along, I'm going to begin reviewing what I've learned beginning with the difference between 1.0 and 2.0. From computer guru Tim O'Reilly as cited in howstuffworks.com:

"Here's a collection of strategies O'Reilly considers to be part of the Web 1.0 philosophy:
Web 1.0 sites are static. They contain information that might be useful, but there's no reason for a visitor to return to the site later. An example might be a personal Web page that gives information about the site's owner, but never changes. A Web 2.0 version might be a blog or MySpace account that owners can frequently update.

Web 1.0 sites aren't interactive. Visitors can only visit these sites; they can't impact or contribute to the sites. Most organizations have profile pages that visitors can look at but not impact or alter, whereas a wiki allows anyone to visit and make changes.

Web 1.0 applications are proprietary. Under the Web 1.0 philosophy, companies develop software applications that users can download, but they can't see how the application works or change it. A Web 2.0 application is an open source program, which means the source code for the program is freely available. Users can see how the application works and make modifications or even build new applications based on earlier programs. For example, Netscape Navigator was a proprietary Web browser of the Web 1.0 era. Firefox follows the Web 2.0 philosophy and provides developers with all the tools they need to create new Firefox applications. "

So, to recap web1.0 is static, non-interactive, and proprietary. That suggests that in contrast web2.0 is constantly changing, interactive, and shared. How true is that definition? For the next couple of days I'm going to go back and look at the 23 assignments, testing them against that precept. This might seem a bit redundant or after the fact for those among you who are quicker than I, but I know that others of us need it so have patience, please.

As for the two Misty's, some review might be prudent, as well. Is Misty2.0 flexible, interactive, and sharing? Is she an improvement over the limitations of Misty1.0? Well, she came to all of our family celebrations this weekend, and she tolerated stories, late nights, and dancing to the sweet strains of "Brick House" and "Play That Funky Music White Boy." Those qualities along give her an advantage in my book. Let's keep her!

Thing #23 - Skip the Face Lift

2008-07-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Women, I think, are especially sensitive to issues of aging. And how can they not? Society seems to equate beauty with youth; hence young is beautiful and old is not.

Need proof? Just look at any magazine! The predominance of ads for "cosmeceuticals" like Botox, Strivectin, and Restalane (sp?) and "non-invasive restorative procedures" like light-line peels and dermabrasion reinforce the notion that the youth is synonymous with worth. And, I have to admit that at the age of 41, I am susceptible to this line of thinking: I don't want to look old, and far worse, I don't want to feel old!

So, does this have anything to do with web2.0, or has Laura plucked one too many gray hairs? Believe it or not, this argument relates directly to the learn2play initiative! How, you might ask? Well, this summer I've discovered that the key to perpetual youth comes not from a potent serum or in-office procedure, but from two other sources: one, the desire to learn, and two, staying current with the times.

Just to give you all a little background, I'd always considered myself fairly computer literate; however, my knowledge was born of a need to complete some assignment rather than any desire to stay current with technology. Like so many other "digital immigrants" (otherwise categorized as anyone over the age of 35), I felt overwhelmed by the ever-changing landscape of cyberspace and like I could never catch up.

Ultimately, I decided that I wasn't even going to try - I would do what I had to for work purposes, but as far as blogging and networking and chatting went, that was a fad better left for the "kids". Now does that sound like an old person, or what? You remember hearing your own parents say something like that and thinking that they were soooooo old? What I didn't realize was that in consciously deciding against an opportunity to grow and learn, in choosing to let something pass me by, I had indeed begun to age. And old I grew, far beyond my years.

That is, until I learned to play. For the details of my learning you can look back at my earlier posts. To say that I've worked hard and learned a lot would be a great understatement. And there is still the slightly galling knowledge that this stuff is so natural to others: even last night, as I tried to explain to my 18-year-old nephew Sam the great accomplishments of my summer, he just said "Oh, really?" as if mentally texting to his friends, "OMG: It's nt rokt scinc!" Well, it isn't to him and all of those others seemingly born with a cellphone in one hand and a keyboard in the other. But for others of us, the huddled masses of cyberspace, the journey has been amazing.

However, the joy of Learn2play was not limited to the concrete lessons gained therein. A larger and completely unexpected source of joy grew out of the relationships formed along the way. Instead of a cold and impersonal experience with a mute computer screen, I found the warmth and camaraderie of other educators, who like myself ,were just venturing into the darker reaches of cyberspace: SJThinker, Infomaniac, Daydreamsintechnicolor, and Readerbuzz are just a few of the friends made along the way.

And of course, there is my dear sister Frogntoad. (For those of you who don't know, she really is my sister. Not a "sista" but my biological sister.) Though we live hundreds of miles and hours apart, we have worked through these "things" together, sharing our discoveries and disappointments alike. I love her all the more for undertaking this with me. But, come to think of it, she has always been willing to hold my hand along the way...

With the companionship of my Learn2play friends and my family, and with the satisfaction of each "thing" completed, I found renewed confidence and enthusiasm for myself as a student of technology, and more importantly as a student of the world.

So, would I do this again? You bet! Even if the same exact class were offered next summer, I'd take it again. Anything to keep learning. Anything to stay current. Anything to avoid growing old, old, old.

So, to sum it all up in one sentence, I'd say this: skip the face lift and try Learn2play instead.

ps - Some of you may have noticed that the original image associated with this post has been deleted. Rather than spend time in the circle of hell reserved for those who run fast and loose with copyright laws, I thought I'd go back and amend some of my posts. Hope the new photo from Flickr's Creative Commons satisfies as much as the first did...

ldk

Thing #22 - What is in a name?

2008-07-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

As you all probably could have predicted, I wasn't much of a math student throughout my early years. That side of my brain didn't really kick in until later in life... No, I was born a right-brainer: words, language, reading, writing, and expression were more to my liking.

Math, not so much. I can't explain what it was that eluded my comprehension, but I always felt lost. As early as 3rd grade and long division I remember having difficulty with math. I don't know why - My mother and father - they were math people. They got it. I can remember my mother looking at a division problem and saying, "Oh, 499 divided by 19? That's easy! Just round 499 up to 500 and 19 up to 20, and you know that the answer is one more than 25." I thought she was speaking another language. I could only solve the problem one way, and poorly at that.

So, my career as a mathematics student was spent trying to achieve invisibility, praying that I wouldn't be called on and thereby expose my ignorance. I never, never, asked a question. Never. I feared that one question would reveal the depth of my ineptitude, that my teachers would look at me and think (or far worse, proclaim aloud to the whole math lovin' world) "That child is as dumb as a stump! We need to send her back to elementary school and start all over again!" And as teachers, haven't we all felt this way? We know, despite platitudes that suggest otherwise, there really are some dumb questions. Well, I wasn't going to be the one to ask the dumb questions then, and I hesitate to do so now.

Oh, so you are realizing I have a potentially stupid question? I'll bet a number of you all do, as well. I find myself thinking that some of these "things" are awfully similar. Blogs, wikis and nings? Aren't they all pretty much the same?

I have to stop and apologize to our kickball captains right now. Can't you hear them? "Good Grief! Didn't she read the information? Didn't she follow the links? Send her back to Thing#1 and make her start all over again!"

Hoping to avoid the scenario described above, I read everything on the learn2play pages about the three networks. And here's what I found... the answer to my own question! Yes, Virginia, they are very similar! All are social networking sites, and all hope to capitalize on the idea of exponential growth. Anyone can create a blog, wiki, or ning, invite a few friends to join, and watch it grow as users continue to spread the word. Once the group gets large enough and loses some of its focus, sub-groups, splinter groups, sects, and special interest groups can split off and form their own social networks. (This ,by the way, is exactly what the creators hope for... More users equal more money!)

For example, what once started as a group of ten friends in the Houston/Galveston area interested in baking could easily grow into a group of 1000 people from all over the country sharing recipes, tips, etc. And little subgroups could form and break off- a cupcake coalition, a pat-in-the-pan party, another for fondant aficionados, a sarcher torte sect, cobbler, slump, and grunt groups - just imagine all of the possibilities.

Ok, so wikis, blogs, and nings are social networks, but what differentiates each? Well, at this point I can only speak to nings, but here is what I figured out. (Oh, I have attached my sources below...)

Nings (Chinese for peace, apparently...) seem to have three advantages the other social networking options don't: one, the groups of users are more focused around a central subject - let's say the work of the new poet laureate Kay Ryan. Users might share her poetry, offer analysis and insights, report on sightings and book signings, etc. There would be no reason for a fly-fishing expert or professional card stacker to intrude and leave some random remark or post an off-color limerick.

Another reported advantage is that the conversations are reportedly easier to follow than the strings on wikis and blogs. You know how you often have to work backwards through blog entries to find the original topic? Apparently nings resolve this dilemma by posting the original topic first and subsequent discussions follow chronologically.

A third feature that might be of some interest is discretion. Nings seem to offer a little more privacy than other sites - an advantage over purely social sites like myspace and facebook. As a teacher, this offers a definite advantage: there is something creepy about too much familiarity with your students. I remember as a twenty-year-old student teacher, a young man asked me "If I see you at a club, will you dance with me?" And thus began my career as a hermit... Seriously, there are some parts of a teacher's life that should remain private, don't you think? (Like her midriff, and hence my argument against low-rise jeans!)

And students need their privacy, too. Of course, we know that the high degree of disclosure encouraged by myspace and facebook users offer little protection, but that is another argument altogether... Anyway,with nings we don't have to worry about bumping into each other in cyberspace. (Unless, say, we share a passion for rapper Fiddy Cents.)

Nings are more exclusive than other social networks, even to the extent of invitation only sites. So, if you wanted a place to organize your upcoming family vacation, and you didn't want the whole world to have access to the details, a invitation-only ning would be perfect for you!

Focus, ease in following discussions, and privacy - these are just a few of the qualities that separate nings from the other networks out there. There are probably a myriad of other features and subtleties that I missed, but I am satisfied with my answer for now. Calculus might scare me, but nings don't!

Sources:

http://whatsit06.blogspot.com/2008/01/as-i-see-it-in-nutshell.html

http://www.shore.com/commentary/weblogs/2007/03/nings-bling-ningcom-enables-private.html

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html

http://education.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1027485%3ATopic%3A28948&x=1&page=1

Thing 21 - How much is enough?

2008-07-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Wisdom can come from some unlikely sources, can't it?

As proof, I offer the words of country singer Jerry Jeff Walker, comedian - and I use that term lightly- Larry the Cable Guy, and the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu. (I wonder if those names have ever before been connected? Are country-western aficionados, self-proclaimed rednecks and scholars alike wincing at the very thought of it?) Let me explain...

Looking around the playground, there have been plenty of bloggers content to experiment with the web2.0 technologies, write up a little blurb, and move on. Short and simple, maybe too much so, but they get the job done.

You know by now that I am not one of those people,. Instead of viewing these 23 Things as assignments to be checked off a list, I feel compelled to create something meaningful. I awaken in the wee hours of the morning, log on, and begin work. And generally I am rewarded for my efforts. I either manage to complete the assignment in a way that is pleasing or I write a response with which I am pleased.

Not this time, my friends. Thing 21 has been the source of four days' frustration, and I am ready to call it quits. Why? Well, I had used photostory before with great results, making a movie for my nephew's graduation(See insert below. You might want a hankie, even if you don't know him...), another for back-to-school night, and a third over The Canterbury Tales for use with my seniors. Since I felt fairly adept with that application, I thought I'd try something new. Wrong move.

I signed up with Audacity and began making podcasts, playing around with readings from Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings and James Whitcomb Riley's "Little Orphan Annie." The skill set required is fairly elementary, but to get quality results some non-standard equipment is needed, namely a microphone. And a quiet house. And the ability to make peace with the sound of your own voice.

After roughly 15 - 20 readings of Welty's work and an equal number of Riley's, I never could get past the sound of my own voice. In short, the timbre and pitch was vaguely reminiscent of an old boozer still awaiting her first snort of the day. The link to one of my many attempts is included below; however, I would not encourage anyone to actually listen to it. (Unless you want a good laugh. My sister, by the way, is a fellow blogger, and I imagine she will get quite a giggle from it.)

So this is where Jerry Jeff Walker comes in: In his words, "The only way to know how much is enough, is to do too much, and then back up." And that is exactly what I did. I backed up and took a more expedient stance: Was I trying to do too much? Surely four days' work was enough, right? It would be ok to just do something and call it a day, right? Sometimes, in the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy, you just have to "Git-R-Dun."

I know how to use several of these applications, how to embed them in my blog and/or create hyperlinks to them, etc. That is enough for now; I have done all I can and I am content with my limited knowledge. For as the great Lao-Tzu said, "He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough."

Sam's Graduation Video

Laura's Podcast: Listen at your own risk...

http://www.switchpod.com/users/laurann/feed.xml

Thing #20 - I figured it out!

2008-07-10T11:45:00.001-07:00

This blogging stuff is starting to go to my head! I fancy myself having an audience of readers who has noticed that I haven't posted anything of great value all week long. Figuring that some of us might need a break from the increasingly technical demands of the 23 Things, especially the source code problem with youtube that so many are experiencing, I thought a little fun was in order and suggested the Vocabulary Game.

This bought me a little time, to be quite honest. Yous see, I spent the week at an AP conference at Rice, and if you've ever attended any week-long conference, you will recognize the seemingly contradictory symptoms of "Conference Syndrome" - a brain enfeebled by information overload coupled with a body suffering from the innervating effects of sitting for eight hours. Remember the movie "Parenthood" with Steve Martin? In it, his young son would run around the house with a metal bucket on his head, blindly careening off of walls and other obstacles that got in his way. Yet, he had all this pent of energy that had to be spent! That is exactly how I felt each afternoon: thoughtlessly energized.

However, now that a couple of days have passed, all of of that information has started to sink in. Even better, I can better appreciate the value of our newly-learned web2.0 applications. For instance, I am going to create a roll for all of the websites I learned about in my conference. That way I only have to remember where I heard the information, not the specific addresses, etc. I will post it for you all to see when I am done...

In specific response to this thing, I have included a few video clips. One of our great debates this week was about the merits of the different Hamlet productions. So, I played around on youtube to see what they offered. Sure, the expected clips are there, starring Mel, Lawrence, and Ethan, but here are a few I didn't expect to find from The Muppets, Animaniacs, and Cat Head Theater. Enjoy!

Vocabulary Game

2008-07-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Hey there, fellow Learn2Players! I have an idea: let's play a word game! Respond to this post with a new word that you have learned through Learn2play.

The word can be technological jargon (sorry Ann, I know you hate jargon) like "blogosphere", or "wiki" or "lurking." Seriously, you need a whole new lexicon to participate in this initiative, don't you? So??? What words have you learned?

Looking for a more creative outlet? How about coming up with your own original term -- one that you've made up to suit a particular situation? For example, I coined the term "Johnny Appleseeding" to describe my daily visits to other blogs, encouraging chatter among others. Here's another: "hit and blogging" - I like it to describe my sister's random visits to other bloggers. She just pops in, says hello, and then moves along. (FrognToad is her blog, by the way).I think she's hoping to become a web celebrity. Hey, there's another budding term - a weblebrity!

Come on you guys, let's have some fun! I've read your blogs, and I know how clever you are, so let's see what you can do!

Thing # 19 - The Link not Taken

2008-07-07T03:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I couldn't really get a bead on my post for Thing #19; in fact, I completed the thing before I went away for the 4th, but a meaningful response eluded me. What is there to say? It is a great list? It is. There are a lot of cool sites? There are. In fact, I was astounded by the variety of sites listed in each category.

Each category, you ask? The assignment said to pick one proven winner and explore it. Easier said than done, my friends. Let's walk through a category like.... hmnnn... food. Let's see... oh, the highest rated site contains videos - not a video person (at least yet) ; the second is a restaurant rating site - interesting, but we tend to revisit our favorite places rather than venture out; the third is another video site - still don't like those and the graphics are slow to load; but wait, here is an interesting site listed as the honorable mention: Recipe Key. Cool! It has an ingredient match where you can specify ingredients you already have on hand, and the search engine will find recipes that match, or nearly match, those particular items.

Let's see, I have peanut butter, brown sugar, flour, vanilla, eggs, I want to bake something - a dessert...wowee! Do you know I have almost all of the ingredients to make 896 different recipes? Where shall I start? But wait, I have oatmeal too, and salt, and refined sugar, and...

You can see the problem: too many cool sites, too little time. It puts me in mind of a line from Robert Frost's "The Road not Taken": "Yet knowing how way leads on to way,/I doubted if I should ever come back." What if I looked at one site and not the other and missed something wonderful? So, I keep clicking around, and around, and around.

And you know what happens right? The same has happened to you all - I've read about it in your own posts! One hour turns into two, two into two-and-a-half, and I'm still sitting here, clicking around because I might miss something!

So, in the spirit of another really cool site , Seventeen Syllables, one that I found in a link from an award-winning site, One Sentence, I'll close with a haiku:

Learn2Play:

Alone at my desk:
Click, link, next, back, click, next, home.
Seconds become hours!

Back to Thing #12

2008-07-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I took the day off today - kind of...

Instead of completing Thing #19, I just spent the morning looking for responses to comments I left on other blogs. (Wow, that sentence is seriously flawed, but it is late and I must get ready for bed soon!) From this, I learned the value of two things: 1) having responses to your comments e-mailed to you (managed through the settings post of your dashboard) and 2) setting up a blog list. You will see mine at the right side of the page. I included those bloggers with whom I have chatted over the last couple of weeks. Now, when I want to see what they are up to, I can just click on their updated posts rather than going back to the learn2play page and trying to remember whose blog I visited! (Again, this is created through the settings tab on your dashboard - add element - blog list.) Somehow I didn't appreciate these features when completing Thing 12, but like the Google notebook that I wrote about earlier, it is only when the information is needed and valuable that learning actually occurs.

Also, in the spirit of creating community, I visited some quieter blogs and encouraged people to get out there and chat! I get the feeling that many of us are still writing for an audience of one...

Well, I'm off to Oklahoma for the 4th and am looking forward to replacing the electronic glare of the computer screen with the warmth of the sun; the clickety-clack of the keyboard with the popping of fireworks ; posted comments with live conversation. I wish you all the same blessings!

Happy Independence Day!

Thing 18 - Just how productive are these tools?

2008-07-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

I have to give you a bit of personal information as the foundation for my response to Thing 18 - Online Productivity Tools. You see, I spent several (read two-and-a-half to three) hours on Sunday afternoon making invitations to a wedding day luncheon for my niece. Wow, you are probably thinking, that seems like an inordinate amount of time for a relatively simple process! No kidding! So, what was the problem? The word processing program installed on our new home computer - Microsoft Office 2007. What a mess!

How can it be that despite all of the hours spent creating my blog, playing around with different technology applications, etc., a simple word processing program derails me? Please! It was so bad that my husband, who approaches technology on a "need to know" basis, offered to help!

I ended up pulling out my old laptop, creating my document there, saving it to my travel drive, and then pulling it up and printing it from our new computer. I won't even trouble you with the sad story of printing the envelopes...

Anyhow, I tell you all of that so you will be able to appreciate the great relief I felt when I read Office Tools' advice: "Remember ..., you can save it (your document) in several different formats, including MS Word '98, 2000, and 2003." Could this be a way to circumvent future woes? I eagerly opened the link only to receive this message: "Your browser cannot display the site correctly - please ask your vendor for an update." Oh, the irony of it all...

Well, fortunately I had already registered on Google, so I just opened their tools instead. And, as we have all come to expect, things proceeded according to Hoyle. Lovely, lovely, lovely Google!
Since I am pretty adept (or so I thought) with word processing, I decided to play around with their publishing software and made a brief power-point instead. I'm not sure it is any easier than other applications I have used, but the idea that it can be saved online and accessed from any place - even offline, apparently, though I haven't tried it yet - is pretty amazing.

I think of my students who are always bemoaning their techno-glitches as an excuse for not having their homework. Wouldn't it be cool if they all had Google accounts and saved their documents online? That way, we could just pop over to my desk, log on, and print out their
assignments? No fuss, no muss! (Unless, of course, they haven't done the assignment and are just using technology as a scapegoat. No, surely not...)

I think of my own difficulties with those silly invitations and how I could have saved hours of frustration... Well, I guess that's why they call it learning!

By the way, I am going to try to include the work-in-progress-power-point below... I think it is kind of amusing... Hope you guys enjoy it!

(Hmmm - does anyone know how to do this? VWB are you out there?)

Thing #17 - Three Inches for Rollyo

2008-06-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

If you'd looked for me last Sunday, you'd have found me in Cancun, sitting under the shade of a papa, a dusting of white sand on my toes, warm breezes stirring the pages of my book, the crystalline waters of the Caribbean shimmering only yards away. Five days of heaven...

But, the problem of "getting away from it all" is that it is all still here when you return! For some that provides comfort -- my husband, for example, is always ready to get back to our normal routine. I would be in the opposing camp. Normal seems pale and dull and, well, so normal.

So maybe that explains my indifference to Thing #17 - Rollyo. For someone coming off a vacation high, it is just so linear , so focused. It allows for no spontaneity, no discovery. It creates a very small box.

Remember that scene from "The Jerk" when Navin (played by Steve Martin) is working at the carnival? To the question of what prize a particular winner gets, Navin responds "Uh, anything in this general area right in here. Anything below the stereo and on this side of the bicentennial glasses. Anything between the ashtrays and the thimble. Anything in this three inches right in here in this area. That includes the Chiclets, but not the erasers."

I know, I know - Sometimes, especially in the vastness of cyberspace, you long for someone to say "Look here - right in these three inches. This is where you will find your answers". Sometimes you want focus, sometimes you just want information, free of distractions. You know the websites you like, you know the ones you don't like, you know which are credible and which are just junk. Yes, sometimes a small area, created through a personalized search engine like rollyo, is exactly what you want.

And I'm sure in the fall, when I am helping my students with research or when I am looking for a particular piece of criticism, I will be glad to have put boundaries on the vastness of cyberspace, to have defined my own three inches of shelf space.

But not right now, not today. Today I want to keep the fullness of my vacation alive: bare feet, lightly tanned, splish-splashing down miles and miles of coastline.

Thing #16 - Wikitopia: A solution to all of my technology problems?

2008-06-27T04:51:00.000-07:00

Whew: talk about controversial! I think I'd rather talk about the upcoming election or religion or The College Bowl System than get into a debate about Wikipedia. Oh, you didn't know there was a debate?

Well, neither did I really: I knew there were concerns about the credibility of the contributors, and because of that I forbade my students from using Wikipedia as a source in research. Instead, I wanted my students to use criticism from scholarly sources and databases. It seemed an easy answer for me - end of story, right? Wrong!

Apparently, there is a whole storm a-brewing out there about the margin of error found in Wikipedia, how that margin compares to long-revered sources such as Encyclopedia Britannica, rebuttals from Wikipedia's founder...what a brouhaha! Or is it?

Honestly, credibility is an issue in every form of media isn't it? And isn't it incumbent upon us as consumers (of thought as well as material goods) to carefully screen whatever we purchase, whatever we believe? Do we allow our opinions, thoughts, values, etc. to be shaped by one source? Hopefully not.

That determined, I move on to more salient topics: creating our own wikis. Once again, the guys over at Common Craft make simple work of the topic. (I think I love them. Really.) For the last year or two, my partners and I have tried different technology applications hoping to generate online discussions among our students. Unfortunately, none of them worked very well. There was always some limitation, procedural or within the technology available, that hindered meaningful discussion.

I am hoping that wikis might offer a solution to the problems encountered. Looking at the wikis and blogs through the learn2play page, I came across some really neat applications. There was one great wiki on Hamlet. Have you guys seen it? If I can find it again, I will include the link in this posting. And the one from the New Jersey Public Library? Great!

I have only one question - how does what one posts in the sandbox differ from what one posts on the wiki itself? Anyone know? Am I exposing my ignorance again?

Thing #15 - Tropic of Cancer or Tropic of Capricorn?

2008-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I know, I am so predictable, but I just have to do it! How could I live with myself if I didn't? How could I justify the hours and hours spent watching reruns? Some of you know that I am a great Seinfeld fan and sense where I am headed here -- others of you may be a bit baffled: what on earth is she talking about???

In Episode 22, "The Library," Jerry is investigated by Mr. Bookman, the New York Public Library's detective. At question - a copy of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer supposedly returned in 1971. Below are two particularly salient (not to mention darn funny) passages from the script:

Phillip Baker Hall visits Jerry in his apartment and issues a flaming oratory on the sanctity of the library and finally an ultimatum...

BOOKMAN: Well, let me tell you something, funny boy. Y'know that little
stamp, the one that says "New York Public Library"? Well that may not
mean anything to you, but that means a lot to me. One whole hell of a
lot. Sure, go ahead, laugh if you want to. I've seen your type
before: Flashy, making the scene, flaunting convention. Yeah, I know what
you're thinking. What's this guy making such a big stink about old
library books? Well, let me give you a hint, junior. Maybe we can live
without libraries, people like you and me. Maybe. Sure, we're too old to
change the world, but what about that kid, sitting down, opening a book,
right now, in a branch at the local library and finding drawings of
pee-pees and wee-wees on the Cat in the Hat and the Five Chinese
Brothers? Doesn't HE deserve better? Look. If you think this is about
overdue fines and missing books, you'd better think again. This is about
that kid's right to read a book without getting his mind warped! Or:
maybe that turns you on, Seinfeld; maybe that's how y'get your kicks. You
and your good-time buddies. Well I got a flash for ya, joy-boy: Party
time is over. Y'got seven days, Seinfeld. That is one week!

Later in the same episode, Bookman comments on the qualities and virtues of the librarian...

BOOKMAN: I remember when the librarian was a much older woman:
Kindly, discreet, unattractive. We didn't know anything about her private
life. We didn't want to know anything about her private life. She didn't
have a private life. While you're thinking about that, think about this:
The library closes at five o'clock, no exceptions. This is your
final warning. Got that, kewpie-doll?

I think these stereotypes fit so perfectly in the case of Thing #15. After reading the five perspectives one cannot help but accept that a great shift is occurring, and for myself may I say "Hallelujah!" Undoubtedly we all have our own "librarian" stories - have you ever read Eudora Welty's description of Mrs. Calloway, her hometown librarian? And, true, it may be unfair to place the blame solely on the librarian, but I'll bet that every one of us has run up against the archaic library system at some point in our life. Those of you who know me have heard (ad nauseum, probably) my own tale of woe as my "lending privileges were suspended" one summer. The sting of those whispered words still pierce my tender psyche.

But I digress. Back to the words "archaic library system": I think that is what the five perspectives presented in Thing 15/Library2.0 strive to overcome. While reading the words of each expert, I used my Google Notebook ( a pretty cool feature, by the way) to keep notes. As I did, I tagged key concepts, words, and phrases. When done, I couldn't help but notice the contrast of past and present. Take a look at the lists below...

Words used in discussing the past included:
remnants of a bygone information age
practices and attitudes that no longer make sense
difficult, expensive and slow
barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need
privileged with access
libraries no longer have the monopoly power that they had in the days before the Internet
policies and procedures that impede users’ access to the library

Words for the present and future?
anticipates the user’s every need
our patrons will expect access to everything
user-centric service
more humble in the current environment
a social and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience
breakdown barriers and allow users access wherever they are: home, work, commuting, school, or at the library
a climate of collaboration
users add value
social services
Libraries should welcome the submission of reviews, assignment of keywords (“tagging”), addition of scholarly commentary, and other forms of user participation

Forgive me for failing to cite each and every one of the five authors separately. For the quotes used in their exact contexts, see the links below.

So goodbye Mr. Bookman, Mrs. Calloway, and the lady in the pink sweater at the Hedwig Village libary. Times they are a'changing, and dinosaurs need not apply!

Five Perspectives:
Away from Icebergs
Into a new world of librarianship
To more powerful ways to cooperate To better bibliographic services
To a temporary place in time

Thing # 14 - I'm a sucker for language...

2008-06-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true: I am attracted to words. Certainly single words pique our interest (see my students' list in the sidebar), but used collectively words wield a particularly seductive power.

A certain turn of words, a particular phraseology, the way some words come trippingly off the tongue - ah, that is true bliss. Go ahead, roll your eyes the way my students do (Or perhaps you are among those who nod silently or proffer a slight smile of agreement?)

I am not ashamed to admit my love of language, but I will concede that it does cause a certain blindness at times. Take, for example, the language used in the introduction to Thing 14: Technorati is described as "a portmanteau... of technology and literati...". Those words alone were music to my ears: portmanteau! literati! Could it be true? A thinker's approach to blogging?

Don't get me wrong - I am no great intellectual; in fact, each day I grow more and more aware of how little I really know. But, I do think it is important to discern between the truly important and that which I refer to as "mind candy". (Do you know how long I have been waiting to use those words ???) So, getting more directly to the point, based on the language used to describe it, I thought that Technorati would help elevate Internet above the influence of pop-culture and its associated forms of idiocy.

Well, I did admit that words could be seductive, didn't I? Only time will tell for certain, but I'm afraid that I may have been lured by the Sirens' song once again...

The two clips by the brain trust at Technorati offered the first glimpse of the conflict between theory and reality. Their own discussion, peppered with the language of democracy - the voice of the people, the authority of the people, rarefied versus regular people, the raw and uncut human experience, the voice of the regular guy bubbling up from the bottom - these words suggested that Technorati offered a portal through which the masses could be heard! Can't you just visualize Thomas Jefferson nodding in approval?

The problem is that, at least as indicated through my morning's sojourn through the site, the contributors to Technorati address the same topics that any other website does. Yes, it does allow the voice of the huddled masses to be heard, but we just don't have much to say...

Or am I wrong? I acknowledge the tendency to speak before I think, so please let me know if I am misguided. Maybe I just haven't given it a fair chance? Or have I been been foiled by words once again?

PS - Just so you don't think I'm completely close-minded, I've spent the last 36 hours mulling over my comments, and I have to amend my stance. (Go figure...) So, what follows is my confession. Should I sit behind a darkened panel for this, or is the relative anonymity of the Internet enough? At any rate, here it is: My assessment of Technorati was ill-informed, biased, and unfair. I operated out of a rigidly preconceived notion of what the site would be, and then when it wasn't what I expected I dismissed it with a sniff and huff. In doing so, I missed the point... Well, I didn't miss it, but I didn't fully appreciate the democratization of the blogosphere and how it completely changes the traditional relationship between knowledge users and brokers. It wasn't until this morning's readings associated with Thing#15 that this change really caught my attention. I won't divulge all of the details here: I don't want to spoil the activities for you. However, if you want another perspective of Technorati, one that really seems to synthesize the whole schmere (sp?), take a look at the link below.

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/archives/1170#comments

Thing # 13 -Something is abuzz at the bottom of the page...

2008-06-18T04:37:00.000-07:00

Have any of you read Gary Paulsen's Hatchet? If so, you no doubt remember poor Brian surrounded by swarms of gnats and mosquitoes even to the degree that his eyes and nose were clouded by the offenders! That horrifying image always stuck with me, and to a large degree it colored the way that I looked at social bookmarking tags. I considered them a nuisance, an unwelcome presence that buzzed about the bottom of webpages I tried to view.

I wasn't sure of these semantic intruders' origins nor could I speak to their intent, but I did know that ignoring them and hoping they would go away was out of the question. The blue underlined pests buzzed around the screen and distracted me from my webquests. Honestly, if I came across a website or blog that harbored these little intruders, I would hit the back button with lightning speed. Could any site that gave refuge to that disorganized mess of words (and I do hate a mess!) really be credible? Really?

Well, that was my opinion until the wee hours of this morning. Imagine my surprise when I heard that these "tags" (as I learned they were called) really held some value. I have to credit the guys at Common Craft for my changed heart: really, those fellows are amazing! Who would ever have thought that a white board, a few paper dolls, and a dry-erase marker could be such an effective educational tool?

Once I watched their video and listened to the podcast by Kathleen Gilroy, my previous disdain melted away. Concepts like "the magic middle," "topical authority," and "folkarchy" suddenly added purpose to what I previously considered worthless junk.

After such a thorough introduction into Del.icio.us, Furl and Ma.gnolia seemed to pale in comparison, so I didn't even pursue them. Instead, I just played around with the tags already posted in Del.icio.us, spending most of my time in the most popular tags in the food section.

So, what is my new and improved opinion of social bookmarking? Well, I like the idea of using one's own system of organization to create order out of the increasing tangled worldwide web. How many times have I wished that there was a better way to categorize my bookmarks, one that would allow greater flexibility in nomenclature? My own word associations do far more to charge the synapses than do the stilted titles of some website. The title of the play Tanglewood Tales is a far better reminder than the name of the article which discusses the play, "Hawthorne in Salem."

But will I use it? Will I encourage my students to use it? I think I'll have to be sure that those little clouds at the bottom of the screen are fireflies or lightning bugs before I do!

Thing #12 - She's Quite a Talker, Isn't She?

2008-06-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm glad to be back on solid footing after the Library Thing/ Shelfari debacle. I was going to go back and amend that post; however, I decided that other readers might actually enjoy reading about my vexations and frustrations.

And I have become mindful of my readers, haven't you all? At first, I just wrote away in seeming anonymity, likening my blog to a single grain of sand on the beach. How could it ever be discerned from among the others? And quite frankly, I doubted that anyone would actually want to read it!

And so I just started writing. And guess what? You guys showed up! At first I was self-conscious, especially as I knew some of the other bloggers, but then other screen names began popping up, and viola, a readership was born!

However, the flip side of the audience is the commitment, and in that sense, blogging is rather like dating : the first encounters are exhilarating, but sooner or later you have to decide whether or not you really want to pursue this relationship. Do I write back? If so, what do I say? I don't want to sound too forward, yet on the other hand I want to say something meaningful...

Thing #12 has reminded me that blogging is indeed a relationship, and all relationships require risk. So this morning I have been visiting the blogs of those who have commented on my blog: DaydreamsinTechnicolor and VWB and Susannadare and Rose, first just looking around but ultimately taking the plunge and leaving a post or two.

Now I will have to venture out a bit and leave a post at other blogs that I read regularly. It is amazing that my shyness follows me even into cyberspace: will it seem random that some woman from Houston, Texas just popped in? Well, I guess we'll find out! I'm off to visit bigoven.com and thejoyofbakind.com and all of the other places to make my presence known...

Thing #11 - The Agony and The Ecstacy

2008-06-14T04:48:00.001-07:00

Allow me a moment to vent as I begin this post - again, for the fourth, maybe even the fifth time. Until yesterday morning I tippy-toed merrily along through the requirements, finding joy in each of the assignments - well, ok, maybe not in the RSS newsfeeds, but that difficulty stemmed more from a philosophical question than with the actual applications.

I eagerly anticipated the Library Thing, having seen on other players' pages rows and rows of books, neatly arranged on a shelf... I created my account, added my titles, and prepared my books for viewing; however, I couldn't figure out how to make the bookshelf. Look at the boring little sidebar on the right side of the page: that is no way to display something one loves!
Can anyone out there help me?

I have tried a hundred different ways of using the tools offered on Library Thing, but all I succeeded in doing was to erase my original post which was, if I might say so, quite inspired.
(Someone left my cake out in the rain, and I tried so hard to make it, and it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again... Oh, forgive the 70's flashback/self-induced pity party!)

I'm hoping that someone out there is actually reading this and can help...

Oh, it is Shelfari!!! Thank you, Bibliophile Blogger, for mentioning this in one of your posts!
http://jstockel.blogspot.com/

Thing #10 - Visions of Sugarplums

2008-06-13T03:55:00.001-07:00

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

My early morning quest for an ice-cream cake recipe to share on Father's Day must have a lingering effect... (I'm thinking of a chocolate jelly-roll cake with bing cherry ice cream if anyone has a good recipe!).

But on to more salient topics like the image generators: what fun! The greatest difficulty I encountered was deciding from among the options. I started with the Custom Sign Generator http://dummies.book.cover.txt2pic.com/ and after sifting through the 51 links offered therein created the "Dummies" image found down the page a bit.

Amused but not fully satisfied (kind of like eating Jello), I pressed on to Image Chef. Gratified to see the words "Visual Poetry" pop up on the page, I knew I was in the right place. Using the Poetry Blender http://www.imagechef.com/ic/blender/ I created the ice cream image that you see above.

Applications for the classroom? Let your mind run wild. For my own students, I can see covers for their outside reading novels, venues for their found poetry and embellished words, etc. What a great tool for the kids who are inspired to create but are, in their own words, "not good at art."

Well, since these generators give birth to flights of fancy, let me offer a little bit of whimsy to send you on your way...

Bleezer's Ice Cream

by Jack Prelutsky

I am Ebenezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
there are flavors in my freezer
you have never seen before,
twenty-eight divine creations
too delicious to resist,
why not do yourself a favor,
try the flavors on my list:
COCOA MOCHA MACARONI
TAPIOCA SMOKED BALONEY
CHECKERBERRY CHEDDAR CHEW
CHICKEN CHERRY HONEYDEW
TUTTI-FRUTTI STEWED TOMATO
TUNA TACO BAKED POTATO
LOBSTER LITCHI LIMA BEAN
MOZZARELLA MANGOSTEEN
ALMOND HAM MERINGUE SALAMI
YAM ANCHOVY PRUNE PASTRAMI
SASSAFRAS SOUVLAKI HASH
SUKIYAKI SUCCOTASH
BUTTER BRICKLE PEPPER PICKLE
POMEGRANATE PUMPERNICKEL
PEACH PIMENTO PIZZA PLUM
PEANUT PUMPKIN BUBBLEGUM
BROCCOLI BANANA BLUSTER
CHOCOLATE CHOP SUEY CLUSTER
AVOCADO BRUSSELS SPROUT
PERIWINKLE SAUERKRAUT
COTTON CANDY CARROT CUSTARD
CAULIFLOWER COLA MUSTARD
ONION DUMPLING DOUBLE DIP
TURNIP TRUFFLE TRIPLE FLIP
GARLIC GUMBO GRAVY GUAVA
LENTIL LEMON LIVER LAVA
ORANGE OLIVE BAGEL BEET
WATERMELON WAFFLE WHEAT

I am Ebenezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
taste a flavor from my freezer,
you will surely ask for more.

2008-06-12T05:20:00.000-07:00

Thing #9 - Recall on yesterday's scepticism

2008-06-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday I took the sceptics stance toward newsfeeds; today, though, I adopt a more broad-minded view of the opportunities available through blogs and newsfeeds. I'm not just playing nice -- I'm not a born-again newsie, either. I've simply spent a little more time with the tools and technology available and am more appreciative of the value offered by blogs and newsfeeds.

Particularly influential in my changed thinking was the article about creating your own "Circle of the Wise" at Coolcatteacher.com. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-create-your-circle-of-wise-how.html This author's stance toward character, inspiration, responsibility, etc. assuaged some of my concerns and helped guide my own blog searches.

So, using Coolcat's guidelines, I searched by character and credibility in the areas that I enjoy. Using bloglines and google, I started with William Safire, then on to Jan Freeman, and so on.
These search methods may seem archaic in light of the myriad available, but given my fledgling knowledge and tendency to be overwhelmed by too much information I thought it best to keep it simple.

Thing 8 - RSS News Feeds and the Problem of "Getting the Scoop"

2008-06-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

As long as I am quoting the Transcendentalists (see post #7), let me return to my friend Thoreau once again:

And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed, or murdered, or killed by accident, or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked, or one steamboat blown up, or one cow run over on the Western Railroad, or one mad dog killed, or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter — we never need read of another. One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications? To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Yet not a few are greedy after this gossip.

So there you have it, friends: an intriguing view of the news. Even though Thoreau wrote these words over 100 years ago, it seems particularly apt today: Yet not a few are greedy after this gossip. It seems that modern society has a constant eye and ear for the "news." With scrolling bars and constantly updated windows, one will surely be abreast of the latest events and by extension better prepared for... for what? Aye, there's the rub!

I find that with the information glut, it becomes nearly impossible to determine who and what is truly important. Brittany Spears shares top billing with the upcoming presidential election and tsunami victims in the East. Huh! Paradoxically it seems that the wider availability of information often obscures one's knowledge of that which is truly important.

Perhaps that is why I found this particular "Thing" difficult. Not the application itself, but the question of to which news feeds I would subscribe. To subscribe is a very powerful word and has great implications, suggesting not only that I elect to receive something but more importantly that I endorse the material and way of thinking contained within. Yipes! I know, some of you are thinking I am waaaaay too serious about this stuff. It is called play, isn't it? I shall adopt a lighter tone as I move on from philosophy to application, I promise!

So, on to more practical matters. Our basic questions for this thing were as follows:

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

I think I have responded to the first question, although indirectly. We'll have to live with that type of answer. As for use in my school life, I can definitely see linking a couple of the RSS topics (book reviews, human interest stories and essays from NPR) to my school website, if that is possible. (Does anyone out there know the answer to that one?)

Also, as we are encouraging our AP students to become students of the world and to broaden their horizons beyond 77024, the newsfeeds seem a great way to encourage awareness of local, domestic, and international happenings. And even though she expressed a certain derision and scorn for news in her opening comments, the humble English teacher might learn something as well...

Thing #7 - Cool Tools!

2008-06-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, a few days have passed since my last post, but I am back to my 23 things. This evening I played around with the myriad of tools that Google has to offer, specifically the calendar, notebook, and news alerts.

I have to begin my response with a disclaimer of sorts: I am not a calendar keeper. (Perhaps this is why I never know what the date is! I rely on my A.R friends, family, and students for this information. My watch does have a date window, but as my forty-something vision changes, that added enhancement becomes moot. I love that word - moot! I shall add it to the list of words I love...) But I digress: generally, I can keep about a month's worth of important dates in my mind, and I leave planning beyond that to my husband. JTKIII is a great calendar keeper - - pages are color coded by event and events planned up to a year in advance.

This cavalier attitude toward planning might suggest to some that I am disorganized or careless, but I am not. I just resist the idea of filling my days for the sake of filling them. Remember what Thoreau said about "work, work, work!" and the "infinite bustle" of human life. "Simplify, simplify, simplify," he offered instead, and it is a suggestion that I try take to heart.

As long as I am quoting my favorite transcendentalists, let me throw in a little Emerson.: "Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. " So now, drawing on latitude offered by those particular words, I will add that for all of my resistance to calendars in my personal life, I do (of course) keep several s calendars in my professional life, ranging from long-range overviews of the school year, semester overviews, monthly calendars, and daily lesson plans. In that light, I can see an application for this tool with my students. How about a class calendar posted on my website? Homework assignments, upcoming tests, papers and projects, library dates, etc... Could students even post dates on the calendar? It can be edited by multiple parties, I think! I played around with the options, and it is quite easy to use.

And speaking of student use, have you looked at the Google Notebook? Any teacher that has taken a class of kids to the library for research will find this feature helpful. Because of the great library website that our district created and all of the wonderful resources we have to choose from, the kids have little trouble finding material; however, organizing it and keeping up with their print outs is another matter. Wouldn't it be neat to have them use the Google Notebook as a system of record keeping? With all of the neat organizational tools this feature offers, the students could even arrange their material into an outline of sorts.

Oh, one last option I used was the News Alert feature, setting up a daily e-mail alert with news releases featuring "Top Chef." It is on Wednesday night, you know... Who will it be? Richard, Stephanie, or Lisa? My fellow TC afficianados know that I have been plotting against Lisa for some time now, just waiting for her to get the boot... surely tonight will be the night! Back to the news alert, I'll be anxious to see what ends up in my e-mail tomorrow following tonight's program.

Thing #4 - I'm registered!

2008-06-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Forgot to include this post earlier, but registered I am!

Thing#6 - Smashed Again!

2008-05-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! Let me reiterate my earlier comments about image junkies: having spent nearly an hour playing around with the different applications, my theories were only confirmed! How much can you do with a simple photograph? Well, apparently you can do nearly anything your mind can conceptualize!

Some of the photography applications I had seen before on other sites, but the more elaborate smashups - like the map with the photographs that pop up to define and detail given locations - now that is just amazing! If you haven't checked out Mappr yet, do so immediately -- just make sure you have time to spend.

Smashups give life to our wildest ideas. It is as if someone said, "Wouldn't it be cool if there were a way to (fill in the blank)," and someone else said, "Hey, I think I can write code for that!"
What I really like is the way these applications bring together linear, analytical thinking and the need to create something of beauty. The left side of the brain and the right side of the brain work together instead of compete! Eureka!

Thing #5 - My Friend Flikr

2008-05-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

To the list of words I like, I should add "image junkie." I think the term really captures something essential about modern appetites and thereby explains the proliferation of sites such as Flikr, Shutterfly, Google Images, etc.

I spent a good while just clicking through the different tagged collections, guided only by piques of interest or bouts of curiosity. I found the picture collections themselves overwhelming in size (9, 625 images!), and without some greater purpose, I could see myself getting lost in the labyrinth of images and losing a good deal of time... My case in point: it is now 6:05 a.m., and I wonder where the last hour has gone!

I haven't properly attributed this photo, and given the thoughtfulness of the Common Rules of Use, I want to make sure that I do so. I shall have to go back and read up on how to actually embed the copyright information. I am always after my students to credit their sources, aren't I?

After selecting a picture but not really feeling like I appreciated the value of Flikr beyond satiating our need for visual stimulation, I went back to the Learn2Play page for further instruction and guidance, and from there I ended up viewing the library groups.

Intrigued though I was by the 365 Library Project (imprecise title, if any of you go looking for it) and considered it a good way to promote, advertise, record, and even validate what organizations are doing, I wondered what applications it might have for the simple English teacher. I can certainly see its value in gathering and storing images, but I wonder how it could be used as a learning tool for students. I'll have to read around and see how other Learn2Play users are thinking...

Thing #3 - The Avatar and the Identity Crisis

2008-05-25T04:14:00.000-07:00

Remember my previous comment that I often have just enough knowledge to be dangerous? True again in the case of the avatar. Up until yesterday morning, the breadth of my experience came solely from Dwight Schrute of "The Office." His avatar, capable of flying over a virtual world, left me with the impression that avatars interested only computer nerds and science-fiction/fantasy afficianados...

After spending an hour or so in the wee hours of Saturday and Sunday morning playing around with the Yahoo avatars, I can begin to see their charm. Creating a cyber persona (or better yet alter-ego or doppelganger!) is kind of a fun way to spend a few minutes. However, as is the case with time, minutes often turn into hours, and that brings me to the problem of the avatar.

Those of you who know me can probably anticipate my problem : the vanity and appearance-consciousness that plagues me in real life follows me into cyberspace! I am the person who, despite my 41 years, wastes precious minutes each morning in search of the perfect outfit. How can I outfit my avatar when I can't even dress myself? What if there is no hairstyle just like mine? Will I still like that red bolero jacket at the end of the day? And cufs on pants: will they make my avatar's legs look too short? I could spend hours clicking through the different outfit options and screens and labels, trying to decide how I want to be represented.

In retrospect, although I will create the avatar for the completion of the task, I will probably delete it at some point. I hope my voice creates a better image than any pixelated graphic ever could.

Thing 1 - Lifelong Learners

2008-05-25T03:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, does anyone else remember Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Dr. Seuss books? The Cat in the Hat, I believe? Creepy little things with a mop of red hair and red and white striped union suits? I'm really going to have to move beyond that association, leaving childhood fears and fodder for nightmares behind...

On to the posting - lifelong learning. This,my friends, is not hard for me: interest and enthusiasm are definite strengths. There is always something more I want to learn about language and linguistics, literature, writing, religion and Christianity, cooking, running, health and wellness.

The tension between having a solid foundation of knowledge in any one of those areas while still staying current keeps me thinking and reading, reading and thinking. Yet this same tension lends itself to my greatest weakness, as well: follow-through and completion of projects. Though I seek this "whole understanding" of whatever I am studying - past, present, and future contexts and applications- I often find myself overwhelmed by the scope of the undertaking, pressed by time constraints, and left with just enough knowledge to be classified as "dangerous."

What did you you do?

2008-05-24T03:36:00.000-07:00

As preparation for a five-day intensive seminar in leadership, my brother was asked to tell fifteen stories from his life- stories that detailed a time when he had worked hard to achieve something that had affected a change and with which he was pleased.

In humility, he readily acknowledged that he had no awards - scholastic, athletic, etc. - that would have provided the easy answers. There was nothing on a grand scale to which he could point, but instead he was pressed to really think about the events of his life and his accomplishments.

He shared some of his stories with us, his family, but I'll leave them for his telling. He is the far-better storyteller in the family. But, it does make one think, doesn't it? Ask yourself the question - What work have I done that was hard, affected a change, and with which I was pleased?

I'm not sure myself, but I'll start the list with my friend Lucille - those of you who know her need no other details - and follow it with Christmas Cookie Santa Ornaments.

Thoughts on Graduation

2008-05-23T09:47:00.001-07:00

Well, graduation day is drawing near, and thankfully most of our seniors have emerged unscathed from what I affectionately ( or perhaps cruelly) refer to as "the stupid season."
If all goes well, each of our 500+ graduates will line up and cross the stage on Saturday morning.

Crossing the stage is really symbolic, isn't it? Leaving one stage of life behind for some new hope, new promise, new opportunity... That which is left behind is known, but what lies ahead is heavy with possibility.

A few words along those lines from colleague Dorothy Blodgett (who admittedly lifted the ideas from others): "Graduation is called a COMMENCEMENT. This means that it is the beginning of the rest of your life, not just the end of your public school education."

I like it, indeed!