Task 23 Final Post, Just the Beginning

Though this is the final task I think it is just the beginning for me. Yesterday as I was doing 22 I set up a blog on Teacher lingo and was pleasantly surprised to find someone not only read my blog but took time to respond. It was easy to read the comment because it was sent to my email. It felt so good that someone out there was hearing me. That some stranger had words that I needed to hear. That the stranger took a minute to respond. Awesome! I'm not sure I'll blog there often but when I have a funny or weighty experience I have a place to go.

About this program. I want to thank my sister for incouraging me to start. I have learned so much and it was great to have her help me, talk to me, respond to me and fix my blog a few times. The program overall pushed into places I didn't know existed. Luckily it was in the summer which gave me extra time to really dig in. I never felt it was a burden, just pleasurable, sometimes challenging work.

Things I will use:
Rollyo! I will use my owned defined search to quickly find videos and activitis that I will use in science. I will not waste time wading through search responses from places I won't use. I am so excited to share this with friends at work.

News feedsL I set up a couple of news feeds to alert me by email when earthshaking stuff is happening such as quakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, mudslides...What I have discovered is that I get alerts almost everyday. Statewide, Earth science is the lowest score area on the 5th grade TAKS and we are always looking for ways to bring that up. I'm think just talking about what is really happening out there on a daily basis might help.

Nings will stay part of my routine. We have set up a faimly ning and I joined Teacherlingo as I mentioned earlier.

Image creators. I can hardly do a post without creating some little cartoon to go with it. It will drive my students crazy but I envision these showing up on agendas, notices, tests, studyguides..Perhaps it will replace my singing. No, I don't think so.

Flickr Creative Commons. As a science teacher I am always looking for images. This will supplement videos, textbook images, and posters and will be helpful for ELL kids who just need a concrete image to go with a term.

Yahoo Avatars...Fun, fun, fun.

Mashup sites. I think these will be great places for student projects. I hope I don't forget to use them.

These are the things that just pop in my mind without even peeking back. I think that means that these things I will actually use, not that learning about the ohter things wasn't valueable.

I couldn't get my survey to submit and I'll come back to that. Is that how you know we have completed the tasks? I suppose.

Task 22 1/2 More Ningnuts, Ningnuts 2.0

Well the family ning site is a hit. In just a matter of minutes my daughter was enrolled and had downloaded pictures from the weekend wedding that might have otherwise taken yers to get. Next was my older sister who signed right up and downloaded a picture of the wedding portrait. She proceeded to post the schedule of her upcoming trip to Virginia and Maine. I can't wait to see who all gets involved. I think it might be a good way for Dad to keep up with our goins on and share his photo work. Invitations were sent to others so we'll just have to wait and see.

Ningnut task 22

I didn't find Nings or TeacherLingo scary at all. What fun. I opened a blog in each. In Teacherlingo I opened a blog and shared my thoughts on creating my identity for the new year. I also enjoyed reading all the different attitudes voiced by others who are thinking about the return to school. I think it might be a fun way to share ideas with other teachers in similar groups. I didn't feel quite comfortable sharing all the info they asked for in the profile data so I didn't include full dob or district that I teach in. Then I went to Nings and create a site call Family Ties or DDDcircleotrust. I plan to invite all the family members when I get there email addresses. What a great way to share photos, announcements, happenings, videos, favorite music, and memories. It will be interesting to see if we really use it. I can see it might be handy.

Unrelated But Important All The Same

Perhpas it is the summer heat wave that has brought out the absolute worst in people, or perhaps I am emitting some aura that says," Be rude to me." I doubt the latter because I often describe myself as the nicest person I know. I realize that some people hate perky so I try to tone it down to merely nice...pleasant. In the past couple of weeks I have experienced some of the rudest people. Where? Target. Home Depot, and Habby Lobby. Generally I feel a bond to shoppers and workers in these places- a sort of brotherhood. In Home Depot after giving the sales lady 20 minutes to complete an important call by shopping the rest of the store and then coming back she told me "no" that she could not show me the carpet in the Home Depot Ad I had from my magazine because she had thousands and didn't know which it was. I know I'm gritting too. Did she offer to show me anything? Ni Get out of her chair? No. I just said thank you pleasantly and left the store, I hate to admit it, with hurt feelings. Not rude so much as just unhelpful.

Next episode, Target. Don't we all just love each other there? When I nicely said excuse me to a lady shopping there her respnse was NO and she just wheeled off. Maybe I have been too perky and just don't realize it. Some people HATE perky.

Where is there a funner place than Hobby Lobby where in an atttempt to sell you anything the staff in very helpful...the crafty world, you know. I quickly ran in to Hobby Lobby for some interior fabric 54", in warm tones for my kitchen chairs. I ask the employee what she thought of a fabric and she said"Talkin to me?" As I have her cut my four fabrics she doesn't make eye contact, inquire about my project, complement me on my choice of fabrics, ask who cuts my hair,..nothing. Even when I ask if she would like me to return the rolls of fabric(heavy!!!)she simply said no.
Does she hate life, her job, me? To her defense, as I was leaving she did mumble as if a cigareete was hanging out the corner of her mouth, "Have fun."

Have fun! Yes. Life is a lot more fun if you try to engage others in fun. I ccan imagine a therapist responding to this post by saying, "why do you care?", "Do you always take other's feelings personally?", "Why do you care if everyone likes and is nice to you?" I guess the answer is answered in that I have no answer.(Therpist scribbles on her pad wildly at this point) I think I just want people to join in my joys.