The Internet is Cool
It's weird that something like a teacher's in-service would help me discover something else cool and interesting about the Internet. I am usually bored at technology in-services, as they often involve a bunch of 50+ teachers sitting at computers trying to figure out how to log on, while I pass the time by getting my plans done and surfing the web. Yesterday we had an in-service on Web 2.0 tools for the classroom. The presenter talked about flickr (I still like Picasa Web Albums better), del.icio.us, Blogmeister (a blog hosting platform designed specifically for students and teachers), and ...
... okay, can I say how much I love being a daddy. while working on this post (with maddie and meggie both napping), maddie woke up suddenly crying. after waiting a few minutes, she still hadn't gone back to sleep, and sounded pretty upset. so i picked her up, got her taggie blanket, and we rocked for about 10 minutes. she very calmly fell back asleep. it was a wonderful moment. okay, back to my original post ...
... pbWiki, a easy-to-use Wiki tool. All of these were presented with ideas of how you could use them with your class. While the educational side of it was more for classroom teachers, I was very interested in the tech side of it. Yes, I know it has been around for years, but I finally set up my own del.icio.us page last night, and love it so far. I am going to put something on the sidebar, but you can visit my page at del.icio.us/drfinale
The other in-service was by Dr. Buzz Mingin, who is a educational consultant and specializes in dealing with kids with BDD. His presentation was also really great. I won't get into the details, but he gave some great classroom management tips. I really like his philosophy, and he mentioned he had a podcast...
...SO, after I created my del.icio.us page, I did some research into podcasting, and downloaded Juice, and open source podcast receiver. Considering my recent obsession with NPR, I thought I would find some podcasts from the website, and have already subscribed to a few. Now I just need to find time to listen to them. If anyone has any podcasts you'd recommend, let me know.
Other than my recent web discoveries, life has been pretty good. Maddie is more fun than ever. Work is tolerable, and sometimes downright fun. But something better may be on the horizon. I won't say anything more, as I don't want to jinx it.
That's all for now!
