We can learn from the animals.

I was watching Animal Planet the other day and it occured to me that animals teach their young by simply modeling behavior. There are no lessons, dissertations, assignments. The young simply watch and model the behavior of the adults. The adults always model "appropriate" behavior.

Facebook Mom (eeewww)
I signed up for Facebook the other day. (I had to do it from home since it is blocked in the district.) Someone suggested it to me to be able to get in touch with alumni. My own kids were horrified. Many of my current as well as former students friended me. My being there reminds them to be careful what they post.

Below is an example of how easy it is to embed a PPT in your blog. If you are curious as to how I did this, come rattle my cage and I will show you. It took 3 seconds!

Today I was lucky enough to be invited to Mrs. Saxsma's class to read one of my favorite children's books. I chose to read Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina . I will never forget the day in second grade that Sister Cecilia Mary read that story to our class. She talked about making predictions based on what has already happened and asked us if when listening to the story we could use what we know to solve the peddler's problem. That was 45 years ago. Below are some photos of Mrs. Saxsma's class practicing the art of storytelling.

I have been at the MACUL Conference at Cobo the past two days and am posting this to demo how simple it is to use google docs to post to your blog.

March 1, 2007

Web 2.0

By mminer

I spent many hours in the past couple of weeks putting together a professional development presentation introducing web 2.0 technologies. The struggle for me is to try and filter down all that there is out there, as it is changing every day, into a neat little relevant package that will be immediately useful. It has to be sifted down so as not overwhelm you to the point of your eyes glazing over and your head exploding. So much to do, so little time. What I have decided is to start with the tools that will help you in your everyday life without focusing on things that may make you think you have to re-do your lessons- because that is where I think the resistance comes in. Many teachers are afraid that technology means that they have to throw out their old plans and create new ones. Not at all the case. Technology when used properly, should make what you are already doing better. One of the best tools available today is from Google. So I will be inviting each and every one of you to a Gmail account. Please accept this invitation. If you are brave you can venture out and explore the Google tools available to you on your own (kinda like reading ahead) otherwise they will be coming to you soon at an upcoming PD.