May 04 2008
The End is Near!
As the year winds down, I am trying to take some time for reflection and renewal. Our field trip went well. Okay, so that is an lie. the bus broke down, my estimation of time was abysmal, one child made a bad choice another had a bad reaction to some of the plant life. But I will do the trip again next year, because I think my students suffer from WDD, (I claim the name and acronym) Wilderness deficient disorder. While some of my kiddos were trail animals, a lot of them were unsure on rugged terrain and intimidated by a simple stream crossing. Now I am unusual, back when I worked as a wildlife biologist I made my living by covering ground, but man do these children need to get out more!
This will be remembered as the year I embraced Web 2.0. I now blog and podcast and am even considering twittering. I would like a regular podcast with the Technology Goddess, but that might be too ambitious now, but we are funny together.
I have not gone all the way to the dark side. I still feel like my cell phone is an electronic shackle, but if I have got to have a shackle, one with 8 gigs of memory and a touch screen would be cool. I have gone from planning for a phone jammer for my room to planning a electronic device orientation so kids learn to use their cell phone calculators. I hope I am learning to use this new technology to improve my ability to teach and not just because it is cool. I trust my natural power of accurate observation (George B. Shaw reference) to keep me on the right track. And I am trying hard not to indulge in caneshaking, though I am quickly reaching an age where it in expected, Kids today…
Speaking of cool, the most empowering moment was when I got my wii smartboard working, Thanks to Johnny Chung Lee and his blog for the idea and programing and schematic http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/
Anyway I have had a great year. I have a good group of kids, despite what I might be overhead saying in the teacher lounge. My Earth Science kids have been great, they really impressed me with this field trip. I had them organize it. I am looking forward to Monday’s debrief.
The weekly Planner should follow.
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