sunrise2

sunrise2, a photo by SC Computer Teacher on Flickr.

Here is a picture taken from school early one morning. Pretty nice, right?

21Things4Students

Wow! How can it be the end of January already!!! Wasn't it just Christmas break?

We are underway with 21Things4Students, although, we have only done Thing 1. In your blog today, I would like to hear your reactions to your experience with Thing 1. Unfortunately, I am thinking that a lot of you never took the time to truly understand Delicious. That is really too bad. It is an excellent tool! Besides telling me what you think about Delicious and the process of adding items to Delicious, I would like you to list three ways you think you will be able to use your Delicious account.

Next week we move on to Thing 2 - Web Presence. Hopefully this will be an exciting thing. Please comment on my blog and tell me how you think you did on the pretest that we took. How tech smart are you?? Have a great weekend.

Are You Thankful?

Ah...November. When you hear that it is November, do you think of Thanksgiving? Or maybe it is hunting season you think of. No matter what, you should put an extra special effort in thinking about being thankful. Now, don't get me wrong, you should ALWAYS be thankful for what you have, but a little extra thank you can't hurt during November.

So what are you thankful for? I am thankful I have a wonderful husband and two amazing daughters (although I am not thankful that they live so far away). I am thankful I have a job (of course sometimes I don't want this job!), food to eat, and a roof over my head. In your blog today, tell me what you are thankful for.

So, who loves Thanksgiving? I don't really care one way or the other. It is nice to see family, but I don't get all excited to eat a lot or watch football all day. I have only made a turkey once for Thanksgiving! Needless to say, I am not the cook of the day. This year is no different. We are off to Ann Arbor to visit my parents and have dinner. My husband is going to see the Lions play with my brother and his family. After the game they will arrive hoping for a beautiful dinner that my mother and I have cooked. Should be a slow, but interesting day.

Do you have a tradition for Thanksgiving? I am not sure I really do, but it is the only day I get to eat pumpkin pie and I always use to make jello pie because that is the only pie my one of daughters likes. In a comment to me, tell me one thing that you ONLY do on Thanksgiving. I won't except and an answer of nothing, or I don't know! Think about it!!

Halloween

I just have to blog about Halloween! It is Sunday, you know. Actually, I am not very fond of Halloween. I had a couple of bad experiences as a child and I have been damaged for life. I don't even remember my costumes. Well, once I was a hobo (I know that from pictures). Do you like Halloween? In a comment to my blog tell me if you like Halloween and your favorite costume that you wore.

Now, I am all for Halloween parties. They can be fun and in today's society, very safe. I do remember my first boy/girl party in the sixth grade - it was a Halloween party. Yup, it took me that long to go to a mixed party where there weren't any adults just hanging around. We bobbed for apples and had a race to see who could eat a donut hanging from a string the fastest (you were laying on your back on the ground with the donut swinging above you). As I remember, I was pretty good at both games. I was a master at bobbing for apples - dive in fast pushing the apple to the bottom and taking a big bite! Now I wouldn't want to get my hair wet :-)

In your blog today, you also need to talk about Halloween. I am hoping you all think you are too old to go trick or treating...because you are! What plans do you have for Sunday? A party or two? Do you have a favorite memory from Halloween? What is the best candy to get in your Halloween bag? Is it chocolate? It always was for me, because no one gave chocolate because it was more expensive. I use to hide my candy because my brother would eat it. Then I would forget about it and have to throw it away. Such a waste! I use to get a popcorn ball from a neighbor friend. No way can you get anything these days that isn't wrapped when you buy it. Did you hear about the time someone put razor blades in caramel apples? We don't get those in Halloween bags anymore either.

Sure hope you have a great weekend, whatever you have planned. Mine will be quiet as I turn off the lights and hide upstairs while the kiddies run by my house trick or treating. I am a true Halloween Scrooge!!

What to blog about...hmmmm!

I am trying to blog every other week with something for you to blog about. But...right now I am at a loss for what to blog about. I just finished parent-teacher conferences! Yea! Glad those are over. Thank you to all parents who came by to see me. Not too many!

So as I was sitting in the cold cafeteria, what were you doing? Did you just blow off the day and say hey, the weather is great I am out of here? In a comment to my blog, let me know what you did Thursday afternoon as I dutifully waited for parents to arrive.

In your blog today, tell me your feelings about parent-teacher conferences. The move these days is to go to conferences that are actually run by the student. This might work at the elementary level, but kind of difficult at our level. I usually like it better if the kid isn't there, but research says that it is a much better conference if the student tells their parent (in front of the teacher) how they are doing in the class. The only benefit I see is that all those notes that parents jot down on a small piece of paper wouldn't be necessary and the student probably would understand better what their parent was trying to tell them. So, should we have students required to come? Would you come? I, personally, find parent-teacher conferences grueling and nerve racking. But I am always glad to see who comes by my way. I wish lots more parents would be involved in their child(ren)'s education and stop on by conferences. Do you think all parents should come to conferences? Did your parents stop by?

On another item...you MUST use correct spelling in your blogs. You know those words that get underlined in red??? Yup, they are misspelled. Run spell check or right click on them!! Also, when you use the work "I", it is ALWAYS capitalized! Try it, you will like it. Have a great day blogging and then it is off to Photoshop. Gotta love Photoshop!!!!

Homecoming - Fun or Not???

Ahhhh! The joys of homecoming. Are there any? I mean really, what is this all about anyway. Why do we celebrate homecoming? To tell the truth I never "went back" to any homecoming once I had graduated from high school. It was "see you never again" Pioneer High School. While in high school we never really had this dress-up thing going on. Sometimes good (fashion disaster/nerd day) and sometimes not so much (celebrity/Hollywood). We did build floats, but I only helped on my senior float. Do you like homecoming and all the fuss? Is it just about football, or dressing-up, or assemblies, or ????? Where did all this hoopla come from anyway. Why did they ever start a homecoming?

Please comment on my blog and tell me when the first homecoming was (hint: it was not at a high school). Also, include three things that they did special for that first homecoming. Please copy and past the URL into your response.

In your own blog today, tell me what homecoming means to you. Are you likely to return to Sand Creek for homecoming once you have graduated? Why/Why not? Tell me your favorite homecoming moment or specific event or specific activity. Finally, do you participate at the assembly? Why/why not?

Boy is that a lot of questions or what?!? Have a great homecoming! Enjoy all of the events!

And...off we go blogging

Day 1! Today we start blogging. Sometimes I will blog and tell you what to blog about and other times it will be up to you to blog. You will be blogging weekly and there will be some class time to do this. You may (and I encourage this) blog at any time about anything. When I blog, I might also ask you to comment on my blog about a particular topic.

So...today I would like you to blog about blogging. Tell me (in your blog) your thoughts about the concept of blogging and how you think this is a Web 2.0 application. Include why you think so many people enjoy blogging. Also, do you think you will enjoy this experience? Why/why not??

Finally, you will need to comment on my blog. Please tell me your thoughts about the whole process of setting up your blog. Easy? Difficult?

Oops, one more thing. You must use correct spelling in your blogs. No "text" type writing! Thanks and enjoying your blogging experience!!