Sometimes You Hit a Lull

Sometimes you go full force and strong with a project or idea and sometimes you hit a lull. I don't fret over those things. I figure everything gets done in good time. Although I did hit a lull in my blog posts during the past week, I have been toying with an idea for the past few days. So here it is . . . how about an online, blogging book club. You do like to read don't you? What do you say we pick an online book to read and then periodically post our impressions of the book in this blog. This will, of course, be an ongoing endeavor. First we need to find a book online that we will all enjoy reading. I'm looking for suggestions. Go searching for online book sites and then for some enjoyable reading. Let me know what you come up with.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Here's your mission for today . . . find a blog that interests you (other than this one:-)

Did you know that there are over 500,000 blogs. So how do you find blogs that you are interested in reading? One way you can "seek and find" is to use Google's Blog Search. Use this link to just have a gander at all the blog information that's available. (Remember that with all the information that is available in this wide-open world, it's sometimes important to focus and find worthwhile reading.) Then find one or two really good blogs that contain subject matter that interests you. Share them in your comment and include the reasons you like this/these blog(s).

If I'd Only Had a Blog

Just like the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz who sang "If I only had a brain," I have been thinking about the uses of a blog. Recently at the dinner table, I said to the family, we should have a blog just to keep track of the stuff we do throughout the year . . . like the date we planted our vegetable garden last year, or when we had the first measurable snowfall, or the first day we jumped into our pool. After all, 365 or so days between an event that happens only once a year makes it hard to remember stuff! This led me to think that the same principle would apply to my classroom . . . keep a blog of the stuff I encounter on a daily basis each day of the school year, then read it back during the next school year just to remove any cobwebs and keep me on top of my game! Which then led me to think about other practical uses of a blog. In my younger days, when my brain was much more creative, I would have written a book. . . "if I'd only had a blog." I always wanted to write a book and doing it in a blog would be so cool--much better than pen and paper or typewriter!

So here's your mission for this blog post. Please comment and list as many creative ways you can use a blog. Also, if you were to create your own blog today, what exactly would be its purpose? And, I want you to start communicating with each other, not just teacher-student and student-teacher . . . let's start communicating student to student as well.

Nurturing Creativity

So here we are in cyberspace again . . . thanks for coming back to read more.

Here's something that I think about a lot. Does the internet have any effect on your creativity? Does it make you less creative or more creative or leave you status quo.

I do find myself using the internet a lot for ideas, whether it's for a lesson I'm planning, a craft I want to do with my kids, or a new recipe I'd like to try. I don't rely on my own creativity first anymore; I go searching online. Is this a good thing??

I also think age and too much brain stimulation has a negative effect on creativity. I used to be extremely creative. I'd wake up in the middle of the night with some wonderful idea that I prayed would still be in my head when I woke up because I was too lazy to get out of bed and write it down. Not so much anymore.

So what are your thoughts? Are we less or more creative people because of the internet or other reasons? I'd love to hear from you. Oh and by the way, here's an internet site on nurturing creativity! Ha!

Where Has This Peanut Butter Icing Been All My Life?

This may sound like a strange title for a blog post and you’re probably thinking it’s going to be about food . . . and you will get the recipe if you read to the end . . . but really this blog post is about fascination of learning about and try new things and how the internet and technology opens a wealth of information to its users. So why the mention of peanut butter icing? The night before our first big snowfall and snow day from school this week, a luscious chocolate cake was baked in our household. It was decided that peanut butter icing was in order. Now I have three recipes tucked away in my recipe box which are pretty good, but decided that there could be something better out there. So off to the internet for a search on “peanut butter icing” I went where I found a peanut butter icing recipe from the Barefoot Contessa from the Food Network. Oh my gosh . . . it was fabulous, and I found myself saying, “Where has this peanut butter icing been all my life?”

Which then got me thinking, “Where has technology and the internet been all my life.” Well, of course, it was non-existent for 30 years of my life, and I guess you didn’t miss what you didn’t have. But I certainly couldn’t survive without it today. The internet keeps me connected, learning, writing, reading, teaching, thinking, entertained, enlightened, mystified, multi-tasking, and yes . . . eating well! From Yahoo to Amazon to You Tube to shopping to searching to sharing to voting (American Idol) to online classes to game playing with people from Bangladesh to new technologies and websites, blogs, wikis, WOW. There’s sooooooo much it’s overwhelming at times, but when I come across something new and exciting and useful I really do wonder how I ever survived without . . . So what’s your best technology or internet story. What site could you not live without. What piece of technology excites you and keeps you connected. Better yet, if you could invent the next greatest technological breakthrough . . . what would it be. Please comment while I go have another piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter icing!

Note: After writing this post, I saw on the news this morning a warning about peanut butter of all things. Here's the story. I used Jif.

What's Your Best Quality?

Let's be real. We all have some wonderful personality traits and some not so wonderful personality traits. Each day we hopefully wake with the idea of "having a good day" or "making it a good day." Attitude plays a huge role in your good days and bad days. And attitude makes up a big part of your personality. And your personality has a big influence on so many things in your life . . . your friends, your goals, accomplishments, your influence, your legacy. I hope you'll be inspired by the information here. Tell me something that's really good about you and something you work on improving. Also comment on what makes a person successful in his or her life.

Be a Good Blogger

So, we've worked out the kinks in using a blog, and a few of my students have jumped in and begun to comment. So maybe we should look at what our purpose is in blogging, what makes a good post, and what makes a good comment.

First of all purpose . . . So what is a blog and what is its purpose? A blog is whatever you want it to be--a personal diary, a daily log, a place to air your opinion or give breaking-news, a collection of your favorite links . . . see, a blog is a web space that can be whatever you want it to be. In this crazy, immense technology-driven world, it's sometimes overwhelming to find a purpose. The purpose of this blog is to connect students and teacher, to expand our reading, writing, and thinking abilities--and to do that in a fun, interactive, connected, technological way.

What makes a good blog post? Well that depends on who's writing it and who's reading it. A good post is one that gets and keeps the attention of the reader, causes the reader to react, think, or have an opinion. The focus of this blog's posts will be to do just that . . . get your attention, keep you coming back for more, and result in learning.

And about comments . . . all are welcome. Learning is a two-way street just as communication is a two-way street. We will all learn from and among each other. When you comment, however, use correct spelling, grammar, sentence structure and mostly, make it a worthwhile read. Nobody wants to be bored! If you are going to copy and paste some info from the web, read it and make sure it's what you want to say and include the web address. Here's a blog post that gives some really good advice about commenting.

Here's something of interest for today (taken from Did You Know): The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die.' These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord. That's a pretty radical slogan. Your mission is to find out the history behind that slogan and to also use the website to comment on some other trivial bit of information.

The Blog Evolves and Grows and We All Learn

Yeh! . . . I've inspired you to start blogging. So why should we continue? What's the purpose of blogging, how is it useful, what's the point? Well, as a teacher, I believe that blogging is a fun way of bettering a whole bunch of skills. First, blogging requires reading (essential skill). Second, blogging makes you write (crucial skill). Third, blogging makes you think (necessary skill). Fourth, blogging allows you to discover (excellent skill). Reading, writing, thinking, discovering . . . the basis of becoming smart! Let's face it, we all want to be smart. I get a real hoot out of learning new things--everyday, whether it's something useful for my classroom, something new and exciting about technology, or just some random fact that somehow never entered my brain yet. Your mission for this post is to read something and post your comments. Also, please feel free to comment on others' comments. This is how blogging dialog works.

Now what to read . . . Are you familiar with wikipedia? Go and investigate, read something in wikipedia, discover something new and interesting, really think about it, and then write something of interest for all to enjoy.

The Blog Begins Here . . .

So I thought it might be fun to have a small online space to have thought-provoking discussions or just random conversation with and among my students. In class we are always so busy completing tasks, projects, and assignments that we barely have time to talk. So this blog is an extension of the classroom . . . a place for me to offer you something to ponder, investigate, or solve, and for you to respond, react, or retort . . . or vice versa.

Each day I'll throw out something of interest and you'll reply. We'll build a connected dialog that will give you a chance to use your skills beyond the normal classroom stuff. So let the blog begin here . . .

Today I'm wondering what the heck "leetspeak" is. Let me hear from you with definitions, examples, links.