ReThinking Blogging

I am currently taking a class that teaches about Web 2.0 tools and practical and innovative classroom applications. The class is very interesting and allows me to explore some really great tools that I have not had a chance, or the know how, to explore before.  One of the recent topics of study was blogging. I read blogs and I am subscribed to quite a few. I rarely, however, post a comment because I am at this point more comfortable as an onlooker. One of our first tasks was to dive into blogging. WOW! I was not sure I was ready for this, but in I dove. To my surprise I found it really enjoyable and easy. As I started to study blogging more deeply my ideas about blogs started to transform. It was almost as though the petals of a beautiful flower had begun to bloom. I realized that a blog never needs to be narrow in topic or intended audience. With a little suggested research and voluntary reflection, I decided to transform my blog.  While it will still be a forum for givng others a view into my life as a teacher and my classroom, it will also address a wealth of other topics. This saves me running the risk of creating a stale blog and allows me to share much, much more! So stay tuned for some great ideas, interesting stories and useful resources. Oh, one last thing... Why don't YOU give blogging a try? I'm finding it pretty theraputic. It's always good to get your ideas out there and we all have something interesting to share!

Check out this link to get started20 Ways to Get Ideas for Blogging.

A Day in the Life...

Today was an interesting day, as many days as a NYC public school teacher are. Today I was the Queen of multi-tasking! I started my day off at an out of the building meeting, returned for lunch, caught up with my co-teacher and jumped right into teaching the next period. My one period of teaching was followed by an interest group session, a meeting with my principal to follow-up the meeting I had been to earlier and a SESIS crisis that had to be fixed ASAP. As 3:50 approached and I realized I never actually ate lunch and I would probably be late for my evening class. I started to reflect on how it was that I was able to interact with my students so much in just one period. I knew that Student A had a cold and needed her social studies textbook pages flagged so her mom could help her study the proper info for the test, that Student B was not sure whether to get on the bus or go to the YMCA, that Student C really needed some extra help with the math lesson, and that Student D had had an issue at lunch that was really throwing his afternoon off (this is just to name a few). I started off by telling myself that this type of crazy multitasking is innate to a teacher/mother/student. How else would I survive? But then I began to put the pieces together a bit more thoroughly and realized that....AHA! Technology had really helped me out today. The email from Student A's mom let me know about the social studies pages and scattered text messages from my co- teacher and principal let me know how things were going in my absence and where I would be needed next. Now, I of course talked to the kids when I arrived and heard out their greetings, complaints, and anecdotes, but without my iPhone with me at all times today I may have missed some really important details of my job. So, while I am patting myself on the back today for a job well done, I'm also thanking the iPhone/iPad gods for helping to keep me up to speed and get me through.