Engaging Learners

A link to link moment

Early this morning, I opened my Google Reader and linked from this to this, a history teacher's blog I hadn't read before.

As I read through some of Glen Wiebe's posts (and many are posts to which I'll return), this one about a new book caught my eye. I had been to Borders earlier in the day and almost purchased it.
(I was after presentation ideas in this book instead, and it deserves a separate post later.)
The 12 rules in Brain Rules provide "nice research and examples to explain how we interact with our environment and each other, especially how we as teachers can impact student learning," Wiebe says.

They are all fascinating statements, but this one in particular jumped out at me:

EXPLORATION | Rule #12: We are powerful and natural explorers.

Next, I wanted to look something up in my Reader, and a link from Dana Huff took me to another great read, teacher Lisa Huff, who posted about a new tool, Moonfruit, which may be what I am looking for--a way to post student portfolios online.

When I finally decided to write a post about this serendipity, I went to grab a picture from Flickrcc and discovered you can now edit your pictures in Picnik from the front page!

All in all, it's been a productive morning. And it's only 7:30 am!

Image: 'Morning Mist on the Dumoine II'
www.flickr.com/photos/17875539@N00/542306837

Repetitio mater memoriae

We started spring break today
So with nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one else home, I propped up my feet and started to clean up my laptop.
One of my old bookmarks, which I've transfered from machine to machine, was labeled "blogs."
Now, these days, I don't save blogs in my bookmarks. I use RSS like everyone else I know.
I chuckled to discover my first blog, and that back in June of 2004, I was sending a post to my teachers to "learn RSS."
Funny.
Four years ago.
And I'm still sending out the same messages.
Then, I was the lone user. Now, I am happy to report many teachers in my school use RSS. And they blog. And they twitter. And they teach me things.
This was a happy discovery.
My job is done.
I can relax.

Image: 'A Picture Share3'
www.flickr.com/photos/48600072071@N01/124936

Chocolate Thoughts

I can always tell when I shift into my "need more time to read and figure out what to do with the information" mode.
The bag of dark chocolates in my desk starts emptying. It's not me, mind you. I have no conscious recollection of grabbing, unwrapping, and sticking in my mouth the hundreds of pieces of sweet, bitter chocolate squares that seem to disappear during the day.
After sharing, showing, and collaborating with teachers and students the past couple of months, this week has been quiet. Grades and comments are due, and teachers, understandably, don't have me on their minds.
So I am catching up on my reading, and when I do that, I eat chocolate.
This morning, for example, I skimmed DyDan's blog to discover Patrick had a new post I hadn't read yet. Good stuff about motivation and world domination.
But there was also a new read, and what a powerful voice she has: I am bound by law to have a sugar-bombed beignet and chicory coffee on Sunday morning at the Cafe Du Monde this weekend..." And that's her writing about food. Wait until you hear her voice on teaching and homework....and she mentions Tom whom I read and follow. Gotta go there now....
More chocolate.
That post sent me to the ASCD website, where various bloggers summarize the recent conference...and link to things like "what the best teachers know and do." Save to read later.
WHY didn't I think about going there? I wonder, as I take another piece of chocolate from the bag.
My Google Reader still open, I see Kim Cofino has shared a post--Arrgghhh, a new blogger, at least for me. Do I click and add yet another read? Skip it? No, Ok, ok, I say to myself, as I unwrap what I determine will be the last piece of chocolate this morning and read more on the McKinsey report and Finnish teachers.
My mind is also thinking back to the SOS podcast I listened to this morning, where I bumped into Sheryl....which reminds me, I gotta call Hiram to check on the PLP progress.....just one more piece of that blasted chocolate.

Something tells me I need to get back in the classroom or switch to apples.

Image: 'Fairtrade chocolate pieces'
www.flickr.com/photos/60364452@N00/903391978

An Old Friend

Chris probably doesn't consider himself an old friend of mine, as he has moved on. But I remember his early blogging days on CompleteRunning.com, when we were a handful of runners, supporting each other's attempts at improving health and fitness. He was always there with the right words when I wanted to quit. (I'm still at it, Chris).
His site now focuses on business and social media.
You might be interested in reading a recent post about Twitter, where he gives suggestions for managing and ways NOT to manage all this information (oddly enough, I found him again through Sue Water's post here). He also blogs about social networking, and his ideas are worth reading as they apply to our students, as well.
Great to find you again, Brogan!

Take the ball and run with it

I love seeing teachers get excited about teaching and learning. One of our teachers has been using some great tools to enhance her English curriculum, but she wanted to see how the students were reacting. Check out the results of her survey.

And thanks to Wes Fryer for pointing me to Animoto. I've been playing with some cross country photos, but I can see a much wider use for this application.

Three new FA Bloggers!

Come on, you know you want to check them out....

One

Two

Three

Go ahead, leave them a comment:)

A clear, fun video about RSS

From these guys:

Click To Play

Found on this blog!

A UMW blogger or two

You might be interested in reading the blogs of Gardner Campbell and another colleague at UMW (Jerry? Steve? His name is coming up one way on the blog and another way in my RSS feed)  here and here. This post, in particular, talks about Twitter! It's great to hear college professors discussing teaching with technology in general-- and--good teaching in particular.