Blogs I'm Following Now

My newly developed interest in seeking out the blogs and digital communities of educators has led to a few new discoveries today. Here are four new blogs I've added to my sidebar today. Each had it's own "that's why I want to follow this person" moment that I wish I had had time to record in this post, but my day is like all the others this week - a battle to remain even partially focused on getting prepared for classes and everything that needs to be done before, during, and even after this school year. So, I link, but I can no longer remember why. Except that at some point I want to go to these blogs and really absorb some knowledge from them.

• "Teaching in the 408"
• Drape's Takes
• dy/dan
• Dangerously Irrelevant

And what I really need is advice on how to not go crazy in trying to get ready for the first day. Right now, I still have a month to go, but that could change any day. And I have enough to do during the month to stay busy, if it doesn't.

How do you balance the hundreds of ideas of how to make this year better than last with the time that you have?

The First Day

When the first day of school comes, will you be ready?

I have a 'first day' every week in my job. With every new school I visit, I have to create that image of who I am to my students (and their teachers!) so that they will trust me and be willing to learn from me for the next four days. I have minutes to gain their respect and control over the classroom if I want my five hours with them to be worthwhile for any of us. I take to heart a lot of what's written here: Teaching Secrets: Take Charge of Your Classroom. It's been my perspective for awhile now that I'm not there to be the students' friend, but to be their leader, a good role model, and mostly, to have them leave and say "I respect her and what she tried to teach me."

Get Organized!

The school year is about to start, and I know I'm not alone in looking for how to stay organized and feel confident about to-do lists, calendars, and other stuff that piles up.

Cool Cat Teacher was just talking about it this morning. And my husband and I have been on the lookout for the perfect on-line, mutli-functional, integrated, use-it-anywhere to-do list we can find for the past few months. I think I've found it: Toodledo. Talk about integrated! iGoogle gadgets, iPhone apps, Twitter compatible, Jott compatible... it goes on. The best part for me - the Google Calendar sync, which I can view from either my personal Google calendar or my work Google calendar (due to some security on my work calendar, I can't directly sync one to the other without losing info). So, one to-do list, for both halves of my life. What else can you ask for?

Shed a Little Light

Tonight I witnessed my second Daedalus Project Oregon Shakespeare Festival AIDS Benefit Variety Show. It is the most humbling display of the best humanity has to offer. In talent and in heart. It is funny, it is touching, and it is incredible to see. If you ever have the chance to attend, you should. This was the 21st annual, and it will continue as long as there is an AIDS epidemic that needs to be fought.

State Science Standards

This is the year they revise the Science Standards for Oregon, and I'm currently reading my way through the first draft. This will have a definite impact on what I teach this year and what new curriculum I will need to design for next year. I have to do some serious research into the resources and references they're using to support their decisions, and put some real time into thinking about how to implement them in our outreach classes next year and beyond.

Too much to think about... I still have to get through this year with the old standards and all the changes I wanted to make. Must remember to conserve energies and be efficient in how much I put into improvements this year when they'll need to be revised again next year.

There's Always a Solution

I love this line:

Noticing that Michael’s attention strayed during math, she hired a tutor and encouraged him to use word problems tailored to Michael’s interests: “How long would it take to swim 500 meters if you swim three meters per second?” - from "Michael Phelp's Mom on Parenting an ADHD Superstar" in the April/May 2007 issue of ADDitude

You do what you gotta do to get'em interested. And when it works, it's incredible.

Trying to Calm my Creative Jitters

The Educational Technology course stimulated those creative energies I rarely allow myself time for these days. I did the whole "create a banner for a webpage" thing (my SOU home page) and thought about actually designing that page to store some of the curriculum I've done that isn't more-or-less 'owned' by the museums I've worked for. (tangent: does any one really understand how those rules work? If I write the curriculum I'm using to teach a class through my employer, the museum, who 'owns' the curriculum?)

Anyway, back to the topic of Creative Jitters. I've added a new tab to my iGoogle page just for my teaching/education resources, thus separating them from the Science resources I had originally grouped them with. So, I wanted to put an educational theme on the header of the page. I searched for "education", "chalkboard", "teaching", "classroom", "student", "write", "math", etc etc looking for something like a chalkboard background - that very traditional "school" feeling. And turned up a big nothing.

But, there is that "create your own theme" option. And they give some pretty good instructions. So I'm thinking of creating one. I'm hoping it will be a good way to focus my energy on something creative, so that when I'm back in the office this week finalizing the curriculum for this school year, I can actually focus.

Another Member of the Zoo

Weekly off-topic voyage into photography...

8/26/07; f/4.5; 1/15 shutter speed.

This is Dawn, about a year ago. Back when she was little and cute (about 4 months old). She's still this beautiful, but not quite so little. She also won't pose for me any more, so getting new shots is tougher.