Random Ramblings

Whew! My life has been a whirlwind! Several wonderful and some not so wonderful things have occurred in the past couple of weeks.

First the good things. I finished my University of Phoenix classes – woohoo! Now, I can get certified to do what I have been doing for the past 3 years.

Chloe celebrated her first birthday. I was going to list all the items she has either eaten or destroyed in the last year, but the list was way too long. She does have a tendency for electrical cords, though.

School is going great and I have been teaching almost every day. I miss the kids so much and it’s a true treat when I can be in a teacher’s classroom interacting with the kids again.

Our ADK sorority is up and running. We had our first official meeting this afternoon. it’s going to be so much fun to interact with female teachers in a social setting. Plus, we eat well ) My friend Debra did a fabulous job for her first time in her presidents role.

The Web Wizards have been accepted to present at the South Carolina Technology conference in November. I look forward to working with Kim again. We will be presenting on Digital Photos and Web 2.0 tools. It should be a lot of fun! Kim and I work well together and tend to see things in the same way. What a joy to have a friend like that.

Okay, now the not so good. Chloe is in the hospital. We had her spayed and her stomach fixed 2 weeks ago. Great Danes have a tendency to bloat (a fatal incident where their stomachs twist) so we had both surgeries done at the same time. Jeff took her to get her 49 staples out on Monday and a few hours after he got home, she started pouring blood out of her stomach. Bad news is that her body is rejecting all the stitches. Plus, she has a staph infection, rod bacteria, a urinary tract infection, and is just plain not doing well. Bless her heart. She’s such a baby and now she has to stay at the hospital by herself. Dr. Schaller is wonderful and has been keeping us up to date several times a day. Hopefully, the doctor can clear the multiple infections and stop the bleeding and the sweetie can come home soon.

We are having terrible technical problems at the secondary schools. The poor teachers. Some days they can print and other days they can’t even see any icons on their screens. Most of them have been fabulous and VERY patient. But, I know they are getting frustrated beyond belief. I hope there is a solution soon!

We are now officially an NC Wise county. While there are many drawbacks to the program, there are some great aspects to it. It’s just not as teacher friendly as Easy Grade Pro and some folks are having problems adjusting. But, change is hard on everyone.

Since tonight is the first night in a few weeks that I have been finished with school work before 11 pm, I think I might try to get to bed early.

Hopefully, now that my classes are finished I can start blogging again.

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr

I LOVE this time of year! The newness, the freshness, the excitement – I love it. Yes, there is stress with trying to tie all the loose ends together to have the “perfect” classroom ready for the kids. The last minute schedule changes, the lunch schedule that isn’t quite set in stone, and all the other little emergencies just add to the excitement.

It will be like Christmas Eve on Sunday night – no one will be able to sleep. The kids will be wondering what their teacher will be like and the teachers will be wondering about their kids. Clothes will be laid out and checked and double checked for just the right outfit. Bookbags will be stuffed with new supplies. Lunches will be packed with extra goodies for that first day.

I miss this time of year and forming a family with my new students. I enjoy watching other teachers getting to know their students, but I am envious. I truly miss having a group of kids to call my own. For the next 180 days, a family will be formed. Friendships and bonds that may last a lifetime. Personalities will be developed. Lifelong skills and learning will be set.

The honeymoon will begin on Monday and I, for one, can’t wait!

Until next time ~ Danita

My good friend, Vincent Pienaar, a 6th grade Math teacher at West Lee Middle School, won a very prestigious award.  He was awarded the VIF (visiting international faculty) of the year award.  This is a well deserved honor.  Vincent has gone above and beyond to introduce diverse cutlures to our students.

Vincent has not only taught math, but also has planned and coordinated many cultural activities with the other VIF’s.  He has also been instrumental in integrating technology within his classroom and with the 6th grade.

I am proud of Vincent’s award, proud to have him on our faculty, and proud to call him my friend!  Way to go Vincent!

From Lee County Schools

Pienaar Wins National Award

An international-exchange teacher from South Africa, Vincent Pienaar, has elevated the art of teaching Math by linking coursework to culture and finding innovative ways to cultivate a broader world view in his young students at West Lee Middle School.

Pienaar has been named National Cultural Educator of the Year for excellence in providing students an international education to help prepare a new generation for success in the global economy. The award is from the Visiting International Faculty Program, the largest international-exchange program linking U.S. schools and teachers worldwide.

Vincent was chosen for the award from among the 1,800 teachers from 52 nations that the VIF Program is sponsoring in nearly 1,000 schools in 10 states, providing schools highly qualified teachers to give students a world-class education.

Until next time ~ Danita

  Cape Town, South Africa

I won a student response system! Wow! I’m soooo excited! We only have a couple of these in our county. I will definitely put it to good use!

Until I land from the clouds I’m floating on ~ Danita

Flickr

Many congrats go out to my friend, Kim Collazo for winning a NCAECT grant for 12 digital cameras and 2 video cameras for her classroom! I am very excited for her and her students. I can’t wait to see what the kids do with these tools. Kim is a leader in technology in the classroom. Add Kim’s blog to your aggregator and witness her passion.

Way to go Kim! Keep up the great work!

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr

Happy 1st Blog Birthday to Random Ramblings!   I can’t believe that one year has flown by so quickly.  What’s that old adage? time flies when you’re having fun.  It truly does.

I have learned so much this past year and met so many wonderfully delightful people.  I’ve met people from the four corners of the globe that I now call friends.  How small our world has become.

Thank you to everyone that reads my blog.  I hope this journey continues to take us through many adventures!

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr

Yep, that was me skipping down the hallway on Friday.  I had spent a couple of days in Susan Oriet’s 6th grade Language Arts class working on Voicethread.  The kids made collages of books they had read and then we recorded their reports onto Voicethread.  WOW!  What a great experience!  I had so much fun! This was one of my first experiences presenting student’s work online.  I think it’s addicting!

If you get a free minute, cruise on over and take a look & listen to the projects.  We’d LOVE for you to add your comments, too.

Mrs. Oriet’s class’ voicethread project 

Until next time ~ Danita

  Flickr

What a wonderful week I had! It began Monday with my friend Kim and I presenting at the North Carolina Elementary Education Conference. We did our Web Wizards Web 2.0 presentation. How fun it is to have someone you can work with so well. She’s great and really does know her stuff. The best part was when we were asked at the end of the session to present wikis to 15 LEA’s in Western Carolina. How cool!

Thursday, I had an advanced wikis workshop for my teachers. We had about 8 teachers there, but the sharing and learning we did was phenomenal! I need to have a sharing session soon. While we were talking about wikis, we got off on tangents (reminds me of my teaching days) of other web 2.0 applications – Skype was popular. Now that the fire is spreading, people are spending more and more of their time discovering new applications. I would love to be able to sit back, listen, and facilitate a great web 2.0 discussion. It’s coming! How exciting!

Today was the awesome closure to a great week. We took my 12 year old St. Bernard, Katie, to the Lee County Fair for the 4-H dog show. Nothing fancy, but it sure is fun. Katie loves it! She gets all the attention she can stand and has everyone eating out of her hand, uh, paw. She won several blue ribbons and a couple of 2nd places. She didn’t win Best in Show like she did in 2005, but she had a great time. Now, she will sleep for days to recover )

Until next time ~ Danita

The far reaching Internet has proven itself to me once again. I’ve had 2 very unexpected emails from people I have never met in person and probably won’t ever see face to face. But, we are communicating and discovering how we can help each other.

The first email I received was from a company in the United Kingdom. Mediasnackers does training in the UK; not only to teachers, but also to companies. Through Twitter, they found me and now want to interview me. How cool is that? DK posted in his blog a comment that I loved. He referred to discovering new connections as digital breadcrumbs.

Digital Breadcrumbs
breadcrumbs

[SUMMARY—Follow them.]

(GBR) One of our favourite mantras we throw around in our training is: follow the digital breadcrumbs.

If you find a weblog you like click through the blogroll, if you find someone bookmarking the same site you have check out the rest of their links etc. Here’s a real life example:

MediaSnackers is on Twitter. We got an email this morning that someone new is following us. We checked out their twitter page and clicked through to their weblog to discover their role as the instructional technology facilitator for Lee County Schools, in North Carolina, USA.

After some more clicking and reading we found out some amazing examples of teachers using wikis, sending newsletters out via SlideShare plus a great post with a huge list of resources (most of which we haven’t heard of before).

Follow the digital breadcrumbs folks and you never know what pearls you will find.

The second email came from another techie who was just now beginning to work with other teachers about wikis. She found my blog and wanted to share the post on wikis with her teachers. Of course, I said yes (I mean, how flattering is that??), and directed her to my wiki so she could also share that site. We have “talked” a bit and are now sharing ideas.

On another note, one of my Twitter friends, Kim Cofino, was looking for a 4th grade class that her 4th grade class could correspond. She is in Bangkok, Thailand. I sent out a request to the other ITF’s in the county and one of them found a teacher in her school that is interested. I am so excited!

This is what makes my job the best! Gotta love it!

Until Next Time ~ Danita

Flickr

I had a fabulous week!  It began Tuesday with a 6th grade math class.  I taught 3 classes of Scientific Notation using the SmartBoard, except our SmartBoard was on the flitz.  So, I used the SmartBoard notebook to teach.  What fun!  The kids were great and I enjoyed ‘riding the bicycle’ again.  The teacher wanted to see a lesson using the SmartBoard.  She was excited and eager to learn.  After watching me teach her classes, she taught a lesson on order of operations the next day. I sure do love my job!

Wednesday took me to an 8th grade Language Arts class.  In that class, I taught word processing using the new laptops.  I was surprised at the number of kids who had no idea how to use a word processing program.  Makes me wonder, have these kids not had any computer classes?  They are in 8th grade, shouldn’t they have been using word processing  for several years?  Hmmmm…..

On Thursday and Friday, I worked with my old partner’s resource Language Arts classes on wikis.  It was a lot of fun working with Cynthia again.  I sure have missed our interaction.  These kids are the kiddos that are more than a year advanced.  I sure learned a lot!  The 8th graders were ready and willing to jump right in.  Most of them, had made wikis in 7th grade so there was only a little instruction needed.  The 7th graders were excited because most had heard of wikis, but didn’t know how to make them. The 6th graders had the lowest amount of patience I have ever seen in students.  Must be a sign of the digital natives.  They had no fear of trying new ideas and soon were off and running.

I sure did enjoy working with the kids again.  I love my new position, but I miss having a group of kiddos to call mine.  You have a special relationship with kids when you teach.  I’ve always told my students that once you were “mine” you’d always be a part of me.  I miss that, but hope that I can reach more kids in my new position.

Until next time ~ Danita

  Flickr

Friday, August 31st was Blog Day 2007.  This was something new to me since I wasn’t even blogging at this time last year. Bloggers around the world are being encouraged to highlight five newer blogs that might target a different audience than their own.  Larry Ferlazzo nominated me as one of his five.  WOW!  What an honor.  And I thought no one read this but my mom   Thanks Larry for the boost!

Still struggling with my neocounter.  For the life of me I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.  Sigh…..

Until next time ~ Danita

  Flickr

Whew!  We survived the first day of school.  Actually, it was my first year in 15 years not being in the classroom.  It was kinda sad – but I sure didn’t miss all the butterflies!  From what I saw, both East Lee and West Lee opened very smoothly.   At the end of the day, the kids were still smiling and the teachers had a look of exhaustion.  Boy oh boy, do I remember that feeling.  I really do miss all the excitement.

I spent the greater part of the day organizing my classroom office.  I say that because I actually have an extra classroom to use as an office.  Wow!  A lot of room to spread out all my important “stuff”.  I would love to have a few computers so that I could have a mini computer lab, but alas, not this year.  Maybe I’ll put that on my Christmas wish list.

On the bright side, my calendar is filling quickly.  The wikis have taken off this year. I’m so excited! I’ve had several teachers ask me to show them since they have heard such good comments from other teachers.  So, that fire did spread like, well, wildfire.  The teachers all have different ideas of how they are using their wikis and I think that’s great!  Not all want to use as a student work display and not all want to use as a homework webpage.  I’m happy they are using them.  Just think, this time last year, no one in our district was even using wikis.  Now, almost all the schools are using them.  Yippee!!

My neocounter isn’t working and I can’t see who has visited.  If you have suggestions on what might be wrong, please let me know.  Being the noisy sort, I enjoy seeing how many countries have visited.

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr

Some people are lucky and some people are LUCKY. My mom has always been in the LUCKY column. Me, I’ve never even managed to be in any category other than, “thanks for coming”. If there’s a way to win something, mom will win. If there’s a way not to win, that’s me. But, (you knew that was coming didn’t you?) my luck has seemed to have taken a turn for the better.

In the fall, our technology department attended a conference in Greensboro, and I won a printer. Not a $1000 one, but a nice laser printer. Unfortunately, hubby and I had bought a really nice super-duper do all that and more about a month previously. Dad ended up with the winning printer.

This summer I attended my first NECC conference. Yes, I still need to finish blogging my notes, but that’s another day. I am a seasoned conference goer. I’m the geeky smart one that brings the collapsible cart and address labels; takes time from having to write your name a hundred times. Well, those labels came in handy at the Pearson School booth.

What I hate to admit is that after I registered, I didn’t stay for the entire presentation. I can’t remember what it was about, but I do remember thinking, “my county would never go for that.” So, being the good conference goer that I am, I continued on to the rest of the venders.

Last Wednesday our secretary handed me a message and said, “some man called and said you won a prize from that conference you went to.” Okay, she’s only 16 so what can you expect? Did I mention that I don’t handle “congratulations! you’ve won” messages very well? It ranks right up there with “congratulations! you’ve been chosen to serve on _____ committee.” know what I mean? So, I didn’t think anymore about it until I saw the note on Thursday afternoon.

With trepidation, I called expecting to try to be roped in to buy this or that newfangled gadget. Much to my surprise, I was completely wrong. It’s not hard to say you’re wrong when you win something The representative (Scott, I think) at Pearson was extremely nice even though I was very skeptical. You see, he told me I had won a new iPhone. Yep, me. The one who never wins anything. I kept asking what the catch was and what I had to buy. But, bless his heart he was patient and said nothing. What he did say was that I would have my phone on Friday. Now, keep in mind this is Thursday afternoon.

Still dazed I thanked him and went about my business. You see, I didn’t know anything about the iPhone other than I wasn’t going to pay $600 for a cell phone. Much to my surprise, the next day our bookkeeper called me and said I had a package. Since I was expecting a book I had ordered at NECC, I didn’t rush over. But, when I did get there, sure enough there was the package. Talk about surprise! The representative had said it would be there on Friday and he was right. They had overnight shipped it to me! Wow! This company might be worth looking into to see what they do sell.

So, I have been playing and I can attest that it is awesome! Not only is it a cell phone, but a camera, internet, iPod, and so much more. Too cool! So, if you need me, I’ll be playing working with my new toy.

Plus, I think I’ll go buy a lottery ticket. Luck does strike in 3′s doesn’t it?

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr: iPhone

Yahoo!!  My class at ECU is finished!  I have so much to blog about that I haven’t had the time in the past 5 weeks.  Stay tuned, the next few days will be a gusher!

Until next time ~ Danita

I am so excited! All the paperwork has been completed and the teachers have all signed their contracts for our workshop this summer. Dr. Len Annetta from NC State University is coming to Lee County to work with our middle school teachers on making educational virtual video games. Have I said I’m excited?

Dr. Annetta wanted 9 teachers from East Lee and West Lee. Being the pessimist realist that I am, I told him I didn’t think we would have that many from each school; in fact we may not have that many from both schools. Well, boy oh boy, was I wrong!

We have 34 signed up! Can you believe it? That’s a fantastic number! I’m so proud that there is that much interest. The fact that the teachers are receiving a stipend and a laptop might be some incentive, too, but hey, at least they’re coming! I plan on blogging about our progress this summer. I can’t wait to make my own game

The games will deal with all the discipline areas and integrate science and math. Dr. Annetta is hoping that we will develop a database of games for teachers from all over North Carolina to use. The first year the teachers will work on making their game. The second year, we will be bringing kids in to test drive the games. Can you imagine how much fun they are going to have?

Side note: My class is hard! My first assignment was a bomb. Thank goodness that the professor has the philosophy that students need to reach mastery. That means she’s going to let me re-do it. Thank goodness! Keep me in your thoughts – I need it! The next 8 weeks are going to be interesting to say the least ….

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr: Teachers discussing ethics

Excellent. I love it when teachers are so hungry for ideas that they are almost foaming at the mouth. Kim and I did a presentation this afternoon on PowerPoint and how you can use it for more than presentations. Great ideas spawned from the discussions amongst the teachers.

We did presentations on how to create:

Personalized Sticky Notes

Accordion Books

Mystery Pictures

Mini Books

Brochures

Study Notes Bookmarks

Information Bookmarks

Acrostics

The teachers ate it up. They loved it. I know I learned quite a bit before we began planning for the workshop and even more during the discussions. I had previously only used PowerPoint as a presentation tool but, there are so many more uses!

I finally uploaded my first video to TeacherTube. I was expecting a lot of trouble, but it was soooo easy! Check out Gregg Halkuff’s multiple presentations on Japan. He did a great job, but the cameraman (me) doesn’t have too steady of a hand. Well, Ron Howard had to start somewhere, too, right?

The only regret I have in my new position is that I don’t have a group of kids to call my own. Oh, how I would change the way I taught if I had known then what I know now. Discovering web 2.0 has opened my eyes in such a way, I would feel like a new teacher going into the classroom.

Maybe, someday I’ll go back. Maybe …..

Until next time ~ Danita

I couldn’t find any pictures of a dog foaming at the mouth, so you get this one from

Oprah.

Now, that’s a DOG!

Today was a good day. It wasn’t one of those everything went well since my feet hit the floor days, but it was a good one.

First off, I was helping a teacher teach her class how to use wikis. Their assignment was to research an Asian country and compose a wiki page of their research. Great way to introduce wikis. I spoke to the class on Thursday and introduced them to wikis. Today, they went at it with great enthusiasm. It’s encouraging for me as a teacher to see kids excited about their learning. Would they have been as excited to write a research paper? Nope. Ain’t technology great?

The second good thing to happen was my old teaching partner is doing podcasting in her Advanced Language Arts classes. It’s cool that she’s doing that, but the even better thing is that one of the kids is teaching it! Yep, he’s teaching the class. Does this make her lazy or inept? Nope. Exactly the opposite. Think how much he is gaining from being in the leadership role. The old adage of “see one, do one, teach one” is a great strategy.

Lastly, my friend Kim graduates tonight from her Keenan Fellows. Way to go girl! We’re proud of you!

Some days are just plain ol’ good days . Wish there were more.

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr: Good Day

I am at a loss for words.  I have had over 1000 “hits” to my blog since I began blogging in November.  I am totally speechless and appreciative that there is someone out there that is interested in what I have to say.

So, from the bottom of my cyber-heart, thank you for showing an interest in my thoughts and opinions.

Until next time ~ Danita

Flickr: Two Hands One Heart

No, not the Yahoo search engine, but the real, honest to goodness, come from the belly, yahoo yell. The fire has caught on and while we don’t have a wildfire, yet, the fire has been lit and keeps growing. I did my second wiki workshop and even teachers who “go grudgingly toward technology” were excited.

I knew that when teachers started seeing what could be done with wikis they would want to design one for themselves. Now, my blessing in disguise came from Gregg Halkuff (he’s a new to our school 7th grade social studies teacher) who made a wiki. He then started talking to other 7th grade social studies teachers and teaching them how to make one. The domino effect fell from there. One of the teachers even went to the Principal and expressed her excitement. Now, the prinicpal wants to learn how to make a wiki.

Does life get any better than this?

Until next time ~ Danita

Picture Pure excitement

I have forgotten how to work with 6th graders. After teaching 7th and 8th grade for several years, I forgot how you have to go slower and step by step with 6th graders. I worked with a group today using Gaggle as an editing tool. God love ‘em, they tried. But, between me not talking on their level and them not being experienced on computers, we about had a train wreck. Hopefully, the next time will be a bit better. I hope.

I did introduce Gaggle to 7, yes 7, classes yesterday. Boy, was I tired! I don’t know where in the world my head was when I did my scheduling. I wanted to be busy and I’ve accomplished that goal. Better busy than slow.

Still working on my wikis. I’ve had 4 teachers make wikis and share them. They are too cool! I’m so excited!

I could use some help on one of the wikis I’m working on. I’m trying to design a wiki where teachers can go to find uses for web 2.0 applications. Aptly named, Great Idea Wiki. I’m welcoming any ideas you can add. Maybe together we can invent the better mousetrap.

Until next time ~ Danita