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

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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

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

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

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Way to go Kim! Keep up the great work!

Until next time ~ Danita

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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

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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

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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 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

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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

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