How I plan to "carry on".

Session 6 in our class assignment asks us to blog on how we plan to continue to use this blog after this class is over. I would like to continue to use it for reflection. As I have stated many times this is my first year of teaching. I know this blog is not very "structured". At first I just ranted and "shot the breeze" so to speak but once I got the hang of the assignments that came after the readings I buckled down and started discussing pertinent issues to this Read/Write Web 2.0. I am glad I was forced (you all don't know the half of why I have to pass this class!) to learn about things I would have scoffed at before. I don't chat. I got rid of my MySpace account because I didn't like all the negative press it was getting. I would have never thought I would say anything worthy of a blog. Now I see that whether people read it and love it, read it and hate it, or read it and move on without a word- I said it and it is here "written" for me to reflect on at a later date. I wish it was accessible where I need it the most, at school, but I understand why it is not and I have made my peace with that. I think the two best blogs I have read are Greggory's (Dr. Lecter) for his scathing cynicism and Rachel "Shelly"'s (Dragons Dolphin) for her endearing thoughts on life as she sees it. I LOVE my bookmarking site (Furl.net) because it allows me to keep sites and travel with them where I need to go. I hope this answers my instructors question but just in case it didn't - I plan to use my blog for personal reflection during my pivitol first year of teaching.

The link for "voicethread.com"

http://voicethread.com/#home

Above is the link to the technology that Rachel "Shelly" Gibbs-Roberts mentions in her blog. I though this was so cool. Below is the link to the 2 examples that I saw that got my creative juices flowing. Please check this out!

http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2007/10/13/voicethread-pro-online-resource/

Podcast 101

Whew! That was a LONGGGGG assisgnment. I feel like a total goober for trying to watch a video from every link in that long list but I did it. Does it make me feel more comfortable about podcasting on my own? No. I think this is because like most teachers we want our work to be of the "highest" quality. Lets face it, some of the podcasts were enjoyable, some were not. Some played like they were supposed to, others did not play at all. Another problem I had was that I didn't really find what I was looking for. I will say this though "Shelly" from our class has a link to something called Voicestreaming.com or something that did get my creative teacher juices flowing and I encourage all to visit her blog and find out what it was. The problem is that I want to start in the "kiddie pool" and still appear to be swimming along with the big fish and that is what the "voicestreaming" site seems to do. It merges a slideshow along with voices and comes out with a great product. One of the most annoying things to me was that some videos buffered constantly making me think my computer was outdated and others zoomed video with amazing crispness of picture. I am confused by the mechanics of this which is why I get scared off by the whole idea of podcasting. What did you all think? My favorite podcasts were the one on why astronauts seem to float in space on the NASA site I think and the one about the Water Buffalo that made me cry. What can I say I am a perfectionist!

Catch-up Time!

Okay classmates! I am trying to catch up here and that's why I am posting like a "madwoman". I am tired and I want to go to bed but before I do let me tell you how I feel about Wikis. As stated on the discussion board I love Wikis, I just don't want to "author" one. I don't think I know enough about anything that I can say "research my infinite knowledge on my Wiki". The contributers to Wikipedia are really good and if they are not they sound like they are. The other Wikis I visted (which are linked to my Furl account at the bottom of this page) are great too! Maybe I will know enough about something when I grow up and I will start a Wiki but I asure you that by that time Wikis will be outdated. Now, that is not to say that I do plan to use them in the classroom. If they aren't blocked. My students will be getting into research projects soon and I know I will be checking out Wikipedia.

I added my RSS Feed to the bottom of my Blog!

What a title! It is definitely a mouthful. Now I have to scour the rest of my classmates blogs and RSS feeds and add them to my RSS feed to create a black hole in the Internet! HAHAHAHA!!! Is anyone out there as tired as I am of looking at this screen!?! Anyway, today I am out sick. I have Pharyngitis or something and although it is not contagious, the medicine for it is messing with my stomach. Biaxin I think. I am too lazy to get up and look at the bottle for the correct spelling. I got this from the change in weather that kick started my sinuses, that promptly started draining and "voila!"- Pharyngitis. At least I am getting caught up with this class. I hope everything is going well with all of you!

Sorry! Technology has not caught up with my school yet!

I want to apologize to all of those who have posted to my blog but did not get published. I receive an e-mail every time someone posts to the blog and from the e-mail I am supposed to publish it or moderate it. Everyone has been so supportive and I have not had to moderate any but I can't blog at my school. The page is blocked. If I open my mail at school sometimes I think, my Hotmail account will catch it (I have my school e-mail forwarded to my Hotmail as a back-up for reliability issues) and I will publish at home. Then when I get home I read and purge and in my stupidity I probably deleted some accidentally. Another problem is that I am not very blog aware and I may have messed something up. As far as blogging at school, for purposes of this class I am going to try to get this fixed. We in Ocean Springs have a very forward minded technology superintendent and I feel confident that if I talk to the right person in the tech dept. I can get the block lifted or access to my page. It is frustrating because I don't like to bring work home. I often stay at my school 2 hours after the last bus has rolled to get things done and I would hate to come home and have to stare at the computer at home. I am not whining and it is really against my better judgement to say this but it is just me and my small daughter and she deserves my full attention here at home. I know a lot of you are having the same frustrations so please comment about them so we can all share each other's pain!

For all you SPEDSTERS out there!

I wrote this poem while I was student teaching earlier this year. It explains a lot about why I chose Special Education and more importantly "inclusion". Hope you enjoy!

Time to write a poem
By Miesha Griffin 01/26/07

Okay.
School reminds me of a special time in my life.
I’m only observing but that’s basically what students do.
They are “observers”.
Anyway, during the “observations”…
when I was in school…
I did some of my best art.
Wrote some of my best poetry…
my best short stories.
Had some of my best daydreams.
Why is it that I am most creative when the background sound
playing is “Blah blah blah…”?

Well then, here I am.
Science.
I enjoy science.
I enjoy science but I “know” this.
I think I am ADD.
Definitely not ADHD, all that “moving around” makes me sleepier.
I can write, think, spell, doodle – all while listening to the
teacher.
I know it’s rude.
I know she doesn’t really understand that I “understand”.
“Go on!” I think to myself.
“Finish your soliloquy- I mean your sentence.”
“I’m wit’ cha!”

A.D.D.
Attention Deficit Disorder
Attention Dimension Dementia
It’s not a disorder if you can “control” the two universes.
The parallel planes of thought.
I flow between.
More like swim, coming up to catch a breath when the voice is
pointed in my direction.
If I concentrate “too” much on one plane of thought I become
exposed.
Too much to the teacher I zone out.
My eyes cross.
Froth forms at the corner of my mouth.
The daydream begins.
Too much “attention” to the aesthetic I fail.
Get caught.
Get lost.
Lose my sanity. (Teacher takes my paper for conference fodder.)

So what!
What happened? Outcome?
7 different schools before 12th grade.
5 Colleges.
8 majors later I found my “niche”.
Teacher.
Navigator.
Navigation expert for students like me.
Drowning and lost in the depths of “No child left behind”.
Floundering between dimensions, planes and universes.
Doodlers.
Daydreamers.
Do nothings.
Daredevils.
ADHD is really not my disability, but I’ll figure it out during
“Reading”.
In research I’m “gifted”. I believe we ALL are in our own way.