Notes from Millie D

If you’re looking for a place to start your reading-think-write experiences with education blogs check out this list of 100 education blogs (although you won’t find this one here but that is okay I don’t deserve it).

This week’s Time Magazine includes the Person of the Year for 2006. Past recipients include world leaders, inventors, sportspeople, entertainers, humanitians but this year the tables are turned on us as we are the people of the year. Yes, you!

Notice the Macintosh sitting on the table!

Let me start off by saying that Flock is a very good browser.  Maybe when Flock matures a little more I will come back to it but I’ve made the switch to Firefox.  Firefox 2.x offers a feature I love:  restoring sessions when it unexpectedly quits.  Lately Flock didn’t like Google Reader or heavy java or flash based websites which causes the browser to be non-responsive and loose the active windows.

I haven’t tried Performancing in a while so I’ll be interested in seeing how it compares to the blogging tool within Flock.  Most of the other features are similar enough that the stability of Firefox was the final factor.

To the folks at Flock:  keep up the good work I’ll be watching for your new developments.

Flickr provides users with a chance to see their pictures in a calendar view by typing /date-taken-calendar at the end of the user’s photostream.  This is a nice way to view your pictures.  It reminded me that I need to upload some more pictures.

Also Flickr announced their Pro version upgrades.  For $24.95 a year this is what you get:

• Unlimited uploads
• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited photosets
• Permanent archiving of high-resolution original images
• The ability to replace a photo
• Ad-free browsing and sharing

I might have to upgrade my account in 07 and have a true back up of my pictures, unless Picasa has a solution.Also in 07 I need to set up a school account for all of the great pictures people are taking.

Today will go down as a long day but very exciting in my classroom. I was out yesterday taking care of business but when I came in this morning I found I had some packages waiting for me. I received a partial package from Staples with a digital camcorder and some accessories. Hopefully the rest of the stuff will come in next week. People who know me would be shocked to find out that digital camcorder stayed in the box all day because I had a better new toy to play with today.

After 3 years of trying to land one I finally got my hands on a Mimio. OH MY GOODNESS! The wheels of technology integration were spinning so fast my head hurt. During my prep this morning I was getting use to the equipment so that I could showcase the technology to my classes today. Without fail every class was just as excited and impressed as I was with the potential. We looked at this technology like deer in headlights.

The excitement did not end there. One of the first grade teachers ask me to digitalize some student art work. My classes were going to be independent enough that I could add it to the list of things that needed to be done (I know I should have taken the time to show the teacher how to do it themselves but it was my daughter’s teacher so I felt I was volunteering in a way I could). As I was scanning the artwork I thought “Bubbleshare” it! So here is their Eric Carle style artwork:

This album is powered by

BubbleShare

TIME.com: How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century — Dec. 18, 2006 — Page 1

This article comes at interesting time.  Our state, Maine, will be voting this week on a revised set of standards and benchmarks for students.  I applaud the fact that legislators listened to teachers I still feel like their missing the mark that would allow teacher creativity in order to address 21st Century Literacy and Skills.  Curriculum is just one piece of the big puzzle and unfortunately the other pieces (assessment and data) is drowning curriculum and authentic student learning.

The fact that Time Magazine is jumping on the education reform meets 21st Century Literacy and Skills might just get the ball rolling.

technorati tags:21stcentury, literacy, time, education, reform

Blogged with Flock

Over the last few days some of the more “influential” edubloggers out there have been praising Google Reader.  I’ve got to admit I checked out it early on but wasn’t that impressed.  Based on people who I respect I decided to give Google Reader another chance.

I must say that Google Reader has gotten better.  I like the list view feature as well as the ajax commands but it still seemed slow.  Granted lately Bloglines has frustrated me with their outages, especially during the Pats vs. Bears game recently.  I wish Google Reader had the ability to share subscriptions like Bloglines as well as the ability to make a quick subscription through a favorite.  Over the next couple of weeks I’m willing to keep both and see how they react over time.

In some ways this is like the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle going on lately.  What are your thoughts?

Blogged with Flock

Today at our professional development meeting we heard about a thread for the upcoming NYCCC gathering in March which deals with technology in the classroom. At first I put in the back of my mind as details were very sparse but the ride home got me thinking about rephrasing the thread to cover proven technology that will make a lasting impression in the classroom.

The downside of what was shared was the fact that vendors may be the ones leading the discussion, BIG MISTAKE!  Vendors do not nor will they ever be able to give the perspective of the impact on students.  They can only relay others successes.  We need to take advantage of the collective efforts of teachers integrating who can reflect upon their experiences, positive as well as negative.

Negative experiences can provide just as valuable information as positive ones.  I constantly think about taking what I know now and improving upon it if I had the chance to do it over again.  Maybe it is just me.

Anyway…what Web2.0 tool or new technology out there would you suggest teachers get their hands dirty with to improve childrens’ performance in the classroom? 

Over the next few days I try to give my impressions but I’m curious about yours…

Blogged with Flock