Notes from Millie D

25 Random Things

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1.   I have 9 and 3/4 toes thanks to a lawnmower in Camden.
2.   I have to thank my Uncle Jim (god bless his soul) for my love of Dr. Pepper.
3.   After my accident I now have a new appreciation for the little things that life gives us on a daily basis.
4.   Even though I didn’t end up in a business career I don’t regret going to business school.
5.   I really am grateful for a wonderful family and an awesome extended family.
6.   I love what I do, teaching is not for everyone but it is for me!
7.   My first experience on a computer was 7th Grade Math Class when Mrs. Petras started a fortran group based on a class she was taking at USM.
8.   I love how diverse and extended my personal learning network is in my growth as an educator.  THANK YOU!
9.   Buzz driving is still dangerous to everyone else on the road with you!
10. I don’t like to dwell in the negative as it doesn’t help me move forward.
11. I don’t have an iPhone (even though I really want one). 
12. I treasure my relationship with my children.
13. My wife helps to keep me as balance as I can be.
14. I attended the World Series bloody sock game in 2004.
15. Thankful that my wife allows me to indulge in my being a New England Patriots fan.
16. Love taking pictures but don’t like to have my picture taken.
17. I don’t regret any of the decisions I’ve made that forced my separation from my dad, I am a much happier person without him in my life.
18. Sleep is overrated
19. If I ever won the Powerball Lottery, I would take a year or more off and follow U2 on one of their tours.
20. One of the coolest projects I’ve ever worked on was my school’s art teacher’s journey to Japan in 2007.
21. I wish I could invent a remote control that can be useful under a blanket.
22. If I had to give up teaching I would love to become a brewmaster.
23. People need to mean what they say and say what they mean.
24. I like to golf but unfortunately I’ll never be able to fill that passion.
25.  I don’t like being tagged by a meme but I don’t mind sharing the info.  I just don’t like having to keep the chain going.

I would love to read about other people’s 25 Random Things but I will not tag people and make them feel obligated in completing it.

Last night I posted a picture of my outline for a keynote I’m giving next week. I wanted to post the picture with the notes I’ve embedded within Flickr. I was too tired to think about Googling the query so I put in out to my network. After a couple of minutes I decided to Google it and found a site called Mbedr.

Mbedr allows you to take any flickr photo that has notes and embed it. You provide the address and the size of the output picture and the site gives you the embed code. Here is an example of a picture I took at Game 2 of the 2004 World Series.

This tool can open up the possibilities with a classroom to showcase
final products. Art appreciation teachers can think of a thousand uses
in marking up pieces of art with notes. Math teachers can use it to
explain mathematical thinking and concepts within a completed problem.
History teachers can use maps to discuss famous battles throughout
time. I’m sure I’m only scratching the surface of the usage for a tool
like this. I would love to hear how you would use it.

My Notes with More Details

Originally uploaded by mrichme

I’ve been talking advantage of wallspace, post-it notes, and time in getting ready for a keynote address I’m giving soon.

I wish I knew how to embed the notes I’ve attached to the photo. Can anyone help me with this?

It has been a while since I really put together a meaningful post, I don’t count the links I find as a meaningful post.  I can’t even claim that I haven’t had anything to write about lately.  I guess it is a sign that I’m enjoying my summer vacation.

The last couple of weeks I’ve immersed myself in being with my family and engaging in professional development opportunities.  Last week I was fortunate enough to be at Alan November’s Building Learning Communities, which someday I’ll post my reflections but I’m still soaking up the experience.  I’ve been able to attend NECC and MLTICastine08 virtually thanks to ustream, CoverItLive, and my RSS feeds.  So I want to thank all of the people who have done their part in allowing my to attend these conferences through their lens.  In the tradition of pay it forward I did used CoverItLive to live blog sessions at BLC and really enjoyed those who hopped on and joined me.  CoverItLive is a tool added to my personal toolbox.

Now I’m starting to change the professional development lens to a presenter.  I’ll be a keynote presenter in August at the SAD 61 Summer Technology Institute and I’ve been working on my presentation a little here and there but I have the rare opportunity of high speed internet and no children for the weekend.  I figure I don’t have any better opportunity to get this presentation done!  So tonight I decided to have an outline/mindmap going in a visual way but not utlizing technology.  Blasphemy you say!  I say no way!  I’m using post-it notes so I can move things around customize my outline.

Sometimes a computer screen can be limiting.  In my living room I have a wall that is 12 x 7 with nothing else on it.  I consider it my blank canvas and I’m hoping that by the end of the weekend it turns into my presentation.  We can hope right?

One of the tools I’ve been using this summer to stay current on a lot of topics is Plurk.  Plurk is another microblogging tool that uses karma to provide users with perks in customizing your experience.  I like Plurk for a few different reasons-verbs and threaded conversations.  Plurk starts off your entry by allowing you to use one of the common verbs or you can freestyle your 140 entry.  The verb allows the person to use a stronger voice to make your update.  The threaded conversations are great because users can interact with the author and start a conversation rather than hit and run with a tool like Twitter.  Did I say Twitter?  Yes, I’m still using it but have been frustrated by the outages that have become more frequent lately.  Plurk has been more stable.  Do you have to choose one or the other?  My answer is a resounding NO.  Both serve a purpose in a PLN.

I’ve been thinking a lot, I know it is a dangerous thing, about a lot of topics that will eventually make it to blog entries.  “Modern Day” Conference (virtual vs. face to face), Conference Ettique, Shifting the Paradigm of Learning and Technology, Kiva.org, and Starting the School Year Right.  So look for some post in the coming weeks as I flesh out these thoughts and my experiences throughout the rest of the summer.

Cover it Live seems to acting up (or bandwidth). So let’s try it the old fashion way…here are my notes.

She believes we don’t have a choice about old literacy vs. new literacy.
She looks at tools to figure out how it can amplify students’ learning and not just trying the newest tools.

Her story, back in the classroom after a 4 year absense in academia. She had a room that didn’t fit the students she had. She asked about the tools they used to write…after 6 minutes of silence “pen”, “paper”.

The kids eventually mentioned computer and then the rest of the list generated, blog, imovie, video games, cell phone, wikipedia, post-it notes,digital cameras, highlighters. Kids pushed back when blogs were mentioned because that was their space and they saw it separate from school spaces.

Writing “non negotiables”
development of a unique voice, strong voice
concise, packed, lively writing (forced language)
authority and confidence
immediate and specific examples and details
organization
REAL WRITING FOR REAL AUDIENCES

She needed to answer the question why we need to do this…

How do we get there?
deal with student’s emotionsurrounding writing
expose students to a wealth of lagnuage
Frequent writing opportunities

1981 “the three things to do with final version of writing are post, print and publish” James Moffett Before the Internet and Blogs.

Strategy that Sara used: Author Quest
Select a livign author whose work you admire
Read at least two books by that author. Ask questions in your reader’s log.
Research your author and write a 3 paragraph reflection on the search. (Process of your search, what surprised you, what you want to ask)
Using these questions as a basis, write a letter to your author
Revise and edit your letter
Publish your letter

Storyboard using GoogleDocs. Her wiki http://promiseintoprices.pbwiki.com has some tools.

Using pictures to enhance the creativity process.
Google MyMaps as a way to visual
Showing the Flip
“This we believe”

Tools that that are in play now in her classroom…
podcasting (audience goes beyond the classroom)
Jing (The kids reading their own writing and commenting/marking up text)

Nice job Sara.