Ready, Set...Go!

The school year has begun here in the great state of Texas. The first week back went well, I think. I have 4 preps this year, but thankfully, only 3 per semester. Last year I had 4 preps per semester--that was an experience.

I'm really excited about teaching Global Business this semester. I had the privilege of attending the Institute on the Environment and the Economy this summer sponsored by The Foundation for Teaching Economics and the Texas Council on Economic Education. Participating in this course gave me some awesome tools to help teach economics to my Global Business students and make it relevant. If you ever have the opportunity to attend any training sponsored by either of these organizations, seize it! It's worth the time, I assure you.

During the first week of school I introduced my students to me, their courses, class/course expectations, Google accounts, Wikispaces, and Blogs. This week as we begin our curriculum, the students will learn how to create a blog post, create links in the post, upload pictures to their post, and tag it. As the semester progresses they will learn a host of other Web2.0 applications integrated throughout the curriculum that I truly hope will help prepare them for success in both college and career.

It's going to be a great year!

Wordle picture found on Joan Vinall-Cox' blog.

Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

I am very familiar with Google Docs...I spent some time collaborating with a colleague a year or so ago and we decided to use Google Docs to share our information. It worked fine for us. I've never used OpenOffice...but...I didn't want to download and install it on my computer--so--I found some video tutorials via Technorati. I watched the tutorials and read the blog reactions. Most agree that OpenOffice is a viable (not to mention affordable) option to the MSOffice Suite. While I agree, I admit that I am partial to the standard software version. Personally, I believe the choice to be a matter of personal preference as both options meet the need.

Thing #9 - Useful Blogs/Newsfeeds

It's official--I'm addicted to RSS!! I've been searching, subscribing, and reading more in the past 24 hours than I did for the past two weeks! It's great!

Focus...Focus...
1. I used several methods to find feeds...probably the easiest was to just search from my Google Reader. I also went to the sites that I already had bookmarked in my browser and added subscriptions from there.

2 and 3. I liked the interface on Technorati better than Syndicat8 or Topix. But that's just personal preference...none were difficult to navigate. I joined Technorati and 'claimed' my blog there. I really like the layout and navigation there.

4. I found several useful blogs...two of my finds came from the CoolCatTeacher blog. I really enjoyed surfing through Victoria Davis' site. I believe that I will learn much from her...she's is now a part of my circle of the wise.

5. Of course, I also used Google to just google stuff by keyword... :-)