It's Been a Month??? What?

It's SO hard for me to believe that I haven't blogged in almost a month! Wow! Where did the time go?

A lot has happened this past month...

• The students I blogged about in my last post were featured on our high school "Tiger TV" channel


• My Junior Achievement Company Program students successfully created, delivered, and set up 70 incredible centerpieces for the Crystal Apple Awards Gala


• My BEIS class participated in a JA Titan competition while still working on the NetGenEd Project


• I had new systems installed in my computer lab (yeah!!!!...the old ones SO did not work anymore!!)


• My younger son 'champed up' in Tennis (woo hoo!)


• We moved my parents in with us during spring break

Needless to say, I've been incredibly busy. My only regret in all of this is that it has prevented me from being as involved as I wanted to be in the NetGenEd Project. It's is such an amazing opportunity for the students who are involved. I've been reduced to lurking about...trying to keep up as best I can with all of the happenings. I haven't had the time to participate in the webinars, the book club...not much of anything..and, well, frankly it's depressing... :-(

I am excited that my students will finish their videos on time, though. They have some incredible ideas for their videos; I'm looking forward to seeing those ideas come to life. These are the same students that participated in the 2008 Flat Classroom Project and the Flat Classroom Conference. They are amazing students! Most of them are seniors, so it's a little hard to get them to focus right now...they've all been accepted to various colleges and universities, so now they are waiting to hear about all of the scholarships for which they've applied. Plus, they are getting ready for the prom, various banquets, etc...

Well...off to help my students post-produce their NetGenEd multi-media artifacts!! Promise it won't be another month before I post again!!

Photo credit: http://eladthegreat.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/the-ultimate-clock/

Get It? Got It! Good!!

I love the Internet. I love Web2.0. I love the opportunity to connect with other people, in other places. Most of all I love learning from people (who are obviously smarter than the average bear).

Strolling through my Google Reader this evening I came accross a post on Doug Johnson's "Blue Skunk Blog." In his latest post, he references a post from Seth Godin's blog regarding the "Get To vs. The Have To."

Great stuff. Read my response on Doug's blog...and yes...it's REALLY how I 'feel' about teaching!

Response posted here for your reading pleasure:

OMG...I love this post! Let's see...I 'get to' teach kiddos (well, they're high school, but still kiddo in my book). I get to learn new technologies that I in turn get to teach the kiddos. I get to sponsor a Junior Achievement Company Program that prepares students for both college and career (The kiddos in this extracurricular activity are just incredible...). I get to teach Sports Marketing...well...it' just rocks! I get to teach
computer applications and other tekkie stuff...

I get to do a lot of 'things' as a high school teacher that I NEVER got to do when I was in business/industry. I get to make a difference in the lives of young people...my [rayer is that the difference I make is a positive one and prepares them adequately for a VERY compeititve marketplace.

Probably the only thing I HAVE to do is a bunch of seemingly needless paperwork. So, if I won the lottery, I would teach for free and hire someone to do the 'seemingly needless paperwork' for me so I could continue to do the 'get to' stuff.

Thanks for a great post!!
September 30, 2008 Estie Cuellar