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.

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

On With the Show...

The last three weeks have been a tornado of activity. When I saw the date of my last post I could hardly believe that almost a month has gone by since I blogged.

I hadn't planned on Ike...I hadn't planned on my father being ill. It's weird how life can hit you so hard, so fast, and so furious. Just when you think you've hit a groove...BAM!...life throws you a curve.

I have felt SO guilty about not posting...with everything going so crazy around me these past few weeks, I kept telling myself that I would get caught up with my blog, with reading others blogs and newsfeeds 'tomorrow.' The problem is...if I'm not careful, tomorrow will never come.

Yes, 'things' have been absolutely nuts. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if or when 'normal' will return...but, I do know this: life is too short to feel guilty about this (not blogging). I'm back and I'm ready to carve out the time I want to make my blog rich, meaningful, and worthy.

It's good to be back...

Steppin' Out

This first week of school has been very exciting--and VERY busy! I've barely had enough time to breeze through some of my favorite blogs (via my Google Reader), much less create a blog post of my own (how does CoolCatTeacher do it?).

I decided before school started this year that I wanted to incorporate blogs and wikis into my curriculum. And...well...all of my students now have a blog. They will be utilizing their blogs during the course of the year to reflect on what they are learning in class, to research and blog on specific topics related to business/marketing, and to comment on their own topics of interest (and each other's blogs).

I was really unsure of just how things would go, but aside from a few forgotten passwords and typos that prevented login, things went pretty smooth. In fact, most of the students have already made two entries into their blogs! I will be spending the next couple of days entering a blogroll into our class wiki (I'm not ready for 100+ students to try and get into the wiki just yet). Until then, I wanted to share a couple of posts that I thought were really good.

Each year I spend some time having my students introduce themselves to the class. It's a great way for students to get to know each other and an opportunity for me to learn their names. This year, I gave the students a specific assignment regarding their introduction (a lesson from Campus Chaos--can't find a website for them). They were to choose a color, a car, and a destination that describes their personality, then blog about it. Using their blog post as a reference, I had them introduce themselves to the class. There were a number of really good posts, but two really captured my attention.

From Desiree R's "One Step at a Time" Blog:

My name is Desiree Robinson aka (also known as) Dezzy by family members. I choose the color PURPLE. I would love a black Infinity going to the beach in Florida because I am very outgoing, and I love to have fun. And just like the beach I am open minded. The characteristics of the beach when some days its full of big waves, like me I can be full of energy. But the beach water can also be calm with small waves, and like me I can be calm and full of thought.

From Catie W's "Catie's Blogg!":

My name is Catie and I choose an isotope green bug headed to Hershey Park, Pennsylvania because I'm sweet and cheerful, love the outdoors and love to have fun!

Awesome, huh? I can hardly wait for next week--and the next--and the next...

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

The other day I posted about how I approach the first few days of school to set a successful tone for the year. Well, after I posted that I begin contemplating--I've 'met' a number of incredibly successful educators this summer online. I've tagged their blogs/posts on Del.icio.us, added a number of these blogs to my blogroll, and read much of their information on various topics.

What I hadn't done, was read/study how they approach their first days...so...I started searching. Here are some links to some great posts from some great educators and some of their best practices for starting the year out right...

Vicki Davis - Tips for Starting the School Year Right
Todd Seal - Change in Your Classroom
Cal Teacher - Settle Down
Dan Meyer - How I Work

This is just a smattering...check out Teacher Lingo for connections to other educator blogs.

Thing #14 Technorati and Tags

I began using Technorati while completing the Discovery Exercise for Thing #9. However, I did not begin adding blogs and tags until now.

I like Technorati. I have all of my favorite blogs on my Google Reader, but am in the process of adding them to my Technorati site. I like the fact that Technorati connects bloggers to bloggers. It's a great way to create community. I have begun connecting with others who share similar interests with me. Although I can find other teachers via tags (tags are awesome!), I would like to see Technorati add an Education folder to it's Blog Directory. I think it would make it a little easier to find other teachers and their blogs.

I added some Technorati widgets to my site. The button at the top, right side of my page allows people to add my blog to their Technorati favorites. The horizontal ticker widget at the bottom of my page displays a real-time feed of what users are searching for on Technorati, right now.

I spent a fair amount of time on this Thing. I wanted to be certain that I understood fully how Technorati works. I plan on having my students create blogs this year rather than keeping a paper/pen journal. I will be able to add my students' blogs to my Technorati site. That will make it really easy for me to check/grade their 'journals' as they reflect on their lessons in my class.

Thing #12 - Creating Community Through Comments

Ummm...I've been commenting since I started my 23Things. I've been utilizing forums for some time now, so I am familiar with posting etiquette. With that said, I really enjoyed reading the commenting post from CoolCatTeacher. She's gives some great advice there (although I'm having problems remembering the html code to create hyperlinks in comments). I really appreciated her information regarding "Darth Commenter." I, too have been a victim of DC a time or two...it's not fun, but you can't take it personally.

Of the blogs I have found/studied so far, the CoolCatTeacher blog is the best (JMHO). I will most definitly utilize the information on her blog to assist me in my classroom (lots of great information there!)

In addition, as I find other terrific blogs on which I post, I will add them to my blogroll for you all to visit as well!!

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... :-)