Education, Stading Style

It looks like I have a thing of using commas in substitution of “and.”  My Language Arts Co-teacher would know what that particular use of a comma is called.  So would Google, if I took the 1.7 seconds to search for it.

My examples include this very blog (Education, Stading Style) and perhaps my class blog for Journalism:  The World, A Click Away.  (Not much on that right now, but that should change when I return from FMLA this week.)

Introducing another of my comma-titled websites:  Knowledge, Created.  This is my graduate portfolio for my M.Ed degree in Early Childhood Education.  I started the degree in 2000 or so, going for an Alaska Teacher Certificate.  When it came to decision time about turning that certificate work into a Master’s Degree, I opted against it:  I was almost finished with a Special Education Master’s and really, who needs two Master’s?

Well, me…though it took me a few years to decide that, a decision made even easier when the director of the program told me I would only need nine more credits to obtain the degree.  Cool.  I could do that, even with two young kids at home and a full-time teaching job.

It wasn’t the easiest finish of a degree; it came complete with plenty of late Friday nights, interrupted web classes, and some no-you-were-told-wrong-you-can’t-finish-like-this drama.  It hasn’t meant much for the pay scale or my current teaching assignment, but what’s another step on the pay scale anyway.  I finished something I started.  I’m three-fifths of the way to catching my dad and his college degrees (a Bachelor’s, three Master’s and a Doctorate).  There are some bragging rights to holding dual graduate degrees, though more from my husband than myself.  (He likes having an educated wife.)

I think the most important reason for this M.Ed, though,  is that it models continued learning to my students, my colleagues, and my own children and family. I decided to build the portfolio as a Google Site with embedded Google Documents, with which I had limited experience.  Reviewing it, I still see editing mistakes and the pages are a bit wordy.  But that is okay.  That is who I was as an educator in the past years.  It will not be who I am as an educator in the coming years.

Knowledge, Created.

Me, learning.

(According to Google, that’s a newspaper headline thing, to use the comma instead of “and”…though I think I’m setting off some sort of clause with these commas.  Strunk and White’s non-restrictive clauses, perhaps?)

You’ll notice some new links to the side there…these are blogs I want to read, found through Twitter, including the founder of the very cool #edchat.  I’ve also added a link to my own daughter’s blog, Answers Below Zero.  Here’s that story:

At ASTE this year, our junior senator gave a welcome speech to the crowd.  It was the same old I’m-doing-stuff-for-you-in-DC-I’m-on-your-side speech that politicians give to a room full of teachers.

Yada yada.

But he also shared a story about his own son.  His son had started an online storefront and was selling Christmas gifts from past years.  Clever, as his son is 10 or thereabouts.

That awoke my Mother Bear, because while this son already has an advantage to success in life because his dad is a politician (in fact, ask both our senators what their daddies did for work), I don’t see any reason why a senator’s son should have a technological advantage over my own daughter.  He shouldn’t.  The internet can be an equalizer, or at least should be.

After the speakers, I emailed my school administrator to ask that my daughter be given an online account with our school district.  That is standard in our district starting in 4th grade.  She was in 1st at the time.

The internet is an equalizer…if you are on it.  She is.  She likes the internet, and she likes having a presence there.   Answers Below Zero is completely her idea.  Check it out!

This is an interesting slide show of technology that is pretty much done, given the nature of the world today.  Have you used any of them lately?

22 Obsolete Everyday Things

I’m done using half of them, and probably could add more if I had an iPad or iPhone.  That time time will come, though, I’m sure.

I think I got it to work. You have to look for someone to host your RSS feed, like feedburner.com…

Answers Below Zero

(and someone tell me how to add an RSS feed to this site!)

I’m applying for an educator account at animoto.com. I already have a personal account…it really is the coolest video site out there for ease of videos!

Not that I think students can access this on the school’s network, but I’ll post a video of my kids anyway.

http://animoto.com/play/rSzjzeTychzndMwuvodr2A

Y’all know I’m out of the classroom more than Mrs. P. Well, this last time was for the Alaska Society for Technology in Education (ASTE) conference in Anchorage.   And let me tell you what, I promise there will be some new things coming for you in class. In all my classes.

I read this tweet yesterday…#ASTE was great! My butt is tired and my mind’s awake! Give me a few days, and I’ll let you in on what I think is some pretty cool stuff.

(http://tinyurl.com/4pnapwd)

This is a middle school assignment.

The winning letters are on this website.

Work hard!  Win us some money for school!

Read about it here.

Other reviews:

Boston Globe

San Francisco Chronicle

Check out this site … you put in a book you liked and it gives you a bunch of recommendations for other books. Try it out!