Late Night Blogging

This could be dangerous. There is no telling what will go through my mind at 11 p.m. I just finished a draft of a report on my music program for my superintendent. I used Google docs and shared it with the superintendent. You know, that Google docs is a great feature! Who needs an expensive word processing program when Google has the basics that you need for free? What a great invention -- thanks Google! The more I explore Google the more impressed I am.

Since I've taken this new job, I have become even more tech savvy. I have found tons of resources, tricks and tips out there. This summer, I have the opportunity to teach technology workshops (I have to remember to get that application filled out and sent). I've been thinking about what the teachers who I work with would find the most beneficial. My thoughts are SmartBoard software, the Office Suite, and maybe some extras like MS PhotoStory. However, now my thoughts are turning to including the many Google features, Twitter, Skype, and Jing -- to name a few. I'm just not sure there are enough hours to get all this done. The Will Richardson presentation back in February really got me thinking and I refer back to his presentation wiki frequently. After that presentation, I signed up for so many things (probably too many things) that I can't remember all of them and didn't think to bookmark every one of them.

As a result of his presentation, I now Skype, blog, tweet, and I use a wiki page with my students. The wiki page has been great. My 8th graders have been using it to learn new things in PowerPoint. Their directions are posted on the site, along with free videos from AtomicLearning. They can work on their projects at their own pace and refer back to examples and videos as needed. It's worked quite well. They love the web-based method of learning. One student asked me if I had it my way, would I do web-based hands-on learning activities all the time. Then they told me they wished that I was their teacher all the time. Well, that made me feel pretty good. I have a feeling though, the web-based stuff would get old after a while.

Moodle is another thing I'd like to try. I have to do some more reading on it though. Some of the tech stuff they talk about is over my head right now -- I'll get there though.

Skype is kind of neat. I'm trying to decide if it's something I really would get use out of though. I have Yahoo! Messenger. It seems that it's quite similar. If I understand correctly though, I can actually talk to the other person just like a phone call. If I'm not mistaken though, Yahoo! Messenger has that capability as well. I would like to get the Skype headset I saw at WalMart recently. What a geek I am!

I'm still trying to figure out Twitter. I have 2 friends on Twitter. Now what? Guess I'll be reading the help section of the website. Still not quite sure what usefulness I'll get out of it.

Okay, it's now 11:27 here in the central daylight time zone. I'm exhausted and am not feeling so well -- allergies. Time for bed.