The Power of Words

One thing that I absolutely love about books is that the only interaction is with text.  The text has the power to create images and emotions.  Written words, simply words on a page, can have you up in arms or in tears.  They have the ability to move you.  They can persuade you, keep you open minded and empathetic, or can support a believe and provide foundation.
When I become a teacher, I want to start everyday by writing a quote on the board.  Not necessarily focus on it, but hope that the students will read it and ask about it.  I've written a few of my favorites down and even have some from memory.  Perhaps I'll make them relate to the lesson, but I don't think it would be necessary.
Everything from Aldo Leopold's "Education, I fear, is learning to see one thing by going blind to another," or Emerson's "Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense" or even "I've gone to look for myself. If I get back before I return, keep me here.- (I don't know who said/wrote it)"
  I was just thinking that we all have works, texts, and words that have impacted us, and many times a quote has that power.  It may be another way to get the students interested in the power of words.

What we're up against...

I don't know why I read articles like this, or like this, or like this.  I try to remain optimistic about teaching aspects, but realistically... its becoming more and more difficult to see a silver lining of the dark clouds.  Budget cuts, ALWAYS! I'm not against accountability, but is this fair?  Testing is EVERYTHING!  How are we to teach successfully?  Does that score mean everything?
  Even before I planned on being a teacher, I understood how important teachers are, and how important (and constitutionally right) public education is.  I fail to understand why this is happening all around. 
I know one does not become a teacher for the money.  I know one should not become a teacher for vacations.  Teachers main driving points are to make an influence and help students reach a potential that the students did not even know they possess.  It is because of that that I hold on hope.

I wish I had known about Zotero earlier in my ed career

I should start by saying Mozilla Firefox is the ideal for this Zotero program.  This is a great way to keep online research organized, while also allowing you to keep bookmarks, citation information, highlights, notes, and many other features on a page.  I'm still playing with and learning about Zotero, but I wish I would have found this earlier for all the research papers I have had to write.  It is free and I think this is a great program for students.
We have discussed many sites that allow for bookmarking, highlighting, organizing, and collaborating, but I find Zotero to be superior to them.  Like I said though, I installed it onto my computer at the beginning of the semester, so I'm still learning its features.  One of which, unlike the ones discussed in class, is that you can open your browser offline and still have access to the webpages that you have added into Zotero and edit the page with your highlights and notes etc..

Podcasting Project

As odd as it may seem, I actually enjoyed making the podcast.  I've had Audacity on my computer, and I thought it was pretty easy to use.  I was able to edit music, place where we wanted to record, edit separate tracks, add effects... it was easy and fun.  Even the host-site we used, podbean, was easy to figure out and looked pretty good.  Just wish Jake and I weren't both battling colds and sore-throats for the recording, but still turned out alright.

An Extra Blog and a Resource

I don't know how many of you are familiar with open-source software, but basically it is a free alternative to commercial software and programs.  (Such as OpenOffice rather than Microsoft Office.) 
Since some discussions we have had in class revolve around cost, perhaps there are alternatives out there for what we are wanting to do.  I found an excellent site that has links to download open source software with a brief description of the program, while also selecting which ones would be best for the education/teaching field. This is just one of the many places you can find Audacity for the podcast if you wish to use it.
A computer geek friend of mine absolutely loves open source software, and if he trusts it, I trust it.  These programs also allow people (like my friend) to edit the software in hopes of improving it so it can be shared again.  Anyway, something to look into.  If you like photoshop, or the idea of it without the price, try Gimpshop.

Lesson 12- Cyber Ethics

I can't remember who did the presentation on the collaborative essay, but I think it is an interesting idea.  Nowadays, people need to learn how to collaborate and work together, and the Googledocs assignment is a great way to get people to practice that type of gathering, organizing, developing, and presenting as a team.  I have not been able to utilize Googledocs myself, but want to try it out for our podcast paper, just so I can see if it is easy to use or not.  I feel that this kind of activity not only replicates real-world situations, but also alleviates some social anxiety.  I know there are some students out there who do not like working in groups because they may get stuck with all the work while the other partners may do nothing, or feel that the final product is lacking because the individual parts do not flow.  This would allow them all to edit and revise the same paper which will create better flow.  This assignment may also allow the student who is not in a group with his friends an opportunity to contribute equally and never feel left out.
I just feel that because many occupations out there have teams presenting one idea, this could be splendid practice.

Free Dinner

While on break at work, I found a tattered Sharon Herald and read an article about free after school dinner to children who qualify for free (and I believe reduced) lunches.  The article told of several states who have after school meal plans.  I think the school had to have over 60% poverty level students in order to receive the funding.  I thought it was a great idea.  Especially when the someone for the program pointed out that we (as teachers) expect a lot of concentration and work from a child who may be more worried about whether there will be food when he gets home.  By providing the basic three meals, perhaps we could see these students fill their full potential.  There is opposition, but the only voice they used in opposition came from radio Jackass (at least I believe that is his full title) Rush Limbaugh who said something along the lines of "free meals! *hwahf haha oink* why even bother sending the kids home?"  I can't imagine he has ever missed a meal, but maybe I'm the ass for thinking that we should take care of our American children in need.  I can't think of too many times I've ever had to go without (if there was a single time I had to do without the basics), but knowing people who have makes me see this as a good idea.  What are your thoughts on this?

After some searching I found the same article here if you want to read it yourself.