Undaunted!

If I tell you that tonight at slightly before or after midnight (my computer clock has been off for a year) I am undaunted in my attempt to continue this new venture, I will also have to admit that I was "daunted" in my attempts to utilize the new technology on last night. Jack and Zac (respectively and alphabetically) had opened a new world to me, a world in which I envisioned rushing home to blog, blog, blog...the teacher in me wanted to make sure I had the perfect model for my first non-testing day since February 26th. This was to be the start of new things....

Well, the mother in me saw that if I had not been able to blog past the flu-like symptoms of one child and the incessant banter of another past a certain hour, then blogging on that magical Wednesday might not be in the cards. Motrin, tacos, practice reading for homework, bandaids for pinched finger and and several ironed clothes later, I was happy to have people in bed, but admittedly frustrated that my blogging experience was a whole lot easier at school.

So there I was, daunted, both last night and this morning, when I discovered (at school, of course) that I could not remember how to enter the blog sheet through Flock. I recognize "blogsheet" is likely not the correct term for this workspace; malapropisms aside, I was again daunted in my task of blogging, as assigned by new blog mentor (hereafter known as Blogmeister Z).

So tonight, the child that was Motrin-ed has a fever of 101, and that will keep me up and down for another couple of hours. Though exhausted, I thought I'd try one more time to meet myself at that happy place I found Wednesday afternoon when I discovered that I could really blog....

So here I am! I found the way I knew, and I have the chance to make note of the first thing I plan to do with my classes when we start blogging next week:

Period Three - these readers are my on level crew, and the plans are to engage them in a unit on Human Rights. When no one could define "apartheid" today, the brief comparison contrast discussion we had led me to think they would enjoy leaving their personal opinions in print. One of the reasons I enjoy this age group is their passion for justice - I'd like to hear their comments when they are not talking over each other to get points across (though that type of passion speaks, too). I'd like to see the building blocks of the unit as told by the students, class after class.

I have some thinking about how to make this relevant for my Read180 class - perhaps they can choose from one of the topics in the Rbook, and answer specific questions about that topic.
It's a thought I will bounce off of Jack in the a.m. It looks like a great small group activity, one that can turn into a whole group discussion or review.

First things first: I think the computers in the reading rooms are a great resource for us. I will still check into laptops to make sure everyone can blog at the same time. But I feel great about
this new venture, and it gives me so much to look forward to as a teacher and a communicator. This is going to be all good!!

The First Time

My dad - George W. Sherrell III - says you always remember "your first anything..." This is one of those moments. Here I sit, with Jack and Zac (alphabetically of course) writing my first blog. This is an exhilarating moment - I feel as if I am entering a new universe - a tesseract (tech - aract?) Anyway, this is cool. I can't wait to tell my students I can do this!!