Blogs, Twitter, and more

Well, feel free to check out some new feeds I am working on:

Technologicalontogeny: a blog of my growth in educational technology

Dadding Ideas: a blog of my thoughts on parenting and being a dad

@rilesdan: (don't know if I have formatted the link correctly) my twitter feed- just because much of ed tech happens here. I am a neophyte tweeter.

Have fun!

A New Leaf

The last few days, amidst travel to St. Louis and Rose being quite sick, I have embarked on reorganizing my digital life.

This is my first post using blogsy.

It is the beginning of many adjustments; keep tuned for more!

Barcode

An article in a magazine pointed out the obvious, one that I had already dabbled in but forgotten, that the scanner can be a fun toy to make art.

The decorative grasses that emerge at the corner of the house near the garbage cans create a small island of emerald and cream contrast. While I must do battle with this probably invasive and aggressive species, I do admire the plant's beauty. When lined up on the scanner, I could almost read the leaves at a grocery store checkout.

What would my work be without the requisite spiral. I lightly dampened this shell before putting an old, faded piece of construction paper over it.
I tried some still life compositions with materials found in the yard. I like them, but I will certainly have to spend some time with the medium before I achieve the look and feel I want. I do love ferns, and this is their season!
Lastly, I created a high-resolution close-up of one of the purple flowers. I cropped to what seemed to me to create an other-worldly image. Imagine a yellow rocket launching from a purple landscape.

Probably my scanner is unhappy with plant residues, but I like this promising start of a new hobby.

San Diego and Back

Rose eating crackers
Serena who Rose led around the house and yard for quite a while.
Cousin Jenny, Serena and Tyler's mom.
Dad (Granddad) and Tyler
Uncle Dave
Aunt Judy
Uncle Roger

Missing due to Rose's love of the delete button are Grandma Linda, and Toby dog.

There is nothing like leaving the New England area on a plane and touching down where rows of palm trees and cacti declare unequivocally that you have left home. This last week we visited family in San Diego where my aunt lives. Rose was a great hit and spread the love with her cheery personality. One of the presents she received was her very own camera. After some trips to get batteries, a memory card, and a small screw driver, we were able to put the thing together. Rose loves the sounds it makes when turning on and off, when moving through the pictures she has taken, and unfortunately when she deletes them. She also loved the pictures of the various folks visiting and living in San Diego.

wiki and water

This evening, I went to UMASS Boston and taught a lesson on using a wiki in the classroom to a group of graduate level teachers. I love the location on the bay with tidal flats exposed at low tide, seagulls swooping about, and water moving in the way that mesmerizes me. It brought calm to me. One thing it helped moderate was the missing iPod that disappeared from my desk.
This is a view of the campus center from the bay and through the trees.
There were some sycamore trees with the lovely patched bark that is typical of the tree. I took some photos and admired them as I ate dinner.
Somebody said,

busy busy in a quiet house

Today I showed my class Odd Girl Out, a movie about cliques and friendship issues, as part of our ongoing health curriculum. The students took it well and really delved into the discussion. Tonight I am working on preparing the lesson I will teach tomorrow at UMASS about how to use Internet resources to create collaborative spaces for students. I am feeling better about this lesson that I have presented before. My prep this time feels right. I'll know tomorrow.

Time of wiki wiki

I have recently received a host of requests to present my work incorporating a wiki into my classroom teaching practice (last year). The first of these was presenting to a group of new teachers at Brandeis University. I messed up the timing of the presentation and did not get them time to mess around with my demo wiki. Other than that, it went ok. I set up my presentation before people arrived, figured out the technology in the room, and then managed to turn it all off minutes before I was supposed to present. gaah. No problems, though. Got it all back on and ready in very short order.

Toggle

My new laptop, thanks to Noam, is a wonder of small form and weight for little $. I just got the webcam working by finally figuring out that I had to press a keyboard toggle. Fun with photobooth.

First Computer

When I started teaching, I purchased a computer and printer. These stayed with me for a long time--the printer until just a few years ago. The computer was one of those old Compaq all-in-one models. Gary Garber, with whom I was living at the time, supplied the credit card as I had none.