Food for Saturday!

Post a comment telling the food items you are bringing for our potluck meals on Saturday. :)

It's time for the K-12 Online Conference

It's that time of year again - time for the K-12 Online Conference. This professional development opportunity allows you to attend some great sessions on educational technology from the comfort of your own home (yes, you can wear your pink, fuzzy robe) and "attend" the sessions at times that are convenient for you. The pre-conference keynote presentation has already been posted. I encourage you to pick at least one session in which to participate, and share your thoughts about the session by posting a comment here so we can all benefit from each others' thoughts.

What is your WebQuest topic?

We are getting ready to do our marathon WebQuest creation day. :) Post a comment to share your WebQuest topic with your colleagues. If you have other teachers who teach the same grade you teach, it might be a good idea to get together and make sure you don't overlap each other. That way you will have multiple lessons that you can all use in your classrooms. Happy Questing! :)

Cindy

Something to Inspire You

Greetings Minties! Welcome back to a new school year. I know that for many of us, this year has posed some extra challenges and unfortunately, some extra frustrations. I know that you are stressed with finding balance in your classrooms and your personal lives. With new start times, new buildings, new colleagues, PLC, guided reading, RtI, intervention time, etc., being a good eMINTS teachers seems more of a challenge than ever. Even with all of these extras that we are dealing with, don't forget that what you are doing for your students in your eMINTS rooms is great stuff that will prepare them for life. I am here to support you as your instructional specialist, mentor, and friend. And don't forget that you have each other! I saw this video a while back, and I thought it might be a good reminder of why we do what we do. :) Let me know what you think!

My First Scratch Project!

I just attended a FANTASTIC session at NECC on Scratch and made my first project. :) I can't wait to share what I learned with you. For now, check out my silly little game.

eMINTS4All Year 1 "Homework" - Reflecting on Resources

Now that you have done your homework assignment of looking for some interesting sites and adding them to your delicious account, looking at what your colleagues have added to their accounts, and found a new blog to subscribe to in your Google Reader, comment on this post and share the results of your searching:

1. What was one new website you found and tagged in your account that you think would benefit other teachers?

2. What was a site you found by looking at your colleagues' delicious accounts that you think would benefit other teachers (be sure to tell whose account you found it on).

3. What new blog did you find on your own and add to your Google Reader Account? How did you find that blog?

I can't wait to see what you found so we can all benefit from our work. :)

Growing Up Online

Last week, I finally watched the PBS Frontline episode "Growing Up Online" with my son Corey. We recorded it on the DVR as a possible resource for his 7th grade research paper on the effects of media on kids. This was a very powerful experience for me. Not that the content of the show was anything that shocked or surprised me, but I had the most grown-up, open conversation with my son while we watched the show. He asked great questions and made some very mature statements such as, "I really don't think I could handle having a computer in my room. It would be too tempting to see if I could get away with staying up late to use the computer." It was one of those momemts that you treasure as a parent.

We've talked on different occasions about Internet safety and our kids (in our eMINTS rooms, the kids at school, and our own kids). I encourage you to watch this episode of Frontline if you haven't seen it yet. The complete episode can be viewed online. After watching it, post your reflections on the show. We'll follow up on this together on Thursday.