Creative Insanity-The journey of a future educator

I have moved my blog to http://charliegirl612.wordpress.com. I will be moving most of the posts from this blogs to that new blog.

Some on is actually reading my blog!!! I don’t know how he found it, but Troy Hicks of Digital Writing, Digital Teaching  found the article that I had written about him. He appreciated what I had to say and even gave me a link to the blogs that his students do for class. I was just so excited that he liked what I had done. Check out the comment!

As the Presidential election draws near and the craziness increases expodentially, I still felt in the dark about where each candidate stands on education. I know how they feel about oil, well everyone is pretty vocal about that issue. I looked at both candidates official websites to see what they believe is right with education and what needs to improve.

John McCain  (listed 5th out of 12 issues)

Barack Obama (listed 5th out of 22 issues, but his were in alphabetical order)

Personally, I liked Barack’s plan for education better. I think he has real foresight on what is needed. He saw the flaws in No Child Left Behind, but instead of dismissing completely, he wants to expand and improve on the legislation already in place. I don’t like the idea of more charter schools though.

The only thing that really bothered me about McCain’s plan was to allow parents to “hand-pick” their childs school. If their is a specific school you want your child in, you should be in that district. Second of all, if every parent go to do this, then there would be several very large crowded schools and some empty buildings where I am from. Instead of focusing on going to a better school, make the school you go to better.

As I sit here on a holiday, school free and work free, I began doing homework. I wanted to learn more about this blogging thing and wanted to give my reader/s more to read. Teachers never stop learning, even on their days off…right?

I ran across a blog article I found very interesting. It came from Digital Writing, Digital Teaching, a blog focused on how technology and education can work hand in hand. When the author, Professor Troy Hicks, began writing his blog over three years ago, I am sure he didn’t know what to expect. As a new blogger, that is how I feel. You wonder if anyone will read your blog, and if they do, what kind of impact will it have on the reader, society, or the teaching world in general.

This article I think shows how such a ”small” concept can grow.The article is full of links Professor Hicks received from readers of his blog. They are links to websites, wikis, and blogs about how teachers are using technology to enhance their approach to education. All of these links were not from Hicks’ research, but from followers of his blog and studies informing him of their finds.  

I just think it is amazing how a blogging can bring people together. If you look at some of the links to information in that article, I think you too will be pleasantly surprised on how technology is being used in education.

I love geography. As a Navy brat I have moved around a lot and learned to embrace traveling. I love learning about new cultures and I think this project is a great way for students to learn about new cultures. Postcard Geography is a class project going on from late September to the end of January. Classes can sign up and send mail to students across the country and world. Also, isn’t refreshing that students are not only getting to “meet” people from around the world but also how to send a real, physical letter.

This is my first post! I am doing this blog for my Integrating Technology class. I am really excited to learn how to do this and I hope that all the readers (even if it is only the students in my class) get some use out of this. I will be putting some interesting pictures, videos, articles and commentary, partcially because that is the assignment, but also because I like this stuff. I never seem to have time to do this on my own, but maybe once I finish this class, I will still have the blog bug. Only time will tell.