Shine!

As someone who used to love working out and exercising (Lettered Varsity football my freshman year at Denver Lutheran High School...Go Lights!), it is becoming increasingly harder to force myself to get up and get moving. The next best thing is taking my dog Sadie for an evening stroll. Thus the reason for this blog post!

While taking a brisk school night stroll, I noticed the hazy sky shining only a few evening lights. That struck me as a bit odd. Why when I looked at the sky, could I see such few stars. For some odd reason, this prompted me to think about my professional learning network. When I sit back and critically analyze who is part of my PLN, there are only a few bright lights shining, dominating my "night sky". I loved living in Denver (haven't been back in years though), where I could drive for just a short time and see what seemed like millions of stars. While I am impressed at the brightness of the few stars that are able to cut through the city lights, there is real beauty and joy in the multitude.

This post isn't meant to demean any of those folks who I consider a vital part of my PLN (Dave Black, Dennis Grice, Lisa Durff, to name only a few. There are a host of contacts in Twitter, and on SKYPE who are also critical to my learning). I've just noticed that my RSS feed is filled with "the few, the proud" and the"rock stars" of Ed Tech-dom: Dave Warlick, Wes Fryer, Wil Richardson, Vicki Davis, etc.

I guess I'm looking for more variety, if not more variety, then more voices (Especially around Presidential campaign time. I tend not to share similar political views with many of my colleagues).

If anything, I'd like to be able to share more and have deeper conversations. I love reading Dave Warlick, but he's not likely to comment on my blog. Maybe I should dive more into our Technology in Lutheran Schools Ning.

Flickr image:
greefus groinks, "The north star goes wobbly." greefus groinks photostream. 11 Jul 2007. FLICKR. 27 Aug 2008 .

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A Little Fun...At Least Before School Starts!

Got this from a colleague and wanted to try it out! If you click on the video it should allow you to create your own! I know it's a bit narcasistic, but it is kind of funny.

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Preparing For School

Every year about this time, there is a lament about how I've squandered my summer. Now when I say "squandered," I don't mean WASTED. Believe me, watching my daughters at swim lessons, or getting to the myriad of home improvement projects (unfortunately, not much improvement this summer,only maintenance.) are not "wasting" my time. But it is a bit sobering if I think about what could have been achieved if I'd spent all those "deck staining" hours putting together a professional development plan or aligning PD with the new NETS for Teachers.

All of these thoughts are of primary concern as I'm starting to put together my MO District Professional Church Worker Conference presentation on the importance of building a professional learning network. Struggling with how to counter act the whole, "I don't have time" excuse. Here was an interesting blog post from The Twain Blog. Be sure to check out he comments below the article. The main idea behind the article is that the average teacher won't take the time to be part of and use many online tools because they just can't spare an more hours working. There are a couple of interesting arguments for and against using a variety of different PLN web applications.

Just some thoughts....It's off to swim lessons!

image: Flicker User--InkSwamp (CC Licensed photo)

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