I Inspired Him

After screwing around with my technology to be able to write this blog post I have lost my momentum. Please excuse the lack of clarity and perfection.

The 411: I am at a sleepover with my best friend. He is playing video games, & I never was one for video games so I went outside to read my newly started novel "Beat The Street".  After about 5 minutes he came up and asked what I was reading so I told him the synopsis of the book.  

After about another 5 minutes he asked, "Hey that looks good could I read a couple pages?"

Of course I handed over my book immediately because this is a kid who has a hate towards reading & would NEVER pick up a book by choice or force, even during school!
 
Why was I able to get him to read when everyone else failed?  Was that truly the power of friendship or boredom?

What do faces do 4 u

Living in an ever-changing, globally connected world can be difficult.  When sending a MMS message to someone across town or chatting with someone across the continent you are communicating, like it or not.  Since talking to someone face to face seems to be a thing of the past how can you know how they are feeling? FACES, of course! How can you make faces online while emailing or MMSing?  As Americans we have unofficially nationalized the alphabet of faces and emoticons.  Do you find yourself using these way too often?

If yes, how can we find a way around them? What else can we do? One company has found a solution. Who will be the next?
  
What do faces do for you?

Twitter in 2 words

Now that I have been using Twitter for approximately 2 months I feel like I am able to reflect about the service and what it brings to the world.

In 2 words I feel like I can describe Twitter, Life-Changing.

I wasn't at all sure what I was getting myself into when I signed up for Twitter but I believe it was well worth it.  I have come up with lists about Twitter that I believe are worth sharing.

What It does great:

• Connects teachers and anyone to people across the globe that they never would have met.
•  Spreads a little upbeat joy to everyone.
• An easy way to find some neat web apps and cool sites. (especially from @shannonmmiller)
• An easy way for anyone to get news updates on weather to a crash on the interstate.

What makes Twitter great for me:

• I can interact with others who have the same passion and understanding as me. In general people I am constantly around get very tired of always hearing about the library.
• A quick way to get answers for just about anything from what camcorder should I buy, to how can I add pizazz to my blog, to What is a PLN?
• A place to put my thoughts where I feel like people are listening.
• A place for me to build my PLN 15 years in advance! ;)  At that point in time I'm not sure if my Personal Learning Network will be outdated.  I'm truthfully not sure what I am going to use my group of educators I have gathered (PLN) for at this moment. (Note to self: tomorrow's blog post)

Some actual reflecting now...

Earlier I said that Twitter is Life-Changing so here is why in my perspective... Twitter has changed my life by connecting me to the world.  You don't have to wait until the 6:00 news to know that the fireworks display was canceled, or have to wait for the Thursday paper to learn what happened LAST week. You can access the news & people & updates specifically about things YOU like ANYTIME.

  Lets face it... The only bad things about Twitter is that it is  addicting, time consuming, & has too many whale carrying birds!

What does Twitter do to help you? How do we use Twitter effectively? When do we know we are using Twitter effectively?

Good or Bad?!?!?!?

Today my mom came to me and said,
"Go sit on the couch for a little family meeting."

I was extremely nervous!!!! Last time she said that it was we're moving to Omaha, Nebraska. I was hoping it wasn't anything like this again. Then my dad leaves and turns the corner to get into a drawer in the desk. He comes back with two boxes. He gave one to me and one to my sister. At tht point I knew it was a phone!!! He gave me pink and my sister red. My mom could tell the look on my face wasn't good. He had mixed up the colors. My parents both know that I can't stand the color pink. So I got red, thank goodness.

My friend before had given me a whole list of numbers of my friends to text when I got a phone. So I started immediately. My sister didn't have any numbers so she was just figuring out a whole bunch of things th phone could do. You would think I would have been telling her how to do all this stuff, but nope...it was her!!

We Care About What We Learn

As I arrived at the Downtown Farmers Market this morning to volunteer at the Pioneer Hi-Bred Tent I was overwhelmed with excitement.  I get very excited when I can make a connection from what I've learned in the classroom or what any of my Tweeps are talking about.  Back to the story...!  Johnny (My Dad's friend) was teaching this one guy about planting corn.

This guy was very interested in what he was learning from this guy he never met!  He had questions, Johnny had answers.  I was really wishing I had my iPod Touch or a computer with me to blog about it while happening and record the conversation for you but it was farmers market. What could I expect? That goes to show that learning can happen anywhere.  "Learning Is Life, Education Is A System." as Russ Goerend says.

What would happen if this were to happen in a classroom? If we were able to learn about what we loved? Would youth enjoy coming to school more because they would learn about what they wanted?

Back To 6th Grade...

This probably wasn't the best title but it seemed like the best I could think of at this point in time.  Last night I was mentally reflecting about something very stupid that I said and for one reason or another this random event popped into my mind.  I am writing to perhaps figure out why I had thought of this.  Anyways here it goes...

It was just an ordinary in the spring of 2010.  We walked into science all 5 of our possy just as loud, rambunctious, and annoying as always.  You see we had science right after lunch so it wasn't that huge of a deal as long as we were quiet by the bell.  Our teacher had us write in our planners, get out our assignment from last night, and be ready for today's lab experiment.  I could see it coming from the front of the room,
 
"Johnny and Sally please finish your conversation", Said the teacher. 


I couldn't believe that is was just a warning!  Now to the actual part that sticks with me.


The same 2 people were whispering back and forth to each other while the teacher was reading. They were in the back of the room and sat right next to each other probably thinking no one would notice them or care.  Then just out of no where


"Write up your minor", Said the Teacher to Sally.


Lindey was closest to the middle row where she was noticeable.  Now my favorite part! I could see it in Johnny that it was really bugging him that they were both at fault but only one was punished.  She started reading aloud again.  That is when Johnny raised his hand and was called on.


He stuttered, "I was talking too..."


I could see that The Teacher was proud of him for standing up and taking his punishment.  It was almost like she did that on purpose to see what he would do.  Johnny did get a minor just like Sally but both of them never talked again...At least in that class.

"How do you change the world?"

"One Act of Random Kindness." ARK

If you've seen Evan Allmighty he does it a lot better than I can.

Passing Period to Remember

When I have thought recently about Middle School, one thing just keeps coming back to me.

There is this math teacher on the Orange Team.  On the first day of school everyone keeps there schedule/map in one hand and there books/binder in the other. So when I was looking at my schedule it read:
Period 2: P.E./Computer
I knew it was an A Day so I had P.E. The thing that always comes back to me is the I asked the math teacher where the gym was and he did a few weird steps to the left and said go straight. I felt so stupid that I could practically see the gym from where I was standing.
I think he remembers me asking him that because he always looks at me and talks to me funny in the halls. I feel embarrassed every time I see him like what is he gonna say?!?!?
It sounds kind of stupid, but I felt so weird after I left. Now I could do that with my eyes closed!

Molly's First Blog Post!!!!!

Hey guys! I just thought I would a blog post. Now this is completely random!!!!!!

I loved middle school! I thouht everyone was SO much nicer than in 5th grade. There also wasn't as many cliques. (That goes for mainly girls, not really boys) I had a ton of friends, too! I liked all of my teachers, therefore I learned a lot this year.

Now moving to Omaha I wonder if it will be the same things there. I am going to the best school in Omaha. (By talking to friends) I just wonder if I will have a bunch of friends. I also wonder if I will keep my friends from Waukee. I wasn't so thrilled about the splitting middle schools thing. A lot of my friends (almost all) were going to the new middle school. I would see them again in 9th grade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was not cool for me! I can't stand not seeing my friends over a long period of time.

So...there's my first blog post. Just some random stuff!!!!

Claire's First Blog Post!! :)

Hey everyone on blog!! This would be my first blog post since Ian set up this blog!! I really never got around to getting on it since my hectic soccer schedule has been on the fritz lately! By the way...its kind of a small world...Ian lives right by the practice field where we practice in soccer! (I just thought I'd throw that in there!)
Ian...this is for you! I'm going to be putting a new post on titled 'Ideas on What Ian C. can blog about' where I'll put on there...well...stuff that you can blog about!!!!!!!
Thanks Ian for talking me into this!!!!!!!!!! :)

Blog Friends!

Somtime this week there will be 1, maybe 2 people joining the blog.  As you might have noticed there are all ready some physical changes such as the rethinking of a Title, Live To Learn, and the rethinking of a welcome message.  The old one was very lame but now I almost feel like we're back in style.  It reads, "We live to learn, and learn from living. Enjoy learning along with us on our journey." That was my most favorite part of the changes.

• There's also going to be more ways of navigation. Where it reads Your writer's is where you can click and read our Blogger Profiles.  Not too much their because of privacy issues.
• Where it says Writers Is where you can click to read ONLY the posts by that writer.

These will change and vary from time to time but will always be there in the same spot.

As always we ask for comments and love your feedback on everything!