Getting Connected

Having just attended the annual MAINEducation Technology Conference at the Augusta Civic Center, I have to say, I am re-inspired and re-energized. The keynote speaker, Will Richardson, set the day off with mind provoking and challenging statements. His own blog can be read at Weblogg-ed.com. Which, by the way, I did go to. I can't seem to get enough. Yup, bought his book too, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms". Good thing I did, that's how I got to accomplish setting up my own blog site to join the blog-world. The pre-conference workshop I attended was equally fun and mind boggling. Moodling. Who knew? Romeo Marquis offered a hands-on step by step how to Moodle. I found the workshop, 3 hours short, introduced me to another amazing tool. Perhaps just the venue I will need to offer online classes for my school. My thirst for Web 2.0 features, as it is now coined to be, is unsatiable. I need to blog...I just need to. Coolcatteacher, Miss Vicky, was equally inspiring giving us concrete useful examples why/how we need to blog to communicate with today's youth.


Ok, so last year, I tried, but I knew that there had to be a better way to connect my students. I attempted to ignite my students in a "virtual classroom" to enable them to have an organized discussion online. So, using tappedin.org as the forum, off we went. The support tremendous, but I could not "maneuver" their system easily, too many rooms and floors for my inexperienced brain. The time I needed to go through the content posted and the level of enrichment the students gained appeared tremendously disproportionate. Though I do admit, there was a moderate stir of excitement, you know, something new to do! Well, maybe I gave up too soon.

I'm here to tell you, I'm back. Re-excited, re-energized. A blogging we will go.......