Athabascan Attitude

There are at least a thousand things that I have gotten out of Web Tools 1.0, with Mr. Noon. Well number one, I never knew what blogs were, and why it was such a buzz. When Doug Noon introduced this vocabulary word to me and showed us great education blogs it was very cool. I really enjoyed the time that he gave us to read and explore them. Once Doug helped us start our own Blogs, to me it made me very nervous. To let my thoughts just hang out there for the whole world to see. I don’t know what Blog stands for but for me it means- Brave, Lives, Online, Giving, Stories.
I have enjoyed the blogs very much, and creating my own blog has been fun. What I have discovered, is that there is a whole other world/universe out there-beyond my classroom. Wow! Especially in our profession where one can feel very lonely. I have learned that there are people out there that are just like me. Being able to read about other peoples thoughts, experiences, and discoveries in education, has been empowering.
Another cool thing that I learned in Web Tools, is that once you get your own blog going, then you can easily create links. Links are totally awesome! One way this has helped me is that I can be directed to cool sites and articles that I would have never found on my own. So therein lies the power of blogs! Let other people do the work!
My dreams for Web Tools 2.0, would be to have cameras on hand to take pictures of ourselves or whatever and put them on Flickr. I would have liked to have put pictures on my blogsite too. I would also like to learn more about Garage Band. I see so many teenagers and young adults having fun with this program, and I don’t want to be the “old fogey” that only knows about Appleworks 6.0.
Thanks Doug Noon for opening the doors to a whole new world for me!

Here’s to a good laugh!

Cheers!

This contract was created by Mark Ahlness. Thanks Mark for this great idea!

Blogger’s Contract
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Understanding that blogging is a real and important form of writing and self-expression. Student and teacher must agree to be honest, truthful, and kind. Exchanging and publishing ideas can help people in new and important ways. But in this writing , there are risks and important responsibilities.

To be a responsible online writer, I promise that when I write, I will:

• honestly express truthful thoughts and ideas. If someone asks, I will be able to prove that what I write is true.

• always treat all people with respect. I will never write to cause harm or to hurt the feelings of others.

• never do anything to cause harm to the computer I am writing on. I will set a good example for others.

• do my absolute best to write truthful and useful information. If I make a mistake. I will fix it.

• always write in a way that protects the identity of any classmates, my family, and myself.

• always write in a way that protects the identity of my classmates, my family, and myself.

• always write in a way that brings respect and honor to my school, my family, and myself.

Yesterday, I was talking with a friend who is doing a lot of subbing in another school district than my own. She was told by the teachers who she is subbing for to make sure that she follow the directions completely. So as she was reading the lesson plans given to her, one of the directions was “place the teacher’s manuel on your lap at the beginning of each lesson and say exactly what the lesson tell you to.” When she asked the teacher, why she had to do that, she said it was because their entire school has to do it and that the principal even checks into it. So my friend told the teacher that is just feels so unnatural to her to teach kindergartners that way! I feel really sad for the teachers in that building, and think about all the fun things that the little 5 year olds could be doing, instead of listening to what a textbook says!

Are there other teachers out there who have to follow Houghton Mifflin verbatim?

I would like to thank my wonderful teaching peers for assisting me on creating this blog!