When a School Presentation Becomes a Family "Moment"

As a teacher taking classes, I am often required to make presentations. This summer was no different and I had to create a presentation for a 6+1 Traits of Writing class. To personalize my powerpoint, I decided to use my 14 year old son, Thor, as a "writing model." Thor is not particularly fond of school, one of the reasons probably being his distinct dislike for writing. Choosing him as a model probably wasn't one of my best in terms of the presentation (it took me as long to get 2 pictures of him as it did the rest of the entire power point). And at the time, I remember getting a "little" frustrated when it was midnight and we were still taking pictures. But now as I reflect on the experience, I remember that we did laugh...A LOT. And more important, we enjoyed the time we shared. How often we take moments like that for granted. We forget how special time with our children is, even if we are frustrated. In a few years Thor will be off to college, having his own family and I won't be there to share times like this. I have decided to include some of those pictures I couldn't use in my presentation, the ones that will remain in my memory much longer than any presentation.





And now you know why I am grateful.
I love you, Thor.

'til next time,
jamminsoul

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The Message

Throwing my first message out into the sea of the web.

The message is coming to me loud and clear. I am technologically challenged. I have spent the last 3 hours just trying to figure out ways to move from one of my blogs to another. I don't have time to actually say anything. By the time I actually get to the fun part,the reason I started this blog in the first place, I am no longer intelligent nor insightful. I am staring at my computer screen dumbfounded, mumbling something about ...feeder, docs, google, eportfolio.. Just what does this mean? I start graduate school next week. We will be creating online educational portfolios with TaskStream. It looks like a fasinating site with so many possibilities. Once I actually am registered and have my site, I want to link it to my blog. That will probably be a week in the making.

But the reason I work so many hours is because I think learning this blasted technology is one of the most important tasks for me right now. For one reason I can now empathize with the struggles my students with learning disabitites face when they are required to read or write to learn new information. Another reason is to be able to communicate with all the "hip" young educators in school (no, that's kind of a pathetic joke because my suave technological presence will not make me "hip"). But the real reason I am struggling to learn how to use this technology is to use it to keep my students actively engaged in their education. I even ordered a new camcorder and recording microphone with headsets to learn even more!

What am I getting my "old" self into.

'til next time,

Jamminsoul

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