Welcome Back!

I want to share a few pictures from my summer vacation. I visited several National Parks including Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, The Badlands, and Mount Rushmore. Here is my favorite picture from the Grand Tetons.

I also visited several places where my favorite author, Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up. She lived in small towns in Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota over 100 years ago. Many of these towns are still very small farming communities. It made me appreciate how hard her father had to work to support his family on the prairies of the midwest. Here is a

picture from Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

One more exciting thing I did was take a ride in a 1929 Travel Air Biplane over Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Here is a picture of that plane.

Now I'm excited to be back at work and sharing with my students. Things that have inspired me this month include the new library catalog which is so much more colorful than the old one. I was also impressed with the words of President Obama in his speech to children. He challenged the children of America to take responsibility for their education and learn all they can. Here are some of his words and a link to the entire speech.

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive
parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you
fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those
teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it
takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your
education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide."

Here's the full text of his remarks

What are you ready to learn this year?

Mid-Winter

What have I been wrestling with lately? I love to learn about technology. I find it challenging and the prospects of using it are exciting. But it is time-consuming and there is a lot of trial and error involved. In Marc Prensky's book, Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning (St. Paul, MN:Paragon House,2006) he describes "Digital Natives" (kids who have always had computers in their lives) and "Digital Immigrants" (people born before 1980 who have had to adapt to using computers.) I'm a digital immigrant, I still occasionally print out email. But I'm getting better at speaking the language. I really like Prensky's list of Essential 21st Century Skills. I find that I use these skills a lot when I'm learning new things

Some new things I'm learning about at work are Distance Learning via Polycom and Adobe Visual Communicator 3.