I began to realize that my old mobile phone (limited to texting, and calling, 0-9 keyboard, no camera, no MP3) was not hacking it in the last 6 months. I began to look longingly at mobile PDAs, etc. I also hated going out to a fun and photograph worthy event with son, and having this discussion with dh:

DH: Did you bring the camera?
ME: No, did you?
BOTH: Sigh….

I’ve also become very fond of texting, but hated the limitations of the 0-9 keyboard. In my work managing an SES after-school program, I often need to contact my boss (or my dh) when he is in meetings, where text would be more discreet. I needed a QWERTY keyboard, and a camera. I settled on the enV phone from LG, but my upgrade wasn’t due to until October. My carrier in an attempt to separate customers from their newly received federal refund checks made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. When I went in to get the phone, I discovered that they had the newer model for the same price, and that it has some mobile web capability, and can be used as a wifi modem for my laptop in a pinch (like if I’m at a conference with sucky wifi–sorry CUE). In addition to the myriad projects I’m attempting to wrap up as school ends (like double Open Houses this week for work and my son), I’m also trying to get to know my phone. That is why my posting has been pretty anemic lately. Here’s some interesting stuff I’m finding:

Today, Mike Temple shares how to Mobilise your blog | Edublogs Tutorials using an application called MoFuse: Create a Mobile Website, Mobile Site Builder. I used it to create a .mobi of this blog, The Blog of Ms. Mercer Mobile Ready but, most of what I’m reading I’m getting through Google’s RSS reader, which comes out beautifully.

Here is my list of what works and does not, so far:

I will not be able to participate on a daily basis, or anything close to that as the school year winds down, but I did want to take some time to reflect on some of my online conversations, since there are some interesting and complex discussions underway…

It started with Clay Burrell’s post, Muhammad Ali: A D- Student? Or an F- School? | Beyond School and Ira Socol’s SpeEdChange: Not getting to Universal Design where I not only commented, but started a post thread myself, What do they need? posts which Ira has participated in. This started with two posts, one of which got a lot of comments, and one that had just a handful. It was important that I not just be saying “me too” (Muhammad Ali was unappreciated) or “me not too” (writing instruction and skills are important). I try to add some analysis that looked at it from a different tack. The back and forth that Ira and I are having through a series of posts (SpeEdChange: Changing Education?) and comments on them shows how a conversation can build with comments, and response posts. It’s also nice to see how this prompts other comments.

Next up was a post/comment/post conversation that I didn’t participate in, but enjoyed seeing. Dan Meyer put up a post about a lesson, which led to a regular commenter, Jason Dyer, asking other commentors to leave off their lessons suggestions, and giving feedback. Dan, who is not known as Mr. Diplomat in blog circles, shows how he keeps (and builds) his audience, with this post, dy/dan » Blog Archive » Jason Dyer Isn’t Human, where he praises Jason’s work in the comment section.

This is not the first time Dan has done something like this. He has a very open attitude towards his comment section, which I think it is how he gets a high number of comments on his posts. Whole separate conversations have taken place in his comment section. I’ve even “pimped” events, etc. of my own there, and it’s all good. This has been instructive to me (even though I don’t get near the number of comments).

Now, one task was to comment with someone who you disagree with. I did that not on a blog, but in the forum section of Classroom 2.0 Finding the Right Tool for Student Work – Feedback where someone wants to take a teacher to task for what they are calling a blog. The only problem I saw with this, is that it appeared that the person never asked her opinion.

Feel free to leave your advice, or other comments to me in the box at the bottom ;-).

I’m testing out Google forms so I thought I’d create a questionnaire about my blog. Help me test Google forms and give me feedback on this blog:

or here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p42QQMxBVvRECEANW5hhgaw&email=true

Because Instructify, has asked me to join them in bringing Web 2.0 to the teaching masses (in nice 200-300 word bites).

First post will be revealed on Monday. Wish me luck!

Well, here they are, your weeks in a paragraph….First up, is Liza Lee Miller who made me think again, so I added that important qualifier “some” to my request for paragraphs post…

It is spring and many a fifth grader’s fancy turns to love and they act the way we see on tv. And, that is a joy — isn’t it? Having to speak to fifth grades about not having public displays of affection. Well, at least it points out why we need to get our collective fifth grade teacher act together and plan out our unit on “Health.” If you don’t mind, Alice, I don’t think I”ll share with them your thoughts on how rules were meant to be broken.

A the romance of spring. In upper elementary, it’s more about the smell as hormones and hot weather bring on a stink that I won’t describe here.

Next, we have Susan, who was sick this week. I was myself, and son missed three days due to intermittent vomiting. UGH! Susan, the good news is that two-weeks is pretty low-grade, but annoying nonetheless. Here’s some echinacea for you!

I woke up sick this weekend and my daughter, running nose and hacking cough, looked at me and said, “Oh, probably because I drank out of your glass all day yesterday.” This came just after her proclamation that she wants to be a doctor. Oh my! In a meeting yesterday, my Dean just shook his head and said, “I had that–lasted two weeks. Good luck!” The only good thing about being sick is that fabulous feeling the morning you wake up and you are no longer sick and you feel like you have a new lease on life. I’ll hold onto that thought for now.

Here is our regular host, Kevin H., who unlike many of us, seemed to be productive this week. I’d be jealous, if I wasn’t so impressed…

Here ya go:

“I introduced the concept of hyperlinks this week to my students as we moved into creating short hyper-linked poetry projects in PowerPoint (Can you tell that I still have alliteration on my brain?). They got it. Immediately. It was great. I remember once trying to teach teachers about hyperlinks and what I mostly got from them were just blank stares. One teacher even stormed out of the workshop. I’m not buying into the entire digital native-digital immigrant analogy that so neatly divides us into groups, but I do think kids are more apt to explore, experiment and invent. They just need a supportive space to do it.”

The podcast:

Hello, Elaine Plybon and welcome. Evelyn thinks that running day in a sentence would be “stealing”, it’s not! You TOO can do this, just drop a line to Kevin, he likes to share!

I stumbled upon the Reflective Teacher today and was bummed to see it gone, but happy to see the Day in a Sentence carried on. I hope it continues because I think it’s a great concept (would steal it for my blog if I thought I wouldn’t get caught! LOL)

Good Luck!

My fellow Sacramentarian, Larry Ferlazzo shares his sore muscles from exercise (I’ve just started at a gym, so I know his pain), and some of the back and forth of discipline in his class (“success”, “backtracking”, “success”) which seems to be part of the give and take of teaching, especially this time of year. Is there anything that chocolate can’t make better?

It’s been a mixed week. My body aches badly after getting back into my three-night-a-week basketball regimen, but that’s moderated slightly after scoring the winning three-point basket. The day after writing a lengthy well-received post on how I got my “good class that went bad back to good again” they, of course, had a meltdown; but they bounced-back well. I’m way behind on some writing deadlines, but my wife bought me a box of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. So, it could be worse.

Along comes lynn jake with a sentiment many of us feel from time to time. This one wins the award for BEST topic sentence. It really pulled me in (not that I’d want to have that week, mind you).

Well, all I can say is this week is better behind me than before me. I didn’t know that before the week started, but it turned out to be just kind of demeaning, which lead to depressing. The good news is that it is gloriously warm and Springlike here. The lupine and California Poppies are blooming rampantly. A trip to Table Mountain to hike among the wildflowers is in order, it looks like. Speaking of changing the paradigm.

Happy wildflower watching!

murcha shares her great experience doing a long distance preso to students in Canada sharing her culture (Australia). This is what the Web 2.0 stuff is all about, making connections with others…

I have had the most amazing week, that started off with a high degree of nervousness as I had a class of 110 students sitting in their school theatre waiting to hear my lesson. Hmm…I hear you say! Well, that class was over in Canada, and I was sitting in my home in Australia, teaching them about our culture, school, town and our farm as they were studying Oceana. Images were shared via slideshare presentations embedded on a wiki and skype allowed me to talk to them and speak to each of the images. Such powerful learning!! ….plus, I got great feedback from the students, which I rarely get from my classes.

blk1 (Bonnie Kaplan) shares about her collaboration with NWP members, and reminds us it’s the network…

This week, while waiting impatiently for spring, I eased back into my life flow, thinking deeply about the tech strand of our upcoming Summer Institute. It helped to be able to get a lot of help from the techies I know at the NWP TL network! The conversation with my leadership team was messy as usual, but smoother than I expected. There’s still nothing like collaboration.

I’m enjoying this visit to you blog home, Alice.

Glad you enjoyed it, Bonnie!

Tom shares what he’s learned from a new teacher who is really taking her reflective writing seriously….

On Monday I met students for one-on-one, what’s going on with your inquiry project meetings. One student, Jen, a teacher in her third year of high school teaching reported that she’s hooked on studying her teaching as she teaches. She takes notes as her students discuss history and make connections between historical events in the past and current events that are unfolding. She scribes and paraphrases their words. And they know it. “Cognitive networking” is her term for what happens when kids make sense and build ideas through classroom talk. I don’t really care what she calls it. I’m so pleased that she’s moved from asking questions that she knows the answers to and has gotten excited about her students’ thinking. That was my teaching highlight for the week – especially when considering where Jen started last September.

Gail Desler’s submission reminds me of why she is such a great travel buddy. Look at how much fun and learning she is having! It’s short, but very sweet!

What started as a rough week of trying to make a grant proposal deadline is ending in Philadelphia for a Writing Project meeting – in excellent company; eating, eating, and more eating!

Jeff Wasserman is another sufferer of this nasty early-Spring bug. Hope the crud is out of your life soon!

Sneezing and coughing my way through the week, I reveled in the quiet brought about by the early departures of several students. Some were voluntary (the band went to DC, and a lot of kids left early for vacation). Some were not (suspensions galore this week–there’s something in the water, I suppose). Coughed all Friday night and hopefully have expelled whatever demon’s been in my upper respiratory system. Just in time for spring break…

Mary shares a small bit of big time wisdom, it’s easy in Spring to focus on something that seems critical (like a dress code), but you have to ask, is it worth the battle? Mary, I didn’t say anything about poems, but those would have been welcome too.

The week started full steam and quickly slowed to a snails pace. We are anxious for vacation to begin as well as winter to end. Shorts, tank tops and flip-flops topped the hit list this week. The dress code seems to be a hot topic as the weather warms. After all, students can’t learn if they are comfortable. I’m being a bit sarcastic here. I think we should pick our battles. If we want to demand a certain dress, then we should have uniforms. Enough said, as I don my shorts and sandals for a weekend of relaxation. Here’s hoping my student prudently come to school next week with appropriate clothing so that I will not have to watch them reprimanded for being 11. It’s time again for the annual letters to the principal on the merits of comfortable clothing. Ah, another writing opportunity! I feel a poem coming on too.

ncavillones is a tumblr blogger, and obviously prefers a more minimalist style (which is okay in my book). His microparagraph manages to convey a lot in a few words. Thanks!

I don’t have the energy to write a paragraph after this busy week of visiting friends, playing at the playground and cleaning house.

It looks like it was the all field trip week for Delaine Zody. I’m sure she is tired, but she sounded happy too. Sometimes it’s nice to get not just out of the classroom, but off the school campus.

This was the week of bus riding! One fieldtrip to the coast to see the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Steinbeck Center, another to the local college for a stint on the ropes course. We finished the week with Clinique makeovers from our local department store and a pizza lunch as a reward for perfect attendance for the CaHSEE. All this amidst a huge cutback for our department and refiguring what we will all teach next year. It’s never dull where I work and live.

Sara shares scenes from nature to remind us of the time of year…

Spring moved from a slow creep to all out daffodil war – they were gathering in hushed bunches on the roadside, on street corners, and by the basement windows of local houses. Who knows what they’re capable of, with their shrugging foliage and agreeably bobbing heads!

BLEECH! akenyon shares about practice tests, and the competitive mood among colleagues. Let’s hear it for collegiality and working together folks?

This was our first week back after a 2 week break. We spent the week giving standardized test practice (boring) to our 3rd grade class. They will do the testing next week. This week has been a little frustrating on a professional level. Some colleagues are choosing to compete instead of collaborate. I will be looking for some more positive partnerships for upcoming projects.

Benjamin Baxter shares this microparagraph wisdom…

Seniors and sophomores react similarly to the spring. It makes them crazy and lazy. Ugh.