The Blog of Ms. Mercer

I’ve been slow posting this here in the hurly burly that has been my life lately, but here is an excellently received interview with my husband. Due to my pig-headedness, he is not “Mr. Mercer” (I made him keep his “maiden name” when we wed 21 years ago), but is Mr. Terry Preston.
I am not [...]

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Intro from by Mike Lebsock: Podcasting, videocasting, streaming video and more…have become technologies to bring history into the classroom. This session will connect participants to some fantastic sites, lessons and ideas to take advantage of these terrific tools.

Not how-to, but what it looks like session. Presenter impressed me because he was dressed up like [...]

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I have a “sister” post to this one, going out on In Practice.
A recent post in dy/dan» This girl is dangerous talks about the hard questions that need to be answered when you are talking about using technology in the classroom, and refers to another blog post (which I hope to discuss in the sister [...]

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I will be taking off for the San Francisco Bay Area for the Classroom 2.0 LIVE meetup. I’m looking forward to meeting folks, and learning lots of fun stuff.
I will be life UStreaming the wrap up session from 3:00 p.m. PDT on Friday and Saturday on Ed Tech Talk.

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One of the most powerful tools I discovered for development of English language is podcasting. It gives authentic practice in oral communication, it’s engaging and motivating, but because it’s scripted, students who may be shy about raising hands to answer questions just put to them in that moment will give it a try.
Here is work [...]

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Dan Myer points to this GREAT post from Kathy Sierra on the theme of mediocre to kick-ass. Can I express my deep regret that I did not discover Ms. Sierra until she quit blogging after some very public cyber-harrassment and threats?
Here is my reflection on this…
One thing I’ve noticed about podcasting is that you can [...]

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at Alice’s Restaurant, so check out this interview with Larry Ferlazzo. I talked to him about how he gets support for his projects like computers for his students’ families (along with free internet service). Very thoughtful, very informative, with lots of ideas about building face to face relationships to leverage support for your program.

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Lots of conversations coming up about copyright in my reader…
On 2¢ Worth » Playing with Culture David Warlick discusses a “mash-up” his son did and the atittude of the youth to copyright law.

And, on  Not So Distant Future » Textbooks meet web 2.0 Carolyn Foote weighs in on textbooks and copyright issues, I share my [...]

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In Dangerously Irrelevant: Great education podcasts meme Scott McLeod kindly asks for my input on great education podcasts, here they are:
1. The CommonCraft Show | Common Craft - Explanations In Plain English

Since I have to pick one, I’d say the Social Bookmarking in Plain English, but ANYTHING done by Lee LeFever at Common Craft is [...]

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Dy/Dan pointed back to this TMAO post, and it seems particularly relevant to me now. It’s about those moments when a teacher despairs about their effectiveness. I’m not at that point of despair (it is only September), but I am reflecting on the first two weeks, and I’m concerned about my instruction with first [...]

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