Gifted – unwrapping the present…

:: NOTE: This post is being written primarily for the purpose of getting a response from the perspective of my Gifted students.  Once you see their responses – I welcome your comments!::

Last week I was talking with my daughter, Courtney (@TechsanTeach2B) who is going to college to become a High School Social Studies teacher.  While she was home for Fall Break – we started talking about testing and gifted kids and a bunch of school stuff.  As we were talking, she asked a question that I would like for you to think about and then answer.

Courtney was questioning why the gifted students got a special class of their own when they were probably already make A’s in their classes.  The underlying reason she’s concerned about your “special class”  is the fact that there are a lot of students in the regular classrooms that don’t understand the regular classes – so why didn’t we have a special class for them to help them to pass and make A’s & B’s instead of having a class for students that already have A’s and “get it”?

There is a lot of research available that shows why gifted students need to have their own classes, but what if the district decided to take away ESC (Extended Studies Class – for GT students)?  What if our school district decided that instead of teaching specials classes to the gifted students who were passing all their classes; that I should pull out all of the students that were failing in Math, Science, Social Studies, Reading & English so that I could help them to understand and pass their regular classes. (For those of you thinking that I couldn’t do that because I don’t teach those classes… well I can – so don’t make that a point that you dwell upon!)

So, instead of looking at the “research”, please tell me, as a gifted student, why do you NEED a special class for gifted students?  I look forward to your comments…. (oh and don’t worry – you won’t hurt my feelings with anything you say~I’m an adult~I can take it!)

Even though students reported back to school on August 19th, because of gifted testing and placement and various other “paper pushing” duties required of me; I didn’t get started with kids in my classroom until after Labor Day.  This gave me a few more days to get acquainted with all the new Web 2.0 technologies I’d planned to introduce in class.

For my first day with students, in my all day pull-out class,  I had plans to show them all the wonderful Web 2.0 stuff I had learned about from my PLN during the summer.  Teaching these digital natives, they sometimes laugh while I flounder around as an immigrant with these technologies.  I’m thinking this stuff probably won’t be new to them- but it will be new using them in class.  In order to have a computer for each student -  I dutifully signed up for the computer lab…. for the the next four weeks!

I wanted this first class to be perfect,  so prior to going to the lab, we discussed our wiki, (which they kept thinking was Wikipedia- because other than that , they had never heard of a wiki) -that should have been my first clue!  I explained to them that any questions they had could be answered on the Assignment Page of our classroom WITHOUT walls (our wiki).

I tried to anticipate any question they might have; so I created screenjellies to SHOW them how to sign up for each site.  I also created  step by step instructions that I had typed out as I was going through the process of signing up my “dummy” student.  I wanted them to sign in and try EVERYTHING!!  They had a SMORGASBORG of Web 2.0 right in front of them.

With Parental Consent forms in hand and all students in front of a computer – I turned them loose!!  They had so much to do but all day to do it.  They had to join our wiki and other wikis that I signed us up for.  They had to sign up for and navigate around in Edmodo,  They were to play with Wordle, take pictures and video with Flipcams to use those pictures/videos with Animoto and Voicethreads. They were to sign up for an individual stock market account on weseed.com, then sign get their group signed up for our usual Stock Market Game after perusing weseed on their own.  Teams were to join eCybermission, check out this years problems on Odyssey of the Mind, examine our mission on First Lego League, play with Blabberize, & Vocaroo, and sign up for and play with Math and Science Gizmos on Explorelearning.com.

Well, they were SUPPOSED to do all of that!!  Even my carefully typed out step by step directions and meticulously created Screenjellies weren’t able to handle my students’ questions.  BUT, these are my digital natives so they should feel RIGHT AT HOME!!!  I thought they would TEACH ME how to use these sites more effectively!  Couldn’t they just click around and figure it out??

Some could, but I had to step back and think about the perfectionism that many of my gifted students display.  Even though some sites were learning games, some of my students didn’t look at them as games.  They were assignments given to them by their TEACHER.  I would urge them, “Just go play with them- try to figure it out!”  I had given instructions and Screenjellies to sign up and sign in… but the playing was up to them!!  I try hard not to be the sage on the stage… but because I assumed that they were accustomed to these technologies; I totally neglected to be a guide on the side.  This first day with Web 2.0 was a mess!!

So after that first day with my tangled web of 2.0 technologies, I totally re-did my lesson plans for the rest of the week – and we slowly untangled ourselves.  I projected the sites on the board in class and I walked them through different features.  I narrowed their choices and closed the SMORGASBORG – they had three sites with which to play.  It was then that my digital natives spread their wings… and flew.. like little flies so happy to be out of a tangled WEB 2.0.

Now each week, I introduce them to another couple of sites and show them the bells and whistles.  They enjoy the sites but,  since they’re not from the ATARI PONG generation (like myself), they aren’t as excited about them as I am.  They do enjoy the added computer time though.  They, (along with my PLN) have shown me more wonderful things that the internet has to offer us and what WE have to offer the internet through Web 2.0!

These past few months of Twittering (since this summer) have been an eye opening and HUMBLING experience for me…

Teaching is my second career and with my undergrad in Business, I’m comfortable with and do not shy away from computers – as many teachers in my district seem to do.  There are some teachers that consider themselves high tech if they can effectively attach a document in an email and send it.  With this being the norm in the level of technology around the district – I have considered myself to be a “higher-tech” teacher.

After all, I created and maintain a website (oooohhhh… ahhhhhh).  I have my students create webquests (ooohhhhh… ahhhhhhh).  I have a Facebook and MySpace page so that I can connect with the digital native on their turf. (ooohhhhh… ahhhhh – I even know the word DIGITAL NATIVE!)  I have had students use texting and their cell phones for various assignments. (ohhhh… ahhhh).  My colleagues often come to me for computer help- changing a .bmp to a .jpeg. etc.  I thought I was all that AND a bag of computer chips -  that is… until I started Twittering!

All this fancy technology they talked about on Twitter.  Sure, I had seen distance learning in my graduate classes – but I thought that was an expensive program that only higher-ed could afford. Skype? That was just a glorified chatting mechanism!! TWITTER?? Yet another bulletin board chat mechanism!

AU CONTRAIRE MON FRERE!!!
Since I have found the VALUE in TWITTER… my high tech ‘pedestal’ has been knocked out from under me and I’m seeing what REAL “high-tech” teachers are doing within their Web 2.0 classrooms!! OH MY GOSH.. my ego was crushed… and then I was humbled to see that I knew NOTHING about technology!

I signed up for Twitter in April; but, I really started USING it in May when, instead of tweeting about my mundane activities, I started to learn how to use this invaluable service. I started following teachers… listening… watching… learning the vocabulary. What was this Web 2.0? Was this a new kind of internet… unlike the one created by Al Gore?

Then I Googled… I read… I followed tiny urls… I read… I installed Tweetdeck.. and made a lot of Tweets a favorite so I could explore them later… Web 2.0, Promethean, Flat Classroom, Skype… OMG there is SO MUCH OUT THERE!!

This summer, while Twittering I read all the excitement about NECC coming up. I start to get excited too – then I thought to myself, “I’m not a computer teacher… I teach Gifted and Talented. Why am I getting excited?” I look at the profiles of the teachers that I’m following and realize that many of them are NOT computer teachers either! They are GREAT teachers that are incorporating Web. 2.0 into their classrooms so as to reach these digital natives RIGHT WHERE THEY ARE!! Learning… authentic learning… with the medium they’ve grown up using – (the computer!)

Then, the Twitter chatter spoke of a Live Feed from NECC for a SMACK DOWN! I was drawn like a bug to a light! I was going to participate in this COOL technology. Virtually rub elbows with these Web 2.0 people that I’ve been observing for a month or so. WOW!!!

I drink my coffee… and I watch.. and listen… and try to save the links that are being presented… but it’s going to fast and I can’t see the screen… “What was that? A music interface?? Where??”… so much information… MY HEAD WAS SPINNING… TOTO WE ARE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE!!!

So I spent the rest of the summer learning from my PLN.  I got a gmail account, set up Google Bookmarks then arranged them in my Google Notebooks.  All this information… right there… at my fingertips!!  I didn’t have to search for it because my PLN tweeted it to me… and anyone else following them.

This morning @KTVee said: “Twitter always amazes me; it’s like shouting a question out the window and the whole world answers back!”

It’s so true~ and my whole world (PLN) has expanded by view past the flat world (I was thinking more like pre-Columbus not Thomas Friedman!)

So thanks to Twitter and my PLN my gifted students are now using Wikispaces, Edublogs, Voicethread, Edmodo, Animoto and many other Web 2.0 technologies as they direct their learning in a more “high tech” way than their humble teacher ever imagined!

Watch out world… this digital immigrant has a greencard… and she’s here to stay!!

NOOOOOO not LOVE!! THE INTERNET!!!!!!

SIDENOTE: If you’re anywhere around my age I’m sure Robert Palmer’s video featuring women in the little black dresses with heavy eye make-up, dark red lipstick and their hair slicked back is now playing through your mind! (GREAT VIDEO!)

This morning, while going through Tweetdeck to bookmark some resources to check out later; this tweet came up:

I retweet it, bookmark it and chuckle to myself – thinking about those poor people that are addicted to the internet!

A bit later, I click over to my browser and see that I have a large number of tabs that are so small I can’t tell what the page is about.  I decide to log off Tweetdeck in order to check the tabs and add the worthy ones to my collection of Google bookmarks.

It’s at this time that I look at the site that @giftedkidsie expressed concern about; with a resounding, “OH DEAR!”  It’s a funny little slide show entitled 11 Signs of Internet Addiction.  As I started reading through the signs I did the ‘furrowing of the brow’ in contemplative  thought.  According to this article -

I’M ADDICTED TO THE INTERNET!!  The article lists certain behaviors and feelings that might indicate an internet addiction.

I experience a “heightened euphoria” when I find a great site that I can use in my classroom or share with my students.

I am “spending more and more time on the internet” because I don’t want to miss a good recommendation from my PLN.  I also have to respond to my students on Edmodo!

I seem to have a little “less self control” because I sometimes find myself gritting my teeth when my computer locks up or Tweetdeck is acting funny!

I might be “withdrawing from other activities” since I decided to stay home and write this post instead of going to work out with my husband (would that also count for “neglecting family and friends”?)

When I finally log off my laptop, I take my iTouch (which has 3 Twitter apps on it) with me to bed… because I find myself  “craving more time on the internet”.

Then while my husband drifts off to sleep my “sleep patterns have changed” because I’m staying up later and later with my iTouch!

If he stirs and it seems that he’s waking up… I quickly put down my iTouch to vanquish the light because I “feel guilty” that I might have woken him up with the brightness of the iTouch in the dark room.

I have found that when I get impatient with my technology and grit my teeth I sometimes “get headaches” or my “elbow start hurting” from holding the iTouch up while in the bed.

Is is possible for an ADDICTION be a good thing though???  I mean all of this time on the internet has given me GOBS of resources and new Web 2.o technologies that I can incorporate into my classroom! Until I had learned about Google bookmarks (on Twitter) – this was the way that I bookmarked all the OTHER wonderful sites I was learning about on Twitter!

Okay, so yes, you can have too much of a good thing; because I can’t do or use ALL of the ideas that I have learned about from my PLN.

So, I think I’ll look for a local chapter of Internet Addicts Anonymous.  Why do they call it anonymous anyway because the first thing they have you do is introduce yourself!

So I tweet in Tweetdeck,

“Hi, I’m @giftedteechur and I’m an internet addict.”

To which my Tweetdeck column scrolls down as I receive hundreds of mentions, “Hi @giftedteechur!”

How apropos!

The other night while exchanging tweets with my PLN, comments were made about our inability to access certain sites at school because of the filters.  I made a comment saying the only things the filters block are the teachers.  This is so true because I have found my students on YouTube at school – when I am unable to access the site myself!  So I tweeted about creating an assignment to have students break into Twitter from school.  I received this comment from @rjwassink

To which I flippantly replied:

At first~ (in my sometimes I think I should really be a RED HEAD way) the part about being “responsible adult” hacked me off.  Which sparked my smart alec remark!  (SIDENOTE: I have cleared things up with Ryan.. because later I felt badly about my comment-this poor guy only knows me through Twitter and has now idea about my zany personality!)

I then talked about my MANTRA – a poster made from  the script of an old Apple Computer commercial called:

“Here’s to the Crazy Ones”

Here's to the Crazy Ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing that you can't do, is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or, sit in silence and hear a song that hasn't been written?
Or, gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world,
are the ones who do.

I’ve always been one to believe this – and while I certainly don’t compare myself to the likes of those portrayed in the commercial – I have always ‘marched to the beat of a different drummer’.  Yes, there are sometimes that I’m not the RESPONSIBLE, rule abiding adult – but I explain to my students – that if I CHOOSE to NOT follow certain rules – I also realize that there are CONSEQUENCES – and I gladly accept them.  In a way, I sort of see it like teaching civil disobedience.

I have had a few visits with my principal where I walk in the office and she says, “Close the door.”  To which I reply, “What did I do this time?”  We have a mutual respect because she knows how I am and where my heart is.  She knows that I will always tell her the truth and accept my consequences.

This is all leading to my letter to the editor that riled up my district.  I wasn’t being the rule abiding teacher by keeping my mouth shut and going with the flow.  Most of my colleagues have quietly said, “Good article – glad you said what we’re all thinking.”  Even parents have congratulated me in whispered tones in fear that their children might be retaliated against if they openly agree with me.  But I’m glad that I wrote it – because it was a great opportunity to put my money where my mouth was… and model what I preach to my students all the time.

Sometimes it’s just good to step over the line if you have a good reason!!

So here’s the letter – it was the Guest Column in the mid July’s Owasso Reporter (so it’s still fresh!) I was equating my fundraising antics to being a HOOKER… it made me and other people laugh.

THE OLDEST PROFESSION IN THE WORLD…. teaching!

On Saturday we had a fundraiser for our Lego Robotics team – it was a car wash at RCB Bank on 96th Street – (THANK YOU RCB)!!  I donned car washing clothes and got excited about raising enough money for a Lego Educational Robotics Kit and Competition Field Kit. The kids were eager to hold up their car wash signs and I volunteered to be the adult- to supervise the kids by the busy street.

It was fun trying to get people to wave! Then we made a sign that said “Honk if you love Legos”. The kids counted the number of honks they would get. After a few honks and waves from former students and parents I decided to change my sign from the boring “Car Wash” to “HELP THIS TEACHER raise $$ for her Lego Robotics”. I stood on the busy intersection, across from Walmart and turned toward each lane of on coming traffic hoping cars would turn in to be washed (or just donate money).

As cars passed, I watched passengers and drivers mouth out the words on my sign while reading it. It was at that point that I started to get angry…. I am a professional educator… molding the minds of our future generation… and I’m having to stand on a busy street corner to raise money for a project I want to do in my classroom. If my attire had included a halter top, mini-skirt, fishnet stockings and stiletto heels – I could have easily been arrested for Solicitation. Oh I was soliciting alright… I even resorted to using the word “TEACHER” on my sign in hopes of getting some sympathy money.

WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THAT?? Why is it that in order to get things for our schools we have to have bakes sales, car washes and sell little knick-knacks and wrapping paper? Why is it that I don’t think twice about asking a business if they offer a “teacher discount”. Do janitors ask for a “janitor’s discount”? Do attorneys or doctors just assume that because of their profession they will be offered a reduction in price? OF COURSE NOT!!  Oh – I can hear your thoughts now, “It’s another teacher who only works nine months out of the year complaining that she doesn’t make enough money!” But that’s NOT what I’m saying, so please indulge me for a moment.

I don’t want more money for me… I want more money for my students, YOUR CHILDREN!  I have taught many students over the years, that it’s their RIGHT and RESPONSIBLITY as a citizen of their country, state & community, to use their voice.  Sometimes they think they can’t make a difference – but I have explained numerous times that if one doesn’t practice their rights by voting or expressing themselves (eg. writing letters to the editor or to a congressman) one has NO RIGHT to complain about the status quo.

So, I wish to express my aggravation with the fact that in order to purchase Lego Robotic kits for my class, I have to do fundraisers outside of class (such as standing on a street corner!)  Lego Robotics is a wonderful program that integrates Math, Science and Engineering skills into the building of a robot.  For the competition, not only does the robot compete in a timed event for completion of tasks; but students must also conduct research on a global topic and present a possible solution to someone within their community.  Last year, our Grand Champion team presented their drought solution to Governor Henry.  Also, during competition, students as a team, must explain to judges, the technical aspects of the building of their robot.  This encouraged students to collaborate in the building and become comfortable and coherent in expressing their thought processes to others.  What a wonderful program- that we must wash cars for in order to be able to participate!!

Here is where I will step on many toes – but it is what I vehemently believe!  The majority of our schools (as a NATION- I am not just saying Owasso) have their educational spending priorities all wrong!  So much money is spent on ATHLETICS when it should be spent on ACADEMICS!  According to dictionary.com the definition of education is: the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. I have had this conversation with many a coach and I know that athletics teaches teamwork and perserverance and such. I know that ATHLETICS brings in more money to the school districts!  That is also evidence in the misplaced priorities of a nation as a whole!  We live in a country where people will easily pay thousands of dollars for season tickets to an athletics event – which in turn allows professional athletes to be paid exhorbatent amounts of money for throwing a ball. It’s basic Economics – supply and demand.  But, in the REAL WORLD, once their knees go out, or they break a bone – how can they incorporate those skills into a lucrative profession? Perhaps if we program the robot to throw or catch a ball we might get more money?!?

I look at the newly constructed Wellness Center with the workout facilities and the boxseats that is being built for our athletes; then, I compare it to the Music room in the Old Barnes building – with it’s broken, boarded windows and sporadic heat that we have been given to use for Odyssey of the Mind and Lego Robotics. No comparison there!  I know – it’s not just Owasso – it’s everywhere and we just accept it as status quo.  That’s just how it is!  But, why does it have to be that way?  I will also take a moment to jump on the “Band” wagon- because numerous studies have proven that Music effects intelligence, memory and emotion.
I know there are plenty of band parents that work their tail ends off at the concession stand to raise money for their children to compete in Band competitions and the like.

Now please note – this is NOT an attack on athletic coaches OR Owasso Public Schools ~ I realize that we are just part of the status quo.  But, as I express my thoughts of disservice in budgeting, I implore you to be agents of change!  Do not be content with the status quo!  Stand up for what you believe and use you voice!!

In the meantime, since we only made $188 at the carwash (and it takes $700-$800 for a team) – I look forward to our next car wash.  Maybe I’ll wear a halter, mini-skirt, fishnet stockings, stiletto heels AND have my sign saying that I’m a teacher!! Then if I get arrested, I can have my 15 minutes of fame on the news… while pleading my case that I REALLY WAS  just trying to raise money to buy Legos!!

P.S. After this letter ran – I got $700 in donations… at the subsequent carwash we made nearly $500… Administration is looking for a better facility to house us in for practice… and my principal said she would pay for my second team if I need to create one.  Sometimes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease!!  OH.. and I DID NOT wear the outfit I described to our second carwash.  I wanted to MAKE money… not lose money!!

If you look at any picture with me in them… whether I’m posing or not… you will find me smiling.  Not a grin, but a BIG, HAPPY smile.  My students sometimes comment about when I laugh they can see my “gold teeth” (I inherited my mother’s bad teeth) – but seeing my gold teeth means I’m REALLY smiling!!

I’m pretty much a smiling, giddy, happy person.  I love to laugh and I love to make others laugh too!!  I often tell my students that I changed my career to teaching because I wanted to perform before an audience and knew I wouldn’t make it in Hollywood (I love acting too!)  I explain that as a teacher, I have a fresh, CAPTIVE audience every 50 minutes… it’s GREAT!!  Material that bombs during first hour is revised for second and I have the routine down to a science by fourth hour!

Teaching middle school I have found laughter is truly the best medicine for my little hormonal raging kids.  There is always some sort of drama going on with friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, cliques, gangs, drugs, homework, home life… these poor kids are having a hard enough time trying to become comfortable in their own skin.  They are worried about which earrings are dangling from their ears NOT their dangling participles.

While reading @NeuronOutlaw’s post on his blog This Old Brain about the power of a smile it really got me to thinking about the power of RELATIONSHIP with our students.  I find that when I laugh at myself and draw attention to my mistakes as a teacher that students are more relaxed and can laugh about the mistake they make as students. This relationship empowers my students to stretch their learning to the point of failure because it’s not something they fear.  I use a quote (and I don’t know who said it) that says “One hundred mistakes are an education-if you learn from each one!”   We should all have a great education from the “school of hard knocks”!

To help build my relationship I embody the mentality of my middle school students.   If  I’m dismissing them early because I have duty… I laugh and say “DUTY.. ha ha I have dooty.”  We joke about farts and body odor…I even taught the scientific method based upon a hypothesis that ‘farts make noise because your butt cheeks are flapping together’.  I love it when former students come up to me in the store – hug me and catch me up on the things they’re doing now as college students.  They’ll comment about how they remembered me always having my “BRAINFARTS” or how we tested our “hypothesis” by pulling our butt cheeks apart when we needed to fart in class (I used a lot of air freshener during that unit!)

In the foreword of the book The Laughing Classroom, Steve Allen so eloquently describes my goal as an effective teacher by saying this:

“Every teachers knows that education is both an art and a science.  The science of education involves the teacher’s head-organizing, juggling schedules, making administrative decisions, and designing curriculum.  The art of education makes use of the teacher’s heart acting as a role model, caring about students, listening to parents and advocating for quality education.  A teacher who uses only the head is called a taskmaster and often makes learning unpleasant and unnecessarily difficult.  A teacher who uses only the heart can quickly burn out for lack of refueling.  Obviously both the head and the heart should be involved.”

So use your HEAD and your HEART to create an effect relationship with your students that encourages not only learning, but the LOVE OF LEARNING!  Turn that frown upsides down and remember it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile.  Oh and ….. LAUGH WHEN YOU HAVE DUTY!!

It’s been a long-standing joke within my family that if it’s “on sale” or “free” – I’ll take it!  I believe this habit came about during my first year of teaching.  It was also during this first year of teaching that I became a single parent – so the combination of the two situations made FREE a wonderful word to me!!  My girls still tease me about the time that I saw a 90% off sign in a mall and made a beeline to the sign – only to see that it was 90% off a set of Russian Nesting Dolls.  Hmmm.. what could I do with Russian Nesting Dolls??????  NOTHING – but there are many useful things available to teachers for the price we love…. FREE!!  As a teacher and learner – I have found searching the world wide web to be a playground full of  FREE STUFF!!

Did you know that the sites for Skype, Google docs, Facebook, Animoto, Edmodo, MySpace, Edublogs, Wikispaces and many, many more are … FREE, FREE, FREE!?!  (I know you knew… but as a middle-aged, digital immigrant, I’m trying to make a point!)

This is where my story really begins- at the start of my summer vacation – when I began to use my Twitter account to its full potential.  I ceased letting people know “what I was eating for breakfast” and began lurking around teachers… talking about their blogs and their PLNs.  I attended seminars “virtually”, watched webinars, signed up for a lot of FREE web 2.0 applications online.

After following @suewaters on Twitter, and realizing that as the founder of Edublogs she had a great FREE product – I wanted one!!!  So, I went to www.edublogs.org and proceeded to sign up for my FREE site!  I did a furrowing of the eyebrows and tilt of the head when a message popped up saying that I already HAD an Edublog account.  When did I do that???

In reviewing my statistics for this Edublog site – I applied for FREE Edublog page back in January of this year.  It has been lying dormant on the world wide web for all these months.   I didn’t activate it until the end of July; and it’s now the middle of August and I’m just now posting for the first time!  It’s okay though because now I’m going to make use of this and all of the other FANTASTICALLY FREE resources that I’ve learned about from my PLN on Twitter.  (Which is also a FREE service!)

What is the purpose of this blog?  I haven’t determined that quite yet – because while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I don’t want to be a copy of another blog.  I could share all the wonderful FREE resources I’ve learned about – but @rmbyrne already blogs about that with his site Free Technology For Teachers. (which is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!)

I’m sure that once the kids start back – this Wednesday, August 19th- and I start using all of the FREE Web 2.0 applications that I’ve decided to use in my classroom; that I will definitely find my niche in the blogging world here on Edublogs.  So, stay tuned… and rest assured … that any advice or thoughts that I share here will be absolutely, positively …. FREE!