Have a Good Life

I found this polling site and thought I would try it out. I think it is pretty cool.

I attended the Literacy Promise Conference today. It is sponsored by the Brigham Young University CITES program. I just realized that my computer shut down while I was coming home from the conference and all the notes I took are gone. Drat!!!

This poet named Brod Bagert from New Orleans (3 syllables) spoke to us and he was amazing. He read a lot of his poems and the way that he performed was so inspiring. Here is a link to the recording that I made. This is the cool part of the story. When he started introducing the poem "Booger Love" I thought it would be a great one to record. But, the only recording software I have on my compy is Garageband, and I have not had much success with that. So, I invoked Quicksilver and did a Google search for Audacity, which I had heard about and tried to use before, but never got too far into it.

So, in the time that it took him to finish introducing the poem, I was able to download the program, install it, open it, and start recording him. This is why I like Macs. If I had my PC laptop, this never would have been possible. I would have taken way too many steps to get there, and there would be a 95% chance that the program wouldn't work (that is experience talking, by the way, we have had very little success with recording or capturing sound or video on that computer). Also, the battery would have been dead at that point (45 minutes into the conference) and I would have had a hard writing surface to capture the essence of his presentation.



The only thing that vexes me is that I wasn't able to record video with the iSight camera. That would have been better because his performance was not just his voice. So, if anyone knows of an easy free way to do that, please let me know.

By the way, here are my takeaways from the presentation (actual education stuff, imagine that):

1. Perform poetry to your students and they will start to actually like poetry.
   
2. If they like poetry, they will start to write it as a natural step.
3. If they write it themselves, then you won't have to assign stupid haiku's.
4. Poetry should be loved and studied just like sports, music, technology, or any other passion that someone possesses. This is key--study and love poetry because you deserve it.

Great presentation. I bought four books (on Amazon ;)

Have a Good Life.

I am surprised that I have already updated on Twitter 500 times! I didn't think that I had used it that much, but I have. I really like it. I have learned so much it is just crazy. There are a lot of people floating good ideas around. I would really like to have documented everything that I have learned, but there is just so much that I have learned, I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Have a Good Life.

The class with the worst behavior is sitting there working and has been working since I told them to start working. AMAZING! I didn't think that it was possible, but they are all reading their books just like they should. Nobody is goofing off, and they are all doing what they should. This never happens. It probably helps that a bunch of people are absent, but I think it is also because I am letting them read out loud in groups. They are doing just what they should. Awesome. They like reading out loud more than to themselves even though I think it is harder. This group of kids, though, I think they just like interacting with other people.

Have a Good Life.

I have pink eye. And yes, it sucks.

The other thing that sucks is that tonight is parent teacher conferences, or as we say in our school, student-led conferences. The students come in and present information from each of their classes to their parents, and instead of all the the teachers sitting in the gym and getting monstrous headaches, the students come to our rooms and talk about things that are going on in their classes. It is a much better setup. I like these conferences a lot. I really like being there and talking to the parents. Since I have pink eye, and my wife and kids are all sick as well, I decided that I should come home and help them. When everyone is sick, just being there is a lot of help. So, I decided that I would set my school laptop up in my room and be home with my family. I am doing it through Skype. Below is a picture of what it looks like while I am waiting for people to come talk to me.



I must admit that it is awesome to be able to do this. So cool.

Have a Good Life.

Here is a video in two parts that this college (Abilene Christian University) produced called "Connected."



The funniest part is that it is playing the video on the iPhone is not shown in widescreen! Classic. Just goes to show that not only is this a crappy way to get people to come to your school, but it also shows that not everyone is on board with this, which is how it has to work if it is to succeed.

The other thing that is hilarious about this is that they totally overlook (at least in this video) any educational possibilities that exist for the iPhone/iTouch.

"This new iPhone is so great, it shows me how to get to class late on my first day! Thanks, ACU!"

The video is actually pretty funny, and makes me want one for each of my students even less. I guess it shows that maybe my dreams won't really happen because then we would all be dorks. Thanks ACU!

Have a Good Life.

Yesterday, one of the teachers that was having a problem and discussed it with me gave some good feedback to other people. She didn't say anything to me about it, but other people sure did. She came in and talked to me and I sat there and listened, said that I would do what I could, and then followed up with her later in the day and this morning. All I really did was listen and make sure that she knew I cared about resolving the situation. That is important. The hard thing will be making sure that I remember that when I am an administrator.

Have a Good Life.