Planting the seed...

I'm just a plain old classroom teacher...for now ;-) 

My principal sent an email saying our superintendent was looking for teachers to write little blurbs about innovative activities/projects they're doing in their classrooms.  I got to gush about the concept books we're making for students in Mongolia thru my friend who is stationed there with the Peace Corps, and about my use of Google Docs for both Writer's Workshop and responding to reading.  Naturally at the end I made a note to my principal that I had a million ideas from the 2011 ICE conference to share with anyone willing to listen.  The response?  I'D LOVE TO HEAR ALL ABOUT IT!!

This is good.  I'm an aspiring techie.  I'm starting grad school in a school technology program in the summer with the hopes of becoming some kind of tech facilitator.  Don't get me wrong, I love so many things about having my own classroom, but there are a lot of things I don't love.  Things that will only be exacerbated in the coming years as RTI and stricter standards roll out.

Then after school the tech facilitator dropped by my room and I briefly talked her ear off about all my ideas and shared some questions I had that I want her to pass along to the district tech guy.  I might have mentioned to her that if they are planning to pilot a 1:1 environment with either Ipads or Laptops that "I'm your girl."  She suggested writing a proposal for some grant money through the Education Foundation in our district, so I'll be looking into that while my kids handle the ISATs.

Obsession #1 - Food

So, I have a confession... I'm in love with food.  I'm going to call it an obsession because it has a tendency to take over my life.  Put me in a room with cable tv and I immediately turn to the Food Network, or Cooking Channel, or TLC, or Travel Channel, or whatever happens to be playing something that involves people cooking, eating, or watching other people cook and eat.  I also subscribe to an unhealthy number of food blogs which I keep up with daily through my Google Reader.  I've got a bunch I'm happy to share, if you're interested.

So this morning while I was putzing around on the internet I came across this delightful little treat!  I must make these:

LOOK AT THEM!!!  THEY ARE AMAZING!
Yes, my friends.  Pie.  In a cute cute cute little jar.  I want a hundred in my freezer immediately.

Secretly I wish I could quit my job and just cook a hundred things all day.  Of course, that dream also involves me married to a rich man... that needs to be fattened.  Oh, and I have a personal trainer in this dream.  Oh well.

A New Bloginning

My feeble attempt at blogging was thwarted by a very difficult first year of teaching.  With my second year rolling along at a fast pace, I think I have finally found enough perspective to try again.  This time the blog will not be devoted to teaching.  It will not be devoted to anything, really. 

I set up my Google Reader this year, and it has been such a great addition to my life.  My mother thinks blogs are self-indulgent and not worth reading, but I beg to differ.  Blogs help me stay in touch with my teacher friends like Miss G. and Miss H.  They allow me to indulge my obsession with food, like this.  They inspire me with amazing ideas for my classroom, like this, the inspiration for my new "bloginning."  So because of my new friend at teachpaperless and because of the realization that my friends might want to know what the heck is going on with me, I will give this blogging habit another go.

Another reason I decided I should probably get back on the wagon was my recent attendance at the 2011 ICE Conference in St. Charles, IL.  I am an aspiring educational techie, among other things, and I was so inspired at this conference that I realized if I am going to take this career move seriously, I need to plunge myself into the depths of the internet and see what there is to see.  I attended last Wednesday, and now, 3 days later, I've downloaded multiple educational apps to infuse (hopefully!!) into my daily curriculum, joined twitter (very, very reluctantly and with much caution - baby steps),  and signed up for a few different websites I think might be useful to me and my students at some point in the future.  Blogging is just another piece of the puzzle.  If I'm going to ask my students to buy into it, I better figure out a way to buy into it too.

So, in an effort not to limit my own creativity, I will leave this blog open-ended.  Here's to round 2!