I doodled my Moodle today!  I know this sounds a little risque but it is really a site created to organize your classes and provide students with a way to access class information and participate in class through wiki’s, blogs, and so much more.  All of my class information will be posted on the internet.  Students can also post their work here. I’m slowly dragging these kids into the 21st Century!

Here is the start of my Moodle for Global II:

The class lasted all day and tomorrow I have another.  I also have spent the last couple hours doing school work, I started a webpage on Weebly.  Thanks for the site info Stephanie!

Yesterday I spent six hours doing school work.  Of course two of those hours were also spent watching the Olympic equestrian jumping.

Quote for the day:  “I don’t care if it’s a white cat or a black cat.  It’s a good cat so long as it catches mice.”  Deng Xiaoping referring to capitalism, once seen as an evil in Communist China.

I Doodled My Moodle!

Yesterday was a busy day.  I spent much of it working on the computer, finding new sites, reading posts I had previously clipped and so forth.

Another Goal: Learn one new computer skill a day.  Mostly I’m going to wade through the 33 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher Should Have, http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html.  Yesterday I added getpocket.com to my computer.  Have you ever come across something you want to read and don’t have time to do so?  Maybe you just want to save the article, or whatever it is.  All you do is hit +Pocket on your bar and it is saved so you can go back and read it later.  It is great! Do I sound like an infomercial?  Sorry!  I also use Evernote to save sites and create notes to myself.  This is very useful as well, plus it organizes them into categories so it is easy to go back and find the sites.  I have them organized according to school topics; government, WWI, WWII, ancient civilizations,…. Also recipes, Cape Cod, Maine, stuff (everyone needs a category for items you don’t know where to place), great ideas, notes, books,… you get the idea!

I also spent some time sewing.  I cut out a skirt and top, and worked on a dress I started in May.  It still isn’t finished!

While reading “Teaching Global History,” I am starting to reconsider the way I teach Global I, so do I want to go back to chronology/themes or stay the course with regions?  There are advantages to each.

Good quotes and consideration:  “By 2100 more than half of the world’s more than 7,000 languages will disappear, along with the people who spoke them.”  He is referencing this in relation to how traditional peoples are being and have been destroyed by war, disease, and being invaded by more technologically advanced groups.  The trend continues today.  Another good quote:  “All change is not progress.”  I think these go together though located in different parts of the book!

Another site I came across that feeds into social studies is:  http://list25.com/25-things-you-wouldnt-believe-about-these-countries/

I did manage to take a few minutes to float in the pond and start a new book, “Golda”, by Elinor Burkett.  It is about Golda Meir and is interesting so far.

Side note:  Still soaking Charlie but no longer wrapping her foot.  She is moving much better now but I think the abscess came out the top of her heel.  I’m still putting the stinky Icthamoll on it.

Yesterday was a…

Both yesterday and today have not been as productive as I would have liked.  Yesterday, I did some work on the computer, about 2 hours worth, put together a great melon platter, if I do say so myself, and went to a Meet and Greet at the Howie’s.  It was a beautiful, perfect, afternoon for a house party and the Howie’s were great hosts.  They live up Thompson Hollow in the old James Thompson homestead.  It is a piece of history!  I have read the diary of James Thompson so this is a fascinating old farm.  In the diary he writes about children dying, going over the mountain to Roxbury to bring back the doctor (on horseback), and endlessly building stone walls.  It is a real picture of New Kingston back in the 1700’s.

Today got off to a bad start.  Katie was taking my car to her job in Andes/Delancy at the Mose’s horse camp and discovered that the tire was flat! 😦  So we had to make other transportation plans.  Then I had to spend part of my afternoon getting the tire fixed.  I did, however, do some gardening, a little computer work, and a little school work. Today I read about controversial discussions in history and believe me there are a lot of them:  Homosexuality amongst the early Greeks (and others), religion (always a hot topic), evolution (hard to believe anyone has a problem with this), and sex, sex, sex!  History is filled with it! I guess we wouldn’t be here without it.  It has been used as a weapon of warfare (rape and plunder), for diplomacy between countries (marriage), and court intrigue (Getting to the top – funny how nothing changes!).  Not to mention pro-creation!  Did I already mention this?

I also had an hour conversation with Ryan.  It is hard to get the time right in contacting him since he is in Okinawa, Japan.  It was nice to speak with him and see him via Skype.  By the way, the new version of Skype is great!

My evening didn’t turn out much better.  I was making a great soup (Minestrone- my refrigerator clean out version) and got a call from Gary, his car died on Margaretville Mountain.  After an hour of dealing with AAA, we called a local wrecker service and they showed up within 15 minutes.  AAA had a very difficult time with the fact that we were in Margaretville.  They couldn’t pronounce it or spell it, didn’t have the right location, had no idea where it was, asked if I needed a taxi home (very funny!)….  The moral of the story is, if you break down around here, don’t call AAA!

So Mary, here is the picture of my soup.  As you can see, Katie did a little rearranging of the vegetables, spoon, bread,…  The wine was the Vignoles from Six Mile Creek, Ithaca.  It was very good!

Both yesterday …

Now, it isn’t as if I didn’t have a vacation.  I left the day after school ended and went to Cape Cod.  This was a last minute decision as it is a busy year with Gary’s campaign and I wasn’t sure I would have time to spend at the Cape.  This was a great vacation!  I met up with my sister from Corpus Christi, Texas and her two youngest, twins. I haven’t seen them in a year so this was a wonderful trip even though the house was sketchy and the weather wasn’t very good.  It was a girl vacation; Katie, Lynne, Carley, Haley, and myself!

Now, it isn’t …