We took our sixth graders on a white water rafting adventure last week and it was a blast! We taught them all about teamwork and cooperation and working towards a goal (the Class III rapids). The weather was perfect and the trees were in the midst of Autumn change.
Here is a video I made for them:
Peace (in the rapids),
Kevin
As anyone trying to blog with Edublogs knows, last week was a difficult time. The entire network was in the midst of change to a new server system and it was difficult at times to get to a blog to comment. Although there was grumbling in the forums, I still think Edublogs is a powerful network and that the push for upgrades shows foresight by James Farmer and company. I know I don’t want to be part of a network that just stands still.
So I asked Amy, who hosted last week’s Day in a Sentence (see the results here), to consider doing it again this week and she graciously agreed. Amy continues with her theme from last week, which is to boil down your week or a day in your week, with music and lyrics in mind.
We hope you consider joining us over at Amy’s place for this week’s Day in a Sentence.
Here is my submission:
My Sentence: I can’t help but wonder what it must be like to be a stock broker these days, wandering the wreckage of the economy.
Reflection: And this reminds me of a song that I wrote a few years ago with my older band. The song is called: The Stockbroker’s Blues.
THE STOCKBROKER’S BLUES
I got the stocks
I got the bonds
I’ve got the whiskey
to tie one on
I’ve got the money
I’ve got the gold
I’ve got companies down on their knees
being sold
You know it’s funny
these games we play
All of that money
Bound to drive a man insane
I’ve got the mansions
I’ve got the cars
I’m laughing and smoking
Cuban cigars
Living the high life
Making the calls
Hoping and praying the market
doesn’t fall
You know it’s funny
these games we play
All of that money
Bound to drive a man insane
Now I’ve got nothing
I lost it so fast
One day I’m up
and the next day I’ve crashed
Five-cent deposits
Thunderbird wine
That’s how I spend my days,
killing time
You know it’s funny
these games we play
All of that money
Bound to drive a man insane
Peace (in days),
Kevin
This week, I turn my attention to the Flat World with my webcomic, Boolean Squared. (And continue to look at the Flat World idea in the classroom for the next few weeks).
And here is the RSS feed for Boolean Squared (which runs on Mondays but will move to Mondays and Thursdays next month).
Peace (on the funny pages),
Kevin
This coming week, the 2008 K12 Online Conference ramps up into high gear with the start of presentations and if you have ever wanted to explore new tools and learn about integration of technology into education at a higher level, this free conference might be just the thing for you. The online event is full of interesting topics and workshops and best of all, it is archived on the K12 Online site, so there is no rush on your part. Delve in when you can. You can even participate in your pajamas.
Here is what piques my interest this year:
Meanwhile, Bud is also leading a complimentary concept: The NotK12Conference, which I hope to gather more information about in the near future. I told Bud that we could shift the Day in a Sentence idea over to the Unconference, and he liked that idea. I’ll chat with him about coordinating that effort and broadening the scope of Day in a Sentence.
Peace (in sharing),
Kevin
PS — Last year, Bonnie and I presented on our Collaborative ABC Movie Project and the workshop is still there for viewing, if you are interested. Go to the ABC Movie Presentation site.
I don’t always blog about it, but the PhotoFridays project that Bonnie started up continues to be a source of great interest. Simply put, participants (and you are invited!) add photos via Flickr to the PhotoFridays group, and then write comments and share ideas, etc. It’s a nice way to mix the visual with the written word.
Bonnie has now launched a project within PhotoFridays in which we are mailing around a pair of California Raisin figurines. When we get them, we take photos of them in our environment and then mail them off to the next person (I said it is sort of like a Flat Stanley project).
When I got the little dudes the other day, I also wrote a short, first-person narrative of their visit, and I am hoping others will follow my lead and do the same, adding the stories both to the PhotoFridays site and also in paper form into the envelope. At the end, it might be neat to see the entire collection.
Here was one of my photos:
And my narrative:
Arrived yesterday. Sick of being stuck inside this envelope. And tired of hearing my brother practice his saxophone. If he plays the melody to Tequila one more time, I am going to squeeze the last bits of grape juice from his body and leave his skin behind. Before the envelope was even opened, I heard a lot of commotion. This must be a busy house, I thought, and I warned my brother. He ignored me and started to work on some Ornette Coleman free jazz lines, which also drives me crazy. Finally, some dude opened us up and took us out. Fresh air, at last. I looked outside the window and noticed all of the trees were different colors. This must be New England, I told my brother. In the autumn, the leaves go from green to red, yellow and orange. Beautiful, man, was all he could say. He so much wants to be the hipster. The dude who took us out of the package them lined us up next to a comic book. A comic book! What are we? Some playthings? The picture on the cover was some scrawny guy, looking like he was running for president. Click. Then, the guy puts us on top of some blocks that were hung on the wall. I noticed some musical notations, and so did my brother. Cool, man, my brother said, and then started to play some Grover Washington Jr. Now, that I didn’t mind. Click. I figured we had some time, but then this guy stuffs us right back into the envelope and starts writing on the outside. Hey, man, that pen hurts! I wonder where he is sending us this time …
If you want to be a recipient of the traveling raisins, just let Bonnie know (you can find info at the PhotoFridays site, including Bonnie’s email).
Peace (in sharing),
Kevin
As I mentioned, last weekend, I headed off to Missouri to give a keynote talk at a conference at the Prairie Lands Writing Project. I also created a shortened version for their website and I figured I would share that out with you. (Actually, this is the main keynote and the smaller presentation on using Web 2.0 in Education I will share out later).
(You can also download a Powerpoint slideshow of this presentation, without audio. Click here to download the presentation)
Resources in my Keynote
We have this very neat little restaurant in a neighboring town called Amy’s Place. Great food. Good conversations. A nice hangout. I mention that because this week, we are heading over to Amy’s Blog for the Day in a Sentence. She is tweeking it into Day in a Lyric and would like us to imagine a theme song for our week. (Hopefully, no AC/DC’s Highway to Hell is on anyone’s list)
We hope you join us.
Peace (in melody),
Kevin
Today is Monday, so a new comic edition of Boolean Squared is online.
And just what was Mr. Teach doing in his underwear, anyway?
You’ll have to figure it out by heading to Boolean Squared at the Springfield Republican site.
Kevin
Greetings and here are this week’s collection of sentences.
I want to start out with a podcast that I did with a roomful of teachers at the Prairie Lands Writing Project in St. Joseph, Missouri, on Saturday as part of a talk about Web 2.0 and the ability to use the Net for connecting with a community of other teachers (and a keynote address about writing my webcomic). I asked them all to write out a Day in a Sentence, and volunteer to podcast their sentences.
Here we go:
Listen in to Prairie Lands teachers
And now, the rest of this week’s wonderful submissions:
Thanks to everyone !
We’re going to have a guest host this coming week so be on the lookout for that call for words.
Peace (in connections),
Kevin
This video is interesting, as it reminds us that before the digital revolution, there was an underground community seeking out art, music, books and movies that fell outside the view of the common culture. The theory of the “long tail” sort of ruins that sense of backroom discovery, I guess.
The ease of digital downloads and digital uploads means we do this kind of discovery from our own home, and we don’t fall into serendipity when uncovering that band or movie or book that will completely shake your world. And it is the hunt for the art, and the process of discovery, that makes the effort even better. (Kind of like the experience of reading a physical newspaper and coming across an article that you would never otherwise have ever seen if you were narrowing your focus).
Or, at least, this is the premise of this video.
And yet, ironically, if not for the digital world, I would never have seen this video in my life, I suspect. There are some strange ironies that go on all around us.
Peace (in discovery),
Kevin