9/8/07 Teachable Moments In & Out of the Classroom

This week found me teaching blogging and internet safety. It was my first attempt to blog with kids; I'll see as I grade their posts this weekend how it really went. Maybe it was boring to introduce themselves and what they learned this week about blogs and blogging; I'm still learning myself. My hope was that--minimum--they got some good practice writing strong paragraphs to a prompt so I can justify the activity to my Web 1.0 administrators. I don't want to keep giving such specific blog prompts but they needed some guidance for their first attempt. Won't the real excitement come when people comment on their writing and the conversations begin? I have much higher hopes on that front. And I have at least one teacher (from Rome) lined up who will let her kids blog and converse with mine on their Think.com sites, where we are blogging. We are restricted by the school district from other blog sites. There is no comment feature on Think.com like there would be in regular blogging software, but there are "stickys" (like I.M.), there are "message boards" and there is email (restricted to Think members). Will that be sufficient and obvious feedback for my students? We'll see. The logistics are kind of baffling to me right now. But at least we've now jumped into the edublogosphere!

I went on another ride with the Middle School Bike Club. Again, it was mostly about fun flat tires. The kids are learning to: 1) come better prepared with tools, patches, inner tubes, or at least one of the above; 2) make sure your emergency contact leaves his/her phone on during your ride; 3) know how to change a tire; and 4) never remove a thorn sticking out of your tire because that might be all that's holding the air in! Even though it's been tedious for the adults on the trips, I do think kids are learning and having a good time, always good news for an after-school activity. And I had a chance to try my new road bike. Smooth, svelte, speedy, and squirrelly--all at the same time. Sweet!

I'm excited and a little embarrassed to say that I'm such a geek that I'm going tonight to a F2F meetup of one of my favorite gadget blogs about mobile devices. It's here at one of my favorite coffee shops; an infrequent opportunity. They'll be having giveaways and free wifi. I joked with a friend that it will be either really fun or really strange -- because it will most likely be all men. ;) Hey, it's the weekend!

Photo Credit:http://www.stamfordhistory.org/wheelclub.htm