Just got tagged – via trackback feature – by my friend Kevin (guiding light of the Youth Radio project) to share 5 things about myself others might not know. Hmmmm…..

1. I am a 4th generation Californian. My paternal great-grandfather arrived after the Gold Rush, but in time for the tail end of the Comstock Silver Rush. On my mother’s side, it was the Southern Pacific Railroad that great grandfather to California. And I wish I knew more about my great-grandmother Carrie, who left Ireland on her own in search of a more promising future.
2. I have strong ties to NewOrleans. Having spent 4 wonderful years there while my husband completed his degree in architecture from Tulane and I completed requirements for an elementary credential, I have shed a few tears over Katrina’s horrifying aftermath. And I have since adopted my wonderful dog Nola, whom my daughter rescued from under an abandoned hotel in Port Sulphur.
3. I love to garden. Last summer I grew 14 varieties of sunflowers, along with vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
4. When I was a kid, I saw Elvis Presley live- really! He was performing at the Oakland Coliseum, along with the Platters.  Unfortunately, I was too young to really understand why the audience was full of screaming teenage fans (girls).  Years later, I’m glad I had the opportunity to witness the young and talented “King.”
5. My goal for the New Year is to write a children’s story: Nola Finds Her Bark

Found some good news posted on David Thornburg’s blog:

Andy Carvin writes a fine summary for the Deleting Online Predators Act at Learning Now.

TeacherSource | learning.now . DOPA Dies on the Vine | PBS:

But the final nail in DOPA’s coffin came with the switch of Congress from Republican to Democrat. Legislation that doesn’t get signed into law by the end of a congressional term has to start from scratch during the next term. In January, the Democrats will be in charge of both houses of Congress, and there’s no sign that they’re going to rush and re-introduce DOPA. Key DOPA critics in the House and Senate, including Reps Ed Markey, John Dingell and Sen. Patrick Leahy, will soon be in leadership positions. With the Republican losses in November, it will be harder for their caucus members to re-introduce DOPA, especially since Fitzpatrick is gone and they lacked Democrat co-sponsors in the first place.

Every day the possibilities for teaching, learning, and connecting with others via Web 2.0 amaze me. I clicked on the Edublogs home link a minute ago, and noticed under the Recently Updated section Kevin’s Meandering Mind, the personal blog of my friend Kevin, who is somewhere out in Western Mass. I was just about to search for Kevin’s class blog so I could send the link to Wesley Fryer, who is looking for exemplars of K12 blogs to include in his January 10 presentation at MacWord.

I send links to people all the time, but it’s the way that links now come to me, that blows me away. Whether via rss feeds or just by chance visiting Edublogs, my opportunities to connect with and learn from others now seem limitless. I’ll have the good fortune to attend Wesley Fryers MacWorld presentation. It already feels like a different way to experience a presentation, since I’ve already listened to a draft of his presentation and sent him some feedback – with just the click of a mouse.

Monday morning I’ll be starting my work day with a meeting with my department manager, who has invited me to talk about Web 2.0. Seems like the most logical place for a working agenda is right here inside the blogosphere.

• So if there is a Web 2.0, there must be a Web 1.0, no?!:
  • Let’s start with When Justice Failed – I still like the lesson, but clearly it’s been a while since I last updated it.
  • Preparing for last month’s NCTE ACE workshop was a snap thanks to the ACE blog that Rob Rosma created using WordPress.
  • Google Docs was a great solution for Kevin Hodgson, Beth Yeager, and me to collaboratively write the agenda for our NWP Workshop on Equity and Access.
• Better yet, I could show rather than tell by sharing a fewQuickTimes from last year’s CUE Conference (Erica, Phillip, and Bob). Not the best video quality – but the content explains the value of social networking.
• I will also draw a bit from 4 year’s worth of exploring the potential of classroom blogging to engage students in new literacies.
  • Students reading and writing beyond the school day – Always Running
  • Creating inter-generational communities – Hidden Histories
  • Connecting across geographic and socio-economic backgrounds – Youth Voices Coast to Coast
• And maybe throw in a quick look at this year’s projects:
  • Focusing on podcasting – Youth Radio
  • Using a common text to explore writing from the inside out – The Outsiders
  • Examining the power of tagging – Youth Voices
• About time to take a look at news aggregators (RSS). I’m with Paul Allison – I still like Bloglines.
• In addition to news feeds, I use social bookmarking as way to organize my use of the Internet. Even though it’s hard to spell, I like del.icio.us.

Closing thought:

“If teaching is an exchange of ideas, the ways that people convey their thoughts in this day and age — text messages, podcasts, the Internet, instant messaging — must find a place in the modern classroom.

If we don’t do it, who is going to teach our students to leverage the technologies they already use for 24/7/365 learning?” Will Richardson