The Rest is Silence: Last Thing

What a long strange trip it's been. Much like the Intel Teach course I took, 23 Things has altered the way I look at my job. Many of the things we explored I already did; many I wanted to try and just needed prompting to do; and many that were new to me are still swirling around in my head looking for a place to land.

I plan to work on my wiki and keep it going; I want it to be a resource my alumni can use for their allusion needs; I am working on setting up a voicethread to use with my Greek Lit circles; I plan on implementing my own voicethread for missed lectures. I may not be completely tech-savvy, but my classroom will be a place of discovery for my students as we learn some of these things together.

Not sure if it is hitting my 40s or just getting into a rut of 14 years of teaching, but this course gave me a needed new perspective on many things in my classroom, including the insight that I do way too much work. We are so concerned with TAKS we forget that a true education lies beyond that realm of standardized tests. I wish now I had entered that 50,000 word novel in a month contest . . . one thing at a time, I suppose.

Would I take another online exploration course like this? Heck yeah. I love self-paced, sitting on my sofa learning experiences, and why shouldn't we be getting staff development like this if we are expecting our students to be tech savvy?

I want to re-purpose my blog; I want to create another one with more anonymity; I would like to get paid to write--I have always wanted to get paid to write, and somewhere I lost that drive and that desire when I began getting paid to teach others to write. I used to be a poet; now I find I can't even do that without analyzing the daylights out of my own writing . . .

I subscribed to Learning 2.1; there was something comforting in seeing Thing 70 on the page I found. 70 things! When will I ever get that book written? Meanwhile, my niece is a week away from Nicaragua, and here is a link to her blog. I'm wondering (hoping) she finds blogging as addicting as I do. Will that enthusiasm fade? Will it get stronger?

I have enjoyed posting comments, learning things that pissed me off, working through problems (never did get that dang Voki to work), and reading comments from colleagues.

What more can I say? I suddenly have time on my hands as I wrap this up. A fresh 6 weeks; a journey to voicethread; and business, but not as usual.

Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest (Hamlet V.ii).