Sunday, February 28, 2010

Oh Canada

What a great end to the Olympics. My family has been glued to the set for over 2 weeks now (hence my lack of blog posting). The gold in hockey caused a near frenzy in our living room. And these late night events have been killing me -- I HAD to watch the end of the game, or event or to see the medal ceremony. My lack of productivity since Feb. 12 is due completely to my obession with all sports -- I don't even know that Skeleton is a sport -- more a crazy, wild ride down a hill on a cookie sheet, in a real tight suit...
The great thing about the Olympics is that it has given every one a common language. At the home arena while waiting for DS's practice to end, I was amazed to see parents from opposing teams chatting most emphatically about one sport or another. Who knew that curling could bridge PeeWee hockey mom animosity?
The thing is -- now what will we talk about? The weather hardly brings about such passionate conversation.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Twitter

Steep, steep learning curve. Thought Twitter was a waste of time -- who can say anything in less than 140 characters? My Tech. conference on the weekend changed my mind.
Yes, it can be a waste of time, and very silly tweets about what you are doing -- "going to the bathroom now." And I fail to see the value of following a celebrity...
BUT, here's what I learned. Twitter is a really cool way to find information and to have other people filter information for you. If I was researching in university again I would be ALL over this. The trick (that I have yet to figure out completely) is to find really good (as in smart and well-read) people to follow. They post articles, information and questions to challenge/change/increase your thinking. Twitter links can be links to articles and videos.
My current interest is to see if I can learn this Twitter-thing so I can teach students how to make use of it, not just to natter at friends, but to help with school work. So, like I discovered with blogging, it's best to just jump in and start Tweeting. My goal is to learn one new thing about or from Twitter every day. If you want to follow my progress you can find me on Twitter @kaboyd1

Here I go....tweet, tweet, tweet

Friday, February 12, 2010

new learning

I am writing from my conference on technology. My head is going to explode. I have learned so much, or rather heard about so many possibilities. I "got heck" from the speaker for using my laptop as a clipboard to balance my paper as I wrote out my notes. Apparently techno-guru guy thinks I should have been making notes on the TECHNOLOGY. Yikes!
So when I get home I need to find out more about Diigo, Delicious (this is not a porn site, by the way), mining tweets, Twitter, in the clouds, Google Reader and Evernote....
And the good news is, if I can't read my notes I can always Google "____ tutorial" Apparently you can do that for everything and learn how.... Advice though, don't forget the "tutorial" part after "Delicious" -- ya never know what might pop up there...

Sunday, February 7, 2010

busy week

I had a crazy, busy week. The kind of week that leaves you wimpering, waiting for Friday so you can just crash. I did crash early on Saturday night -- and wouldn't you know it my mind disagreed with my body....I woke up at 3am and could not shut the "thinking" off. Then I laid in bed, rather tossed and turned, until I finally gave up. So much for sleeping in.
It's like a cruel trick. The games the mind plays, that is. I know that tomorrow when my alarm goes off, I will wish more than anything for a few more hours, minutes eve, of that deep restful sleep that restores the soul. I won't get it, I know. I'll spend next week running like a crazy person, but I have great hope that I have learned my lessons from this past week and I'll find some quiet moments to train the brain to remember "off."

Monday, February 1, 2010

101 things

I am following the Jack Canfield Dream Big program that builds on "The Secret's" Law of Attraction. There are a series of lessons I listen to on CD each morning. Today's lesson requires that I create a list of 101 things I want to do/have/accomplish in my lifetime. A sort of "bucket list" if you will. Here's my difficulty....I'm stuck at 8. I think I'm at a place of contentment in life. I've accomplished most professional goals. Now my wishes have more to do with helping my kids reach their potential. But that can't be it for me -- I can't be few years short of 40 and NOT have a list. I'm wondering if it's the stage in life. Comment or email if you've tackled such a list. Let me know how it goes. For now, I think I will have to pause at this lesson and dream bigger. When I get to my 101 I'll let you know (notice I said "when," not "if.)