GOOD BYE 2007!

Before the family heads out to the 26th Annual Lane Pajama Party--I feel the need to close up 2007. Ok, as usual, each year has its ups and downs...I LIKE to think more UPS so I'm gonna concentrate on the good things and hope that 08 has twice as much! (hey, I can be greedy if I want!)
Top GREAT things about 2007..not in any particular order..
1. Started blogging..I need to focus more on professional blogging rather than personal for 08, but found it to be a great way to rethink situations, etc.
2. Jumped on twitter and now I get to learn even MORE each day from colleagues I know and others I haven't met f2f ...yet!
3. Have a full understanding and some great ideas of carrying web. 2.0 into my teacher's classrooms for ELITE iii..(starts in February)
4. Have another "me" in my department since August...Colin is cool, makes me think and laugh...which is ALWAYS good! I'm learning as much from him as he is from me...well, I certainly hope so!
5. Shared my knowledge base with sooo many wonderful teachers this year, both f2f and online!
6. My children are now young thriving adults and making (crossed fingers) good decisions!
7. Met some outstanding people this year and continue to be impressed with how much they make me stretch my brain.

WINTER is HERE!!

SNOW has finally arrived! Just reminds me how much fun it is to play......and be a little kid !

GADGETS & GIZMOS

There has been talk online lately about all of the new gadgets out there for use in the classroom. Great, can't wait! IF the gadget fits with what we are trying to do, we'll use it, but DON"T give me a gadget and then plan the class....noooooooo!!

THE EDUBLOG AWARDS ARE HERE!!!!!

http://edublogawards.com/edublog-awards-2007-finalists-announced/#comments
WOW...what a great source of good stuff!!!..drool...drool...

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em...

I joined Second Life...pretty easy except giving my avatar a name...lol...Last name you have to pick from so I went with Latte....and since Mocha, Moka and Caffe was already taken, I went with the first name of Sippina...yeah, so, I'm gonna check out it's educational worth and get back to you...

instead of DID YOU KNOW, what YOU SHOULD KNOW

Yesterday, during a Promethean Show and Go (which btw are AWESOME tools!!!) we had a trivia question about presidents...ok, who was the 13th president? Yeah, that's right Millard Fillimore! (excuse me, who would name their kid Millard? It is like naming your son Sue...anyway..) Today, I'm driving with my hubby (who knows so damn many useless facts I find fascinating!) I tell him about the trivia contest and how I had to guess the 13th President, and before I could get it out of my mouth (and everyone knows how fast I can talk!) he looks at me and says FILLMORE...ok, you ask, how does Joe know? DIE HARD III...it was one of the clues where the bomb was, it was at Fillmore Elementary School...geez...
Pardon, I digress, so the last thing on my list before '08 starts, I'm gonna know all of the President's in order of office (never mind the 42 elections and 43 presidents gig) I just think, that, as an adult and as an American, you SHOULD KNOW!!

Um, Washington, >>>????????

The "Other" Keyboard!

I would like to thank the following for fulfilling one of my dreams.
http://www.craigslist.com/ what a great resource, Terry for listing this beaut and my muscle son for moving it for me..My new wurlitzer organ is my favorite keyboard these days....every piece works and I'm jamming on it!! In a couple of weeks I start up lessons again with Ernie Hayes, who is he? Umm, he has been playing at the Cardinal Baseball stadium for my entire life!!!

I would LOVE to talk about a success here...but alas, the record has been broken...sob!

For FIVE years now, everytime we have been doing a videoconference - we have had all hits and no errors...until today...VOIP is the devil or the angel? Gotta figure this one out...neither Bridge could hook us up...tomorrow is another day...

K12 Online Conference

...still has my interest. I feel so empowered when I TAKE 20-30 minutes and watch/listen to a presentation. I'm rich in the right things! Resources!!!

extremepumpkins.com

What a great pumpkin! It burned for about 40 minutes!! A parent of one of the trick or treaters pulled out his cell phone to take a picture...we're thinking of doing about 8 of these next year!!

Epiphany

I just love it when you wrestle with a training situation, and....all...at...once....the.... answer......comes.....and I'm so glad it did, cause I've been wrestling for a long time!!!

I CAN"T DECIDE!!

Alaska is just tooooo beautiful to just show one picture....

My New Furry Friend

In Alaska, you can ALWAYS take a picture of the awesome mountains, but how often do you get THIS close to a Moose? (sure doesn't look like Bullwinkle!) What have I learned today? Anchorage has a bum rap...its a great friendly city!

Learn EVERY day!

Every day I look forward to learning something new, whether its learning how to throw a caber (last Saturday) or my first love, web 2.0 apps. Well, thanks to my gem of a new friend, Miguel Guhlin, I learned how to collaborate with Google docs-presentation editor. We were charged with making the voicethread to give further understanding to receiving credit for the K12 online conference. Neither one of us had done it before, so do you know what we did? Dove in, of course! Sometimes, reckless abandon is the right course of action! Between skype, google docs, elluminate --its beautiful! After we had the presentation done (in a matter of 20 minutes), we skyped with Oklahoma (Wes) and London (Terry) to get their approval, several screen shots later, the voicethread was born..ahem, I feel so proud! Most of all, I'm proud to be part of this awesome committee...WOW!

JUMP IN...the K12 conference is about to begin!!

CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY THIS YEAR!!

K12 Online Conference has begun...if you haven't seen the lineup of all of the presents that await you...get movin!!

Celtic (with a K!) Games

What did I learn this weekend...that I can hang with the Scots! ...well, the little Scots...Mike took me over to the Kiddie section to teach me how to throw a huge piece of wood that looks like a telephone pole..and, mine was made of cardboard...thank goodness! What a fun day!

OUR SON, the St. Louis Strongman

Baltic Avenue

We've all played Monopoly...I fondly call my new digs "Baltic Avenue"...(Colin gets Mediterranean!) I used to live on Boardwalk, but that's ok..I'm still as busy as ever and now I HAVE to be organized, which is a good thing...

So, I'm embracing the fact (and this is my mantra) the only constant is CHANGE..it's what Instructional Technology Specialists do!

Discovery Science Connection

My school district was the first on the block to subscribe to a wonderful program called Discovery Science Connection. WOW! Middle School science teachers are really lucky! Not only can you give the students various tools to help them learn, but you can also use the Missouri State Standards in Science to assess at different points...unbelievable!

Daughter Days

Yeah, any day is a good day if you get to spend it with LA..Why are we laughing? Why not?

Crashing into LAX

This new feature in Google Earth, where you can grab a plane and experience the "thrill" of flying (also understanding lift and thrust and gravity)...well, its a darn good thing I don't do this in my real life...I keep crashing...and LAX is a bad place to crash...
so...I guess my hunt for Steve Fossett will have to wait...I can't even get off the ground!

PDFs--ASAP

So many teachers DON"T have access to making their own pdfs...to post on their website, etc.
Well, thanks to http://www.cutepdf.com your problems are over! How cool and free is that?

Men in Skirts

Yes, that is MY SON IN HIS KILT...with the 1st place Claymore he won from the Celtic Games...Men in tights or Men in Skirts--He rocks!

IN HONOR OF JACK...

Sept. 5, 2007, marked the 50^th anniversary of the publication of On the Road,
the novel by Jack Kerouac

I'm sure Jack would have been an instructional technology specialist...just read one of my favorite quotes below...

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..

Yep, Jack would have been a great instructional technology specialist!

K12 Online Conference

Wow, the more I read about this upcoming conference - the more excited I get! What a great opportunity to learn some great things!!

Lindbergh Links by Lane

la la la la ....usually when I post my biweekly url find titled Lindbergh Links by Lane, I'll get one or two people telling me they liked it and thank me, but the www.musicovery.com got alot of attention...and well, it IS cool. . I get to listen to web radio with the music genre that I'm in the mood for. . and it seems like the teachers at Lindbergh are music buffs...too cool...no wonder I love working here!!

In the Beginning

Ok,
I've made several feeble attempts at making a blog...so my main concern is why? Ummm, to show what I learn to others, to catagorize my daily life (borrrring to anyone else), share my thoughts and dreams, ha ha , NO ONE gets THAT priviledge!
So, I will try to share one thing I learn and you can take it or leave it...and from time to time, I'm probably going to be politically incorrect so I should post now that the opinions expressed on LOGIN2LANE are those of CINDY LANE...
What did I learn today? Procrastination is the devil....gotta go and get my online class posted!