Jumping off the Dock!

This summer, as I spent WAY too many days reading every minute's new posts from my PLN on Twitter, attending WAY too many online conferences, and dreaming, hoping, planning for the upcoming school year, I made a vow to myself they I would try to blog every day when school started.  Even if it was just a little tidbit about an encounter I had or revelation of one of my students.  Even if it didn't pertain to our 1:1 laptop program, or web 2.0 tool, or something Earth-shattering!

Well, here I sit, 5 weeks into the first quarter, drowning in guilt! How could I go 5 weeks with my wonderful class of 5th graders (whom I adore, so I begged to move up with them), 20 laptops working almost non-stop throughout the day, a classroom cottage set up in the best  arrangement I can remember in the past 20 years of teaching, and not have blogged ONCE?!  Not ONCE!

Not only that, I was asked to join the Ignite!Learning Blog team over the summer, a wonderfully exciting opportunity, and still here I sit, posting my first blog.  So I figure my therapy will be to lay out all the excuses so I can get over them, rid myself of the guilt, and move forward on that vow.

Excuse #1 - I did move from 4th grade to 5th grade, so although I taught 5th grade for 7 years 5 years ago, I am having to refresh my understanding of the NC curriculum.  And as all educators know, that takes some time!

Excuse #2 - We are in our second pilot year of carrying out the 1:1 netbook initiative, and although I have the same students I had last year, finding resources, rethinking how to teach, and planning takes TIME!  Lots of time!

Excuse #3 - Assessment in the digital age is different!  With my students creating content, as opposed to completing stacks of worksheets, which can, quite honestly, be graded while watching my sons' baseball games, assessing take more time!  A LOT more time!

Excuse #4 - My 3 sons!  Okay, so my oldest graduated last year, so I don't have his ballgames to watch anymore (sigh!), I do have two other year-round baseball nuts!  With practices, games, and the other "running around" and laundry that goes with teenaged boys, I have LESS TIME.  A LOT less time!

Excuse #5 - Oh yeah, and I have a wonderful husband.  And although he is very patient, I'm sure he is beginning to think that my netbook is attached to my fingers.  Not always a productive way to grow a strong marriage!

Whew!  I'm feeling better already.  The excuses are laid out, and as you all know there are about a hundred more that could fill this post.  So, my new plan? Hmmm, what's the new plan?  Well, to be honest, I'm going to try to blog as soon as I get back to my classroom from taking the kids to the bus at 2:30.  Everything from the day will still be fresh, and ALL those other "things" will just have to wait.  I feel better when I blog.  It gives me a chance to reflect, share, and refocus on how I can make tomorrow's lessons even better.

So, thank you for reading my rant.  My kids have done some fantastic things the past 5 weeks, so I will be blogging about each week's adventures.  Luckily, I have been working very hard to keep our Collazo Cove wiki, which guides our daily journey together, updated and full of the links we've been using.  So until I can post what we've been up to the last 5 weeks at the Cove, you can always peek at the wiki!

Feels good to be back!



Photo Credit: http://ulocal.kcci.com/_Jumping-off-the-dock/photo/4271650/62904.html
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