Whackamole and Wild Dogs Redux

I have been thinking about whackamole and wild dogs for several days now. These two disparate mental pictures symbolize stress for me. Years ago when my life felt about 95% out of control, I enjoyed going to pizza restaurants with my young daughter and playing whackamole, that game where you have a mallet and every time a head pops up you whack it soundly. I found this activity very satisfying because I named the heads after various projects and also named some after people who I thought were making my life miserable (Take THAT Mr.Ex!).

Another analogy for having too many irons in the fire is the perception that I am being pursued by wild dogs who are snapping and slathering at my heels. These dogs bear the names of projects with due dates closing in on me. The last several days have been devoted to battling these dogs. Today, though, I started thinking about the last time I felt this way. I was pretty sure I even blogged on the topic before. So I just now looked up my previous whackamole/wild dog account and it was dated December 4, 2008! That means one year ago to the very week I was in the same spot! Well, I got through with everything then and I will get through it this time! I hope.

This time the the biggest dog is named IMLS, as in Institute of Museum and Library Services. I am working on our department's third grant...the first two were awarded in 2007 and 2009. Now we are going for a third. No matter how much thought and work has gone into the early stages, the last days of preparing a grant for submission are tedious and hectic. Today I assembled all the documents, with the help of our grants office. They are now on the way to be examined and signed. Am I breathing a sigh of relief? Well, not really. But I am hoping to do so day after tomorrow, my target day for submitting, all of one week prior to the due date.

The next dog is one I wrote about last year at this time...Belltones. Yep, I had a column due this week just like last year. This bad boy has been beaten back again. I sent off my latest column about an hour ago. For this, I CAN breathe a sigh of relief. But Ol' Beller will be back in late January since my next due date is the first week of February.

The third dog is named Digital Native. I was invited to write a chapter for a book about digital natives. I have already had two drafts exchanged with my longsuffering editor, and am hoping to finish up final revisions within days. Then there are two other dogs gaining on me. One is called Portfolio. Our graduates create a portfolio for a final project, and their creations are due today. Which leads me to the last dog, named Grading. I must do my part in grading all portfolios as well as grade all remaining work of students in my Fall 2009 classes. Will I prevail? Will I whack down all the heads and fight off all the snarling dogs? Well I did it last year! Hope springs eternal.

Remembering Dani

I have gotten myself to the place where I vowed never to go, that of letting my blog languish. The way I do this to myself is that I get very busy and miss my internal deadlines. Then I feel guilty and tell myself that if I AM going to post something, it had better be significant to make up for the missed/lost time. Then I postpone because I cannot come up with a topic that makes up for my absence. But I am doing more here than just renewing my commitment to my blog...I am keeping my promise to start back with a very important post. For weeks I have been thinking about writing another bittersweet entry in which I remember a former student who was taken far too soon in life. So this blog is about Dani Faulk.

From the first session of the first class I taught with Dani, I recognized her as an exceptional student. She already possessed the confidence and ability that I seek to impart in students regarding technology. She was one of those students who would need extra freedom in order for her to develop her abilities. She did not take the easy route of doing assignments by putting to work what she already knew, but went beyond to learn new skills and explore new ideas. In short, she was the sort of student who was a natural for graduate studies without needing an explanation of what that means. Other qualities that made her special were her enthusiasm and her willingness to share. She was a leader in classes, and often took the role of encourager with students who were not so readily adept. Her sense of humor shone through in many of her assignments. In particular I remember a final project she did for the class I teach called Internet for librarians. She chose to explain “Netiqutte” to her staff and students. She created a powerpoint, which at that time was the tool assigned, and in her slides she used her Nancy Pearl, Library Action Figure doll. She knew, as do all my students, that Nancy is something of a doppelganger for me. In each slide, she would recommend “do's” and “don'ts” with Nancy delivering the admonitions. For the “don'ts” she armed Nancy with a little AK47 swiped from one of her sons. I loved the assignment and wished aloud for guns for my own Nancy. Within a few days, I received a greeting card with the guns enclosed. That was Dani, going beyond the expected in generosity as well as in her work.

I know her students loved her. I know in the short years after she finished her MLS she inspsired a lot of kids to read and helped a lot of people learn how to learn. What I don't know is why she had to leave us so soon.

Digital Natives: Wonderful WONDERFUL Video!

Recently I posted an entry here and also to the Classroom 2.0 Ning about digital natives. (http://drmabell.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-do-kids-really-know.html). I got several very nice responses at the ning and one more here. My question was...what do kids know, and also what do the NOT know? My contention is that they do indeed have an affinity for technology that "digital immigrants" do not have. Also they do have a fearlessness and desire to use tech at school. BUT they lack important other information including how to search efficiently, how to evaluate material, and how to be safe and smart online.

Here is a video that was shared along with some other response over at Classroom 2.0, and super thanks to Doug Valentine for sharing:
http://www.schooltube.com/video/41261/Hope-for-Technology-A-conversation-with-Digital-Natives

To view the whole conversation, go here:

http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/what-do-kids-really-know

I would love to have more conversation/comments, either here or at the Ning. One thing that has not been addressed is the concern I have that part of what kids do NOT know is how to be safe and smart online. We need to be teaching that much more, I contend.

Timely piece to share: "People of Color" by Linda Herring Behrend

One cool thing about Facebook is that you reconnect with many people. My daughter had a wonderful English teacher in high school for a couple of AP classes. They happened to share the last name, Herring. When Linda moved away, I lost track of her but then Emily found her former mentor on FB. It is nice to know she is happy and doing well. Here is a piece she wrote this week. that I think contains a message we can all appreciate:

PEOPLE OF COLOR

People without color,
Those pale souls so colored by blood,
Stains of that un-Civil War,
A war over a workforce:
The abuse of human muscle lashed by the un-human colorless.

Almost 150 years hence, some still wish for plantation ‘splendor,’
Scarlet stained blood of ones of color.
Lily white hands stained by the scarlet savagery of slavery.

Centuries later, the stains remain,
Re-bloodied by each act of savagery.

The colorless pray for a heaven unavailable to them
So bloodied by the bane of slavery.

Until all are of color, the color of kindness and kinship.
Until that day…

Thank you, Linda, for allowing me to share this here. Emily and I remain among your most fervent fans!

Collection with Great Flash Displays of Pictures and Documents

Last week I went looking for a site that I want to use in an upcoming presentation about visual literacy. I thought it was a museum site, and I remembered a page with lots of graphics that were beautifully presented. When you clicked on one, you would get basic information and from there you could click again and get more detail if you wished. Sadly I had not tagged the site and could not remember how to find it. I thought it was a museum in either Washington DC or New York but the places I checked, while having great websites, were not the one I wanted. I even wondered if I had imagined the site! Finally I posted to Texas Library Connection (TLC) and Library Media Specialists Network (LM_NET) asking for help finding this resource. I got some wonderful responses, but on the first day, no one offered the one I remembered. The next morning, though, my hopes were fulfilled. Here is my posting with the good news:

I KNEW someone would find this site for me! I HAD FAITH that I was not completely crazy in remembering it. Somehow I failed to tag it. The site is...drumroll...National Archives' Digital Vaults/National Archives Experience. The URL: http://www.digitalvaults.org/
I know I said museum, but to me that is a type of museum...and I said art, and it is more like prints...but even with those miscues, I got my site. Thanks to everyone for suggestions, many of which were also great ones. Bottom line, most major museums have a compelling flash display for their online images. Here is THE SITE and thanks to Mary Beth Huba, from Benold Middle School, Georgetown, TX! And Mary Beth, I don't know if you got my personal thanks but I did send. It was rejected once by the district spam filter. That's me, your trusty spam mailer! Cheers, mabell

If you have not visited this site, take time to go. I looked at a lot of other great locations but this one is still my favorite.

Wordle for George H.W.Bush's Address to School Children

CLICK IMAGE TO SEE MORE CLEARLY...It seems to me that comparing/contrasting the two speeches would be a great activity for secondary students, and maybe for some other folks also...

Wordle for Obama Education Speech

BLURRY TEXT!! Click on image for clearer view...



CLICK ON IMAGE TO GET BETTER RESOLUTION AT WORDLE SITE. Like me, it is randomized and scattered.

Do you see any controversial words???