I read reviews of the book online, and I don’t think many people understand that the authors have taken these snippets of emotions from peoples Myspaces, blogs, etc.  The website is much cooler than the book.  I was mesmerized by the tiny dots that darted back and forth and floated slowly to the bottom of the screen and then back up to the top.  When you click on each of the dots, the person’s comment pops up. It’s just astounding that something like that can be documented and at such volume too.  There are other pages you can visit where you get to see pictures connected with the emotions.  It is many of these photos that are used in the book.

The map was another aspect of this that I just found astounding.  It’s so interesting to see who is posting these comments at what part of the world, and where the most love and hate shows up in the world. They also break it down by male and female and age.  I don’t know how they were able to accrue all of these comments but they did a really good job in showing that there is no limit to what can be found over the internet.

  -Author Unknown

 The Good Lord was creating teachers. It was His sixth day of ‘overtime’ and He knew that this was a tremendous responsibility for teachers would touch the lives of so many impressionable young children. An angel appeared to Him and said, “You are taking a long time to figure this one out.”

 ”Yes,” said the Lord, ” but have you read the specs on this order?”

 TEACHER:

 …must stand above all students, yet be on their level
… must be able to do 180 things not connected with the subject being taught
… must run on coffee and leftovers,
… must communicate vital knowledge to all students daily and be right most of the time
… must have more time for others than for herself/himself
… must have a smile that can endure through pay cuts, problematic children, and worried parents
… must go on teaching when parents question every move and others are not supportive
… must have 6 pair of hands.

 ”Six pair of hands, ” said the angel, “that’s impossible”
“Well, ” said the Lord, ” it is not the hands that are the problem.  It is the three pairs of eyes that are presenting the most difficulty!”

 The angel looked incredulous, ” Three pairs of eyes…on a standard model?”

 The Lord nodded His head, ” One pair can see a student for what he is and not what others have labeled him as. Another pair of eyes is in the back of the teacher’s head to see what should not be seen, but what must be known. The eyes in the front are only to look at the child as he/she ‘acts out’ in order to reflect, ” I understand and I still believe in you”, without so much as saying a word to the child.”

 ”Lord, ” said the angel, ” this is a very large project and I think you should work on it tomorrow”.

 ”I can’t,” said the Lord, ” for I have come very close to creating something much like Myself. I have one that comes to work when he/she is sick…..teaches a class of children that do not want to learn….has a special place in his/her heart for children who are not his/her own…..understands the struggles of those who have difficulty….never takes the students for granted…”

 The angel looked closely at the model the Lord was creating. 
“It is too soft-hearted, ” said the angel.

 ”Yes,” said the Lord, ” but also tough, You can not imagine what this teacher can endure or do, if necessary”.

 ”Can this teacher think?” asked the angel.

 ”Not only think,” said the Lord,. “but reason and compromise.”

 The angel came closer to have a better look at the model and ran his finger  over the teacher’s cheek.

 ”Well, Lord, ” said the angel, your job looks fine but there is a leak. I told you that you were putting too much into this model.  You can not imagine the stress that will be placed upon the teacher.”

 The Lord moved in closer and lifted the drop of moisture from the teacher’s cheek.  It shone and glistened in the light.

 ”It is not a leak,” He said, “It is a tear.”

 ”A tear? What is that?” asked the angel, “What is a tear for?”

 The Lord replied with great thought, ” It is for the joy and pride of seeing a child accomplish even the smallest task. It is for the loneliness of children who have a hard time to fit in and it is for compassion for the feelings of their parents. It comes from the pain of not being able to reach some children and the disappointment those children feel in themselves. It comes often when a teacher has been with a class for a year and must say good-bye to those students and get ready to welcome a new class.”

 ”My, ” said the angel, ” The tear thing is a great idea…You are a genius!!”
The Lord looked somber, “I didn’t put it there.”

Our last Introduction to Writing Arts class was spent listening to three speakers talk about how Writing Arts hasled them through their professional paths.  At first I wasn’t sure what to expect.  All of the other presentations we had had in these modules have been very good, but all good things must come to an end right?

Wrong. After hearing the three speakers present what they had to say, I’ve never felt more assured and confident about my choice to go into the Writing Art field.  When I was younger up through high school I used to write stories, poems and play scripts all of the time.  As well as teaching, I wanted to be a children’s writer, writing books about my experiences growing up, hopefully instilling important lessons in the children today.  Once I started college, I felt that my studies needed to take president over my creative pieces. It wasn’t until last semester when I took a Creative Writing course that I saw the damage that I had done to myself.  I lost it.  I felt like I had no creative bone in my body when it came to writing. I struggled through that class and ended up with a B, but simply because I handed my work in on time.

Throughout this semester I’ve thought about my decision as being in the Writing Arts program if I could make it not having a “gift”.  The three presenters on Tuesday really helped me with this.  They talked about hard work and how writing was something you had to work at, little by little you should “practice” every night.  It may sound corny but I was inspired by them, and I feel that my choice in staying with this program may be a long road, and hard at times, but I feel it’s going to benefit me the most in the long run and I’m willing to work for it.

Right off the bat, you can look at his profile and you can tell he doesn’t spend time on the computer with Twitter at all.  He doesn’t have any bio of himself, and background is the default blue one you get as your first Twitter background.  When he said that he had one just to follow people and that’s it, he really meant it.  He only has 6 people following him, me included. He just wants the information not the frill.

One of sites he’s following that I found interesting, not surprised at all by any means is Lostpedia.  He is obsessed and I mean obsessed with the TV show Lost.  Don’t me wrong, I love watching me some crazy time travel and random polar bears popping up on tropical islands, but he absolutely is crazy about this show.  He’ll tell me about different theories fans put out there as to what they think is going to happen in the last season, and even theories of his own.  I recently bought him Season 5 on Blu Ray and he watched it non-stop, I made him stop thought because I want to see the season finale again (it just blew my mind ).

Some other people that he follows are sports analysts, as well as movie spoiler sites.  He’s very much into movies.  He and his friend used to blog about movies.  They would go see movies that were in theaters and they would critique them.  He’s always been an avid movie watcher, that’s probably what got me into so many movies as well. Honestly if you looked at who he follows it really gives you insight into him.  He likes movies, sports, Lost, and a select few comedians. He’s simple. He doesn’t need all of that extra fluff to enjoy something like Twitter.

Click here to read her blog!

Since I’ve started using Netvibes, I have been following a bunch of different blogs.  Most of them, no wait, ALL of them (so far) are teachers or have been teachers.  One of the blogs entitled “Classroom Solutions”, is a good blog to search for lesson plans, strategies, tools and other important topics that may pertain to teaching.  A majority of the blogs that I have been following though are personal blogs of these teachers in which they blog about their own classrooms, philosophies, and trials. One of my favorite that I have been following is called, “It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages”.

In this blog, “Mrs. Mimi”, a fictitious name the author conjured up, blogs about her moments in the classroom.  She taught in her New York City classroom up until this past September.  Her blogs became so popular that Kaplan Publishing offered her a book contract.  Her book entitled It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages: My Adventures in Second Grade, explores deeper into her moments in teaching (it’s out now!).  Some topics she discusses in her blogs as well as her book are the cute and adorable students as well the naughty boys whom she most lovingly favors and her obsession with Sharpies and fashion.  She also discusses other aspects of teaching like the administration and staff that “do nothing”. 

What I like most about this blog is that it’s very easy to read. It’s written in story form, with short and long anecdotes that are sure to make you giggle.  I had to try and compose myself a few times in the computer lab.  Another reason I like it is because it’s easy for me to relate to.  No, I’m not a teacher yet, but I’ve observed plenty of times and I have seen situations in which she blogs about.  For those of you that are already teachers, this is a nice blog because it gives you someone to relate to. Th

ough she does use some “technical teaching terms”, this blog is a very easy read and I recommend it to anyone who is a teacher or an aspiring teacher, or even anybody who wants a good laugh.

Jason Ohler who is the author of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom, feels that we are so determined to teach our kids the fundamentals of using paper and pencil, when we should be focusing on their future which is a future of media richness culture.  The students would not only record themselves, but they can also scan in pictures, add music, and add text to these stories of theirs. The article discusses the pros of using idea in the classroom.  It would not only teach the kids how to use the media software that is out there, but it’s also a way to teach the teachers who can benefit from this as well.  Another pro, is that it gets the students to think outside the box, using creativity and learning more about themselves as well as the world around them.  Having an assignment as such also gives them a fun activity to do rather than normal written biography.

A digital oral history isn’t the only assignment children can do with this technology.  Having them just tell a creative story or a poem or a response to an activity in class can be fun for them.  I think this would be a good idea to use in the classrooms.  I know I was excited when I heard about it for Professor Wolff’s class and I’m in college. I don’t know if I would necessarily use it with any grade lower than fourth or fifth though.

 This article also gives tips as to how you should conduct it as a teacher such as, “make your own story first”, “provide kids with choice”, and “have mini lessons”.  There are more tips located within the article for extra help.

One of the things I didn’t like about the Twuffer application is that it will only tweet on the hour.  There is no 12:30p.m. or 7:45a.m.  It all has to be done on 6:00a.m. or 2:00p.m.  Which I guess is fine, but I occasionally like the random number. Other than that little detail, it’s a pretty good thing. The website is very easy to use, which is a big plus. I tried it out today for the first time, hopefully it works!

Another application that I enjoyed that I really wanted to blog about was the TweetVolume.  I tried this application out earlier in the semester and I found it so interesting about how the topics rated.  I put these topics into the spaces provided: Christmas, Tiger Woods, Lady Gaga, New Year’s, and Rowan University. Click here to see my results!  I found results of Christmas compared to Lady Gaga to be very shocking. I also thought Tiger Woods would be a little higher since he’s been in a lot of headlines more recently.

I checked out a few other Twitter applications, but these were the ones that really stood out to me.  Below are the links if you’d like to try these either of these.  

Out of the many to choose from, here are a few that stood out to me as simply imaginative!

This fun ornament is made from a plastic cup, craft supplies found around the house, as well as miniature festive objects found at a local craft store. What an awesome winter scene!

This miniature spool of thread resembles a list to Santa and is easily made with a threading spool, ribbon and paper.  It adds perfect festive colors to the Christmas tree!

There are many others to explore as well as other great holiday crafts, cards, decorations and holiday printouts for kids to have fun with during the season of happiness on familyfun.com.  Look at the rest of the beautiful, crafty ornaments too ->http://bit.ly/83AvLh

The Twitter application “just tweet it” is a place tweeters can explore other tweeters with similar interests.  This Twitter tool can find you friends as easy as pie just by searching the wide variety of listings in the directory.  You can easily search categories such as arts, computers, fashion, teachers, or even nature to find fellow tweeters with hobbies or interests close to your own.  Teachers are able to discuss classroom topics with other teachers found through the search as well as gain access to many ideas and perspectives of the profession.  When searching a category, listings of hundreds of twitter users appear along with a small blurb about their interest in the subject. “just tweet it” allows you to follow a person of interest instantly just by clicking the follow me button next to their listing.  You can also add yourself to the listing so other twitters will be able to find you as well.  In my opinion, this is a great tool to use along with twitter because it allows you access to people you wouldn’t otherwise know about.  It gives you the ability converse with different people that hold the same interests as well as learn about information through others tweets that may be useful in the job or recreational setting. It opens the door to a wide range of twitter possibilities and offers tweeters the chance to meet new and exciting people.

Try it out and see what you think! -> http://justtweetit.com/

I found this article in The Readers Digest titled “Things Your Child’s Teacher Won’t Tell You” that listed many true and funny things that teachers believe and encounter that often are kept inside or go unnoticed. I wanted to share these with the many future teachers out there as they hold very true to the profession. I had a few laughs as well as read a few that I could truly relate to. Hope you enjoy!

• If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long.
• Kids used to go out and play after school and resolve problems on their own. Now, with computers and TV, they lack the skills to communicate. They don’t know how to get past hurt feelings without telling the teacher and having her fix it.
• Your child may be the center of your universe, but I have to share mine with 25 others.
• Guys who dribble a ball for a couple of hours a game can make up to $20 million a year. We educate future leaders and make about $51,000 a year.
• We take on the role of mother, father, psychologist, friend, and adviser every day. Plus, we’re watching for learning disabilities, issues at home, peer pressure, drug abuse, and bullying.
• Kids dish on your secrets all the time—money, religion, politics, even Dad’s vasectomy.
• Please, no more mugs, frames, or stuffed animals. A gift card to Starbucks or Staples would be more than enough. A thank-you note: even better.
• We love snow days and three-day weekends as much as your kid does.
• The students we remember are happy, respectful, and good-hearted, not necessarily the ones with the highest grades.
• My first year of teaching, a fifth-grader actually threw a chair at me. I saw him recently, and he told me he just graduated from college. That’s what makes it all worthwhile.
• We don’t arrive at school 10 minutes before your child does. And we don’t leave the minute they get back on the bus. Many of us put in extra hours before and after school.
• We can tell the difference between a parent helping their child with homework and doing it for them (especially when they’re clueless in class the next day).
• Teaching is a calling. There’s not a teacher alive who will say she went into this for the money.
• Teaching is not as joyful as it once was for many of us; we get jaded too. Disrespectful students and belligerent parents take a toll on us.
• We spend money out of our own pockets to buy things our students need, such as school supplies and even shoes.
• Success is not achieved by just making kids memorize flash cards and prepping them for an Ivy League school. Sensible parents know there is a college for every kid, and that responsibility and good citizenship are what really drive success.
• Nobody says “the dog ate my homework” anymore, but we hear a lot of “I left it on the kitchen table.” And then Mom will send in a note to back up the story.
• Parents give their kids the pricey gadgets and labels, but what kids really crave is for you to talk to them. They want to know you are interested in their lives.
• There are days when I just want to quit, but then that one smile from that one kid, changes it all.

You can read more at:  http://bit.ly/qVpKs