8 Things - Tagging, Connecting, Learning

I came back to my office this afternoon to the latest Learning & Leading with Technology. All of the articles immediately caught my eye on this one...especially the article by Tim Lauer on making your presence known as a blogger.

I was tagged by Marci Hull and Kristin Hokanson! While this may seem somewhat like an annoying meme, I am finding that as I lurk on their blogs and read their "tags" I am learning a lot from who they know. So I hope that you learn a least one thing from those that I tag.

Here are the rules:
Post these rules before you give your facts
List 8 random facts about yourself
At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

So, here are my facts:

1. I am a certified NAUI scuba diver, have been 130' deep off the Jersey Shore where visibility was about 8' but my favorite dive to date is the James Bond wreck in the Bahamas where visibility was 80'!
2. I can cook just about anything in the microwave.
3. My great grandfather immigrated from Campobasso (Molise), Italy it is the first place I will visit when I get to Europe!
4. I surround myself with positive messages...always! Casting Crowns, Skillet, Tom Boz
5. My son is the most creative child I know he knows how to play - and not with technology but with old fashioned mud, blocks and his imagination!
6. I have 3 sisters, 2 brothers and 8 nieces and nephews.
7. My dream job is to be an educational technologist and use a Mac everyday!
8. I love children!

I tag:
Joyce
Bill
Tim
Dave
Bard
Kathy
Jen
Marc

Happy Tagging!

The Target

I have been on vacation off and on for the last month and have been thinking about the target that I want to give to my teachers. Now its back to reality, catching up on my favorite blogs, 45 posts to read right now. In reading Marcie's blog about teaching Web 2.0 I am reminded of two quotes...
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." ~A. Einstein
"How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time..." ~Author Unknown

And so I am starting small while dreaming big! I am reading about Twitter as an educational tool and all sorts of cool stuff but I know that most of my teachers need to start small so I am going to ask them to try to do two things relating to technology this year:
1. Create a web presence - we have a new web tool in the district; SchoolFusion which is easy to use and simply combines a web page with some basic online classroom features and,
2. Create a new way to learn difficult material through the use of technology (WebQuest, Wiki, etc.)

Of course these two things are not small ideas but will start discussions that may change classroom instruction, that is my hope anyway!

As Will Rogers said, "why not go out on a limb - that is where the fruit is."