Post numero deux

Finally a night at home where I can catch up on some homework and blog!  Since my last post, I have been busy chasing around my hockey boys.  The madness started last Thursday when Darren started his 6 game stretch in 5 days!  Ya, and I wonder why he is a little tired… His team did well winning 5 out of 6 games!  One of those games he played up with the Pee Wee team and was even able to score a nice goal from the point!  Trevor, on the other hand, only had 2 games in the same time period.  Both wins for his team so perhaps now they are on a winning streak!  Will see what happens in Portage and Landmark this upcoming weekend.  Only 3 games conflicted for me, so I only made it to 5 out of the 8 possible that I could have gone to! Perhaps that is why my world is a tad on the crazy side… hmmmm

Now, let me tell you about my fancy schmancy new car!  I finally have it back on the road after only getting to drive it to school for a couple weeks before Christmas break and then it went into the shop.  So technically it is not new, but new to me!  It is a 1997 Plymouth Neon!  Yes, it is 20 years old… red on the outside and has a dark grey/black interior.  After driving a mini-van for the past 13 years, it makes me feel like I am back in my 20s with my Chevy Cavalier speeding back and forth to Alberta from Manitoba.  However, I am in a Neon driving back and forth between Hartney and Brandon – ya… not quite the same, I guess.  The best part about my car is the stereo system!  Even though the speakers in the back do not work, I can blare out my mixed cassette tape I made in 1997 (eerily the same age as my car) and listen to some of my favourite tunes from back then!  Rhymes with Orange? The Headstones? Offspring? Seriously?  Good thing I mixed it up with some Captain Tractor (my favourite band EVER) and some Disney show tunes like “Winnie the Pooh”, “The Best of Friends” (The Fox and the Hound), and “Kiss the Girl” (Little Mermaid). Ya…quite the mixed tape… Today as I drove home from school, I realized that there is an experience that most of my classmates will never get a chance to do and that is take the cassette out of the player and tap it on the dash!  They only get to listen to their CDs or digital music in their vehicles… they are SOOO missing out! 

Tech talk

So, this week I learned about Feedly.com, symbaloo.com, (and a couple other bookmarking sites) and the wonderful world and possibilities of Google Plus.  Wow.  It is amazing!  I signed up for Feedly as I think it is a great way to keep track of my classmates blogs and which ones I still need to read.  So far theirs are the only blogs that I am interested in reading, but as I go through some of my Pinterest links that go to blogs, I may just be intrigued to add those as well.

I liked Symbaloo to organize my favourite websites.  I wish I knew about it years ago, but better late than never.  Also another great tool to use for ease of finding child-friendly learning sites for classroom computer time.  I also liked how you could make a lesson plan with it although I am not sure I will be able to figure it out, if that time was ever to arise.  (I’m not so tech smart) So many possibilities out there, it is incredible!

Now, Google Plus.  I have had a Google account for quite some time and only now am I learning about the endless possibilities that it is capable of!  Incredible!  You can make forms into surveys or tests and email the link to your students. You can do a “real time” spreadsheet and everyone can fill it out and watch the other answers appear right before their eyes!  Crazy.  I will definitely be playing around more with Google Plus and everything that it has to offer.  Seems user friendly and fairly easy to figure out… I hope!

Oh, and one more tip I learned today!  If you have your own YouTube channel, you do not necessarily have to be the next Roman Atwood (who is EXTREMELY popular in my household) but you can use it to follow other channels as well as make a play list.  Very handy to have to save clips on the different levels of government, “I’m just a Bill” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-eYBZFEzf8 or even perhaps the “Log Drivers Waltz” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upsZZ2s3xv8 for Grade ¾ social studies classes – like I could have used that a few years ago now too… oh well, better late than never!

Alright, that is enough for tonight.  Seeing that I am off to Portage on the weekend and have do actually do my “job” on Friday, I figured tonight would be a perfect night to blog. 

Even though it is still technically Wednesday, have a good weekend!  (Education students are so blessed to have a 3 day weekend every weekend… so blissful)

TTFN

Connie