As I have been working on my strands and my tech list I find myself more confused than ever. I am also working on the websites that I use on a semi daily basis for teaching and such, and not sure how to organize all of this. So many fit into more than one category...is that ok? I am looking at my adjectives as well, and they all seem to overlap into my various teachings depending on the subject or lesson at hand. I wonder how many things do I really do at once while teaching...and how often do I really use the technology that I hace access to? So overwhelming...am I the only one?

Well, I have just been on youtube for about an hour searching various things and found some weird and wacky videos as well as some really cool and creative and must see videos so check them out. Go onto www.youtube.com and search for the following
The Coolest Thing You've Probably Seen Recently (actually REALLY cool!)
Dance Evolution ( brought back memories)
and you can't forget the Bride Wig Out (which had been proven that it is a phony and she is a Canadian woman wanting to be an actress, but it is still pretty funny).

I also had my first run in with MySpace this week at work. I don't have a MySpace ad, and I think I am one of very few at my job but maybe someday soon I'll get one. Anyway, Thursday, I was called into the office during my break and was told they needed to discuss a MySpace "blog"....I was made aware that some children in our school posted a myspace ad making very derogatory remarks about several teachers in my school and when I heard them I nearly fell on the floor. Luckily I wasn't one of the teachers mentioned (I can only imagine what they might have said about me!) but the teachers were made aware of this in case anything was said in the halls or by parents about this situation. The police I believe are actually getting involved, but nothing has been done to the students about it, and more that anything, that is what burns me up the most. I know for a fact atleast half of my class had myspace ads and I truly think it is not appropriate for younger "tweens" to be a part of. It's just amazing to me what some of the kids post, display and say on thier ads. And what is more amazing to me is that the parents either don't know, don't care or don't realize how serious this all can truly become.
For now, I'll stick to emails and IM's.

Technology

As I was reading this weeks pages I came across the the Five Categories of Computers...1 computer, small group of computers, computer lab, mobile cart (COW), and computers for everyone. Well, I have one in the classroom which is for me to use for work, and to set up my webpage, and connect to our Safari server for the Morning show and the VHS/DVD players in our server room. I also have access to a mobile cart (COW) which only has 14 laptops (if they all work), and we have one computer room in our school (which is MACs when the rest of our computers are DELL). The computer room is not always available for the teachers to use because of classes that she has to teach and the non-flexible schedules we both have. The COW that I use is only available to me the times I sign up for it, which you have to do atleast a week ahead of time. Rarely do I get a chance to use the computers on "a whim" or more than one set of COW's to make sure that each child has one to work on. One thing that I have been "researching" on and off is where I can write grants to gain more computers for my classroom or my gradelevel (any suggestions anyone?).