“Why did you laugh?”

This is Jake’s new favorite phrase. Whenever we watch a show like SpongeBob, or The Simpsons, he asks over and over again, “What are you laughing at, guys?” as if to find out the nature of funny. I think this is a good sign, since he’s trying to gain an understanding of humor. It’s also good for us to be able to explain why certain things are funny, whether it’s sight gags or wordplay. That’s the kind of inferencing skills that kids need these days.

I remember when I used to hold parent-teacher conferences with those students who struggle with comprehension. One of the strategies I’d suggest was to look at the comics in the newspaper, and have their child explain the joke to their parents. If kids can ‘read between the lines’ and see the humor in comics, TV shows, movies, etc. the better they’ll be able to use critical thinking skills in other areas.

Speaking of comics, here’s two really good resources for viewing comic strips:

• Cartoonists Group lets users search by keyword
• Go Comics lets you save your favorite cartoons into custom ‘collections’

Here’s one of my favorites

CO Learning 2.0 Conference

Here at the Colorado Learning 2.0 conference at Heritage HS. It’s an all-day conference to promote learning and leading with technology. First order of business: write about what you hope to gain from today, why we’re here, etc.

I’m here to have conversations with people both inside and outside my district to see how they are using technology to promote learning. Get the “big picture” as well as the “little picture”. BIG picture: how districts are implementing new technologies and staying current with the ever-changing world of tech. LITTLE picture: what’s happening in the classrooms. To use a metaphor, I want to look at technology use through the lens of a microscope (classroom practice) and a telescope (district initiatives).

Session #1: Classroom 2.0 with Jim Reiner, 5th grade teacher

Best resources

• ZOHO, similar to Google Docs
• Marzano Strategies is a great site to help teachers integrate Marzano strategies into the classroom
• Web 2.0 that Works is a wiki with great resources, including a link to our CCSD TLT Guide
• Web 2.0 Guru provides educators with the best Web 2.0 resources

Session #2: Powering Up the Writer’s Workshop with Mike Porter and Mary Vedra

Discussion regarding a CDE grant to purchase 300 eeePC laptops ($260 each) to help students improve their writing. The have a wiki called POWERING UP that provides a good background about the project.

Animoto.com

Happy Valentine’s Day

Dog Show

Shoes…

Let’s talk about shoes. When Leah and I first moved in together, over TEN years ago, I noticed that one of her idiosyncrasies was to leave her shoes randomly scattered around the house. On several occasions, I’d get up in the middle of the night and trip over these little “shoe-mines.” After delicately bringing up the subject, Leah came to embrace this habit, and it’s since become a running joke. I even wrote her a poem about her shoes for her birthday a few years back:

Shoes

Shoes are there to greet me
Each and every night,
Not knowing where I’ll find them,
They wait just out of sight.

Shoes may be hiding in the bathroom
They may be by the stairs,
Shoes could be in the doorway
In singles or in pairs

The shoes I find are sometimes fuzzy
They come in brown or black,
I’ve even found a Birkenstock
Living in my backpack!

I’ve tripped on shoes in many places
Both inside and outside,
How they got there I don’t know,
Who knows where shoes reside?

I think the shoes are organized
They wait ‘til I am dreaming,
Then they make their secret plans
Just plotting and a-scheming.

The shoes don’t like me, this I know
But then I could be wrong,
I tried to herd them to the closet,
Isn’t that where they belong?

I’ve given up my shoe obsession
They can’t change my life,
Besides, the shoes aren’t all that bad,
Since they belong to my wife!

Maybe this rhyme will make the shoes
Stop coming out to play,
There’s only one thing left to do
Wish Leah (and her shoes)
a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

The only reason I’m sharing this story is because yesterday I bought a pair of shoes from Dardano’s. A nice pair of Chaco Redrock Hikers to take to Italy. They were having a big sale, and had a somewhat limited selection of shoes. I usually wear a 9½ or 10, but the only size they had was a size 10½. They felt good when I tried them on in the store, but when I got home I started second-guessing my decision, thinking they didn’t fit as good as I originally thought. That’s typical of me, having “buyer’s remorse” about purchases, wondering if I made the right decision. And Dardano’s made it clear that all sales are FINAL, so I guess I’ll have to get used to them, and tell my brain to stop thinking about it!

Big City Slider

A few weeks ago, Jake and I were watching SpongeBob on a Saturday afternoon, and a commercial came on for the Big City Slider. You’ve seen the guy selling them in plenty of other TV commercials. The amazing Orange Clean, the Miracle Glue, etc. Well, Jake sees the commercial for the Big City Slider, and he perks up and yells, “Daddy! We could get dat!!” with an enthusiasm I’ve rarely seen from him. It cracked me up. Obviously, he’s seen this commercial before, but I hadn’t seen it before. 

So, in order to capitalize on Jake’s sudden want for a TV cooking tool, Leah came up with the ingenious idea of having Jake work for the $19.95 (+ shipping and handling) by doing various chores and following directions around the house. He is very motivated to help with the dishes, get ready to leave the house in a timely manner, and eat his dinner. I made a “Jake’s Slider Chart ”that we put on the fridge as a constant reminder of his $$ status.

CLICK HERE to see the commercial, in case you haven’t seen it.

Jake’s Camera

 

Jake's view of the world

Santa got Jake a Kidizoom camera for Christmas, and he’s been a photo-takin’ fool ever since! It came with a measly 8 MB of built-in memory, which is only good for storing about 12 pictures. So I got a 2 GB expansion card that he can use, and now he can take hundreds of photos without running out of storage space. Today I finally got around to transferring the 214 pictures that he took since Christmas. Only problem is that, for some reason, iPhoto will not recognize the images. I get error messages during transfer, so I had to figure out some other method to organize and share Jake’s photography. I decided to use Google’s Picassa for sharing, and my old favorite, Graphic Converter for organizing on my HD. 

 

So far it’s been working well. CLICK HERE to check out the first of many albums of Jake’s photos online.

De-Motivators

I was checking out this website that a fellow teacher sent to me, Despair.com, which features humorous versions of the classic motivational poster. You know the type, the ones that feature some scene from nature, with words of wisdom about facing adversity, or perseverance, etc. Well, this site takes that notion and gives it a sarcastic spin. The one about blogging, in particular, cracked me up. It also got me thinking: is anyone REALLY reading all this stuff? I’m never sure whether to continue writing in this blog, since it often feels like a futile effort to record thoughts and observations when there’s nobody out there reading it. 
So, if you’re out there, could you send me a sign? Maybe leave a comment, or write back to let me know that this whole blogging thing isn’t a complete waste of time and effort? Between this blog, Facebook, Twitter, my CCSD blog, wikis, and my website, it’s been difficult keeping on top of everything. 

Thanks…

Jake at the Zoo

   

Jake at the Zoo

Originally uploaded by mole555

Yesterday we went to the zoo, stopping at the lorakeet exhibit, where you can purchase some nectar and feed the birds right out of your hand. Enjoy this photo of Jake’s close encounter with a feathered friend.

We brought along Jake’s new digital camera that he got from Santa. Santa was very good to Jake this year. Here’s some more photos from this year’s Christmas:

• Christmas 2008
• Photos taken with Jake’s camera

Christmas 2008

There’s nothing like celebrating the Christmas season with a 3 year old boy, filled with wonder and excitement and anticipation of what the season brings. Jake was super-cute this year, and this being his fourth time around, he really ‘gets it’ about what goes on. This year Pee-Wee’s Christmas Special has been in heavy rotation, along with last year’s Polar Express. That started back in early November. It’s been funny to see Jake so captivated by Pee Wee. This special aired back in 1988, and it’s still odd and funny and cute.

When we went to Cherry Creek Mall one night back in early December, Jake sat on Santa’s lap and after much prodding to overcome his sudden shyness, he asked for Transformers and a baby sister. Well, as you can guess, Santa got him ONE of his requests, but told him, sadly, that there’s not much he can do about a baby sister. It was very cute. One of the presents Santa brought for Jake was a digital camera made especially for kids. It’s made of durable rubber, has big buttons, some cute little templates that can be overlayed into the photo, and more. I started a .Mac web gallery of Jake’s digital camera photos, so you can subscribe to it and as I add photos to this album, you’ll be notified.

More photos from Christmas 2008 now available online.