Happy New Year

Okay, so "Happy New Year" might be a strange greeting at the end of February, but this is my first post of 2008, so it could count for that.

But the real reason that I say "Happy New Year" is that Spring Training has begun, and all is well, because even the worst team in baseball has hope at the beginning. (Read this rather poetic article about the new year.)

On to technology--one night this week I was simultaneously having a conversation with my teenage nephew via text message (on my cell phone), instant messaging a friend, and emailing another friend. For someone who's not a big fan of talking, this is a pretty cool situation.

Of course, doing all that reminded me of our students and how much more adept they are at all of that--well, at least texting--than I am. (When I text my niece, I get an answer from her before I even set my phone down after touching "send" . . . seriously.)

So . . . I thought that it's definitely time to add some more ideas and see what we can do about engaging our students through technology. I mean, technology is fun for us, too (except when wireless cards are magically disabled), so why not use it as much as possible?

In my RSS reader, I found this blog that offers free technology tools for teachers. Actually, it's called Free Technology for Teachers. Imagine that. You might want to add it to your RSS reader. I found some really cool stuff on there, and it seems that the links could go on forever. You really, really, really should check out that site.

I'm adding some other good sites to the Good Stuff page. You'll know the new links by the date. I'm sure you can find something that will engage your students.