Odds and Ends, Yet Again

As a ham the size of, well, a really large ham, slowly bakes spreading its lovely hammish aroma throughout the house and we await the arrival a whole houseful of the LWW's relatives driving down from the Big Cities for the big Easter dinner, I'll take a moment or two and capture a few things I may want to find again one day.

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From American Libraries, April 2006:

"We get to stay in our room and use our own laptops instead of going to the library. It's more fun." seventh grade student.

Reminds me of the other scary quote I sometimes use:

"The Internet is like a librarian without the bad attitude or breath." middle school student from the Pew study "Digital Disconnect."

 Ouch! And ouch again! These children are speaking to us very clearly. Are we listening?

Don't be too smug, classroom teachers. The physical classroom is becoming as "optional" as the library.

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 Why Face to face still matters from Kathy Sierra's Creating Passionate Users blog explains in scientific terms why physical presence in communication is still more powerful than virtual presence. Something most of us already knew, but it's nice to know why.

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Recommended recreational reads:

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Or perhaps I should say  recommended "listen" since I experienced the book on tape. (Ivan Chew asks if this counts as reading.) The narrator, Lenny Henry, is masterful. I am very fussy about my fantasy reading, but this one's great Jungian themes and subtle humor kept me listening.

Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost. Details of a two-year long stay of an American couple on the least idyllic South Sea Island one can imagine. If you are a Bill Bryson fan (and you should be), you'll like this slacker's view of expatriate life.

The Lonely Planet Bluelist. 06-07: 618 things to do & places to see. Enough to make any traveler, actual or armchair, reach for his/her passport. 

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If you are not reading Miguel Guhlin's blog (now called) Around the Corner, give it a try. My respect and admiration for this young man grows with every entry. That he finds the time to work, read, reflect and write (while also working on his doctorate degree), amazes me. While Miguel and I don't see eye to eye on every issue, his writing is always driven by exceptionally deep values. His blog entries are ones I find myself book marking to re-read on a regular basis.

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Home schooling, while growing, still only accounts for 2.2 percent of all students. We forget sometimes that society has given our K-12 schools three major charges:

• Teach young people academic and technical skills.
• Help socialize its future citizens.
• Contain and protect its children while Mom and Pop are busy.

Each of these societal charges is increasing, not lessening – hence all-day kindergarten, latchkey programs, longer school days, and longer school years.
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Jeff Utecht in his Thinking Stick blog records a telling (and funny) conversation with his wife called "I was almost right."  Through her comments, Jeff reacts to a previous entry in this blog about locking down teacher computers. His rejoinder is witty and effective. Dammit.

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A public thank you to the person who invented the cordless electric drill. After two days spent 1) dismantling a temporary screen porch to clear the way for permanent one, and 2) replacing the decking on my dock, the drill barely left my hand. It was a real joy to spend two days working in sunny, 70 degree weather puttering around outside rather than cooped up inside in front of the computer keyboard. The trees here have the faintest mist of green, a migratory loon has been calling each evening this week to whomever loons call, and fish have been propelling themselves completely out of the water in search of that tasty bug. It's said Minnesota has two pleasant seasons - spring and fall, and on good years both of them come on a weekend.

On a related note, who made the rule that whenever unscrewing more than four bolts, at least one cannot be removed without the aid of a hacksaw?

Oh, ladies, if you'd like your husband to do a better job cleaning, buy him a sexy, high-tech vacuum cleaner. I could hardly keep my hands of the new Dyson we bought last week and the floors are spotless. It looks like the vacuum cleaner Hans Solo would use.

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From Guy Kawasaki: "There are three kinds of bloggers: human newsbots (is this an oxymoron?), ranters, and essayists. Each kind is an art form. The third category, the essayists, might be the most difficult kind of blogging, and unfortunately, the category I aspire to." I am not sure the distinctions are as clear cut as Kawasaki would have them. When does an essay become a rant and vice versa? Is news with commentary news or essay (or rant)? But it's an interesting way of categorizing bloggers.

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And last, another thanks to all those who voted for me in the last ISTE election. Make that thanks to everyone who voted in the ISTE and ALA elections, period. As your ISTE board representative for my second and final two-year term, please let me know of any concerns, ideas AND praise you'd like me to carry to the organization's leadership.

Comments

[Miguel Guhlin]

You're too kind. Obviously, I read you religiously. Keep up the great work!

An ISTE member,
Miguel