Hmmm. Today, I tried to use the Aviary image editor to comment on how much I love the miniature van.

My Van.egg on Aviary.

This didn't work out so well. The tool was really hard for me to use, which might be because I didn't watch the tutorial. I ended up thinking I should have just made a Glog about this.

I'm glad I tried it because I planned to have my students use this to make in-line-type comments on print advertisements, but then I realized they should really use Glogster for that. Way easier.

Okay. Good talk. Boring blog, but good talk.

My teaching has changed so much in the last couple of years that not even my physical space makes much sense anymore.

I loved the other glogs that have been shared in this challenge, so I decided to make a glog about my dream classroom.

If I get the grant I'm applying for from the parent council, I'll only have $500 to start with. What do you think I should do with it?

There were a few more fixes I wanted to do on this video, but the blogging challenge is short and there are a lot of posting requirements:

Here's a VuVox I made with great pix from 2010. This is a fun tool. I think I could get much better at it with practice. I bet Lee would be great at it because she is very good at photography and design.

Because I'm totally bringing it to this new media challenge, I figured out how to make a one-take lip dub.

Shef was the creative director of this video. Before we started rehearsal, he sketched out his vision:



Then we rehearsed and choreographed. My lovely sister helped with that part and really plays a pivotal role in the narrative, I'll think you agree.

Mac sometimes played and sometimes didn't. In the end, he only agreed to appear in the first shot. What a diva.

Anyway. Here it is:

As Lee mentioned, a new blogging challenge is afoot.

Wait.

Is that even the right usage of afoot? I have no idea because I had 57 parent-teacher conferences today. In all of them, I had to answer hard questions and basically lay out my teaching philosophy in 90 seconds or less. Here it is, parents: Digital media=good. Disengagement=bad.

Anyway, I've decided to write some rules for the challenge right here right now. I'm not really flexible on these rules, I don't think. Unless someone has a serious complaint. Let me know, and I'll consider it, but I'm not making any promises. As Dan likes to say, there's a difference between being bossy and being the boss. So.

We're supposed to try to come together to create, consume, and explore media and become a culture of people who do that and help each other. So here's what you need to do:

1. Create media 5 times per week. A blog entry counts as media, thank the lord. But, it's even cooler if you have other media embedded or linked.

2. Comment on other people's media creations every time they make them. We need strong support for our creations and a solid social connection!

3. Post 30 times between now and January 1. The idea is to do 5 days per week, but you can flex a little bit if necessary. That seems reasonable and fits with my teaching philosophy.

Let's do it. Here we go. If you're playing, comment and I'll link you in the sidebar.

I'm back in the Heartland after the days in Disney.

I didn't know this, but Disney is really kind of a messed up place with lots of slow shuttle buses and bad food. When Lee and I got to the Japanese restaurant for our reservation, Judy wasn't there yet. She was picking up something at a store outside.

"But is she in Japan?" two different Epcot employees asked.

"Um, yeah. She's in Japan," we said.

Then later, we accidentally took a monorail in the wrong direction and went to some parking lot in the middle of nowhere.

But, it was great to see my pals, hear some talks, and tell a few people about the podcasting project.

More people are going to have to listen to me talk about the podcasters. I'll probably never stop talking about them ever again for the rest of my life.

I'm done at school for the week and headed to the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Orlando. This is going to be fantastic, and not only because it's the first time (except for that dumb run-around-the-clock relay race) that I've been away from home in a year.

Also, on Sunday when Dan picks me up from the airport, he'll be picking me up in our new minivan.

Yes, my life's dream has finally come true!

It's an eight-passenger, grey, svelte Sienna. And my first week driving it will probably be the best week of my life, except for maybe the week of and after my wedding. I would say the weeks that my kids were born were great too, except they so totally weren't. Remember the 30-hour long labor and then c-section? And then the next 12-hour labor and then c-section? Because I DO.

So.

Orlando, here I come! And when it's over, there will probably be a new blogging challenge. Bring it, Lee! Bring it, Jessie! Bring it, Gina! Bring it, Mary! Bring it, Pronto! Bring it, Dobby! I'm so planning to win this year.

I went to Mac's school conferences today.

His teachers told me that he's 100% potty trained at school, that he goes to sleep immediately for his nap, that he's ready to transition to the big kids' classroom upstairs, and that he listens to all directions pretty much all the time.

Last week at our house, he stuck a crafting googly eye up his nose and we had a few tense moments where I thought I might miss dinner with Renee before he finally blew it out into a kleenex.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that there are some discrepancies between the behaviors they're seeing at school and the reality I'm living here at home.