Ooooh – it’s been a tough withdrawal process!  No blogging while edublogs worked day & night to fix the sluggishness and error messages.  It was harsh – but we survived and now we’re back!!

I’m reading the posts coming through my google reader about NECC 07. The “buzz” is so electric, I can literally feel it! – I wish I was there (it’s probably the only time I’m wishing I didn’t live in beautiful NZ). David Warlick reminded me about Hitchhikr to help keep track of what’s going on so I’ve been checking there everyday too. I’m hoping some podcasts will be posted soon so I can imagine that I’m there! A huge congratulations to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay for receiving FIRST place in the SIGTel Online learning awards for the Flat Classroom Project. (I think Vicki only found out at the opening session). That is awesome! And it doesn’t stop there! SECOND place went to Sharon Peters and Reuven Weber and Karen Guth for their International Collaborative Literature Project. Well done WOW2.0 ladies! Well done and well deserved!

Well virtually anyway!

Thanks to Steve Hargadon and his session tags system, it took about 1/2 hour to set up RSS feeds into my Google Reader. (I love my Google Reader).

So Vicki Davis was right. I don’t need to have a pity party for being all the way over here in New Zealand with the NECC 07 being all the way over in Atlanta, Georgia. I can stay in my pj’s on, wear my slippers and relax with a hot cup of coffee as I read all the blog entries about the workshops and presentations that interest me, coming right to my laptop.

Don’t you just love the magic of RSS?

I haven’t been posting much lately ……. BUT I have been post-reading (see my blogroll – I really do read all those blogs and a few more). I haven’t been blogging much lately …… BUT I have been reflecting. Actually, I’ve been reflecting a lot – taking a really good look at my teaching (and my learning). Staring in the mirror, so to speak. There have been some very thought-provoking ideas, opinions, comments being shared in blogs lately – with many rich and relevant conversations going on too. Most of the time I just sit back in “awe” of posts that people write, amazed at the depth of their thought-process and their willingness to share it with the rest of us. Often, those posts have me nodding my head in agreement, or shifting me to the edge of my seat whilst getting excited about another ‘cool’ (”free”) Web2.0 tool to use in the classroom, or have me asking myself a question – making me reflect on my practices, opinions or ideas.

The last few weeks or so have been a struggle, but I didn’t really want to blog that because “it/I” felt so negative and I didn’t want to be negative – I wanted to find a positive way out of the struggle. It wasn’t until I read Drape’s Takes: Why Every Teacher Should Blog – Reason#4, that the positive way to look at the struggle I’ve been wrestling with finally showed itself. Darren wrote down the two fundamental truths he’s learnt about teaching:

• No matter how good it went today, the kids will always be back tomorrow.
  
• No matter how bad it went today, the kids will always be back tomorrow.

Thanks Darren – that has put my struggle into perspective. Fundamentally so. Those two sentences have helped restore my focus and are now at the top of my weekly plan – to remind me – that – most times, the struggles are worth it, just as much as the successes.

What helps you restore your lost focus?

I’ve been catching up on my blog post reading (due to our 3-day weekend – thanks to the Queen for having a birthday) and this comment from CoolCatTeacher caught my eye.  So I went over to Lisa’s blog to read the entire post.  She is going to try one new thing a week.  Go Lisa!  Such inspiration!  I can do that!

That got me thinking.  I’ve been trying loads of new things this year.  YackPack, VoiceThread, TiddlyWiki, Wikispaces, CamStudio, FreeMind, Google MyMaps, Scratch, Splashcast, to name a few – and believe me – the list goes on! That also got me thinking – well …. no ….. better than that ….. it actually got me reflecting.

Just how effectively have I been using or teaching my students to use, these awesome new tools?

I’ve been asking my students to reflect on their learning journey  so far this year (as we are about 1/2 way through the school year).  I “pinched” a couple of questions from my good friend Kim’s Technology Design Cycle on reflection, and quite a few questions from the reflective teacher, reworded them a bit and got some stunning and very revealing answers.  By far,  the most reflective (and repeated) comment was ……

…… there’s so much going on, and we’re doing so much, we don’t have time to do it very well.

If I’m really honest with myself ….. it’s pretty much the same for me with all these new things too.  So I am going to take up the challenge to try something new each week – I’m just going to take it in a different direction.

I’m going to take one of those new things I’ve tried so far ….. and I’m going to do something with it ……. better!

Are you going to take up the challenge too?