To weebly or not to weebly...that's the question

So far, a few classmates have complained about several aspects of the Weebly website and how it's difficult to do certain things, like add a voki, adding videos without having to upgrade and pay $40 a year, etc.  In any case, so far I haven't had any issues and I give weebly 2 thumbs up....so I guess my answer to "to weebly or not to weebly" would be "to weebly.....definitely!"  I'm excited by my website.  It has wonderful graphics, great information for students and parents alike, and I was able to add links to my other sites (such as Engrade- where I post students' grades) and Pearson's Realidades (the book that we are using for my Spanish 1&2 class).  Oh, what else? I also have a blog on there too for students/parents....Weebly's alright with me...I'm hoping that I don't encounter problems in the future because if so, it would be quite a lot to have to redo everything in another site like Google or something.  Ok, well hope everyone is enjoying this rainy Monday :-) Smooches, Akoi

What I've Always Wanted to Know.....What is the secret of SUCCESS?!

What a day! As I pondered my life today and thought about the direction that I wanted to go in life (whether in my career, marriage, continued education, etc.), I wondered what would make me say, "I'm successful in all these various areas."  Then I saw the assignment for the TED video and decided to browse the many topics until one caught my eye. 

It was Richard St. John's 8 Secrets of Success.  I was intrigued, so I clicked on the link and proceeded to watch the video.  He initially informed us that this was normally a 4 hour session, but that he had simplified it to a 3.5 minute video (whew!).  That encouraged me to continue watching :-)

He spoke about how he'd done 7 years of research and over 500 interviews and he'd repeatedly heard these 8 factors from wealthy, entrepreneurs.  So, now he'd share it.  Here are the 8 factors that can aid to success.


1. Passion-  You have to do what you love because you love it and not because of the money.  (He
                     added that usually, money would follow anyway).
2.  Work-  It's all hard work, and won't come easily, but because you love it (as it says in #1), it'll be
                 fun.
3.  Good-  In order to master a craft, you must practice, practice, practice! That way, you'll become
                   good at it.
4.  Focus-  You must focus on one thing at a time! Don't let your attention-span be easily diverted.
5.  PUSH-  Push yourself to accomplish a task....and if you're not reliable, have someone in your
                   corner who can (such as mom:-)
6.  Serve-  You must be able to serve others something of value that they want.  (Here's my opinion on
                  that:  Facebook is an EXCEPTIONAL example of this!  People always want to reconnect
                  with loved ones and friends that span years and distance.  It's a valuable service)
7.  Idea:  It all begins with one idea.  So listen, observe, be curious, ask questions, problem solve and
                make connections.
8.  PERSIST:  You must persevere through failure and CRAP- Criticism, Resistance, (bad word I
                         can't repeat- see the video if you must know...begins with an A) and Pressure.

All in all, really great advice and a wonderful presentation.

Feel free to watch the video.  I've added the hot link below....ENJOY!!!
Richard St. John's 8 Secrets of Success

Should Schools Go Paperless?

Ok,
It's very interesting that I saw this topic because as I was listening to the radio today, the news reporter spoke of how the Social Security Administration is looking into being completely paperless by the end of the year.  So, naturally, when I saw this article on the ISTE site, I was immediately drawn to it.

This article showed 2 point of views on schools going paperless.  I've attached the link below (for those of you who are itching to read the entire article), but I will also write a summary based on what each person said.

First, we begin with the guy who says "Absolutely! Yes!"  His name is Vernon Smith and he had several good points that I will document below.

• He's coming from a "green" point of view.  Paperless meeting/classroom instruction, etc are made simple with email, projectors, interactive whiteboards, etc.
• Less paper would reduce the need for custodians to haul away littered paper in hallways, classrooms, trash cans, etc.
• Paperless options SAVE MONEY! Reduce the cost of ink, toner, paper, electricity, maintenance of machines.  Schools can put these funds into classroom technologies.
• Kids won't have to haul around huge book bags that are heavy-laden with paper.
• Digitized textbooks are easily distributed, more portable and require less management.

The other point of view was from the fairer sex, a woman named Elayne Evans.  She adamantly said, "No!" to schools going paperless.  Some of her points were:

• Handwriting is important.  Learning to write the alphabet by hand and practicing with pen and paper are VITAL components of foundational literacy.
• If students read/write exclusively on computers, they will rely heavily on spell check and this will affect student literacy.
• Cloud computing and mobile devices have caused increased power consumption, so going paperless isn't necessarily the greenest option.
• If schools have tight budgets, it may not be wise to invest in purchasing personal computers.  This is because new models frequently come out and this renders thousands of dollars of property useless.

Both Mr. Smith and Ms. Evans conceded that there needed to be a healthy balance because although they had opposing views of schools going paperless, both did agree that certain parts of having paper was useful.  For example, Vernon Smith said that color paper and construction paper would constantly be useful.

I encourage you to read the article below.  It was quite good.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. 
http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201102?pg=8&pm=2&fs=1#pg8

I'm getting the hang of this now....

My very first blog! Yayy!! Thus far, I've been responding to Professor Heigle's blogs and following a few classmates, but I didn't quite know how to put on my own blog.  After pressing some keys for a while, I decided to look at the tutorial video that Prof.Heigle told us about 2 weeks ago.....and what do you know? It was quite helpful.  So, I was able to change my template, background design, font, etc and finally here I am doing a post.  Whoo hoo!  Ok, well just returned from Spring break and I'm trying to use these next 2 days to catch up with work and class assignments.  Wish me luck!