Thing #5 Google Reader - Can technology be that easy?

This is fun. I can start my very own liberal conspiracy with the help of organizational tools like Google Reader. With a little help from the creators of 23 things I filled the evening quite nicely while the wife was working late this evening. I started off the evening with an ulcer inducing breeze through a New York Times puff piece on Liz Cheney . I stumbled on this by adding the politics section of the New York Times to my Google Reader. I am really quite proud of myself. First and foremost my computer screen is still intact. Second my daughter Emily only had to come in to the room twice to ask me if I was having a stroke. Third I didn't say one bad word. Fourth and finally, after my daughter Erin politely asked me if me to stop screaming "Liar, liar, You Lie" at the computer I willingly complied.



Deciding that I had frightened my family enough for one evening I thought perhaps a a more academic rout might be in order. I perused the Google Reader selections from Tech & Learning and settled on David Andrade's article entitled Technology I use everyday. This gives me hope. Its a simple recipe that doesn't over reach. The technology pieces are well integrated into the author's instructional day and they aren't a stretch for him. If we can get to this point at West in the next year I would be ecstatic. The area I would most like to see us pursue is online grading that parents would have access to. We have made a huge point of communicating with our stakeholders and this would be a tremendous step forward for us. Lets hope the rumors of a district system supporting this function come true.

I'm proud to say that our science department has taken quite a few steps toward the authors current level of functioning. The department already uses igoogle to organize its calendar, publish its meeting agendas, and cooperatively construct common assessments. Alison Davis, Constance Dunne, and Wes Bolton are both taking this on line course and everyone seems to be focused on taking the necessary steps to become tech savy. Maybe with a little patience, a little support, and a little push we'll all get there sooner than later. Now if we could just do something about that public health care option Sheryl Stoleberg wrote about in the NY Times this morning. Live long and prosper.