First week of class

I spent last weekend at beautiful Hampton Beach, New Hampshire where I went to visit my new nephew. Due to family work conflicts, I was able to spend Saturday in Jumping Jack's Java coffee shop, sitting in front of the bay window that overlooked the ocean, reading "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" in front of the roaring fireplace. What a great day!!! It's not often that I get the opportunity to just sit and read - uninterrupted by at least one of my three children! I managed to get through the first three chapters (on Weblogs) before the beach started calling for me to take a walk!

I got back home on Sunday and jumped right into my classes! I'm excited to be finishing up this week's assignments. It's a little difficult to read discussions and post a thought-provoking comment with Lego Indiana Jones blaring on the computer behind me! My son has Kindergarten classes in the morning so if I don't get my assignments completed by 11:30 in the morning, I'm in trouble! I feel guilty working on my classes when he is home. If I don't try to play with him, he'll migrate towards either the television, computer, or Nintendo Advance (which he has now zoned-in on).

I'm anxious to start working on my Webquest!! I'm collaborating with a couple teachers from my son's elementary school and we're meeting tomorrow to start working through the details. The Webquest is going to be on water purification. At first I thought about incorporating the Webquest into a website about community service. But after more thought, I think I'll instead create a website on disaster preparedness. I just ran across an article that I copied out of the August 2007 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine that will prove to be a great resource! And with the current disaster in Haiti, the website could prove to be pretty informative and useful!