I have been challenged by this man and his words. The fact is, all of us will one day die… but some of us never truly begin to live. To quote Thoreau,

“…I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Pausch had the privilege of knowing that the end was near. My father-in-law did as well. (He was diagnosed with cancer and lived eleven months before dying. He was only expected to make it for six.) Some of us will get a diagnosis, but for others, death will come quickly without warning and without asking for our permission.

Because of this, I encourage you… don’t leave anything unsaid. Don’t leave anything undone.

I would write more, but I am going to hug my kids.

P.S. - I have excerpts from the video over there to the right. Check it out if you haven’t already seen it.

So, I signed up and began to tweet myself. (Wow… that sounds almost naughty. It’s not. A “tweet” is a message on Twitter, and it can be used as both a noun and a verb.) I discovered some friends on there to follow, and I even had a few choose to follow me. I figured out how to integrate it with my Facebook account, and I discovered that I could tweet with my cell phone by sending a text message. (Wow… again that sounds naughty. I know I have been teaching ninth grade for a long time… maybe I am just stuck there developmentally?)

And now I love it. I don’t have a huge following or anything, and I am not following some vast number of people. I just think that the concept is great, and it allows for great communication among a group of people in a quick time. I felt that way even before I found this article on CNN.com that tells about an American student in Egypt who was arrested as he was taking pictures at a demonstration. As he and his translator were being taken to jail, he was able to shoot a one word message on Twitter: ARRESTED. Within seconds, his network of friends and supporters were working to get him released. Before he had even arrived at the jail, his friends in the States and in Egypt were working for his release.

Wow.

I have been wondering about the implications for the classroom. I truly believe this has the potential to be a useful tool. After all, most of my students and many of their parents use both the web and text messaging. Right now, I am planning to set up a separate Twitter account for academic use. At the beginning of the semester, I will give the students a handout showing them how to sign up for an account and how to follow me. I will also send a handout home to the parents explaining the same. I will then use Twitter to update parents and students alike about assignments, projects, and the like.

Just last month, I did some research about various parental notification systems. There are some incredible ones out there, and most of them aren’t cheap. Some are web-based; others use auto-dialers. Some brag that they offer dozens of languages so that messages make it home in a form that the parents can understand. The goal of all of these systems is improved communication between schools and parents. After all, we all know that informed, involved parents can vastly improve their child’s chances of academic success. 

For the record, my goal as a teacher is not merely to improve the communication between parents and the school, but also between parents and their children. Who knows? Maybe my shooting out a tweet that reads, “Great job, 3rd block! You did great today!” will spark some conversations around dinner tables.

To be completely honest, I found the article referenced on the blog of Susan Brooks-Young, a leader in the educational technology realms. Thanks for pointing me toward it, Susan!

The videos will be flash formatted, so we won’t be able to save them on iPods or other portable players. We will, however, be able to embed in our own sites. The shows will all be supported by embedded advertising.

Below, you will find a complete episode of the Office. My source says that this won’t work outside of the US, but who knows?

Added November 5, 3:45 p.m. - Well, it worked on here for about 18 hours. I wonder how long it will be before Hulu goes public? For that matter, I wonder if iTunes and NBC/Universal will work out their differences.

Finally, the recognition I deserve.

 FYI - you might want to check and see if you have your safe search on first. From Google’s homepage, click on preferences and scroll down. Under SafeSearch filtering, make sure you have it on moderate. Otherwise, you will see things that will make you want to poke out your eyes with a sharp stick!

For those of you who already use Google’s Personalized Home Page, you might be excited to learn about the newly available widgets. I am still playing with what is available, but I thought I would give a quick review in case anyone is interested.

Weather Map - The jury is still out on this one. There is already a weather blurb available, but this is a neat little map complete with icon clouds to show where the storms are. The mapping technology seems similar to Google Maps. I will let you know if I decide to keep it.

Date & Time - I like it. The clock is analog, the date is big, and I can see both on my computer screen from a distance. It makes my life a little bit easier when I am writing out hall passes. I am keeping this one.

Customize the Google Logo - Fun… but why? I couldn’t even find a Christmas one today. I might keep it, but it won’t affect my life one way or another.

Color Junction - Similar to the game Jawbreaker on my PDA, but not as much fun. I will probably ditch this one.

Eyes - Okay, I get it. The eyes will follow my cursor. I just don’t see what is supposed to be exciting about it. It is already gone.

For any of you out there who are using Google’s Personalized Home Page, have you found any more widgets out there? I can see the potential, but so far I am a little disapointed at the offerings.

how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen

Heck, yeah! I got me a WOOKIE! And a princess too!

This will be me in twenty years… (if all else fails, right-click, choose “Save As…,” then open it and play it.)

Pooch offered these two links. Check out Movie 1 and Movie 2. (Follow the instructions above if you need to.) Pooch says in his professional opinion as a pilot, Movie 2 is better.

Some of you may have seen this picture on the net last week. Apparently, this mother got fed up with her daughter not doing her school work and decided to be creative with her punishment. As a teacher, I am in favor of creative punishment. Some folks apparently blasted this woman and said that she was hurting her child’s self-esteem. Because I don’t wish to use impolite language, I won’t tell you exactly how I feel about that.

Let me just say that I often tell my students that if they want to have positive self-esteem, they need to be a person of worth who makes good choices… just getting up in the morning and breathing is not enough.
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My buddy Earl found these pics somewhere in the blue nowhere. I don’t know when, and I don’t know where… but I know that they absolutely OWN me. Feel free to check out Earl’s site… I find it a great reliever of boredom. If folks got offended by the picture above, can you IMAGINE what they would say to this mother?

P.S. - I know I mentioned a Harry Potter post, and it is coming soon… I promise. Maybe even later tonight.

1. Blair needs humility.
My wife would probably agree to this one.

2. Blair needs to re-enter the Britain the rest of us inhabit.
Well, I am going to London during Spring Break… that has to count for something.

3. Blair needs a hug.
Very rarely will I turn one down.

4. Blair needs a dose of reality.
I prefer my own delusions, thank you very much.

5. Blair needs to channel Churchill.
I do enjoy a good cigar. Is that close enough? Churchill diid enjoy those, didn’t he?

6. Blair needs Bush’s support.
Well, don’t we all? Actually, with W.’s No Child Left Behind I have more than enough support, thanks.

7. Blair needs to learn lessons of terror.
Well, I am going to watch Saw 2 pretty soon. Is that enough?

8. Blair needs his foot soldiers.
I have no idea…

9. Blair needs German lessons.
My student who was born and reared in Germany is going to love this one…

10. Blair needs to be wiser.
No arguments from me on that one.

Okay, so now you try it. Go ahead… and if you have a blog, post the results. If not, post them here in a comment.

Seriously, it is pretty neat. If you have a blog or website, check it out!

Big thanks to David for finding this one.