Wednesday, January 24, 2007

4 Generations: How to Save a Life

Make it count, change your priorities. Stop and think about what REALLY matters....

Thank you, thank you, Tim Lauer in Portland, Oregon for this. Click on the water buffalo...

How much we have.

How little it takes to change - or save - a life.

3 comments:

Monica Edinger said...

Mark,

I have tried several times to email you the last few weeks,but the emails keep bouncing back for some reason. I guess I'll try pasting a shortened version of my email here and see if you get it that way!

I'm writing because I just started blogs with my 4th graders, have been posting about it on my blog ([ http://medinger.wordpress.com ]educating alice), and am eager to find other teachers doing so as well with this age group. I've found a few (such as Doug at Borderlands) and Karl Fisch who suggested I contact you and so here I am!

Blogs are right up my alley; just to give you a taste of my background (seeing that you started out around the same time I did), I originally got into educational computing in the late 70s because of a strong interest in using computers in the teaching of writing, got sidetracked with LOGO (because of my colleagues at Columbia where I have two degrees in the field) and just the heady experience of ed computing back then! But in 1987 my original position at my school (computer specialist) was eliminated so, not being the slightest bit interested in being a computer director (which was what my classmates were doing) went happily back into a 4th grade classroom where I've been ever since, continuing to explore technology in a myriad of ways.

Anyway, I do hope we can connect. I'm very interested in how others are using blogs with this age group. (By the way, I'm not sure I agree with you about the alumni. I always figure it is important for kids to move on, make new connections and communities with their teachers and classmates after me. Even if the teacher isn't doing blogs, she/he is doing something that should be supported, I think, by those of us who came before. Not to mention, can you really possibly commit yourself to indefinite monitoring of some many posts and comments?) You can learn more about me at my blog from the posts and from the publications and talks pages.

Hope to hear back from you!

All the best,
Monica


PS I'm going to be in Seattle Thursday- Monday for the American Library Association meeting. This is a last minute thought, but any chance of meeting perhaps during the day on Monday?

Monica Edinger
The Dalton School
New York NY
edinger@dalton.org
monicaedinger@gmail.com
my blog, educating alice, is at
http://medinger.wordpress.com

Sarah said...

Wow. how did you ever even make this work.

I had to doi this about ten times as my sound dies. I don't know...if i can earn a new Macbook i'm going to get it.
This was outside of my whining just incredible. Thank you.

Today my daughters worked in my room. They said they never saw me have a smellier or more obviously hungry, needy group. And looking again I saw it. It's a year when I relearn what poverty is like.
Sarah

Mark Ahlness said...

Monica, from so far away (now around the corner), and Sarah, so much nearer and yet so much more distant... Thank you for writing here. It is indeed a small, flat world anymore.

Monica, stop by my classroom in Seattle on Monday, if you can (206-252-9250). My third graders are going just nuts with their blogs. I am hanging on, pretending to know what I am doing.

Sarah, thank you for sharing your life and your passion, your anger, your angst, your loves....