Debt: Getting rid of the monkey on my back.

Thanks, Christina. You're right, taking a course ...

2008-12-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Thanks, Christina. You're right, taking a course at the graduate level with so much going on in the rest of your life can be challenging. But I'm glad to read that you learned from it and are already thinking about future blogging projects!

Merry Christmas!

Hey Christina, I feel pretty rewarded having taken...

2008-12-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

Hey Christina,

I feel pretty rewarded having taken this course as well.

Your wiki with other librarians with Battle of the Books sounds cool. Good luck with that!

Have a wonderful, relaxing holiday with your family and best wishes for the New Year!

Christina,A blog about financial management? How ...

2008-12-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Christina,
A blog about financial management? How interesting is that in these days of economic uncertainty! You've certainly got the blogging skills to pull it off. Best of luck!

Jo-Anne

I agree that having teachers use delicious on a pe...

2008-12-04T09:22:00.000-08:00

I agree that having teachers use delicious on a personal level would get them to be comfortable with it. It would be cool to have teachers who teach the same grade in your school, share their research/resources/articles for units they cover.

Thanks, Christina, for pointing out that one of th...

2008-12-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Thanks, Christina, for pointing out that one of the challenges of introducing a new technology tool to staff is that some people will be very resistant to it. I do think that social bookmarking is a great way to get people excited about web 2.0.

We have the same issues in our district, limited l...

2008-12-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

We have the same issues in our district, limited lab time and inconsistent computers (although their working on it)
Very hard to sell staff on web 2 with these kinds of limitations, I agree!
Jan P

Sorry, Christina, I meant to write your name and f...

2008-12-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry, Christina, I meant to write your name and for some unknown reason, I typed Andrea's name in instead. Time for a holiday!

Jo-Anne

Andrea,Sounds like you have your hands full with t...

2008-12-01T15:03:00.000-08:00

Andrea,
Sounds like you have your hands full with technology issues in your school division. I think I might be inclined to get the teachers using delicious (a great choice, in my opinion) using it on a personal level first and then branching out with the kids. That way they have a bit of familiarity with it before adding the stress of using it in class.

Would this work?

What kinds of blogs do you think you will follow f...

2008-11-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

What kinds of blogs do you think you will follow for your own professional development in the future? There are lots to choose from, you're right, so figuring out how to choose the ones that are of interest to you is a bit of a skill--might make a good 'quick' tech PD session sometime. A 10 minute or 15 minute informal session on choosing blogs that are of interest to teachers...

I think you are right. You need to go with what in...

2008-11-24T20:01:00.000-08:00

I think you are right. You need to go with what interests you. I didn't even know blogs existed before this course, and now I have found many that interest me and tie in with my own professional development.
Which is your favorite blog so far?

Christina,I agree that teachers will have to find ...

2008-11-24T18:18:00.000-08:00

Christina,
I agree that teachers will have to find their own niche if they are going to embrace this blogging "thing" as pd. Fortunately, their choices seem to be endless because there are lots of blogs to choose from. Would there be one blog you think an entire staff should read?

Jo-Anne

Hello Christina.I keep thinking about what you wro...

2008-11-19T18:57:00.000-08:00

Hello Christina.
I keep thinking about what you wrote about bias in the blogs we read - I thnink it's an area which may be hard to help students understand without making them afraid of learning from blogs. What do you think?

Hi Christina,I'm glad you have found your google r...

2008-11-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Christina,

I'm glad you have found your google reader to be helpful in organizing and reading information. You talk about having to continually look for new blogs to subscribe to because you never know what you might be missing...I agree, but wonder how you find new sites/sources. That's sometimes the tricky part and I think that process of finding new blogs to subscribe to is worth sharing with students and colleagues

Thanks, Christina. You are obviously an 'old hand...

2008-11-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks, Christina. You are obviously an 'old hand' at Facebook. Have you had the opportunity to look at any of the other social networking sites out there, like Nings? Do you see different applications for Nings in education than facebook? You talk about making sure your son's privacy settings are high for his facebook page--how do you talk about these kinds of issues with your students, or do you? What kinds of restrictions are in place in your school regarding social networking sites?

I like that you said we need to keeping seeking ou...

2008-11-17T18:33:00.000-08:00

I like that you said we need to keeping seeking out new sites in our field of interest. I totally agree. I love the sites I frequent, however, I am always looking for new information and new ideas too.
I found some great tech sites on ning. Cool for discussions.

Christina,I too had a short week recently and it h...

2008-11-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

Christina,
I too had a short week recently and it has felt longer than usual...Nov can be tough time of year to get through at school.

I like using Google Reader to 'scan' headlines & updates, and like you, sometimes that's all I have time for.

carol t

RBC Bank President Gordon Nixon - Salary $11.73 M...

2008-11-16T14:40:00.000-08:00

RBC Bank President Gordon Nixon - Salary $11.73 Million

$100,000 - MISTAKE (FISHERMEN'S LOAN)

I'm a commercial fisherman fighting the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Bank) over a $100,000 loan mistake. I lost my home, fishing vessel and equipment. Help me fight this corporate bully by closing your RBC Bank account.

There was no monthly interest payment date or amount of interest payable per month on my loan agreement. Date of first installment payment (Principal + interest) is approximately 1 year from the signing of my contract.
Demand loan agreements signed by other fishermen around the same time disclosed monthly interest payment dates and interest amounts payable per month.The lending policy for fishermen did change at RBC from one payment (principal + interest) per year for fishing loans to principal paid yearly with interest paid monthly. This lending practice was in place when I approached RBC.
Only problem is the loans officer was a replacement who wasn't familiar with these type of loans. She never informed me verbally or in writing about this new criteria.

Phone or e-mail:
RBC President, Gordon Nixon, Toronto (416)974-6415
RBC Vice President, Sales, Anne Lockie, Toronto (416)974-6821
RBC President, Atlantic Provinces, Greg Grice (902)421-8112 mail to:greg.grice@rbc.com
RBC Manager, Cape Breton/Eastern Nova Scotia, Jerry Rankin (902)567-8600
RBC Vice President, Atlantic Provinces, Brian Conway (902)491-4302 mail to:brian.conway@rbc.com
RBC Vice President, Halifax Region, Tammy Holland (902)421-8112 mail to:tammy.holland@rbc.com
RBC Senior Manager, Media & Public Relations, Beja Rodeck (416)974-5506 mail to:beja.rodeck@rbc.com
RBC Ombudsman, Wendy Knight, Toronto, Ontario 1-800-769-2542 mail to:ombudsman@rbc.com
Ombudsman for Banking Services & Investments, JoAnne Olafson, Toronto, 1-888-451-4519 mail to:ombudsman@obsi.ca

http://www.corporatebully.ca
http://www.youtube.com/CORPORATEBULLY

"Fighting the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC Bank) one customer at a time"

Christina,I wonder if your son will be as open as ...

2008-11-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Christina,
I wonder if your son will be as open as he is right now with his Facebook account. It's been my experience that the older my children get, the more they don't want you poking in their business, online or otherwise. Kind of scary but I guess we can only give them the tools to stay safe (just like we do in the physical world) and pray for the best.

Jo-Anne

Hi Christina,I'm sorry to hear you were having int...

2008-11-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Christina,

I'm sorry to hear you were having internet issues last week--I hear you, I was having some problems with my own connectivity on the weekend. You don't realize how much you rely on it at home until you don't have it!

You raise a good question/point about access to adequate hardware and connectivity to use some of these tools. That can be a frustration...I don't know if you are taking 545 next term but that will be one of the issues we explore in that course in more detail...this idea of the digital divide is an important one.

I was able to view your jumpcut...thanks for the invite. You might want to explore Voicethreads...it is really easy to use as well and might even be simpler for your students.

Chris,Too bad your Internet was down because with ...

2008-11-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

Chris,
Too bad your Internet was down because with a little more time, you would probably feel more comfortable with the program.
Too bad your computers at school aren't up to snuff. I wonder about the logistics of having multiple students or groups using microphones in the class. Would everyone's microphone pick up everyone else's comments?

Jo-Anne

Chris,To make your movie public, click on your com...

2008-11-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

Chris,
To make your movie public, click on your completed movie in your account. Right under your movie, you'll see "edit movie info." That's where you can change the privacy settings if you want.

Jo-Anne

Thanks, Christina. Using a wiki as a place for tl...

2008-10-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Christina. Using a wiki as a place for tls to collaborate and plan for next year's Battle of the Books is a great idea. And it sounds like it would take some workload off your plate if your colleagues help you develop questions, etc.

I think there are a lot of ways you could use wikis with students in your library or with other teachers in a classroom. Think about using a wiki for students to 'advertise' or promote their favourite books from the library--they could each have a page to do something creative to promote a book they really liked. Or you could set up wikis for students to collaborate on a unit that they are working on. Lots of possibilities!

Christina,Your idea to use a wiki to plan for next...

2008-10-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Christina,
Your idea to use a wiki to plan for next year's Battle of the
Books sounds perfect.

Jo-Anne

Hi Christina,Thanks for the links to a few virtual...

2008-10-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hi Christina,

Thanks for the links to a few virtual library sites that I hadn't found. Libraryspot is interesting--it isn't a 'real' library site in the sense that it wasn't created as an extension of a library but it does have many of the elements of a virtual library site. I wonder if other organizations will adopt this model of a virtual library to create their own reference sites. Does your school library have a website? What elements of the best VSLs you looked at would you like to include in your own site? What do you think your students and teachers would find most beneficial? What kinds of web 2.0 tools would you include in your own site to promote collaboration?

You might find Joyce Valenza's work in this area interesting, particularly her wiki about school library websites: http://schoollibrarywebsites.wikispaces.com/

Christina,When I went to tag the virtual libraries...

2008-10-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Christina,
When I went to tag the virtual libraries you visited this week, I noticed that I had already tagged libraryspot under "HomeworkHelp." I think it's a great site for kids trying to complete their homework any time they want and never having to leave the computer.

Jo-Anne