Holy Cow

Holy toledo, I can't believe its been this long since my last post. I didn't even believe it when I read the date. My procrastination is getting the best of me, I suppose. I blame the olympics.
Since my last post, I have contacted Paula White, who I will be working with for our collaborative projects with Rebecca. She has a lot of ideas for what we can help out with, and I'm very excited to get started on one of these. She has suggested a number of things. Here is a portion of the e- mail she sent me about a week ago...

• I have some 5th grade girls who LOVE horses blogging about their experiences. . Would love some regular interaction on their blogs.
• I have some kids who are creating some 3-d things with some software we could share with you as well. You guys could then create stuff and share ideas back and forth with the kids.
• I have a girls afterschool STEM club (Science, tech, engineering and math) Maybe I could share some design briefs as examples and you could create some?
• I have six kids doing independent studies on topics from beethoven to weather. . . Perhaps you guys could help find resources for them and ask questions as they research and post their findings? Topic include shakespeare, horse cancer, beethoven, weather (actually global warming), how a computer works and a 3-d remote control eagle.
• I have 3rd graders who have begun an earth protection club and need direction and some guidance.

Rebecca and I are currently trying to decide just what we'd like to do for this project, but are having a bit of difficulty deciding. This seems to be a trend this semester, as I had difficulty deciding on a topic for my "Passion" presentation as well. I finally decided I would do my presenation on Luca Congi a few days before I gave this presenation. I had to do a bit of research on Luca before speaking about him, as I didn't know much about him, other than the fact that he has a super cool name. Upon reflection on this particular project, I believe there are several things that I would do differently when teaching online, and I honestly don't know if I'm totally comfortable with the concept of it yet. I had absolutely no idea how my audience was reacting while giving this presentation, which was a little unsettling.
Minutes before it was my turn to present, I blew my breaker in my house, which wasn't the best start. One of my roomates and I share a breaker, and when we both have our heaters on at the same time, it really doesn't stand a chance. Apparently my computer battery is garbage, and will only hold a charge for about 3 minutes without being plugged in, I faced my first technical difficulty. During my presentation, I kept clicking the wrong buttons, perhaps because I was a bit nervous, and thought that I had lost my audio several times during my presentation. Nobody really chatted in the box during my presentation, so I had no idea whether or not anyone could hear me. Thinking of it now, I probably could have looked to see the mic symbol beside my name at the top, but it really didn't cross my mind when I was speaking. I am looking forward to my March presentation, so I can try again.