Downtime in the Summer

Whoever thinks teachers have it easy over the summer doesn't know me very well. While deadlines are a bit more relaxed in June and July, there is still several To Do piles stacked along my desk that need my attention. One of these piles called Investigations, is where I stack interesting articles, printouts of blog posts, my notes during the school year, etc. It is the pile where I put everything new and cool I would like to explore and learn about but have little time during the regular school year to pay attention to.

At the top of my pile is an article recently published in TechTrends entitled Digital Citizenship in K-12: It Takes a Village along with Mike Ribble's book Raising a Digital Child. These two resources will be beneficial as I prepare to speak on a panel at my alma mater in September entitled "Social Networking and Our Youth."

Next is a stack of notes and articles about iPad apps. As I will be helping teachers in Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten integrate these mobile tools into their classrooms in the fall, I am on a hunt to find great apps. Along with this I am reading the book Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning to find out how other teachers are doing it! This work is related to my current teaching practice but is also of great interest in my professional research. I continue working on my doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Educational Technology from the University of Florida. My current research path and possible dissertation topic is related to integration of touch technologies in the early childhood classroom.

Finally, I get to the fun stuff! I love taking pictures but find little time to do so. I was reading my Twitter feed yesterday and stumbled across The Daily Shoot. According to their site, "The Daily Shoot is a simple daily routine to motivate and inspire you to practice your photography, and share your results! It’s not a contest and there are no prizes. It's simply about encouraging you to pick up your camera and make photographs."

This is how it works. Each day you check into the website to find the challenge for the day. You then post your picture via Twitter for others to see. This was just the creative outlet I needed this summer. I can't wait to get started. Today's challenge:

Make a photograph of something shiny today!