Update!!!

So at this point I see myself updating the Mahoney PE site and then linking that to my school gmail account. Plus setting up my RSS with the site as well. My next step will be how do I then apply this in my classes(start with maybe the 8th grade). Our classes are limited in terms of time since they are only 40 minutes each and we meet every other day. Do I allow class time or assign a few tasks as homework? Not sure on this one - any thoughts from from my colleges?

Building My RSS

As I build my RSS with related sites/blogs for teaching, I am finding how easy it will be to use the sites in class or share with students. A great tool when dealing with multiple users and/or computers. Then seeing how I can set up specific topic folders will just continue making it so much easier and efficient to access information.

Day 2

As I worked on my laptop last night I found myself using a very different mind set from how and what I usually did when either working or just surfing the web. After yesterday's first class I ended up discussing with my wife and son how the internet can be used ideally to benefit our students. My wife suggested that ideally students can become higher level critical thinkers as they learn how to weave in, out and around the vast amount of information that is available to us. My son said that when he finds a science site that he will compare what he finds to other sites that he knows are valid. It actually ended up being a great discussion with a 13 year old who most of the time dislikes school yet who is so motivated to search our science projects that are well beyond his grade level.

Mahoney Phys Ed Blog/Site

This address below is one that I started last year but fell behind in keeping up from day to day. Taking this class along with the start of the school year will provide me with the motivation to get started again. Please feel free to check out my site and send me some feedback.

http://mahoneype.wordpress.com/

Initial Blog Hunt

As I dug through the infinite number of educational blogs I found myself within the first 60seconds either staying at the site or closing it out and moving on to another site. What made me stay or move away? It was usually the title and content. I find myself looking for the types of blogs that are "outside the box" or what I like to refer to as a "paradigm shift" in education. My feeling after 20years in teaching is that we tend to be losing kids who have some incredible talents yet go through school not being able to find and develop those talents. My 13 year son being one of them. He has an IQ of 135, very athletic yet is falling through the cracks of the school due to boredom. This situation has lead me to try new and different things to prevent that here with my phys ed classes.

A few interesting blogs that I found:

http://research.aboutkidshealth.ca/teachadhd/abc/

http://wanderingink.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-to-prevent-another-leonardo-da-vinci/