This is the name of the presentation I am giving at the Northern Illinois Computing Educators (NICE) Mini-Conference this Saturday, January 31st.  Stay tuned for my presentation notes, complete with links to various tools and resources.

To prepare for my workshop, my 3rd graders created posts today on our classroom blog that are reflections on the blogging experience.  The questions I asked them were: What do you like about blogging?  Why is it different then writing things down in your writer’s notebook?  Do you like giving or receiving comments better?  What is your favorite comment that you received?  What is your favorite post that you have written?  What else would you like to write about on the blog?

Here are some of their thoughts:

“I like blogging because typing is easier and you don’t get writer’s cramp.”

“I like receiving comments because each new one is from a new person in the world.”

“I like blogging because it is relaxing.”

Please visit “The View from 3rd Grade” to read the rest of their thoughts.  Please also take 5 minutes to leave a comment.  The 3rd graders have worked hard and they get so jazzed when others notice!

Well, some of you might think that I disappeared and I guess you would be correct.  I never planned to take such a long hiatus from posting but sometimes life happens and there’s nothing you can do but go with the flow.  The day after the election (my last post), my step-daughter, a freshman in college was rushed to the hospital complaining of chest pains.  You can imagine that this almost caused my husband to go into cardiac arrest ourselves since we live in Evanston, IL and she is in Buffalo, NY.  Fortunately they found out it was ONLY gallstones.  Unfortunately, the best course of action was to have the gall bladder removed entirely.  Well, everything came out all right in the end (ha-ha-ha) but it was a bumpy road of healthy days followed by frantic calls when the pain would flare up again.

Anyway . . . I find it particularly funny that I was “offline” during the official end of Bush’s presidency.  Now I can jump back into blogging, full of gratitude for skilled surgeons, hope for a renewed America, and ideas to share with you all.

Happy New Year!