1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Photo taken of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park
Archives for April 2014
52 Fridays
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Photo taken at Camp Nokomis, Bear Island, Lake Winnipesaukee, NH
My Google Applications!
Whew! It has been a crazy Google-y couple of weeks around here!!
First… I finished my Google Qualified Teacher tests (yay!!)
Next… I had applied for a Wilmington Educational Foundation Summer Explorers Grant to cover the costs so that I could possibly go to the Google Teacher Academy this summer. There are 2 GTA’s in the US this summer, one in Atlanta, and one in Mountain View… I applied for the grant and let them know that I had no idea if I would get accepted to to to the GTA or not, but I really wanted to go!! AND, my principal and the head of WEF came to my classroom last week to tell me I got the grant!!!! Holy cow, I was so excited!!! They hadn’t even opened the applications for GTA yet, now the pressure is on…
This week, I applied to teach a workshop at the Connecticut Summit Featuring Google Apps for Education– AND got an email from them inviting me to be a presenter! OMGosh, my proposal is already listed on the site!!! Go Google-Drive Collaboration !!! What an exciting week!!! I need to get a decent picture and little bio done, but the proposal is LIVE!
Then, they opened the applications for BOTH Google Certified Trainer AND Google Teacher Academy in the last couple days!! Both applications are open for another month or so, we’ll know the end of May for GTA and first week of June for GCT.
Both required videos (different topics)… Plus resumes, case studies, short answers… And, both are done and submitted!! Now, we just wait with fingers crossed!!!
Here are my 2 videos… The Google Teacher Academy application required a video that was no more than one minute long… Topic (I didn’t write down the exact wording, just read through it)… But essentially including collaboration and Community building :) But it had to be just one minute… THAT was HARD :) we all know I’m kinda enthusiastic and wordy :) even with that, I’ve never talked so fast in my life!! But I do love the idea and hope that they love it too! (don’t laugh too hard :) The idea came up (like so many ideas do…) on the drive home from school with my kids, just throwing ideas out, and grew from there! Is the Goddess of Google a Myth? Watch to find out :)
Of all the applications that they get, they are accepting 35 participants for Atlanta, and 65 for Mountain View. I suspect there will be about a gazillion applicants, but I have everything crossed that I will be one of them!!
The Google Certified Trainer application wanted a two minute training video. I chose something that I could explain fairly completely in 2 minutes :) Adding cool fonts and images in Google Docs. It came out at exactly 2 minutes, and I didn’t have to talk quite as fast as the GTA video!! (and this will be a series I’m working on for school… look for more very soon!)
Anyway… those are my videos… Wish me luck!! I’m nervous, but super excited even thinking about the possibility!!
#GTAAT #GTAMTV
52 Fridays
Galatians 5:22-23 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Photo taken last spring of our iris. Spring is finally here, hope to see some green (and purple) soon!!
Learn Something New Every Day!
We need to learn something new every day… It seriously keeps your brain moving… Even though I think my brain is full most days, I believe it is good to keep trying new things!! Here’s my newest!! After attending all those awesome Irish Music concerts, I decided I wanted to learn to play the concertina!!
What’s a concertina? Well, it kinda works like an accordion, you squeeze the bellows to make a sound, but instead of a keyboard, it has a series of buttons. I got an anglo concertina which is diatonic, meaning that the push and pull on a button produces different notes… Yup… Crazy!!! So, last Saturday, Kathryn and I drove the The Button Box in Sunderland, MA and bought me a concertina!! We came home, and Sean, Kathryn and I all figured out how to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star!! I sat down with some YouTube videos and started learning some other songs. I now know 4… Twinkle, Maggie in the Woods, Terry Teehan’s, and Zelda. Zelda is the “tune of the month” on my new found favorite message board, Concertina.net :) Every month they post a song, and people learn it and post sound clips… how fun is that??!!
Here’s my first recording… It is MUCH slower than it’s supposed to be :) but considering that as of one week ago I had never even touched a concertina, I think it’s a pretty good start!! There’s a couple of klunker notes, and a brain freeze for a second in the middle, but it’s a start! I will post an update toward the end of the month with a (hopefully better) recording!!
Of course, now I’m scouring the internet for a really nice concertina :) I have had more fun the last week!!
