Mr. Higgins’ Blog

…and reading other bloggers blogs.

Being Christmas Break now, I did some physical and mental house cleaning and took sometime to sort through my RSS feeds to see which ones I truly read and which ones I just sort of glance over from time to time.  Here are the main blogs I read and what I learn from each of them.

Vicki Davis – Cool Cat Teacher

My Inspirational Read

I read this blog frequently and gain a great deal of knowledge about teaching, life, and how to become a blogger.  She really makes me think about how bloggers converse and where I stand in all of this.  For instance, reading this blog entry I learned that I’m a egotist blogger because I mainly discuss my thoughts in my own little corner of Web 2.0.  I frequently read, but do not comment.  GUILTY AS CHARGED YOUR HONOR. 

Later in the same blog, she discusses that “You become like your circle”, meaning that you become like the bloggers that you read and converse with through your time.  I believe I fall under both of the following categories…

Learners

I like to read people who are widely read and view new knowledge not as an opportunity to dig in and resist but to learn and grow. They are always teaching me something new that I didn’t know and often pick up on the real stories that no one else is talking about. They are wise not because they know it all but because they know that they don’t and have adopted a mindset of lifelong learning.

Inspiration

Look for people who inspire you. Life is too tough to have real AND virtual people dragging you down.

“The people whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful and hopeful people who went about their business with a smile on their faces.” Charles Kingsley

Never equate inspiration with fame (nor success for that matter.) I find inspiration in the lives of teachers who struggle with real problems but manage to teach and inspire anyway. They are my heroes.

I’m always looking to be inspired introspectively and am a lifetime learner.  I never want to stop going to class and feel that if I reach even a few students in this way, I have succeeded.  More than a couple of times it has been mentioned that teaching is a calling, not a job on this blog.  I can’t agree anymore; however, my youth still hinders the fact that I truly cannot admit that I see “around the corner” yet.

I really hope that someday I develop the Web 2.0 conversational abilities of this tremendously inspiring blogger.  I hope to give back the thanks through my blogging.

Alfred Thompson – Computer Science Teacher

My Informational Read.

As an AP Computer, Web Development, and Operating Systems teacher (even though Mathematics is really what my brain thrives on) I need a blog that I can always go to for information about products and ideas that I’m involved with everyday.  As a school which is all PC, we use an inordinate amount of Microsoft products, including office suite, programming platforms, and several levels of the operating system. 

I was first skepitcal considering the email address was @microsoft.com and was ready for the sales pitch on everything.  I was happily surprised when the content really made we want to delve into new topics such as Visual Basic .NET, XNA Game Studio Express, and many other applications as well as professional development opportunities.

Then there is this entire other category of blogs that he throws in every once in a while which are links to other blog posts which really get me thinking.  Part of my identified “Learners” quality by Cool Cat Teacher.  He identifies and describes ideas that are tied around programming, but have to do with psychology, life skills, and the implementation of programming in the classroom.

Examples include…

Is there a programming gene?
What should we do to help the kids who really get it?
Thats not real programming

Now, all I have to do is find a mathematics teacher with this type of informational / teaching approach.

More to come…

My Professional Read
My Web 2.0 Applications Read
My _________ Read (Great thing about Web 2.0 is that I can come back and fill in the blanks)