My Mind Go Boom

HOLY CRAP! Everything that we are learning right now is just blowing my mind away! As Rob is going on about RSS feeds and Google Reader, I just keep thinking about the possiblities that these technologies have. Imagine linking everything that relates to your subjects. Teaching will never be the same, students will be able to instantly gather any and all articles about the topics that you're teaching. I'm very excited about using these technologies and want to become more proficient in them. It's just too cool for words, seriously.

MetaBlogging

Blogging about blogs, who would've thought about that when blogging first came around? The idea of blogging is probably one of the greatest that we have seen in this new millennium. It is a way for any average joe to become just as widely known as Hollywood celebrities depending on what they put on their blog. Blogs have allowed a new breed of media to form, one crafted by every-and-any person that can get their hands on a keyboard. It has revolutionized how we get news and then allows us to debate the topics that interest us with people that can make very good arguments. Now I know that the internet can’t check if your IQ is above that of a child, and that there are some pretty ignorant and uneducated people out there that like to go against what people say in a blog to get a kick. Unfortunately, God put idiots on this earth to “spice things up,” but all-in-all, bloggers come up with very interesting views and opinions on topics that we see in our world. This sharing of ideas can also be incorporated in the classroom, and when it does, learning can happen on a whole new level. Blogging is just the beginning. I have a feeling that it will continue to grow and open up the floodgates to even more impressive ways to connect people together. Viva le Blog!

Teaching with Archives

After searching Allen's Teaching with Archives site, I realized that archives can be very powerful tools to help the students with their research and whatnot. The only problem that I see with it is will the students utilize these archives? I remember another professor of mine putting together a gigantic website with archives to all sorts of different topics pertaining to the subject, but I never used them. In fact, out of everyone I talked to in the class, no one used them. I think that if archives are to be collected for the class, they should be implemented within the course, possibly in the form of an assignment. This would make sure that the students use the archives that you collected for them.

The archives that I thought were interesting were the mythology archives. I have always loved mythology because of the connections between different cultures that are found within each of them. The archive that I enjoyed the most was the Mythography one. It has a very nice layout and it is pretty easy to get around on the site. Also, I thought the quiz was a good addition, although a little too easy at parts. (In one question, they asked which was not a Roman god, and the list included Russel Crowe....come on.) All-in-all, it's a good site, and I think that I could utilize it for the future.

Lazy Saturday

Just as the title claims, I had a pretty lazy Saturday. I woke up at 10:30 and pretty much sat on the couch watching movies, tv, and playing video games all day long. I haven't even changed from my pajamas the entire day. Yup, just one of those days...

Ideas From Class

So, here I am at roughly 9:45pm on a Tuesday, writing about some of the ideas from class last Wednesday night. The only things that I can remember from the class were making the blog and learning how to put together a website using Dreamweaver. While I was getting the thoughts in my head straightened to write this post, I thought about these two things and the potential that they have in the classroom. Using blogs can be a great way to supplement the learning experience from the classroom; hell, they may even be able to get through to kids better than the lectures. With the blog, a student can have time to think about what he or she wants to say, allowing more thought on the topic, it can also give the "quiet" students a voice and help them to express their thoughts on the subject. Websites can be a perfect way to help guide a student by giving them links to helpful websites or even helping the student understand where you (the teacher) is coming from by putting personal information on the site. These ideas are just skimming the surface; these technologies provide limitless capabilities for what a teacher can do with them. I am very eager to learn how to utilize these and more technologies in the classroom.

My Website

Hey guys, just thought that you should check out my new website, I think it's pretty sweet.

http://web.mac.com/rmgardella

The Legendary Neck-Kicking Story

Alright, lets try this thing out. I think i'll start out with what is most likely the most legendary event that ever happened to me.

It all began on a cool night in Kalamazoo. I was walking home from the first WMU home football game, when all of a sudden, I heard from behind me some drunk ass that was making fun of my height. This guy was probably over 6 ft tall, so to him I must have been pretty damn short. I thought for a moment, "Well he's drunk, I'll let it slide." But no, he kept going on and on, so after a couple of minutes of listening to this bastard poke fun at me, I had enough. I turned around and said, "Listen, asshole, if you don't shut the fuck up, I'm gonna kick you in the neck!" With a scoff, the guy states, "You can't even reach." So, I kicked him in the balls, he dropped to his knees, then I kicked him in the neck. Afterwords, I yelled, "YOU CALLING ME A LIAR!?!" Then I heard the clippity clop of the horse cop and I got out of there.

And so ends the legendary story of how I kicked a guy in the neck.