New App

I tried a new coding app called Dynamic ART Lite that is another drag and drop format like Hopscotch.  While it has some more complex mathematical possibilities, the basics are very user-friendly and a little simpler than Hopscotch - which would be good when teaching 1st graders!  You control the movements of a little turtle and can make it move, turn, draw lines, etc.  It has the usual repeat and if, then functions and will also put a text message onscreen.     You can switch easily between the programming screen and the run screen to see if it's doing what you intended.  Very nice app for beginning coding!

Update...

So I haven't been as idle as my lack of posts would suggest.  I delayed posting because I needed to migrate this blog from my original Google account to my district Google account and I was dreading messing that up and not wanting to write anything I was going to lose out there in the wilds of the world wide web.  Not as paranoid a fear as you may think since I managed to detach my class blog from either account early in the school year necessitating my tech rescue by one of our district technologists.  (Thanks again to the other Diane!!)   So then I actually tried adding the new account to the blogs and it was...easy.  So easy I was kicking myself for waiting.  That happens a lot to those of us who are serious (and serial) procrastinators!

So what have I been doing in the first weeks of summer vacation?  

1.  Feedly -- I set up Feedly and added quite a few blogs in 3 main categories:  virtual voyagers, general education blogs, and campus colleagues.  It is nice having one place to go to check to see what's new on all these blogs, but I have to say Feedly was a bit of a pain to set up.  It was not easy to find the rather important information that Feedly doesn't want you to give it the whole URL like most links.  It just wants the particular address for the blog without all the http, www, etc.  After I found a tutorial that explained this, it was much easier.  I could give a lot more detail about how to set this up, but it has already been explained in clear detail by Patrick here and on the Virtual Voyage page.   

2.  Participate in a Twitter chat -- I joined in the last  #1stchat of the school year and will definitely participate in that one regularly in the future.  I will be on the lookout for other chats as well.  I must confess I was not sure I was going to find Twitter useful at all when we started with it last year, but it has turned out to be a fantastic source of recommendations for blogs, articles and other information.  (I have added many of the general education blogs to my Feedly account so I will be sure not to miss articles in the future.)  I have a terrible time keeping what I write to the 140 character limit (although this is partly because so many of my 140 characters have to be used for @this and #that and it doesn't leave much for what I am trying to say.  Then I have to stop and cut out a bunch of words and by that time I am way behind on reading the tweets during a chat...  If I weren't a fast reader it would be a disaster!

3.  I have learned all about (well, probably not ALL, but at least SOME about) making Google forms and have created one to use at the beginning of the year to replace my old paper survey that asked parents for contact information and some information to help me get to know my new students.  And let me just put in a plug here for the district's Google Academy.  It was a nonstop 2 day class packed with the nuts and bolts to get started and then some time to try things out.  I particularly liked the sections on Google Forms and Sites and the general basics about Chrome and Google Drive.  It was a great format and I learned a lot!  (Thanks Angie and Vicki!!)

I have also been doing some reading, but not actually joined a book study group...  I've read The Book Whisperer and right now I'm in the middle of Teach Like a Pirate.

Odyssey

So - the blog name...  Since the impetus for starting this blog right now was the GCISD Virtual Voyage, I wanted a blog name that somehow related to the idea of travel or sailing.  As a bonus, one of my favorite poems is "Ulysses" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.  The poem is from the point of view of Odysseus after he has found his way home from the Trojan War.  He is rather bored with the life in his quiet kingdom and wants to go back out searching for new places and new experiences.  This fits the Virtual Voyage concept perfectly for me.  Even though I have taught for quite a while, I am still learning new things.  I would find it boring to do things the same way year after year.  So I am off on this odyssey to "sail beyond the sunset".  I expect this blog will be a place to share what I am learning, make recommendations for strategies and activities I found successful, and ask questions. 

"Come, my friends,

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world."

New blog, first post

So the GCISD Virtual Voyage is about to begin!  I am ready for the fun to start!  This will be the spot to check for progress made, new learning, recommendations, and random excited blathering about new things I've tried or can't wait to try!