Sometimes people say to me "where the heck do you get all the time to learn how to do this computer stuff?" I ask them, have they seen what is on tv these days? What with the writer's strike and all, when the kids go to bed, I poke around the Internet and see what's going on. What I don't get is when people say to me "Must be nice to have all that time to play around with computers?" Where to begin:
1.) I am playing in a sense, but it's more like expermenting to see what new skills I can acquire. It is gratifying, but I am not fooling around here. This is part of my job.
2.) I have the same 24 hr day as you.
3.) I let other people do the learning for me.
Its like professional reading. So few people have time to do all the professional reading they would like. I do some professional reading every day. I read from blogs I subscribe to. I skim the titles and lines in my google reader, and read the articles that I feel would be the best use of my time. If I continue to read on my lunch hour or prep period, or with a coffee in the morning 3o minutes a day, I figure I am going to be a changed teacher at the end of the year. I already feel like I have gotten so much this year, and it's not over yet.
I also let other peope pick the good stuff, and then I pick their picks on del.icio.us. This is a website where people share their bookmarks. Beside each website that is bookmarked, you can see how many people have bookmarked it. You can also click on one of those people's names and search the bookmarks they wish to share. I search for a "tag" or keyword that someone has put on a bookmark of something I want. I might look for "St. Patrick's Day" and "lesson." Then I read what other people have bookmarked. If I find someone who has a few bookmarks like mine, I take no more than 5 minutes to look at the titles of their bookmarks. If I like it, I save it in my bookmarks. Now I am sharing it.
It is a mistake to re-invent the wheel. See farther. Stand on the shoulders of giants.
1 comment:
You said it well. We all have the same 24 hours, how we used to utilize those hours varies. But I must admit I do get annoyed when you get the "look" and the comment "It must be nice to have all that spare time on your hands!" It's just a lack of understanding and interest and I try hard not to take it personally. At the end of the day if I've learned one new thing the lack of sleep is well worth it.
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