While driving (well, riding along with my husband) down highway 12 from MT to ID, we saw this sign and both started laughing. My husband turned around and we took pictures. I was thinking about the sign and life in general, an obvious metaphor. But I was also thinking about this class. So many twists and turns, not to mention tweets. Never quite knowing what is around the bend, but every now and then seeing a glimpse of something really amazing.

It's incredible to find so many resources and people willing to help. I've wanted to connect with other science teachers and to learn new tools and tech. There is a lot to sort through and figure out, but it is right there literally at your fingertips if you know where to look--and now I'm beginning to. This is literacy--or at least the beginning. As I posted before regarding science literacy, content is fundamental, but applying that is literacy. Knowing where to find answers is part of that literacy.

So, favorites so far are google reader; I'm slowly learning how to manage it. But it has been a godsend while traveling and trying to keep up via an iPhone and occasional wifi. I'm beginning to like twitter as a resource mainly; it reminds me of the old days and the old fashioned AP news feeds. It was a machine that spewed forth news updates on a ticker tape (at summer camp this is how I learned that Elvis had died). I'm trying to use it to skim for resources and news items. For my students I like google docs and I know they are already using this. I have to incorporate it into group projects that we do--this is a no brainer for them. This spring I did a couple of small research projects with students and we were emailing stuff back and forth, ugh! I also like Glogster for the students to use. It seems really well suited for social issues--environmental, and I'm thinking I could use it in micro for public health related projects, short reports on a bacterium--I'm thinking of assigning a bacterium a week--one to a student, or a current event each week to be presented at the beginning of class and commented on during the week. Finally, I think diigo has the potential to transform the way I keep track of sites and resources because of the annotation capabilities. Enough for now, still navigating the winding road.