One Last Lecture

Would it surprise you to know that one of the most popular videos on YouTube has nothing to do with strange people doing stupid stuff? In fact it is a video of a college professor giving his Last Lecture. This video has probably already made its way into your emailbox, or you've heard friends or colleagues talking about it, or you might have seen Randy Pausch himself being interviewed on ABC recently.

Randy Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer last year. The video is based on a lecture series that asks the hypothetical question, "If you could give one final lecture, what words of wisdom would you leave behind?" In this video Professor Pausch discusses his childhood dreams and how he realized them.

It truly is inspirational.




"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."

Now That's Creative!

Paper Art

From: jovirakel, 1 year ago

| View | Upload your own

It's not my artwork, just something I got on my e-mail box and thought I'd share here. the artist: www.petercallesen.com


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Do You Flock?

Image from Flickr user Capitrueno

I've spent some time today trying to figure out Flock. It wasn't in my original plans for today, but problems with Internet Explorer and Twitter started me thinking, "Wait a minute, I remember downloading Flock...why aren't I using it?" A very good question! Flock calls itself the Social Web Browser because you can do so many different things with it: check email, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, even YouTube. I can even blog directly from Flock, which I'm doing right now for the first time. They make it incredibly easy to share everything you find on the web with your network!

I'm still trying to figure it all out and would love to hear from those who are experts at it. Speaking of experts, be sure and check out the following screencast from Liz Davis, the Queen of All Things Screencasted.



Or for a longer demonstration, check out the following video from last year's TechCrunch Conference.



And for the record, it was very tempting to title this post "What the Flock?" but I didn't know how mom would react to that!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Field Trip!

Field trips are a lot of work. First there's the paperwork, then there's prepping the kids for the trip, and, of course, finding drivers, and then more paperwork. And when a driver cancels at the last minute, you check your blood pressure, say a few Hail Marys, and start making phone calls.

And when you're planning a field trip to San Francisco you never know what kind of weather to expect. We were unbelievably fortunate today, as you can see from the photo I took of the Golden Gate Bridge. Beautiful, beautiful day!

Our trip today was to the Legion of Honor, where we were to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. I have been an admirer of her work for many years, so to get to see this exhibit was truly a privilege. Her work, mostly done in black and white, somehow manages to capture more of a person's inner beauty than can be discovered on the outer shell. I loved every minute and every photograph, even the ones that made me gasp. Especially the ones that made me gasp.

I found out just before we left school this morning that the Legion of Honor was also holding an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, along with a number of other antiquities from Israel. They only had one small portion of the Scrolls, Psalm 119 to be exact, but to be that near a religious document that was written over 5,000 years ago was truly awe-inspiring. Flash forward two minutes to find me asking one of my seventh graders, "Did you see the Dead Sea Scrolls?" After receiving the response, "Yup. Cool," I was quickly brought back to reality.

While I loved being able to see both of these exhibits on such a beautiful day in San Francisco, I have to admit that the best part of our trip was getting to spend some free-spirited time with my students. I brought my camera with me and once I started snapping pictures of the kids, the goofiness took over. "Miss McMillan, take a picture of this!" Pose. "No, Miss McMillan, come over here and get this!" Pose. I took seventy pictures in all, and can't wait to share them with my students. Goofballs, each and every one!

As we were leaving the city, I snapped one final picture. The saying around these parts used to be, "Welcome to California. Now go home!" The sign today said, "Dear Yuppies, Make sure you have more to offer San Francisco when you move here than just your Money!" Things have changed...but not by much!

Happy April Fool's Day!

If you're looking for a high-tech prank to pull on someone today, look no further!