Hi all,
This is Charlie A. I teach English at East High School in Rochester, New York. This is my 28th year teaching and my 26th in the Rochester City School District. Before teaching I worked as a technical writer, features writer, shipping manager, cook, delivery driver and musician in California.
I would have posted earlier but I have been spending much time viewing all the amazing options on Cool Tools. I start clicking and I look up and an hour is gone- poof! It still amazes me how far technology has come in my lifetime and how slow some have been in its adoption. When I first started teaching at Charlotte Middle School in 1993 my room did not even have a phone. You used an intercom to the main office where everyone in the office heard your message: "There's a fight on the second floor! Help!!" Crazy. In the early 1980's I worked at a small software/firmware hub that was busy working on voice recognition and I have owned a desktop computer since 1983 and there is no phone in my room! Now here I am sitting at the kitchen island my interior designer wife just installed, drinking coffee and completing a PD. Now that's crazy!
Cool Tools is what it is all about- learning on your time in your place. No more trudging off for "sit and get" in some strange classroom in a strange building. You city teachers know what I'm referencing. I wish I had been on this PD years ago, but here I am. I work with a wonderful woman, Jessica, who wasn't even born when I started teaching and she essentially holds my hand when I can't figure something out technically or she hips me to something cool like Smores and Netflix: "Oh...that's what streaming is!" Who knew?!!! (I recently cut the cord and installed Roku and Hulu!) And I can't forget my friend, Karen, the East Librarian who hipped me to Cool Tools...so a big shout out to Karen, thanks!!
And finally this Polly character, the ultra-uber, techy- guru, librarian's librarian I have one big question for you: "Where do you find the time to research, read, vet and organize all this stuff?!!" Seriously, I am overwhelmed by the variety and quality of the web sites and information you have found and shared. So...thanks!!
See you all out there!
One final thought: This is the second time I wrote this particular blog. I lost the first one by being a spoiled brat Google drone... "You mean Blogger doesn't save automatically?!! What is this, 2012?!!"
Live and learn. :)
Yeah, I keep getting caught out by the lack of auto-save now too! We are google spoiled. Glad you have your tech pals to work with. Like you, I'm always astonished by the changes in tech in my lifetime. Then I think about what my mother must have experienced in her 95 years. She loved email, searching the web, and facebook... couldn't get her off facebook. :) Thanks for the geek cred, keeping up with the tech is my job these days. It's a constant battle, so much stuff, too little time. I have to admit I am looking forward to retirement, so I can do slower things, like gardening!
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