If the third time isn't a charm, there may be some issues...

So.  Over the last 2 weeks, one thought has consistently run through my head:

"If the third time isn't a charm, I'm so freakin' screwed."'

I believe in the notion of charmed thirds because I believe in the idea of not giving up on myself.  This is my third career route since I finished my undergrad work a few years ago.  Quite simply, the options are fairly limited after this go 'round.  While I was happy (at least temporarily...) with the jobs I've had in the past, I burned out so fast and furiously, you'd think I was making the fifth sequel to that movie.  I don't feel that yet.  Granted, it's only been two weeks, but the mental feeling isn't even there.  I feel like I'm doing the right thing.  Like the kindergarteners I used teach liked to say, this might be sorta okay.

Thing need substance, though.  I can't just ramble endlessly, especially when I have something I have to talk about.  So let's talk about school.  Specifically, let's talk about Friday, when I have my teaching with technology class.  Can I just start by saying this class feels unbelievably right?  Not that learning about the origins of Bloom's Taxonomy isn't, but this feels much more real.  Real in the sense that it's going to give me inspiration and direction in my classroom.  Or at least ideas for what I'd like my classroom to be like (let's get real, my main concern is making it through the curriculum without myself or anyone else dying).  My professors, Jeff and Kristin, gave us a lot to think about, but it was things we actually wanted to think about.  

For real. 

With the utmost respect to my classmates and professors, I've been having issues making sense of my thinking by the end of Thursday.  I don't make sense to myself, so I greatly doubt that I'm making sense to everyone else in the room.  But a large portion of us are "millenials."   (I hate that word.  Just for the record).  Technology has played a massive role in our lives.  But how do we make this work in the classroom?  When I was in school, technology in the classroom consisted of our weekly computer class, some film strips in library, and the overhead projector.  That was the big time.  If I tried to run that boat now, I'd probably be laughed out of school.  

When I met my mentor this spring, she insisted she was "low tech," but her classroom seemed different.  There were 3 computers in the room, a TV, DVD/VCR, overhead projector, data projector, document camera, and a sound system.  She had a class blog and class website.  That's not low tech.

How does this work for me?  How do I continue this trend?  I think that's what I plan on learning over the next year.

What got me the most (in the good way), was the fact that we talked in the class on Friday.  And not entirely about higher order thinking.  We used happy small words sometimes.  Things seemed much more applicable to our coming jobs (again, not that Krathwohl didn't work really hard on his revised taxonomy and not that I won't need it to teach).  Relief, really.  It's interesting to think about what "technology" means in a classroom setting in 2012.  It's not what it was in 2002 or even 2006.  It's getting bigger and bolder.  It's more.  

But because it's been a long week, I can only think so much.  Let's end this on a lighter, simple Abby note.  That means a video of something random!

When I was 11--a month or 2 before my 12th birthday--I saw my first concert.  The make up back on KISS tour.  Alice in Chains opened.  It was at the old Tiger Stadium.  In honor of that, a clip from '96 of KISS playing under the Brooklyn Bridge.