Alternatives to Book Reports

Did You Know

I wanted a place to remember where to find this.  Thanks Pat.

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One of my students told me this yesterday, “Mrs. Hoffman, you’ll really starting to be computer geeky.”

I’ve been enjoying the reading of many of these blogs.  Thanks to Morag for giving me the chance to write my own.

1. I started out planning on being a computer teacher.  My first semester at the U of S found me only working on programming in the basement of the arts ed building on the new computers that had many kinks.  My other marks suffered.  I dropped my second semester computer class, picked up a philosophy class and brought up my other marks so that I could stay in university.  Now, many years later I am teaching computers.  It was meant to be.

2.  I love to travel.  My first major trip was the summer before grade 12 when my friend Denise and I took a train to Winnipeg, caught a ride to London, Ontario with a friend of my Dad’s, and then spent over two weeks exploring London and Toronto.  We then flew back to Saskatoon, student stand-by for $98.  What a great adventure…. Since then I’ve hit eight provinces, several states and three continents.  Many more to go….

3.  I love softball.  Got my first glove for my ninth birthday.  Have played in four provincial final games, won two of them.  Played three years at the masters’ level and if there was still a team I would have continued longer.  Just got sick of driving so far to find a team to play with.  I have also been a great fan and have traveled to watch two worlds and a couple of national tournaments, not to mention many local tournaments.  I have now had a chance to coach at two provincial tournaments.  I find coaching much more difficult than playing though and don’t think I will pursue it any further.

4.  I believe in ghosts.  Had my one and only encounter in a house that I lived in alone for a year.  Woke up one night to go to the bathroom, stepped over my ghost who was lying on the kitchen floor.  Stepped over him on the way back to my bed.  Had not turned any lights on – had never done that before – had one of the best nights’ sleep ever or since.  And one of the calmest days of my life the next day.  When I talked of my experience in the staff room the next day and described what I had seen, many of the staff were shocked to hear my descriptions as they had known the man who had died in my home several years before and also knew that he was found laying on the floor of the kitchen after dieing of a heart attack.

5.  When I was eight my optometrist told my mom that I was probably reading too much as my eyes were getting worse and worse.  He told her to limit my reading.  I cried and cried and thankfully she didn’t listen to him.

6. When I was seven an elephant at the Calgary zoo picked me up with his trunk.  I’ve blocked out most of it except his smell and the trainer telling me that if I was seven I shouldn’t be afraid of five year olds.  The elephant was five.

7.  I don’t drink coffee and never have.  The one and only cup of coffee that I ever drank was because I felt I would be rude not to drink as it was poured before I could say no.  I put cream and sugar in it, waited till it was cold and then gulped it down.  The woman grabbed the pot immediately to pour me more.  Almost got my hand burned when I covered the cup quickly to stop her.

Setting up Google Readers with my InfoPro 30 class today.  One student asked me, “What if I don’t want to read anything that people write about?”

Now I struggle with the writing of blogs all the time.  What do I want to say?  What do I want others to read?  What don’t I want others to read?  Who’s reading my writing?  Who’s not reading my writing?  Who really cares?

But I could not imagine not reading all of the information that I have read in the last year because of blogging.  Did I tell her that?  Not yet.  I will on Wednesday.  Today I answered, “Do it anyway.”

I’ll get her to subscribe to my blog on Wednesday…….

Took my grade 4, 5, 6 class in to try out Wordle.net on Friday.  It won’t work on our computers.  Note to self – “Try programs on school computers not just my laptop before taking in a class of students to try something new.  Just because it works on my laptop doesn’t mean it’s going to work in the lab.”  

Told them to try it at home if they could and print out a copy if they could and checked email and did keyboarding for the last few minutes of class.