Looking For Home Schoolers

I'm looking for home schoolers who are interested in being interviewed (and perhaps observed) for a research project I'm working on. I'm especially looking for home schoolers who use at least a moderate amount of technology in their home schools. If you know a home schooler or are one yourself, please email me at: wkist@kent.edu

Plinky and Other Stuff

This is probably old hat to many in the blogosphere, but I had never heard of Plinky until I read this article in Sunday's New York Times. I have been a bad blogger in the last few months, and part of my problem is I feel I don't have anything to blog about, so this site would help me. Plinky gives you a topic to write about each day. Today's topic is: When was the last time you went 'woo hoo' and meant it?

Well, I have two answers to that question from recent times: One was when I found out on May 29 that my latest book has gone into production! And before that, on May 4 when I found out that our offer on a new home had been accepted. Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!

Needless to say, we've been a little busy over the last few months. But never too busy to blog. What was I thinking? I know from my stats that there are many people looking at my web site, so I need to be a better blogger. One thing that I need to remember is that blog posts don't have to be long; I don't need to compose some kind of masterpiece (each time.) So, with that, I will sign off!

Elmo, Me, and Captain Kangaroo

I am really excited to be on the same bill with Kevin Clash (Elmo) during the first weekend in April at Teachers College, thanks to my friend Ryan Goble. (Check out Ryan's neat Ning Making Curriculum Pop.) If you're in the New York neighborhood, I hope you'll plan to stay the entire weekend at what is shaping up to be a fascinating time.

I've been thinking a lot about children's television lately, not only because of Elmo. My students have been creating their Multigenre Autobiographies, and I've been struck by how powerful such kids' television programming as what they call "Old School" Nickelodeon and Pokemon have been in their lives, not to mention such stand-bys as Barney and Sesame Street.

It occurred to me that Elmo will be the second major kids' celebrity I will have met (not counting Cleveland's Captain Penny). Around 1990, I was playing the piano at the old Cascade Club in downtown Akron, and Bob Keeshan who played Captain Kangaroo was there one evening for an event with Akron Children's Hospital. I heard that he was going to be coming into the room where I was playing, so I started trying to remember the theme from the old show. After about an hour of trying it out, interspersing it with "Memory" from Cats and "As Time Goes By," Mr. Keeshan appeared at the door. I stumbled through his theme at the piano as he entered the room. He came over to me after a few minutes and practically dwarfed me as he shook my hand hard--he was as big as a linebacker. "You've almost got it!" he smiled. "You've almost got it!"

Film About Bloggers who Blog About Film

Thanks to Luge, I found this blog which is designed to support a film about bloggers (Indie Film Blogger Road Trip) who blog about independent filmmakers. This blog, then, is a film about blogs about film. Someone needs to blog about that. Actually, I'm doing that now! And I'm going to set up my camera and film myself typing this. Then I will have a film about blogging about a film about blogs about film. I will need to set up a blog to support that project. More soon!