Free Money????

I actually enjoyed finding grants and partnerships this week!  I chose to search for something that I have always wanted to do to see if it is actually feasible.  I found a lot of grants that already support similar endeavors, which really makes me want to pursue it next year!  I just need to flush out the idea so it is more organized.  I am excited now!!!  


I was shocked to see so many grants out there.  I sadly got a little disappointed because I found a lot of grants for specific states, but I did not encounter a lot of Georgia specific grants.  I really wanted use a Florida grant I found, but I am not in Florida!  It was with a Florida power company, but I looked at the Georgia power companies and they did offer grants, but there was not enough information on them.  There were still plenty of grants to apply for and only picking 1 was hard!


I am slowly seeing a technology facilitator coming out in the way I am thinking.  It is a slow change, but it is getting there!  I am not ready to change everything I comfortable with yet, but I have definitely gotten some new ideas I want to try out, once I have flushed them out of course!  


This just might be the shortest blog I have created yet...I am not sure how I feel about this.  I know that I have so many words just running around in my head about my feelings, classes, and school, but I think today is just a simple day.  I like free money and I am excited by the change I am starting to see in myself.  

Safety First!

Internet safety is not always something teachers feel should be there job. That is something the parents should be teaching their children at home.  It has nothing to do with education, but all with parenting.  However, that passive attitude is how children get hurt.  We cannot assume that all parents teach their children how to be safe on the Internet.  They may not know how to talk to their children or do not know about the dangers they may face. There are many things that educators need to address with their students to secure that they are at least aware of the dangers the Internet holds.  I always worry about my students who talk about that they friend anyone on social networks.  They are not aware that just friending everyone is not safe because when you are on the Internet, you can pretend to be anyone!  So the cute guy you friended and are now making plans with just might be a 45 year old bald man.  Not okay!  You should always know who you are friending because letting strangers into your "world" can lead to trouble.
I also worry about cyber bullying and how it affects my students.  I know that while they are in my classroom I can keep an eye on them and intervene if I see bullying.  However, when it occurs on the Internet and no one is there to intervene, it can have detrimental consequences.  We need to find a solution to cyber bullying that is not so hands off on the education part.  There was a cyber bullying problem with some of my students last year and I was told there was nothing we could do on our end. However, the boys involved brought the bully to school and we were able to handle that part of it.  I still wish we could have tackled the real problem, which started on a social network site.  I know that there have been a lot of changes in made in education to protect the students from cyber  bullying, but I am still waiting for my district to jump on the "we need to stop cyber bullying" wagon!