Great new song

This song came across my Pandora station today while I was writing, and it was one that made me stop and look up the lyrics. The melody is beautiful and the lyrics are insightful. There is no music video created by the band for this particular song, but I did find this video on YouTube. Enjoy!

Platte River State Park

This Saturday I was reminded how important it is to take in the simple pleasures of life. First, my husband took the time to make me whole wheat blueberry pancakes topped with fresh strawberries and blueberries along with turkey bacon and coffee. If you know me at all, you know that this is my kind of meal! We took our time waking up and even watched the movie "Once" (more to come about this movie later) before we decided to venture east to Platte River State Park near Louisville, Nebraska. It was hot, muggy, and the mosquitoes were terrible---but the park was breathtaking. We hiked for a few hours pausing to snap a few photos along the way. We made sure to wade in the creek and later came head to head with two rather large deer. Despite my body being covered in mosquito bites, I loved every minute of this small trip. I am constantly amazed at how much Nebraska has to offer. This park is certainly one of those hidden gems.

This small day trip was so enjoyable and reminds me of how important it is
to take time to do this. My husband and I both devote so much time our jobs--too much time--it's our goal to strike a better balance next school year, to take more one day trips like this one!

I Love Technology

For the past three weeks I've been taking a Nebraska Writing Project course that is all about incorporating technology into the writing classroom. We've evaluated the effectiveness of technology, have been introduced to cool tools, and have had time to develop projects we can take back to our own classes. My focus for this institute was Google. I love Google. Next year my 12th grade students will be using Gmail, iGoogle, Google Docs/Presentations, and Google Sites. If you aren't familiar with these free Google services, I'd seriously recommend checking them out.

If you're interested--here are a few of my favorite tools from the Tech. Institute (they're ALL free):

• Jing--a website that allows you to create a video of onscreen action (like a tutorial...how to use Google Docs for example) and record your voice
• Evernote--this is an amazing place to store and organize notes, reminders, pictures, whatever--it has a great searching system. I've even taken pictures from my phone of things I want to remember (covers of books, notes on the whiteboard in a class, etc) and emailed them to my Evernote account
• Remember The Milk--an electronic To-Do list. You can enter a task, give it a due date, and write a memo about it. You can also use it to create calendars and other cool things. I've placed this app on my iGoogle site (which is set as my homepage) so I can constantly see what things I need to do.