I can’t sleep. I’m feeling a little rushed — trying not to get trampled in the rush of blog rolls, RSS feeds, Facebook updates, and so on and so on. I read Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog today, and his post “Your source for humor?” resonated with me. Instead of tossing and turning, I’ve decided to take stock. Johnson talks about the fact that humour is a great motivator, attention-getter, and stress reliever. I couldn’t agree more — hence the photo of the sheep stampede above.

Having a laugh gave me a chance to catch my breath and think more about how some of Richardson’s suggested used for blogs in the classroom could apply to my library. I am very proud of the library web site I created for M.E. LaZerte High School. It is a combination of web links and pathfinders and online learning structures for a wide range of curricula. But it could be so much better.

I do love the assignment we created for Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men. Students were asked to collect materials on the Great Depression, and they visited the New Deal Network to view photographs and read accounts of people who lived during the Depression. They then created a collage based on the material they found. How powerful it would be to have students blog this material. I can imagine the rich discourse that would result as groups looked at the material other groups had found, and were able to reflect and comment on it.

I am hoping that, even though I am retired, I can go back to school and work with my good friend Kathryn Cook on reworking this assignment.

And now I think I can sleep.