Introductions

I am Kathy Liebenguth, a blogging neophyte, although I have read some blogs before and created a blog once before when I was taking some technology classes through Peru State. It's funny how things change--in 2007 when I was excited about the possibility of using blogging in the classroom, I was told it was not approved for classroom use as a learning tool in BPS. I teach English at Bellevue East, juniors and seniors. I graduated with my BS in Education from Northwest Missouri State University and also hold a MS in Counseling from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. As mentioned before, I have also taken master's level classes online from Peru State. I am a transplanted Nebraskan and still maintain sporting event ties to Iowa (both Iowa State and University of Iowa). For personal information, I am mom to three daughters, Jessie, Abby and Kelsey, all graduates of Bellevue West in the 2000's. I am a lifelong Cardinals' baseball fan and enjoy gardening and spending time with my family. I also am a Christmas ornament addict.

Technologically speaking, I am an Apple convert, I guess. I used to be a PC user, but I now own an iPhone, an iPod, and a Mac desktop computer as well as the school-issued MacBook Pro. My kids tell me I underuse my iPhone because I don't have music on it and don't download my photos, instead leaving them as a pocket photo album, but I use it to feed my Twitter habit and check my Facebook about daily. My students are always surprised when they find out I have social media connections. One of my seniors said a couple of months ago using his I'm-impressed voice, "You have 800-some Tweets." I have tried out Vine but have to admit I'm not sure I get it yet. I self-taught myself (with some help from Ann Feldman) and my seniors GoogleDocs this year and tried to get them to do their research paperless. Some of them bought in; some hated it. We probably saved a couple of tree branches if not the whole tree. I have tried several times to make a class Website, going back several years to some early formats which I don't even remember their names. I'm trying to become a better Google user and did a mini-class introduction to calendars at our last in-service. I'm also trying to learn to use YouTube in the classroom--another in-service training.

I have to admit that I don't understand the three-paragraph requirement for this blog when the directions end with the suggestion for Paragraph 2. My goals for this class include learning how I can use blogging in my classroom and earning some CCUs. A question I have is that I noticed that some people are taking more than one class per session--is that okay? I didn't even think of that.