Looking forward to 2011 …

So, it’s New Year’s Eve … time for reflection, time for planning. 2010 was a tumultuous year for me. Worked in a job I liked, but for someone I didn’t. Almost died in a car accident. Sort of recovered … visited the Galapagos Islands, and that helped. Went on a life changing trip to the Grand Canyon … and that helped me to recover completely and then some …

Realizing that life’s too short, I am revamping everything! I quit my predictable and safe full time job (eek!) and am now an independent educational consultant. I think my most exciting project is going to be acting as the Education Director for Small World Travel (a division of Brownell). This is a wonderful travel consultant group that focuses on family adventures. I will be developing curriculum for families that want to maximize the learning experience for their kids (and themselves) – even to the point of providing full year programs for round-the-world travelers that are schooling their children as they globe trot. Everyone who knows my passion for both education and travel will know that this is the perfect combination of my skills and interests.

Here’s a toast to an exciting 2011 … Hope everyone stays tuned to explore the world with me!

Recently found … 12/31/2010

  • From the Amazon website: “Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle — Kindle books can also be read using our free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Not all books are lendable — it is up to the publisher or rights holder to determine which titles are eligible for lending. The lender will not be able to read the book during the loan period.”

    tags: kindle amazon books literacy literature

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recently found … 12/28/2010

  • Like YouTube for music videos …

    tags: youtube music videos

  • the experience in New York City shows just how difficult it can be to come up with a system that gains acceptance as being fair and accurate. The rankings are based on an algorithm that few other than statisticians can understand, and on tests that the state has said were too narrow and predictable. Most teachers’ scores fall somewhere in a wide range, with perfection statistically impossible. And the system has also suffered from the everyday problems inherent in managing busy urban schools, like the challenge of using old files and computer databases to ensure that the right teachers are matched to the right students.

    tags: teacher evaluation assessment

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recently found … 12/23/2010

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Recently found … 12/20/2010

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recently found … 12/18/2010

  • The In 25 Years time capsule is a collaborative letter to the future, written and read on camera by those of us in the soon-to-be past. These videos will be collected and stored in a strategically hidden, hermetically sealed time capsule until 2035 when older versions of our current selves will dig them up and hold a screening party 25 years in the making. Serious nostalgia shall ensue.

    tags: future time capsule video

  • tags: internet reform future decision-making

    • how do you choose when the constraints of geography, income and circumstance disappear? What goes in a playlist when all the music ever recorded is one click away? Which experts’ thought processes should you tap into when tens of millions of them are on Twitter? How do you choose a book from the millions that you can discover with a Google Books search?

      But as hard as it is to navigate the infinite universe of potential input, deciding what to “do” with all that information is even harder.

    • the old problem of overcoming constraints to action has been replaced by the new problem of deciding what to do when the constraints fall away.
    • The former world demanded relentless fixity of purpose and quick-handed snatching at opportunity; the new world demands the kind of self-knowledge that comes from quiet, mindful introspection.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recently found … 12/13/2010

  • The WWF format is a PDF that cannot be printed out. It’s a simple way to avoid unnecessary printing. So here’s your chance to save trees and help the environment. Decide for yourself which documents don’t need printing out – then simply save them as WWF.

    tags: printing pdf environment

  • tags: psychology questions

    • Effective time- and self-managers are asking themselves two questions, moment by moment.  Those Two Questions are “Am I having fun right now?” and “Is this what I’ve set out to do”?  If I’m doing what I’m here to do, experiencing what is mine to experience, I’ll be motivated and focused and engaged.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recently found … 12/05/2010

  • In my quest to end powerpointlessness … please follow this advice …

    tags: powerpoint presentations tools

  • Personal web-based corkboard with shareable URL

    tags: organization tools

  • This is a very simple trick. Load up any YouTube video, seek to a specific time, pause the video, and right click. Then you’ll be able to choose “Copy video URL at current time” and end up with a URL in your clipboard that’ll start the video at the time you chose. Currently this only works on YouTube.com, but hopefully it’ll roll out to embedded players on other sites in the future.

    tags: youtube sharing

  • FindTheBest is an objective comparison engine that allows you to find a topic, compare your options and decide what’s best for you.

    tags: Search searchengine tools Comparison ranking

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Recently found … 12/02/2010

  • tags: presentation explanation tools

    • Explainers often have lofty goals in their subject matter, but we know that different people have different styles of learning. Explainers utilize many tools to break down complicated subjects beyond just a block of text, and we’ve collected eight of the best. Some of them are visual, interactive, or entertaining, but all of them help users easily digest intricate topics.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.