I did all the work for my workshop presentation and then I came home and I’ve practically avoided all technology for two weeks.
Diagnosis: A mild case of techno burnout.
It can be great, practical and timesaving. It can also be a black hole for my time.So now I am looking for my happy medium.
My webcam is installed, I’ve used it once, and I have plans to use it once or twice this week. Check.
I’ve updated my classroom website, I’ve been meaning to for two weeks. I had to edit pictures to blur the faces of the children. We also just had a really fun and busy couple of weeks in the classroom. But now that’s done. Check.
I found some good kidspiration templates that I tweaked a little for my students and added a cool website link to one. Great tech lesson! Check.
I am working on my first blog post in a few weeks. Check.
Have been using my Google calendar to organize my most dreaded time of year – end of school year.
Hmm. Spring fever – probably an underlying cause to my techno burnout – actually it’s probably a bit of life burnout. My husband is currently working out of state. He’s been gone this time for about two and a half weeks and doesn’t return for another two and a half weeks. Add to that the end of the year classroom to do items, one daughter in dance class and another in soccer, not to mention homework! Oh, and yes, my youngest (4) has been tantruming again – I’ve been lucky, no teeth marks yet!
NO WONDER I FEEL BURNT OUT!
So, now what to do? Prioritize! My Ning activities – bare minimum. Twitter- it’s been calling my name, but I have to put it aside – that black hole thing I was talking about, so it gets the least amount of my time right now. I think all those awesome links I love to follow were leading to my feeling of being overwhelmed. So twitter is very limited, mostly just what I see on BeTwittered when I check my iGoogle.
Now I need to breathe deep. I just realized that just the process of writing this down helps me to identify what’s going on. There’s a great reason for blogging – public journaling of your thoughts. Could save people thousands of dollars they would otherwise pay a shrink (grins).
2 responses so far ↓
1
Nedra
// May 5, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Good for you being able to prioritize and put some things aside for now. I need to do a better job of that! I’m often feeling overwhelmed with all the new things I’m learning. I cleaned out my gmail account-deleting, adding tags, etc. yesterday. I was amazed at how many accounts I had signed up for but then had never been back to further investigate what’s there and how to use it! Another thing to add to the growing Summer To Do List!
I’m always amazed how people do all of this with young children to care for at home as well. I feel fortunate that I have one in college and a sophomore, so they don’t demand much of my time. I worry about parents not spending enough time with their kids because I know how addicting this can become. You are doing a great job with your class, I’ve been to your site before, and keeping everything in focus. I’ll be back, I think you’re going to help me slow down and focus more. Thanks!
2
Nikki
// Oct 17, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Hi, I’m a student at the University of NE and came across your blog for a class assignment. My class is about ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. It is neat to see how you mention things in your blog, like Ning and Kidspiration, that we have been working on in our class!
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