Two days at poetry camp, and my head is already swimming. Not only is it the company of so many colleagues who are doing the same (right) thing in so many schools, but it's also the buzz of ideas. New this year is the ongoing under thread of the Common Core, and how what we are doing supports the standards. Also, the implementation of technology in the practice and teaching of poetry has come up many times. We are all mostly in agreement; one woman, a tech integration specialist and English teacher from North Carolina said it best: "if the technology is not transformative, don't use it." In other words, if it's fun, and catchy, and an interesting gimmick, it's not enough to sell her on using it in the classroom. And her school is a private one that is tech based, with most of their students going to what she calls the "...IT schools," as in MIT. Also, there are apparently many working poets who love to skype; this could be awesome for so many schools that don't have the budget to bring a person to their schools physically. I will be getting a list sometime soon, and when I do, I will share info. Podcasts are something a lot of teachers have tried, and with varied interest on the part of their students. My final project for class focuses on the use of podcasts and skype; I was really glad to hear others talk about their uses and experiences with these two forms of tech, as I was just "pie in the sky-ing" when I chose to embed those two things in my project. In short, it appears it might just work. (phew)

I'm still at "camp" until Friday, and I would posit I will be even more awash in new ideas by then. I'll check in.

Poetechnologically yours...