Digital Professional Portfolios

After working with livetext for the last 2 years I do not believe there is any better program available for creating a teaching portfolio. Now that I have re-created my portfolio with Google sites, I believe it has some advantages because of the web-based, public access to my information. With livetext, a potential employer would have to subscribe to the software in order to view its content, and livetext needs to be repurchased after 5 years and Google sites is free.

Sites such as linkedin and plaxo do a good job of keeping all of your email contacts organized, which can be difficult for people with multiple email accounts. Other than this feature I do not see a huge benefit to subscribing to either linkedin or plaxo.

Here is a link to my Google sites portfolio.
http://sites.google.com/site/sopsprofessionalportfolio/home

Library Thing

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tsop55

The link is to my librarything catalog. I have a bunch of football or sports books I have read and one book about MLB umpires I want to read. I highly recommend Junction Boys by Jim Dent.

Generators Con't

Here's another one.

www.letterjames.com

Image Generators

What a fun toy. I created an image of myself on a cheap romance novel cover from a photo on my pictures. You can change size, shape, and skin tone, along with a whole bunch of other tricks. Here is an example from the site: http://romancenovelyourself.com/

Podcasts Online

I found a great podcast produced by a father/daughter duo about lifelong fitness and wellness; it is now linked to my Bloglines account. The podcast finder provided by Prof. Sailor was very in depth with a ton of podcasts to choose from. There is a lot of good information out there.

YouTube Blog Post

I have used YouTube in my classroom on several occasions. The amount of information posted on this site is incredible, and a lot of the educational videos are posted by students. One of the drawbacks is YouTube only allows users to post videos shorter than 10 minutes. As a football coach, one of my jobs is to create hi-light films of my players for college coaches to view; using YouTube as the medium allows any and all coaches to view the film so the student athlete doesn't have to send each school a file or DVD. I've provided a couple of examples on a previous post. If you are teaching in a classroom or school without internet service or the internet is down, you can convert and save YouTube videos for viewing anytime without internet access using a free program called "any video converter". In a weight training class a teacher can show video on proper form and technique, and students can post videos on their own performances and personal records. The possibilities are endless.

Technorati

I just finished exploring technorati and was quite disappointed. I could not find any blog posts, blogs, or tags using the keyword "Kinesiology." When I looked up educational blogs, only 2 came up from the directory. However, when I checked the tags feature, several blogs were tagged as educational, but there were no Kinesiology tags available. The tags feature did allow for an easier and more in depth search.

Del.icio.us is Deliciuos

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that allows users to bookmark and tag all of their favorite and most viewed sites on the web. It's like having your personal laptop even when you are on the road or at work using a different computer. My personal CPU has bookmarks at the top of the browser which makes navigation quicker and easier. However, when I am not home Del.icio.us makes anyone's computer feel like my own. The tagging feature allows you to organize your sites into categories such as education, email (if you have multiple emails), sports, or web 2.0. One way it could it be beneficial in the classroom is to have students bookmark research sites that pertain to a project they may be doing, or a blog they might following. The site also allows students to follow other users' bookmarks if they are of a common theme; this can save time when doing research and help students get a quicker and more efficient start. Del.icio.us is truly delicious.

YouTube Video Posts

The following are a couple links to YouTube videos featuring high school football high lights. The 1st is from PJ Nelson from St. Pat's High (my old school) and the 2nd is from Zak Beible from Lake Forest High School (my new school).

So far, we have learned numerous types of technology. A couple that I believe can be really helpful in my career as a PE teacher, especially in the area of lifelonf fitness, is the iStats fitness log. Students can post and track workouts with other students and monitor progress. Another technology tool I feel can be helpful are the social networking sites such as facebook, but not facebook. One that I became aware of is called Ning, which was designed for educational purposes and can have advertising blocked. Students can upload projects such as performance-assessment videos or photos or podcasts for the teacher and the rest of the class to view and assess.

iStats free online fitness journal

iStats is a free, web based fitness journal where users can track their workouts and give and receive suggestions for improvement. The site promotes starting groups to share experiences and workouts and to be motivators in each others' fitness endeavor. The site will create workouts for you and track overall fitness by asking a few general questions such as your height and weight. This site seems extremely helpful, motivational, and promotes reflection.

Google docs

Google is a terrific tool for anyone who is on the go. The fact that everything is saved as a web based file eliminates the need to email things to yourself when changing locations. I played around with the word type program, it acts similar to this blog program. When something is misspelled it lets you know and offers suggestions to fix it. However, it does not have all of the bells and whistles MS word offers. Tools like grammar check and the synonyms function in word are priceless for the gym teacher who never thought about being an English major.

A blog about blogline?

I set a blogline account with a bunch of news feeds and feeds from my classmates and it looks like something I will be using in the future. This is similar to a favorites or bookmark option on my browser window but quicker; you can easily click from one feed to the next.

Here come the Hawks

Once again...sorry everyone on the left coast. The Chi-Town Hawks were just too fast. Lord Stanley's Cup here we cup.

BHawks

BHawks
Originally uploaded by tsop55

Too bad San Jose fans in grad school with me. Friday night we go up 3 games to nil.

LFHSHelmet

LFHSHelmet
Originally uploaded by tsop55

Found the helmet!!!

Flickr Whathaveyou

I am new to flickr now. I thought facebook was for sharing pictures and videos. Anyway, here is a picture of a helmet of my new school and team, the Lake Forest High School Scouts. As one friend put it, "you're the only person in this economy who quit his job without knowing if he had another."

New blog

This is a new and free blog for offensive line coaches and players of all levels to discuss anything new or different involving offensive line play. I have been coaching o-line for 11 years at the college and high school level; I am primarily a "zone guy" but I have experience coaching in a flex-bone, triple option system. I am particularly interested in discussing protections, both schemes and techniques. I look forward to hearing about anything other coaches and players have to say.