oh where oh where does the time go?

So, this week just flew by! Applications sure are a time sink! I have been working with our list from week five and seemingly making very slow progress. I seem to get stuck on an application as I try to figure out the nuances of it. I wish I could say that I am a wizz at figuring out technology quickly, but that just isn't so!
I spent a good amount of time this week on Delicious, RSS and igoogle as well as our exploration list! I am also creating another blog for my after school activity; O Ambassador club. We are planning our fund raising for the group and one of the 8th grade students asked if we could blog about what each of us is researching between meetings - yay! I also received an invite to Facebook from the local library teen group and this week I bit the bullet and signed up for an account! After a discussion in class, I am taking the plunge!
So, although some of my time was spent on "out of class" activities, I feel that the conversations and explorations in this class are helping me to have the courage to say, "yes, I can do that!". It is so rewarding to figure out real ways to integrate the technology into my classroom even though I have limited access for the students at school.
I do find that I need more time to work with some of the applications before I will feel a comfort level to bring them to professional development to the teachers but I know at this point that I can incorporate them into my own teaching and learning.
I love what Richardson had to say in our reading from page 135; "student work is not meant for the teacher, class or school but for the world ~ not to be discarded or stored in a folder ~ but added to the "conversation" and potentially used". He goes on to say that the teacher is the connector of people and it is imperative that teachers model as a true collaborator with other teachers AND students as learners together - the ultimate life long learning scenerio. I believe as Richardson does, that students should be judged as masters by the product and not the test. He states that the web is truly a "read, reflect, write and participate" web now and we need to be change agents. I really think this book should be required reading for all teachers!