I’ve been tagged to paricipate in a meme by Cathy Nelson that asks me to look back at my old posts and pick out a rant, resource, reflection, and revelation that were my personal favorites.  The meme was originated by Joyce Valenza and is open to anyone who cares to participate, even if you haven’t been tagged.

Rant: Continuing Education (7-20-2008)

In my seven years in education, it still amazes me that teachers/media specialists who say they want students to be lifelong learners don’t keep up with their own education, especially in the area of technology, unless forced to do so because they need recertification or directed by the principal.  I don’t have anything more to add to what I wrote, other than to say it is still a disappointment to me more educators don’t take advantage of FREE professional development.

Resource: My Favorite Podcasts (4-30-2008)

The original purpose of this blog was (and is) to share resources – hence the Odds & Ends posts!  My Favorite Podcasts wasn’t so much to share resources for education, but to give my readers an insight into my own weird world of things I find interesting.  I still subscribe to all but WebbAlert (which is no longer being produced.)  I’d add:  Pop!Tech (similar to TEDtalks) and NewSpring Church’s video podcast, both available through iTunes.

Image: Podcast Bear by blogefl

Reflections: What! Teens Actually Reading (11-16-2008)

I’m still thrilled with this activity.  I hope Mr. English Teacher, as well as some/all of the other English teachers, will let me visit their classrooms with this activity in the upcoming year.  Oh, as an update, while I did have a drastic increase in late fees due to allowing students to check out more than two books at a time, I still had books on the shelves and happily my circulation statistics went way up!  WhooHoo!  Books in students hands with most of them being read!

Revelations: You’ve Got to Have Faith (5-3-2008)

The revelation for me in this post was that I need to always give students my support and faith.  I still remember my frustration with them that year (and years past) but realized as long as you give them a chance, they will not let you down.  Even at our most exasperated moments with this group, instead of saying lets call it off, we gave them the reins.  I truly missed those kids last year – all but one graduated that May.

Now, here is where I’m supposed to tag others and if you’ve been following me you know that’s not my style.  I love being tagged, but don’t feel comfortable tagging others.  SOOOO, if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged!

Meme rules:

1. Scan your posts for your own personal favorites.
2. Choose one post in any/each of the four categories:

• Rants
• Resources
• Reflections
• Revelations

I leave it to you folks to define these terms, but my instinct is that we could treat these loosely. You are welcome to suggest new categories if these don’t fit.

3. In a blog post, list those posts and very briefly describe

• why it was important,
• why it had lasting value or impact,
• how you would update it for today.

4. Select five (or so) other bloggers to tap with this meme.

5. Tag all of your post with #postsofthepast

Care to join me in this meme?

Cathy Nelson over at the TechnoTuesday blog tagged me for a meme started by Shannon Wham over at the Books, Bytes, & Grocery Store Feet as a reflection on what things we used to do that you can’t do any more.  So here’s my list:

1. “Myrtle Beach Days – have some fun in the waves” (by the Fantastic Shakers) -  Just about every summer when I was little, our extended families would rent a house at Myrtle Beach for a week.  This was the back in the 70’s and 80’s.  Of course, childhood colors my recollection, but I don’t remember lots of crowds or commercialism that you find there now.  I do know that the place wasn’t near as built up as as it is now.  I remember all day on the beach, crab boils, sleeping on the screened in porch, and lots of laughter.  The one thing that hit me this past November was the absence of The Myrtle Beach Pavilion.  This is a photo my Mom took of the empty Pavilion lot.  One of the joys of the beach was walking along Ocean Blvd and seeing all the lights and ending up at the Pavilion.   Today, the Pavilion is gone, and that section of the strip is bare – it hurt my heart to see it that way.  I also don’t like that there aren’t as many miniature golf/putt-putt courses or water slides – there used to be one or the other practically on every corner.  Now you have outlet malls, shopping centers, and development everywhere instead.  It seems to me no one visits to go to the actual beach anymore, but to shop or stay indoors.

2. Simpler play -  When I was growing up, there were only four TV stations (ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS) – cable was expensive and so were Betamax machines (for those of you youngins out there that was the precursor to VHS tapes).  My cousins, neighborhood friends, and I would play OUTSIDE all day – unless it rained.  We would roam the neighborhood, be in and out of each others houses – no locked doors – and spending hours in the “play house” that my uncle built.  These days, kids hardly ever play outside.  I also think we got to stay innocent a lot longer than the kids today.

3. Movie Projectors – Shannon brought up that he missed drive-in movies – which I have never been privileged to visit, but I may have to go to “The Big Mo” one of these days.  However, I miss seeing our old home movies on the reel-to-reel movie projector Mom had – I loved the production of how long it took to set up the projector and screen.  I loved the sound the film made moving through the machine and that it felt like we had our own little movie theater in our living room with me, uhhmm, I mean my family as the stars.  Watching the tapes or DVDs just doesn’t feel the same.

4. No seat belts – Shannon mentioned riding in the back window of cars.  While I don’t remember ever doing this – my Mom had/has a ‘75 Camaro that didn’t really have a space between the ledge and window – I do remember riding around in the back of vans, cars, and station wagons w/out seat belts.  I vividly remember riding from South Carolina to Tennessee in the back of a van on a beach lounge chair!  In fact, that same chair was my bed at one time when we got to my relatives in Tennessee and there was a shortage of beds.  When we went on trips in my aunt’s Impala (I think that’s what it was), when we got tired, we’d typically sit on the floor with our heads on the seat.  My aunt later had a station wagon and us girls would lay in the back cargo area on the drive home, even if no one was sitting in the back seat.  No one ever gave any thought to our not wearing seat belts, since it wasn’t a law back then.

Okay, that’s all I can think of at the moment.  Sorry, no illegal deeds in my past – I was always the good girl – spoiled rotten, but scared to do anything bad.  I’ve always been a people pleaser.

So, you know how I feel about tagging folks, but I am interested to see what Pat “loonyhiker” Hensley would choose, so Pat, “tag, your it!”  If anyone else wants to continue the meme, feel free!

I got tagged by Cathy Nelson to participate in the Seven Things You Don’t Need to Know About Me meme the other day (sorry Cathy, I’ve not been on my computer for the last few days – shocking I know!)   So I’m supposed to tell you guys seven things you may not need to know about me, here goes:

I HATE spiders.  While I am also scared of snakes, I have nightmares about spiders.  However, I will NOT squash a spider anymore.  One night, I went into the kitchen to get something to drink.  When I turned on the light there was a HUGE spider – easily three inches long – running across the floor.  I took one of my moms garden shoes and squashed it – and out sprang HUNDREDS of baby spiders.  It freaked me out.  I’m squealing and banging cabinets looking for bug spray and all I can find is Windex.  I’m spraying these suckers with Windex to slow them down, but they are EVERYWHERE.  Mom comes in, finds the bug spray, and we go back to bed.  The next day, the exterminator is out to the house.

I love the sound, smell, and scenery of the ocean.  Our family used to rent a house at Myrtle Beach every summer when I was a kid.  I’ve even had the good fortune of having vacationed on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts – I stayed a month in Monterrey, California the summer before high school.  I loved it out there – it was July and while the temperature in SC was in the hundreds, I don’t think it ever reached 80° in Monterrey.

I believe everyone should have to work retail and/or customer service at least once in their life.  And I mean they actually have to give great customer service – do a good job – not just go through the motions.  I believe if people did this, they wouldn’t be so quick to be such jerks to people who have those jobs.  Granted, there are folks who work customer service who shouldn’t be allowed near people, but still, I’ve always been told you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, so I try not to be noticeably irritated until the other person gives me reason.  I tell myself that I would hate to have their jobs, so let me not make their day any worse.

I dislike telephones.  I especially hate ringing telephones – they seem to always ring at the most inopportune times.  For those of you who call me, please leave a message.  I leave the ringer off the cell phone and I use the answering machine to screen calls.  Your best bet is to email me – I’m more likely to answer promptly.

As an undergrad in college I originally entered as an accounting major.  However, after taking my second accounting course I realized it was harder than I thought it would be and I knew I needed to change majors.  I’d always been fascinated by archeology and thought I wanted to be an archeologist, but then realized I’m lazy and I couldn’t see myself working outside, in the dirt, especially in the heat.  So I thought about being a history major, but then I learned that I’d have to write a thesis as part of the degree.  So, I became a glorified secretary instead – I got a degree in Office Administration.  It was six years later that I went back to get a library degree.

I can’t skip to the end of a book to find out who done it or what happens.  It drives me bonkers when I see people do this.  I want to be surprised and/or find out if I’m right.  Also, up until recently, I’d finish a book even if I didn’t like it, just because I’d invested so much time already.  However, now that my free time is limited, if I don’t like a book, I’ll give up on it and move on to another one.

I don’t perpetuate chain letters/emails.  If I get one, I may or may not read it – it just depends if it’s interesting or not.  I DON”T forward them on as a rule, and if I do, I create a new email and I delete everything but the good stuff and send it to only a few people, unlike most folks who just forward the original.  I refuse to perpetuate the mistaken belief that if you forward the message on to x number of people something ‘miraculous’ will happen.  Also, guys, use my PERSONAL email for those things – it’s against most company policies to send them through company email systems.  I’m just sayin’ – I don’t want to loose my job or have a note in my file because of a chain letter!

Which brings me to the end of this meme – I don’t mind people asking me to participate in a meme – in fact I thank you for thinking of me for chain letters and memes, however, I don’t feel comfortable asking friends or family to participate.  I leave it up to you guys to decide if you want to keep the meme going rather than requesting that Tom, Dick, or Harry be tagged next.  Participate if you choose, you wont hurt my feelings if you don’t!

FlickrCC Photo Credits: Giant Spider Strikes Again! by jpctalbot; yard sale fun – name tag by evelynishere

The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Homes book cover from Follett TitleWave.

Okay, Cathy Nelson is passing along the “Life is One Big Top Ten (2008)” meme and I thought it might be fun to participate. Here is the original guidelines:

Paul C at Quoteflections respectfully begins a meme on the topic: Life is One Big Top Ten (2008). It’s an outgrowth of Time’s ultimate Top Ten Everything of 2008. I appeal to anyone else so inclined to write their own Top Ten list for 2008 on a topic of their choice. You are invited to link to my site, use the title Life is One Big Top Ten (2008) to help with a web search, and tag several people to carry the meme forward. This topic has the potential to be interesting and fun as we close out the year.

Cathy’s list is her favorite Christmas songs; however, the meme leaves you free to choose your own top ten “things.”  I think I’ll keep with the ‘holiday’ theme and share my top 10 holiday movies.  Now this list isn’t strictly Christmas, but the movies I like to watch each year in honor of the season/holiday.  It was hard to narrow them down – I had 15, but had to cut some   and I could have kept going.  Anyway, here they are – in no particular order:

Hocus Pocus – Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy play off of each other so well.  Add Bette Midler singing means this one is definitely a treat.

Arsenic and Old Lace - Cary Grant.  ‘Nough said.  Well, that and he is such a comic genius – and can also be such a suave leading man, too.  Plus the two crazy aunts crack me up!

Harvey -  What can I say?  I love this story about an invisible 6′4″ white rabbit and Jimmy Stewart was brilliant in this one.  And the scene where Mr. Wilson looks up the definition of a Pooka in the dictionary is priceless!

White Christmas – I don’t care how many times I watch this one, but I still cry when the General sees all of his former men there showing him support.

While You Were Sleeping – Romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman.  I repeat, Bill Pullman – he is an underrated leading man.  Yep, appeals to the romantic in me – and it helps that this one is so funny.  I especially like the scenes between Lucy and her boss – which gives me my favorite quote: “Pull the plug!” and the whole “wedding” scene is hilarious.

The Ref – This was the first time I took note of Kevin Spacey.  The scene with him beating on the Christmas tree saying “Excuse me…. If you don’t mind, the “corpse” *STILL* has the floor!” and them all telling off the mother-in-law! I loved it!

Bell, Book and Candle – Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak with Jack Lemmon and Elsa Lanchester to boot!

Batchelor Mother / Bundle of Joy – Yeah, technically, these are two separate movies, but since they are really the same movie – one is just a ‘musical’ remake – I’m counting them as one.  I love both Ginger Rodgers and Debbie Reynolds.

Miracle on 34th Street – One word: “Overruled!”  Every time my step-father sees us watching this one, he says that.  It’s his favorite part of the movie.  Mine is when Santa sings Dutch to the little orphan girl.  Yeah, I’m an ole softie, I just pretend to be hard-hearted.  It’s a Christmas tradition for Mom and I to watch this one on Thanksgiving Day.  Of course it has to be the real version, the one with Maureen O’Hara and Edmund Gwenn – all the other versions are horrible.

We’re No Angels – NO, not the one with Robert DeNero and Sean Penn, but the one with Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov.  I love this movie from start to finish, but I especially love the “trial” scene.  I haven’t watched this one yet recently, I think I’ll stop writing now and go pop it in the DVD player!

As you’ve no doubt guesses, I like comedies.  I’m partial to old(er) movies, too!  I love the original black and whites, none of this colorized versions if I can help it!

I know, I bet you thought It’s A Wonderful Life and/or A Christmas Story would be there didn’t you?  I cannot stand them.  Want to know why – because of the constant MARATHONS that go on each Christmas.  They were great to watch ONCE, but not the constant bombardment we get each year.  Some of the others that were cut from my list include: Home Alone, Home Alone: Lost in NY, Holiday Inn, Bishop’s Wife (another Cary Grant movie!), and Monster Squad.

Okay, now it’s your turn!  What is your top ten list for 2008?