A Blogger's favorite Blogger

      It's been all semester in the making, but at long last, my first blog post is up and running due to some personal time I have taken this week in honor of Osceola County, FL's Spring Break.  What a fun little project to keep me occupied.  I am an Elementary Education student at the University of Central Florida and it has been suggested to me and to my fellow students that we endeavor to develop a voice in digital media beginning immediately.  It is important for us to exercise our technological fluency and become immersed in the culture to make ourselves more marketable in our future careers.  So, are you interested in what I have to say?  How about we start with whose blog I read.  I checked out quite a few when looking for a model to follow, however, Vicki Davis, aka the Cool Cat Teacher, is the full package in my opinion.  When looking for inspiration on layout and style components, as well as when looking for hot button issues, I will turn to her first.  What do I like about her blog, you ask?...

     She blogs almost every day, but she keeps it short and sweet.  For me there is no bigger turn off in blogs than being hooked in by a super catchy title and then wasting the next half an hour suffering through an overly lengthy explanation of a topic that could have been summed up in a brief paragraph.  It's nice that she blogs almost every day because you know that you are getting the freshest high quality news.  Other people obviously approve because she's won EdTech's 2012 and 2013 Top Blogger title.  She has also been featured in Forbes, the Washington Post, and on NPR talk radio.  She is truly a professional and deserves the recognition.

I also like the wide range of topics that she's covered in her blog.  Scrolling through, I saw that recently she had a talk session with a Mr. Chandler Bolt.  She spoke about his book with him and how part of the money received is actually going to fund outreach work in Africa.  In another post she recommends physical fitness hardware and software that can motivate adults especially and make exercise more entertaining, whether it is by exercising with friends, running from Zombies, or viewing fitness videos from celebrity trainers.  We all love Jillian Michaels, ya know.  Finally she wrote about her own personal feelings towards the implementation of technology in the classrooms.  I have seen the pros and cons of technology in the classroom and I agree with her that in many public schools, technology is being used improperly and not to it's best benefit.  In general, Mrs. Davis is a very broad spectrum writer and doesn't limit herself to only one topic.

Lastly I love that she's so real with her postings.  She's a real teacher and a real mother and she writes from that standpoint.  She sympathizes with the reader and doesn't live in the ideal world, she lives in the real world just like you and me.  She appears to have a humble and witty personality and seems like someone that I would definitely get along with.  I am going to be a budding teacher in a matter of years and I am already helping to raise a 7 year old boy.  I can use all of the compassion and advice I can get before I'm in up to my eyeballs with responsibility.  Being a working woman, especially being a working mom is quite like having two full time jobs, one of which being underpaid and one of which being unpaid all together. =-/.  It takes a helping of patience and love and determination to hold it all together.  I hope to be someone other teachers and moms can relate to just Mrs. Davis.    

If you would like to check her out, you can find her at http://www.coolcatteacher.com/.  Thanks for taking a moment to share in my first post on my first ever (future) teacher blog.  =-D