Online Personality

What's your online personality?  I just finished my schoolwork this morning (online) and looked across my Bookmark Bar and realized that I spend a lot of time (but also accomplish a lot) online.  Here's a snapshot of my online personality and how I am developing it.

#1. Blogger  - Why not start right where we are?  Femmecheri has become a journaling outlet for me.  I know people outside my family (or even inside) would only find it nominally interesting, but it is cathartic to me to write a new post and to look back on my past posts.

I am also in the works of forming a blog about Substitute Teaching.  I have a lot to say about this subject like advice to new subs, advice to current teachers about how to set a sub up for success and my view that the whole sub system is outdated and cruel.  More on that to come.

#2. Facebook - There were times that I considered leaving fb.  I was getting tired of seeing who shared "yogadork"'s photo, and some people's almost constant status updates were (and are) nauseating.  But then I started to see fb in a different light.  We are lonely these days, lacking community, and fb provides us with a little bit of that.  My new goal when I log on to fb is to say something nice about someone in a comment or like a few pictures.  That's the whole point right?  Why post a picture if you didn't want the world to tell you they approve?  I do it too, and when people like my photos, I feel a sense of comradery (sp?).

#3.  Pinterest - Announcement, if you're following me on Pinterest and you don't want to see a million "how to use legos in a math class" pins (and the like), you might want to unfollow me and choose a few boards of mine to follow instead... because it's about to get real this summer with the math pinning. I love Pinterest, it's like list making on steroids, and you all know how much I love to make lists!  Enough said.

#4.  Twitter - Twitter is an educator's professional development gold mine.  Don't follow me on Twitter for social reasons.  I'm still navigating the waters, but I'm learning a lot from following some really good, experienced educators on Twitter.

So what's your online personality?  What do you use social sites for?  Are you using them in a way that gives back to you or are they sucking up your precious time?

Finally Settling In

Last week I had this grand idea about a new product that I could launch on Etsy, but this morning I woke up feeling disoriented.  I felt this morning that there were so many things on my "to do" list, but that I had no sense of their priority.  So I've used today as a reality check.  I watched the Randy Pausch video on Time Management again.  (I posted it on my blog about a year ago), and I discovered that I have not yet settled in.  So much has happened in the last 8 months, including graduation, getting married, moving to California, starting as a substitute teacher, and in April I will start my teaching preparation program.  I think my brain has been in reaction mode, and now I need to switch gears.

I'm making a few changes, such as getting a desk and getting organized.  I'm closing my Etsy store so I can focus my energy in more productive ways.  After all, I opened the Etsy store when I was out of work for two months waiting to see if we would be moving to California last summer.  Now that I am working, it doesn't serve me to keep it open.

These next few weeks are crucial for me to get my time managed before I start my teacher program.  I'll be posting some of my solutions here so stay tuned!