Professional Reading = Internet Articles

I've been doing a lot of reading lately, and not the fiction kind. I also haven't been doing sustained reading either because I'm doing my reading on the internet. It's fascinating. I remember when I first started using the internet back in it's dial-up days, and I thought it was terribly boring. Now, I can't seem to stop browsing and reading and researching and finding one interesting idea after the next.

Since I started my job as an Instructional Technology Facilitator, I realized that there is a whole world of really cool ideas and movements and research and stories and how-to's about these things that a classroom teacher really just doesn't have time to keep up with. So, I've tried to first, catch up with the times, and second, keep up with the times. To do this I've relied on a few sites and blogs are well-formatted and have good, relevant information. My favorite of these is MindShift from KQED, and if you've never been, I suggested you check it out. The other way I keep up is by reading my Twitter feed (when I find time for that).

Bookmarking has been a great time saver because I don't always have time to read the articles, and
sometimes I come across articles that I know I'll need later but don't relate in that moment. It took me half a year to finally settle on using my search engine bookmarks bar as my main bookmarking site with so serious folder organization over any other tool or extension I tried.

I think my favorite articles to read are the ones about how the brain works, especially in adolescence. It's really amazing how much we don't know about brains, but it also helps to learn a little more about what a teenager's brain processing is like when you see them and are puzzled by some of their behaviors every day of the week. It starts to make sense. And it also makes me think about best practices for teaching, the true influence of peer pressure, and how technology is fitting in to all of this.

And so, I will keep on reading. Oh, but I'll also keep reading my fiction books. I've set a 15 book challenge for myself this year, and I've already made it through 7, but number 8 is a long one, and I haven't been setting much time aside for it. Some days when the breeze is just right and the skies are filled with those big, white clouds, I wish I had the whole day to sit back and read.

Travel to the Amazon

"PercyFawcett" by User Daniel Candido 

on pt.wikipedia. Licensed under Public 

Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Science Friday has a book club. You don't actually have to listen to Science Friday or like science or be a book club type person to enjoy their most recent read. Ira Flato didn't lead me astray when he recommended The Martian by Andy Weir, so when he spoke so highly of their latest read, I was quick to pick up.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann is mostly the story of Percy Fawcett, who was an Amazon explorer who vanished in his search for what he called "Z" or what others have referred to as El Dorado. The author weaves his own narrative with Percy's and tells the history of exploration. The cast of characters involve some of the greatest explorers in the world and the setting moves from bleak Antarctica to the deadly Amazon.

Scenes in this book will make your skin crawl as Grann takes the reader on a journey through the Amazon alongside Fawcett and then later on his search for him. The story is a great balance of narrative and history, and it builds to a very satisfying ending. It's a book for those who are explorers at heart, enjoy history, admire those who push the limits of the human body, are innately curious, or simply enjoy science.

Here's the podcast from Science Friday that encouraged me to pick up Z in the first place: The SciFri Book Club Reads ‘The Lost City of Z’

Here's the podcast from Science Friday where they discuss the book, but don't listen to it until after you've read it because otherwise you'll encounter some spoilers: The SciFri Book Club Talks 'The Lost City of Z'