Some of My Favorite Blogs Explained

So I am sitting here in Panera after church enjoying a quick breakfast before facing this day (PT Conf. start tomorrow!) and I thought that I need to explain the sidebar on this page that lists some of my favorite blogs. This is just a small, but representative, list of some of my favorites.
The first blog on the list belongs to my son who is studying in Madrid, Spain this semester. Matthew is a sophomore at St. Louis University. He is using this blog as a way to keep in touch with all the friends and family who were emailing him and wanting to know what he's been up to (besides studying) while he is in Spain. My students love following this blog (though I do have to be creative with how they get to see it since it is blocked from use in our district). You can tell that Matthew is having a good time in Spain and traveling around Europe and Africa. Some entries of note: his trip to Morocco to visit a high school friend and going to the Madrid Real basketball game (he is a huge college hoops fan).
The next blog that I love to visit often is the Teachers Love SmartBoards site. Oh, my goodness! There is so much here. If you have a SmartBoard, you have to add this to your RSS feed! As a classroom teacher and a SmartBoard trainer, this site has provided me with so many ideas and websites that I can use. If you don't have a SmartBoard, Jim Hollis has links to games that you can use with or without a SmartBoard. Many of his ideas can work with all types of interactive whiteboards. Check it out...but make sure you have time on your hands because you will be there for awhile!
I have enjoyed Kathy Schrock's websites for a long time now. If you are new to the area of integrating technology in the classroom, you need to visit all of her sites and sign up for her weekly email, Sites of the School Days, from her Discovery Education page. She has so many ideas. I discovered her blog after attending a conference in the fall. I enjoy reading it because it's informative, but it is kind of like sitting down with an old friend and just discussing things that relate to our profession: education.
I had visited Will Richardson's Webblog Ed blog several times before, but it was after I saw him speak at a conference in January that I revisited the site. He is a wonderful speaker, but his ideas about technology in education were in-line with the way that my thinking has evolved over the past couple of years. So of course...when I got back home, I added him to my Google Reader.
Scrap Girls is something that I stumbled upon recently. I have recently become interested in digital scrapbooking when I was looking for information about how to use Adobe Photoshop (one of the least intuitive programs I have ever encountered). I found some great sites, lots of freebies, and this blog, which I just enjoy reading. With all the work (and school) and family activities and responsibilities sometimes we forget that we just need to take time for something ourselves. This one of those things that I will turn to when I need some "me time".