Don't forget to check yourself!

What? Check myself?


This post is not necessarily ed techie related...but a reminder to take a day or two to check your self...your basic health stats, a tune up for your body, a self reality check...so you can continue to share your knowledge, skills, and abilities with the rest of us.  In the military, birth month checks were the reminder to make all of your required medical appointments in your birth month.  So every January I make those appointments required to do the basic checks...except for last January because I was in transition.  This year I picked it back up again...everything is good except for that annual head to toe skin review.


I understand that health care has the attention of many people this year, but in reality, everyone has a personal responsibility to their own health.  In the long run, it is better to be proactive and educated about yourself, your family history, and lifestyle changes.


I have just had my 10th mole removed from my body. I have had this type of procedure in 4 different states, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina.  I will patiently await the results that will hopefully come back negative and return in 6 months for a follow up to review the annotated areas tagged for review.  There is nothing like the question, "How long have you had this one?", when someone is looking at your backside from the top of your head to between your toes and you wonder when have I even looked for a mole there. So take the time to check yourself, if needed, take a picture and conduct a monthly check.


While we associate melanoma with skin checks, it can occur in the eye. This happened to the father of a friend of mine, who recovered with radiation.


Here is the ABCD reminder when checking your skin for possible features that might be symptoms of melanoma:



Asymmetry:  One half of the abnormal area is different from the other half.
Borders:  The lesion or growth has irregular edges.
Color:  Changes from one area to another, with shades of tan, brown, or black or sometimes white, red, or blue. A mixture of colors may appear within one spot.
Diameter: The trouble spot is usually, but not always, larger than 6 mm in diameter-about the size of a pencil eraser.

So take a moment for yourself...for your health...and check yourself and your family history.  Without your health...your unique ed technieness will depart before you have the time to share your knowledge, skills, and abilities with the rest of us.


As always, comments and recommendations are welcome or you can click on one of the reaction buttons below this post.


Links of interest:
Google Health:  Melanoma
US National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute - Melanoma
Mayo Clinic - Melanoma

What does PLN mean to you?

What is a PLN? What are you talking about? What does it do for me? 
Common questions when one mentions the acronym PLN or PLE, particularly around a group of digitally disconnected individuals.


This morning I retweeted (RT) a tweet sent out by Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) to support Beth Still's (@bethstill) Wallwisher project titled, "What My Personal Learning Network Means to Me":

At some point people acknowledge their personal/professional/perpetual/persistent learning networks (P⁴LN) or environments (PLE) but they may not share their Aha moment or give credit where credit is due.


On January 3, 2010 I blogged a "Thank you to my PLN" and created an ABCD award for them.


Want to learn more about PLNs and PLEs? There are so many links and resources available that I cannot list them all here...please feel free to leave a comment if you have published information on your experiences with PLNs and PLEs.

edtechpost wiki - Collection of PLE Diagrams (Diagrams, links & categorized - 1 of my favorites)

EDUCAUSE - "7 Things You Should Know about Personal Learning Environments" in their collection of 7 Things briefs.

EduTech Wiki article on Personal learning environments.

Wikipedia provides a history of Personal Learning Environments.

Mohamed Amine Chatti's ongoing research on Technology Enhanced Learning blog post on PLE links with links to many other blog posts and articles.

However you reference your PLN/PLE, personal, professional, perpetual, persistent...or whatever adjective you use, it is yours, once you have learned it, applied it, the knowledge cannot be taken away from you...so enjoy it!

Thanks again P⁴LN for continuing to grow on my learning journey!

P⁴ - Personal, Professional, Perpetual, Persistent

Please share your comments, recommendations, and links about your PLN/PLEs and don't forget to thank them.


Don't forget to visit Beth Still's Wallwisher project, "What My PLN means to me..."

What would you do? Response from RCSS...

During a recent assignment in Research Methods, self-reflection was required for one part of the assignment.

I am challenged during this course because many of the required reading assignments are in printed books...got it, no problem implementing the Adapt, Implement and Overcome attitude is something I can do. The required text books are in My Library using Google Books but the views are "No Preview Available" and "Limited Preview" and the books have some type of online supplement which are annotated in the notes. During the self-reflection process I came across a document that challenged me to return to school...again.

I believe this response from the Richmond County School System was the straw that catapulted me into grad school. What would you do if your school board responded to written questions like this? Were the questions to difficult? Isn't this information that anyone associated with a school should have access too? Have you encountered this type of response from the school board and school administrators? I followed RCSS protocol to appear on the agenda, had silent support from many parents, students, administrators, and educators but when the board meeting was adjourned, I had two principals ask me, "What are you going to do when the board doesn't respond?" At first I was shocked that school principals would ask me this but I responded that we will cross that bridge if/when we come to that point. I truly believed that the school board would answer all of the questions...I can remember being at Butler High School that day when the principal brought me the written response from the board...more than 60 days after the questions were submitted to the board.

When RCSS hired Dr. Dana Bedden, this document was presented to him during one of his first Meet and Greet sessions yet 3 years later no updates and the document resides in the public record of the RCSS repository.

So here it is from 2007...

Response from the Richmond County Board of Education

Your comments on the response (or lack of) and whether or not it would have prompted you to do something or accept the status quo are appreciated...or select of the Reaction buttons below this post.