Mike Falick's Blog

Back to (Somewhat) Regular Blogging

As regular readers of this blog have no doubt noticed, I took some time off from blogging.  My intent is to return now to regularly blogging.

Welcome Back

Because of a very busy Summer, I have not been posting.  Beginning today, I am back, and regular postings will resume.

I am going to make a few changes that I hope will make this blog more user friendly.  Instead of random postings, I am going follow a fairly regular schedule as follows:

Sunday: Miscellaneous
Monday: Spring Branch
Tuesday: Spring Branch School Board (2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month following Board meetings)
Wednesday: Free Educational Resources
Thursday: Legislative (State and National)
Friday: Future of Education
Saturday: TED Speeches

While this schedule will make this blog more predictable, things will undoubtedly come up that I will post.

I welcome your feedback.  Please feel free to post any comments.

Whole Lotta Blogging

It's been a couple of weeks since I have had time to give my blog the attention it deserves.  But I have lots of items that are just waiting to be posted.  So below are some of the things I have saved up over the past few weeks.  I should be able to resume daily posting starting tomorrow, which will include a recap of tomorrow night's Budget Advisory Committee meeting.

200,000th Hit!

At 8:07p yesterday, this blog received its 200,000th hit since I started it on August 6, 2005.

The hit came from Spokane, Washington through a Google search on "invalid homework research."

Thank you for your continued support of this blog!

My Top 10 List of Best Future of Education Blogs as a Guest Contributor on Blogs.com

Last week I was invited to submit my Top 10 Best Future of Education Blogs as a Guest Contributor to the extensive guest contributor lists at Blogs.com.  My List was published today, and it is available here.

You will see that some of my selections, like David Warlick's 2¢ Worth, Edutopia, TED, and the School Law Blog are directly related to education. 

92Y Blog is just a fantastic resource that includes videos of speeches of well known people. 

Paul Burka's Burkablog is a must read during the legislative session (as is Texasisd.com, which isn't really a blog so I didn't include it, but it is a daily must-read). 

Freakonomics (by the folks who wrote the book) has some very inciteful posts about the world we live in, the economy, and politics. 

Lifehacker and makeuseof.com provide excellent resources, and MoMB (Museum of Modern Betas) provides daily updates of cutting edge websites.

Don't Forget to Vote for My Blog in the Weblog Awards: Voting Ends Tuesday at 4:00p

Voting continues for the Weblog Awards until 4:00p on Tuesday, January 13.  My blog is one of the ten 2008 Weblog Award Finalists in the Education Blog category. The winner is determined by a vote of the web community -- i.e., you. Voting is easy. Click here and then vote for Mike Falick's Blog. 

You can vote once every 24 hours, so vote every day.

Voting Continues for the Weblog Awards Until 4:00p on Tuesday (1/13)

Voting continues for the Weblog Awards until 4:00p on Tuesday, January 13.  My blog is one of the ten 2008 Weblog Award Finalists in the Education Blog category. The winner is determined by a vote of the web community -- i.e., you. Voting is easy. Click here and then vote for Mike Falick's Blog. 

You can vote once every 24 hours, so vote every day.

Please Vote for this Blog to be the 2008 Education Weblog Award Winner

I am honored to have had my blog chosen as one of the ten 2008 Weblog Award Finalists in the Education Blog category. The winner is determined by a vote of the web community -- i.e., you. Voting is easy. Click here and then vote for Mike Falick's Blog. 

Voting began yesterday and ends on January 13, 2009, at 4:00p (CST).  You can vote once every 24 hours, so vote every day.

The Weblog Awards are the world's largest blog competition with over 545,000 votes cast in 2007 edition and nearly two million votes cast in all editions since 2003.

Please Vote for this Blog to be the 2008 Education Weblog Award Winner

I am honored to have had my blog chosen as one of the ten 2008 Weblog Award Finalists in the Education Blog category. The winner is determined by a vote of the web community -- i.e., you. Voting is easy. Click here and then vote for this blog. 

Voting begins on January 5, 2009, and ends on January 13, 2009, at 4:00p (CST).  You can vote once every 24 hours, so vote every day.

The Weblog Awards are the world's largest blog competition with over 545,000 votes cast in 2007 edition and nearly two million votes cast in all editions since 2003.

New Blog Feature: Now You Can Listen to this Blog Online or on Your iPod or .mp3 Player

I have just added a new feature that I think you will like. 

Now instead of just being able to read this blog, you can actually have it read to you.  You can do this online by clicking the "listen now" button at the beginning of each post.    



Alternatively, each post is now its own podcast that you can download as an .mp3 or directly to iTunes to listen to on an iPod.  To do so, click on the link on the right side of the blog and then click the link to subscribe to this feed with iTunes, or you can download or play any posting.

This service is made possible by a new free widget from Odiogo.