May | 2013 | Mr. D's Neighborhood

English: iphone Deutsch: iphone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hello there, neighbors! The past week or so has been quite the grind, and I didn’t want to end the week without a little something from the Neighborhood.

This week, Mr. D finally said adieu to his reliable Blackberry. It was a rugged little email machine, to be sure, but not much else. Anyway, I did cave (against my inner voice telling me to hang Steve Jobs in effigy) and purchased a 32-gig iPhone 5 (which is NOT pictured here). I have to admit, after a day or two of playing with it, this little doctrination device from Apple is quite a nifty little gadget.

Now to fill it with all those wonderful new tools, or time wasters, known as “apps.”

I need your help. Since I really don’t want to look on my own (nor do I have the time), I’m asking the folks in the Neighborhood for a couple of things:

1. What are the top 10 must-have apps on my phone (APART from the pre-installed ones)?

2. Are there any good, reliable…and FREE…history or social studies apps out there?

Any help on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

This weekend, I was again at TeachFest, this time in beautiful San Francisco, California. I met up with some old friends, beloved colleagues and many, many new faces. It was a long, exhaustive, but exciting time for all of us. More on TeachFest in later posts.

When I was out there, I was introduced to a young man that really hit my heart. Caine Monroy is a young boy from East Los Angeles who built a cardboard arcade in his father’s auto parts store. A young filmmaker, Nirvan Mullick, visited the store for a part for his car, and by happy accident started playing at Caine’s arcade. He made a movie called “Caine’s Arcade” and its a testament to the imagination and wonder of young people. Caine’s story has inspired a movement dedicated to play and imagination, and it was a privilege to meet both of them at TeachFest this year.

Here’s a pic of me with Caine and Nirvan: