Muchos List-os

Far be it for me to brag about my incredible career as one of the preeminent luchadores of the last 50 años, but to many, especially in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Apachurro, the name El Diablo Cocono is synonymous with quality both within the squared circle, with the ladies, and of course, with fans of bueño tamales everywhere. My short-lived but very profitable "El Diablo Cocono Canned Puerco Tamales" are still remembered throughout the region, despite that silly botulism scare that was no doubt started by other canned tamale vendors, jealous of my genius. (My abrogados have told me that that is all I can say about it.)

During my career, having won many belts including the Central Northern Sonoran Bantam Weight correa and being named the Lower Tamaulipas Tequila Fiesta "Dash for the Baño" Best Luchador of 1998, I have become familiar with many lists over the años.

For instance, in 1997, I made the All-Mexico Most Best Wrestler Top Ten list. When you read the list, you will understand how proud I am to have made it:

All-Mexico Most Best Wrestler List 1997:

1. El Santo (the greatest wrestler of all time!)
2. El Hijo de El Santo (the greatest child of the greatest wrestler)
3. La Hija de El Santo (the sister of the child of the greatest wrestler)
4. El Tio de El Santo (the Uncle of the greatest wrestler of all time)
5. La Esposa de El Santo (The wife of the greatest wrestler and the inventor of the famous frying pan head butt)
6. La Abuela de El Santo (The only wrestler ever to have won a title in a wheelchair)
7. El Hijo de Hijo de El Santo 
8. La Señora de El Santo (She was the FIRST mistress, and frankly, the best!)
9. El Grande Abuelo de El Santo (He started it all!)
10. El Diablo Cocono (me!)

As you can easily tell, I lived with luchadore royalty. The memories of those days live with me like yesterday's five day old cabbage and chicken burrito. 

But enough about me. What about you? What list are you a part of? What list do you belong to?

Are you on any lists other than "I have a nice camesa and a walkie talkie list?" Probably not. 

So, what should you do? Well, for now, since you are so flojo you are not on any lists, why not use some lists that you can tell your teachers about?

How about these just to get you off your enormous pelota de grasa:

A list of good ed tech blogs

Top 35 Web 2.0 Tools for Education

20 Amazing iPad Apps for Education

Got enough to get started? How about this Sr. Administradore: Next year, you get your kick-ass blog on one of these lists. I am tired of doing all your work for you. 

I gotta go. 

More Lost than a Blind Referee in a Triple Tag Team Iron Cage Match

Some of you have wondered to yourselves by asking "I wonder what ever happened to El Diablo Cocono?" "I have not seen a new entry on his enormously popular blog in longer than a month." "Is he alright?" "Has he abandoned us in our time of greatest need?" 'Did La Migra finally find where he was living?"

Well my faithful gabacho readers, I have heard your cries and I am proud to say that like a Phoenix arising from the ashes of a campfire of a late night fiesta on the levee, I have returned just in time to open my escuela and hopefully, guide you through the confusing world of campus administrators and educational technology for another año.

But first of all, please let me take a few moments to explain the reason for my absence:

As all of you know, I attended El EdubloggerCon 2011 in Philadelphia at is evidenced by my previous posts and photo evidence.

I also went down the hall and found ISTE and went there too. After deciding that there was not one decent Tamale in the entire city of Philadelphia, and after trying to find at least one other Lucha Libre dude in the entire place, I decided to head back home with my bags full of free Atomic Learning Coffee Mugs and Prentice Hall cheap-ass pens.

Then I got a call on my jailbroken iPhone from my campus Secretary Sra. Retirado that due to budget cutbacks, the plane ticket I got from my school district was a one way ticket and that I would have to make my own arrangements to return to my campus. Holy frijole! I was in the words of Robert Heinlien "un extranjero en una pista extraña!"

I had just maxed out my Banco- de SinValor-Mastercard in Philadelphia looking for a decent tamale and having to get Mr. Sprinkles some elective surgery (he thinks his eyelids are droopy..it is killing his self esteem). Like all administrators, I live paycheck to paycheck, especially after having to get my monthly pedicure and foot massage at Madame Woo's House of Relaxation, so, to make a long story short, I was todo sin dinero!

I had to walk back to the desert southwest. Using my trusty Google Map blue dot Map App, I began walking, and it took me this long to get back! Aye Caramba! You guys have a big-ass country! But along the way, I was able to do some meaningful thinking.

Like the whole idea of technology coaches.
The grupo ISTE came out with a set of standards for technology coaches during my encarcelamiento, er, I mean stay in El Philly. The standards, which are called NETS-C (pero National Education Technology Standards-Coaches..get it NETS?) are all about how technology COACHES should be used, what they should be doing, how they should do it, and why. And si, there are NETS for teachers, students and even you, Mr. I-Have-A-Walkie-Talkie-So-That-Makes-Me-Important Administrator.

You need to check out the coaches one, especially if you have technology coaches on your campus and have no idea if they are doing a good or bad job because they fix your printer once a year and you think that that is good enough for you.

So what are you waiting for? Check out the NETS-C and SEE what they should be doing vato.

The Flying Figure 4 Leg Lock and Technology Integration

When I was first starting out in my life as a professional Luchador, I was asked by my then manager, a Sr.Lais Dorito, what my “finishing move” or “Para Moverse de Sin”  was going to be. Well, I had just gotten off the train from my village in Northern Chihuahua and had not ever thought about a “finishing move.” Sure, I had played with the idea of the “Frijole de Muerta” where I would squat on my opponent and let him understand that it was not a good idea to eat a gallon of baracho beans right before a match, or perhaps even the infamous “Entrerrosca de Infierno” a move my Tio Tito taught me where I use my considerable thumb and forefinger strength to make my opponent scream for mercy after having his nipples squeezed into submission.  None of these however, impressed Sr. Dorito, who told me that I could not do something half-way, that a final move must be so devastating that all of the hombres in the crowd would fear me, and all of the  mujeres in the crowd would want to throw their panties into the ring. Thus, after a year of training in the Calor del Gimnasio in Ciudad Suciedad,  I discovered the Flying Figure Four Leg Lock. This move required me to wrap my legs around the legs of my opponent while doing a spinning toe hold all the while catching my opponent, who has jumped on me from the top rope. His legs become entwined in mine, and we apply pressure on each other over and over, becoming enmeshed into one,  until one of us is spent and exhausted. ( By the way, in many parts of Texas, this is confused for something totally different, and many a luchador has been chased out of town by angry Rick Perry-lovingmobs crying “Marriage is for a Man and a Woman! Get out of here!”)

Anyway, I digress. 

Where was I? Oh yeah. The FFFLL or Tres Effes Dos Elles proved to be my signature hold until I discovered the Flying Tortilla Wrap in the late 80’s at a truck stop restroom outside of Bakersfield. But hey, that is a way other story.

So, you ask yourself, “Where the heck is this going?” “What does this have to do with the price of Chicharones in Chihuahua?” “Why am I reading this?”  Look esé, the 3F2L is just like technology integration in the classrooms of your teachers. Kids can’t just be partially involved. The little chimichangas can’t just be watching from the sidelines. They can’t just be hoping to have technology in the lesson. The technology needs to be wrapped inside, intertwined, and made part of the lesson, just like the legs of my fellow loser luchadores when I made them submit to the Flying Figure Four Leg Lock. If you go a classroom, and the teacher is the only one touching the technology, then that lesson is as integrated as a lettuce field being picked by the United Farm Workers. It isn’t.  If the teacher is the only one using the El Smartboard, then you need to take them aside and ‘splain to them that it is the KIDS that use the technology, not the teacher. She can show all the cool Jeopardy-Rip Off Powerpoints she wants to, but until el estudentos are making the presentations, or the reports, or the movies, they aren’t integrating technology in their lessons. 

So go lead. Show them how it’s done. And just because you carry a pretty little iPad around doesn’t mean you are integrating anything either jefé. Unless you are making something with that pretty boy, you ain’t integrating technology. 

It don’t mean a thing if they don’t make nothing!  

Hasta la vista.