Cleaning Links

One of you guys told me to post some ideas to clean one’s computer.  Since you really don’t want me to write about my own type of cleaning voodoo, I’ll post good links for all types of computer detail.

http://www.computerhope.com/cleaning.htm

http://www.infohq.com/Computer/computer_maintenance_tip.htm

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/26-tips-to-keep-your-computer-up-and-functioning.html

Forevermore, let me hear from you! 

Kim!  I REALLY need to talk to you.

Hey Peeps, we can wrap this up.

I just know you’ve been waiting on this email. I have some ideas for a grand finale. I really would like for you to consider meeting on the moo in the coming school year, and it doesn’t have to be with me. Think about mooing once a week with your team or your departments. I certainly think it is useful and comfortable collaboration.

On Monday, tomorrow, you should be getting an email from Dr. Smith about an inservice for Aug. 20 or 21st. Please sign up for one of them. They are at the high schools. I would really like it if I could split you up for this. Sign up for the middle and high school sessions.

Here’s what I want from you:

Read Chapter 4 in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and post your new knowledge about Wikis. Along with this, please, AND THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT, post sites where teachers are using wikis. Also, post the links to some wikis that you might want to explore. Don’t be shy here, post a bunch and react to them if you want.

My reasoning for this is twofold. I have to present 80 minutes of Wiki on the above dates and I want some help from my peeps. I may be asking you individually to help me present RSS feeds, etc. Perhaps a little blogging as well.

You will be paid for the inservice from the county, as usual, and I’ll have your papers there to sign for this stipend. Could be a very profitable day!

Since we are so blog reluctant, you may post here if you want. Also, I plan on mooing and would like to see you there. I’m sticking with Sunday and Wednesday, but I’ll log on any time you need to speak to me.

I hope everyone has had a nice reprieve and all are still in love, in like, eagerly anticipating parenthood, happily playing with cute kids and grandkids, and looking forward t a new school year.

I spent a week in Charleston at the first Teacher Leadership Institute and I cannot begin to tell you my exuberance. This is what the inservice is about, so I won’t go into it, but life, as we know it, will change. No more reluctant tech users. The kids are connected so collaboration and responsibility will become the norm. This will be a state policy or mandate or something within the next months or years. I’m ready, and looking for a reading class to connect with. Any takers L’berg? Bolton?

I’ll post the county Wiki as soon as I find it, but in the meantime, please look at the following links:

Landmarks for School

The Committed Sardine You’ll be hearing much about Ian Jukes and here is his stuff.

Love ya, mean it!

And yes, they gave everyone a wonderful Dell notebook.

Validity Workshop 06-21-2007

Sounds like a boring subject, but its one that guides the students into becoming useful and productive cyberkids.

Links to evaluate using the Intermediate Rubric.

http://www.brookview.karoo.net/Sellafield_Zoo/
http://www.10k4awife.com/flashVersion/flash/flashCenterWbackground.php

http://www.dhmo.org/

The end…for a while

I can’t say it hasn’t been difficult getting everyone to be where they need to be for this project, but life just gets in the way.  Spring came and love blossomed.  We’ve enjoyed the “AHA” moment and look forward to January.  Amanda, when Alex is finally finished with his drawings, you really should keep and maybe frame them.

Next, we have Iris making our favorite sub’s eyes sparkle.

I can’t compete with this!

Rick shaved his own head, Tighe quit because she can’t find her password, Eva gets too much company, Kim’s playing baseball, Jason’s time is money.   Andrea, can you help me here?

So, party is still on for the 16th, but we’re skipping the morning session with the GPS.  We’ll figure it out at the lake.  How does 3:00 sound?  I’m flexible.  Jason,  we still need to hide some caches.  I’ll make ‘em, you stash ‘em and waypoint.

I’ve decided to halt our moo sessions until August, around the start of school.  We’ll meet a couple of weeks, and send in the pay sheets.  I feel we’ve made some powerful suggestions in this project, and perhaps they should be reconsidered again.  I wonder if the test week plan should be sent to Mr. Alexander as a suggestion for next year?

I will be sending smallish blog assignments throughout the summer.  I will try to aggravate you to respond, as well.

So, comment here and let me know that you cross your hearts and finish this up with me.

Mooing

Its just one form of communication, but an effective one.  Except for the jostling, isn’t there useful communication happening?  Previously, teacher conversations occured only in grade level meetings and lunch.

You get time for reading and blogging as well as mooing.

Please read pp. 77 – 80 and try to set up your Bloglines with some tags and perhaps an rss feed.  Post what happens.

You know, I can meet online most nights if anyone needs some instruction and time.  I would also like for you to respond to this: “What technology do you currently use, and what technology would you like to explore?”

Collaboration

I would like for the students to post their writings online and have them read by peers.  Blogging and mooing, but mooing isn’t possible in this county’s schools, and with very good reason.  I really don’t want their writings to be forever online, however, nor their comments to others’ writings.

At this level, kids have been told that just doing work is worthy of a high grade.  When does it become apparent that quality of work is what matters?  Even to parents this appears to be a problem.  If he or she is turning in all assignments, why isn’t there an A given?  Quality not quantity, where have I heard that before?

It seems that students would have more to say about anothers work if they had to write about it.  They certainly find little to say during face to face editing sessions, and perhaps even the mechanics would be noticed online, as well.

If I could form small editing groups with blogs, this might work out better. 

I hate wires.  I’m tired of wires.  Why isn’t everything wireless?  Some days nothing works and its usually because of a crossed wire or something.  I’ve blown things on the server by moving wires.  Why isn’t there a better way to do this than to depend of wires?  I want everything to work effortlessly always.  This doesn’t happen. 

Jason?  How about the times we both try to log into WVEIS just to take attendance and nothing works under any name.  Why have technology if it only works 75% of the time or less?  I find it impossible to plan technology days when one is never sure if things are going to work.

BUT, it used to be worse.

Beginning Thoughts from the Beginning

Exploding faster than I can keep up with.  I want to learn it all, at least most of it.  Except the Palm Pilot.  I tried, but didn’t find this to my liking.  I guess I just prefer the proverbial list in my pocket.

Myth – for we immigrants who remember the old TRS80 with the cassette players.  The enormous, heavy computer came with a program called Eliza, Ask the Doctor.  One typed in a question and she would answer, sort of like a magic 8 ball.  If you typed in “shit,” she would scold you.  That’s it!  Certainly found very little use for it except the students could check their math with the calculator.  Everything was in DOS, a strange language.

Then…..someone thought, since I could turn on the computer successfully, that I could probably teach an exploratory class in DOS.  I laugh as I remember.  Every afternoon for a few weeks, I had kids typing in, perfectly, no mistakes, copies of short DOS programs from comic like books.  The screens were scrolling their names in flashing lights!  That’s as far as I could go.  Fairly soon, people were asking me to help  with their computers like I knew something useful.  I tried to tell them, my husband doesn’t even let me handle pocket knives or screwdrivers, and even after I fried on of the Apple 2Es, I was still asked for help.  Any port in a storm, I guess.

New technoligies never being distributed evenly…..hmmm…..if you aske the teachers here, they will say that our lower socio economic level school has much technology available to the students, if the teachers choose to allow the students access.  Other non-Title 1 schools do not have some of the technoligies that we do. 

During a presentation of summarizers and activators this year, my partner and I were displaying ideas using an Elmo and a Virtual White Board.  After the class, one of the teachers from a non-Title 1 school made the comment, not to us, that we shouldn’t get all of this “good” stuff because our kids would never amount to anything, anyway. 

I screamingly object to this statement.  Without these government sponsored extras, these kids would never be exposed to new technologies.  This is a school where the hat is passed every week for money for someone who has a need.  We have no PTA who can afford to give the teachers 400 dollar allotments for their classrooms on a whim.

First Responses

I can’t take your whole weekend, so let’s begin on Wed., March 14, 7:30 pm on Acadianamoo.org. Remember to use JaMooka like we did in class. If this doesn’t work for you, instead of finding an available basketball, ALEX, shoot me an email and we’ll try something different.

Hopefully, you will have some sites posted to your blogs with information dealing with how teachers use the moo or the blog. What interests you?

Also, react to: “Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives”

http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/

by Sunday, March 18 when we will meet online at 7:00 – this can be negotiated.