One of the things I really like about my district is how we handle fires.
We put them out.
Seriously. We had a fire at a middle school at a gym, and it shoulds like day went on as scheduled. Luckily we weren’t keeping them long, so didn’t really have much to deal with.
So we don’t evaculate the entire building. Most of the time, no one knows what happened until the next day, and learning goes on as much as possible.
I’ve been spending the weekend at the "We are Microsoft Charity Coding" event. They believe it is the first of this kind of event.
One of my classes asked me why and my best response, and the one that was gotten was: "well, you don’t see me running a race or building a house do you? Seems like sitting around and writing code would be the best way to ‘give back’." Not that I don’t do that on a regular basis. (Let’s see, I have phone number for a runaway’s phone on my cell, and the district currently owes me $1,800.)
It would be best to look at their website to see what it was about. It’s wearemicrosoft.com. I’ve spent the day transferring lots of content from an old website to a new one.
Some things learned: I did learn how to use some newer technologies — and how not to use one. BUT, this isn’t for someone who isn’t confident in their abilities. You start on the project on Friday night, and the deadline is 3:00 pm on Sunday.
They’ve done things really well — the work area is fairly comfortable, the caffeine is plentiful and in lots of varieties — it was really nice to be able to get Diet Cokes and not have to worry about refilling the refrigator, the food is plentiful, but they don’t follow the schedule well, I’ve figured out that the schedule means they are going to order the food and it will take an hour after that to get there. That’s okay, but hard on diabetics.
I think I would do it again. The charity I ended up on was the right one for my current skill level, and I was able to produce some good websites. However, I need to work up to what is really needed.
This is REALLY true in the computer science classroom. I am not out often, and try to keep it to one day at a time. I went to TCEA for a week once, and found my classroom in complete chaos when I came back.
I can’t find anyone who can instruct the students at all. My criteria for a sub: there hasn’t been a fight when she’s been in the room, there hasn’t been major equipment missing — this year, whenever I’m out a mouse disappears. It’s happened twice. Weird, but I think it is a student punishing me.
I’m worried about the Game workshop, I’ll be out three days, at the end of the six weeks.
Teacher absences are hurting learning – Education- msnbc.com
Duke University economist Charles Clotfelter, among a handful of researchers who have closely studied the issue, says the image of spitballs flying past a daily substitute often reflects reality. "Many times substitutes don’t have the plan in front of them," Clotfelter said. "They don’t have all the behavioral expectations that the regular teachers have established, so it’s basically a holding pattern."
This is REALLY true in the computer science classroom. I am not out often, and try to keep it to one day at a time. I went to TCEA for a week once, and found my classroom in complete chaos when I came back.
I can’t find anyone who can instruct the students at all. My criteria for a sub: there hasn’t been a fight when she’s been in the room, there hasn’t been major equipment missing — this year, whenever I’m out a mouse disappears. It’s happened twice. Weird, but I think it is a student punishing me.
I’m worried about the Game workshop, I’ll be out three days, at the end of the six weeks.
Teacher absences are hurting learning – Education- msnbc.com
Duke University economist Charles Clotfelter, among a handful of researchers who have closely studied the issue, says the image of spitballs flying past a daily substitute often reflects reality. “Many times substitutes don’t have the plan in front of them,” Clotfelter said. “They don’t have all the behavioral expectations that the regular teachers have established, so it’s basically a holding pattern.”
This is one of the many reasons I love my district. I’ve actually helped to put out two different fires in the past 16 years — and each time, business went on as usual. One was in the kitchen, and was a toast fire, I pulled the kids out of that room and into mine while their teacher called for help and then put out the fire.
The other one was a restroom fire.
WFAA-TV reported that firefighters had knocked down the flames by about 7 a.m. Lincoln High School’s main building next door appeared undamaged.
Jon Dahlander, a Dallas school district spokesman, said school was to open today and that final exams were expected to take place as scheduled. Today was the last study day before exams.
I first applied for the subscription in October, and through lots of paperwork screwups on the Dallas ISD side and the Microsoft side, I’ve finally got a subscription. Am downloading some of the software now, and it IS a really good program. It’s been expanded quite a bit since I was a member before — I’d gotten a year’s subscription from a grant, and didn’t have the money to renew. I think in the future, I’m going to go ahead and pay out of my own pocket, and not worry about getting reimbursed. It’s worth the approximately $300.00 for the software itself.
For the first time, I went to our annual AP Scholars recognition program. I went because the principal said to, and because I had not been to the Meyerson Symphony center. Free food wasn’t bad either.
It was a SUPER program. They had great speakers that kept it short and simple. The best was the keynote speaker who had graduated as valedictorian of Pinkston High School in 1991. She went through her history, how she got there and hints from other people.
I’m really glad the district does this. I hope the students appreciated being recognized.
Oh, and why I didn’t I go in the past. When I left industry I swore I wasn’t going to work at a job that took up 24 hours a day of my time. Funny,I reflect on this week, and I only spent about 3 hours doing MY STUFF. It’s Thursday, and Tuesday night I graded and last night I was at the ceremony.
I love this program, I’ve been using it for a week now! It gives me a reason to bring my laptop to school. I’ve got my main computer controlling it, and doing "side" projects on the laptop, in between helping the kids, etc. It’s actually better than doing the side project in a window.
It’s greater than sliced bread, and a lot of my kids agree!
Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).
I"ve decided my best route to go is to pull out my SIM card when I get to the ship. Then get off at Key West, put it back in, update everything, and then pull it again. Mexico has the same outrageious data rate that the Cruise Ships do. I figured out, at my normal use, international data would cost me $165.00 a day. OUCH!
So I’ll be disconnected from the world for about three days. Not too bad, and I figure I can survive.
By pulling the SIM card, I can still play my games, read my ebooks, listen to music, and blog — just can’t read my email or update my blogs.
I love Synergy. After a few hours of it, I pulled my KVM switch and all it’s cables, put them in a bag, and they are now in my closet. My desk would be less cluttered, but I put more stuff on it.
I’ve been working on decluttering my house, and just got to my office. It is going to take months!
Any ideas on getting rid of old monitors? One I should cart to school, because it’s small and cartable. I also have a 21" monitor (I think) of the old kind. I can’t decide if I want to try to take it to Salvation Army, put it out for the Green Grabber Wednesday (meaning a passerby will pick it up), or put it up for "free to a good home" on Craigs list and dealing with someone to pick it up. I like that option the best, but nervous about having a stranger come by into my home.