Author: kathleen

Just got this set up and it is kind of fun.  Instead of logging into the computer by typing in my password, I just sit still for a moment and the web cam scans my face.   I need to get Keypass working with it.

Fun keystoke saver.

If you are lucky like the employees at my school district, you’ll get an extra $120 for supply money.  You do get that as tax free, or something like that.  They usually have use show receipts before we spend any other money.  I already have Office Depot’s discount week in my calendar, and will do my shopping then, though I did buy a couple of packs of pens so I would have them for early start.

I also go to the Office Depot breakfast, they hand out some good stuff.  Most of the office / school supply places have a breakfast and it usually pays.  They usually give out something you can use.  If not, maybe a friend or student can use and giving stuff to others generally pays off. 

I’ve been a teacher for a while and the things I use the most are:

• Good pens
• Sharpies – I always get a big box with lots of colors and a small pack of just black.  You want silver to write on black stuff too.
• A USB hard drive.  This year’s is a Terabyte for just over $100.

I used to buy floppies, then went to CDs, but lets face it USB stuff is just easier.

This was originally posted on the wrong blog.

The first reason it’s hard to fire teachers, is because it’s really hard to get hired as a teacher, and we need some protection.

Especially technology teachers.  I’ve been teaching computer science for 18 years, and it would be very difficult for me to get a programming job right now.  I’m really good at basic programming, but I show no expertise in the type of programming that is done in the work place.  Neither I or a potential employer would know if I could actually do it. 

It would be almost impossible for me to get a teaching job.  Right now, I know of one opening and it’s an hour away from my house. 

But let’s look at why teachers get fired.  I have had co-workers under investigation because of a student accusation.  I know that the accusations were false in the past, but they still had to go through the process.  In my district, we’ve never had a teacher come back from that process, but I’ve found them in other schools doing other jobs, so obviously the accusation was unjust.

I’ve had two principals decide they didn’t like me, and that my subject was unnecessary.  Now, my class is REAL expensive.  While the funds for the computers come from the state,I need a very large room that could hold two regular classes plus they could repurpose of the computers.  Yes, that has happened.  And yes, instructional technology have come back and gotten their computers back (in my building).  The good news is that my school is very parent driven and the parents not only see the need for my class, but have fought for me.  (Moral of the story, make parents happy).

I’ve survived those attempts plus I teach math so my job is fairly secure. 

The other issue with firing a teacher, is you are depriving them of about the only big benefit in teaching.  Our salaries are relatively low – and find a part time job that makes the difference.  Our biggest benefit is our pension.  If I were to get fired now, not only would I lose my income, but I would lose that pension, and since we don’t do social security (we have our own retirement system that is much better), I’d be screwed out of both.

So, yes, as teachers we need some job protection.  Sometimes it goes completely overboard – if I’m in an investigative process and I go out and make some income, that income should be deducted from what the district is paying me. 

But we DO need protection.

Well, I’m not sure it’s a laptop.  It’s a lot bigger than most women’s laps.  Wouldn’t even call it a notebook.

Snagged it at Office Deport for less than $500 after tax.  That’s not much more than a netbook.   Has 4 gig of memory, 64 bit machine and 260 gig hard drive.

It’s actually this one:  http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/492522/Lenovo-G550-156-LED-Backlit-Widescreen/

I’ve already ordered a DC adapter and another power cord for it – by the way – that’s one of my top ten tech tips.  Always buy a second power cord (at least) from Ebay and keep it at the house.  That keeps your laptop from becoming a brick.  I actually had the power adapter stolen once when I presented at TCEA – I know I always pack my stuff up, and it wasn’t in my bag when I got back to the hotel and it wasn’t in the room when I checked later in the day.

I have always been able to pick up an adapter for under $15 from Ebay and this time was not an exception.  Having a DC one is nice since I spend a lot of time in the car.

It seems nice so far and have no trouble loading any of my files.  I’m keeping this for personal stuff and plan not to use it for school stuff.

I have the latest version (just downloaded) of Telenav – and yes I pay for it.  I couldn’t find the location I was going to and in fact, it is a huge blank spot on the Telenav maps.  Emmitt J. Conrad High School in Dallas.

Bing found it and got me there right away.

May be discontinuing Telenav.

We have a program called Early Start where we bring the 9th graders back early for a two week period.  That’s great for me, as it allows me to ease into the school year.

I have a half day of training tomorrow, a probably half day of teacher workday on Wednesday and we start with the kids next week.  They will be at school from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm each day, and they will be feed breakfast and lunch.  We will be there Monday through Thursday, so I still have a lot of the day off, and Friday’s.  Already have one of those Friday’s planned.

It went really well last year.  It allowed me a great deal of time in my room which I needed.  I’m anxious to see what the building is like as I have not set foot in the building since June.  We’re supposed to have new HVAC which we can control ourselves.

I spent the last two weeks – and two weeks of this week – getting ready to teach Webmastering.  I’m going to start reviewing my online courses and getting things ready for the first six weeks. 

I really recommend an ease back in.   It was really nice last year, and you don’t get hit so hard between working and not working.

Oh, and I still need to do some ACP work – however, I haven’t gotten paid for my June work so I haven’t been very motivated.

So this summer was a lot easier than last summer – though I would have loved to do a summer camp again this year.  Need to work on that.

Oh, and one note – I did have contact with administration a couple of weeks ago.  One of our parents is suing the district and they wanted more documentation.   <sigh> 

Have you noticed that there isn’t job security in teaching any more?

There are two reasons I went into teaching – job security and to stay married.

While I had the same job, pay and hours when we were dating, my husband had a real problem with the job once we got married.  Well, he probably didn’t realize how many late hours I had, nor did he realize I made almost double what he did.  Switching to teaching really helped his attitude.

But the main reason for me was job security, I worked three jobs in a row that had no security, and they were constantly laying people off.  I did a lot of research before I got my teaching certificate and realized the following:

• Math teachers had the best job security and I only needed a few hours of math to get math certified, so I did.
• Traditionally certified teachers had the best job security, so I got a traditionally teaching certificate rather than work on an emergency certificate (I had an offer), or an alternative certificate – many districts in our area wouldn’t hire someone alternatively certified from other districts (with good reason).
• Being multi-certified got you into smaller schools, which I prefer working at.  I work at a 4a which means we are usually under 2000 students, and should be around 1500.

Even with all that, job security has gone through the window.  My district uses CEI (Classroom Effectiveness Indices) which are determined by TAKS test scores (Texas Assessment of Basic Skills, our do or die test) and by ACPs (Assessment of Course Performance, our district finals).  If your CEI’s are not good enough, your principal will release you and go find someone that will get better CEIs.

Since I teach Computer Science I don’t have CEIs, because the sample size is too low.  What determines whether or not I teach CS is determined by the number of students I have enrolled.  In my lean years (last year was one), I teach remedial math.

If push comes to shove, I have and can teach math full time exclusively and have good results when I do.  I particularly like teaching remedial math, which I did last year.  However, it is emotionally exhausting, since most of what I have to do is to find and solve the problems that are keeping students from passing.

The reason last year was a lean year, is because my Associate Principal of Curriculum (Dean) and I made the decision to not allow 9th graders to take my classes, which meant most of the interested students in the building had already taken my class.  I even overdid the recruiting, meaning that we’re going to have full classes in every class period and are going to have to prioritize who gets to take the class (seniors will receive the highest, etc., especially since they still need a technology course to graduate.)  

By the way, I actually recruited double the number of students I teach.

I still don’t feel that my job is secure as I used to.  Two years ago, we were over staffed because of a spreadsheet error. Well, there was more to it than that.  A lot of principals had not adjusted their staffing because of enrollment.  Fortunately the last two principals I have had under hire teachers, rather than over hire.  We’ve also had a lot of people released due to poor school performance.  They are on the first hire list, as I would be if I were released by my principal.

By the way, there are not a lot of openings for Computer Science teachers – the good news, I can retire in 6 years, and have a decent pension to support me.  However, I still really like teaching, especially the kid part.

Yes, I am an amateur (ham) radio operator, extra class, and with code, thank you very much.  I did that on a bet. 

I took my dad’s call sign when it was available, but unfortunately it bothers me.  Not sure why, but it does.  I don’t get on the air much.

My first call was ?5SXR, can’t remember the prefix, but was either KA or KB  — that didn’t go well with the family.

I’m going back to N5HBV, though I could have gone with an Extra Class call.  Hmmm, should have thought of that.  Just did now.  But I like “her beautiful voice”, the most popular phonics with that call.

And I managed to turn on two rigs today and even have a QSO.

Both are available at http://Slysoft.com – Virtual Clone Drive is free.  Clone CD is around $60.00 and is often on sale.  It’s around $52 US right now.

What are they good for:

Well,  Clone CD will allow you to “rip” just about any CD or DVD.  I have a DVD that I have trouble watching.  It’s an instructional one, and it is just hard to watch.  I just “cloned” it and saved it to my server so I can watch it anywhere in the house, as long as I have a computer.

A copy of the DVD is now on my home server and I can use Clone CD to watch it.  Got it going on a corner of my other machine right now.

Virtual Clone Drive allows me to watch it.  I just mount the Cloned DVD with Virtual Clone Drive and I have a new drive letter that allows me to watch that video.

It’ gets easier with regular CD’s.  Say you have a CD with some software on it, and you want to install it on your Netbook.  Well, I do have an external DVD/CD drive, but it’s much easier to store a copy of the CD on my server, mount it with Virtual Clone Drive and install it from the virtual drive.

Also works at school – load the ISO image on the server, and use Virtual Clone drive to mount the ISO image and run on each workstation.

Seriously good programs.  They have some other stuff that might be of interest to others, but those are my two favorite programs.

My replacement Tilt2 arrived today.  I have everything set up except for Second Today – love that program but don’t quite understand the settings.

Super job, since I lost the Tilt2 Friday morning.