Category: Blog

Special Ed usually isn’t an issue for CS.  In fact, I have a special ed child in Computer Science that the Special ED department chair offered to take out, and he’s doing fine.

However, Web Mastering and Special Ed is something else.

I have a child in Web Mastering that refuses to read web pages.  I don’t know if she can’t read and won’t.  I honestly don’t care.  If a child is enrolled in Web Mastering they better be able to read before they get there because a) I don’t have to time read every single web page to a child, and b) what’s the point of being in a Web Mastering class if you can’t read.  Get the child to a reading specialist and fix it, especially since we are talking 10-12.

There are certain things I require a web mastering student to do before they can pass.  They are:

1. Send an email that is at least equal to my mother’s writing ability (not a very high standard, by the way).
2. Shop on the internet.  I would really like them to be able to comparison shop, but just finding something they can buy will do it this year.
3. Set up a power point with at least one slide telling me why they want to buy the object.
4. Set up a simple web page using HTML tags
5. Reduce the size of a digital photograph so it can be used on the web, crop that photograph, and combine images in one photograph with another.
6. Produce a simple web page using Dreamweaver.
7. Produce a simple navigation using Fireworks.
8. Produce a simple animation using Flash.

Vastly easier than what a regular student is required to do.

I really don’t think I am expecting too much.  They should at least try everything.  The fun part, is that most of the time, I find something in the above the child not only can do, but enjoys doing and does well.  Usually it’s shopping but oh well.

Right now, I’m going around and around with a Special Ed Coordinator who can’t wrap her head around the above requirements.  And hasn’t spent one moment in my room helping the child.  She wants ME to send the student with work to another room.  Sorry, that is not happening.  Software isn’t there, coordinator hasn’t gotten a clue, and we’re all better off in my room, as occasionally I can get the child to actually do something. 

I’m finally getting some of the things for my classroom from the STEM award.  Today I got Abode Create Suite 3 Web Premium which includes the latest versions of Dreamweaver, which I use ALL the time, and Contribute which I am testing now.

Yesterday, my NAS came.  Buffalo Terabyte and came with 700 gig.  It’s very nice and very easy to set up and use.

Getting all the new toys has been fun.

Well, I never "loved" the Commodore 64, but it did use them to teach Computer Math most of my first year of teaching computer science.  Interesting article.

In act, I’ve never really loved any piece of equipment and was happy to go to the next.

"There was something magical about the C64," says Andreas Wallstrom of Stockholm, Sweden.

Commodore 64 still loved after all these years – CNN.com

Last night, I was finished with my dog agility classes and needed gas.  I also knew that gas was $2.85 in Farmers Branch.  So I fired up my GPS receiver, went into Live Search and told it to find my GPS position and then went to gas prices.

The program wanted me to go north, but I wanted to go south, different county and the prices ARE cheaper because less tax, but wasn’t worth the drive.

So finally, I got a south station — a Kroger’s and followed the route. 

Ended up passing a Tom Thumb, remembered they told me I had a $.10 per gallon discount so I ended up snagging gas at $2.69 a gallon.

Neat use of technology!

I hope not.

Is Kindle the book that changes the world of textbooks in a dramatic way?

Computer Science Teacher – Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : Will the Kindle Change the World of Textbooks

First, the price!  It’s as expensive as a mobile phone with out the connection discounts, and almost as expensive as a laptop.

I already have the capacity to read books — on my Pocket PC phone, and I keep several on my storage card for doctor’s visits and other places where I have to wait.

I even have the capacity to download books wirelessly.  Again, Pocket PC phone.  Ereader if you care.

I am disappointed that Amazon did away with their original book service (I had downloaded a book from them and it wasn’t bad).

However, I like Ereader much better.

Besides I can also read the books on my PC.

 www.freerice.com is a very interesing website.  It’s a vocabulary "game" that sends 10 grains of rice to needy people around the world.  Snopes says it’s good, and it is advertiser supported.

Educational AND kind of fun.

FreeRice

This error has driven me nuts for years, and I have finally figured out how to fix it.  My clue came from  when I was trying to reimage a workstation with Ghost and got a “no DHCP server” error, even though the workstation was plugged into the network.

Sometimes when we reboot, it starts working but more often than not, it doesn’t.

So here’s the “fix”.  Go ahead and log into the workstation without Novell.  Then disable the networking connection, and then reenable it.  It only takes one try so far.

The weird part is that I have the IP address of the server hardcoded, so we should ever see that message.  However, I don’t think it is a Novell problem, I think the workstation really didn’t get an IP address correctly.

I first saw the Chumby last year and thought it would be fun for me and my students to play with.  However, I think I’m going to keep this one and replace my alarm clock with it.

Just got it out, programmed it and haven’t really done anything yet. 

What’s a Chumby?  www.chumby.com of course!

And here’s a picture of it, I hope.  Mine is black — though it doesn’t photograph as well.

Somewhat joking, BUT it’s true.  The easiest way to fix a problem, especially a networking problems is to pull plugs, wait for a few minutes and plug them back in.

Honestly, I wish I understood networking — this morning I came in and my lab was completely down.  Most of the workstations could not communicate with the server and even said “network connectivity is low or limited”.  I couldn’t see the other workstations with Lanschool.  It was a mess.

At first, I thought the whole building was down, but I isolated it this end of the building pretty quick.  In fact, once I got students in the room, I isolated it to the students on the older switches in the classroom.  All I had to do was unplug them and plug them back in and the network started working again.  Thus “Weaver’s Law”.

Yeah, it probably already exists under another name, but it works for me.

 From the Dallas Morning News:

Ten North Texas teachers will be inducted as fellows into Texas Instruments Foundation’s new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Academy.

Education notes | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | News: Education

I’ll find out what this means next week.