Category: Blog

Right now, I’m listening to a Jimmy Buffet album – using my Zune pass and Zune software on my PC.  All day today I had my Zune plugged into my speakers at school, and while my students were working I was listening to music I’d downloaded on the Zune.  It’s great because I can keep it near to my keyboard and just press a button to turn it off.

I thought using one device was a really good idea for a long time.  I was using Napster To Go with my phone, and the quality of the playback sucked, selecting music was a pain, downloading was a pain, and finding the music to play it was a pain.

The Zune works SO much better.

Though, if they come out with a version that has bluetooth so I can use bluetooth speakers, I’ll be buying a new one and this one will be for sale.  In fact, I’ve just ordered a bluetooth transmitter from Amazon (Sony) and I’m hoping it will solve the problem.

I have some Jabra Bluetooth stereo headphones that I bought from Buy.com and really love them.  They are light weight, no wires, and very good quality play back.  I like them much better than any of the earbuds I’ve tried or even the over the ear type.

My pass renews this weekend and I’ll be able to “buy” more music which will be nice.  I am hopeful that the renewal process will be smoother – last month I got to school without “renewing” my music and very little of it was available for play.  That was a bit disconcerting.

And … almost forgot … really wish that Audible.com worked wirelessly like the Zune software does.  Or that the Daily subscriptions would work more seamlessly.

One of my twitter follower’s commented he thought this story was stupid:

Student Arrested For Classroom Texting – February 17, 2009

As a teacher I applaud it.   Here’s why.  I’ve been there.  I’ve been the teacher with a kid that wouldn’t behave and I believe it was handled exactly the way I would handle it.

a) kid is texting in my class

b) I tell kid to stop – they don’t – I ask for phone

c) I don’t get it, so I call security and have them deal with it

I finish teaching and no longer have problems with that child.  I have no idea what the consequences are because I’m no longer involved.

Now that sort of thing happened when I got the lovely position of teaching repeating Algebra I.  A special set of Algebra I classes for students who had failed it before.  Oh, and I had 30+ students in each class.  Blame Katrina for that part of the problem. 

That school year I held the record for the number of referrals.  Oh, and by the way I have the reputation of being a very strict and very good teacher.  I usually write less than 5 referrals a year.  I think I am at two now, and both times the kid walked out of the class on his own.

Here’s what happens now:

a) kid is texting in my class

b) I say: please put the consumer electronics away (avoids the not a cell phone argument).

c) kid puts it away and I get on with teaching.

Difference:  I am teaching Computer Science and my largest class in 28.

And by the way, I had the highest Classroom Effective Indexes in the school with the above group.

As a past winner of the STEM award for my district, I have to read this year’s applications.  I have done this for two years and I am always discouraged.

Please read the instructions.  I did.  And I was very careful to follow the rules.  If you want an award, follow those rules, and get someone else to help you read them.

I don’t know how the other evaluators handle this, but if you don’t follow the instructions, I’m automatically going to give you a low rating. 

In fact, two of the applications were from people who didn’t teach a STEM course.  Guess what, you got a 1.  One applicant single spaced their application.  Guess what, you automatically lost two points.  Worse yet, you didn’t answer the question correctly so you ended up with a score below a 5 on each count.

I also took off if you wrote past the one half page and what you wrote didn’t add to your essay.  Also, have someone else read the essay and use the spell check and grammer check provided by the word processing programs. I also took off for typos.

The good news is that there were several outstanding essays and best yet, one of them is a guy I know and really respect.  I think he’ll make the top 5 cut because he DID follow the directions.

When I wrote my essay and they asked what was unique about my classroom, I focused on the technology tools i used.  I was looking for that in the essays and that’s what got people points.  It’s a STEM award, and its to encourage innovation in the classroom.  Show you how you innovate!  Don’t tell me you use the principals of learning because we always do.

Here’s another question that the answers all dissatisfy me. It’s about evaluating students with tools beyond standardized test courses — I like to emphasis the tools that use the standardized test scores precisely because we and the students live and die by them.  Especially if you teach an AP class, you darn well be better using those scores to improve your teaching!

The moral of the story:  read the rules and follow them carefully and you’ll come out ahead!

I was asked on Twitter last night if I like Hillcrest.

Apparently the answer:  I’ve been there 16 years wasn’t good enough.

Oddly enough I’ve worked in the Hillcrest area most of my Dallas career.  I started out at Park Central – working for GSI — the original parent company of TI — yes, my paychecks had TI logos.  I had a brief stint up in Plano, which I hated, a few days in Los Colinas which was worse, but nice to be able to come home for lunch.  Did some free lanch dog training and grooming and then to Hillcrest.

There are lots of things I’d like to change.  First, I wish the janitors would get things repaired.  Right now the elevator almost works and I’ve been trapped in it three times since the beginning of the year.  I don’t mind it much but I don’t want our wheelchair bound babies trapped there.

I wish we could get modern HVAC.  Right now, we have two temperatures, really hot or really cold.  Nothing in between.

I wish my room was squarer.  Wish I had a better desk.  Well, I could have that, but i have to buy it and those things tend to disappear.

Sometimes I wish that our doors were not revolving doors for adminsitrators, but then again, we might have to put up with somone who wasn’t good.  Right now, we make them good and send them on to bigger and better things.

However, I love the neighborhood kids, and I really like most of their parents.  The rest could benefit from some parenting classes — especially the ones who believe their kids over me. Especially when the kid has a history of lying.  Oh, that IS why the kid lies.

I plan on staying on at Hillcrest until I retire.  The drive is good, I get to do what I want most of the time, though the Campus Technology gig is a pain.

Because of twitter I am at a unique staff development, may have found a teacher for one of our openings and am recharging a bit.

During winter break, I saw a tweet about Lego Woman’s build. it was not what I thought but was good.

I wanted to see visual studio drive the legos robot but that was not to be.

but I did see how to use traditional legos to get people to think about tough questions.

I called and checked to make sure that all the i’s were dotted and t’s crossed on the install. By the way the ADT alarm system still works — every important and 911 service is supposed to work too, but haven’t tested it.  Not planning on that either….

It’s actually going to save us $50.00 month so I am quite excited and I love being able to manage the voice mail system on line.  I’m going to have try to get my wireless voice mail working right too.

Love Uverse.  Not wild about their installers, but I’ve never had good installers when it comes to telecom/cable.

Everything is working — almost.

Last night after the technician left, I decided to try to call the house and got the old copper message and no phones ran.  Whoops!

Call Uverse tech support and they said wait until midnight.

So tried at 7:00 am, Whoops! Phones weren’t ringing.  We were definately on Uverse Voice VOiP because I could call from the internet (good test, folks!).  So called Uverse.  Some child named Sam answered and keep asking me questions while I was trying to answer the one he just asked.  Or she.  Was quite annoying so I just did what I do when my students interrupt (or parents), just shut up, wait for them, and then quietly ask them to be quiet until I finish talking.  Oh, works on my mom too.

Finally got a Tier 2 support who ironed out the problem and everything works fine except linking my wireless voice mail.

Right now, when people call my wireless voice mail they can’t leave me a message.

Called Uverse Tech support after not finding the answer immediately and got a child who either couldn’t speak English or was not capable of hearing what they were told.  So they couldn’t find the answer in the book but in the meantime, I fought out how to delete the link on the web site.

If you can get through Tier one support, Uverse Tech support is really good.  Unfortunately it’s like throwing dice, sometimes you get a good one, sometimes you don’t.

Plus the uptime is fabulous.  So is the DVR, and the price.

Quoted from http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/01/20/bernie-madoff-and-the-need-for-ethics-in-computer-science.aspx:

Bernie Madoff and the Need For Ethics in Computer Science

Computer fraud and theft is, unfortunately, not just the stuff of fiction and the movies – its real. The line from Spiderman is “with great power comes great responsibility” and computer knowledge fits that completely today.

This comes up in my classroom a lot, and I tell students that we should be "white witches". When they ask, I say that people who are not computer scientists think we do magic, since they don’t understand what and how we do.  People who use magic for harm are "black witches" and we want to be "white witches" and do no harm.

I’m not sure it works.  But it does make me feel better.

This morning I had a sheet of paper in my hand that needed to go into my Campus Technology notes and I thought — I bet I can scan this directly into One Note!  Sure enough, click on Insert, Pictures, From Scanner or Camera and it was done.  Inserted right into the page I was looking at.

As you can see here, this is my Inventory section.  I have been scanning in each of my equipment removal forms.  I also have each of the emails I've received on the inventory system with directions on how to use it.

I'm also leaving myself notes on the things as I go — I have a document from the install in my room, one from when they scanned the Administrative Computers, etc.

Everything in one nice neat place that I can do a search on.

Today was fun.  Had a Uverse Voice install scheduled for noon – 2:00 pm.  Didn't want to start anything that I didn't want interrupted, but no worry, didn't hear anything.  Called Uverse service at 2:00 pm, said it would be about an hour.

Called at 3:45, couldn't find the installer.

Called at 5:00, would be in about an hour.

Called at 6:00, couldn't find him.

Finally called at 7:00 to reschedule, oh, he cleared the last call and is on the way.  I was sure he wasn't but waited.  Finally showed about 7:30, was here about an hour. 

The good news is that the alarm system still works.  I am wondering here he but the backup battery, as I don't see it in the house.  Of course, Rich and I have cell phones, so I'm not worried about that.  Plus I have ham radio. 

Right now, you can't call us.  The number is still on copper.  That's a bit worrying but hardly anyone calls at night that doesn't immediately try the cell phone, so not real worried.

It is supposed to save us $40 a month, which will be nice.

As a whole, I really DO like Uverse.  Our first install went okay, though the tech let a dog out — didn't latch the gate — and she had to spend the night in doggy jail.  Learned.  Dogs stay locked up when other people are in the house and we double check the gate when they are gone.

Love the internet service.

Like the TV service and LOVE DVR.

It saved us enough to afford a maid when we switched to it.  Hated the old internet service and thought the cable and DVR was okay.  Loved the internet service when it was local until they sold themselves.

So I don't mind too much putting up with today, but wish the phones would ring.