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I love this workshop!  VERY hands on.  However, they didn’t say until the last minute we needed notebooks which is a problem for a few, but not me.

One problem I did have, is that the notebook I brought doesn’t have a CD Rom drive.  Had to have one of the student helpers copy the workshop CD’s to my hard drive which would have been a piece of cake if I had remember that i had actually packed one.

Once I remembered that, it was a piece of cake.

The only problems we’ve had, have been the casino’s fault — we’re at Circus Circus, and their choice of morning food sucks, but I can a) buy other and b) did bring some food.  Also they didn’t restock for the morning break.  We’ll see how afternoon and the rest of the week go.

Also, the casino does a lot of nickel and dime -ing, even more so than the cruise ship we were on.  We have two choices for internet access, room access only for $12 a day, and business center access for $15 for 9 hours.  I do have my phone and am tethering.  So far, I’ve only hit .2 megabytes this month.  However, the ATT network is blocked badly by the hotel, and I’m often forced to Edge instead of 3G.

The really good news, is that we don’t have to go to through the casino to get to the meeting place, the elevator dumps us right there.

I saw Steve in San Antonio and he was equally good today.  We’re split into two groups each day, advanced and beginner.  I choose beginner Alice, and will probably stay in that track, but will go to the advanced when it comes to Java, because I’ve been doing it forever (okay, several years, forever in computer years).

I think this is the first time I’ve had Barbara as a workshop presenter, she is good!  We’re a bit ahead of the agenda right now, and taking a mini-break.

The pluses on this workshop — and remember, I’ve been teaching this stuff for 17 years…..

• It is not an AP workshop
• It is very hands on.
• It is not an AP workshop.
• The software is free.
• It is not an AP workshop.
• The materials are free until the book is published.
• It is not an AP workshop.

Yes, I get tired of doing AP stuff.  They are covering the same materials as many of the AP workshop but not as extensively and not in the AP way.

Worse thing about husband.  He keeps waking me up.  But doesn’t wake me up when I need to be up.  And the way he does it <rolling eyes>

Check in wasn’t bad.

Most valuable things when traveling:

• Plastic trash bags.  Seriously.  They are great for laundry.
• Extension cords.  I know this, and I have to keep buying them.  But $3.00 at Target isn’t bad.
• Power strips.  You can never have too many.  Again, $4.00 at Target, as I bought a second one.
• My last favorite is my cooler, but I was have a cart in my truck.  Forget husband doesn’t keep things like that.

Circus Circus Tower rooms are better than Days Inn. By the way, I know hate Days Inn, but I think I did before.

My other problem is figuring out what I need with me at a given moment.

Oh, and 3G tethering rocks.  I missed it for a few days, was stuck with Edge.

Driving to the Alice/Media Computation workshop is going well.  I’ve been using lots of gadgets:

First, my AT&T 8575 has Windows Live Search on it.  I have a very cheap Nokia bluetooth GPS, and I have been tracking our progress, and mapping where we are going with it.  Found a cute local Albuquerque hamburger joint.  However, I didn’t know that my husband is terrified of Albuquerque.  Could have told me.  I still think we bypassed the worse traffic.

It also got us to Meteor Crater, which was a cool place to visit.  They want you to be very afraid….

Had a bad moment with a Dexcom CGMS unit that has a proprietary cable, both ends — well, the One Touch end may be a standard end, but it might as well be proprietary itself.  Use standard cables people!  It cuts down on stress and yesterday mess.

I have two Nokia items that take completely different cables.  My Energizer wall plugs seem to have standard plugs, and my phone uses USB — yeah phone.  Love my phone.

I solve the cable problem with my Camera by getting one without — uses batteries, could use rechargeable but I don’t.  And I use a SD card to move the photos back and forth.

By the way, flickr photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/17677386@N03/sets/72157606343341219/

See this and tell me you don’t see the beginnings of NCLB and the beginnings of Academics and the rebuilding of schools.

Not that the above isn’t a good thing, but yeah, Ross Perot started it.

Oh, and we only made it to 187 days.  For some reason, they don’t want to go to 210 days, probably because they have to pay us more.

Ross Perot on Education

The chargers I brought with me:

Yes, that’s a CPAP machine, but it least it’s an AutoPAP.

But — most of the charges/adapters are proprietary, so you have to bring one for each device.  I love the devices that you can chose to put a battery in, or has a close to universal cable.  My phone has both, and yes, I have 4 extra batteries for it, but I got them very cheap. 

The worst part is one of my medical devices, my Dexcom CGMS.  It has a proprietary cable and if you lose either two of them, it’s a brick.  One goes from the blood sugar meter (and was supposed to be eliminated last month), and one goes to the wall.

The more I think about it, in a lot of ways TEXTING is better than a personal conversation — I’m especially thinking about the roll they want to be play next year, being an Advisor to hopefully graduating seniors.

First, that the primary way most of the kids are communicating.  And being able to blast out a text message to all 15 kids I’m supposed to be shepherding to graduating is a whole lot easier than calling them.  I don’t know about the rest of the teaching world, but even with speaker phone and speed dialing I find calling kids exhausting.  Yeah, I could use the school attendance system to blast them, I think — the old one did, not sure what we’re using now, but the text messaging even the whole group is a bit more personal and they DO check texts.

So letting them know that an application deadline is nearing and reminding them of a meeting is a good thing, but probably doesn’t fall under the social correspondence.

The best part IS that there is a trail, but phone conversations would be he said, she said.

The good news, is that the original article said they are considering it.  Hopefully, they will say in the immortal words of Roseannadanna: "never mind".

Teachers and Students on Social Networking

Alfred Thompson the Cyberspace People Watcher: Teachers and Students on Social Networking

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – A new school district policy in southern Mississippi prohibits teachers from texting or communicating with students through Internet social network sites such as MySpace.

District bars teacher-student texting – Education- msnbc.com

This is where I went to college for my B.S. in computer science.  Never did pay any attention to the school district.

I’m not sure how I feel about this.  Some of it matches my own personal policy.  I won’t be friends on Facebook with current students.  I also wouldn’t follow a student on Twitter.  I also don’t text students, but I really only text my sister.  Real Estate agent, no time for the phone.

I know teachers who text students, and it is invaluable for our parenting teacher.  Her students text her when they are on the way to the hospital to have their babies.  Of course, that isn’t "social" contact, in my opinion, but it would be hard to draw the line.

At the same time, next year when I am supposed to be advising Senior students, I could see texting as valuable — again, though I would have strict guidelines.

I honestly don’t see a blanket policy as good then, I then it would have to be taken on a case by case basis.

I’d love to see a fully funded NCLB program, but I’m sure that won’t happen in my fifetime.

I know, most teachers seem to be against, but I’ve lived under some form of NCLB since I started teaching 17 years ago.  Back in the 80’s, Ross Perot chaired a committee that was charged to fix education in Texas.

While it isn’t perfect, it sure is better than if we hadn’t done it.  Ross Perot committees did some very fair reaching things — and you guys think Laura Bush invented NCLB, as I snort.  Nope, it was Ross Perot and his buddies.

They came up with "no pass, no play."  Yes, a bit of a PITA, as periodically I have to sign off that my students involved in extracurriculum activities are actually attending, passing their classes, and even behaving themselves.  If they don’t, they don’t get to practice, much less play.  That goes for athletes, choir members, chess players, and even academic UIL competitors.  I love it, because coach gives them a bit more practice if I complain.

They also came up with the concept that teachers should actually be qualified to teach.  They made all the teachers back then, pass a basic skills test, and yeah, a few shop teachers failed.  Then anyone who wanted to go to school for a teaching certificate had to pass the test too.  Yep, even me, with a BS in computer science, had to prove that I could read and write.  And boy howdy, was it easy.

They also came up with the concept that you had to pass a test in your subject area and have a certain number of hours in your subject area.  I went after a traditional certificate after earning a BS, so I had to have a deficency plan and even had to take 3 hours of CS.  I choose System Analysis, which I had been doing for 10+ years and yep, I’d learned to do it the way the textbook taught it.  I also had to take 3 hours of speech (not a bad idea), 3 hours of Texas Politics (again, a good idea, since I was educated in annother state, a bunch of hours in pedogy and a bunch of hours of Math, since i figured the dual certification might come in handy (it does — I’m seriously think of cashing in and teaching in a reconstituted school for the extra bucks)  and I really like teaching math, it makes me feel useful (more on that some other day).

The next concept was making sure the kids were learning.  We have various forms of tests which get progressively harder, if I remember right, the first was TABS, and the kiddos had to be really be bad off not to pass. Then we went to TAAS, now we’re on TAKS.  The next progression is End of Course, which we’ve been preparing for around 15 years, if not more.  Each version required high school students to pass to graduate.  It wasn’t until TAKS and a few years ago, when the lower grades started being held accountable.  Someday soon, we’re expected to get children who can read. A few years after that, we’re supposed to get kids that can do math.  The bad news, is that they can take it in Spanish until they hit 8th grade.  I keep wondering what that poor kid from NIgera does when he’s in 3rd grade, and has to pick between reading in English or Spanish.  I keep thinking we need a Swahilli version (no, I am NOT kidding, I’ve taught that kid, okay, his older brother who has to learn English in two year).

There are a lot of things that happened as a result of Ross Perot (and some funding issues).  One thing is that we’re pretty agressive about making kids come to school and even more aggressive about making teachers teach.  I do now that it is lacking in your neighboring state of Louisiana, because 3 years ago I taught Katrina kids, and they didn’t recognize either event.  Now, I can understand that when you’ve lost everything in a hurricane and are living with relatives, that the going to school everyday night be hard, but I’d think you’d know how to sit down and listen in a classroom, but apparently a teacher that actually does classroom management and makes you do that is foreign. 

So no, I’m for a properly admisisted NCLB program.  Who knows, maybe all the kids will actually get taught?