Blog

I wasn't feeling really well when I got up, and as soon as I ate some breakfast, it came back up to visit.  Having gastro-intestinal issues isn't good for a diabetic, and I don't want to spread whatever I have.   So in the interest of public health, I left.

So far, it's going better than last year.  I made it.

I've had a very long day though.  Had to fight with my 8th period class, and I never win with them.  Well, I do, because they are the ones that told me who took the MP3 Player.

Anyway, I'm working with three very nice people, and our charity is the Fine Arts Chamber players.

So far, we've been able to build a local DotNetNuke site, connect to the SQL server and I am attempting to the create the initial site.

I scored by having and bring an air card.  I'm making a list of essentials for tomorrow.

New phone time and i am trying a Tilt2 and even making this blog post with it.

i got a Fuze this summer because my orginal Tilt broke. it sucked it was too small. one thing i already dislike is that the software isnt automatically capping.

I looked and I have to remeber to do that. Someone – was it Palm – used to cap automatically based on what you typed.

The fuze was okay but overall too small. I like the size of the Tilt and Tilt 2. i like a big screen and i like the the solid feel. I also like the larger keyboard.

the tilt 2 seems slow. it does graphics on the web pages – hopefully a way to turn that off so it seems to run slow. i also type ahead a lot when i am blogging – like right now so maybe the processor is a tad slow for what it is trying to do.

i also like the pure but really like a full qwerty keyboard so i will probably keep this.

I love Microsoft Live Mesh.  It works.

Sharepoint is okay.  You can get to your files everywhere, but you have to put in your userid and password each time you want to access them.  That got old.

It was also a bit awkward to use.  It was also VERY expensive.  So I discontinued my sharepoint account.  With my credit from the Sharepoint, I probably don't have to pay for my exchange accounts or my websites for at least two years.

I love Microsoft Live Mesh.  It's free, and the interface is intuitive.  Better yet, it lets you remotely access your workstations even if they are behind a firewall.

You can find it and download the software that runs it at www.mesh.com — and access your files or through the software.

We're apparently using new blocking software for the internet.  We've been seeing changes in that, and right now, I'm REALLY happy with it.

Somedays we've been able to get to Facebook or MySpace, but today we can't.  That's fine, it gives me less classroom management to do.

I can get to Twitter, which is nice, but not 100% necessary since I have my phone and air card but the best thing is that I can get to Microsoft Live Mesh.

Snarl.

Got a 500 gig external drive from Seagate (XTERM version) on their 12 days of Christmas sale, pretty cheap, EXCEPT, it failed two weeks later.  Isn't that always the way.

So now it isn't that cheap, because I have to return it, which means getting a box, packing it and shipping and then waiting.  Or paying $20.00 (my solution, as it seems easier) and not that much more expensive.

But now it ends up being about the regular price.  <SNARL>

And more on this — Seagate's tech support was so irritating.  Didn't want to use the phone, so used their web service for the RMA.  I get an email telling me to call support, and as I am on hold, the hold recording tells me to use their web service.

INFINITE LOOP FAIL!

This is awesome — though REAL programmers code by flipping switches.

Quoted from http://www.cs.utah.edu/~elb/folklore/mel.html:

The Story of Mel

The Story of Mel, a Real Programmer

This was posted to USENET by its author, Ed Nather (utastro!nather), on May 21, 1983.

However, this was one of our better ones.

No stupid games.  (Like dancing? please)

No team building stuff.

We were given tasks and we did them.  Well, we didn't finish one as we couldn't come to a consensus, and then the English department told us we were doing it all wrong.  At least my table came to a consensus.

Also, one of my coworkers is really frustrating as she takes a simple task and makes it really hard. Yeah, we have kids like that.  Unfortunately she was at my table for two days in the fall.  My way to deal with the problem — whip out a computer and write a program to solve it.

Here's the deal.

You have fencing to make a rabbit pen.  One wall will be your house.  What is the relationship between the amount of fencing and the area of the pen.  (By the way, it doesn't matter what kind of fencing, nor does it matter how many doors you have).

Wrote the program in VB, and had it done pretty quick.  I think it would make  good assignment for kids and need to perfect it.

Two good articles to read and discuss.  I made two comments to the group, people listened to them and positively reinforced me.

All in all, a good day.

To start with, I need to confess, I've been teaching for 17 years at the same school.  I have my master's degree from UNT (University of North Texas), and my teacher certification was done traditionally about 10 years after my bachelor's degree, with a deficiency plan from TWU (Texas Woman's University).  I have my bachelor's degree from USM (University of Southern Mississippi). 

I've seen some bad traditionally trained teachers.  One that comes to mind is just finished her program and she doesn't listen.  She talks a lot.  Doesn't have much to say.  I've also seen some really good teachers who have gotten burned out and should have retired a few years ago.  I hope I have the sense to realize that and get out.

However, I've seen something lacking in a lot of the alternative certification program teachers. 

One is an attitude towards staff development.  Now, I don't like wasteful staff development, and I'll admit that some of the TAG stuff I've done (including the day I had to do in November) can be a waste of time.  That was due to one factor – the instructor's attitude, she was hoping we would get out at noon, and of course we didn't.    She treated it as a requirement that had to be done, and so did most of the participants.

However, you'll also see that I sign up for as much staff development as possible, especially if it pays me (the two trips I took last summer, one was free and got me in an area of the country I hadn't been, and the other not only let me travel but paid me).

I also try to participate in the staff development as much as possible.  Sometimes people do things that set me off, usually fellow participants, but I do try to participate.  I also often find that if I step outside and observe, rather than participate I get more out of it.  When I do, I'm trying to see why the activity is working or why it isn't. 

The other part that I see lacking in a lot of alternative certification teachers, is a lack of respect for legalities and other "outside the classroom" requirements.  I've always found that any documentation I do helps me in the end.  I even had a bad attitude towards lesson plans which I first started out, which changed dramatically after we had a loss inthe family and I found that I would have to be out of town for several weeks.  I gained a new respect for lesson plans after I learned to do them in advance, rather than "weekly".  Let me tell you, having everything completely planned out well in advance is a time saver, not a hassle.  Of course it is better yet, if someone else did the work — Or if I get paid to do it for everyone else — which is what happens now.

Oh, and the biggest reason I went the traditional route — job security!

At the time I got hired on with Dallas, they had a surplus of teachers, just not Computer Science teachers, in fact, when I first applied they wanted to hire me on with an emergency certificate.  I'm really glad I didn't because I would have been the first to go, which would have been hard to be hired, then fired almost immediately (about 6 weeks later).  It wouldn't have mattered that they couldn't fill the position, in fact, they never did and I ended up with a better one.  20 minute drive versus 1 hour drive, school that has managed to work NCLB in the best way possible — we're off NCLB long enough to get extra pay but then back on NCLB so we don't get reconstitued and that school has been reconstituded.

It has hurt me to be hired when I was, as if you look at our pay rates, my group is paid the least for the amount of time we've put in.  The master's helped in that pay differential and since the distrct paid for most of that Master's degree, it's been good.  However, I still have the job security behind me.  We lost of lot of alternative certification teachers — most who were still in the middle of their programs.

Oh, and then there's the alternative certification teacher who left my school to go to another local district — he was having inappropriate contact with students at my school and then ended up going to jail for it.

Not saying that traditionally certification teachers haven't done that and won't in the future, but….

Just saved $15.xx at Office Depot.  If you are a Star Teacher, this week they are giving 10% off.  Would I have bought the things I bought?  Doubt it.  Will I use them.  Probably.  Already have the hard drive plugged in.

I like the Star Teacher program.  I used to love it.  They used to give us 5% off and rewards were higher.  Now the rewards are at %1 with no discount.  I don't shop there as much as a result. 

I do need to go back and get a few more items, but I can wait until 1/9.  Meant to get envelopes, but didn't.