Why I don't Blog More Often...

I think about this often.  What do I really do all day that I am so busy that I can't address a few lines to elucidate some fun teaching/tech FAQs.  No really: WHAT DO I DO ALL DAY?

Today was exciting I have to admit.  I got to call Epson, only to be told that the new projectors that we just installed into each classroom really "won't do that, not made for it..."  What won't it do?  Allow you to show streaming video OR even play a movie to the projector without it being choppy. 

No one thought to mention that?

Well, really, they "expect that it's just used for PowerPoint, you know..."  Really, the guy said that.

He did eventually give me some possible adjustments that I could make to see if it helps the issue.  He didn't sound hopeful.

That was the shortest part of the day.

I actually had time.  So what did I do instead of writing a blog entry?  I cleaned my closet and part of my office.  Am I finished?  No, I will never be finished.  Am I filthy? Yes, but hopefully that situation can be fixed.

Where does the time go? 

I spent yesterday at two workshops.  The first was about creating android apps. I can now make a picture of a cat meow on my phone.  Yep, I am that talented.  I also made a magic 8 ball.  But who hasn't.  Really it was quite fun.  It would have been a lot more fun if the network had stayed up.  So, every year CUE comes to Palm Springs.  Every year the Internet fails.  Why is this?  In fairness I haven't been over to the actual convention center to test it--that will happen today.

I have been coming to CUE for 10 years.  I know because they gave me a ribbon that says so.  In 10 years I have no recollection of great Internet.  As a matter of fact I recollect some years when we weren't given access to Internet unless we were presenting.  Which is crazy at a technology conference.  But those days are behind us...

So, day one went well.  I am amazed at how many SV folks are down here.  Who actually goes to the Napa CUE conference? 

Well, let me know if you need a meowing cat for your phone...

The times grows closer for CUE.  I shouldn't be so excited, but I am.  This year I get to be the only woman on the team.  This grants me the luxury of a hotel room alone.  Oh yes.  Sweet blissful sleep (let's hope the people next door don't have a baby.)

No, really.  I know that I'm supposed to be excited about the professional development, and I am. I have a couple of workshops that will hopefully send me in a whole new direction and some others that will boost what I'm doing with regard to my colleagues and professional development for them.  Great. 

But what am I REALLY looking forward to?  Sleep.  I have a child.  Sleep is not always peaceful.  Three full nights alone.  I will probably get up at an obscene hour to work out.  Why?  Because a solid five is priceless.

So, I am pretty stoked about the android app workshop.  I am also hoping to get something good out of the Google Drive workshop.  Although I love Google, I am a bit tired of the workshops...that's another story.

Ready for some great sleep!  Along with a great chance to learn some new stuff.

Some Days You Get a Win

For those who work in schools and work with technology this will not come as a surprise, but teachers are not always the most eager to try new things.  Now, there are a variety of legitimate reasons for this: There is limited time, What they're already doing works well, They are not familiar with using technology, They don't feel that it incorporates well into their curriculum.

For those who work in schools and whose job it is to help teachers you know that it is your job (read here MY JOB) to change their minds and move them forward.  Today, was a win.  A win first period.  Nice.  I didn't have to wait for the payoff.

A fantastic teacher of English who has some great systems in place needed a way to share a lecture. Not one to miss a golden opportunity I moved her directly to Google hangouts.  Now I know that Google hangouts are designed for a bunch of people to go online and yap at each other about nothing special and have a great time.  Piffle! This is a great way to have a quick step to record and upload directly to YouTube.  I have a preference for what I call the lazy approach (and my sister calls the efficient approach.)  This goes back to my, still, romance with Google.  One stop shopping.  I like a product tView bloghat doesn't need me to complete it.  I bring the hardware to this relationship, and Google does the rest.  My teacher?  She does what she does best, lecture and explain and an unusually lively way.

Now, of course when the teacher came to me there were, as always, impediments to the actual project.  It might have happened while I was at a conference.  I had backups ready to work with us.  She got nervous.  Maybe she should use the microcassette recorder?  No.  No need.  It will all work out....really....trust me....really.....and if she uses the microcassette she'll have to redo it next year....and this will be great for the kids who need a review (I gather this is very difficult material that needs regular reviewing....)

So, this morning, trial run.  My biggest concern was that the technology, webcam, microphone, computer wouldn't perform up to par, wouldn't capture the image, wouldn't capture the sound.  THANK YOU Logitech and Google.  I have a successful test AND wonder of wonders, the lecture will take place prior to my leaving for my conference and I will have the joy of setting up the project and seeing it through to it's natural conclusion.  Win!  Tiger blood?  No, but still, in my book, a HUGE win.

Am I overly excited?  Yes.  So what.  Live in my world for a little while and you'll learn to take your wins where you can find them....

Once more into the .....yeah.

So, I stopped blogging probably more than a year ago.  I had this professional blog and then I had a personal blog Book&Baking.  It came to pass that I was blogging more on my school site, which was ok, but I wasn't getting any work done. So blogging had to go.

I think it's time to return.  My CUE profile has this blog, no actually attached to my professional email which confuses me regularly.

So, I am back and will try to blog at least once a week.  I also plan to tweet from CUE.  That might even be interesting.

As I move forward with my school's initiatives in tech I hope to meet a number of interesting people at the CUE conference and share some ideas. 

I look forward to posting.

NOTE: I just looked at my old posts and I think we're closer to two years out....time flies.

Pressing Send

Wow, I did it.  I pressed send.  It's not as bad as it could be.  I mean, I once pressed send on an email to my boss that was pretty straightforward about my thoughts.  That was my "one."  I didn't get fired and we moved past it.

I love the stories of "..and then I pushed send..."  Everyone has one.  It's like asking people about pushing 'reply to all' instead of 'reply.'  Yep, I've done that too.  Although the outcome on that was pretty good.

I remember vividly being new to the school where I work and having my VERY new boss come to my office, bang on my door, and, in a pleading tone that I was to come to know well say, "Can I get an email back?!!  I shouldn't have pushed send!"  Well...depending upon a lot of things you can get an email back and THAT was the day that I learned how to do it on Outlook. 

As I said, my situation not politically messy.  It just really messed up my inbox.  All I wanted to do was send out an email to our staff of 30 people.  Because I need them to actually READ my email I attached a 'read receipt' to it.  Simple yes?  Controversial, no?  Except that I had sent the email originally to my aforementioned boss and another administrator to review.  It was titled: Trial Balloon. 

Of course, when there were no changes to be made I chose the expeditious path of forwarding the sent email.  I went through it, checked again for errors, made sure that I deleted all signs of it having been sent and reviewed by others....oh yeah, except for the 'FW: Trial Balloon'.

Well, I don't like emails to go out in such a fashion.  I should have left it, but NOOOOOO.  So, having noticed once I received about 3 read receipts how the email was titled (seriously, it looked stupid, really stupid) I decided to retrieve the unread emails and resend with another message. 

HOLY COW.  Now I have 'read receipts' from all 30 for the original message (5 read and 25 unread), 30 messages telling me whether or not the message was retrieved, and now, a few telling me that some people have read my new message.  Ironically, it sends the replacement message to the people who have already received and opened the original.

The beauty?  The same people who read the original have read the new message.  No one else...[sigh]

The Cloud

Frankly, I'm a history teacher.  Some might argue that I'm actually an English teacher and those who are really nit-picking will choose to call me and ESL teacher.  Yep.  OK.  But I actually liked teaching history.  It was interesting.  Which is odd beause, despite the fact that my U.S. history teacher was a very nice man (and my homeroom teacher) I thought that history class was boring.  U.S. History was probably better than World Studies.  Boy, that guy was NOT good.  I still have no idea what we did in either class.  I remember reading the book and answerie cng questions...but on to my topic.

Where I'm from a cloud is a white fluffy thing OR an angry thunderhead.  So now, we have "the cloud."  I like sunshine, but now, I head out to embrace the google cloud.  Why google?  Well, it's free.   Well, it's easy.  Seriously.  I will probably attenpt certification.  I'll let you know how that goes.  How hard can it be (unless they're crap test writers--c'mon we all know bad test writers...)
Why go to the cloud?  Well, since I'm not really sure why I want to do it myself, I'll just say, "money."  Money is often a good reason to choose a technology.  Really.  Especially if there have already been people who've tried out the technology and like it.  I'm sure that there are other ways to do what I want to do (get the students' docs, etc off of our servers) but this is the cheapest, least labor intensive, and, as previously noted, known working quantity.

I am already thinking of how the cloud can truly expand our curriculum.  How can we take our teaching to the next level.  I know how to do it.  Now, how do I force my vision in a way that others' think that it's their idea...

BTW: I passed the first Google Certification Exam.  I was a little disappointed at the large number of questions on a non-free part of the Apps that not everyone in Google Education uses.  Oh Well.  It's their test.