Monthly Archives: August 2006

Open Office for Macs!

I am taking a little time to do some reading. The laundry is piling up and the dishes need to be washed but it will all be there tomorrow so here goes.

There was an article about Open Office soon running natively on Macs. I’m looking forward to it. I have always liked Open Office because it is something students can put on their home computers when they can’t afford the big expensive office suite and save their work so that it is compatible with said office suite. I should mention that teachers can put it on their home computers as well. There are no site licensing issues to worry about.

I have been able to use it on laptops running Linux and ported to OSX but now I won’t have to worry about porting it. It’s a shame more software isn’t this versatile.

I still have the other office suite running on computers at home and at work but I find myself using it less and less. It’s a habit I am working hard to break. If I am going to promote it I need to learn it well enough to teach it.

There is resistance to using it widespread and I don’t know if it is a matter of people being afraid of trying something new or an attitude of thinking that it must not be as good if it doesn’t cost anything, or a combination of both.

A quote from a DIGG comment “you would think schools would ask for programs to be made in other OS’s.” I would think software companies would want to make their programs in other operating systems. Oh wait – Open Office already does that – hmmm….

The Speed of Incompetence

Life is in fast forward right now. A filter has to be tweaked on every single computer that is in used by a teacher to input grades and as I try to touch them all I sandwich fixing little problems. At some point I try to eat lunch. The other day I looked at the clock twice all day – once at 11:30 and once at 3:20. I don’t know where the time went.

I have come to love tutorials because I have students in the lab and that is the only time I have to be there so I get a chance to read email and make a list of what I already know needs to be done for the day. When it gets this crazy I start making mistakes and forgetting details so I while am doing more things I am doing them less well.

I know it will slow down some after the filter is done and I am working towards that. I miss having a locking desk drawer since my desk was a casualty in the summer break-in so I carry more baggage around with me – literally and figuratively speaking.

The bright spot has been the new laptop the technology director bought me. It’s a MacBook and I have named her Iris. She has to be female because not only is she packed with geeky goodness but she is also pretty. She does everything that my desktop did better and with style. I am trying to learn more about her inbetween all the gradebook and email “fixing”

My lab is needing attention badly and as soon as these filters are in place and working I will be spending some time working on it. Everytime I walk in the door I feel like I need to apologize for letting things slide with it.

Another day is beginning and while I would like to spend more time writing and reading and thinking, 3:45 will be here before I can sneeze!

Teacher Work Day

Yesterday was the only day this week designated for teachers to work in their rooms. I heard my name over the intercom about ten times and people found me wherever I was working and added their needs to my growing list. People emailed me which was problematic because there wasn’t much time to check email.

Students start Monday and teachers needed GradeBook and e-Attendance working. They needed computers moved and E-mail set up. I new it would be crazy and it was. By the end of the day I was mean, mad, tired and not done. I had to leave on time because it was a dialysis night. I was grouchy with my kids when I got home and I know Monday will still be a day of running around like a chicken, trying to get everyone’s problems solved.

Every year I learn something new and work towards adding that to my list of things to prioritize but I think that if I ever get it right, it will all change and I will have to start over.

For next year I have got to remember that new teachers (or teachers on new computers) need to be added as administrators on their computers or e-attendance won’t play nice. I think E-mail and attendance need to be the priorities and Gradebook can be taken care of after all that is done. They need E-mail as soon as possible so they can keep up with the announcements as they are sent out and they have to have attendance the first day. Setting them up as administrators can be done without them being there so I need a list early in the week of where everyone is going to be. That was another problem for me this year. I had no list til late yesterday. If I have the list of who and where, I can check off what and when.

Lab scheduling issues were coming up and the lab itself has a ton of work to be done so Monday it all begins again. My promise to myself is I will try not to get so mean and mad and to remember that there is always another day.

Tech Fair is Over

I was honored to do a morning and afternoon session and there were some good questions, great participation, and a few people who created their own blogs. If I’m honest I think I was better in the morning than the afternoon – more energy. The afternoon group didn’t seem to have as many questions. I have added a link on my wiki to a bloglines tutorial for those who are interested. I walked both groups through the process of setting up an account but I did not provide a handout for this part so if you need something to refer back to you can try this link.

The only drawback to TechFair is that the presenters are busy presenting and so can’t attend other sessions. I would really like to have sat in on the Elmo presentation and the MySpace presentation. We are going to have to start recording in video or at least in audio. It would be great to podcast some of these sessions. With the proximity of several school districts it would be fun to have one big event over several days and have folks from other districts present as well.

Monday I co-presented with our awesome librarian on email, copyright issues, lab scheduling, computer repairs, and library resources. I created the first part of our slides in OpenOffice using a laptop that runs Ubuntu. I saved it as a .ppt file and sent my part to our librarian who was able to add her slides without even knowing that it hadn’t originated in Powerpoint. I have had no problem tranferring documents back and forth between Microsoft and Ubuntu and so far I am very pleased with Ubuntu.

Ready or Not Tomorrow is TechFair!

I didn’t accomplish everything today that I wanted to get done but it will do. I will go early tomorrow and it will be fine. I have some anxiety, not because I don’t know the material. My concern is my ability to teach it and to impart my enthusiasm for blogging to the group. I see rss feeds on our school webpage in the future. I imagine conversations that don’t end with the school year and possible continue throughout a students high school career. I know everyone won’t embrace this new technology but if even a few take it and run with it I think it will be worth it. I want to make sure that they all walk out subscribed to blogs and with the knowledge to show their students how to subscribe as well. I have tutorials for creating blogs and we will go through that process as well. I have an activity to show the semantic connections and I have some sample blogs to show them. I want to just touch on podcasts and wikis just to introduce the ideas. That is the plan so if all the equipment works we should be able to make good use of the time.
I got home late, rushed in and cooked dinner, Dale ate and took some cold medicine against my better judgement and was violently ill. I’m sitting here typing with my feet propped up while I should be doing some laundry. I also need to cook tomorrow’s supper because it will be a dialysis night and Dale will need to eat before I get home so he will be ready to go on time. I will eat a bowl of cereal later – I’ve learned not to eat when I’m “fizzing” around as Dale calls it.

Thursday will be another “hit the ground running” day. All the new school year work that needs to be done on teacher computers is already being done by some but others will need help. Joe is beng run ragged and I feel bad that I couldn’t help today. Everyone wants everything done right NOW. I plan on wearing comfortable shoes.

“The Messengers”

I have started watching a TV show called “The Messengers” I am not a big reality TV person – I get enough reality in real life. I prefer fantasy for entertainment. This show however is different. A group of people who are already experienced speakers compete for a book deal. To do this they are taken on a different field trip every week where they have to immerse themselves in a particular life. Last week they had to spend time in the fields with farm workers and then give a two minute speech on struggle They picked vegetables til their backs hurt and then kept on picking. This week they are handicapped. Several have to spend time in a wheel chair – shopping, using public restrooms, navigating everywhere. They can’t use their legs at all. They not only have unique experiences but the relationships they form with the people have a lasting impact on them.The speeches they gave on struggle were amazing and so far tonights speeches on perseverance are just as awesome. Not only the mechanics but you can see and hear the emotional impact on their faces and in their words. I wish we could all “roll a mile in another man’s chair”. Half the group had to function without eyesight. They were taken to Union Station and had to buy tickets and ride the train. Two got off in the wrong place and couldn’t find the others including their blind “guide”. They finally got together and all went outside to experience walking across a city street. “Perserverance is about the critical decisions that we make at the turning points in our lives” and “Just ask God to help you go beyond what your eyes can see” were two of the quotes I took away. So far I am impressed with all the speakers and if I had a complaint it would be that someone will leave every week and I like hearing the different perspectives. Maybe some of them will start blogging.

My Favorite Firefox Features

I have been using Firefox for several years and have always been an advocate for the browser. Lately I have used one feature more than any other. From the main menu click view, text size, increase. I do this several times til the text is easy for me to read without so much eye-strain. This may not be a big news flash for some of you but it has become a necessity for me!

Tabbed browsing has become second nature and I don’t know what I did before I had it. I always have at least four tabs open switching between them constantly. I keep one tab open to google so I can zip over and search for anything that catches my eye on the other websites I am currently browsing.

My bookmarks Toolbar is another essential feature. I have my everyday links listed there so I can just go to the menu and click a button and read the local paper, check my gmail account, or subcribe to a blog with bloglines.

Del.icio.us has a plugin for Firefox that places buttons on your browser that let you click a button to either tag a webpage or go to your del.icio.us page to browse your saved tags. I used to send links from home to work or vice versa. Now instead of clogging my email I can tag it and find it from anywhere I have internet access.

Firefox not only lets you have a searchbox for google right on your toolbar, but you can add search engines to it so you just click on the icon in the left side of the box and bring up a list of search engines. I have Ebay, Amazon, Food Network Recipes, Weather Channel, Wikipedia, and more. If I am reading an article by a favorite blogger and they reference a book that sounds interesting I can open up a new tab, click in the search engine box and change to Amazon and put the book title in to find the pricing, reviews, and if I like it, add it to my Amazon growing wishlist.

These are other Firefox tools I use but these are my everyday, can’t do without, A-list.