No, it’s not Willie Nelson. We’re just going all around Maine leading meetings with school leadership teams. This is a time that we get face to face discussions with people who are in the schools and the classrooms and announce the direction of MLTI for the end of this year and the beginning of next year.
There’s a big change coming - Leopard will be the OS for the next year’s image. That means that there will be a big difference between the way this year’s laptops work and next year’s. Here’s hoping we can come up with a Notebook that can help teachers prepare for the reimaging and feel comfortable about backing up their important files.
In addition, we are going through a leadership change. This could mean a veering of our direction or not. We will see. I am hopeful.
I will say that it is warmer now when we wait in a parking lot, that’s a plus. It is amazing seeing the difference when Spring arrives in Boston, compared to Southern Maine, and especially last week’s Northern Maine. There were still pockets of snow from Medway north - piles a foot deep in shady places around Presque Isle. Brrrr.
Along with Spring and Summer in Maine comes the road construction. It’s hard to calculate the time it might take to travel from place to place. “Sorry, I’m late!”
BTW, I have to recommend a stop in Belfast at the Exxon station on Rte 3 - there are marvelous muffins there - really. You just gotta stop there and muffin-up. Mmmmm.
Well, for most Maine and Massachusetts educators, this week is vacation week. So what do we do? Some of us take off to warmer climes…little do they know what great weather they are missing in Maine. Those of us who stayed home, or did day trips, really appreciated what Spring in New England is all about.
We tooted down to Boston this last weekend for another family catch-up - the Boston Marathon weekend. So where did we go? Right to Harvard Square. Beeeee yewtiful day to be there. All sorts of folks were out. The Square is a great place to people watch. There was even a fairly large Free Tibet rally going on.
So we socialized at the Border Cafe (high recommendation!) and had an early supper at Grafton Street (Very Good - I had the Butternut Squash Risotto.)
Now, those of us in Maine have a hard time looking out and seeing the spring flowers and budding trees so much earlier in Massachusetts, and rightly so. A lot of garden envy going on…
Anyway, it was a great weekend. And when we returned to our house, it was still topsy turvy. We spent Sunday dragging stuff up from the basement and from the other parts of the house to fill the bookcases, because they were done. I even got the HDTV hooked up, but not all the AV components…they are still waiting for their shelves under the bookcase. So we got to watch TV in the living room, but still in our computer chairs…yes, we watched Dancing with the Stars Monday night.
Tuesday morning our sectional couch arrived. Wow! We made a good choice. It looks good, and it has a couple of recliners in it. So we watched the DWTS Results show in comfort. But there is still more to do…bring up the repaired coffee table, wait for the special order cabinet hardware, put the cabinet doors on, wait for the valences to be finished and hung, install the shelves and hook up the AV components, and buy the right rugs. Not much, compared to what was done. And, of course, we are broke.
Now, there’s a lesson to learn…buying an HDTV can have a distinct domino effect on your checking account! (education reference)
OK, I’m venting. I’m not looking for sympathy, advice or even just active listening…I am just venting.
I’ll admit it, I’m a man, and that y chromosome just begs for a big TV. So, Dec 31, I bought a 42 in LCD HDTV. That is just the beginning. I had to buy an upscaling DVD player, and it had to play DivX (don’t ask why.) That’s OK, it only costs 45$. Buty wait, there’s more.
Now I have to upgrade my cable to HD. Ooops, I have Oxford Networks…they don’t offer HD. Hmm, I have to chage providers…for the cable, AND phone, AND high-speed internet. Damn, I liked Oxford Networks, too. So I call Time/Warner Cable. I get the good package deal that looks cheap for 6 months, and then you realize you’re paying 20$ a month more for that HD. BUT….I can fet a 50$ reebate on the phone, and 50$ rebate on the high-speed internet. 100$…cool. More on this later.
I set up the appointment, Jan 28…wow, am I psyched! The day comes and I wait, and wait, and wait som more. No one comes. I call and talk to a guy that says, “Too bad, we have that listed for a business - are you a business?”
“No,” I say. And I find out that it is SNAFU and FUBAR. (Google it - No offense, folks.) And I set up another service call for Feb 8. OK, if you have a calendar handy, and you are male, you can see that this is after SuperBowl Sunday. Hmmmm, why did I get an HDTV Dec 31, and have HD cable service set up for Jan 28? Maybe to watch SuperBowl with friends? Yeah..that’s the ticket. So I lose on that account, but have it set up on Feb 8. Oops, I had to call the service guy back…phone can dial out but not receive calls. OK, he fixed it, but I lost my fax connection. Oh, well.
Well, then I have to get the TV to ft my living room. Oh, wrong priority - I have to get the living room to fit the TV. Call the contractor…rebuild the bookcase around the TV. Did I tell you I bought a Blu-ray player, and a 7.1 surround sound amplifier with 2 HDMI imputs, and one HDMI out? Well, who’s going to wacth HDTV without good sound, right? And Blu-ray is the HD format that survived.
And we have to have a comfy couch with recliners, and the wlls have to be replaced, and the floors have to be redone. This started March 24, and we are not done. My wife and i watch Dancing with the Stars streaming video on a laptop now, waiting for the remodeling to get finished…did I mentuon that we are having all new windows put in all the house? And I broke two casters on our coffee table…looking for a new one, maybe end tables.
Oh, we have to buy a new computer desk, and a rug, and new drapes. Did I mention that we have an big tax that we owe and that these costs are a little dear?
Oh, I forgot to mention that my wife and I have different opinions on decorating. She decorates; I look for long, white, clean walls. I’d love to have a loft. This leads to some interesting discussions.
So, now it is April 15, and we still live out of our kitchen. I need to get that recliner sofa in place.
Ther is more to the story, but i am tired and the frustration swells again, but then fades away.
I have been working with a high school where the principal has distributed a set of guidelines and a rubric for educators in his building to construct an ePortfolio showcasing how they integrate technology into their practice. It has been very interesting to observe the varied reactions from the staff to this administrative pressure.
There are a number of them who consider themselves “computer illiterate,” a term I abhor. And there are those who have been using tech since the days of the Apple IIE . Some have objected to the added mandate; some see it as an opportunity to share examples of best practice…and a lot of folks fall into the spectrum between.
The qualifier to the pressure is the support offered to staff. First, they (the administration and tech staff) trained 10 other staff how to use NoteShare, an application like OneNote, where the user can collect files, and share them over a network or the web, so staff can work collaboratively. Then, the whole staff was divided into groups to have an introduction to NoteShare from those 10 who were trained - just showing the potential usefulness. Then, I worked on two Professional Development days, to give deeper training to a couple of staff groups on how to use NoteShare to construct ePortfolios.
So, this was a requirement, there has been no timeline specified, so it may be eased into gradually. Staff was, and will be, given the time for professional development around the ePortfolio. And since there are staff who are more familiar with technology, they will be acting as mentors to the other staff, who may need that support. But, wait, here’s the clincher - as part of the requirement, they are asked to present their ePortfolios to their colleagues for friendly critique based on the rubric. Hmmm, reflection and collegiality… that might get them somewhere.
My opinion? I think this serves as a good model for schools to integrate technology and improve classroom practice based on administrative pressure and support. Oh, but I mentioned evaluation in the title - well, that’s an issue worth discussing,
Well, I just got back from the “Arts, Innovation and Creativity” Conference in Rockland. What a blast! I got to meet some of the students in my class face to face! That doesn’t always happen in an online course.
There were all sorts of sessions and workshops available. The hard part was picking which ones you could miss, because so many were so cool. I was a minor part of the session that dealt with comics and Webcomics as legitimate literature. We played 5-card Nancy and used Flickr, iPhoto, and Comic Life to do our own digital storytelling.
It was a weekend of good company, good content, good food, and even good accommodations.
Just some blithering…
It’s Winter, and I head North again without my parrot. We leave for an education focus group in Bangor.
And it’s cold in Auburn…must be cold in Bangor, too, eh?
So we get there, and the rest of our crew is sitting in their car, the lone car in the parking lot. Why aren’t they inside setting up? Hmmmm. I guess there’s a problem. And it’s cold.
Good guess…we call the scheduler, and she calls the contact person. And we wait…and it’s cold.
Another car pulls in…it’s a couple of folks who will be in the workshop, and they will wait, too. And it’s cold.
Another car pulls in…could it be? The occupant gets out…she looks familiar…Yes! It’s a person who works at the site…seems the contact person was sick, and it was a good day to come in late. Oops, she forgot that there was a group coming in to use the facility. Oh, well. We enter the facility, It is feeling a little warmer. Ahhhh.
We rush to set up and everything is OK. Folks are happy to be here and the discussion is going well. Then the wireless craps out. No web connection. But it’s not cold.
We try all the simple things, and we cannot get the network to stay back up again. The provider is called and states that they can see all the way to our router. So the problem is at our end. We try some more complex things. No go.
Finally, as our participants are being given a tour of the facility, we set up our own network with an Airport Extreme. It works and it’s not cold. So now it’s time for lunch.
At my age, I have lived through a number of pets. I have become convinced that family pets are teachers - they teach your family how to deal with infantile behavior (kittens and puppies,) how to deal with behavior and still have a loving relationship, and, too often, how to deal with grief. So, when my wife (trying to deal with having no grandchildren yet) talked about getting a parrot from a friend, I was not enthusiastic. “What if we want to go on a trip?” “Who’s gonna clean up after the bird?” “I don’t want to deal with another dead pet!” (I’m a very sensitive guy.) …yadayadayada…
So we have a parrot, an African Grey…she’s now in her second year with us. She’s 14 years old. She should live to maybe 80. Hmmm…..Well, that takes care of one of my complaints. Oh, and because she’s a girl…she likes me more than my wife. Go figure.
I have been trying to get her to say “Ahoy, matey!” So far, no go. I even told her that my very first Blog post said “Ahoy, Mateys!” I can’t even get an “Avast!” or an “Arrrrrhhhh!” out of her. However, she has learned the first few bars of The Star Spangled Banner (whistling,) will click when we say “tick-tock,” will whistle the bugle call “Charge!”, and will say “Love you,” when we pick up our car keys to leave the house. Oh, and when we move her cage, she says, “Hold on, Ab.” OK, so it isn’t very piratical, but we’re working on that.
Hey, I used the word “learning…” This must be an educational post.
First of all, my apologies for sending folks to Mystery Cafe instead of Edublogs.
However, the Mobfather show was great, the food was very good, and the parking was very expensive. You want to talk about parking in Boston? Well, let me tell you, be very careful of time. We went to the show, and we got our parking ticket validated. Good for us. Then we stopped at Mike’s Pastries (highly recommended!!!!) to pick up some goodies to take home. Costly miscaculation….the parking validation was good for three hours.
We walked back to the parking garage, waited for the elevator, pulled out of our space and drove around to get in line to get out. So far, so good. When we finally got to the pay booth, we handed the validated parking ticket to the attendant. She said, “16 Dollars!” Say what? “16 Dollars!”
But we had our ticket vailidated for three hours! ….Seems we were 6 minutes over. Six minutes of waiting in line to get to the parking attendant, no less. So our 16 bucks of pastries and six minutes of waiting behind other cars cost us big time.
Oh, yeah… talk about education and technology, Phil.
OK, I purposefully did not bring my laptop on this visit with my family, because it would have been rude for me to use technology while doing the familial thing. I have learned that over the years. So I spent most of Sunday wringing my hands because i couldn’t get back quickly enough to relieve my worrying about catching up with my class after a server migration. Foolish me. A real pirate wouldn’t have worried.
So, you wanted a picture. I’m gonna try to upload this…
OK, I suppose you are wondering why I am PhilPirate. Well, way back when, my wife was directing the Middle School musical play (no, it isn’t a movie…) Peter Pan. It had both kid roles and adult roles. I would always help out as an acting coach…but this time, I got a part - I played Captain Hook. Wow! Cool! A swordfight onstage, a super costume, and I got to sing a tarantella. Little did I know what my future would bring.
Two decades later, I was reading Dave Barry’s column in the paper, and he was writing about National Talk Like a Pirate Day. I thought, “That’s the perfect holiday!” Then I saw the date - September 19th. Fate was telling me something; that’s my wife’s birthday! Coincidence? I think not. This was a day designed to make me happy.
So, I decided to go to school on the appropriate day and celebrate heartily with my students, whether they liked it or not. I went to the store and bought that corn snack, Pirate’s Booty. I studied up and learned all sorts of buccaneer lingo, and practiced my guttural noises.
It went well, and my team went along with the celebration…there are never enough celebrations in middle school. One teacher even had one of her stuffed M&Ms (with an eyepatch) walk the plank from a third floor window. My students learned that Yo, ho, ho was not a hip-hop insult, and that looking for booty wasn’t what they might have thought. They had to ask, “Captain Phil, request permission to visit the poop deck.” Again, it went well.
Since then, staff and my friends have attached to me all sorts of notions piratical. I had my staff picture taken as a pirate, I have emceed a local Mardi Gras shindig as a pirate, and have been known to emit “arrrrrhhhh”s at the drop of a doubloon. I even have a parrot! I could go on, but I hear my saucy wench calling me….
Oh, is this blog supposed to be about education? Heck, I mentioned school and students a couple of times!
