Author Archives: Dee

About Dee

I am a working wife, geek, and mother of two with opinions about just about everything which I plan to share here.

Happy Almost 6 Month Old Kidney

Dale went for an extra check up today because his blood work came back wonky last time. His creatinine was up from 1.1 to 1.4 and his white blood cell count was up. Those things could indicate an infection, a need for meds to be adjusted, a need to drink more water. They were about the same this time – no worse. They want him to come back in 2 weeks and do another glofil test and they adjusted the meds and both were medicines that could create this effect. Soooo…he’s fine though not happy about doing the glofil again.
We got back just after lunch and I went to work though I wondered for a while if we were going to have to pull over in Commerce and wait out the storm – it was raining so hard we couldn’t see and it lasted almost to Paris.

The school year is almost over. We went to a cookout for the debate team last night and the kids got to burn their files. There are six seniors moving on this year and they have spent a lot of time together and they have spent a lot of time with Kristy so it was kind of emotional. We left before about 8:30 and left the kids to spend time with each other and Kristy. I can’t express how grateful I am for all the time Kristy put in with these kids and especially mine.

Tonight we go back out there for a cookout for the AP US History class that my daughter has been in with Dennis as her teacher. They have both obviously had a lot to do with my kids education and growing up.

Comp Day May 2008

Here is my handout. Some of it is covered in other places in this blog. It was created on a Mac using Pages. I am trying to get more comfortable using the iWork software and I think that while it is not as much of a workhorse as Word it was fun and easy to export as a PDF.
Jumpdrive

Create a folder

PowerPoint Backgrounds and creating content in Word

Adding Sound to PowerPoint and making the music play across multiple slides

Creating Screenshots

Creating a group in Outlook Express

Locking your computer

Word Tips

FireFox

End of year grade export

mayStaffDevTips.pdf

Saturday Night Live On a Tuesday

Gilda Radner died 19 years ago today.  Rosanne Rosannadanna, Baba Wawa, Emily Litella (never mind) – and all the other characters she created as part of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players are all gone with her.  I miss her and the old Saturday night live.  I miss Jon Lovitz as the pathological liar (ya ya that’s the ticket) and Dana Carvey as the church lady – I remember the skit where the church lady interviewed a parody of Tammy Faye Baker (that was redundant) – classic.

My Big Bang Theory favorite quote for Monday night was

– I’m glad you are learning Mandarin

– Why?

– Because when you are fluent you will have a billion other people to annoy besides me

We had company for a few minutes and I missed the end of the show – aaar!

A Few Online Things To Play With

A couple of things I played with tonight – Google maps has added Wikipedia and evidently had already added photos. The photos are hosted by Panoramio and you can get to them or Wikipedia articles when in Google maps by clicking more and checking the appropriate box. I spent some time moving around just looking at pictures around the country and clicking to read Wikipedia articles – Google is opening up it’s geo search application and allowing other websites to use geographically linked information.

Another “toy” I played with tonight is Powerset which is a start-up that is trying to come up with a better way to search.  You type in your criteria using “natural language” and so far it is only searching Wikipedia but I typed in several searches in the form of questions and it seemed to respond in a pretty accurate range for what I was searching for.

Monday Night Nerdery

I love Big Bang Theory!

Random customer in computer store: “Excuse me – which do I need – firewire or usb?”

Sheldon (Who does NOT work there): “it depends on which bus you have.”

Customer: “uh … I … drive a chevy cavalier?”

Sheldon: “Oh dear Lord! What kind of computer do you have and please don’t say a white one?”

hehe

Just a General Update

What is it about the spring – I always fall under it’s spell. I brought most of my plants home from school so they could live on the back and front porches which are their true homes. I started digging up the rose bed today. Dale is tired of fighting with it – Roses are just so high maintenance. We are planning to fill in the area with stone so it will mean a lot more work and quite a few more trips to Home Depot for stone. I’m getting the itch to paint too. We have squash, asparagus, and walking onions growing in the garden. I have herbs and spinach in big pots on the back porch. I’ve already picked spinach three times and it is ready again. There was plenty of rain this year and it has made a difference. Even my peonies have been beautiful.

I managed to get a “start” on cleaning off my desk. I was starting to feel like I would be smothered under piles of paper! Another teacher and I got our presentation submitted for next year at TCEA and I only have one more week of staying late for open lab. The year is winding down. Dale is doing well and Kinsey will graduate. Jessica will get her license and will look for a job.
I bought myself an Mp3 player on ebay and it came today. I wanted something small for carrying when I walk and so far I really like it. The end comes off and you plug the whole thing into a usb port. I spent about an hour this evening dragging songs over to it and then went for my walk and I think I walked twice as far as usual.
Now I am watching Numbers and putting up the laptop and curling up with my book. No alarm clock in the morning and tomorrow is our 28th anniversary. I hope the rain holds off – I plan to work in the yard tomorrow but I’m not cooking. Supper will probably be Magels – mmmm. I’ve got to make the PowerPoint for Sunday evening but with google docs it will go together quickly. BJ is teaching on Romans and I have an idea for a skit for the kids to do on 1st Kings (maybe next month). It will take some time to get it together but I’m starting to put an outline together.

Monday is a weather day so I have extra time to play in the yard. Goodnight world and have a peaceful weekend!

TeachersFirst Question of the Week

TeachersFirst.com had this for the question of the week recently. Below it is my response.

Some teachers create their own MySpace and FaceBook accounts. Some have personal blogs. A recent article in the Washington Post details indescretions by teachers in such public spaces. If a teacher wants to have a personal web presence, what guidelines or advice would you give to him or her about what should/should not be shared online for the world to see, and why?

Having a presence on the web is like having a picture window into your life. Anyone driving by will form an opinion of you by what they glimpse through that window. If you are dancing around with your lampshade on your head – they are going to make a snap judgment. Every picture, every post, every song playing on your website creates a picture of you for someone who visits. If you are a teacher and have not learned what is and is not appropriate in public then you have bigger problems than the internet.

It doesn’t matter if it is correct, the opportunity to make an impression has passed and if it is a bad one it will be very difficult to change even if you get the chance which in most cases you won’t.

If you are the type of person that sweeps the floor, dusts and straightens up for company then do that on your website as well because company will be coming and going most times without you even knowing it.

In education this is even more crucial. Whatever is on your website may as well be on the principals’ desk, the school board meeting, the local newspaper, or a students iPod. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use it. We should just use it for what it is – a tool to communicate. It is not and never has been your private diary with pictures and sound.

Our students are now creating content on the internet. We have a wonderful teaching opportunity if we choose to utilize that capability. That means we have to get on the bus with them – not stand on the sides wringing our hands. We just need to have a destination in mind and plan accordingly.

Amen?

Daniel Pink, Career Advice, and Manga

Daniel Pink has a new book out and I am planning on reading it but until I can get an actual copy in my hand here are goodies to share.  Garr Reynolds has created a presentation with an overview and a few of his own ideas.  It is definitely worth the watch. The book is The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You Will Ever Need.   

An article in Business Week says this:

 

In Japan, no subject is too serious or too pedestrian for manga. Comic books about financial management are popular. The True Life of Carlos Ghosn, a series about the head of Nissan Motor (NSANY), sold well. And a two-volume manga account of the country’s economic development has become a classic.

As for those who are still dubious about the, uh, value proposition of a business comic book, Pink offers this pitch for manga: It provides maximum efficiency of expression.

 

You can watch Garr Reynolds presentation here and also download a pdf if you prefer a paper copy. 

I have not been a big fan of manga but as I read more online and the pile of books next to my bedside table grows taller than the table, it may be worth a second look.  My experience thus far has been the kind that high school students want to read and is often not appropriate for school.  I am interested to know if anyone knows of more manga style books that are reference or informational.  If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear about them.

Ten Steps For Burning A CD or DVD On Your Mac

  1. Create a “Burn Folder”
  2. Click the finder icon (the little blue faces) in the dock
  3. Click file/new burn folder (menu bar at the top of your screen)
  4. Go to the folder where the files you want to burn are living
  5. Click a file you want to burn to disc. (Hold down the apple key and click multiple files to select more than one)
  6. Select edit/copy and then click on the burn folder and click edit paste or drag the files over to the burn folder
  7. The files you selected should appear in the folder as “alias icons” with little arrows in the bottom left corner of each file (indicates it’s a shortcut)
  8. Select file/Burn “burn folder” to disc or click the burn button that appears in the upper right corner of the finder window
  9. There will be a dialog box asking you to insert a blank disk
  10. Insert a blank disk into the Mac and it will start burning your files.

Yay UIL!

Tonight I got to attend my second UIL banquet of the week.   While the two were for different school districts it still is such a blessing to realize what a great group of kids live in this community.  It also blesses me to know such awesome teachers who are so willing to go above and beyond to give to the kids.

Google Does It Again

Hurray! I haven’t checked the new features in Google Docs in awhile, but tonight I was uploading some documents and decided to peak at the presentation piece.  When I last tried to use it I got frustrated because you couldn’t download the presentations into PowerPoint.  They have fixed that and now your presentations can swing either way!  I was sure it was just a matter of time and now it’s here!

You still can’t have all the functionality as far as animations and themes but you can create your basic slides and get all your text set up.  You can also share with a team and track changes.

If you have a student who doesn’t have Microsoft Office on their home computer this is a way for them to get a bit ahead as long as they have access to the internet.

The Last Six Weeks Of School

This is a crazy time any year but more so this year because my son is a senior and my daughter a junior and they attend a different school than the one I work at.  This means two UIL banquets, and speaking of UIL my daughter is going to State for computer apps!  I eased into that gracefully didn’t I?

I’m proud of and for her.  She left the competition before the actual scores were final so she didn’t even know at that point.  A friend of ours picked her up so she could join a youth group attending a Third Day concert and the Rangers game.  She called me on her cell and held it up so I could hear them singing “God Of Wonders”.  She didn’t stay for the whole game – it was not one of their better games but she still didn’t get home til midnight but had an awesome time.  The praise team was tired and hoarse!

We have something nearly every night for the next few weeks – probably longer but I am not looking ahead any farther than that!

Dale Update April 2008

Dale had his regular appointment today as well as his 6 month glofil test.  His lab work was fine except his white count was low.  They are going to have us go to a local lab and have that checked next week as a cold could do that.  Another culprit could be one of his medications and if that turns out to be the problem they will lower the dosage.

We don’t have the results on the glofil test but it basically entails drinking some iodine in diet coke and then they have you drink a couple of liters of water (or at least it seems like it).  They inject a little radioactive isotope under the skin and then you can only use the facilities when they tell you. You have to drink three times and they draw blood three times.

The good news is they have switched his visits from every two to every three weeks!  Yay! For his sake and the sake of our bank account with current gas prices!

It all seemed to go fine but we didn’t get out of there til 3:00 so it was after 5:00 when we finally got home.  We are now in recliners in front of the tv. Both kids are at regionals and my plan for the night is to do a little laundry, watch tv and surf the internet.  I’d like to stay awake to see Numbers but we’ve been up since 5:00 this morning so I make no promises!

TV Tonight

Big Bang Theory Quotes of the Week

1. there wouldn’t have been any ass-kickings if that death ray had worked!

2. Question – what happened?
Answer – I’m not sure but I think it involves a part of the human experience that has always eluded me!
Comment – Well that narrows it down!

Sharing Some More Resources For New Mac Users

How to install software

How to Uninstall Software

The main site is a blog called Mac Kindergarten and there are a lot of great tips there.

An article that tells you basically what Pages in iWork is and is not can be found on Obvious Diversion and it might be a good idea to read this before you dive in and play with the program. A comment that I would add is that while the article talks about Pages just as a word processor it functions very similar to Microsoft Publisher in that you open a template and you can keep it exactly the same and just replace placeholder text with your content or you can move everything around, completely remove some parts and pretty much re-invent the pretty wheel to suit your own needs.

TeacherTube video tutorial for KeyNote

There are quite a few video tutorials on TeacherTube for Macs. I recommend going to the searchbox on the website and just search for a program you want to learn about. This is a great way to get introduced to the software before you dive in and play.

Girls Just Want To Have fun!

It’s Friday night and I’m sitting here with my latte (which just happens to have a tiny but of Bailey’s added) and I am unwinding from a busy and stressful week. I am watching Bones as I write this and I have been surfing my favorite “just for fun” site and decided to share it here.
Girls this post is about a website just for you! Whether you like to shop, connect, organize, or travel there is something for you here.  If you are into food, fitness, home, or maybe have a future mini-girl geek you want to check this out!

There is all this and more at what is actually a group of websites that are divided into specific interests.  I always start out at GeekSugar

You can look at the side bar on the left and as you hover over each category you will see popsugar, yumsugar, lilsugar and more.  These are sites for after work or Saturday morning with a latte and just relaxing.  There are love it or leave it polls, recipes for cocktails, latest buzz on celebrities and plenty of goodies to get your girl on.

So don’t get in trouble with your boss – just take a little “me time” tonight when the re-runs have you bored to tears and you need a little “geek is chic”  pick-me-up!  Have a great weekend

Just Checking In For A Moment!

I have been off the grid since my last post. It has been a very busy week and this weekend is going to fly by! We hosted the District UIL met at our school this weekend and while my part is small, it was fun with lots of payback. I coach Computer Applications (my first year) and my student took fifth place which I think is wonderful considering this was her first year to compete. My own kids attend school in the next district – a weird think I know but we are a small area geographically but have three school districts. My daughter placed second in Computer Applications and My son placed third in Extemp (I hope I have that right or I will never hear the end of it!)

A friend is at WordCamp Dallas 2008 this weekend and I hope learns some great stuff to share. I would love to have gone but too many conflicts this weekend! I will have to be content with searching for posts to read to live vicariously!

We have joined a small group bible study and we meet on Tuesday nights so that is one night we are busy, and then we are trying to attend two different churches right now which is confusing but we are trying to work out some things. One place has incredible teaching. the other has definite issues but we went there for years and many of the people there are like extended family. We have gotten involved with a small Sunday night praise service and tomorrow morning there will be a youth led service and then in the evening we will continue that theme but I AM TO GIVE THE MESSAGE. I have been struggling with this all week. I would have preferred a skit but they are doing one with the kids in the morning.

I’m relying on Luke 15 and the parable of the Prodigal Son but I’m concentrating on the eldest son. I would really like it to have meaning and bear fruit and I don’t want it to be about me. If you are a praying person I would ask for your prayers for this service that I would disappear and the Word would do whatever God needs it to do in this place and at this time.

There will be very little rest this weekend so I’m going to crash and burn early. I still need to do some more writing and tweaking. This is the first and maybe the last time I will ever do this – it is such a huge responsibility. I can’t imagine what it would be like to do this week after week. I AM looking forward to the kids’ skit. They will be goofy and cute and forget stuff but isn’t the way it always is?

For now world, goodnight! I will try to get some more tutorials up in the next few weeks.