MicroSoft Office - Word-Publisher-Excel-Power Point

Everyday as I teach MS Office to my students (all at different levels), I have them ask me, "Miss how did you get so smart with computers?" After I deflate my big head and get back to reality, I tell them I don't know 1/2 of what I could know. They just look at me funny. Tuesday night reaffirmed my lack of knowledge. When I just about get an entire program down, they come out with a new version. For instance I had no idea about the research option. How cool was that? And adding audio to the edit; my students will flip the first time I do that! I just have to go buy some microphones! I use to grade all my English classes papers with the edit tool we used Tuesday. I don't teach English this year so I pushed that to the back of my mind. I could be using it in Power Point and Publisher I'm sure. My point is, even those of us who teach technology and think we're on top of it, should realize we have a long way to go to reach the top and should re-educate ourselves on a regular basis to stay on top.

DELICIOUS IS GETTING BETTER!

Well the update on delicious is I'm closer that I was yesterday! Today at work during conference period, I managed to upload buttons to the tool bar and export my favorites from my home directory on our server to delicious. Now I have questions? In bloglines I was able to set up folders and arrange my links by subject. I can't seem to find a way to do that on delicious. Also, I'm a bit confused as to the purpose of bundles and tags. I thought I could put all my English lines into a bundle after I gave them tabs. Somehow that didn't quite work out. I can see (if I figure all the out) that delicious would be great for the setting up of links at our school by departments. Teachers could add their own links from school or home for everyone to share. When I get it down pat, I'm going to teach them. Hopefully, the edtech department won't block this great tool!

DELICIOUS HASN'T BEEN SO TASTY FOR ME YET!

It seems that my Internet connection running at 26k baud is a real problem. Normally, I'm okay with it but it's really been getting on my nerves. I set up my account and was attempting to create a button but it was taking so long I stopped it and decided it was time to fix the Internet connection. I have a brand new Dell with dial-up (I live in the boonies) and even though I have a 56K modem, nothing I seem to do makes it any faster. MSN says it Dell, and you guessed it Dell says it MNS. Well, the last test was logging on through Internet Explorer skipping MNS. It's still running 26.4K. It is near impossible to get anything done at that speed. Waiting for replies is a problem worse than sending a request. Anyway, I can't wait to get my favorites setup so I can access all the ones from school at home. One of the best uses I see is when they reimage my computer at school, I won't loose all my favorites.
And I keep plugging along..........

Bloglines - Getting Me Organized

I took forever getting everyone into my blog last night. It would have helped if I'd read all the directions like I tell my students. As I started the process it didn't take me long to realize I needed to get a folder just for the class. After figuring that out I had to start over but finally finish with a nice neat folder for class. The entire time I was working on getting my bloglines set up, I was thinking how I could use this new thing in my classroom and school campus. As the Web Master for my campus and the resident tech guru (I've got them all snowed) I came up with the perfect use. I have just developed a program for our campus to share great web sites. I made folders for all classes for both middle and high school plus a behavior management folder. Teachers are to send me their favorite sites to share with their counterpart teacher(middle/high). The have sent me hundreds and I was overwhelmed immediately. I sat the project aside until I figured out a method to the madness! Bloglines is it. I will set up folders in bloglines just like in did on our sever, teach all the teachers how to use it and they will keep up the folders themselves! Such a great idea. Such a perfect use of technology across our campus. Time saving and up-to-date. How exciting! OH WAIT..... it's blocked and can't be accessed by any teacher anywhere in the District. Maybe they'll be willing to update in and review it from home; after they have graded their papers, called parents and prepared for the next day. Yeah, that's going to happen! So much for the millions of dollars the taxpayers have put in to technology for our teachers and students. If it's not Power Point driven I guess it's blocked!!!!
Next the second part....

....AND THE PRISONERS CAME TO SCHOOL

In the "WHO" portion of my blog I talk about teaching at risk students and my belief that there are far worse fates for these students than dropping out of school. The one fate I failed to mention is going to prison. I've lost three students to prison in the last two years. Two got life without parol for murder one and one got 7 years for gang fighting which because there were more than thirty involved was considered a riot and became a felony. Today two prisoners from the Palestine State Correctional Facility came to talk to our students. One was servicing 12 years for aggravated assault, the other 20 for vehicular manslaughter (driving drunk, ran a stop sign and a motorcycle broadsided him killing the driver of the motorcycle). Both were basically good kids, both played football and one had offers from all over the United States for scholarships. Both were drug and alcohol abusers in high school and continued the abuse after graduation, which ended their college careers for a term behind bars. They spoke openly and honestly to our students. Told of the fear of sleeping in a dorm with 75 guys, being sucked into a prison gang or the fear of not being in a gang, and the loneliness. One even showed deep emotion when speaking of his mom and dad. After we retuned to our classes one of my students had evidently had an ephiphany. He was "ministering" to another student about getting off drugs and setting his life straight. He told me that his current way of life wasn't working for him. He had been selling drugs making a quick $500-$600 a day. He told me he'd been thinking about straightening up for a while but after hearing the prisoners he knew he could never ever go to the pen.
So, today was a great day, the prisoners came to school and save my student!

THE DOG AND THE PORCUPINE - THE STORY CONTINUES

My student who believed what he saw on the Internet (dog covered front and sides in quills), came to school the next day stoned. He believed even more that it was true... gee image that! The day after that he was returned to his home school because he had served his time (45 days) at the Alternative Center. That was last Friday I think, my days do run together... any way I never got to prove my point to him. But alas ... he returned today to my school, sent back for abusing a teacher I believe. The poor teacher probably challenged him when he was high and thought he was a porcupine!!! Tomorrow we will discuss the dog again! That is if the circumstances allow it!!! Thanks for the comment!