December 5, 2010

Santa vs. The Internet

All hail the Sunday Comics...

Once again I was reading the Sunday Comics, and I came to realize just how much we rely on electronics and today's communication systems...

I kind of feel like Dagwood...

I can remember counting the days, but the minutes and seconds?

Or having a computer do it for me...

I remember writing letters to Santa, and having my mother check them for neatness and spelling...

Instead of a computer and word processor...

I loved opening gifts - just for the sake of tearing the paper off...

And laughing at my dad for using his pocket knife and only slicing the tape...

I remember writing and sending cards...

I remember falling asleep by the fireplace waiting to catch Santa...

And resisting the temtation to eat his cookies...

Is it wrong for a technology instructor to wish for days when technology was not so prominent?

Now for a little humor in this holiday season...

"The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin."... Jay Leno.




December 1, 2010

Oh the Weather outside is Frightful...

Please...

• You know, when I taught down in Virginia, I always scoffed at the community for all but shutting down at the slightest hint of snow.  I would be like: "Snow?  This isn't Snow!  You don't know what Snow is until you have lived up North!  Up there, they don't shut down for anything!"  At this point in time, I can't have a decent conversation with any of my friends from that area without them throwing (proverbial) snowballs back in my face...

• I know that we are afraid of just about anything nowdays, but please, a little common sense and safe driving practices go a long way towards getting us where we need to be...

Oh well,

Quote for the day:  
Weather is a great metaphor for life - sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, and there's nothing much you can do about it but carry an umbrella.  ~Terri Guillemets

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.  ~John Ruskin

November 30, 2010

G.B.Trudeau Has it Right!

• I read a comic on Sunday while at my parents, and I felt that it was perfect for the Twitter part of this class...

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau

• Check it out!  I think that you will like it!!

November 27, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

• I just realized that, not being at school and all last week, that I was forgetting something... my blog!  It has been kind of nice, not having to sit in front of a computer for a few days.  I have not even turned mine on in the past week.  I won't comment as to the number of emails tha I currently have to respond to, but...
• Civil Rights - for no one?  We had to sit through an inservice on Wednesday morning regarding civil rights.  What students are allowed to do, what they are not, what the schools can do, that sort of thing.  I guess if you are a lawyer, it might make sense, but the person they brought in was from PDE legal, and it was like she was speaking in a foreign language.  Referring to this case or that, what the outcomes were, but never really explaining what is permissable and what is not.  Basically, the schools have no right to restrict students in any way shape or form, yet we can be sued by other parents or students if we do not stop things like cyber bullying...  makes sense, no?  I don't have the right to stop a student from calling another a name, but the other student's parent can press charges for me not stopping it.  This is worse than No Child Left Behind - we have to get the students to pass, but we can't make them do the work.   Someone just shoot me and get it over with...
• Anyway, enough of my venting - I am sure that we will get the chance to vent some more in class this week.
• Hope that everyone has a happy thanksgiving, and good luck to those of you that hunt.

November 16, 2010

• Happy Birthday to Me!  Not that I want to acknowledge that it is that day, or any other aspect of it...

• For those of you following this, I finally got my house closed in this weekend.  It is not finished, by any means, but I don't have tarps covering the sides anymore.  Now I just have to focus on putting house wrap on the outside and insulating the inside.  That plus putting some boards down to make a floor for storage.  Maybe I will even have the time this weekend to fix my desktop computer so that I can do some work at home again...

Robots

• One of my new classes this year that I am developing is a robotics class.  Not the type where there is simply an arm on the table and the kids program, but where they construct actual mobile units.  I have been having some troubles with this.  No plan ever last past the first day, but we are finally to the stage where the students will be competing against one another with a standard design.  This should take place on Thursday / Friday.  What a final before Thanksgiving!  I will try to shoot some video and still shots and send them out...

• I mentioned above that the robots are a final project before Thanksgiving.  Here at JS the students will not be back for more than a week after this Friday!  Thats right, no school for 10 days for them.  Teachers have to put in three full days (Monday / Tuesday for parent-teacher conferences and Wednesday is inservice).  I still can't say that I agree with this schedule, but it will be nice to actually have some time to get some maintenance done while on the clock.  Of course the following Monday is our state holiday...

Thought for the day...

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter

November 9, 2010

SOMETIMES I WISH THAT SOME OF THE TECHNOLOGY THAT WE HAVE TODAY WAS AVAILABLE WHEN I WAS A CHILD...

• My son is in first grade.  He brough home a project where he has to make a poster about himself.  What he likes, what he does not like, what he wants to be when he grows up, that sort of thing.  I can't remember doing anything like that until 5th or 6th grade, and then it was all just writing, drawing pictures, and physically cutting pictures out of magazines and gluing them in place.  Now we have digital editing, photography and the internet to get material, then to organize and print it.  Sometimes it is a headache, sometimes it can be fun...
• Does anyone want to guess what he wants to be when he grows up?

I don't know if I am scared, or proud...

• I must admit, however, that I feel that children today have too much to learn, too quick.  When I went through elementary (K-3, anyhow) at Central Elementary (yes, I am a prodigy of South Williamsport) we focused entirely on reading, writing and math.  We learned how to do that, and we learned how to do it well.  Now, children have to learn computer, they are learning civics and politics, and even science!  Many students who I have at the high school level can't do basic math (multiply and divide) without a calculator, and they can't write legibly or spell correctly... unless it is using electronic devices that do it for them.  While I think that it is great to learn things such as science and civics, I question if it is too much too soon, and if it would be better to reinforce the basics (actually develop them) than to innundate the students with such a large variety of items so early...  I guess that is why I am not an elementary teacher.

Quote for the day:

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop...  M. Twain

Sunday, November 7, 2010

• Snow in Altoona...  I took my wife and son to Altoona this weekend to visit her parents and winterize their house.  It actually snowed there Saturday morning!  Nothing like putting up plastic and insulation in wind-driven snow and rain...

• While we were putting up the plastic and insulation we found the most amazing thing - a live praying mantis!  It was actually walking up one of the walls that we were working on - outside the house.  It is a beautiful creature, and once we brought it into the house, it began moving around with a spring in her(?) step.  We put it in a large pretzel container for Aaron to bring back and show his classmates.  I was really amazed because they are not that common this far north to begin with, and to find one alive on a day as cold as it was Saturday...
• We looked up praying mantis online when we got home, just to get some information on them.  Did you know that they have five eyes?  In addition to the two large ones located on either side of their head, they have three others between them on their forehead.  And their head can actually swivel more than 180degrees!  The one that we found is almost six inches long, and is extremely agile and graceful...
• For those of you interested, there is a wonderful National Geographic website for animals.  It is:
• http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/bugs/praying-mantis.html
• Isn't it amazing what the smallest of events can inspire you to do?  This one little insect is all that Aaron has talked about since we found it!

Quote for the day:

• "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest"...  Ben Franklin