“Wake me up, when September ends…”

Here we are halfway through September. Every school has started, and most of us have been in school for a month already. I do not know about you, but I am having a hard time getting going this year. I have been in education for almost 10 years, so I know that it takes a little while to get into the groove again, but this year seems to be taking longer than before. I do not know what the cause of it is, but I do know that I am tired of it, so I have resolved that starting tomorrow (Monday) I am going to take this by the horns and turn this around to my advantage.

I am a firm believer in making “to do” lists, but I am not a good follower of those lists. I am going to make it a priority to not only make this list, but to use it as well. Since I am a computer guy, I would love to do this with a program, so that I can make a list today, and what does not get done moves to tomorrow’s list. Anyone got a good program that does this? I have access to PC’s, Mac’s and Linux machines, so whatever you can offer, I will give a try.

Thanks for reading.

Unemployment Rate Rises

Just read news that the unemployment rate rose to 9.7% in August, even though job losses were lower in August. How can the rest of the world be coming out of the recession, while we keep sinking further into the pit?

President Obama to address nation’s youth

Tuesday, September 8, 2009, President Obama will address the nation’s youth on the traditional first day of school (should I point out that some of us have been in school for 2-3 weeks already??? No, I won’t mention that.) This address, which will be streamed online as well as broadcast on CSPAN, will extol the virtues of staying in school and getting the best education that one can get. If that was all that was happening, then I say kudos, Mr. President, kudos. But, the Department of Education could not leave well enough alone. They had to go and create a lesson plan for this speech, with the input of the President’s office. This lesson plan includes wording that could be interpreted as being iffy at best, and indoctrinating at worst. Some people are so outraged that they are withholding their children from school that day, and not allowing any school work based on the President’s speech to be done. Some school districts are prohibiting the speech from being shown at all during school hours. All this flack has caused the Department of Education to reword some of its lesson plans, but not to pull them completely. They still want teachers to use their lessons with their students.

Here is my view, for whatever it is worth. The President’s speech, as all presidential speeches, should be viewed and studied by Americans, whether they are students in schools or voters at home. Every word that our leaders speak should be scrutinized and dissected for any hidden meanings. Their motives for making any speech should be examined for an ulterior motives. The lessons of history show that any people that blindly follow a leader end up with that people suffering greatly under a totalitarian regime. We, as Americans, have the right to question every step our elected officials make in order to make them adhere to a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” If President Obama was simply speaking to our students, then great. But as soon as he turned the Department of Education loose to “help” us understand his speech, then that is where I say, Mr. President, keep your thoughts to yourself.

Thanks for reading.

End of Another School Year

Well, here we are at the end of another school year.  Did you get accomplished everything that you wanted to?  If you are like most teachers, the answer to that question is a resounding “No.”  That is not a reflection on your abilities to teach, but rather a reflection on the demands of your time.  You plan well, but outside forces conspire to take away your classroom time, and you inevitably cut out some portion of your class in order to meet those needs.

I, like every other teacher, made grandiose plans at the start of this school year.  This would be the year that I fully covered my subjects, as well as integrated new technologies into my classroom.  This would be the year that collaboration took over, and the students taught themselves, with my input only coming to clarify a question.  I would love to say that I succeeded beyond my wildest imaginations, but my mother always taught me to speak truthfully.  I did cover more of my subjects this year than ever before, but not in totality.  I did introduce my students to collaborative tools, as well as make Moodle a more intricate part of daily classroom time, but not to the extent that I managed the students while they worked. And here I sit at the end of a school year, thinking of everything that I did not accomplish, when I should be marveling at what I did accomplish.

The truth is, there really is no way to finish everything you plan to do at the beginning of the year.  But, you should take pride in knowing that your students are better equipped now than they were in August.  Pat yourself on the back for educating, but do not spend a lot of time with that self-praise.  Begin now planning for next year, because the first day of school for the 2009-2010 school year is a mere 90 days away.

Thanks for reading!

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Spring has Sprung!

April has come, the flowers are pushing up through the ground, the trees are sprouting new growth, and all good teachers thoughts turn to…summer break!  I know, this is not what teachers should be thinking of, but when the weather starts to turn warmer after the long winters chill, all most can long for is those lazy summer days, when they still are working, but not having to deal with staff meetings, students, and lesson plans.  Being a district tech guy and a teacher means that I do not get to enjoy those three summer months like other teachers, but I do get a month off in the summer, and I look forward to that as the others look forward to Memorial Day. 

Well, as the weather gets nicer, and you find yourself looking out the window of your classroom as much as the students do, I hope that you will find time to do a little instructing.  If you cannot concentrate in the building, then take the kids and head outside and teach class there.  You will be amazed as to how much better you and they will feel, and they will be more inclined to participate in what you are saying. 

Anyway, that is all for now.  As I sit here and look out my window, I think it is time to go golfing.  The students can take care of themselves for an afternoon, can’t they?

Thanks for reading!

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Darn Conficker

April 1. Should be a day of mirth and merriment, but for the Public School District System Admin, April Fools Day brings lots of work and worry. Normally, I spend this day (or more accurately, the week before the day) checking systems to make sure that all Anti-Virus and system updates have been performed. But this year, I got to add the Conficker worm to my day of worry. I have been sitting all day, waiting to see if something would happen. I am confident that my systems are all protected from this worm, but to be safe, I banned all USB key drives from the school today, and have been building a stand alone computer to do nothing but scan drives for problems. And I have watched and waited.

I have been watching network traffic, looking for anything out of the ordinary. I have been online, seeing if Net traffic was bogging down anywhere. And I have been reading news and tech reports to see if anyone is noticing anything weird. So far, nothing. That, of course, does not mean that nothing will happen, or happen in the future, but for now, Conficker is appearing to be a no show, and perhaps a big April Fool on us all. I am not convinced of the latter. I am thinking that somehow, somewhere, this will rear its head and perform some little show, but I am afraid that it may be a show that is without volume, so as to go virtually unnoticed, and we as Internet users won’t know it happened until we try to take money out of the ATM, and find a balance of 0.

If nothing else, this episode allowed me to accomplish some tasks that I normally do not get to do during the course of my teaching day. I did get my office/storage area cleaned up, and got some testing of other servers done. I guess I should be thankful to Conficker for giving me that opportunity. But I can’t. Stupid virus writers and their dumb viruses. I hope they choke on their keyboards!

Thanks for reading.

THE CURRENT BUZZWORD-NETBOOKS

The latest rage in portable electronics are netbooks. Netbooks are basically stripped down versions of laptop computers designed primarily for email and web browsing. These computers use either Windows XP Home or a version of Linux as their operating system. Their internal storage space, screen, keyboards, etc., are limited by today’s standards. With this seemingly lack of features, why would anyone want to use a netbook?

CLOUD COMPUTING
There is a push in today’s tech world of moving to cloud computing. Cloud computing is the concept that applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, etc. all be virtually based, thus freeing up processing power and space on a users computer. This may seem like a foreign concept, but if you own a cellphone created in the last 2 years, you already have embraced cloud computing. Google Docs is a great example of cloud computing. One can write a report in Google Docs, then edit or access it from any Internet connected device from anywhere in the world. One can also share this document with anyone else that is online. If you can do all this work in a cloud setting, then why would you need all those programs on your computer? Hence the birth of the netbook.

CAN THIS REALLY WORK?
As with all new tech, the real test will be in the acceptance of netbooks in everyday life. My feeling is that this will rely on the youth of our society. It was kids, after all, who pioneered such everyday concepts as MySpace, Facebook, and text messaging. If netbook manufacturers want to gain a foothold for their products, they should create an educational program for schools. Make these already low-priced systems even more cost attractive to schools. In this way, school districts can purchase them without “breaking their budgets.” I am confident that when students start using netbooks every day, and rave at how wonderful they are, then their parents will use them as well.

BUT I NEED MY FILES
For those of us who want complete control of our files, do not worry. Most netbooks come with an internal hard drives ranging up to 120GB, which is enough room for even the most obsessive of digital file pack rats. Netbooks also have USB ports, and with USB drives being offered up to 64GB in size, you have other options to store your files. Either way, you will have your files with you, and you can rest easy.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Although netbooks are priced so that anyone can buy one (they range from $300-700) they are still in the growing pains stage. The drawback of small screen size, small battery capacity, and small OS choices may leave some computer buyers a little wary. However, as workers become more mobile, and traditional offices move from a building to anywhere with a high speed Internet connection, portable computers will become more of a necessity than a novelty (consider going through a day without your cellphone?) But as tech moves to cloud computing, do not be surprised to see these “little laptops” everywhere.

Thanks for reading.

Valentines Day and the Economic Stimulus

Happy Valentines Day, 2009. I hope that you and the one you love will have a wonderful time today. Take some time to tell that someone special how you feel about them. It will make you feel good, and I know it will make them feel good as well.

Now that the mush is out of the way, let’s talk about this economic stimulus that our Congress just approved. I have read through this package, and I cannot make heads or tails out of it. Where is the stimulus? How is this going to help bring our economy out of this recession? Our government has been throwing money at the economy for the last year, and so far I have not seen how it is helping. We have given money to the banks, to the automakers, and directly to the taxpayer, and now we are going to try it again? I am all for the government trying to help the economy grow, but there are times when you have to let the free market do what it is going to do. If you want a tree to grow a certain way, you prune branches in order to achieve the growth you desire. Right now, we are not pruning the economic tree, but instead are allowing the branches to grow where they want to. One of the keys to our economy is that anyone can start any type of business that they want to, but if that business is not successful, it must change to meet the demands of its customers, or it must cease to be a business. What we are doing is telling our businesses “Hey, not being successful now? Well here is $40 million. Keep doing what you are doing.” Not smart, not smart at all.

I do not claim to have a wonder drug that will cure our economic woes, but it seems to me that a good dose of common sense should be the way to go.

Thanks for reading.

Collaboration Generation

I just read an interesting article in December/January edition of Edutopia about the Collaboration Generation (http://www.edutopia.org/collaboration-age).  In a nutshell, the article was pointing to the idea that traditional classrooms and instruction are dead, and that the main thrust to learning will be online collaboration via a cast (pod, vid, etc) blogs, wikis, and the like.  I know that this is not an original or unique idea.  The concept of using these tools has been around for a few years now.  But the thought that the traditional classroom is dead, now that is an idea that made me stop and think.

In my view, we do not need to destroy the traditional classroom with its books, notes, and lectures in favor of doing everything online, but we need to figure out how to take the best of the tradition and mix it with the best of the online world.  I have been to many conferences and meetings where the whole push has been to totally immerse the instructors into the digital world.  There is so much overload on that, that I have walked away from these sessions thinking “Wow, all that is great, but it is way too much for me to handle.”  And if I, a technology leader in my school, feel that way, I can only imagine what the English or Math teacher is feeling.

So the plan is, how to take what we as teachers already know, and marry that with the technology, in order to move forward instead of total replacement.  If I have learned anything in my time in education, it is that teachers do not like change.  They feel comfortable with what they have, and changing that scares them to death.

This is what I have done, and you can take it or leave it, that is up to you.  I am big on tech.  I love it.  I feel that it is the be all end all of existence.  But, I know my staff pretty well.  I know that I cannot force them to do what they do not want to do.  One advantage that I have is that in addition to being the “tech guy” I also teach classes.  Therefore, I can speak their language.  I have slowly introduced new technology and ideas to my staff.  I give them the opportunity to see what it is, to give it a “test drive,” and to see if it is something that they want to try.  Some have embraced it, others have humored me by listening, but all have at least considered it.

Now that I have an idea of where I want this district to go, it is just a matter of moving slowly enough that everyone is on board, but quick enough that the technology is not outdated when it is finally implemented.

I will keep you updated on our progress.

Thanks for reading.

Thoughts for a cold February day…

Here I sit in my classroom, prior to the school day starting, just reflecting on what has transpired in my life, and contemplating what might happen in the future.  Today is February 5, 2009 and my life seems pretty good.

Recent events have made me stop and reflect.  We have a new president, and a black one at that.  My state’s governor has been arrested, indicted, impeached, and booted from office.  We have seen a plane land on the Hudson River and the Steelers win their record 6th World Championship.  All these items, and many more, make for great conversation around the water cooler (does anyone have a water cooler anymore?) but really, these do not directly affect me (no matter how much I try to take credit for the Steelers.)  But in my classroom…

I have seen students tackle a checking account for the first time, and have seen them struggle with concepts of entering amounts and reconciling, and then watch their eyes light up when they finally correctly complete an entire month on their own.

I have watched students learn the (what now seems rather archaic) language of HTML and create a  web page that is all their own.

I am amazed to this day with the creativity of students when given a digital camera and a computer, and see what they can concoct.

I revel in what my family does for me on a daily basis, with no thought of themselves, then am disgusted with myself when I do not reciprocate.

All in all, I must say that lif e as an educator is pretty good.  Just when I think that maybe what I do is not all that important, I get a note or email from a former student thanking me for what I taught them.

Thanks for reading.