After my morning crossing guard job...
I walked our pyromaniac student to his classroom. That's no joke, he was caught lighting a fire at a local Wal-Mart.
I signed the form showing I still have my college degrees. They have my transcripts on file, but the government makes me sign this form every year.
I received the new dongle from IT, and sent back the one that was dying. I keep a spare in the lab, and one of the teachers needed a new one on Tuesday. I switched mine out for the teacher's and am getting mine replaced. This is so that it doesn't interfere with the teacher's instruction time. By the way, the dongle is an adapter that allows the computer to be hooked up to a projector.
I mailing the printouts from the online calendar I have for the mobile cart, the Smartboards and the Document cameras. The district is wanting to know how much of these are getting used in each of the schools. At my school, I have an online calendars set up within our email system, that way everyone can readily see what has been reserved. The teachers then email myself (for the mobile cart) or the librarian (for the SmartBoards and Document Cameras) to let us know when they would like to reserve the technology.
I just finished assisting a teacher with a powerpoint activity they made on their home computer using the latest version of PowerPoint. The problem is that we use an older version of PowerPoint that is not compatible with the new one. Thankfully I also have the latest version on my laptop here at school, so I'm able to use one of my external hard drives to retrieve it off the teacher computer, take it to mine, open up the PowerPoint (I've also done this with documents) and save as the older version. Then I give the older version back to the teacher so they can work it off of their laptop. It takes longer to explain than to do it, but I try to explain to the teacher why their file isn't working.
Attempted to get the alternate A/V and VGA to project, but it is not working. Submitted ticket online to the IT Dept.
Taught some formatting basics to a 6th grade class.
Updated the librarian's computer.
Sent 2 emails to IT, one with the list of student ID#'s that won't log in, another for a couple of students ID#'s that will not open MS Word.
Updated a first grade teacher, the teacher also requested updates on Firefox and Macromedia flash.
Printed all new class lists. We've had some of our kinders sent over to Head Start - those who were not ready for kinder, but have also added new students, including a family of 5 who have moved into the area.
Received phone call from one of the administrative staff saying they could not change the background. I verified what they were doing was right by using mine, and then called IT. They are looking into why some of the laptops are working while others are not.
I set up the computers for the third grade class, their teacher wants them to use the BBC dance mat typing web site.
I competed with the third grade kids (and the teacher) on Dance Mat Typing. Yes, there are some perks to my job.
I logged the students off the computers and checked my emails.
I did my afternoon crossing guard duty.
I checked to see if the appointment I had for after school was ready, turns out she was in a meeting she must have forgotten about.
I spent some time talking with the librarian and she called the full time music teacher for our school to schedule some planning time for the three of us for after early release on Friday. We already have a game plan for music class #2 tomorrow.
I had some last minute emails to take care of after that, and by the time I shut everything down and locked everything up it was 4:45 when I left the school.
I drove to Costco and put gas in the car.
I still have to go to Office Max and get some folders for the class tomorrow. Something I forgot for Wednesday's class.
I'm tired, but after having eaten some mini pizzas I'm feeling better. Off now to Office Max.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Last Two Days
Things have been crazy, actually for three days, but I've already chronicled Monday.
Tuesday morning was less eventful, the power remained on so I was able to get more sleep.
Arrived at work at 7:15. At about 7:45 I got asked by our Librarian to try to get the morning announcement system working, but I wasn't able to get it working. I had the librarian call the A/V guys at our IT department at the district to come and get it up and running again. I could probably get it working, but I didn't have time to get it done before my Crossing Guard job began at 8:00.
After my crossing guard duty, I booted up the computers. Apparently yesterday's updates took out the timer feature I had set up for the computers to turn themselves on.
I spent the morning putting out computer fires, trying to get with the librarian so we could plan our general music class and getting with the teacher whose Friday Computer Lab time was going to have to be moved. It got moved to that morning, and the teacher requested I use the lesson I did last year on doing some layout editing on Microsoft Word. The students don't get a lot of time in the lab, so their knowledge of a lot of the software is limited and scattered from a period of some years. And that's for the kids who have been with us since kindergarten, we have quite a few who came from other schools with varying degrees of experience on the computers at their former schools, however some come with no experience at all. By the way, this class happens to be a 6th grade class. Anyway, thankfully I was able to find it quickly on one of my external hard drives and once the kids came to the lab and logged in I was able to push out the project for them to do.
After that class was finished, I had a small window of time to meet with the librarian to plan the music class. I then had to run back to the lab (thankfully it's right next door) as I had a 5th grade class trying to operate without me. Most of the kids already knew how to log in, however some of the logins didn't work. I had to work on that and push out the web site the kids were working on (the one I made yesterday) for their project.
Once I got everyone logged off I checked my email and found a kinder teacher sent an email requesting a video on fall, pumpkins, something like that to talk about the life cycle. I don't know when she needed it, but it sounded like she was going to need it before the end of the day. I logged onto Ideal and found a few segments of video on fall and why we have seasons. I downloaded them onto my laptop, then using bluetooth transferred them to my teacher computer, before pushing the videos out to the laptop for this kinder teacher. These are videos that are already cleared for classroom use and are found to be within the curriculum standards the State Dept. of Ed requires. Ideal is a site through the ADE (Ariz. Dept. of Ed.), and is supposed to be for teachers, however since I have a substitute certificate filed with the ADE, I qualified for access to this. After pushing the videos to her computer, I walked down to her classroom to explain to her what I found and brought the cables she would need to project the videos onto the classroom television.
I finally was able to stop for lunch at 12:30 and relax for a few minutes in the staff lounge.
At 1:00 I began prepping for the last round of classes, consisting of 2 - 1st grade classes, a 3rd grade class and a 2nd grade class.
The first grade class teachers requested during my lunch break for their students to type a sentence on Microsoft Word. They furnished the sentences. After seeing the first teacher explain this, I was able to better assist the second - 1st grade teacher with her class. The third grade class also decided to type on Word and brought in their spelling words for this. The second grade class opted for the Dance Mat Typing site, which required a change.
Once those classes were done, I quickly finished my crossing guard duty after school to log off and shut down the computers. School gets out at 3:30, I'm usually done with my crossing guard duty at 3:45, and I had a meeting in Tempe for the School District's bond election (see the Yes For Tempe Schools logo on the upper right corner of my blog page) at 4;00. I was done early with the crossing guard duty, so I was able to get things shut down and locked up for the night and leave with barely enough time to make it to the meeting.
One thing, though, I checked my emails one last time before leaving to find the agenda for the meeting from 5:00 - 7:00 for the District's Regional Design Team group #4. This meant I would need to call my visiting teaching companion to cancel my plans to visit teach after the bond meeting.
Both meetings went well, and I stopped by Costco afterwards and picked up some writing tablets for the kids to use in the general music class.
I finally made it home at 8:00. I was so tired I was ready to drop, but still had some work to do. After taking a break and watching a little bit of television, I finally turned off everything in the rest of the house and started on the work to prepare for the general music class. I brought home a dvd of Ghosts of the Abyss, and uploaded onto my computer one of the chapters of the movie. I then loaded the movie into Garageband where I took out the audio and replaced it with different music.
Today saw a little less activity, but still a bit of craziness by the end of the day.
I had a few minutes to sit and relax this morning after finishing the crossing guard job.
I posted a few emails, namely one letting the 7th and 8th grade teachers to have their students bring pencils with them for the class. Then the eruptions started. First was the librarian who told me we were supposed to wait to discuss this with the principal today, rather than actually starting today. I had already spoken with the music teacher the kids have been with up until now, and she was already under the impression (as was I) that we were starting today. Oops. I apologized, but I did indicate that I had already gotten the lesson taken care of, and the supplies bought (which I did). Then the librarian brought up an idea she had for a lesson and she thought we should start it off with what she had in mind. I didn't take it wrong at all, my attitude was, okay, let's do what you had in mind and we'll do what I planned for on Friday. Bonus! :o)
The class went through just fine, and we gave ourselves a little pat on the back. The kids did fine with what the librarian had in mind, and we finished with the first installment of having them journal about their feelings while listening to a song. The song was Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. I chose this song because it's upbeat and sends a very powerful message, if you can get the kids to listen to the words. After playing it twice and talking about what our feelings were for the song, and writing a few on the board, the kids started writing and I could tell from their comments that the messages in the song were sinking in. It was something they hadn't heard before.
I had about a half hour to prep for the two kinder classes I have next, and they went well.
After kinder, I had a 30 minute lunch break and a 30 minute prep for a 1st grade and 3rd grade class, back to back. While I was at lunch the math coach came and spoke with me about my substituting (as well as the librarian) for the math coach on their middle school math interventions when the math coach is away for meetings or illness. The interesting part about this conversation was when the math coach told me I should have no problem with my schedule in fitting all of this in. After all, I have all that spare time first thing in the morning, right? It's right there on the schedule! I explained to her that while there are blanks on the schedule, that doesn't mean I'm in the lab twiddling my thumbs. I have a lot of other things I do, and still need to get done. Such as:
Locating 4 iBook laptops on the mobile cart that hold the charge the longest to use for a kinder center. This begins on Monday. Oh, and by the way, I also need to schedule this on the calendar for the mobile cart.
Finish getting the inventory of computers, telephones, printers, projectors, speakers and any other technology device in the school. IT at the district just sent out an email talking about the upgrades in computers that will be occurring soon, which will render the inventory obsolete, and I'll have to do another inventory when the equipment comes in. We already have gotten some mounted technology installed earlier this month (while I was out sick), which is what I've been getting the serial numbers for. I already have gotten a lot of this information written down, I just need to type it onto the spreadsheet.
Put the new toner cartridges the school just purchased into the classroom printers that have run out of ink.
Send back the used printers to the district warehouse.
Update the teacher's laptop computers.
I need to clean the keyboards, mice and screens in the lab computers.
Check on why a printer isn't working for a 3rd grade teacher.
Meet with the Reading First Demonstration Site specialist on creating a brochure to send to schools interested in visiting.
That's just a partial list of stuff that needs to be done, I'm sure I'm forgetting things right now as I type this.
Towards the end of the 1st grade class I got a call from a 6th grade teacher. Apparently the teacher is taking a Smartboard class and needs the software on his computer upgraded in order for him to be able to work off of his laptop in the class. I tried to do this remotely from the lab, but it turned out there were problems with his computer and I had to snag it and take it to the lab. While getting started to work on the computer, the 1st grade class left and I had to reset the computers for the 3rd grade class. During this time, I tried to run the updates, but there was no space left on the laptop's hard drive, so I had to take the laptop back to the teacher, have them log back in so I could go through and delete out the stuff from his hard drive that was causing this. It turned out one of the teacher's own children had put a file full of family pictures on computer and it was taking up 16 GB of space. It took about 30 minutes to get the file transferred to one of my external hard drives, so I could get the update run. By this time, I was running (literally) through the school to grab an extra stop sign in the office and do my afternoon crossing guard duty.
Thankfully I was able to get it done quickly so I could go back to the teacher's classroom to get the updates done.
Was my day over yet? No. I already had an appointment with a 5th grade teacher after school to show how to plug their laptop into the newly mounted projector and speakers in their classroom.
By the time I left, it was 4:30. Technically, as a classified (hourly) employee, I'm supposed to leave at 4:00.
I think I'm finally tired now.
Tuesday morning was less eventful, the power remained on so I was able to get more sleep.
Arrived at work at 7:15. At about 7:45 I got asked by our Librarian to try to get the morning announcement system working, but I wasn't able to get it working. I had the librarian call the A/V guys at our IT department at the district to come and get it up and running again. I could probably get it working, but I didn't have time to get it done before my Crossing Guard job began at 8:00.
After my crossing guard duty, I booted up the computers. Apparently yesterday's updates took out the timer feature I had set up for the computers to turn themselves on.
I spent the morning putting out computer fires, trying to get with the librarian so we could plan our general music class and getting with the teacher whose Friday Computer Lab time was going to have to be moved. It got moved to that morning, and the teacher requested I use the lesson I did last year on doing some layout editing on Microsoft Word. The students don't get a lot of time in the lab, so their knowledge of a lot of the software is limited and scattered from a period of some years. And that's for the kids who have been with us since kindergarten, we have quite a few who came from other schools with varying degrees of experience on the computers at their former schools, however some come with no experience at all. By the way, this class happens to be a 6th grade class. Anyway, thankfully I was able to find it quickly on one of my external hard drives and once the kids came to the lab and logged in I was able to push out the project for them to do.
After that class was finished, I had a small window of time to meet with the librarian to plan the music class. I then had to run back to the lab (thankfully it's right next door) as I had a 5th grade class trying to operate without me. Most of the kids already knew how to log in, however some of the logins didn't work. I had to work on that and push out the web site the kids were working on (the one I made yesterday) for their project.
Once I got everyone logged off I checked my email and found a kinder teacher sent an email requesting a video on fall, pumpkins, something like that to talk about the life cycle. I don't know when she needed it, but it sounded like she was going to need it before the end of the day. I logged onto Ideal and found a few segments of video on fall and why we have seasons. I downloaded them onto my laptop, then using bluetooth transferred them to my teacher computer, before pushing the videos out to the laptop for this kinder teacher. These are videos that are already cleared for classroom use and are found to be within the curriculum standards the State Dept. of Ed requires. Ideal is a site through the ADE (Ariz. Dept. of Ed.), and is supposed to be for teachers, however since I have a substitute certificate filed with the ADE, I qualified for access to this. After pushing the videos to her computer, I walked down to her classroom to explain to her what I found and brought the cables she would need to project the videos onto the classroom television.
I finally was able to stop for lunch at 12:30 and relax for a few minutes in the staff lounge.
At 1:00 I began prepping for the last round of classes, consisting of 2 - 1st grade classes, a 3rd grade class and a 2nd grade class.
The first grade class teachers requested during my lunch break for their students to type a sentence on Microsoft Word. They furnished the sentences. After seeing the first teacher explain this, I was able to better assist the second - 1st grade teacher with her class. The third grade class also decided to type on Word and brought in their spelling words for this. The second grade class opted for the Dance Mat Typing site, which required a change.
Once those classes were done, I quickly finished my crossing guard duty after school to log off and shut down the computers. School gets out at 3:30, I'm usually done with my crossing guard duty at 3:45, and I had a meeting in Tempe for the School District's bond election (see the Yes For Tempe Schools logo on the upper right corner of my blog page) at 4;00. I was done early with the crossing guard duty, so I was able to get things shut down and locked up for the night and leave with barely enough time to make it to the meeting.
One thing, though, I checked my emails one last time before leaving to find the agenda for the meeting from 5:00 - 7:00 for the District's Regional Design Team group #4. This meant I would need to call my visiting teaching companion to cancel my plans to visit teach after the bond meeting.
Both meetings went well, and I stopped by Costco afterwards and picked up some writing tablets for the kids to use in the general music class.
I finally made it home at 8:00. I was so tired I was ready to drop, but still had some work to do. After taking a break and watching a little bit of television, I finally turned off everything in the rest of the house and started on the work to prepare for the general music class. I brought home a dvd of Ghosts of the Abyss, and uploaded onto my computer one of the chapters of the movie. I then loaded the movie into Garageband where I took out the audio and replaced it with different music.
Today saw a little less activity, but still a bit of craziness by the end of the day.
I had a few minutes to sit and relax this morning after finishing the crossing guard job.
I posted a few emails, namely one letting the 7th and 8th grade teachers to have their students bring pencils with them for the class. Then the eruptions started. First was the librarian who told me we were supposed to wait to discuss this with the principal today, rather than actually starting today. I had already spoken with the music teacher the kids have been with up until now, and she was already under the impression (as was I) that we were starting today. Oops. I apologized, but I did indicate that I had already gotten the lesson taken care of, and the supplies bought (which I did). Then the librarian brought up an idea she had for a lesson and she thought we should start it off with what she had in mind. I didn't take it wrong at all, my attitude was, okay, let's do what you had in mind and we'll do what I planned for on Friday. Bonus! :o)
The class went through just fine, and we gave ourselves a little pat on the back. The kids did fine with what the librarian had in mind, and we finished with the first installment of having them journal about their feelings while listening to a song. The song was Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. I chose this song because it's upbeat and sends a very powerful message, if you can get the kids to listen to the words. After playing it twice and talking about what our feelings were for the song, and writing a few on the board, the kids started writing and I could tell from their comments that the messages in the song were sinking in. It was something they hadn't heard before.
I had about a half hour to prep for the two kinder classes I have next, and they went well.
After kinder, I had a 30 minute lunch break and a 30 minute prep for a 1st grade and 3rd grade class, back to back. While I was at lunch the math coach came and spoke with me about my substituting (as well as the librarian) for the math coach on their middle school math interventions when the math coach is away for meetings or illness. The interesting part about this conversation was when the math coach told me I should have no problem with my schedule in fitting all of this in. After all, I have all that spare time first thing in the morning, right? It's right there on the schedule! I explained to her that while there are blanks on the schedule, that doesn't mean I'm in the lab twiddling my thumbs. I have a lot of other things I do, and still need to get done. Such as:
Locating 4 iBook laptops on the mobile cart that hold the charge the longest to use for a kinder center. This begins on Monday. Oh, and by the way, I also need to schedule this on the calendar for the mobile cart.
Finish getting the inventory of computers, telephones, printers, projectors, speakers and any other technology device in the school. IT at the district just sent out an email talking about the upgrades in computers that will be occurring soon, which will render the inventory obsolete, and I'll have to do another inventory when the equipment comes in. We already have gotten some mounted technology installed earlier this month (while I was out sick), which is what I've been getting the serial numbers for. I already have gotten a lot of this information written down, I just need to type it onto the spreadsheet.
Put the new toner cartridges the school just purchased into the classroom printers that have run out of ink.
Send back the used printers to the district warehouse.
Update the teacher's laptop computers.
I need to clean the keyboards, mice and screens in the lab computers.
Check on why a printer isn't working for a 3rd grade teacher.
Meet with the Reading First Demonstration Site specialist on creating a brochure to send to schools interested in visiting.
That's just a partial list of stuff that needs to be done, I'm sure I'm forgetting things right now as I type this.
Towards the end of the 1st grade class I got a call from a 6th grade teacher. Apparently the teacher is taking a Smartboard class and needs the software on his computer upgraded in order for him to be able to work off of his laptop in the class. I tried to do this remotely from the lab, but it turned out there were problems with his computer and I had to snag it and take it to the lab. While getting started to work on the computer, the 1st grade class left and I had to reset the computers for the 3rd grade class. During this time, I tried to run the updates, but there was no space left on the laptop's hard drive, so I had to take the laptop back to the teacher, have them log back in so I could go through and delete out the stuff from his hard drive that was causing this. It turned out one of the teacher's own children had put a file full of family pictures on computer and it was taking up 16 GB of space. It took about 30 minutes to get the file transferred to one of my external hard drives, so I could get the update run. By this time, I was running (literally) through the school to grab an extra stop sign in the office and do my afternoon crossing guard duty.
Thankfully I was able to get it done quickly so I could go back to the teacher's classroom to get the updates done.
Was my day over yet? No. I already had an appointment with a 5th grade teacher after school to show how to plug their laptop into the newly mounted projector and speakers in their classroom.
By the time I left, it was 4:30. Technically, as a classified (hourly) employee, I'm supposed to leave at 4:00.
I think I'm finally tired now.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
My day today...
The power went out in my area around midnight, so my day started with my staying awake until 2:00 when the power came back on.
I reset the two alarm clocks
I reset the DVD recorder so I could record Oprah today. She's having Nate Berkus, I love watching him!
I went back to sleep.
I awoke at 6 am this morning.
I had a little "me" time.
I fed Rachel.
I got ready for work.
I gave Rachel a second can of food to hold her over for the rest of the day.
At 7 am I was loading up the car - two trips today.
I arrived at work around 7:15.
I logged onto my computer for the day and found there were updates needed on the computers from during the break.
I ran the updates on my computer, rebooted and logged back in.
Checked my email messages.
At 7:30 I began greeting co-workers.
I picked up my radio in the office.
I cleared out the space and planets stuff out of the display case in the main hallway of the school.
I put away the stuff that was mine, and returned the things belonging to the librarian.
At 8:00 I went outside and did my Crossing Guard job.
At 8:50 I went to the playground area for our Monday Morning Meeting with the entire school.
At 9:00 I checked my voice mails - I don't check them first thing in the morning because I don't have time to fix anything.
I also checked my emails.
I dropped off the book that Pat borrowed.
I dropped off the dvd I made over the weekend of the Nova show on the Hubble Telescope.
Our Tech from the District stopped by and told me about the trouble the office was having with the new scanner they received.
I unloaded the movies out of my bags, I finally remembered to bring in some kid friendly musicals.
I unloaded the Wizard of Oz stuff and opened up the Blue-ray special edition I bought at Costco.
I uploaded the digital version of the movie onto my laptop.
I looked over everything to determine what I would put into the display to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz movie. The book is 109 years old, having been published in May 1900.
While this movie uploaded, I began putting Wizard of Oz books, pictures and other mementos into the display case.
I was asked to report to the Coach's office at 10:00. At this point, I don't know why.
I looked up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book online and found a link to the PDF of the digital copy. It's copyright ran out years ago on the book so it's in the public domain. I downloaded it onto my laptop.
I found some illustrations to tape up on the back of the display case to show students what the story originally looked like.
I went to the 10:00 meeting, they are asking me to work with the librarian to have an "alternate" music class for the 7th & 8th graders. These are students who don't want to be in Band, Orchestra, Choir and PE is full. The students have been wreaking havoc with the choir teacher, as there was nowhere else for the kids to go. We're going to do it, but neither of us are music teachers. ;o)
At 10:30 I finished printing off some illustrations from the Wizard of Oz book and taped them on the back of the display case.
I began looking up lesson plans for middle school general music classes. I got a few ideas, I'll have to run them by the librarian so we can get something started. We begin teaching on Wednesday. We're limited to what we can do, as this class is not supposed to be a reward for the students.
At 11:30 I stopped researching lesson plans and began prepping the computers for the kindergarten class coming at 12:00. The students don't know what numbers are yet (they might as well be reading Chinese), so I log the students in, reset the computers to use Firefox for the default browser, and set them up for Starfall.
I also substitute this class, the teachers are in meetings during this time.
The kinder class is from 12:05 - 12:35. I then take them to PE.
I log the kids off the computers.
I run the updates on the computers.
I fix the display settings on the computers. I had to change the settings for map testing, now that it's over, I needed to fix the settings.
I eat lunch.
While eating lunch, a teacher tells me she lost the documents folder from her dock, and didn't know how to get it back. I told her to leave her computer up and running and I'll fix it remotely.
I checked my mailbox in the lounge and found that a teacher needed me to locate web sites for the students to locate for specific information - by tomorrow morning.
After lunch I set up the computers for the two second grades. Because they are back to back classes, and I'm subbing, I don't have time to switch the student logins on the computers. So I log the first class in and use those log ins for the second class.
At 2:30 I began subbing the 2nd grade students. They are working on their typing using a fun BBC web site called Dance Mat Typing.
I began looking up web sites, and found most of them.
At 3:00 I walked the kids to PE and picked up the second round of second graders.
I fixed the teacher's documents folder on the computer remotely.
I finished locating web sites.
At 3:25 the teacher of the class came to get them ready to go home.
I began closing down the browser on each computer.
At 3:27 I got ready and went outside for the end of day Crossing Guard duty.
A teacher started their first day of assisting me on the cross walk. Of course there are the disrespectful parents who refuse to use the crosswalk. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, though, these are students who have behavior issues in school.
At 3:45 I returned back to the lab, and began creating the filamentality site for the web sites for the teacher. This is the easiest way for students to go the internet to look up the information the teacher is watching. Here's the finished product:
Woodsong Treasure Hunt
Once finished I emailed the link to the teacher.
I shut down the computers, packed up my stuff and left the school at 4:45.
I stopped off at Mom's house to drop off a calendar she asked me to buy for her.
I went home and brought up my stuff.
I fed Rachel.
I checked my email, facebook, and Barry Manilow sites.
I took a bunch of plastic bags and my grocery bags (cloth bag and freezer bag) to the car.
Bought Rachel more cat food at PetsMart.
I bought fluorescent light bulbs at Home Depot. I also picked up a new flood light for Mom's home.
I dropped off the plastic bags and picked up a few things at Wal Mart.
I used my grocery bags for shopping at Safeway.
I nuked a dinner in the microwave while bringing up purchases.
I put purchases away.
I ate dinner.
I loaded and ran a load of dishes in the dishwasher.
I'm watching Jay Leno as I type this.
I think I'm tired now.
The power went out in my area around midnight, so my day started with my staying awake until 2:00 when the power came back on.
I reset the two alarm clocks
I reset the DVD recorder so I could record Oprah today. She's having Nate Berkus, I love watching him!
I went back to sleep.
I awoke at 6 am this morning.
I had a little "me" time.
I fed Rachel.
I got ready for work.
I gave Rachel a second can of food to hold her over for the rest of the day.
At 7 am I was loading up the car - two trips today.
I arrived at work around 7:15.
I logged onto my computer for the day and found there were updates needed on the computers from during the break.
I ran the updates on my computer, rebooted and logged back in.
Checked my email messages.
At 7:30 I began greeting co-workers.
I picked up my radio in the office.
I cleared out the space and planets stuff out of the display case in the main hallway of the school.
I put away the stuff that was mine, and returned the things belonging to the librarian.
At 8:00 I went outside and did my Crossing Guard job.
At 8:50 I went to the playground area for our Monday Morning Meeting with the entire school.
At 9:00 I checked my voice mails - I don't check them first thing in the morning because I don't have time to fix anything.
I also checked my emails.
I dropped off the book that Pat borrowed.
I dropped off the dvd I made over the weekend of the Nova show on the Hubble Telescope.
Our Tech from the District stopped by and told me about the trouble the office was having with the new scanner they received.
I unloaded the movies out of my bags, I finally remembered to bring in some kid friendly musicals.
I unloaded the Wizard of Oz stuff and opened up the Blue-ray special edition I bought at Costco.
I uploaded the digital version of the movie onto my laptop.
I looked over everything to determine what I would put into the display to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz movie. The book is 109 years old, having been published in May 1900.
While this movie uploaded, I began putting Wizard of Oz books, pictures and other mementos into the display case.
I was asked to report to the Coach's office at 10:00. At this point, I don't know why.
I looked up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book online and found a link to the PDF of the digital copy. It's copyright ran out years ago on the book so it's in the public domain. I downloaded it onto my laptop.
I found some illustrations to tape up on the back of the display case to show students what the story originally looked like.
I went to the 10:00 meeting, they are asking me to work with the librarian to have an "alternate" music class for the 7th & 8th graders. These are students who don't want to be in Band, Orchestra, Choir and PE is full. The students have been wreaking havoc with the choir teacher, as there was nowhere else for the kids to go. We're going to do it, but neither of us are music teachers. ;o)
At 10:30 I finished printing off some illustrations from the Wizard of Oz book and taped them on the back of the display case.
I began looking up lesson plans for middle school general music classes. I got a few ideas, I'll have to run them by the librarian so we can get something started. We begin teaching on Wednesday. We're limited to what we can do, as this class is not supposed to be a reward for the students.
At 11:30 I stopped researching lesson plans and began prepping the computers for the kindergarten class coming at 12:00. The students don't know what numbers are yet (they might as well be reading Chinese), so I log the students in, reset the computers to use Firefox for the default browser, and set them up for Starfall.
I also substitute this class, the teachers are in meetings during this time.
The kinder class is from 12:05 - 12:35. I then take them to PE.
I log the kids off the computers.
I run the updates on the computers.
I fix the display settings on the computers. I had to change the settings for map testing, now that it's over, I needed to fix the settings.
I eat lunch.
While eating lunch, a teacher tells me she lost the documents folder from her dock, and didn't know how to get it back. I told her to leave her computer up and running and I'll fix it remotely.
I checked my mailbox in the lounge and found that a teacher needed me to locate web sites for the students to locate for specific information - by tomorrow morning.
After lunch I set up the computers for the two second grades. Because they are back to back classes, and I'm subbing, I don't have time to switch the student logins on the computers. So I log the first class in and use those log ins for the second class.
At 2:30 I began subbing the 2nd grade students. They are working on their typing using a fun BBC web site called Dance Mat Typing.
I began looking up web sites, and found most of them.
At 3:00 I walked the kids to PE and picked up the second round of second graders.
I fixed the teacher's documents folder on the computer remotely.
I finished locating web sites.
At 3:25 the teacher of the class came to get them ready to go home.
I began closing down the browser on each computer.
At 3:27 I got ready and went outside for the end of day Crossing Guard duty.
A teacher started their first day of assisting me on the cross walk. Of course there are the disrespectful parents who refuse to use the crosswalk. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, though, these are students who have behavior issues in school.
At 3:45 I returned back to the lab, and began creating the filamentality site for the web sites for the teacher. This is the easiest way for students to go the internet to look up the information the teacher is watching. Here's the finished product:
Woodsong Treasure Hunt
Once finished I emailed the link to the teacher.
I shut down the computers, packed up my stuff and left the school at 4:45.
I stopped off at Mom's house to drop off a calendar she asked me to buy for her.
I went home and brought up my stuff.
I fed Rachel.
I checked my email, facebook, and Barry Manilow sites.
I took a bunch of plastic bags and my grocery bags (cloth bag and freezer bag) to the car.
Bought Rachel more cat food at PetsMart.
I bought fluorescent light bulbs at Home Depot. I also picked up a new flood light for Mom's home.
I dropped off the plastic bags and picked up a few things at Wal Mart.
I used my grocery bags for shopping at Safeway.
I nuked a dinner in the microwave while bringing up purchases.
I put purchases away.
I ate dinner.
I loaded and ran a load of dishes in the dishwasher.
I'm watching Jay Leno as I type this.
I think I'm tired now.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
This is going to be a different kind of post, so I hope you will bear with me and not only read what I have to say, but also enjoy the videos.
Church today was fantastic, as usual. Sometimes I have trouble motivating myself to get to Church, but once I'm there and feel the Spirit of the Lord, I am left in awe and on a higher plane of thought.
Sacrament Meeting was on Godly Sorrow and Repentance. So many people make apologies they don't really mean these days, and this I mean out in the world. All you have to do is view the headlines on the news web sites to see it. It's seen a lot in the political and entertainment industries. How many people have apologized recently, but only after they had been caught? How many have really meant it? How many people apologize with their mouths but not with their hearts? How many have truly experienced Godly sorrow, which is a step in the repentance process?
After coming home from Church, I put the dvd "Testaments" in the machine. It is a fictional story that takes place in real events, during the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While there are reference shots depicting the life of Christ, this story takes place in the America's and the events are based on events in the Book of Mormon.
Sunday School today had the lesson on the Sacrifice of the early Mormons in Salt Lake City in building the Lord's Church and His Temple. It was mostly focused on the sacrifices and blessings of sacrifices we have today in our own lives.
Pioneers
As you would expect, the scriptures were used heavily.
God's Words Never Cease
There were several different scriptures used, including one of my favorites from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, Section 58:
2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.
3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.
There is a lot to be said about trials and what kind of sacrifices are made in the face of these trials, but there also comes knowledge and blessings. I've witnessed this time and again in my life. The other part, in verse 3, where the scriptures talk about how we don't know right now what is in store for us, but if we keep our foundation strong and faith steered towards Christ, the blessings will be well worth it.
The reason why this means so much to me, as you may have guessed, is because I am a widow. I was sitting today with a few of the other widows in my Ward and we agreed that there have been a lot of things we have had to sacrifice so that our husbands could serve God on the other side. The Lord knows this and I can testify right now, He provides blessings for the predicaments we end up in.
Doctrine and Covenants Section 64: 33-34
33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.
34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.
This scripture talks about obedience and the willingness to serve. This requires your heart to be in the right place, which only comes from repentance. The other thing I noticed was in vs. 33 where it talks about from small things become great things. This reminded me of the book I recently finished called The Tipping Point, where it talks about all kinds of epidemics, including the "epidemic" spread of religion. While the LDS Church was not profiled, it was mentioned. Remember, there were only 6 members of the Church at the time when it was officially organized in 1830.
Doctrine and Covenants Section 82: 10
10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.
The Lord ALWAYS keeps his promises.
Doctrine and Covenants Section 93:1
1 VERILY, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;
In the process of repentance, you get to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ very well, or true repentance doesn't happen. I'm sorry, but it's the only way. The good news, once the bitter part has passed, the blessings come. When your heart has truly been turned and touched in the way only Christ can, you have this promise.
Sunday Will Come
Doctrine and Covenants Section 130:19-21
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.
What kind of knowledge and wisdom do you think people could gain by simply following the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus?
Because of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, we can have peace in our hearts despite the tribulation in the world.
Finding Hope
Relief Society was on the value of friendship and being that true friend. This requires all of the above, plus a genuine love and desire to serve your friends. Do you think this is something taught in the world?
What Matters Most
So, the basic, most fundamental question of the day was, Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve. Take it from a widow, don't procrastinate, because you don't know who will be taken Home to God in your life, including you.
Choose This Day
Church today was fantastic, as usual. Sometimes I have trouble motivating myself to get to Church, but once I'm there and feel the Spirit of the Lord, I am left in awe and on a higher plane of thought.
Sacrament Meeting was on Godly Sorrow and Repentance. So many people make apologies they don't really mean these days, and this I mean out in the world. All you have to do is view the headlines on the news web sites to see it. It's seen a lot in the political and entertainment industries. How many people have apologized recently, but only after they had been caught? How many have really meant it? How many people apologize with their mouths but not with their hearts? How many have truly experienced Godly sorrow, which is a step in the repentance process?
After coming home from Church, I put the dvd "Testaments" in the machine. It is a fictional story that takes place in real events, during the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While there are reference shots depicting the life of Christ, this story takes place in the America's and the events are based on events in the Book of Mormon.
Sunday School today had the lesson on the Sacrifice of the early Mormons in Salt Lake City in building the Lord's Church and His Temple. It was mostly focused on the sacrifices and blessings of sacrifices we have today in our own lives.
Pioneers
As you would expect, the scriptures were used heavily.
God's Words Never Cease
There were several different scriptures used, including one of my favorites from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, Section 58:
2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.
3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.
There is a lot to be said about trials and what kind of sacrifices are made in the face of these trials, but there also comes knowledge and blessings. I've witnessed this time and again in my life. The other part, in verse 3, where the scriptures talk about how we don't know right now what is in store for us, but if we keep our foundation strong and faith steered towards Christ, the blessings will be well worth it.
The reason why this means so much to me, as you may have guessed, is because I am a widow. I was sitting today with a few of the other widows in my Ward and we agreed that there have been a lot of things we have had to sacrifice so that our husbands could serve God on the other side. The Lord knows this and I can testify right now, He provides blessings for the predicaments we end up in.
Doctrine and Covenants Section 64: 33-34
33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.
34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.
This scripture talks about obedience and the willingness to serve. This requires your heart to be in the right place, which only comes from repentance. The other thing I noticed was in vs. 33 where it talks about from small things become great things. This reminded me of the book I recently finished called The Tipping Point, where it talks about all kinds of epidemics, including the "epidemic" spread of religion. While the LDS Church was not profiled, it was mentioned. Remember, there were only 6 members of the Church at the time when it was officially organized in 1830.
Doctrine and Covenants Section 82: 10
10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.
The Lord ALWAYS keeps his promises.
Doctrine and Covenants Section 93:1
1 VERILY, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;
In the process of repentance, you get to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ very well, or true repentance doesn't happen. I'm sorry, but it's the only way. The good news, once the bitter part has passed, the blessings come. When your heart has truly been turned and touched in the way only Christ can, you have this promise.
Sunday Will Come
Doctrine and Covenants Section 130:19-21
19 And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.
What kind of knowledge and wisdom do you think people could gain by simply following the Ten Commandments in the Book of Exodus?
Because of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, we can have peace in our hearts despite the tribulation in the world.
Finding Hope
Relief Society was on the value of friendship and being that true friend. This requires all of the above, plus a genuine love and desire to serve your friends. Do you think this is something taught in the world?
What Matters Most
So, the basic, most fundamental question of the day was, Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve. Take it from a widow, don't procrastinate, because you don't know who will be taken Home to God in your life, including you.
Choose This Day
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Jonathan Kozol
If you've never heard of Jonathan Kozol, I invite you to get to know him. He understands the inequities of education between the wealthy vs. the poor, he has been documenting it for years in several books. His 2005 book, The Shame of The Nation, is a must read for anyone who has any interest, whether it be as a parent, educator, or citizen, in education. Click here for a paragraph from The Shame of The Nation from when I finished reading the book.
This is Jonathan Kozol talking about his latest book, "Letters To A Young Teacher".
Here is Jonathan Kozol from 2005 talking about his book, "The Shame of The Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling In America"
Here is the link for another interview of Jonathan Kozol talking about The Shame of The Nation:
This Is America
This is Jonathan Kozol talking about his latest book, "Letters To A Young Teacher".
Here is Jonathan Kozol from 2005 talking about his book, "The Shame of The Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling In America"
Here is the link for another interview of Jonathan Kozol talking about The Shame of The Nation:
This Is America
Barry's Giving Back
Just in time for the Holidays, and the deadline for 2009 tax deductions, Barry Manilow is giving a series of concerts to benefit 25 different local charities for Coachella Valley, including Palm Springs. Barry lives in Palm Springs. Now if Barry could convince the local music celebrities in the Phoenix area to do the same for some of our neediest charities - I'd go!
Here's the source: MyDesert.com
Nicely done, Barry.
Here's the source: MyDesert.com
Nicely done, Barry.
Friday, October 16, 2009
IOUSA
Have you seen the movie IOUSA? You haven't? Probably because it was released during an election year, and you know how those fussy Democrats and Republicans don't like bad news during an election year.
Why am I talking about the movie? Well, just days after the Dow hit 10,000 on the NYSE, another report came out talking about our national debt: FY09 Worst On Record Since 1945
And now, for your viewing pleasure, a preview of IOUSA:
And for the 30 minute bite sized version, click here.
Why am I talking about the movie? Well, just days after the Dow hit 10,000 on the NYSE, another report came out talking about our national debt: FY09 Worst On Record Since 1945
And now, for your viewing pleasure, a preview of IOUSA:
And for the 30 minute bite sized version, click here.
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