No fences

Last year I fenced in my backyard. It wasn’t fun, but it turned out nice. I built a gate on the side. That way if anything happened, like a hurricane, it would be easier to get to the other side. Maybe I would need to help my neighbor. Maybe my neighbor would need to help me. In my experience, that’s what happens during hurricanes.
The old man next door passed away. I never really got to know him, but I have a feeling we would have helped each other in a time of crisis.
I have a new neighbor now. He decided to fence in his backyard too. In the process he felt it was best to fence over the gate I built with his own fence. He’s working on it right now. I haven’t gone over there yet. I would have helped if he asked. That’s what neighbors do. I guess things will be a little more difficult if one of those monster pines in the lot behind me fell over and crashed through his roof. I don’t know how I’d be able to help him. I guess I could crawl over the crushed portions of fence, but that might be too dangerous.

I'm the man

Yes, the Ed Media exam is over.
I passed.
I'm awesome.
Thank you, J Lee for all the knowledge.
Woo Hoo

I can see the light

Almost there. The summer term has been brutal. It is sad to think that I'm kind of looking forward to going back to work. At least my final two terms will be much lighter. M Donlevy

d day is upon me

I just registered to take my certification exam for Educational Media PK-12.
Aug 12 it is on.
4 classes still sucks.
On the upside next year's teaching assignment looks promising.
On the downside my boy is in the soup again....

i'm back for real this time

Here's the short of it-
Don't ever take 4 classes at once during a summer term.

That has pretty much been my life.
Ok, I got to go to the Pespi 400 for the first time in a few years.

That's it, really, ok I forced myself to go to the movies a couple of times.

And I listened to an Al Franken book on CD, but that was only while driving out to UCF for one of my classes.

Excuse me while I pass out from information overload.

D

i'm back

i'm back after a short short rest listening to the Red Sox counting down the days to summer vaction not really a vacation but more of a lessening of the pain i'll still be just as busy even more so maybe don't know hard to tell now keep in touch

Final Reflection

Final reflection

I use PowerPoint on a daily basis. I just never forced myself to learn any of the advanced features. I can start to see some classroom uses for creating PowerPoint quizzes. It would be a good way of presenting small independent study units for kids to run through if they missed a key lesson. It might be difficult for a subject like math, but I think it would really fit into history.
I could take things a step even further by enhancing it with some digital audio samples. Initially, it would be a huge amount of work. However, once it is done it is done. All I would need to do is tweak it from term to term. Adding in the photo elements would be an added bonus.
I loved Inspiration. It was slightly frustrating at first; it was not as intuitive as I thought it would be. After some practice I did figure it out. With a little more work I could incorporate endless amounts of visual organizers into the lessons. It would be nice to have a computer lab at school for the students to make their own projects and presentation.
Understanding how to use PowerPoint and Inspiration would be very helpful for media specialists. They are excellent tools for presenting information, and media specialists are always expected to be able to communicate information to the students and staff effectively. I see some value in learning the basics of Excel. However, I’m sure that much for powerful media center specific inventory organization tools are already available.

M Donlevy

Troubleshooting Reflection

I really haven’t had too many tech issues with my computers lately. The only annoying problem I occasionally have is with my school-issue laptop. Sometimes it likes to go into what I call coma mode. It is like sleep mode, but it just doesn’t wake up when it should. The tech people said if I hold the power button down long enough it should respond. That didn’t happen.
My choices were to send in the computer for repairs. This could mean being without my laptop for a couple of weeks. There also was the risk of not getting it back and losing everything since my last backup. My other option was to work it out on my own. My solution- remove then replace the battery. It works like a charm.
The worst tech problem I ever had was with a scanner a couple of years ago. A friend of mine bought a scanner and asked me over to help install it. It was an HP. It can with the modern instruction sets. You know, picture heavy and very few words. We followed it step by step. Then step by step again and again. Then we spent 30 minutes on the phone with tech support. We felt so stupid. It was only a scanner. How hard could it be?
Impossible! It turns out the scanner was a dud. We took it back and exchanged it for yet another dud. Then we started second guessing ourselves. Were we missing something? It turned out that there was a bad batch of scanners made by HP. We ended up taking home a different make and model, and everything turned out ok in the end.
M Donlevy

what???????

I call a cab 'cause a cab will come quicker
The doctors huddle up and call a
flea flicker
The reason that I say that 'cause they
Flick you off like
fleas
They be laughin' at ya while you're crawlin' on your knees
And to
the strength so go the length
Thinkin' you are first when you really are
tenth
You better wake up and smell the real flavor
Cause 911 is a fake
life saver
So get up, get, get get down
911 is a joke in yo town

by Public Enemy
I try to keep things here academic, but my blood is really boiling and the Flavor in me is coming out. I realize 911 saves millions of lives, but arghhhhhhh.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/10/911.lawsuit/index.html

M Donlevy

My Top 10 Books- Multicultural Literature

I actually discovered my multicultural literature pick several weeks ago. I just decided to post everything in the order it was listed to avoid missing anything.

Several books were instant standouts. My personal favorite was i see the rhythm by Michele Wood and Toyomi Igus, but it just missed the cut because of its publication date. Find this book! It is excellent.

Slavery is a difficult topic to teach to children of any age. How can this material be presented while maintaining a sense of dignity for the people involved. Lessons can end in confusion, anger, shame, and increased misunderstandings.

The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom written by Bettye Stroud and illustrated by Erin Susanne Bennett (Candlewick Press 2005) is a wonderful work that celebrates the truimph of the human spirit in the face of advesity. The work is recommended for children ages 4-8. It spares them the harsh details while still managing to convey a sense of urgency for the main characters. Though the tale of quilt maps is a familiar one, the presenation of the story is fresh and highly memorable.

Links of interest


http://www.bettyestroud.com/

http://www.wabe.org/atlanta/community/bettystroud.html

M Donlevy