Of Life, Education, E-bay, Travel & Books

Tool # 11 - DONE!

2011-07-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, I blotched that final assessment but good - 77%, My competitive soul is NOT HAPPY. Oh well, such is life, shrug and move on. Here's Stupefix Video Celebratory Video

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.

Some I already knew but I'm happy to have added Tikatok and MakeBeliefs Comix to my collection. I'm glad I played around with Thinkfinity & Learning Games and will use some of the sites from the latter two with my PGP students this upcoming year. I'll work with teachers helping them implement Tools with their classes so which tools we'll use will be somewhat up to them. I do plan to model at least one of them per week in my library lesson so that the Tools will remain in my teacher's frontal lobes.

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?

Again, this doesn't really apply to library where all our technology is well marked with fingerprints and smudges. This year we'll be in a transition school, so it will interesting how the teachers set up their classroom when we return to our newly constructed 21st century school.

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

very proud of themselves.

I was surprised at how much of this I already knew (even though my assessment score does not reflect this!) and also by how many folks were proficient at e-mail and not much else. I was utterly delighted that quite a few of the teachers took this project and ran with it and created unbelievable blogs that went above and beyond the initial assignments. Some people that weren't in the least bit teckie persevered and finished and are rightfully very proud of themselves. This year should be interesting! I always enjoy any kind of on line learning and I'm glad I participated in the 11 Tools I'm also very grateful that I've taught blogging to the students for the past 4 years. That enabled me to come to the project with a through understanding of Blogger and how it works..

Tool #10 Digital Citizenship

2011-07-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

I've taught Digital Citizenship for a couple of years now. Given what I've seen of some of the students Facebook posts I'd say I'm not always successful. Even though 5th graders aren't supposed to have a Facebook Page, many of our students do. 10 year olds live in the moment and some of what they've posted is both poorly spelled and in very poor taste.

1. Discuss at least three things you would want to make sure your students understand about being good digital citizens. I try to stress to the students that what they post on line isn't private in any sense of the word and I try to bring in real world examples. Sadly, this isn't to difficult. We try very hard to convince them them that "cutting and pasting" does not a paper make. Lastly, we do our best to stamp out Cyber Bullying. Given the recent posts about a Facebook page at one of our high schools I don't think we have a handle on this problem either.

2. Share at least one of the resources mentioned above or on the Ed Tech website that you plan to use instructionally. I've used the iSafe program as a jumping off place for my lessons but it's a bit to negative, the internet is the Big Bad Wolf for my taste. I took the information presented in the program and created Flipchart which I've used for the past couple of years.

3. Explain briefly how you would "teach" the idea of digital citizenship to your students The students and I both adore BrainPop and I've found their lessons to be both user friendly and through. BrainPop is incorporated in my FlipChart since the company is a partner with Promethean, who makes our ActivBoards. .

4. Explain briefly how you plan to share the idea of digital citizenship with your parents. That's a tricky one, since many of our parents don't speak English and don't have easy access to a home computer. They have cell phones with internet but that's not the same as a computer (or an iPad) with a keyboard. It's a subject we really need to broach this upcoming school year, especially since Cyber Bullying is becoming all to common. We no longer have a Family Technology Night, but we could address it during Science Night, which also includes a heath fair. That's when we get out biggest turnout of parents. Perhaps some of the 4th Graders could create Glogs to accompany the 5th grade Glogster projects.

Tool # 9 - Incorporating the Teckie Toys

2011-07-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

I like the term Teckie Toys better than ClassRoom Learning Devices. The latter sounds so formal!

Why do you think it is important to tie the technology to the objective? Simple, you need a destination before you begin - and that's your objective.

Why should we hold students accountable for the stations/centers? The key to students with sticky fingers or students as vandals is "ownership". Once the students come to think of the computers, iTouches, iPads et. al. as "theirs" as opposed to "the schools" they will take care of them and police each other. At Housman the students have easy access to everything and we've (knock on wood) only had one problem with theft. They students were so incensed when that occurred that they banded together and solved the crime for us.

Visit 2 of the applicable links to interactive websites for your content/grade level. Which sites did you like. How could you use them as stations? How can you hold the students accountable for their time in these stations? Things are a bit different in the library where students (hopefully) come in with a project already assigned. I did check out some of the links/ I've been meaning to play with Thinkfinity for ages. Via it I found Comic Creator which is easy to use. I was tres impressed till I finished and discovered that my only option was to either print my work or create another carton. There doesn't appear to be any way to save it as a jpeg so that it can be posted to a blog. Oh - just occurred to me that I can use the camera tool from the Activ Inspire software. That's a bit clunky and the software isn't on the netbooks. Given the cost of paper and toner we're trying to wean everyone away from printing everything. I had fun with Fractured Fairy Tales, but once again the final results can only be printed. This is a fun site to use with my PGP students! Thinkfinity is an idea site to use with centers since many of the projects are short. I also explored Learning Games and came across US State Learning Games. It's a fabulous replacement for the Facts on File State pages. Due to budget constraints we no longer have Facts on File and their state pages were something I always used to teach "mouse skills" and "point n' click" to our little ones. Unlike South of the Freeway schools our students are not placed in front of a keyboard at birth. Tomato Bounce is a kids version of Angry Birds and the Logic Games in Brain Games are another resource to use with my PGP kids. Anything in Learning Games is a perfect match for an ActivBoard.

List two to three apps you found for the iPod Touch/iPad that you can use in your classroom. What do you see that station looking like? I used Google Earth on the iPads with my Book Club last year. We read The Thief Lord, which is set in Venice and Google Earth helped us explore the canals. We've any number of games on the school iPads, some of which are not educational but are very popular during Family Library Night and Library Lunch Time. Pimple Pop, which has no redeeming value at all is a favorite (it's so gross) as is Angry Birds lite. I must admit that I like Angry Birds too!

What about other ways to use the iPod Touch/iPad? Last year I loved using the iPads for research. They are always logged in so the kids could zip right to the Library Resources Page and get started.

Tool #8 Using the Tools

2011-07-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

Since I was lucky enough to get my influx of technology (thank you SBISD voters) in January of 2010 I already know how to manage and use my teckie gizmos. I set up an iTunes account for the library which is NOT hooked to a credit card and we started downloading apps with a vengeance. Thanks to The Library Lunch Club students get to spend their lunch break in the library relaxing with the iPads. Since that's not "prime learning time" I can be a bit more lenient about what they can and can't do than a classroom teacher. Oh heck, it's not a "bit more" - it's a LOT more lenient. Library lunch time is exploration time.''

Given the amount of use the computers et.al get I quickly let the student manage them. They are responsible for both getting and putting away the laptops. I do hand out the iPads and the iTouches (which we check out). I've had trouble convincing some teachers that they do need to stand guard duty at the iBook cabinet.

I have two rules
1. Respect the Equipment, the library and each other.
2. No inappropriate sites. My definition of "inappropriate" is - if looking at the site over your shoulder embarrasses you, then it's "inappropriate".

Other than the occasional wise guy who tries to go to "sexygirls.com " the students are very good at adhering to the rules. And best of all, they usually rat on the wise guy. Actually, the wise guys normally can't type or spell and their attempts to go to "sexigrils.com are all for naught!

Tool #7 Reaching Out To The World

2011-07-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

The first time I used / learned about Skype it reminded me of the EMG program that Spring Branch subscribed to back in the 1990s. It really was early video conferencing - does anyone remember the "Bat Phones" we were supposed to use? Someone it never quite came off as it was supposed to - mostly because we had to coordinate schedules. That's hard to do in an elementary school where students tend to do unpredictable things like upchuck as they are headed out the door.

Lisa Branon, the Librarian at Frostwood experimented with Skype last year. Her students reaped the benefits as they enjoyed some author Skyped visits. I see from reading the blog entry that there's a web site of Skype friendly authors.

Last year a couple of students talked me into doing a book club - we kept it small and meet every 6 days or so. All of us really enjoyed it -and since the students will be in 5th grade next year I suspect we'll keep it up. II'll start by letting them explore this site and select an author who is willing to Skype. None of the names jumped out at me, but it will be fun to discover a "new to us" author.

It will keep my first school Skype experience small and I'll have the pleasure of working with students who are articulate and adore technology.

Tikatok & Bookr

2011-07-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

I like Tikatok, but I'd like it more if I could figure out how to enbed my book - My Summer With the 11 Tools rather than link it.

Oh, I think I just figured it out! Seems you have to pay a $1 so that Tikatok knows you are an adult. Yeah me!

Bookr is easier to us but Tikatok has way more options and is much more flexible. Bookr is a good jumping off site since it does have so many limitations. Students can't change the fonts or the text color so they focus on content rather than appearance. I think I'd start students with Bookr because it's easier and then the students who finish the Bookr. Instant differentiation!

Tool # 6 Web 2.0 in the Classrooms

2011-07-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

I've been using Blogs for about 4 or 5 years now via Housman's After School Programs. I thought students might be more interested in writing if they didn't have to struggle with pencil and paper. Some of the students proved to be amazing writers and others were more interested in finding widgets rather than putting fingers to keyboard. Originally I let them chose a topic of their choice but after the umpteenth post about Justin Bieber and WWF I was forced to impose a bit more structure. I found I had to specify how many sentences qualified as a post. Oddly I found myself doing the very same thing for teachers when they tackled the 11 Tools.

Here's a link to one of my favorite student blogs - the author is going into the 5th grade and he's been blogging for 2 years. As you can tell he loves making Animotos. I have 102 student blogs on my Housman Blogger account.

The library's also had a delicious account since I first did the 23 Things. It's proved to be invaluable since elementary age children can't type long URLs. Diigo wasn't around back then but it appears to be superior and I've migrated the Housman bookmarks to Diigo while we decide which one we want to keep updated.

Tool 5 - Web. 2.0 Products - ABCya! & Comic Strips

2011-06-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

I've used Wordle for a couple of years now - it produces delightful results with minimal efforts.

This time I tried ABCya! which is even easier! One of my favorite singers wrote this and I always find myself humming the chorus during boring meetings.

I also played around with Comix Strip Maker - very easy and lots of fun! Many, many uses - explaining math procedures, in lieu of the traditional book reports, discussing the scientific process or as a lesson to reinforce punctuation. I used the camera tool on my ActivBoard to "photograph" my strip, then I copied it, open PowerPoint and pasted it into a slide. That converted the strip to a png. and I was able to save it to my desktop and upload it to my blog.

MixBook too - MixBook creates digital scrapbooks. It's very involved and gives almost to many choices. Great fun for adults, but sometimes to many choices overwhelms kids. They spend so many time looking at all their options that they forgo content for the sake of appearance. Glogster has an overload of choices too. We've somewhat been able to corral the creative child by specificing that their Glog must look historical or scienceticic. Even a 10 year understands that Hello Kitty was not present at the Battle of the Alamo.

Tool 3 - Embedding Videos

2011-06-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Videos are easy to embed -or link. Sometimes you opt for one, and sometimes the other. I perfer to embed since it's easier for your blog followers to view it. It also adds visual interest to the blog. If there are firewall and "Net Nanny "issues a link it best, otherwise there will be this big blank space in the middle of your blog. Below are examples of Linking and Embedding.

Much to my amazement I've become a Lady Gaga fan. Granted, I am I old enough to be mother - she is younger than my daughters but I do enjoy her music. It makes me get up and move. Moving is good.

The woman excells at using Social Media and I think her commerical for Google Chrome is a masterpiece.

Tool # 4 - Into the Cloud with Google Docs

2011-06-20T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've used Google Docs created by others but this is the first time I've created one myself. It's so easy! Now I'm kicking myself for dragging my feet! Silly me!

I'm doing a presentation at the back to school in- services so I've started a document to help me collect my thoughts.

The 11 Tools - Huh????

2011-06-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

The instructions for some of the 11 Tools are well, well they are lacking. One of the cardinal rules when writing instructions is that you always give them to someone clueless and make sure they can follow them and complete the task successfully. It's becoming very apparent that it wasn't done.

Along with some other librarians, I attended an Atomic Learning training session and discovered there are some very very helpful videos available to those who are wandering in the wilderness of cyberspace.

Karen Harrell, the librarian at Rummel Creek listed them on her blog.

Take a look - and you even get PDLC hours - well make that minutes for watching them.

Adding a Picture to Your Post

2011-06-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Pictures make your blog more interesting and more appealing to the reader - here's a link that explains how to do it.

http://www.howtoinblogger.com/blogger-tutorials/how-to-upload-images-in-blogger/

It's really easy. I always save the picture to my desktop so that I can find it easily! Then you click on the picture icon (it's next to the word LINK) on the toolbar that shows up when you posting and follow the instructions!

Tool # 2 Commenting and On Line Learning Communties

2011-06-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

I discovered The Google Reader during the 23 Things and it created organization out of chaos. I have on set up for The 11 Tools so I can keep up with who has posted and who hasn't. Makes it easy to leave comments.

My stack of books to be read is always toppling off my night stand and my Google Reader is always about to burst with postings. Sometimes I get frustrated and mark them all as "read" so I can clean it out and start back at zero. Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog and CoolCat Teacher are my go to blogs. I visit the fomer to keep with my profession and the latter because she's always on top of what's happening in the world of Web 2.0.

I've found some of my favorite blogs via other blogs. It's a bit like books, if someone enjoys the same book you do, chances are you have some other books in common too.

Delicious is another tool that entered my life during Library2Play. I promptly set up an account for the library and it's been such a time saver. Children can't type URLs correctly and bookmarks aren't practical since they are tied to a specific computer.

Diigo came along a bit later and I set up a Diggo account for the library too. It has some extras -stickly notes for example that Delicious doesn't offer. I think I'll start encouraging the kids to use Diigo instead of Delicious. I like the fact that it is cross platform now that we have iTouches, iPads and computers. Less letters in the word Diigo too- so less of a chance for typos. Well, we can only hope.

Blogger Dashboard

2011-06-08T08:24:00.001-07:00

I attended a workshop on Atomic Learning today - which is new and improved and way easier access than it used to be. We now just log in with our SBISD logon and password. I know a couple of you - yes you - Janet want to change your blogs "appearance" - here is an explanation of the Google Dashboard and what is the purpose of each tab.

We were also told that Atomic Learning videos viewed at home count for PDLC hours. Granted they are only 1-5 minutes long so you have to watch more than one to get your hours. It's still better than having to attend a Fire Marshall presentation - yes you -Hanne!

Blogging Workshop
- B. Creating a Blogger Blog
- - Introducing the Blogger Dashboard pt. 1
  - Introducing the Blogger Dashboard pt. 2

The 11 Tools - Here We Go Again....

2011-06-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

I've done the 23 Things, the 11 & A Half Things and The 5 & 3/4 Things....and now here comes The 11 Tools.

Some of which I'm familiar with and some of which I'm not. The Web comes and goes so quickly so some Tools have already vanished. The Land of Oz and the Internet have a great deal in common.

I love anything Web 2.0 and the kids do too. Now that the library has the new Macbooks and the Minis we finally have some decent technology we can finally turn the students loose on the world of the wild, wild, web.

But, before we can turn the students loose; the teachers have to be taught. Actually, the kids could teach the teachers but that's not the way it's done in Spring Branch.

This summer, along with packing up, moving and not knowing where we're going to be holding classes come fall everyone must haul out their laptops and create a blog. Not only that, but they must write 11 posts on their blog. For some this is a piece of cake (I've had a blog since 2004) but for others it's an overwhelming task.

To quote one of the greatest movie lines of all time "Buckle your seatbelts it's going to be a bumpy night".

Sometimes the Contents are Not What's Expected....

2011-02-12T19:45:00.000-08:00

The estate sale ad intrigued me so I ventured way out of my comfort zone and normal stomping grounds this morning. The Dear Departed once worked for Cactus Records, Houston’s legendary independent record store.

The neighborhood was very gloomy – a down at the heels subdivision firmly on the downhill slide. 3 bedroom brick starter homes built in the mid 1970s. The neighborhood is now mostly poor and Hispanic, lots of rentals and foreclosures and gang signs spray painted on the fences. It was not the kind of house you’d associate with anyone who worked at Cactus Records. I saw some pictures of The Dear Departed and she was about my age. I suspect she lived there with someone else- maybe an aged parent. When I think Cactus Records I conjure up an eclectic house in Houston’s eclectic neighborhood with artsy furnishings and funky art, not a soulless tract house in the wrong part of town.

The estate dealer – I’ll call him Joe is not known for his pleasant demeanor and he was in rare form today.

To start with he left the E for east that belonged on the address. Another would be attendee and I meet up at the wrong address. We called and got the correct address and somehow the other attendee managed to get us in the door early. He was from New Jersey and he was pissed and he let Joe know it. I got included because I was the one with the phone number & the GPS. He was a record dealer and I'm not so I was no threat.

I think the Dear Departed had a home business making and selling bootleg DVDs. There were way more mailers in that house than the average person keeps. There were boxes of DVDs in those multi colored cases you can get at Office Max. All looked just a little “off” and it was very apparent they were copies. I left those but came away with an 5 foot high stack of original box sets – all new and sealed which the Dear Departed hadn’t gotten around to copying yet.

There were indeed lots of books, most worthless –many books published Dover.. Shelves of books on ancient Egypt but all by popular presses. I am pretty sure 2 someones lived in the house since the book subjects were very diverse. Far left wing crystal reading and far right Obama is Satan books on the same shelf. One of the someones liked genealogy and I found some local New England history books that I’ve sold before. I had first crack at the books for about half the shelves and then the guy who buys for Brazos Books appeared. He turned his nose up at my scanner but decided maybe I did know something when I picked this from a shelf he’d already gone through:

Iver Johnson's Arms and Firearms was such a good find that 3 people tried to buy it from me while I was standing in line to pay.

Nothing was priced and nobody could price anything but Joe . Joe had 2 different check out stations – one manned by his mother (old and clueless) and another by an ageing queen (fussy and clueless) Everyone and everything had to wait for Joe and everyone was grumpy, especially Joe. Joe was running around cursing everyone and being as rude as possible to the buyers and assorted Hispanic men he’d hired to do the hauling and the translating.

The buyers were pretty clueless too – they managed to block a number of driveways along the street and tow trucks were summoned. You can only imagine how blue the air turned once wreckers showed up.

It took forever to pay – in fact I think I could of easily walked out with my haul, it was such a disorganized mess. I went into the “polite, sympathetic and understanding” mode I use with another dealer and it worked. He looked at my stack and said “$125”. The gun book will more than cover that so I paid and ran.

There were several cases of jewelry on the lawn (the house was so tiny) and I couldn’t get near it. It also wasn’t priced and the folks around were in a feeding frenzy. No records at all, though the ad promised records. Joe locked them in his truck because he didn’t want anyone to look at them unless he stood over them to guard them. Which he couldn’t do because nothing was priced. The record buyer folks were angry – can’t say that I blame them. It was a long drive and they went away empty handed.

My grand total ? $2,228.00. Not bad for 3 hours of work!

I’m very glad I got up early on a Saturday and that I took chance in an unfamiliar part of town.

Sometimes I Hate It...

2010-09-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

When I'm right...

We'd had an easy to use, generic log on for years in our district. It was simple enough for 5 years to remember and neatly solved the problem that Windows requires log ons. Of course the high schoolers abused it and took advantage of the fact that it made the user "anonymous" to scatter inappropriate comments the width and breathe of cyberspace.

So the old log on was abolished and in its place came a complicated 8 letter / 3 numbers combination. I'm not sure who piloted it - I suspect it was a combination of high school students and the tech departments own uber tech savvy children. It certainly wasn't piloted on monolingual Spanish speaking 5 year olds, even though we have many within the district.

Worst of all, it was to go into effect on the first first minute of the very first day of school. No lead in time, no teaching time, no getting used to things time allowed.

Needless to say, this announcement resulted in great angst among the librarians since we're usually the ones who get to carry out the Tech departments proclamations (not that they ever ask for our input ). We have great many new librarians who, unlike me who has been at it since dinosaurs roamed the earth, are very SERIOUS about their job.

So I wrote the following e-mail:

Guys,

I realize I share much of Alfred E. Newman’s” What Me Worry” philosophy but I’m really not stressing about this right now.

I’ve been here too long & have seen too much and I already can foresee the scenario.

1. It will start out as an unmitigated disaster

2. Total chaos will ensue

3. Tech Services will realize they messed up and back pedal furiously

4. Plan B will be announced

5. Plan B will be tweaked

6. Plan C will be announced

7. Plan C will be scrapped

8. Plan D will be created using the best of plans A, B, C & D.

So, we can put in hours of time and mental stress worrying about dealing with Plan A but chances are it will all be for naught.

Me, I’m just going to roll with the punches, expect the worst and not be disappointed.

Last week, just I predicted we suddenly found ourselves at Step 5. Tech Services finally agreed that 5 year olds, who aren't sure of their last name and who can't type couldn't be expected to perfectly execute a complicated log on. So we have a new and simpler log on. That doesn't work on the ibooks, all of which now must be re-imaged.

I can't wait to see Plan C. And sometimes I really hate it when I'm right.

The School Year is Not off to an Auspicious Start

2010-09-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

1. Our fearless Library Leader retired. A replacement has been promised but so far he/ she isn't forthcoming. So we are rudder-less. Whoever takes the position has some big shoes (or rather cowboy boots) to fill.

2. The library air conditioner was wonky for the first two weeks and kept cutting off at 12:30. No matter that school wasn't over till 2:30. And the temps were 98+

3. Tech Services ditched the sorta easy for kids to remember log ins and instituted an 8 letter 3 number log on, coupled with 6 digit password. In their infinite wisdom they didn't test drive this on 5 year olds. Nope, the librarians get that pleasure.

4. The electricity went out for an hour yesterday. During lunch time.

5. The district introduced a new electronic grade book/ attendance program. It doesn't play well with others, especially the library patron and Accelerated Reader databases.

6. My Beloved has been sick with assorted malaises since May. No end in sight. She is very tired of not being herself and of being sick. That makes two of us.

7. Mercury is retrograde

8. I'm catching a cold. Achoo!

9. A fast moving tropical storm gifted us with a deluge - at dismissal time.

10. The wireless network keeps going in and out. Did I mention EVERYTHING in our district is done on line?

11. Every professional had to spent several hours "immersed" in an on line class on "grading & homework guidelines". Even those of us who never, ever give grades. Or homework.

12. Last year's second graders did not, as we all hoped mature over the summer. They are as immature as they ever were. Due to several convoluted reasons many had a sub par first grade experience. We will all pay the price till they graduate.

13. We are most likely going to have to pack up the entire school and move to temporary quarters for 18 months while the old school is torn down and a new school built. Dates are still being written in very shifting sand.

On the plus side, a new 5th grader told me he'd never before enjoyed coming to the library. And tonight is Project Runway and tomorrow is Friday!

Other Duties as Required Redux

2010-08-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

When I tell folks I'm a librarian I'm often told how nice it must be to "sit around and read" all day. I rarely sit and while I do read, it's usually to groups of children and it's most always children's books.

My job is never boring and some of the most interesting bits fall under "Other Duties as Required". These duties have included everything from serving coffee to walking a pit bull. Just when I think I've done it all, yet another new adventure pops up.

This week's "other duties as required" included Dumpster Diving.
We'd received 10 Activ Wands for our Promethean Activ Boards and I'd cataloged them and set them aside so the teachers could come and pick them up.

They were in a box, along with the packing boxes behind the circulation desk. We arrived the next day and they were gone. Most baffling since the custodial staff never touch what's piled behind the desk unless it has a sign saying "Basura" taped to it. All the laptops were in their places so we didn't think they were stolen - why would a thief take those and leave the iBooks?

My assistant, who speaks Spanish called the custodian who told her that the computer tech guy told her they were "trash" and to throw them out. Still haven't figured out why he came to that conclusion. Computer guy is sometimes a few fries short of a Happy Meal.

Slight heart failure - they cost $60 each and were certainly not trash.

Off the dumpster we trekked. Lucky for us it's the beginning of the school year & it hadn't rained in some time.. While it was piled full, it was all clean paper and cardboard. The dumpster on the last day of school is full of sticky party food debris - not to mention animals attracted by sticky party food.

I was the one wearing tennis shoes so I climbed in and started routing around - and there under piles of paper were our boxes, the installation CDs and the wands. Deep breath and great cheer.

Out I clamored and back to the library we went,, wands in hand. And no, we never told the teachers where those wands spent the night.

And I got to add yet another duty to "Other Duties as Required". Perhaps Dumpster Diving needs to be offered as a library school elective?

First You Have to Kiss Some Frogs.....

2010-08-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

The toys and games I unearthed at The House O' Stuff are selling briskly. Someone just paid $249 for a Disney / Mickey Mouse Roller Coaster set. I keep wondering just where this recession is that folks keep talking about.

Speaking of talking about, people often comment on how "lucky" I am to come across all this junk that I turn into treasure and manage to resell at a profit.

I always hear "I never find anything at thrift shops"

Me: "How often do you shop at one?"

Answer: "It's been 3 or 4 months".

Me " I troll the thrift shops 3 or 4 times a week".

There is some luck involved - maybe 10% but the rest is just plain hard work.

When it came to The House O' Stuff, the 10% was living in the same city as the toy hoarder.

The 90% was hard work was:

· Going to every estate sale I could and getting my name on the-mail lists
· Scouring their e-mails and pictures looking for a likely candidates.
· Attending a great many Frog estate sales
· Making nice to the estate sale dealers so that they will make nice to me. Th
· In regards to the House O’ Stuff making the time to park my carcass in line for an hour and an hour a half the day before so that I’d get in the door in the first group
· Showing up on time the day of the sale (believe it or not, some folks were late and lost their hard won place on the list)
· Spending at least 3 hours at the sale for 2 consecutive Saturdays in a row
· Busting my backside to get all the STUFF listed, packed, photographed etc. so that it would sell. Doesn’t matter how much it is worth – I’m not going to make any money if it’s stacked on the pool table!

Everything was either at Amazon or E-bay ready within a week of purchase.

So, yes there is some luck involved but there is a great deal of very hard work as well.

Folks...It's Time to Start Your Smartboards

2010-08-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's the last night of summer vacation.
In preparation of getting back on the hamster wheel I have:

Clipped & filed coupons
Put away the laundry
Packed up the Saturday garage sale finds for FBA
Written as many E-bay auctions as possible and listed some of the Legos
Paid bills
Fiddled with my money on Mint.com
Hauled stuff out to my car
Made my AM Smoothie so I can grab it and go
Pulled some CDs for my listening pleasure (no kids yet)
Emptied the dishwasher

.....and last of all laid out an all black outfit to wear tomorrow....... It's 98 degrees outside but

Summer is officially OVER

Return to The House O' Stuff

2010-08-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

There was so much stuff in The House O' Stuff that the estate sale dealer opened the place up for another weekend sale. The ad gleefully burbled that they'd found 3 hidden rooms and the pictures showed another toy store's worth of toys including Legos.

I learned last week (as folks tried to buy them as I stood in line to pay for them) that Legos are well worth buying. Once again the dealer (Heaven bless her) used a sign up sheet with strictly enforced sign up times.

Said list was slated to make its first appearance at 5pm the Friday with the sale opening at 8am on Saturday. At 3:30 my lawn chair, my Kindle & I joined the line where a quick count showed I was number 9. Whoo Hoo! I'd be the first group in the door.

I showed up at 7:45 the following morning to find a line of over 100 people and quickly slipped into my spot. At exactly 8am, not 7:50 and not 8:01 they started calling out names. Once inside I scurried up the stairs looking for Legos. Luckily for me everyone else was looking for Star Wars and luckily for them Star Wars are not my forte. We co-existed beautifully. I struck gold, or rather Legos in the second room and quickly assembled a stack higher than my head. Sets in sealed boxes, sets in open boxes, boxes of mixed sets - it was all there.

The dealer cleverly stationed minions (easily identifiable by their red shirts) in each room. Their job was to keep the peace and carry your purchases downstairs and put them on the sold tables. Very wise strategy since not only did it keep the buyers in house where they were guaranteed to buy still more stuff, it also kept the pilfering at a minimum. 2 minions proceeded to carry out my selections while I stood guard over the rapidly diminishing pile.

Once the Legos were safely stowed I set my sights on the games. There were stacks everywhere and I quickly gave up trying to research them and grabbed titles that had "sell appeal". I gathered up all Space and strategy games in sight and also found some Puzz 3D puzzles. Every time the stack outgrew my arms a minon appeared and carried my purchases downstairs.

I took a final pass around one of the rooms and idly opened an amoire which chock full of untouched videos and DVDs. The advent of DVD made most of the videos worthless (lots of musicals, because the former owner was a Queen) but there were still a few cult gems hidden among the songs and dances.

By some odd coincidence I'd also worn a red shirt and that, coupled with my scanner convinced many of the buyers that I too was a minon. As the morning wore on I started getting queries.

Buyer "Where are the Legos ?"

Me "Sorry they are already sold."

Buyer: "Did you see any manual typewriters?"

Me : "No, but if I do I'll come find you."

Buyer: Where are the kaleidoscopes?"
Me : "In the room over there"

Buyer: "Which room has the Stars Wars toys?"

Me: "The room around the corner."

Buyer: Are you sure there aren't any more Legos?"

Me :"I don't think so"

Buyer: "But the pictures showed Legos!"
Me: "Yes, but they went first thing this morning".
I just didn't tell them who took them "first thing this morning!".

After 3 hours my eyes and sinuses called calf rope so I went downstairs to survey my pile. It was a very LARGE pile. So large they'd run tape around it to keep it intact. The dealer took a look at it, rolled her eyes and said $300.

Sold! I paid and commenced to loading it into my car. By this time the line extended around the block and the folks waiting looked on hungrily as I crammed boxes of games, Legos and puzzles into my Cube. Much to every one's amazement it all fit.

I then spent the rest of the week sorting, pricing and packing the spoils. I found out that The Dear Departed shopped garage sales and thrift stores - I recognized the red grease pencil that Family Thrift uses to price their items. Odd things came out from under the Lego boxes including some Lincoln Logs and a framed print. Pictures of the house had made their way onto the Internet and I discovered that some folks on my thrift list knew about the house and were most curious that I'd gotten inside.

The Dear Departed was a hoarder of stuff. Games, toys, books, records, music, cell phones, videos, you name it, he had in duplicate and triplicate and God knows how many icate. It was actually rather sad to think of him, living alone with all his toys, shuffling his way among the paths
he'd made among the boxes. The estate sale had so much stuff but nothing to indicate what kind of a person the former owner was - other than someone obsessed with piles of things.

13 Thoughts on Project Runway

2010-07-29T19:26:00.000-07:00

Tattoos appear to be mandatory on both the models and the designers
I thought models are supposed to be pretty - some of the woman walking the runway look a little rough around the edges. Make that very rough
What's with the ties?
The facial expressions of the judges are priceless
Judging from the commercials Project Runway thinks all their viewers are Moms with Kids. Don't they know that Queens love the show too?
Some of the designers really need to wash their hair. A comb wouldn't hurt either
One of the designers might have an eating disorder.
Why does Lifetime TV think women are obsessed by dust bunnies?
Best comment of the show "She's a pole dancer in Dubai"
The judges are BRUTAL tonight.
How did some of these designers ever make it to the finals in the first place?
There is some serious groveling going on among the designers.
Why am I, who has no interest or affinity for fashion fascinated by Project Runway?

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

The House O' Stuff

2010-07-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite sources of inventory is Estate Sales. Remember how your mother always told you it was rude to snoop in other folks closets and cupboards? Well, at an estate sale you're encouraged to disobey your mother!

Today's sale was one for the record books. The sign up sheet went up the day before & I stood in line for hour in hopes of getting in on the first wave. It paid off - I got in on the first pass at 8am. I called uncle at 11 when my eyes couldn't take it any longer. By then the line was up to person 180 and the folks still standing in line were facing an average wait of 2 hours.

The home was a large, run down mansion in a very expensive part of town. It was chock a block full of stuff. The former owner was a hoarder, but not just any old hoarder, he was a hoarder with money. Lots and lots and lots of money but unfortunately he was not the most discriminating of buyers - at least when it came to books. He bought many, many, many books but the bulk of them came from Half Price Books. Still I managed to unearth a treasure or two among the flotsam and the jettison.

His real passion was Hispanic Art, toys , toy cars, models, cameras, vinyl records & clocks. Every room was packed to the rafters with toys, models both assembled and unassembled and every available surface was covered with clocks and cute pop culture kitsch. Those areas aren't my forte so I pretty much left it to the myriad of toy collectors and resellers. I did manage to score 2 big Harry Potter Lego sets.

He loved Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings and had just about every tie in ever made. Nobody could figure out where he he slept or ate or "lived". There was not one easy chair, bed, reading lamp or kitchen table in the place. Even the bathrooms were so full of stuff that they couldn't be used for their original purpose. Maybe he didn't live in the house - perhaps he just used it to store the stuff!

Normally at an Estate Sale it's pretty easy to get a picture of "the dear departed" based on what they leave behind. That wasn't the case at this one. I knew he was a "he" and I'm pretty he was gay and suspect he was in his 60s. It was actually a very sad sale - all those piles and stacks of "things" lovingly collected over a lifetime were left behind to be pawed over by strangers.

13 Things I'd Really Like to Be Eating...or Sipping

2010-07-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

1 .A hot fudge Sundae from Marble Slab2. Crisp, hot French fries4. Onion Rings from Sonic (they make them by hand)5. Creme Brulee6. A Cheeseburger in Paradise (no mayo)7. Real hot chocolate made with real milk and topped with real whipped cream8. A glass of dry sherry7. Brie on crusty French bread with an apple on the side8. A big bowl of Pho9. Vietnamese Egg Rolls with mint and lettuce10. Chips and green sauce11. Potato chips with Liptions Onion Soup Dip (comfort food!)12. New York style cheesecake13. Southern Fried Chicken
And what am I really eating? Carrot Sticks. It's just not the same.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The Library Lunch Club

2010-07-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

A comment I left on Blue Skunk Blog ( one of my favorites) prompted a question about my Library Lunch Club. This isn't the first time I've been asked so I'm heeding the call of the universe and writing up a blog post. I first wrote about it in 2007 when it started but it's been tweaked quite a bit since then. I don't agree with all the tweaks but I try to be a team player.

First requirement is a Principal who is more interested in students & reading than in having a library with a pristine carpet. Second requirement is a librarian with a high tolerance for noise!

Membership is open to 4th & 5th graders. It used to be limited to 4th graders but once the 4th graders moved on they insisted that the club come with them. Membership is tried into reading.

We're an AR school so it's pretty easy to figure out who reads and who doesn't. The top 25 4th and 5th graders, AR point wise are automatically members. The membership changes on the first Monday of every month - that way those who read have to keep reading! I figure it's a good life lesson - just because you're on top doesn't mean you don' t have to work to stay there.

I also include any 5th grader with straight As and an occasional child who is making great strides in either academics or behavior. We have high mobility and I keep an eye out for new students who are avid readers and invite them also. Much to our amazement it's a popular reward for students on a behavior contract. I've been known to hand out an invite to kids because "you're a neat kid". Hey, it's my club - I can ask who I want!

Teachers have found the club to be an excellent "carrot" - as in "If you keep forgetting your homework you are out of the club". It's proven to be an excellent motivator when it comes to getting 10 year old Hispanic males to read. This last school year the majority of the members were boys.

The students bring their lunch to the library (most of our kids are on free & reduced lunch). They sit 5 or 6 to the tables and they don't have to sit with their class. That's a big perk since they must sit by class in the cafeteria. They also get to sit at tables and chairs, as opposed to the pigs at the trough style of eating that is normal in many school cafeterias. It takes them about 10 minutes to eat and then the fun begins.

Thanks to a bond issue the library has lots and lots of technology toys. iTouches, ibooks, a Wii, an ActivBoard and two big iMacs. My lunch time rule of thumb is "if it gets through the filters it's OK by me". The kids im each other, play games, write on their blogs, check their e-mail and and have light saber duels with the iTouches. Last spring Justin Biber made every one of the girls hearts go pitter patter. They played his video over and over and over again, accompanied by groans from the boys and I who did not share the love. In between playing with iMovies a couple of the girls run the circulation desk. The bulk of the computers are laptops and the kids love to sprawl on the floor and share their discoveries.

When I work with the classes it's real apparent that this extra computer time benefits their learning. The Library Lunch Club kids have more computer savvy and are much more comfortable with keyboarding. They also tend to stay on task since they know they have "free exploration" time every day.

Are there any rules? Yes of course! The kids have to bus their tables and respect each other and the technology. I had one incident of cyber bullying last year which I nipped by sending the bully back to the cafeteria. I've not had one computer broken or vandalized. All of my mice have their balls and my keyboards their keys.

And what's my role in this daily 60 minutes of madness? I prowl around, peek over shoulders, cajole kids to drink their milk, suggest books & websites and enjoy the happy buzz.

It works - it's one of the reasons our reading scores are in the mid to high 90s!

.

Thursday Thirteen - 13 Things That Always Appear at Estate Sales

2010-07-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Estate Sales in Houston are mostly Thursday / Friday affairs so I can only shop them in the summer time. Some are Princesses and many are Frogs but most all of them contain the following:

Chicken Soup books. Never has so much money been made pedaling banalities.
Christmas Decorations - they often occupy an entire room
A Readers Digest Condensed Book or two. Or Three. Or Four. Or maybe more.
A couple of community cookbooks
A fur something or another. That always baffles me - it doesn't get cold enough in Houston to wear fur in very often
Artificial Flowers - the dusty, plastic type
An angel figurine or two. Or Three. Or Four. Or maybe more.
Dusters and Mumus. There seems to be a law that everyone over the age of 60 must have own at least 1 duster. I hope I don't receive any when I turn 60!
Cassette tapes. Often the cassette tape player is missing but there is always a stack of cassettes.
China figurines. Dollar store variety at a low end sale, British bone at a high end.
A textbook dating back to their college days. Doesn't matter how long ago it was, there is always at least one textbook.
A collection of calculators (some of which do nicely on E-bay)
Bath sets. Never opened.

It's always interesting (and sometimes very sad) to see what possessions people decide to hold on to.

The Thursday Thirteen

Sunday Unconscious Mutterings

2010-07-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

I'm still trying to get into the blog habit again. MeMe's might not be very original but they are a useful tool for kick starting the brain. I found there is even a site that collects MeMes - The Daily MeMe. I'm going to use that next year with my bloggers - I think they will enjoy it and it will help answer the "I don't know what to write about" whine.

This is Unconscious Mutterings by LunaNina - it's a list of word and you type in the first word that pops into your head

Dickens :: Charles
Collection :: Library (I work in one)
Weekends :: Garage Sales
Travel :: When???
District :: Spring Branch Independent School District (hey, it's where I work)
Vampires :: Overdone
Peep show :: Youtube videos of Peeps Candy Chicks
Crochet :: Fussy
Lion :: Roar
Fetch :: Now What???

The Thursday Thirteen

2010-07-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

The Thursday Thirteen was always one of my favorite memes. When the creative juices ran dry The Thursday Thirteen normally inspired a weekly post. When it comes to Cyberspace things come and go so quickly and one day it vanished. It's since reappeared in a different place.

Of course, now I can't think of 13 things to write about so I'll fall back on .....

13 Things I Did Today

1. Got very wet - H-Town is being washed away by daily thunderstorms. Makes me happy I'm off for the summer. Thumbs down to the former, Thumbs up for the latter.

2. Wrote E-bay auctions - it won't sell if I don't list it. DUH! Thumbs level

3. Went to an estate sale. Found a Betty Crocker Red Pie cookbook. Thumbs Up!

4. Ate some very good sushi. Thumbs up (licking sushi rice from said thumb)

5. Had BumbleBerry Pie. A La Mode no less. 2 Thumbs Up!

6. Ran the dishwasther AGAIN. Thumbs Down. Actually it should be thumbs up that I have one. And that it works.

7. Did not fold the sheets. I hate folding sheets. Both thumbs down.

8. Wrote my required "comments" for my Book studies by blog that I'm doing this summer. That will get a thumbs up when school starts and I get to take 2 flex days. Make that 2 thumbs up, one for each day.

9. Wasted to much time on Facebook. Thumbs down!

10. Season7 of Project Runway arrived on DVD. Watched it. Also listed Amazon stock. That made watching it a Thumbs neutral. Season 8 starts on July 29th. Happy Dance!

11. Read a book. Thumbs Up. It's summer I now get to read again

12. Thought about culling some clothes. Didn't do it. Thumbs down

13. Spent 30 minutes with Mr. Wi Fit. Thumbs Up, though any good it did was negated by #5.

From My Other Blog....Accessing Information

2010-06-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

I'm locked in a hospital room with My Beloved (who has a blood clot) and thus have time to work on my 5.75 Things.

I'm actually enjoying the entire experience - The Things that is, not the hospital room. It's nice to use my brain again.

Here's the result of yesterday evenings web crawl..... Accessing Information

I Now Have Another Blog

2010-06-28T20:21:00.001-07:00

Having done The 23 Things, The 11 1/2 Things I am now embarking on the 5.75 Things.

The latter calls for a brand new blog, which I've just created.

However, in an attempt to keep myself organized and this blog updated I'm going to cross reference my posts on my original blog. The first one is entitled "Bringing It All Together".
I'm going to attempt to teach myself how to do Book Trailers.

Dusting off the Blog

2010-06-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

.......Hummmm it's been way, way to long...and since I left and came back Blogger has undergone a face lift. I may even change the look of this one....change after all is good! Plus, I'd love to be able to add widgets at the flick of a keystroke.

Thought for the day...

I found myself behind a car with the following bumper stickers

The window rolled down, a hand emerged and dropped a cigarette butt on the ground......well tobacco is a vegetable..... but still....

Talking Cats

2010-02-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

New Fun For the Bloggers

2010-02-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

Pants on the Ground

2010-01-19T09:37:00.001-08:00

Make Your Own Games....

2010-01-04T09:28:00.001-08:00

You doo have to click Fruit Fly to play the game.

Click here for full screen version

Interactive fruit_machine

2010-01-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

Interactive fruit_machine

2009-12-01T11:22:00.000-08:00

Get a Voki now!

Vanity License Plates

2009-11-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

Another new twist in the world of Web 2.0 products. Using what you've learned about your Texas Native American Tribe, create a Vanity License Plate .
Anyone know which tribe ordered this one?

Let Em' Write

2009-11-05T19:47:00.000-08:00

I teach a blogging class as part of our After School Program. While I do get paid a pittance (nobody ever got rich teaching the public schools) I offered to do it for the love of writing. Having wrung all the joy from reading the wretched TAKS test is now doing the same for writing.

Children are taught to "write to the prompt" - and the prompt is almost always some variation on "A Day I Was Happy" or "A Sad Day" or "The Best Day Ever " - you get the gist. In addition, these kids, many of have fingers on a keyboard since they could toddle must write in pencil and must do all the edits and revisions via total re-writes. No wonder they consider writing an exercise in misery.

I know that my own blogging experience has improved my own writing. The computer freed me from my own constraints of horrid spelling and wretched handwriting and allowed my ideas to flow.

I hoped the kids would mirror my own experiences and I think I might be right. This is my second year and many of the students signed up for a second round. We even added a second class. It's a two hour class and when it's time to go home I'm greeted with whines of "not yet" and "already??".

We always begin by brainstorming some possible topics. A number of our teachers were out today and most of the kids spent the day with some beleaguered substitutes.

"Write about how you tortured the subs today" I suggested.

"We can't write about that!!!!"

"Why not, make it funny and don't use any names and be sure to write nothing inappropriate"

"You mean we really can write about that? "

"Sure"

"Won't we get in trouble"

"No, just let me me read it before you publish"

So off they went. My role is that of the grammar and punctuation police and general editor and chopper of run on sentences. Most of the students are ESL or bi-lingual and while they write in English they still think in Spanish. Much of their writing still uses the Spanish syntax so it's my job to show them how to adapt it to English syntax. I always edit with them one on one and do it as a "think aloud" so they can grasp there is a method to my madness.

They love the spell check Blogger provides and adore the fact that revisions take only a flick or two on the keyboard.

This one made me laugh out loud. The writer is a 5th grade boy who is in a bilingual classroom. It called for a bit of editing, but not much. Best of all, he had fun writing it and I had even more fun reading it.

Back in Print Again!

2009-10-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

Browse Inside this book

Get this for your site

Wordle

2009-09-28T11:33:00.001-07:00

http://www.wordle.net/.

My Wordle is all about the United States of America.

2009-09-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

New iphone3G

New Toy

Adult Playtime!

2009-08-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

Scene: A garage sale (where else would I be on a Saturday morning?)

I amble over to the wife with 3 books in hand.

“How much ?” .

“Books are $1 each” . She takes a second look at the titles

“Honey, are you sure you want to sell these books?” she calls out

“These books” were 3 Engineering texts with good ranks and selling prices of $100 each.

“Nah, I don’t want them anymore” replys Honey

“Are you sure? “

“Nope , don’t want them”

“I think….and she's distracted by another customer.

I quickly shove $3 into Honey’s hand and make a bee line for my car.

Hit the gas and hit the road. Hope nobody thinks to write down my license plate number.

The weather was tolerable till 9:30, so maybe one of these days it will be fall again. Best garage sale haul I have had in a VERY long time.

1 Day Down, 179 to Go!

2009-08-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Snippets from the first day of school:

The first child of the year to grace the Assistant Principals office is in Kindergarten. He's never been to school, daycare, Mother's Day, Sunday School or any other setting involving groups and rules. His reply to the teacher when told to get in line "I don't want to and you can't make me". I fear he'll be a frequent flyer.

One class has both an aunt and her niece. Said aunt and niece are both 5. I suspect the aunt became an aunt while still in the womb.

We had a gullywasher of rainstorm but thank goodness the skies opened after the busses rolled.

Not as many students were retained as in the past. For once we don't have any 13 year olds in the 5th grade. We do , however have a few that are already 12.

Thanks to an uncertain economy we had very little teacher turnover this year. Most folks aren't fool enough to let go of a steady job that comes with a pension.

Given the number of Moms I saw today with "baby bumps" I would say I have job security.

Thanks to the help of a couple of library interns I started out the year totally caught up. I'll enjoy it while it lasts. Which it won't.

On the whole the kids seem happy to be back in a place where there are routines and they get 2 squares a day.

I was the recipent of many hugs as the kids came down the hall. Felt good.

And, like all teachers on the night after the first day of school I can barely keep my eyes open.

Good Night!

2009-08-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

School begins, eager children, tired teachers

Six Word Saturday

2009-08-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

Six Word Saturday is a new one that's winding its way through the blogshpere. Blogging meets Twitter? When the mind is dense (it's hardto get a good nights sleep when you are the filling in a kitty sandwich) these sort of things help prime the pump and prompt a post. A tip o' pen to Scheiss Weekly for the link.

Thrift Stores yield Books equal Sales.

That's been my life this summer. School starts on Monday so expect some changes!

More on Apps

2009-08-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight is "catch up on reading the blogs I haven't been reading" night.

Granted, I'm not reading ALL of them and I'm doing a great deal of "mark all as read" when they aren't but such is life when there are 879 blog posts in ones Google Reader.

One that I did read was a post by CoolCatTeacher that pointed me to 50 iPhone Apps to Get Kids Reading. All the SBISD libraries are supposed to get an iTouch or two this fall and I'm on the prowl for ways to use them. I plan to turn the kids loose with them, but after my encounter with sexy lingerie I want to make sure there is a fence around the corral.

Musings While Fasting

2009-08-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

Had one of those fun medical tests that require one to fast and hang out in the waiting room.
Ah, the joys of getting older. Not.

Real Simple Magazine is not the best choice of reading material when one is fasting
Coffee always smells really good but when you can't have a cup it smells extra specially good.
Waiting room chairs are uncomfortable.
White slacks and pink underwear are not a good combination.
White slacks & pink underwear with the word "WOW" on the backside are a very bad combination.
If you are wearing white slacks & pink underwear with the word "WOW" on the backside you should avoid bending over.
I wonder what the wearer of the white slacks & pink underwear with the the word "WOW" on the backside would do if I pointed out her fashion faux paus?

Second Life Redux

2009-08-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

I've been musing on Second Life and it's possible uses. I'm quite certain I'll never develop an affinity for it, given that of all the 23 + 11.5 things it's the one that really requires dedication and an interest that extends beyond the school day. Either you like it or our don't. There are so many players out there that folks like me must be the minority.

I'm wondering if it couldn't used in High School or Middle School by kids who are already fans. The teacher wouldn't have to spend days teaching it since they students already know how it works. Since it requires an e-mail address it would be hard to use in elementary school like mine where many of the kids don't have one.

The Second Life Wiki has some interesting ideas. I really like the idea of using SL to facilitate second language learning. There is such wide gulf between the the regular ed and the ESL / Bi-lingual students. They don't mix or mingle and so many of the bi-lingual students are really mono-lingaul, despite being native born American citizens. This SlideShare (Hey, there is another 11.5 tie-in) gives a good and simple explanation.

Seems there now a Teen Second Life for kids ages 13 -17. Educators can buy private "islands" and that's an interesting concept. A social studies department could buy an island and the students could recreate the world of Ancient Greece, a Shakespearn theater, a Colonial market or the Battle of Gettysburg. It's not a project for everyone but it's one that could be given to the G/T students.
This sort of thing is right up the alley of many of them. Linden Labs appears to be the front runner with this sort of thing.

So, I still don't care for Second Life (but then I don't like Chemistry either) but I can see it has real potential in the high schools, provided the school has a teacher with passion and an IT department that is willing to unblock Second Life.

Library2Play 2 - Thing #11.5 The End!

2009-08-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'd really hoped to finish this by July 31, however the book business got in the way. My July ended with a record high monthly gross & I found myself packing over 100 packages during he last week of July.

So now it's August ......my weekend orders are all packed and it's time to finish this up. Besides, there are cats sprawled on my packing table who have it quite clear that they don't want to be disturbed.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I'd already used Wordle and Bookr at school and I'm looking for a Facebook 12 step program so it's safe to say those are my favorites. ScreenCast and SlideShare will make their debut this year.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? Of course, just as the first 23 things did. So many of them are now a daily part of life and I've had great fun sharing them with the kids, who also adored them.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
No not really, having done the original 23 Things. I knew Second Life was complicated but had no idea it was THAT complicated. Uploading a video was way easier than I thought it would be. I keep struggling with Twitter. Every time I think I've grasped it the "hows and whys" float away.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I love on-line learning and the fact that I can do it at home in my jammies. Maybe it would good to pair folks up in clusters so that everyone gets some comments on their blogs. I've an informal blog network but folks who are new to blogging don't.

And on that cheerful note - I'm FINISHED! And I get my flex days. Yeah for flex days.

Library2Play2 - Thing #11 Digital Citizenship

2009-07-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling cynical tonight. I don't think schools are going to spend a serious amount of time on Digital Citizenship till it appears on a state mandated test. Schools such as the one I teach at are so stressed over the wretched tests and making to Exemplary that everything else falls by the wayside.

It's taught scatter shot style at my school. Some teachers mention it and some don't and a goodly number of the teachers don't exactly model stellar Digital Citizenship themselves. To many teachers still begin all reference assignments (such as we have) with "Go to Google and type in_____". And don't get started on the topic of Walt Disney videos....

I hammer the topic home to my bloggers. The students know I take Cyber Bullying very seriously.
I banned the entire 4th grade from The Library Lunch Club last year when one of them indulged in Cyber Bullying and no one would fess up.

I like to use "teachable moments" every year some public figure does something stupid with e-mail or Facebook or Myspace and it ends up all over the news. That is always an excellent time to point out just what happens when someone posts without thinking. Many of our students have a FaceBook or a MySpace page, despite the fact that they are to young to be on either site.

Prior to writing this post I did a bit of reading on some of the other Beachcomber's blogs. Vaughnl posted this link to Kenton County School District. October is celebrate as Digital Citizenship month and the entire district works together (or so they say) to bring the idea to the forefront. To Be GT has a wonderful list of 5 things she plans to tell her students. In the best teaching tradition, I'm going to take her list and run with it.

Library2Play - Thing #10 Virtual Worlds

2009-07-26T17:04:00.000-07:00

I'm crying "Calf Rope". I don't have enough time to keep all the edges tucked in on the life I have, much less create and keep up with a Second One.

I followed all the links, registered and then ran into one glitch after another. Server Problems. Registration Problems. Try Again problems. All Second Life problems, not problems on my end problems. So my Avatar remains naked and nameless and I don't give a flip. Maybe a Virtual Policeman will arrest it and jail it for indecent exposure. Since I don't have any Second Life currency I won't be able to post bail and it can stay there.

There is a Second Life section in E-bay where you can use real money to buy virtual land! Who knew?

Seriously, I am not a games person. I don't like card games, board games, computer games, Wii games or any sort of game. On the other hand, one of my girls was so addicted to SimCity that she had to put the brakes on herself during school, otherwise she'd never study. She would love Second Life. In fact, she probably has an entire Second Life that I know nothing about (which is fine, she's 27, not 7).

I know my computer nerds at school would adore Second Life - they already adore Poptropcica, a kid friendly virtual world. Jeff Kinney, author of the Wimpy Kid books helps to create that particular world and he knows exactly what kids want.

I view Second Life in the same way as I view cars. Cars get you from point A.o point B. It doesn't matter if you drive a ratty PT Cruiser with dents and dings or a brand new Ford F-10 truck with high dollar wheel rims and a fancy fade paint job. Both will get from point A to point B.

In the world of Web 2.0 one has virtual chat rooms, forums, IMs, Skype, list servs, back channel,blogs, Wikis & Nings to communicate with others. And then there is Second Life. They all allow folks to communicate but the former are PT Cruisers and the latter is the Ford F-10.

P.S. My child left me a comment. It wasn't Sim City, it was the SIMS and she too is much to busy with her current life to create a second one.

Library2Play2 - Thing #9 SlideShare

2009-07-26T14:27:00.001-07:00

Thing #9 in 25 words or less
SlideShare = YouTube for PowerPoints
AuthorStream = YouTube for PowerPoints with Voice or Music Added
280 Slides = PowerPoint without having to pay the Man (i.e. Bill Gates). Love It!

Mystical Fantasy Art

View more presentations from Victoria .

Library2Play2 - Thing #8 Screencaset

2009-07-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

This was interesting and more complicated than necessary. Since there were so many options I read some of the other blogs to see
see which sceencast tool they opted to use.

I started out with Screencast. Easy to d/l, easy to use, loved the simplicity of the bars you moved in or out so you copied just what you wanted. Clicked on the copy button - oops, up popped an error. Screencast was suddenly stuck. Clicking on the "x" resulted in a symphony of pings and tings. Pressed Ctrl/Alt/Delte
and tried again. Same error, same result Screencast must not like Vista (it's not alone ).

Onward to Sceencastomatic. Once again, easy to d/l, easy to use but the cross hairs were preset - and you had to figure out your size first. To mathematical for me.

Went with Jing and the third time proved to be charm. Easy to d/l, easy to use and it speaks Vista. Created a screen print from the district's newest toy BrainPop. Loved the fact you add arrows and type words on top of the screen print.

Actually, my favorite screen print device is the Camera tool that comes with the Activboards. Every SBISD issued laptop comes complete with the Activboard software so it's already there for the using. Once you've "taken the picture" you can work with and manipulate the image in a flipchart. Once that is finished a right click and save as turns it into a jpeg and you then use it on your blog, in a document or most anywhere.

Library2Play 2 - Thing #4 Uploading a Video

2009-07-26T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well, that was easy. No different than uploading a photo or an Animoto to blogger. I opted to upload one of my Animotos to Teacher Tube - that way, should I so desire I can show the video at school.

I'm not having any file storage issues on my own computer, but I can see that if I did create a great many videos uploading them would make life so much simpler for my computer. Of course, since I'm not a video person (even though I own a Flic Video camera) that's not a likely scenario on my part.

I've been reading some of the other Library2Play2 blogs and just about everyone talks about how they can whil away the hours watching videos on YouTube and TeacherTube. Not me, I get the links from others all the time (the crazy wedding entrance is the viral video du juor). I watch maybe 30 seconds if that much, get bored and click out. I don't have that kind of time to waste - to many books to sort, to many books to pack.

So, how could students use this? Unlike me, the kids LOVE to watch videos and I know they would love to make them. By uploading it would be possible to them to share their work with their families and friends. It would also make it easy to critique them and to organize a contest.
The dreaded "oral report while dressed as an historical character" might improve if the students saw the final results up on the computer screen.

I am delighted to discover that Youtube has a government offshoot - that is going to be a wonderful addition when creating Flipcharts for the ActivBoards.

P.S. Just to prove that even I can get distracted by YouTube I did get sucked into watching this:

Library2Play2 - Thing #7 Video Resources

2009-07-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not much for watching videos on my computer. I'm a very fast reader and I can usually glean what I need to know faster by reading than by watching. Also, I tend to be on my computer most of the time either doing e-mail or working on my Internet book business.

I am also woefully out of touch with American popular talent. At my house the TV is on the Golf Channel 24/7 (or so it seems). I have never seen an episode of America's Got Talent or Dancing With the Stars. I get my news from National Public Radio and I watch old movies I rent from NetFlix while I'm packing books. I'm a "listener" not a watcher when it comes to media.

I knew about Goggle Video - it's a long time favorite with my Library Lunch Club kids who long ago figured out they could get around the the district ban on YouTube by using Google Video to look for "scary videos". I wasn't familiar with Blinkx - that's one amazing and comprehensive search engine.

Just for fun I typed in "Dewey Decimal System" and up popped The Dewey Decimal Rap that made the rounds of the library list serves last spring. Conan the Librarian made me smile - that clip is destined to become a lesson "hook".

I also checked out videos on blogging and found a couple I'll use with my blogging class come fall.
Most of what I found plays on YouTube. Rumor has it that it is going to get unblocked" in the district which would be wonderful. I know how to convert a video via Zamzar but that requires planning ahead. There is nothing like a video when it comes to "teachable moments" and those can't be planned - they just happen.

totlo is going on my school Delicious page - though I wonder, since it is YouTube owned if the district blocks it too?

So, when it came to Thing #7 I really was a Stranger in a Strange Land. I vaguely knew what Hulu was but didn't realize it had current TV shows nor did I know I could watch PBS shows in their entirety on PBS.com. I finally got to see just what The Wiggles are (and oh, am I glad I no longer have small children) on totlo.

I'm thinking that my little pink netbook start doing double duty as an Internet video monitor!

Library2Play2 - Thing #3 Skype

2009-07-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

I loathe talking on the phone so I don't think I'll ever embrace Skype. I love to blog, e-mail or IM and I'll even text on occasion but I have 4000+ un-used cell phone minutes and the number climbs monthly.

Skype reminds me a bit of EMG, which the district embraced some 15 years ago. It arrived with bang and left with a whimper and all that's left of it at my school is the library's direct phone line which supports a cordless phone. I do love me my cordless phone (so I can take the phone to the shelves) so I still have a soft spot for EMG. It was an early experiment in video conferencing and was supposed to help bring "the world to the classroom". Looking back at it from a 15 year perspective I can see that it was, in many ways way ahead of its time, though it was very awkward to use. Technology was unreliable (some things never change) and it required careful coordination between EMG and the classroom. Given that unexpected "things" pop up in an elementary classroom coordination didn't always work as planned. When a student upchucks, vomit trumps scheduled video conference every time.

Back to Skype and its possible use in the classroom. The manual created by The Learning Librarian is excellent and some great suggestions for classroom use. 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype has even more suggestions. My favorite is using it to include home bound students in classroom activities. Given how many hospitals have wi-fi these days Skype is something the district's home bound department needs to investigate.

I'm wondering if the schools with an international student population might promote Skype to their parents as a way to keep in touch with friends and family overseas. Not the sort of international student body that's at my school - the villages they hail from are lucky to have electricity, schools with students from countries such as Japan or India.

It has potential as a field trip prep project too. Prior to going to Washington on the Brazos the 4th graders could "meet" one of the guides and get a feel for what they will be seeing and what's expected of them I find that the more prep one does, the better the experience. Government classes could perhaps "converse" with an elected official or science students with an astronaut.

Yeap, Skye is a keeper, even for folks like me who loathe talking on the phone.

Library2Play2 - Thing #6 iTouch Apps.

2009-07-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

I'm already in love with the Apple Apps. The iPhone entered my life in December of 2007 and we've never been parted. It's one of my silent partner in my book selling biz. I have the Amazon & E-bay apps loaded, plus a couple of restaurant finders (book scouting brings on an appetite).

I followed the link to The Pinch Feed for Apps - and immediately wished they had a G rated version. I don't think iHandgun or sexy lingerie has any educational value.

I also read a couple of the blogs written by teachers who used them in the classroom but didn't find them as helpful as I wished. The iTouches were handed out but there didn't appear to be much follow up in how useful they were.

I can see these being used on field trips - the Google Map app and the Wikepedia app would be invaluable. Curious about something - well just look it up! There are a couple of mileage apps that have potential too. The games could also soothe the savage beast during the in transit time .

iTouch time is going to be an AR celebration in the upcoming school year. I suspect the kids will come up with uses that will astound me. Only, I wish there was a way block sexy lingerie.

Library2Play2 - Thing 5 - Microblogging

2009-07-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

As always I can't seem to do Library2Play2 in order. No, I have to skip and jump around, just as I did with the original Library2Play.

Microblogging: Facebook is downright addictive but try though I might I just don't "get it" when it comes to Twitter. I suspect some of this is age and some of it is that I'm just not on my cell phone 24/7. I don't have the kind of job that lets me monitor it constantly (I have no clue how the myth evolved that librarians just sit around and read all day).

I can see students following their favorite authors, as well as following a politician as a current events assignment. It might be best however if they didn't follow SC Governor Sanford though.

Twitter could add an interesting twist on career assignments - if a student is interested in the law have her follow a lawyer.

I've been on Facebook for some time - just everyone else I've connected with people from my past and enjoyed the day to day peeks into the lives of my Facebook "friends". It can also be one of the biggest time wasters in the universe. The quizzes and the endless pie tossing and "lil green patch" are a mystery to me. Who has time to keep up with these and why do I keep getting them? They are Facebook's version of the endless e-mail forwards (all of which I delete too).

I've seen some interesting educational uses - the most prevalent being where the student creates a Facebook Page for a historical personage. A student could also do a Facebook "book report" - post a thought on each chapter as they go through the book. It would make it easy for the teacher to ensure the book was actually being read!

Facebook is an easy way for a teacher to create a class "web page" and keep in touch with parents. It's ideal for "helicopter parents" - the class Facebook Monitor could post hourly updates. The Twitter monitor could follow up with multiple tweets. Be idea for field trip updates.

Correct grammar and punctuation seem to be the norm for Facebook but not so Twitter which tends toward cell phone speak. So the former could be used as a language arts springboard, the former as perhaps an example of what isn't standard English.

While you can follow a Twitter feed on a computer, the medium is best used on cell phones. Before Twitter starts making great inroads in the schools said schools must revise their cell phone polices.

Technically one isn't supposed to have a Facebook (or a Myspace page) till age 13. I can atest from my own school experince that this rule is ignored on a regular basis. This is another can of worms that schools need muse about. I taught some lessons on thinking twice about posting to MySpace / Facebook to my 4th & 5th graders. Many teachable moments since it seems every day one celebrity or athlethe is in news for posting without thinking!

Do these mircorblogging tools fill a need in education? Yes, though at this time mainly as a real time communication tools. Given time I can see them incorporated in standard assignments too.

Librarian Porn

2009-07-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

It's now July 5th and I am finally starting my summer vacation. I should have about a month off prior to going back to work in August. I'm not sure how the myth that teachers get 3 months off arose. I've been in the biz for 19+ years and I've yet to experience it.

In June I:

Worked till the end of my contact time (4 extra days)

Picked up required to keep my certificate 18 hours of non contract in-service. Added about 12 more hours to the total while I was at it.

Visited my mother (well that does count as vacation but it does nothing for getting things done around the house)

With the help of two hard working library interns plowed through a 3 year cataloging backlog. And no, I wasn't paid. I was still better off than the 2 interns who had to pay for the priveledge of dealing with my stuff.

This cart was overflowing with book and the floor was stacked with math, science and language arts materials.

These carts are now full of shelf ready titles and the AV materials are ready to deliver to the math, science and language arts specialists.

Thank you L & A. and a special thank you to Dr. B. for sending the two of you my way!

More Random Thoughts

2009-06-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

1. The iPhone's free wi-fi app is a wonderful thing.

2. To get to my mother's assisted living place one must pass a Krispy Kreme with a "Hot Doughnuts" sign. It's a good thing I am going home today.

3. It is going to be 55 tonight in Hendersonville and 90 in Houston. Maybe it isn't such a good thing I am going home.

4. Pack n' Mail places are a God-Send for book sellers who are addicted to scouting.

5. So is Booksalefinder.com

6. Some thrift stores need to get a grip on their pricing. Yeah, sure the book sells for $50 on line. What are the chances of someone wanting that particular book wondering into that particular very small town thrift shop and spotting it? Had it been priced at $10 I am willing to be any number of book sellers would of nabbed it and the charity would be $10 richer.

7. There is way to much Michael Jackson coverage on TV. It's time to move on. There are a few other semi important things going on in our world.

8. What's with the elected officials these days? State after state (New York, California, Arizona ) is reeling from one financial crisis after another yet they seem to busy worrying about their sex life to deal with it. If they aren't explaining that no, they weren't "unfaithful, they were just friends" they are busy blaming somebody else for the fiscal mess. I think every Mother's invisible child "Not Me" got himself elected by his invisible constituents.

9. The best gift a parent can give a child (after a happy childhood and good education) is to arrange for their own long term old age living arrangements while they still can. Talk about priceless.

Random Comments

2009-06-28T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hendersonville , North Carolina

1. Very obese people look even more obese when their mouth is chomping on a Double Big Mac.

2. Free Wi-Fi is a wonderful thing

3. Spending a weekend in a retirement home makes one suddenly feel not so old after all.

4. Pink Mini-Dells always garner a second look. Is it because they are small or because they are pink?

5. The Baptist churches in small Southern towns are very, very large. And ugly.

6. Governor Stanford joins another in a long line of Republicans who believe that marriage is between a woman, a man and his mistress/ office staff / call girl / boy toy.

7. I don't think Michael Jackson ever wanted to grow old. He wanted to be the perpetual Peter Pan and now he will be. He always reminded me of Dorian Gray.

8. Kindles were made for traveling. The thing will pay for itself in the fact that I will never pay excess weight fees on luggage again.

9. The Episcopal churches in small southern towns are always charming and made of weathered grey stone.

10. I have had 2 migranes in 2 days. What's with that? Thank goodness for migrane meds.

11. Voluntary airline bumps are a good thing when they get you a free ticket. They are an even better thing when they ensure you won't be on the flight with the two hyperactive and loud children.

12. Hot weather in Hendersonville is no comparison to hot weather in Houston.
I am glad I am here and not there.

Library Sale Aventures

2009-06-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

Friends of the Library sales are far and few between in my part of Texas. Hurricane Ike blew 10 feet of water through the Galveston Public library and several other libraries have taken to selling on line these days.

I saw an ad on Booksalefinder for a San Antonio Public library FOL sale and was intrigued. The San Antonio PL has a permanent FOL bookstore, which I’d visited before – DD went to college in San Antonio – with good results. I'd never been to one of their FOL sales & the web page said they received a large donation of 100 boxes of books.

The donation turned out to be from St. Philip’s College. The processing department at the college removes all the dust jackets as a matter of course. We weren’t the only dealers and all the dealers were armed with scanners which of course were useless since there was nothing to scan. We had to open the books and punch in the numbers. To be sucessful one needed both a brain and a scanner – and a great deal of perseverance. I selected books based on the titles and the publishers. It totally leveled the playing field and slowed everyone down.

For once there wasn’t the frenetic mosh pit atmosphere that pervades most FOL sales. Everyone was good natured and we all talked and chatted as we worked. The books were in boxes on and under tables and in no order at all. The library uses the Library of Congress cataloging system – which I’m not familiar with so I couldn’t use the call numbers to help me out. I speak perfect Dewey Decimal but I’m not fluent in Library of Congress.

One dealer announced loudly he didn’t have the patience to punch in all those numbers and left after 30 minutes. The rest of us carried on and were amply rewarded for our efforts – at least Wallacex and I were. There were lots of clunkers but also some gems in those boxes. The books were only $1 – that’s unheard of in these parts. do not sell one and we actually found list able titles.

Of course we ate Indian food, drank wine and talked books, books and more books.

I just finished listing my finds – between San Antonio and yesterday’s garage sales I added 72 books which listed at a combined $2,400+ - average price per book came out to $33. . I have a nice mix of high priced books with high ranks and lower priced books with ranks under 100,00.

The FOL folks are integrating the St. Phillip’s books into their store and told us they had many more books to unpack. We are planning a return trip in late July.

I'm very glad I took a gamble on an unknown FOL sale - it paid off tenfold!

Library2Play2 - Thing 2 - Image Generators

2009-06-13T18:39:00.001-07:00

I discovered Bookr last fall and introduced it to the first and the 4th grade. The kids adored it - in fact 4th graders were begging for the opportunity to write another Bookr book. Bookr has some weakness, which are in a way also the site's strength. There isn't any choice of fonts - you use what they give you - not as much fun but then the kids don't do all their work in unreadable Gothic either. The pictures most come from Flickr and the choices are limited. Again, that's both a plus and minus - the kids don't waste hours of time looking at every possible picture but sometimes it is difficult to find "the perfect one" within the offered choices. The main weakness of the site is that there is no "edit' option. Once you publish, you publish. On the positive side, it is free and no e-mail address is required. We found it best to publish the Bookr Books to an already existing blog.

Wordle is another site I discovered last fall. Several of the teachers used it as the "carrot" to get the kids through a keyboarding exercise. Once they finished typing they could "wordle" the results. It's also an fun way to reinforce spelling or vocabulary words.

I'd not played with WordShift. Wordle, which allows you change fonts and colors wins in the playing prize, Wordsiftf, which can pull up links wins the "more information " one.
I put The Gettysburg Address through both of them.
Below is the Wordle's Version

This is Wordsift's version.

My bloggers adored Glogster. It didn't do much for me - I thought the results were very busy and cluttered but I suspect I'm showing my age. I would think any parent would embrace Glogster since it frees them from those 10pm runs the 24 hour Walmart because someone just realized they need poster board RIGHT NOW. The kids and I did have problems saving our Glogs. I noticed that many of the glogs on the site are edgy to the extreme. I see they now have an education area, which will help with that problem. The help files and Glogster Buzz sections are full of good ideas on applying Glogster in the classroom. This site is "green" to the extreme and must use for any school using digital portfolios.

Voicethread - this one is new to me. Whoo-hoo - a new new tool to introduce to the bloggers come fall! This one beats the others hands down when it comes to tutorials and help files. I can see many group collboration opporunties for VoiceThread. It would also be interesting to post a final produce and use VoiceTread to comment and critique it. What a wonderful way for ESL students to practice their English.

Animoto was another hands down favorite with the bloggers. They tended to make Animotos of kittens and puppies but one could certainly make an Animoto of Texas Hero's or mammals or just about anything. I applied and was given an educators account which meant I could create e-mail addresses so that the students could make their own Animotos. We learned that if 2 students used the same e-mail address they would overwrite each other's Animotos so it is impartive that each student have their own individual address. The students liked their Animotos to be very long, but I think the 30 second ones are more effective. They are perfect for introducting a topic. Everytime I put one every child in the library gravitated toward the screen. The combination of music and flashing pictures is a child magnet.

The bloggers and I played with Vokis too. Two of the more creative kids proceeded to have their Vokis talk to each other. They were trash talking but a teacher could use it for a 21st century version of Reader's Theater. A student could create a historical Voki and have it talk in character.

All the Image Generators I discovered in Library2Play and these were wildly popular with my students. I found them all easy to use and the results were most professional. The students adored learning and using them and most went on to further explore the sites on their own. SBISD is pushing electronic portfolios and all these sites dovetail nicely with that mandate.

Library2Play 2 - Thing #1

2009-06-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

Child of 23 Things here I come! It's summer and time to play. I am at Beck's Prime at The Memorial Park golf course hanging out while My Beloved chips and putts. It is beastly hot - only Mad Dogs, Englishmen and Golfers venture out in the Houston sun.

I have a new toy - a Pink Mini Dell that is light as a feather. Unfortunately, the Memorial Park Golf Course does not have wireless so I accessed the Library Media Services web page via my iPhone. However, I while I can get to TeacherTube I can't get the video to open up. Curses. Foiled by technology. I wonder if it is posted on YouTube? Off to check............

10 minutes later....yes, it was there. YouTube isn’t as hinky as TeacherTube. In fact, I've seen this video before - I think it was included in the original 23 Things. I have conquered technology - yeah me! Usually it is the other way around.

Thoughts on the Networked Student. Right off the bat I see 2 major hurdles the 21st Student must jump before he or she appears in an SBID school near us.

One is the textbook lobby. They don't want to kill that goose that lays those golden eggs - or those 70 dollar bricks. Teachers might not want to use them but the school district has to buy them...even if they pile up unused in warehouses. Kids over load their backpacks and ruin their posture dragging them back and forth. For what it costs to supply a student with a full set of textbooks the district could buy everyone an inexpensive laptop and stack of books on CD.

Two is our no so beloved TAKS test which is mired deep in the 1950s. I taught a Blogging Class this year as part of the after school program. I didn't use a textbook and the students never ever picked up a pencil. Kids begged to be included and we had a joyful time. They were proud of their work and clamored to share. They never realized they were learning the mechanics of writing. I didn't allow “cell phone speak" and insisted on correct grammar and spelling.

These same students dreaded pencil and paper writing in class. With me, their keyboarding improved and once they got beyond hunt and peck their thoughts spilled out through their fingers. The TAKS writing test is a paper and pencil test. During class the kids had to practice their handwriting and worry about spelling. Were electronic copies allowed neither of those would have mattered. Well, spelling would since kids can foil the spell check but they still could have concentrated on content rather than mechanics.

So, can a librarian be a 21st Century teacher – yes he/she could, but not till our legislature and the TEA catch up with said librarian. Will that happen during the lifetime of my teaching career? Cynic that I am, I have my doubts. In the meantime I'll keep plugging way, aiming for the small clinks in the armour that is called education.

There Aren't 2 Levels of Health Care...

2009-05-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

.... in America ...there are three. I always knew that there was a world of difference between health care for the those with insurance and those without. I now there is yet a third - one for those with insurance + money or friends in high places.

My Beloved had knee surgery and which resulted in complications. Six days after the surgery she developed a blood clot in her calf, which necessitated a 5 day hospital stay. She's currently building a new building for Methodist Hospital, so of course it was her venue of choice.

One thing lead to another she ended up on "Fondern 12" - the floor where the hospital houses the rich and famous. Barbara Bush stayed there during her recent surgery. It's one of the crown jewels of Methodist and nothing is spared to ensure the patients are as comfortable as possible.

Large, spacious private room complete with a dining table and chairs, coffee table, recliner , couch and chair... .. and oh yes, a hospital bed. Think Hyatt meets hospital.

Wi-Fi, cable television, 2 phones, a ratio of 4 patients per nurse + nursing assistants and "patient care coordinator" whose job it was to ensure that nothing went wrong. The level of care was right out of a Sue Barton book.

And best of all... a private chef on the floor and room service from 6am to 8pm. No powdered eggs on plastic plates at 6am for the residents of the 12th floor. They dined on omelets, served on china, with linen napkins and a fresh rose on the wooden tray. Lunch was equally delicious and at 4pm one of the staff made the rounds to share the daily special - and "would Madam desire it, or would Madam prefer the snapper with crab meat that Madam enjoyed yesterday?". Madam ate very well indeed. Madam's other half tromped down to the hospital cafeteria and had salads in plastic bowls. Whenever Madam was thirsty she called and a chilled Sprite Zero complete with stemmed glass and ice appeared on a tray. Madam was royally spoiled.

So spoiled that on her first day at home she looked at me and said "I'd like some tofu with sauteed squash and red peppers for dinner".

I looked at Madam and said "there aren't any squash or red peppers in the fridge and you're not at Fondern 12 any longer". Madam is feeling much better but is mourning the loss of her personal chef.

When She Fails the TAKS Test....

2009-04-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

.....it will be once again "a failure of our education system".

This story has dominated the local news for the past week:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/moms/6381800.html (drunken driver drove his car into a flooded bayou while talking on his cell phone. 5 children drowned, the father, another adult and 1 child survived. None of the children were wearing seat belts or in car seats. Father, who had a long criminal record is currently in jail charged with 5 counts of manslaughter).

One of the follow-ups reported that the one child who lived - a 10 year old girl is in foster care. She'd been living with her father (the drunken ex-con) for about a month. Her mother checked her out of the hospital but CPS took custody since Mom has a serious substance abuse issue.

1 month with Dad = 1 school, Foster care = a 2nd school. Number of schools attended between August and move in with Dad = unknown but even if it's just 1 (highly unlikely) that's still 3 schools within the space of 1 school year.

At age 10 she's either in the 4th or 5th grade (we hope). This upcoming week is TAKS test week - 4th graders take the reading and math test and 5th grade a science test.

This child, who just survived an horrific accident, who lost her siblings and half siblings and who is a poster child for "dysfunctional home life" is expected to sit at a desk for 8 hours and take a test and give it her personal best. The chances of her passing the TAKS test are slim to none. Her score will impact whatever school she attended on "snapshot" day which is in October.
The school will get the "ding" and the blame.

Nowhere in "No Child Left Behind" is there any accountability for home life and personal circumstances. NCLB assumes educating children is no different than factory farming chickens.
You apply the latest and greatest and hey presto, perfectly educated children and record egg production.

Only difference is, the factory farms can cull the hens who don't measure up to the standard, the schools can't.

Take My Money - Please!

2009-04-25T16:35:00.000-07:00

I did my utmost to counter the recession and spend some money today but the stores did their best to foil my efforts. I now understand why some retail establishments are folding. I hope that the two I attempted to patronize today join the ranks of the bankrupt - and quickly.

Experience #1
Location : Target
Product : A rolling office chair.

Thanks to knee surgery My Beloved is on crutches for the next 6 weeks and we thought a rolling chair might make it easier to maneuver around the house. Target had just what I wanted, but but I couldn't find any , other than the sample (mounted on a display board).

"No problem" I told the clerk, "I'll take that one"
"I can't sell it to you" she responded.
"Why" I asked in utter astonishment.
"We're not allowed" she answered.
"Why" I asked again "I don't care if it's a bit dusty".
"No, you can't have it" she said, turning to leave.

I pushed my cart (I'd picked up some other things en route to the furniture department) in her general direction.
"Then I don't want what's in this cart either. I'm not about to to stand in line to pay for this merchandise and then go somewhere else to buy a chair and stand in line again.".

Target just lost about $200 in sales + hell will freeze over before I shop there again.

Experience # 2
Location: Dry Creek Cafe
Product : A hamburger & french fries

My Beloved desired a hamburger so I stopped at Dry Creek, which makes very good burgers.

Me :"I'd like a hamburger and fries to go please"
Order taker: You can't order a hamburger.
Me "Why, have you changed your menu"?
Order taker: "No, you can't order hamburgers till 12 noon.
Me "It's 11am, isn't that normally considered lunch time"
Order taker: "We're serving breakfast, you can't have a hamburger".
Me "All you need to do is put the burger on the grill that's already hot since you're cooking eggs.
Order taker : No hamburgers till 12 noon.

If it's this hard to spend money during a recession I shudder at what it is going to be like once the economy improves.

Thank goodness for Amazon Prime. They are always happy to accept my money.
To bad they don't sell hamburgers.

What If They Gave a Friends of the Library Sale....

2009-04-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

And nobody came?

The Houston Public Library FOL book sale was this weekend, with Friday being the members night. I was on the fence about going since I knew HPL sells to Better World Books and since I bought a grand total of 1 book last year.

To go or not to go…that was the question.

I got an unexpected donation of $100 to buy books for my school library – the FOL sale advertised that their “I Can Read” books would be only $1 each and I knew from past purchases that many would be like new. So that cinched it. Nasty weather was in the forecast and I had no desire after a long day at work to stand in line in the rain or deal with the opening bell mosh pit so I planned to arrive when the doors opened. It was sprinkling so I splurge on the underground parking. The Heavens opened shortly after my 4:15 arrival for a sale that started at 4:30.

There was NO LINE!

There could not have been more than 50 – 75 people (the sale is at the convention center) standing around waiting for the gates to open. Everyone was really laid back and in a good mood. The starting gun went off and there was no reenactment of the Oklahoma Land Rush. Only a couple of people ran, nobody pushed or shoved or tripped anyone. No hording, no sweep the tables, no grabbing. I had the art books all to myself. The prices were much lower than last year – still very spendy for a library sale but bearable. The bulk of the non fiction is individually priced - $2 -$10.

I didn’t see any of the regular dealers but it’s been a long time since I’ve attended an FOL sale. There were other scanners, many of which were , judging from what they picked up newbies or penny book sellers. I ran into the dealer who runs the Texas version of BetterWorldBooks and he said quite a few dealers (esp. the out of town ones) skipped the sale this year because it was so bad last year. He said he lost money at last years sale and so far he was doing well.

I’d planned to buy a stack of “I Can Read” books and leave – and instead I was there for 4 hours. I bought 3 boxes of books for $240 (told you it was pricy), the bulk of which are art books cause that’s where I went first. I was also dead – I was at work by 6:45 and I was on my feet for the bulk of the day. I dragged into the house at 9pm and collapsed.

The FOL Sale chairperson was doing crowd control (not that there was any) at checkout & I commented on how empty the place was. She agreed and said they didn’t expect as many people as last year because they had fewer books (true) but that she was very surprised at the low turnout. I told her the prices were way more reasonable this year and she said, yes they realized they had overpriced and that they made changes. She confirmed that many of the regular dealers were not in attendance.

Texas Better World was the one who told me HPL is cherry picking books to send to Better World and I believe him. I found good inventory but just about every book was a “punch in the number” rather than scan the number. The scannable books were for the most part, worthless for resale. Texas Better World agreed with my assessment.

The rain on Saturday was way worse than Friday and I doubt they had many shoppers. There should be some good pickings at bag day on Sunday
Maybe it’s time to re-think FOL sales.

My Strangest Garage Sale Buy Ever...

2009-04-05T17:35:00.001-07:00

I spend almost every Saturday trolling the Heights garage sales for books to sell. Along the way I pick up other treasures, many of which find their way into my library. I’ve the only library in the district with 10 Lava Lamps and a complete zoo of puppets and stuffed animals.

Saturday I came across a Book Cart. A brand new, metal, retails for almost $400 Bretford Book Cart. How it arrived at a modest Heights rent house is beyond me but there it was.

“How much” I asked the seller, expecting a quote for $25 to $50.

“Ah, I guess $5” he said.

Sold!

I think every librarian turned bookseller needs her personal book cart.

P.S. It was a day for a strange buys – another sale turned up the contents of a newly closed gourmet grocery store. $10 bought $50 worth of fancy salad dressings.

15 Perfect Gentleman

2009-04-05T17:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a bizarre chain of events that fell into place without a hitch (Hey, there really is a Goddess who looks after librarians) I hosted my first “name” author last Friday. We’ve had many author visits over the years, but they are mostly the self published type. Pleasant enough folks, but it’s very apparent that the main source of their income and their book sales are their school visits.

Not so Justin Somper the author of The Vampirates series. He’s from London and his American book tour included a stop in Houston to hobnob with librarians during the Texas Library Convention. Conventions aren’t my thing which meant I was the only librarian in Houston who could cobble together a school visit on 2 weeks’ notice.

I tossed up a display and a created Flipchart. I prepped, book talked and handed out the tomes. It helped that the books have very, very enticing covers and subject matter and that Justin has an enjoyable and informative web site. The kids enjoyed the books and looked forward to the event.

All the work paid off. Justin’s visit was worth every bit of effort and more. His rapport with the kids was excellent and he had them mesmerized. We sold over 100 books and made some money Blue Willow Books, the local independent bookstore. Owning one of his books became the newest status symbol and having all 4 meant you were at the top of the heap.

I’ve a group of 5th grade books who are devoted fans of the Cirque du Freak books and since there are some similarities in the two series I invited them to eat lunch with the author. I’ve always catered a lunch for visiting authors (have Crockpot, will cook) and included students. One advantage to not having an active PTA is that I can do my author lunches just as I please. At other schools author lunches are the province of the PTA and consist of the PTA Moms and their own offspring.

The menu is always simple – pasta with meat sauce, good French bread, butter, a tossed salad and something chocolate for dessert Every time I do one of these I’m always amazed at what’s novel.

Once year it was the “real forks”. I hate to eat with plasticware so I always bring my stainless from home. Another year it was the homemade salad dressing and the “real” whipped cream. This time it was the crusty French bread and the unsalted butter. The boys ate their way through 4 loaves, each slice slathered with butter.

"This doesn't taste like the butter from the cafeteria Ms. Moore".

I provided table cloths and we helped ourselves to tables not yet picked up from the carnival and set up a large, square banquet table. 15 boys sat round it, ate massive amounts of food, asked respectful, thoughtful and polite questions and brought tears of joy to the eyes of their principal.
Not one descended into horseplay, acted silly or did anything goofy. There were perfect gentlemen and did themselves and their school proud.

It's days like this that I love really, really love my job.

2009-03-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I'm doing a presentation about "Strong Principals / Strong Schools - along with my ex-principal (who is so good at her job that she got herself promoted) at the Texas Library Association. After I made the list I realized that I'm one busy librarian!

I'm being radical and not doing a PowerPoint. Instead I made an Animoto and a bulleted list of the assorted libray activities I done - at least the ones I can remember!

Principal Supplies/Supports:

Keeps the library "off"the block / teacher planning rotation
Good Budget & an Assistant
Decent computers
New technology
Space
Freedom to decorate and set up the library as I want (Lava Lamps, suffed animals, puppets)
Accelerated Reader
Doesn’t worry about stains on the carpet or messy shelves - kids come first

Librarian Supplies:

Informal teacher colloration
AR T-shirt Day
Library Lunch Club
AR Parties
Trips to Ci-Cis
Trips to Barnes and Noble
GT & PGP Passes

Freedom to experiment with Technology
High AR Point PassesLibrary Lunch Club
Book Swap

Open Checkout
Author Visits
Blogging
Hat Day
Slip into Reading Day
Library Lock In
20/20 Day
Reading Challenges with classes-Allow Food
Family Library Night
Field trips to see authors
Popcorn in the pocket park
Cake decorating

Green Eggs and Ham Lunch
Sugar cookie decorating
Mix it Up day

Author Visits

“Come on Down” for high AR Point passes

Water, Water Everywhere

2009-03-21T20:12:00.001-07:00

Or rather garage sales, garage sales everywhere but not a book to be found.
It was gorgeous day – sunny, no humidity, not a cloud to mar that beautiful Texas Blue Sky.
Craigslist was full of enticing ads and garage sale signs sprouted on the telephone poles like mushrooms after the rain.

And I found not one book worth buying.

In fact were it not for a Lava Lamp for school and a kitty condo for the cats I’d of come away empty handed.

Some days are like that…..even in Australia….or Houston.

Good News / Bad News

2009-03-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

The good news: I just sold a $110 book
The bad news: It’s heavy and oversize
The even more bad news : it’s going to France

Gobble, Gobble, Gulp, Gulp,…that’s me eating postage. Will I ever learn to uncheck “international” on oversize books?

Bizarre Buyer

2009-03-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

I always enclose a card with my name, phone # and e-mail address with my orders. It’s saved my bacon more than once when I’ve had an unhappy buyer.

Yesterday I received a phone call that resulted in one of the most bizarre conversations I’ve ever had.

Me : “hello”.

Buyer ; Is this a bookstore?

Me: "Yes, I sell books ."

Buyer: “You sent the wrong book”

Me: “Oh, I’m so sorry, let me get upstairs so I can check my records. What book did you receive?”

Buyer: “Katherine by Allison Weir”

I tromp upstairs, pull up my Amazon orders and see that the order was for Katherine by Alison Weir.

Me: “ I see the order and it was indeed for Katherine by Weir”

Buyer (very irate) “I told my son to order Katherine by Anya Seton and you didn’t have it so you talked him into buying Katherine by Alison Weir.

Me (thinking to myself - I talked to the buyer? Amazon doesn’t let me talk to buyers, they won’t even give me an email address)

Me – out loud, “I’m sorry but the order was for Katherine by Weir. I’m very familiar with the Seton book (which I own & love) and I know the order wasn’t for that one."

Buyer (even more irate) “yes it was, and I want you to send me the Seton book”.

Me: I’m sorry, I don’t have a copy of that book for sale. If you’ll return the other book I’ll be happy to refund your money”

Buyer (still irate) “I want the Seton book first, then I’ll return the other one”.

Me “I don’t have the Seton book”

We go back and forth for about 10 minutes and I finally convince her I really, really don’t have the Seton book. She tells me about her son, her family and why she wants the Seton book. By the time we are done I know all the names of her daughters and granddaughters and how she wants the Seton book for Anastasia because she’s named after Katherine. I didn’t ask her to elaborate on that statement! She agrees to return the Weir book – after I tell her all about that unfamiliar institution called the Post Office and how you can take packages there and mail them.

I hang up and send son an e-mail via Amazon telling him Mom is not happy and that when I get the Weir book back I’ll issue him a refund. I am really glad she can’t leave feedback and hope that son is saner than his mother. I haven’t heard back from son yet.

I wonder if I’ll get the Weir book back?

Playing with Wordles

2009-02-26T10:22:00.000-08:00

Just for the pure fun of it I used a Wordle as my Laptop's wallpaper. It's turned into a teaching momemnt - the kids are most intrequied. So I've shown them how to make Worldes - which are actually a fun way to practice one's spelling words - or make a TAKS poster.

Big Universe

2009-01-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

I really should read School Library Journal more often!
The December issue featured a story on electronic books and introduced me to Big Universe.com.

Now this is a fine example of the Web 2.0 at its best! I can so see kids getting creative.

Here's my first published effort : The Library Lunch Club

Thursday 13 - 13 Good Things About 2008

2009-01-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

The general opinion of the Blogsphere is that 2008 was a year to forget, to kick out the door and one many people hope will never come round again. In my standard glass half full mentality there were some positive events.

1. Daughter #2 got married to a delightful young man. We couldn’t be more
pleased with our new SIL.
2. We visited Daughter #1, meet her boss, viewed her workplace and were impressed.
She’s happily settled (and has health insurance!)
3. The wedding of Daughter #2 went off without any serious hitches and a
wonderful time was had by all.
4. My book business continued to do very well and it continues to grow.
5. Progress was made at chipping away at Mount Debtmore (see #3)
6. Given I work in a school that serves this country’s fastest growing ethnic group
I’d say I have pretty good job security.
7. My beloved works builds medical facilities - whose demand grows as
the baby boomers age . She has job security too.
8. As much as I hate my alarm clock I still really do love my school, my school and
my fellow teachers.
9. I still work with the best bunch of librarians in the state. Our director continues
to challenge me.
10. Web 2.0 delighted and astounded me. It makes life-long-learning fun.
11. We stayed healthy
12. Hurricane Ike did not destroy our house or disrupt our life to much.
Many others were not so lucky.
13. We have a new President Elect – and he’s one reason 2009 will be outstanding!

The Thursday Thirteen Site is suddenly MIA. I hope it returns PDQ!

Score de December

2008-12-28T17:35:00.000-08:00

December seems to be the month to score inventory windfalls. . Last year it was the Jazzman, the year before it was The Bookman. December, 2008 ended with the Shady Doctor buy.

Shady Doctor was a psychiatrist who made a pile of money back in the1990s as a proponent of "Repressed Memory" syndrome. A Google search of the dearly departed showed he was most controversial, involved in a number of lawsuits and that his license was at times, questionable.

Shady Doctor apparently had a number of mental problems himself. He was anal to the extreme - every one of his hundreds of CDs was alphabetized, he had a 5 foot stack of binders with the warranty papers for every electrical appliance he ever bought and his shirts were arranged by color. He was a compulsive collector - multiple DVD players, VCRs, exercise equipment, camping equipment and enough Pfaltzgraff dinnerware to outfit a small department store.

His house was in a very sketchy part of town, one where even I felt compelled to lock my car doors. It once belonged to his mother and started out as a simple 5 room workman's cottage.

For reasons known only to him he left it entirely as is (and it needed a makeover)and built a sprawling garage and second story addition. Other than the library (which was a secret room) the addition was all white paint and grey linoleum. Very drab, very depressing.

The library was amazing- it had 2 secret entrances - one from the master closet and the other from the wet bar. The walls were lined with custom made library shelving and the shelves were filled with books. One side held his 30 year old medical books and 20 years worth of bound issues of Newsweek, the other side was full of Easton Press Books. Easton Press is one of the Holy Grails of bookselling. And these weren't just any Easton Press Books, these were all signed first edition Science Fiction Easton Press books.

The sale didn't attract many buyers with interest in custom leather books. Many of shoppers were neighbors who bought armloads of CDs & sports memorabilia but just rolled their eyes at the books. The book room was filled with very overweight young men, wearing backwards baseball caps & baggy pants and in need of a shave, accompanied by their girlfriends who wore very tight, very low cut pants that showed off their “muffin tops” and thongs all talking on their cell phones and trying to describe what they were seeing. In their words the room was full of “old books and other old s----“!

Science Fiction isn't my forte though I know it sells. I called a fellow bookseller, who prowled around on E-bay and we zeroed in on 17 books with potential. At $25 each I didn't want to buy any duds. Come Sunday everything would be 50% off so a return trip was in order.

Turned out that most of the Easton Press books were still there. I bought 10 and some audio books for Lou and left.

Upon delivery of the audio books Lou asked me 'Why didn't you make an offer for all of them?"

"Humm" I thought upon arriving home, "why not"?

I e-mailed the estate sale proprietor and offered to buy and haul away all the remaining Easton Press books at $10 per book. I estimated maybe 100 books were left. Wrong. There were 210 volumes and she accepted my offer.

Gulp. Very Big Gulp. Very, Very big Gulp.

Didn't think I could back out without incurring the wrath of the Estate Sale Dealer. Whose wrath I could not afford to incur - she's an important cog in my inventory strategy wheel. Oh well, I'll just pay the minimum on my Visa bill this month.

13 boxes later I was the giddy but scared owner of 250 Easton Press Books.

I think I've just advanced a step or two above my usual bookselling rank of bottom feeder.

They are all headed for E-bay. Stay tuned.

By Their Books Ye Shall Know Them...

2008-12-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

I think a person's books can tell more about them than almost anything else in their household. Saturday I went to an estate sale in search of books to sell.
The ad promised "1000s of books". There wasn't even 1000 but there were a great many. I find that estate sale givers always overestimate the number of books.

The former owner was a life time member of Weight Watchers, a Methodist, a diabetic and had a superficial interest in architecture, decorating and drawing. She was very fond of anything published by Rodale Press (a notorious publisher of penny books) , dabbled in natural healing and did a bit of travel, all of it domestic. At one time she'd practiced law and officed out of her home. Given the number of "how to succeed as a solo lawyer" books she wasn't very successful.

She also spent more time at Half Price Books than I do, which meant the bulk of her books were worthless on the resale market. Oh well. I did find a few gems but some days are like that.
Even in Australia.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2008-12-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

Thursday Thirteen

2008-11-27T16:50:00.000-08:00

What does one write about for the Thanksgiving Thursday Thirteen but 13 Blessings? It may be a cliche but that's what Thanksgiving is, a holiday full of cliches.

1. My family. We may be quirky and our family reunions gather up the most eclectic group of individuals on the planet but we all respect each other's differences and get along.

2. My partner. 12 years and counting and she's as wonderful as she was when we first connected.

3. The Internet - it gave me my partner, my second job and it makes my first job every changing and ever interesting. Can't imagine life without it.

4. My job. In these uncertain times I feel blessed to have a job that is relatively safe. That I thoroughly enjoy it is an added bonus.

5. My two daughters. On their own with college degrees in hand. Supporting themselves at jobs that don't require them to say "and would you like fries with that?".

6. My new son-in-law. The wedding was delightful from start to finish. Every woman should have husband as sweet as Jason. She's in good hands.

7. Our new President. Finally someone I voted for won. The new feeling of hope in our country and the new interest of the young in politics is a refreshing change from the same old same old.

8. My On-Line book sellers group. I've learned so much from them and they have had such a positive impact on my book business (and its bottom line).

9. My fellow teachers. A few drive me round the bend at times but all in all you'd be hard pressed to find a harder working group of folks who do it for the kids.

10. My blogging class - Lordie those kids are fun! They keep me on their toes and the growth in their writing is joy to behold.

11. My kitties. They always greet us at the door with purrs and meows.

12. Electricity - Hurricane Ike reminded the entire city of Houston that Ben Franklin's birthday ought to be a national holiday.

13. My life. Other than an occasional ache and pain it's all good.

When Does Parental Choice Become Neglect?

2008-11-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

We have several students who NEED to be on medication. Badly. Not just your ordinary run of the mill ADD medication but serious drugs. The kids throw things, run away, defy all authority, refuse to learn and do their very best to ensure their peers can’t learn. They can’t control their behavior – they have severe emotional issues.

The parents can’t or won’t agree to medication. Some pay lip service to the idea and then they don’t fill the prescriptions, they let them lapse or they “forget” to administer them. They send the meds to school but don’t follow through on the weekends. The school nurse goes as far to driving to the pharmacy that accepts Medicaid to personally fill the scripts. Money can’t buy the service she provides.

One parent keeps talking about “that diet I read about on the Internet”. Only problem is, the gluten free, additive free , sugar free, diary free diets that are suggested as possible alternatives require great discipline, organization and vigilance on the part of the parents. The Texas food stamp allotment doesn’t stretch far enough to cover organic produce and hormone free beef and this is a parent who can’t manage to get their child to school on time..

Another parent wants to “home school” because the child never has any problems at home. Of course the child doesn’t – they get to do whatever they want to at home. Technically we can’t stop the parent – the home school laws in Texas are pretty loose. We try to squash the idea since the parent is a high school drop out with poor parenting skills. They are sober now, but a past substance abuse problem took a toll on their cognitive skills.

Yet another doesn’t want their child to carry the “special ed” label. She fears it will mark her for life. Once a school wants to apply it, she ups and moves and enrolls her in a new school without telling anyone about his prior problems. She knows it takes time for the records to arrive and the wheels of school administered testing grind very, very slowly. The child doesn’t have a special ed label yet, but she’s has a number of others - “holy terror”, “spoiled”, “better your class than mine” – none of them flattering.

These kids take up some 90% of their teachers, the nurse, the counselor and the Principals time, leaving the rest of the children to muddle along on their own. They keep their classrooms and the school in an uproar. Everyone walks on eggshells waiting for the next explosion. They aren’t learning and they aren’t happy – they have no friends and the other kids shun them.

So when is it parental choice and when is it neglect?

My next gig?

2008-11-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Who thinks up these things? And why are they so addictive?

Are You More Qualified than Sarah Palin?
	You are 92% more qualified than Sarah Palin. You're no short-term political stunt, you're the real deal, the VP the American people deserve. I guess your phone was off the hook when John McCain was calling around looking for a running mate... must've been one of those pesky robo-calls.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

At least I'm not PigPen!

2008-11-11T19:15:00.001-08:00

Which Peanuts Character Are You?
	You are Schroeder. You are brilliant, ambitious, and brooding; you tackle tasks with extreme focus. People don't always interest you as much as other pursuits, though, so you can come off as aloof.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Obama supporters sing national anthem outside White House

2008-11-07T20:36:00.001-08:00

Celebrating in the Streets

Part 1- Barack Obama Victory Speech Grant Park Chicago, IL

2008-11-07T20:32:00.001-08:00

An Amazing Night

Joan Baez - We shall overcome

2008-11-07T20:26:00.001-08:00

Can't get this song out of my head!

2008-11-07T20:00:00.001-08:00

It's been a tumultuous couple of days. Days filled with smiles and hope, tears of joy and unabashed sappiness and patriotism. Last Tuesday night is a jumble of images.

Grant Park filled with thousands of people - young, old, black, white brown - a cross section of America cheering their new leader. It's the first time I can remember a President acknowledging his victory, not in a hotel ballroom where only a select few are invited to the party, but in a public park, open to anyone regardless of the thickness of their wallet. A speech that reiterated that in America anything is possible.

For me, though one of the most memorable pictures was that of the jubilant crowd storming The White House and dancing in streets outside the gates. I wonder if His Shrubness had a flashback to Marie Antoinette and mob who marched on Versailles? Nah, history was never his strongpoint. Nor was being President.

So many thoughts, so many songs...the old anthem of the Civil Rights Movement says it all..

We Shall Overcome

Pigs Might Actually Fly

2008-11-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

The Houston Chronicle,, Houston's oh so very conservative, always go with the status quo and support "bizness" newspaper endorsed Obama.

This is huge folks. The Chronicle hasn't endorsed a Democrat since 1964. They really didn't have a choice that year - Lyndon Johnson was a Texan.

The fact that our hometown newspaper has turned its back on The Shrub's successor has me feeling cautiously optimistic about Tuesday's outcome.

Blogging 101

2008-10-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

Every since I discovered blogging (has it really been more than 4 years!) I've been wanting to teach a blogging class. I dabbled with it last Spring - it turned out to be more of a dress rehearsal and I'm trying again this school year.

Still tweaking it - I'll get it right one of these days. It's a work in progress but it's a delightful work in progress. Roughly 20 kids and I spend 2 hours once a week learning, writing, getting frustrated, being perplexed and giggling. They are learning, I'm learning and the results are really quite amazing.

The Turmoil After the Storm

2008-10-13T20:47:00.001-07:00

It's been 3 + weeks (is it only 3 weeks???) and Houston is trying to get back to normal. That's Houston, it will take Galveston years to get back to normal.

Almost everyone in Houston has power again and the traffic lights work. The streets are piled head high with stacks of branches, tree trunks and assorted destroyed flora. It's depressing to say the least.

The folks who have been hard hardest are as always, "the little people". I'm one of the lucky ones, I Iwas off work for 7 days but still collected a paycheck. Some businesses were closed for as long as 2 weeks and many of them couldn't or didn't pay their employees. People who make minimum wage, the day laborers who stand on the street corner and the bus boys in the kitchen couldn't work and didn't get paid. Those folks, who live pay check to pay check are really, really hurting.

Texas is offering up extra food stamps but the food stamp allowance is paltry at best and it doesn't go far.

One of the apartment complexes in my school's attendance zone had the roof ripped off. I took one of the students home last week and suddenly found myself in an alternate universe. The tenants don't have money to rent a motel room or to move. Furniture was piled up under the "covered parking" and ruined possessions were piled around in heaps and stacks. The place still doesn't have power and the roof was made of blue FEMA tarps. Pieces of the ex roof littered the court yard. The complex has an absentee owner who, as long as he gets his rent money does not appear to be in any hurry to get the repairs up and going. Texas Laws favor the landlord totally. Amazingly the tenants must pay their rent, even though their apartments are barely livable.

That just seems downright wrong. This is American isn't it?

Is There Something in the Water?

2008-10-13T20:08:00.001-07:00

We’ve always had some students who were “different”. But there were just a few. The past couple of years it’s been an explosion. Where are they coming from? I don’t think it’s because of better diagnosis – the kids we’ve enrolled are not “slightly disturbed” – they are very, very disturbed.

We students who take serious anti psychotic drugs, students who have violent rages & students who are schizophrenic. We have more and more children who are autistic. Some are diagnosed and some aren’t , but after a number of years in the profession any seasoned teacher can spot the “look” across a crowded room.

Perhaps it’s because I’m at a low SES school but I still find it amazing that a child can reach age 5 or 6 without a parent realizing something isn’t “quite right”. Maybe they don’t note the milestones in the baby book as obsessively as a helicopter parent does or perhaps they are just in deep, deep denial .

Once the paperwork process starts some fight it tooth and nail and others ignore all communication from the school and don’t show up at the STAT and ARD meetings. Papers sent home get lost and are never signed – and without those signatures the schools hands are tied.

Then the parent and child up and moves and the process starts all over again. And again and again and again. It’s not uncommon for a child to reach the 5th grade without a diagnosis. And you can’t start treatment without a diagnosis. That results in 6th graders who can’t read above a first grade level and have no social skills what so ever.

Who gets blamed for that ? Why the schools of course.

No, it’s not the fault of the school. I really do think there is something in the water.

Ike Still (or Again)

2008-09-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

School starts up next week and I've been working on an Ike FlipChart / Animoto. I know the kids will want to talk about their experiences so next week the library will be hurricane central. We'll pull out all our hurricane and weather disaster books and put them on display. The district has given us a work day to put things to right again and they kids will be back on Tuesday. I am quite sure there are many parents heaving great sighs of relief.

Signs of Normal Life

2008-09-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

I finally got to mail packages today and I found an open Starbucks! Life is improving (even if we don’t have power).

My little local Heights PO has no power and they are selling stamps but only for cash. They aren’t accepting packages. So Lou and I went over to the River Oaks Post Office which has some power and they took them! They can’t take credit cards but they can transact business.

On the way home we found an open Starbucks. They only had hot coffee and drinks made with soy because there isn’t any fresh milk to be had – at least not in my part of town. A soy latte isn’t as good as a milk one, but hey I’ll take it.

We also saw that Hickory Hollow, one of our favorite barbecue places had set up a tent in their parking lot and was selling barbecue. You don’t need electricity to make good Texas barbecue! They had a line of happy looking customers.

Once I got home I took some ice, coke and water over to the Heights PO because the folks there looked they needed a random act of kindness. I also told them River Oaks was open so they could direct their customers. They were so thrilled that the normally grumpy supervisor gave me a spontaneous hug

Lou, who has electricity is going to do a load of my laundry in return for the use of my internet.

My new scanner still hasn’t arrived, but that’s OK, there won’t be any garage sales this weekend anyway

Life Goes On.

_._,__

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

2008-09-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

We replaced these .........

With this .

........\/

Guess which one is the most beautiful?
If you gussed #2 you are correct.

#2 is the generator!

Report From Hurricane Central

2008-09-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

To add insult to injury Mother Nature sent us a thunderstorm that would have been noteworthy under normal circumstances.

Interstate 10 is once again masquerading as the Grand Canal and our street (we live 10 blocks from 1-10) flooded. That’s only happened once before – during Allison. No water in the houses. We are on pier & beam and 5 feet above grade so should we have water in the house we'd expect to see Noah and his ark sailing down the street.
Picture compliments of KHOU TV

I am blowing kisses at My Beloved for getting us the honking big generator. Being married to someone who is a commercial construction manager is frequently a blessing. Especially in the aftermath of a hurricane.

Yikes! Ike"

2008-09-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

All is OK at our house, other than no power – it went out at 3:45am. My Beloved, who believes in being more prepared than an entire troop of Boy Scouts, installed a honking big generator some months ago. Said honking big generator kicked in so we have some power .

We have fridge, microwave, ceiling fans and upstairs A/C. We also have the TV & the satellite dish – My Beloved does have her priorities! In fact, she Tivoed this morning’s golf tournaments and she’s watching them.

She forgot to include the internet but I took care of that problem. I have my priorities too!
I snaked an extension cord and have the router plugged back in so we have DSL. Some of the plugs in the house work and some don’t – it depends if they on the same circuit as the appliances that are working.

We have a gas stove and water heater so we can cook and clean. Actually we can’t clean to much because there is almost no water pressure. It comes out of the faucet in a tiny trickle. One of the city water plants has no power.

Ike was a BIG STORM. It came right up I-45 from Galveston and it’s an unwelcome guest who refuses to leave. It’s now 3pm and the skies are still filled with dark clouds. Our guest has been with us for more than 24 hours – that’s unheard of.

The storm started getting bad about 4pm and conditions got really dicey round midnight. The rain was horizontal and the wind blew it in under the doors. Our house shook when an especially fierce blast came round – gusts were up to 90 mph. . I was asleep and work up from dream where I was all alone on a raft in the ocean. We could see the transformers popping – they lit up the sky with an eerie glow..

No flooding in my neighborhood but the Bayous are out of their banks and I-10 looks like the Grand Canal. So we can’t go anywhere (not that we would).

Downtown looks like a war zone – we have many tall buildings with all glass facades and once a couple break the pieces start flying around like bullets and take out many more. The same thing happened during Hurricane Alicia 25 years prior. And of course, out of the open windows fly computers, papers and office supplies.

Interstate 45 into Galveston Island is blocked by numerous yachts that broke loose from their moorings. It is a surreal sight.

The upcoming week should be, to say the least interesting

Once Again Trying to Reason

2008-09-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

Squalls out on the gulf stream
Big storm's comin' soon
Well the wind is blowin' harder now
Fifty knots or thereabouts
There's white caps on the ocean
And I'm watchin' for waterspouts
It's time to close the shutters
It's time to go inside
From "Trying to Reason with the Hurricane Season" c1974 by Jimmy Buffett

Folks were amazingly friendly as everyone scurried about getting ready for Hurricane Ike.
The clerks are the snarly Kroger smiled & customers were polite and patient. The gas stations ran out of gas on Thursday but the tanker trucks made it into town overnight. The early birds were able to fill up their tanks and again folks were cordial and cheerful while waiting in line.

Houston can be downright civilized when it has to be.
Photo by NOOA