I had high hopes for this blog…I was going to read through all the ed news stuff I get everyday and leisurely post ideas and issues while also ruminating on programming. All very Zen. Then, this week hit! It has been crazy and it’s not over yet.
Monday was a workshop on the Northern Neck on Integrade Pro, helping teachers work with the gradebooks we set up in August. Most of them seem to be doing fine as they figure out how to adapt the technology to their grading styles. It occured to me that “grades” given by school teachers really don’t mean all that much since each teacher has a different way of calculating grades. Some include behaviors like punctuality and neatness. Others focus mostly on testing while yet others give lots of extra credit. For my own part, I generally had a range of grades in my reading classes but almost everyone got an A in my computer class. Different subject matters, I suppose. Different treatments. But extensive comments about grading come another day.
Tuesday started REALLY early for me but I had a great time with a group of elementary science methods students playing with digital microscopes and Kidspiration. One of the students went to her placement school later that day, asked the media specialist about the programs and learned that the school owned a site license. So the pre-service teacher helped the in-service teacher install the programs! WOW! Direct impact on what happens in the classroom. I called my consultee for 602 and then had class until 7 and then OOTW rehearsal. When I got home, I still had stuff to do to prep for my Wednesday classes.
And then there was yesterday: dentist, quartet rehearsal, ED 304, and T02! Got home around 9:30 and vegged out to the last half hour of The Apprentice.
Which brings me to this morning. I planned to use the time to read Dr. Leslie’s article (very good and much more later) and then start working on my database. Unfortunately, I discovered that the feature that allows relations is turned off on both my local machine and my server. There are configuration directions that I understand about half. For instance, I get that there is a script that can fix this problem but I’m not sure how to “import” the script as the directions say. Anyway, I need to get back to it because with a little reading, I CAN figure this out but so far in the interest of avoidance, I have payed a bill, cleaned the living room floor, and wrote this blog entry.
But now it’s time: I’ve got a fresh cup of coffee, I ate a little breakfast and I have four or five hours to work on this problem. I’d like to get it solved before Bob returns at lunch time. Wish me luck!
