Smart Airliner!

June 28, 2007

So today I’m at SOITA in Franklin, OH, being trained on the Smart Technologies Airliner wireless slate. 3 other teachers from Newton are with me and when we go, we get to take the Airliners with us for use in our classrooms. These are really nice pieces of technology which I’m excited about adding to my classroom tools. Getting used to navigating with it has been interesting, but I’m getting there.

For those of you who’ve worked with ’em before, this Airliner is really a Wacom tablet. It works seamlessly with the SmartBoard software that SmartTech has written. SmartBoards are those cool white-board-ish things which are really giant touch screen “monitors” (provided you project the image onto the SmartBoard). The cool thing is that you don’t need a SmartBoard to use the Airliner, and I think I’ll prefer using the Airliner to using a SmartBoard.

Anyhoo, we’re currently toying with the devices and I decided to do a short post re: what I’m up to. So there ya go!

B-WISER 2007, the rest of the week

June 22, 2007

After only 4 hours of sleep last night, a full day, and a 3 hour drive home, I’m rather zonked. But I’m going to try and write about Wed-Today.

Wednesday was Flight Day in Physics. However, I only got to hang out with groups 1&2 and 5&6 since I used the middle session to go and place the 300+MB of photos already taken onto the machines in our computer lab. (It wasn’t just me taking photos, several teachers and a few students were bringing me cameras to upload pictures from.) So during computer class, I showed the girls how to use the GIMP to edit photos, concentrating on changing image size. The classes went pretty smoothly and quite a few girls enjoyed playing with the program.

The evening program was an engineering project where the girls had to design a device to shoot a ping pong ball aloft for as long as possible. They were given quite a few items including card stock, rubber bands, and Popsicle sticks. After the first round, they got another half hour to modify their devices and try again. While the girls worked on this, I worked on the Impress presentation I was going to show the girls the next day in computer class. It was fun working on my laptop outside while I watched the girls work.

I didn’t get to see how things ended, because I headed back to the dorm with Joyce & Carolyn to photograph the cakes the girls were having for snacks that night. There were two huge sheet cakes, one chocolate, one white. And they had white & chocolate milk to drink. I stuck with white cake & white milk myself. Tasty tasty!

Thursday was electricity day. The girls worked with circuit boards, light bulbs & batteries, then they made “dancing rice” balloons. But the COOL thing was the Van de Graaff. And it was working WONDERFULLY – the best I’d ever seen it do. We had puff ball after puff ball on the thing. We only had 2 girls where nothing happened, but everyone else had something happen. The laughter was so great, one of the chemists in the building came in to see what was so fun. She just laughed when we explained it.

In computers, I showed the girls OpenOffice.org Impress Portable (a presentation/slide show program). Quite a few of the girls really took to the program and made some really neat slide shows of photos from the camp and beyond. I learned several tricks from the program which they discovered while exploring. And I showed them the presentation I’d made the night before, with lovely photos of Ollie & Floyd (elsaf‘s doggies) on one slide too. (One of the girls the day before wondered if I was going to include any doggy photos in my slide show. So I did.) The girls got to take their flash drives with them when they left class that day. 🙂

The night was counselor’s night off, so Dee and I met groups 1&2 for supper around 5pm that day and headed over. Betty, one of the former co-directors (and co-creators) of the camp, was in town to be an Exemplar the following day, so she sat with Dee & I during supper. Lois, the other former co-director and co-creator was also in for the same reason and had supper with Joyce & Carolyn. It was fun to catch up with our former bosses. 🙂 (Betty was also my junior high science teacher, heh heh.)

The evening program was Gary Broadbent, the boomeranger. Once again he dazzled us with his l33t boomerang skilz and showed off some of his boomerang collection. He brought with him a young man from Japan who’s been training with him here in the US. Takeshi (not sure how it’s spelled, but I think that’s what Gary called him) is a street performer and did some of his tricks as well. He did some yo-yo tricks that were unbelievable!

After the program, the girls put on a talent show. I sat in the lounge watching it and worked on the slide show for the final day. The skits were entertaining and all of them were better than the first act… (The first act being us teachers singing the B-WISER song, which is sung to YMCA.)

We finished the evening with a surprise party for my roomie, which was LOADS of fun and very entertaining. I think we were all sore from laughing when it was over. When we got back to the dorm room, I finished up the slide show and finally got to bed at 2am.

Today went very quickly. We each sat in a room (or part of a lounge) with one of our exemplars and introduced them to the girls. I got Dr. Vi from Wooster, who is 93 years old, wanted to be a doctor at aged 12, graduated from Case Western reserve in ’45, and helped start the Free Clinic in Wooster in ’92. She was fun to listen to and I think the girls enjoyed listening to her tales. I know I did!

After our last meal together *sniff* we all headed off to Mateer auditorium for the final ceremony. Each of us teachers introduced a counselor who then introduced their girls & gave ’em cute little awards. The counselors did a cute sketch. And at the end, I showed the slide show I’d been working on all week. It turned out very nice. It was 10 minutes long (191 slides) and elicited the right number of laughs and “awwws.” I was quite pleased. 🙂

I gave Carolyn a few final hugs (she’s such a fun roommate) and then headed home. After 3+ hours driving and a supper at Culver’s, I got home to two little kitties who were happy their mommy was FINALLY home. I’m happy I’m finally home too. And rather tired as well.

As we said repeatedly this week, this was the best B-WISER ever. We all just had a blast putting on the camp this year. The girls were great, the teachers were great, the directors were great – it was all great. Yay for B-WISER!

BWISER 2007 Days 1 & 2

June 19, 2007

Yesterday was our first full day at B-WISER and first day of classes. I woke early and decided to get up around 6:30. My roomie, Carolyn, followed suit. The two of us headed for breakfast and had pancakes and sausage. (Carolyn was disappointed in the lack of eggs. I was OK with the lack of eggs myself.)

The morning session was physics, and Dee had the girls doing measurement and density, with me as the faithful assistant. However, I spent much of the second period opening the Cruzer Freedom 1GB flash drives we’d gotten the girls. I put labels on all of them (which had a girl’s name and a female scientist’s name) and separated by groups. And during the third period, I headed off to the computer lab to see how things are set up.

The student machines had a Novell logon that was written on the chalkboard, but the machine hooked to the room projector had a Windows logon that I had not been told. So I decided I’d get my laptop at lunch and use it to run the projector. I had managed to turn on the projector during this testing session, and I’d also successfully transferred the Portable Apps onto one of the USB flash drives. Things were looking good.

After a delicious lunch, I headed off to the computer lab and found that half of the girls were already there. I had the idea during lunch to transfer the Portable Apps onto the computer desktops and tried to do this with girls sitting at machines. Then when they all arrived, I had them do that for me. Meanwhile, when I tried to get the projector on, it wouldn’t come on. So I couldn’t show the girls what I was wanting them to do, but we still managed to get the files transferred onto the PCs and then onto their flash drives. And eventually I figured out the projector. (Definitely a case of the Mondays.)

While the files were transferring onto their flash drives, I did my presentation on The Internet: Search Safely, Search Securely, Search Skeptically. Thanks to of all the aggro at the start of the period, we didn’t have time for the girls to research their female scientists. Alas! But the second and third classes went very smoothly and they did get to research theirs.

After class, Carolyn, Dee and I went to Walmart to take Carolyn’s new shoes back and for Dee to get photos printed. I picked up an extension cord for the wireless router. Then we were back for supper and the evening activity. The girls had 3 activities they were alternating though – bowling, a scavenger hunt, and a craft. Joyce and I supervised the bowling. And even got a game in with Anne, the nurse. I was doing VERY badly at the start, but finally got my groove at frame 9 when I got 3 strikes in a row and wound up with 127. judiang would have been proud. 🙂

Today was another early awakening for me, and Carolyn finally got her eggs. But no meat today – just hash browns with the scrambled eggs. I also had a chocolate muffin, and requiring more carbs, toasted an English muffin and put grape jelly on. Yum!

Physics had the girls racing balloon cars to work through Newton’s Laws and then outside to blast off film cannister cannons. Well, the first two periods had the girls outside. During period 3, they got outside, watched as the rain began down at the end of the street and headed towards them, then Dee herded them back inside before it hit here. So they did the film cannister cannons over the sinks instead. Heh.

After lunch (mmmm, pirogies!) it was time to teach computers again. I showed the girls OpenOffice.org’s Calc Portable and we entered in all the data and calculations for the Work & Power lab. Then we had the girls run/walk/climb/tiger dance (yes, one of them did this) up the stairs outside the classroom. I timed them doing this, then we had them enter the data into Calc. And instantly they had their work and power in climbing the stairs. Woot!

We teachers had the evening off, so I headed off to the chemistry building to meet up with the other teachers, who were helping the chemistry group clean up. Then we headed back for the dorms to get our money. It was time to go to the Toy Store! Yay!

We went to the toy store where I found dad some father’s day & birthday gifts and got me a couple of physics toys. Then on to the movie theater to watch Ocean’s 13. I haven’t seen the first two movies, but having enjoyed this one so much, I think I need to rent the other two. Mucho fun. Finally supper was at Jake’s steakhouse. Where I had beet battered fish & chips and a very nice brownie & ice cream dessert.

We ladies had a blast out this evening. I really love teaching with these ladies each summer and am glad that we were able to have the camp despite the lower numbers.

I rode a balloon!

June 17, 2007

Today is the first day of B-WISER 2007. I got up at a decent hour and was on the road by 8:15am. I had breakfast at McDonald’s on the way. And was in Wooster within 3 hours. Wherein I had lunch – from McDonald’s… No matter, it was lovely seeing my friends once again.

Around 2 we headed off to the classrooms to get our rooms ready. Dee and I set up the physics room, and then I went off to Taylor with Carolyn and Joyce to check out the computer lab. Alas, the room was locked, but there were computers in it. Woot!

At 4, we introduced ourselves to the girls and at 5:15, headed off to supper. As usual, the food in Lowry was excellent. I had lasagna, salad, an apple & banana, and dessert (brownie & chocolate chip cookie). Tasty tasty! We teachers managed to all sit together (there’s only 9 of us staff this year) and we chatted for quite awhile catching up with our lives. (Two of our group have spent a year retired and are really enjoying themselves.) Around 6:30, Carolyn, Wanda and I headed to Walmart for a few forgotten items. I picked up a Belkin wireless router for our room (only $40) for camp and will have to put it with my other B-WISER items for future camps, if we can have them. As you can see by this post, the router is working just peachy keen.

Once we were back, the girls were in the basement of Douglass (the dorm we’re all staying in) learning about hot air balloons. And then the balloonists went out and began inflating the balloon. They took girls up 3 at a time for a short ride (tethered the whole time) and when the finished the alumni girls, they let teachers go. Well, of COURSE I had to go. So Joyce and I went up for a short hop in the balloon – my first time in a hot air balloon. It’s cool, cuz you don’t realize you’ve left the ground.

I, of course, took photos.

The balloon in all its glory.

The balloon lifts!

Wanda and Dee enjoy the flight.

A shot from in the balloon basket itself!

Susan got a photo of Joyce and me in the balloon.

Wanda got a photo of the balloon glow.

Happy Birthday, Linus & Lucy!

June 15, 2007

Although no one is really sure what day Linus & Lucy were born, the vet and I made the decision that June 15th would be their official birthdate. So that means today, my babies are one year old! Wow! The time sure flew!

To celebrate, I bought them cat food today. Heh. I’ll be mixing it with their kitten food until they get used to the new food. They’re currently playing with trash in the living room. I give ’em toys, they prefer to empty out the trash can. Go figure. (Not the kitchen trash, thankfully, just some plastic from my recently purchased Doctor Who toys.)

And, for your amusement, three recent photos of the kitties behind the cut.

Linus checks out the flowerbox

Linus is in the den looking out at that flowerbox.

Does this bed make me look fat?

Seriously, Lucy isn’t that tubby!

Lucy checks out the flowerbox

Lucy looks out over the flowerbox from the dining room.

Portable Apps

June 13, 2007

This Sunday I’ll be heading North East to Wooster for B-WISER Science Camp for Girls once again. There was a fear that we wouldn’t even be having the camp this summer – enrollment is down big time. We have 30, maybe 32 girls, signed up now, however, so we’re going to do the camp, but with half the staff we usually use. As one of the senior teachers (heh, I still think that’s funny – I’m younger than most of my coworkers at this camp, but I’ve been teaching there many years now) I still have a job there. Phew!

In order to accommodate the smaller staff, we’re splitting the morning and afternoon up into different classes. Normally Dee and I would teach 6 sessions of physics. This year, we’ll teach 3 sessions of physics in the morning, and then in the afternoon, we’ll teach 3 sessions of computers. Dee is in charge of the physics in the morning with me as her assistant. And I’m in charge of computers in the afternoon with Dee as my assistant.

Computers, eh? Wow, what to teach for computers? I had a lot of ideas and little time to implement them. (Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do computer based labs for a week?) But what I finally settled on was getting the girls something they could use even after camp – portable applications and a little flash drive to store them on. (Thanks to the College of Wooster bookstore which is giving the camp a nice deal on 1GB flash drives!)

Monday won’t actually require the portable applications – I’ll be working on Internet Safety and Skeptical Searching. I haven’t decided yet if we’ll use Firefox portable to do the session or just have the girls use the browser that’s on the lab computers we’re using.

Tuesday we’ll definitely get into the portable apps. I’ll introduce them to the programs on their flash drives. Then Dee and I will have the girls do a lab on work, power and energy, but we won’t have them do the calculations. We’ll return to the computer lab and use OpenOffice.org Portable‘s Calc (the spreadsheet) to do the calculations. 🙂

Wednesday is when I introduce them to the Gimp. Yes, there is a Gimp Portable. And it works just fine. We’ll be uploading photos each night to my website of the girls and they can download some and manipulate them. Mostly I’ll focus on resizing pix for webpages and presentations.

Thursday we’ll return to OpenOffice.org Portable and work with Impress, the presentation program. We’ll have the girls create a presentation of the pictures they worked on the day before. And best of all, they can take everything home with ’em when they go.

Friday we don’t meet for classes, so that’s all we’ll have to teach during the week. I included some other programs which we’ll put on the flash drives, including GAIM, a media player, Clam Antivirus, a PDF viewer, and Sudoku. 🙂

Day off? Nope! :-(

June 4, 2007

Ah, today was going to be my Day Off. I was going to sleep in til I couldn’t stand it anymore, then eat my strawberry donuts and play City of Heroes. Oh ye evil lightning blasts of the weekend!

Around 8:30am, I got a call from the treasurer at work. No one could logon. So I sat up, slipped on some clothes & a hat (my hair must be washed every morning) and rode my bike to work. I figured all I’d have to do was turn on some servers that didn’t restart or reboot one that got confused.

I did the rounds and most of the servers were doing quite nicely. The PDC (Primary Domain Controller), fileserver and web caching server all were uninterrupted thanks to the UPS they are hooked to. The elementary server showed up fine on the server list. But the two servers in the media center were not showing up on the list. They were both on, but Blackknight wasn’t responding and the HSBDC (High School Backup Domain Controller) needed logged in. HSBDC is our DHCP server (sorry for all the geek talk – those of you who know what I’m talking about can start to see why things weren’t necessarily working well). And when I checked on the DHCP service, it wasn’t running. And I couldn’t start it. DHCP is what sends addresses to our computers so that they can log onto the network. So with it down, people couldn’t log on. Blech.

Well, I didn’t know how to fix that DHCP service since it was running on Linux, but I can set up a WinNT4 box with DHCP, surely… Well, I had done it before. So I decided to stick it on the PDC. This is all temporary anyhoo since this summer the school is getting a new tech and Win2003 server network. I figured the PDC could handle being DHCP until then. But stuff still wasn’t working even when I had it set up. A few phone calls to other techs (the county & MDECA) and it was 3 hours of me at work. I was very hungry and very stinky. I needed to have breakfast & bath & wash my hair. So I rode my bike back and did just that. (Mmmm, strawberry donuts!)

Well, thanks to the calls, when I had returned, I had an idea of what to do. I changed a few settings on the new DHCP service and then released & renewed addresses for any machine that I knew had been on that day. (For a school that’s out, there sure were a lot of folks in the building!) It was another hour and a half of work to finish all of this. But it looks like folks were able to do everything they needed to do. Yay!

Tomorrow is the first of two summer training sessions on ProgressBook, our new grading program. It’s the one I signed up for, so no day off for me tomorrow. I’m hoping that Wednesday will be my Day Off. The donuts will be rather dry by then, however…

Deep fried strawberries for the win!

June 2, 2007

This is the weekend of the Troy Strawberry Festival. I invited mom to come along with me this year and she agreed. And then dad invited himself along, because he was looking forward to riding the school bus to the festival. (Yes, he’s a little odd…) So I drove us to Meijer this morning and we took one of the free shuttles (driven by the dedicated bus drivers of Troy City Schools) to Hobart Arena. The festival is held on the levy near Hobart arena, so it’s a very long festival, but very narrow. A few years ago they began to have some spillover down near the Troy HS football stadium, so we started there first. My first stop? Strawberry donuts! Only 15 minutes in line, then I looked for the parental units. It turns out they were in Tammy’s glass pendants booth. Tammy’s a coworker of mine who’s taken to making neat glass pendants and artwork. She’ll be doing quite a few festivals this summer, selling her wares. Mom got a neat necklace there. She also shared some strawberry-lemon shakeup – very yummy.

Mom & I each had a donut and dad had a bite from each. Then we found ourselves in the booth selling bamboo plants. The fellow selling them claimed they were very difficult to kill. I think mother took that as a challenge and decided to get one. And I got a very small one with a cute panda base (for $4). The booth owner let us keep the plants there while we shopped around some more.

We made our way onto the levy and wandered down one way, checking out the wares and the food stalls. We finally decided upon barbecue chicken dinners. We sat on the side of the levy and watched some firemen playing “Waterball.” They had two teams manning fire hoses (pumping water from the river) trying to send a ball to the other side. Think of a “push of war” versus a “tug of war.” After lunch, we continued shopping. I decided upon some strawberry ice cream, which was very refreshing. (It was a hot & sunny day.) But I hadn’t even half-finished my ice cream when I saw a booth selling “deep fried strawberries.” Hmmm, I’d never had those before. So I ordered some. Turns out they’re strawberries filled with a creamy & sweet goo which are then covered in donut batter and deep fried. And then they pour a sweet sauce on top. Da-amn, they were good! And not so sweet that they killed, (not like the strawberry dough ball I’d had the year before.)

Once we’d seen all of the booths on the levy, we headed back to pick up our plants. Then I headed off to get us another strawberry-lemon shakeup. Just as tasty as the first. We shared it until we were finally seated on the bus. There was a lady from Hilliard between me and the parental units, so I didn’t pass the shakeup to them until we were back at Meijer. A short hop to the pet store for food & litter for the kitties (we’d run out of food earlier yesterday, so this morning I’d grilled them a chicken boobie for breakfast. Heh.)

We returned home and the folks headed off to the Lake for the weekend (and much of next week). Then I played CoH for a bit before taking a nap. School’s officially out for us, so I have Monday off – woot! Tuesday will be training for our new grading program, but beyond that, I’ve no idea what my summer schedule will be like.

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