Party Time

December is birthday month in our home. Ian's party was today, Elinor's last week. His was medieval, hers was "princess." What a difference between boy parties and girl parties! The boys are sooooo hyper, you have to ride the wave of energy like a surfer at Diamond Head. The girls are so attentive to each other... a bunch of giggly little princess compared to five bulls in a porcelain factory. No one got hurt in either case, thankfully.

Games: we pinned the lips on the frog with the girls and danced; and with the guys we did skill testing games like bomb the castle with marshmallows from a catapult and throw the spear through the hoop.

Now that birthdays are over, we can move onto the rest of the month, which is whizzing by. Tomorrow: big gig at the church, being our annual Christmas music night.

How did your parent/teacher interviews go?

How do you know if an interview "went well"? That's the question on everyone's mind. Presumably, if there are no controversial items or points of contention to discuss, then it's a "good" interview. That's how my interviews went this time around, and I feel somewhat relieved. But what do we do with the interview that seems to sound more like the parent saying, "You're fired!"?

For me, my interviews are an important opportunity to receive information as well as give it. It is significant that a parent takes the time to come and talk. It sends strong messages to the child that their education matters. I have heard of times when a parent verbally attacks a teacher and catches them off guard. These times have not been on interview day, however. Those are unplanned meetings. "Be alert and watchful", people!

Maybe that's the unique thing about interview day: It is a planned meeting that matters to both the teacher and the parents. It's a check-in point. It's a fair discussion between to adults about an extremely important subject.

I had one parent make a comment on p.3 of the report that her son "actually comes home after school and tells her what he's been learning." This parent went on to say that her son has been maturing and making some improvements all around. Nice!...

More Report Card Stuff

From my observation, much of the worry around report cards, and the awkwardness that teachers have, is related to discomfort with the computer environment in general. The handling of data files is a concrete example of this. Funny thing: those of us who are uncomfortable with moving data around are quite vocal and willing to say things like "I hate computers" or whatever. We seem to know our area of weakness, but are slow to overcome it. However, we're getting better at it! Yes, it's true.

The number of times that I have guided teachers through the import or data submission process over the past three weeks, not counting the memos I typed and the eTeacher manuals that I made available, is about fifty. This is fewer than previous times, but I'd like to hope that this number will continue to diminish. There are still a sizeable handful of us who have not taken complete ownership of getting the submitted data file where I can get it. The email solution is the best one, but alas, it didn't work for some. (It worked for Sue and for Joanne, and Wally, finally!) This is still my best way of getting your data, because I can get the file from any internet workstation, any time, and I check it regularly. A few used floppy disks to transfer data from home, but I never had to handle the disks because they copied the file from their floppy into the "TAB done" folder themselves. A couple of others gave the disk to me personally, then I did the copy and had to give them back their disk, and a few others didn't transfer data at all, they just left it in eTeacher, where I had to get them to log in, start eTeacher, then submit their data file while I led them through the process. Do you see how we're all over the map?

What a bunch! We're sooooo human.

Reflections on Report Cards

Computer generated reporting should be a dream, not a nightmare.

Talk about splitting hairs! We have report cards with marks on them, which we spend hours calculating, days and weeks teaching towards.... and we have comment boxes which we also spend hours constructing, days and weeks correcting! WHAT THE HECK!

Report cards are a simple summary, a super-concise description of the present state of accomplishment, a (maybe) a word or two about what to fix. They shouldn't be a 250 word treatise on every outcome that was attempted. They shouldn't even be like the evening newspaper that covers who, what, when, where, why and how. Comments should be straight to the point and general in nature. Those looking for more details can come to the interview.

As educators we shouldn't be losing a wink of sleep, nor should we be battling with each other over report card issues. Reporting should be easy and quick. Automated, computer generated reporting should be a dream, not a nightmare. The administration of computerized report cards can be facilitated by clearly stating expectations for comments. One suggested practise is to have teachers submit their comment library in hard copy to administration for prior approval, long before the reports themselves are compiled. This removes much of the confusion and last minute runaround fixing this, that and the other thing. We would save much time at the end if we sat down and planned the process and timelines more carefully. We may even eliminate the need for some of the supply teacher coverage that has been needed.

The final piece is this: Thank goodness for flexible leadership who support and assist the process wherever possible. Thanks to the principal and vice principal who provided some release time to enable the printing to happen. I'm sorry that many of the teachers in our school have felt alienated and embittered during this round of reports. It ought not to have happened.
GB

Workshop Links

emusictheory.com
dolmetsch.com
goodears.com
teoria.com
jf@uts.utoronto.ca
Audacity software
Wavshow
Spectogram wav analyzer
AP instrument tuner
Metronome online
Theorapy
Claim that tune
Bird/animal sounds: do something with it

OMEA Conference

Yes, it was time well spent! Thanks Ken for once again being the guy that made me go.
I'm going to put my links here soon.

OH so frustrating

IN the midst of blessing there are reminders of the curse. Putting together purchase orders for new text books and equipment, exciting!, while at the same time faced with a computer lab that is spawning sick machines. I'm stumped at what is going wrong in the computer lab. We had new motherboards put in all of our machines, but now the same problems are back: machines reboot after log in, freeze up, mice don't work, etc.

Couldn't browse the internet this morning. File not found. what's going on? Then I get a message in my email saying "everything is OK" Really?

She's got me! I'm hers. 

The picture says it all. This kid doesn't like beans. 

The best 10 bucks I ever spent... 

Smores! 

Byng Park

This guy's been too much in the sun! Byng Island Conservation Area is in Dunville. The collection of photos found here were taken at our family's annual father and kids camp-out.

Done! 

Beautiful girl 

Another ham 

Doing marshmallows. 

These are my beautiful kids. 

Link to editing my blogs

Here it is.

Teacher Stuff

Great example of a useful teacher website:

http://www.natomascharter.com/le/staff/kwheeler/index.htm

Flag Football

Thanks coach Crandall, for making a flag football team for my daughter to play in....and thanks for making a spot for her on your team. Mom and I had to tough out the cold weather yesterday to be good fans, but it was worth it. And our team won!

I like the friendly spirit of flag football.

Jays Game

Went to the Blue Jays end of season game today with my son. He liked it. We agreed that it would be good to put the GameBoy away for much of the time. $15.75 for two hot dogs, popcorn, hot chocolate and coffee. Hmmm. Tasted VERY good.

Busy day, weekend gone! Beautiful weather.

Beats Driving!! (picture test)

Little reminders

I was working in the hall yesterday, trying to cut some big corrugated paper, the stuff they put on bulletin boards. Darn stuff was curly and awkward... no fewer than three kids offered to help me, and I accepted. Sometimes kids are such a blessing from God when you least expect it. I could feel Him looking after me through those kids, and reminding me, "I'm looking at you."

What a gift!

The technical guys showed up today in my classroom after school. They had a computer that has blown my mind. It's a P4 2.5 Ghz, with 1 gig of RAM, upscale video card, DVD writer, etc. I'm totally blown away. Where does this kindness come from?

I started by inquiring about how to upgrade one of our network workstations; turns out thats not practical; so the tech. supervisor for the Board in his great kindness offered a swap: I give up a workstation so he has a "spare" and he builds me a "media machine" to meet my needs.

Gotta be careful; this is too exciting! Too much time could be eaten up...but Oohh so exciting!

Learning Dreamweaver

Burning the midnight oil trying to learn Dreamweaver MX. The extensions manager works well. I can put Google search right into my school pages.
Also experimenting with layers and behaviours. You can make images hide on click, and overlap them as well.

Today Elinor went to Jane's birthday party.
We had company for the worship planning team.
Pretty zonked now.

Movie Night

Excellent movie the other night, called October Sky. Trust me, it's got rockets in it so I'm interested. But a good "Dad" movie as well, as opposed to "chick flick". The kids watched it after Brenda and I did, and they liked it too. Gives a good look at what coal mines were like in the fifties.

Odd jobs today...painting the front screen door, moving a shelf, tidying up for company tomorrow. The kids played lego for four straight hours today, as if they'd rediscovered it. I love to see them create things and design things. It's like a mini lesson in architecture to try to fit those blocks together so they stay.

Here goes

Last day of July. That was quick.
Took my family down east for two weeks and had an awesome time.
Next time we'll stop in PEI longer.
Tons of rain today, first time water is in the basement in years, but nothing serious.
Pond plants replanted.
Eating reheated chinese food...yum.
Took my sweetie out to dinner last night and a movie: spiderman2. We liked it. We've been married 14 years and it's great.
Gotta go!