It Spritzed today.. just a sprinkle of rain.
The teacher had a leftover word up on the board today.. lawsuit
One of my Autistic students who notices everything asked me "What is a lawsuit." I had answered the question the day before so I could not resist the cheeky response. The other adults in the room chortled under their breath.
The Mr. Brown answer to the question of what is a lawsuit..
Its the clothes the lawyer wears into court... where do these come from?
I spent most of the day doing a speech eval, writing a report and emailing it.. and writing another report and gettting it ready for inclusion.
One school came up with a detailed list of about 17 things that I need to do with their time. That will be a real help. I am sure they looked at it like a punitive thing. Its only punitive if you want to look at it that way.
Life is so much better if you don't project punitive assumptions.
Love
Pat
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Inaugration and such
My students in the class were mesmerized by the Obama inauguration. I am always amused at the hearing reporters drone on about nothing and when there is something they let the vents develop without interpretation.
At the first high school the coverage was coming through Fox news. At the other school we were watching the parade part through ABC. ABC was letting the parade progress while Fox news was listening for a peace message to the right leaning part of the United States. They were more than satisfied when they heard references to the private sector as the engine behind the greatness of the country. They were also pleased to hear the references to the military. It might be just different parts of the process but the approach looked different.
One of my students in my afternoon classes was sure that females were not strong enough to be in the military. What is more interesting is that my co teacher in the afternoon was a former marine officer. He was pretty surprised to hear this. He was further surprised to find out that she was in the 98th percintile in strength among all of her class in bootcamp.
It took some interesting support for him to undertand that there could be women in the military. He also had to come to grips with the thought that they might be stronger and could fight to support the men who are not as strong as some women.
Recently I have been testing the most needy of the speech students. Needy in the since that their I.E.P. triannials are coming up soon. There is a whole different rhythm in testing than in teaching.
Classes at one school are pretty much ready for the change. The classes at the other school are still in flux as there has to be para support to move students from one class to another and to get them ready at the right time for leaving school.
I am confident that that will be worked out soon.
: ) Pat
At the first high school the coverage was coming through Fox news. At the other school we were watching the parade part through ABC. ABC was letting the parade progress while Fox news was listening for a peace message to the right leaning part of the United States. They were more than satisfied when they heard references to the private sector as the engine behind the greatness of the country. They were also pleased to hear the references to the military. It might be just different parts of the process but the approach looked different.
One of my students in my afternoon classes was sure that females were not strong enough to be in the military. What is more interesting is that my co teacher in the afternoon was a former marine officer. He was pretty surprised to hear this. He was further surprised to find out that she was in the 98th percintile in strength among all of her class in bootcamp.
It took some interesting support for him to undertand that there could be women in the military. He also had to come to grips with the thought that they might be stronger and could fight to support the men who are not as strong as some women.
Recently I have been testing the most needy of the speech students. Needy in the since that their I.E.P. triannials are coming up soon. There is a whole different rhythm in testing than in teaching.
Classes at one school are pretty much ready for the change. The classes at the other school are still in flux as there has to be para support to move students from one class to another and to get them ready at the right time for leaving school.
I am confident that that will be worked out soon.
: ) Pat
Sunday, January 18, 2009
5 hours later
This is the first post from the new computer.. and what a fine one it is. Thanks to a 2K grant from my dad I am punching out a message on the new computer.
Its really fast.. but alas it does not have everything that the old one had. I am still renewing the subscriptions to all of those handy little pieces of software that help the creative process. A new snapz pro.. a new tangerine. a new transmit.
The new "office" works nicely as well as the new "IWork." I will still have to wait for the new Ilife 09 as it was not ready for Mac World. The Creative Suite did not ship with the new IMac so I am pretty much not able to do the photoshop thing. I have been enjoying the use of the new Aperture that came with the computer. I have plowing through the Lyndia. com to learn as much as I can to learn how to use this powerful program. So much to learn it is exciting.
At school they have installed a projector in the classroom so that means that I will be able to use some PowerPoints for my lessons. I had contemplated getting a lap top instead of this beauty. I am hoping to get one of those to move the creation in other places.. but I am not ready to give up the monitor and the power of a desktop model.
I am enjoying the music of Tom Paxton this weekend..
Check out the blog of Tom Russell another folk singer referrenced at the bottom of this blog. He has a very clear voice interesting blog.
Hope your 3 day is going well.
Pat
Its really fast.. but alas it does not have everything that the old one had. I am still renewing the subscriptions to all of those handy little pieces of software that help the creative process. A new snapz pro.. a new tangerine. a new transmit.
The new "office" works nicely as well as the new "IWork." I will still have to wait for the new Ilife 09 as it was not ready for Mac World. The Creative Suite did not ship with the new IMac so I am pretty much not able to do the photoshop thing. I have been enjoying the use of the new Aperture that came with the computer. I have plowing through the Lyndia. com to learn as much as I can to learn how to use this powerful program. So much to learn it is exciting.
At school they have installed a projector in the classroom so that means that I will be able to use some PowerPoints for my lessons. I had contemplated getting a lap top instead of this beauty. I am hoping to get one of those to move the creation in other places.. but I am not ready to give up the monitor and the power of a desktop model.
I am enjoying the music of Tom Paxton this weekend..
Check out the blog of Tom Russell another folk singer referrenced at the bottom of this blog. He has a very clear voice interesting blog.
Hope your 3 day is going well.
Pat
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Walking the Walk
Its a beautiful cool Winter morning in the Central Valley today.
I wore my big puffy down coat and discovered that it was way too warm for the 2mile plus walk I took.
The manager was working my Starbucks cup of cap.. and it was great..19 second pull. I printed the signature page for the shipment that is due today via Fed Express ground. It has been traveling all night long. It went to Sacramento and was checked in at midnight. Then it made a quick run to Stockton where it was loaded on the local delivery for today.. I hope.
One of my TA's of years gone back is applying to go to graduate school for speech pathology. She asked me to write a recommendation.
This is how it works in today's academic world. She sent me an
Acrobat file with all of her information filled out. I printed it and will send 5 copies of it to the schools she is applying to.. San Jose State and Fresno State. I really hopes she gets in. She went to Chico State and did the undergraduate bit in CH. She has taken off a semester and ready to go after it again in grad school. Both of her parents are teachers and her sister is a speech and lang in the elementary school.
Linage is important to long term survival in the school business.
Have a great Saturday!
Pat
I wore my big puffy down coat and discovered that it was way too warm for the 2mile plus walk I took.
The manager was working my Starbucks cup of cap.. and it was great..19 second pull. I printed the signature page for the shipment that is due today via Fed Express ground. It has been traveling all night long. It went to Sacramento and was checked in at midnight. Then it made a quick run to Stockton where it was loaded on the local delivery for today.. I hope.
One of my TA's of years gone back is applying to go to graduate school for speech pathology. She asked me to write a recommendation.
This is how it works in today's academic world. She sent me an
Acrobat file with all of her information filled out. I printed it and will send 5 copies of it to the schools she is applying to.. San Jose State and Fresno State. I really hopes she gets in. She went to Chico State and did the undergraduate bit in CH. She has taken off a semester and ready to go after it again in grad school. Both of her parents are teachers and her sister is a speech and lang in the elementary school.
Linage is important to long term survival in the school business.
Have a great Saturday!
Pat
Friday, January 16, 2009
Checking it out at the UC
At coffee today I ran into the manager at the UC in town. He is runnning the numbers for me this morning to see if he can do my computer purchase at a better price.
Admittedly I have a complicated order.. so. But he says that he has a tricked out Mac laptop for 1300 dollars for sale..hmmmmm. I might need both.
Its really nice to have a prospect in your future.
No fog today..no ice today..
Its Friday..
Working today with my Firejumper kids.. there is a fire.. I need to put it out.
Worked with one yesterday...dysfluency..or is it dyslunacy? The student is in a school that most people in town don't even know exists.. even the educators.. its a SELPA school for the Emotionally disturbed.. and criminally.. you know the rest. Nice kid.. tough enviorns...
Have a great day..
Pat
Admittedly I have a complicated order.. so. But he says that he has a tricked out Mac laptop for 1300 dollars for sale..hmmmmm. I might need both.
Its really nice to have a prospect in your future.
No fog today..no ice today..
Its Friday..
Working today with my Firejumper kids.. there is a fire.. I need to put it out.
Worked with one yesterday...dysfluency..or is it dyslunacy? The student is in a school that most people in town don't even know exists.. even the educators.. its a SELPA school for the Emotionally disturbed.. and criminally.. you know the rest. Nice kid.. tough enviorns...
Have a great day..
Pat
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Buying a New Mac
Dad has agreed to buy me a new Mac. He has promoted me into getting it soon.. so
I went on line and bought one.. almost
He thought that I should get one like his. A 24 inch intel chipped IMac. The current speed in 2.8mhrz. The problem that I have had is that getting one of these beauties would also require getting a different set of software to run it. Everything is working well with my current set up.
Apple and and Adobe combined to work a pretty amazing deal. If you buy the Creative Studio Premium (which includes Photoshop and other great Adobe programs) you will save over 1300 dollars in educational discounts with the software and computer.
So I ordered it up through the Apple store like I thought you were supposed to do. Then I called the apple 800 number and ordered the CS4 to go along with it. Well... you were supposed to order on the phone and not online to get the discount. Doing it the other way is about 600 dollars more.
The apple person on the line canceled my online order and wrote me a new one for the additional software.
There were some choices that had to be made. I always bet a bigger hard drive than basic. It came with 350 GB. For 45 dollars more you get to 500 gb. I needed the Microsoft Office for students and education too. It can come loaded on for $145. There was an option for Aperture 2 to be installed for another 175. Might as well get IWork. The new Ilife will cost me an additional 10 bucks when it comes out the end of this month. The CS4 was $345. I will have to send in my proof of academic eligibility within a month to maintain it on the computer.
So.. bottom line this venture is 2799.07. That seems like a lot of money. The guys around around the lunch table didn't think so. They all remember their Si's or even our original Macs that cost at least 3K and that was in that years economy and we were all making a whole lot less per year.
So all of this messing around with the order, cancellation and reorder, sent my credit card company into fits. They had an automated call to me right after the order to see if I had actually made the order. The power on their connection was so poor that I couldn't hear what they had to say.. so the credit card company canceled the order.
This morning I called the number on the back on the card and an automated response computer read all of the recent transactions. I okayed it with the press of the 2 key and it released the card to gather more activity.
The apple confirmation showed that I had a problem. It had a place for the customer to resend to the previous card. I did that and this afternoon I got a congratulations letter via e-mail.
So I am hoping that the new computer will hit.. or rather slide gently on the porch next week. Hard to say with so many people taking time off to enjoy the inauguration of our new President on Tuesday. Monday we have MLK day off. So will many others.
Trash is out so it must be Thursday.
Love
Pat
I went on line and bought one.. almost
He thought that I should get one like his. A 24 inch intel chipped IMac. The current speed in 2.8mhrz. The problem that I have had is that getting one of these beauties would also require getting a different set of software to run it. Everything is working well with my current set up.
Apple and and Adobe combined to work a pretty amazing deal. If you buy the Creative Studio Premium (which includes Photoshop and other great Adobe programs) you will save over 1300 dollars in educational discounts with the software and computer.
So I ordered it up through the Apple store like I thought you were supposed to do. Then I called the apple 800 number and ordered the CS4 to go along with it. Well... you were supposed to order on the phone and not online to get the discount. Doing it the other way is about 600 dollars more.
The apple person on the line canceled my online order and wrote me a new one for the additional software.
There were some choices that had to be made. I always bet a bigger hard drive than basic. It came with 350 GB. For 45 dollars more you get to 500 gb. I needed the Microsoft Office for students and education too. It can come loaded on for $145. There was an option for Aperture 2 to be installed for another 175. Might as well get IWork. The new Ilife will cost me an additional 10 bucks when it comes out the end of this month. The CS4 was $345. I will have to send in my proof of academic eligibility within a month to maintain it on the computer.
So.. bottom line this venture is 2799.07. That seems like a lot of money. The guys around around the lunch table didn't think so. They all remember their Si's or even our original Macs that cost at least 3K and that was in that years economy and we were all making a whole lot less per year.
So all of this messing around with the order, cancellation and reorder, sent my credit card company into fits. They had an automated call to me right after the order to see if I had actually made the order. The power on their connection was so poor that I couldn't hear what they had to say.. so the credit card company canceled the order.
This morning I called the number on the back on the card and an automated response computer read all of the recent transactions. I okayed it with the press of the 2 key and it released the card to gather more activity.
The apple confirmation showed that I had a problem. It had a place for the customer to resend to the previous card. I did that and this afternoon I got a congratulations letter via e-mail.
So I am hoping that the new computer will hit.. or rather slide gently on the porch next week. Hard to say with so many people taking time off to enjoy the inauguration of our new President on Tuesday. Monday we have MLK day off. So will many others.
Trash is out so it must be Thursday.
Love
Pat
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Just a little Respect
What does a teacher need?
A place to work.
Some students to work with.
Something to teach them.
What happens when you don't have these basics.. its pretty hard.
Thats where I am. No place to work. Yet expectation to teach them. No defined students yet expectations to find them.
Its hard to explain. But if I did, it sounds like I am complaining. When teachers complain, there is a little switch that goes off. People don't hear.
We had to move to two different rooms because the office didn't schedule me in for the new year. The student was a home school student, that had to come back on the campus that he left to home schooling. Then navigate through the 2800 student campus to the back, and when he got there, we had to move our session twice to get some work done.
I am supposed to get some testing done. All of the students are supposed to have their files examined and testing will proceed to bring us all into compliance. My relief teacher has not been found (or not informed of the change) and so I am still teaching my afternoon classes as they still keep coming.
This afternoon I received an email from my boss asking for a report on my progress to getting this testing done and lists that were made.
First the horse... then the cart.
Pat
A place to work.
Some students to work with.
Something to teach them.
What happens when you don't have these basics.. its pretty hard.
Thats where I am. No place to work. Yet expectation to teach them. No defined students yet expectations to find them.
Its hard to explain. But if I did, it sounds like I am complaining. When teachers complain, there is a little switch that goes off. People don't hear.
We had to move to two different rooms because the office didn't schedule me in for the new year. The student was a home school student, that had to come back on the campus that he left to home schooling. Then navigate through the 2800 student campus to the back, and when he got there, we had to move our session twice to get some work done.
I am supposed to get some testing done. All of the students are supposed to have their files examined and testing will proceed to bring us all into compliance. My relief teacher has not been found (or not informed of the change) and so I am still teaching my afternoon classes as they still keep coming.
This afternoon I received an email from my boss asking for a report on my progress to getting this testing done and lists that were made.
First the horse... then the cart.
Pat
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