Guitar Hero and Enjoy the 40th

There are many people who play Guitar Hero on their video games. A real guitar hero died today. Les Paul. While I do not play guitar or even pretend that I can I have followed music for a long time. I have listened to all types and enjoy most. My XM radio gives me a chance to listen to a variety of styles. At any rate when I heard that Les Paul had died I started thinking about some of the stuff he has accomplished. One of my favorite memories is of him in a Coors beer commercial. Here is a video of that commercial. Hope you enjoy it.



Let's not forget that this weekend is the 40th anniversary of the the largest outdoor concert ever conceived. Woodstock August 16, 17, 18 1969.

My kids got me the remastered DVD of Woodstock for Father's Day. It has been a blast listening to and watching it. The music was great. On a side note I almost went to that weekend event. A friend of mine was going to drive. When his mom told him he couldn't take the car he wanted to hitch hike to Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York. Not me. I wasn't hitchhiking anywhere. Not even to another galaxy.

Listen the Jefferson Airplane.

Computer Science in High School and other musings

I found this blog written by David Warlick. His blog is called 2₵ Worth-Teaching and Learning in the new information landscape...Here is a link to his last blog about computer science. It is very interesting reading. We used to have AP computer Science at MHS. When the teacher retired no one wanted to teach it. AP classes are plenty of work. He makes some pretty good points about what we are teaching students about not only computer science but computers in general. Let me know what you think.
Here is another video. This time about smart pen from Live Scribe. I don't own one but it looks pretty darn fascinating. Jim has told me about it.

The pen is expensive but the possibilities seem endless.

Some Fun In SC

OK, so this video will be boring to most but I have to put here. It is a fly over video of the golf course I played today. Oyster Reef Golf Course. It is my favorite course to play on the island. I have hit the ball around this track many times. My wife rode along today. I think she had a good time. It was very enjoyable for me. It was her first time on a golf course to see some one play golf. She has been on other courses to watch our son run in cross country meets. So here is the video. Don't fall asleep. Pay particular attention to the fly over on hole #2. It is a 480 yard par 5. I hit a good drive, a nice 3 wood to 114 yards out. The pin was in the back so I hit an easy 8 iron to 10 feet and made the putt for a birdie. I ended up shooting an 87 from the white tees.

Inspirational video

I saw this video on a blog I follow called Moving at The Speed of Creativity written by Wesley Fryer. I thought it was interesting that this school district put forth this effort. It is also a testament to the use of you tube for school activities. Not all things on you tube are bad. Enjoy the video and check out the blog if you don't already follow it. I'm still in SC and enjoying every minute of it.

Monday Morning 8/3

On my way to HHI, SC. Going down to our motor home to clean up lot a little and get coach ready for Emily and Lindsay to stay the following week. We will be there until Friday. Leave Friday and get home Saturday morning in order to attend the jazz festival.

The Backyard

I have taken some pictures of my backyard. My wife and I just love summer and the countless hours of enjoyment the yard brings us. We have many annuals, perennials, a mixture of trees, and a water garden. The water garden is my favorite. We also have a swimming pool. In one of the photos you can see a bench near the pond. We spend time there reading and just listening to the water fall over the waterfall. I uploaded the pictures to Flickr, created a set, asked for a slide show. Here is that slide show. Hope you enjoy it.

Bleeding Green on a Saturday Afternoon

Just read this article about Tom Izzo. If you don't know he is the head basketball coach at
Michigan State University. A friend of mine and fellow Spartan (Tim Toth) posted it on Facebook. The article is called The Fire Still Burns. It is a great story about a great coach.

Thoughts in the Morning 724

I ate dinner last night at Mancy's Steakhouse in Toledo, Ohio last night. I have lived in Monroe my entire life and have never eaten there. They have some pretty good beef. It was my youngest son's birthday. The restaurant even let us bring our own cake. It was a 1-2-3-4 cake. A recipe from the James Beard cookbook. It is a great tasting cake. The dinner and dessert put a dent in my effort to diet.
I also played around last night with Google docs. I used the forms tab in an excel spreadsheet. It was pretty neat. I have been thinking about how I can use it more often in my job. If you have ideas let me know. I'm sure I'll figure out a few. In the form tab you can ask questions to send to colleagues. You then email it to them and when they submit their answers they are instantly put into your spreadsheet. As the instructional video said, no more waiting for lots of emails and then organizing it yourself. If you haven't used Google docs you should try it. Here is a short video on how the use forms:



You can find many tutorials on You Tube on how to use Google docs.

Continue to Blog

My intent is to continue with this blog. For anyone who is interested in the title it is an anagram. I use an Internet anagram maker to help with this. Almost all of the names I use in my fantasy sports leagues are anagrams. Hogtying Bath Newsletter is an anagram for "twenty three things a blog". I have read several good books this summer in addition to playing a lot of golf. My wife suggested I read Looking for Alaska written by John Green. It is a YAL book that is written in a more modern times. I felt it was along the line of Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, and Dead Poet's Society. It was an excellent read and very hard to put away. In addition, I also read Paper Towns by the same author. It also was very good. I am waiting to read his other book An Abundance of Katherines. I have also read a couple of educational books. One had to do with homework. An entire book about homework and the myths that are associated with it. What we can do with homework and how today's students deal with it. What are you reading this summer?

Thing 23

How will I use Web 2.0 in my position as an AP? I will have time to thought of incorporating videos into a powerpoint presentation that I have to at the start of the year. It is a presentation to go over various aspects of what is expected at MHS. I believe I accomplished everything that was required. Albeit, I took a tad longer than most people. As stated earlier there are a ton of things out there to use to motivate students and adults. I have some ideas and now I have the rest of this summer to investigate them. That is, if I don’t procrastinate. Or play too much golf. Or get tied up with my gardening. Or just about anything that keeps me from thinking of work until I actually start. I like the fact that you can stay connected to lots of people using Web 2.0. I really have done a better job of keeping up with others blogs. It has become almost a daily routine. My wife keeps asking, “What are you doing?”. We share a laptop and she is the infant stages of developing on online class through Blackboard. She has become somewhat consumed by it. I plan to learn more about Web 2.0 as I begin to use the features on a more regular basis. I hope to use my Wiki page for MHS administration as a tool to help each other. Although I have to admit with 3 of the AP’s in the same office it is many times easier to just “talk”. My goal is to finish some of the classes I have enrolled in on Michigan LearnPort. I have always thought of myself as one who continues to learn as time goes by. I can remember back to 1988 when Casio came out with these things called graphing calculators. Some professors at CMU and EMU took the technology to heart. They learned it and started professing its worth. I was in one of the first wave of teachers to learn this stuff. It was difficult but I embraced it and learned. I heart graphing calculators. Well, I am finished. I hope to stay connected with all. Thank you Jim Dornberg for a great experience.

Thing 22

I registered for Michigan Learn Port back in April of 2008. I have tried on multiple occasions while waiting after work for my wife to work on them. Very unsuccessful. However, it appears that it may be somewhat easy on my home computer. I visited MLP just a few minutes ago and got farther than I had ever been at work. That's good news. I have to have 18 SB-CEU's by the end of my fifth year of administration in order to keep my job. I have about 3 at this time. I better get moving. Here is a list of the online PD class I looked at:

Promoting Student Achievement in Culturally/Linguistically Diverse Classrooms
Building Teacher Leaders
Champions for Teaching and Learning - An MASA course
No Child Left Behind Basics for Teachers and Principals
Standards-Based Differentiated Math
Turning Data Into Information

My problem is that ugly word that always infiltrates my life. These will be especially good if I can work get myself to work on them. Online PD! What an idea. I can work when I have the time. Like when it is snowing out and we have a snow day. Oops I work on snow days. Nevermind.

With courses like this, and what I see on LearnPort, maybe I can get my SB-CEU's without having to pay a a lot of money. Or sit 6 hours in a chair and at a place I don't really want to be. This PD has been great. And I cannot say enough about Jim. He has been great and very patient with me. It has taken me months longer than it should have to do this PD. Another plus to this is I can now talk some "computer" with the students I work with.

An Answer

http://www.youtube.com/user/KnowHow2Go

This is the actual page that I found the videos for publication. Scroll down and you will see the links to the 4 videos I posted. Save the Frogs. Take a Foreign Language. Scary Math Teacher. Also a short introduction of the 3 is there, I can't recall the title.

I found out about KnowHow2Go while I was in Washington D.C. for the NCTM conference in April. The website gives various tips for 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students as they prepare for college.

Hope this helps.

Thing 21-A continuation

I did use Zamzar to see if I could use it. It worked. I downloaded a study skills video for my wife. It was just an experiment. I received the confirming email in less than 20 minutes. The email states that you must save the file within 24 hours. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the save part within the 24 hours. It was relatively painless to do. YouTube is blocked at MPS. If a video is found on Youtube that you like you can request the tech department personnel to "unblock" it by sending them the link. The problem with this is that all previewing has to be done at home and not during planning time. I will be trying to incorporate some videos into a presentation that I make at the beginning of the year to sophomore class. It will be in a PowerPoint so I will have to learn that thing. When I was in the classroom I always thought it would be fun to show video clips that showed math in movies or TV. The Simpson's had some great math moments and there are many movies that show math concepts. I know that there are some teachers that use video on a regular basis. Again, it is the time factor involved in getting the video approved in our district.

Question 1, not a thing

Does anyone know how to use Teacher tube with Mozilla?

Thing 21

The first video is not educational, unless you are not aware of MSU football. Then it is enlightening.



Here's a funny math video.



Use this video to show the unexpected.

Thing 20 Revisited

Podcasting is something I think students would enjoy. They are different places to explore regarding podcasts. Perhaps another way for students to communicate is through podcasts on blogs. Students might be interested in listening to others give an explanation, state their reasons they liked a book, etc. There are many ways to use podcasts. I believe students would enjoy creating them. I did not have a difficult time using drop.io. It was pretty simple. It is not the greatest speech of all time but it works here. I can see using podcasts in my capacity as an AP. If I could get people to view my blog. The first step there is letting people know I have a blog.

This is not one of the Things

This is not one of the things. However, I did find it very good. There are four videos from the the KnowHow2Go program. It is a program that stresses to kids that they should be preparing for college by taking the tough classes. Here is the link to their site: http://www.knowhow2go.org/

Here is the first video. It introduces the three main characters Algebra II, Foriegn Languages, and Biology. The last three are the characters describing who they are.



Algebra II



Foriegn Languages



Biology

Thing 20

I will answer the other parts of Thing 20 in another post.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

Thing 19

I listened to the following podcasts:
1. Video Math Tutor
2. Teaching with SmartBoard
a. The Virtual TI-83 Calculator and SmartBoard
b. Math, Math, Math
3. The Princeton Review
a. Hemi, semi, and demi
b. English words that came from Spanish
c. Jerks
d. Common Mistakes
e. Uni means one
f. Festival of lights
g. Happy Holidays 2007

Podcasting is listening. Some have video, others don't. For me I need to see the podcast. I learn better visually. If you learn better with just audio than this could be for you. There is a large amount of material on iTunes in the Education section under podcasts. I think teachers need to pick and choose the casts that they would use. We will need to teach our students how to use podcasts. I think some students might not want to download a podcast to their IPOD. However, they might listen to it from a computer if they have a computer readily avaiable. Some teachers out there have done some fantastic things with podcasts. Look, listen, and learn.

This is not a Thing

This is a 3 minute video of the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival Fireworks. They are sponsored by Target. And in my opinion the best fireworks in the country. Happy Fourth of July.

Thing 18

I hope this is correct!



You can use this calculator.

Thing 17

Hey it's a very nice Sunday morning and a great time to "restart" 23 Things. As I said in my new intro I have already done 16 things. I will finish Thing 17 here and now.
As I see it the difference between a blog and a wiki is this: on a blog you write and tell others what you are doing or have done. Add your thoughts about whatever is on your mind. Like what is going on in the world at any particular time. I was reading in the Free Press this morning about a group of scientists that are tracking pythons. (If you get to this link you will have to go to page 30A.) You can see that it is just me telling you about what I have done. Now, as far as a wiki is concerned I think the difference is that other people can collaborate with you. As I stated in my blog about Thing 16 I have created a blog for the MHS administrative team. I am not sure how we will use it but I will start in the fall. We can discuss different ideas about how to utilize staff development time. Discuss items that might be on our weekly agenda. I guess the point is that the way you use wikis might not have a limit. The answer may be found sometime next year.

Thing 16

I have created a wikispace for the MHS administrative team. Here is the link: https://mhsadmin.wikispaces.com/
Haven't done much with it. But I have good intentions.

Thing 14 and 15

I have completed Thing 14 and Thing 15 at about the same time that "da Bulls" were losing by 21 to the Celtics. Not that they have anything to do with each other, just thought I would say that. For Thing 14, I added a math wiki to the MCISD wiki page. For Thing 15, I added some things to the page my wife started about African Americans in South Carolina. I will tell all of you that she completed this page except for three lines that I added. I found that researching South Carolina and trying to narrow my search to notable African American men or women in SC was quite difficult. In addition, I will admit that I just wanted to finish so I stopped looking after finding 3. Fair, I'm not sure but it is what I did.

Thing 13

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36124500@N08/3469972932/

This will get you to the picture of my sand castle as a jigsaw puzzle. I think it would be a very difficult puzzle to complete. I couldn't remember how to post the actual picture.

Thing 12

It has been a long time since I set up my Flickr account. This is obvious by the date of my last blog. Flickr was very interesting. I did not load very many pictures but when time allows I will do more. Time got away from me with the ACT/MME. I was testing coordinator for MHS. No excuse for not doing this. I got busy and didn't get to do as much on weekends. I did try to make a badge but I didn't like it. So it was deleted. I will move on to Thing 13. I have some time tonight as I sit in my hotel room in Washington DC (attending the NCTM National Conference)and watching the Bulls/Celtics NBA playoff game. Basketball is a passion. College, pro, or high school.

Thing 8-An Addendum

Now if I can only get some of the math and science department teachers to hook up in delicious.com we might have something going here. I have added several more sites to my delicious account. Most are tutorials relating to math and science. My name on delicious is ozillgitt. The world of tutorials right at our fingertips. Have a nice Sunday and who knows I may get to Thing 12 sometime in this millennium.

Thing 11

That was pretty easy. I hope that others (Is 23 Things a part of the Dharma Initiative?) find it just as easy. For some unknown reason I did not have to use the verification that was referred to in Jim's short video. I like the slide show I chose because I am the ACT/MME Testing Coordinator for MHS this year. I just completed (with much help from counselors and secretaries)all of the non-testing documentation with 470 11th graders. Now I have to do a staff training session for those that will be room supervisors and test proctors. I wish I could figure out how to show the slide show to our junior class. The ACT/MME is a huge part of their year.
I will try to go to Slide Share frequently and look for more slide shows. It might even get to the point where I will try to upload and share my own presentation. I think back to the class in college in which we were taught about the latest and greatest technology...overhead projectors, slide projectors,chalkboards, movie projectors, etc. Having to demonstrate our ability to operate them. Who could've imagined that someday I would be considering sharing a powerpoint presentation that would be available to anyone in the world. Man, I love this stuff.

Here is a great quote from Dave Barry about technology.
“One day soon the Gillette company will announce the development of a razor that, thanks to a computer microchip, can actually travel ahead in time and shave beard hairs that don't even exist yet.”

A side note to this post is that I learned how to hightlight words and link them to a website. Man, I love this stuff.

Test Taking Strategies

Test Taking Strategies

View more presentations from Jennifer Call. (tags: taking study)

Thing 10

I have created an account on Google Docs. I imported a spreadsheet that I use to create lunch schedules for our administrative team. We alternate duties in the cafeteria by teams. I set up a schedule in excel and send it to each member of our team. They look for mistakes that I might make and send it back to me. I have always emailed it in the past. This time I tried Google Docs. It worked. Each member got the invite to review and correct right on the darn Internet. For the first time in many attempts it appears I made no mistakes.
I didn't really like that the amount of fonts were limited but that's my anal retentiveness at work. I like my fonts and they were only 6 or 7 to choose from. Haven't tried a document yet. I really don't share many documents with others as an AP. However, as a teacher I could see that this would be a great way to share quizzes, tests, worksheets, etc.
One advantage is that you can create and keep presentations in one place on the web that's accessible anytime, from any Internet connected computer.
As I stated earlier a disadvantage is that it appears you are limited in your choices of fonts. Not a big to some but I like my 'Calibri' font, size 12.

Thing 8

This Thing 8 is pretty cool. I have spent more than my fair share of time on this site. I have added quite a few bookmarks (oops...social bookmarks). My topics (oops...tags) range from school safety to my favorite cartoon Frazz. If you don't read frazz you're missing out on some really great humor relating to schools and life. Here is the link to today's cartoon: http://comics.com/frazz/ and of course if you add me to your your network on your delicious account you can also find this link. My user name on http://delicious.com/ is ozillgitt. I have added websites to my account from 3 different computers. I am beginning to think that this is the next best thing (no pun intended) since sliced bread. I hope that I can convince colleagues to begin to utilize many of the feature of Web 2.0.
"If I couldn't laugh I just would go insane, If we couldn't laugh we just would go insane, If we weren't all crazy we would go insane." Jimmy Buffett. Here is the link to Buffett's homepage: http://www.margaritaville.com/.
Looking forward to social bookkmarking with all of you.

Thing 7

I have made my posts to other blogs and sent them to Jim. I spent a lot of time on this lesson. I searched many sights and blogs. I even found a video that I want to put into my blog at som point. I know it is possible because I have seen it done on others blogs. I know it is coming but I don't want to jump ahead of myself. I have also posted a comment on a Special Education Law Blog (double bonus) that is written by Jim Gerl. Here is the link to his blog: http://specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com/. I commented on a blog he wrote about in reference to the lady who had octuplets and already had 6 children. Three of which have special needs. He has other blogs concerning other aspects of Special Education and the law. Here is what it says about Mr. Gerl his blog page. "A fresh look at special education law-mostly in understandable English. Jim Gerl is a consultant for a number of state education agencies, and he is a frequent speaker on special ed law topics. He has presented at many national and regional conferences, and he has given interviews for numerous publications. He's also a due process hearing officer and mediator for a number of states." I chose a Sped Law blog for a couple of reasons. One, my wife is a special education teacher. Second, my youngest daughter is in her last semester of law school. I don't think she is interested in school law. Civil law is her speciality.

Thing 6

Yikes. Wow. Frustrating. What a time I had trying to get bloglines to work. Bloglines would not send a validation email to my work email. After 5 attempts to get a validation email I switched email addresses. Lo and behold I got the validation before I could say, "C'mon please work this time." I also sent 3 emails to Bloglines pleading for them to send me a validation. They did not respond to those either. I must have missed something somewhere about not using my work email. I hope to be able to look at this feed everyday as Jim has asked. It is getting confusing trying to work at home at after I am finished working at school. I am trying to maintain folders named 23 Things on both my work computer and my laptop at home. I haven't even attempted anything on our desktop at home. On to Thing 7 in the very near future.
P.S. Now try posting on a computer that your wife is also using for the same class. I posted in her blog. Had to delete it from her blog and then try to remember my password to sign in. I have it written down but it is at work. I may be in deeper than I thought.
P.S.v1.o Don't forget to title your darn blog.

Thing 5

I have looked at each of the items for Thing 5 at least two times. The simple explanation is that Web 2.0 is a read and write format. Hopefully, I can post information about topics that I have read about. I will try to incorporate both educational and personal items. At this time I am reading two books. Not difficult. One is Never Work Harder than Your Students by Robyn R. Jackson. Watching my wife teach Special Education might be the anti-thesis to that title. The other is sports related. I have been a participant and follower of sports most of my life. A follower mostly. I am reading The Big O by Oscar Robertson. He is arguably one of the greatest to ever play basketball. Enough rambling...it is on to church and maybe Thing 6 later today.

(Thing 4) From 1956 to Present-A Short Learning/Teaching Perspective

There is little doubt that education has changed since I began school some 53 years ago. I can remember my kindergarten teacher. However, this is only because she recognized me when I attended Trinity Episcopal Church. I attended grade school at Trinity Lutheran School. I remember most of the teachers I had in grade school and high school. We were taught to memorize at TLS. We even had a class in Memory. You would have to memorize a bible passage, a creed, a prayer and then recite it and say, "What does this mean?" I can remember learning my multiplication facts. When you learned a new set you had to say those and then all the others that you had learned. We sat in rows, the teacher taught and we shot it back at them. High school and college was pretty much the same for me. Go to class, sit in rows, listen to the teacher and then give back the knowledge via tests or homework. My high school freshman English teacher and Algebra teacher had a huge impact on me as a student. They taught me to learn for understanding and not be afraid to make a mistake or even fail. Truth be told much of my teaching career was to give students information. I think I was pretty progressive when it came to using calculators in the classroom. I embraced their effectiveness and the opportunity they allowed for more in depth learning. This is especially true with respect to graphing calculators. Students today are allotted opportunities that I once never thought possible. A calculator that graphs a function...C'mon (You mean you really don't have to graph with paper and pencil). A vehicle in which you can look up information at the click of a button. No more Dewey Decimal System, encyclopedias, slide rules, etc. All can be done on a computer or the Internet. Many of the slide shows I watched for THING 4 were progressive approaches to 21st century learning. I want kids to be lifelong learners. Many times they want to learn life lessons that I don't agree with. Or even what politicians think is best for them. The biggest drawback to all of this is M-O-N-E-Y. Where do we get it? As an administrator I have to look at budget cuts each year. Cut programs, cut teachers. We are asked to do more with less. And that is a difficult thing to accept.

Thing 3

I have never blogged before but I have read blogs. My youngest son used to blog while he was in college and med school. Mostly he shared his blog with his friends and they took turns writing. They could be quite funny. Probably my biggest fear is that people will get mad or make fun of what I write and post. Maybe even tell me that it was a really silly topic to address. I am going to assume that as I continue to do this that it will get easier to formulate my thoughts so that others can see. I fear that others will look at my opinions and what I post and think that I have no idea or clue as to what is going on. I hope that as I write these blogs that I can use my sense of humor and make others laugh. I hope that this is enough to answer those few questions for Thing 3.

The Name of This Blog

The name of my blog has been formed from one of my favorite pastimes for creating names. I will leave it up to the reader to figure out how I came up with the name. I am off to finish other "things". I have used this method to create many of the names I use for my fantasy sports teams. This year my fantasy basketball team is Mingling Madman Jams. MMJ currently occupies second place in The MOW League.
As I write this first blog I am also wondering where my wife and I will eat dinner tonight. I am getting hungry.