Stick a fork in it

You know you are licked when you have to place the white flag in your food.  We tried everything at this resturant in Orlando, Bento Cafe. The price is right and they have a huge variety of foods, Japanese, Tai, Vietnamese and Chinese. They were out of the Udon when we ate there, but everything was tasty.  They do takeout as well.

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Vacation?

Watching my husband stand on an entertainment unit and hang massive pictures.
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Empanadas from Mr. Empanada

    I have to find out of they ship, these are the best empanadas we have EVER tasted. 

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Shrimps with Oyster Sauce

 Yes, I calls em shrimps- I did not get a lot of this dish- as the sides were high and I kept forgetting what was in the dish as it sat at the wrong end of the table.   My husband loved them- so I will have to make them.

Here is the recipe:

• 1 lb. large shrimps with shells and tails on
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, sliced thinly
• 1 tsp. fish sauce
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 2 tbsp. oyster sauce (Oyster sauce is made with dried oysters, soy salt and brine)
• salt 
• me

Directions

1.  Invite me over for dinner, I will bring the wine or beer.
2. In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic and onions until fragrant and translucent.
3. Add fish sauce; stir. Pour in tomato sauce.  Simmer until slightly reduced and thick.
4. Add shrimps; stir. Cook until shrimps are coated with sauce and the color of the shrimp JUST turns pink (Do not overcook this dish or I won't bother eating it!).
5. Add oyster sauce. Continue cooking until shrimps are cooked and coated with sauce. Adjust seasoning with salt as needed.

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Holiday meal

Kare Kare Pata

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I posted this picture of our holiday meal from my cell phone, and now I am going back to tell you about it.  This is oxtail with Bok Choy, green beans and  chinese eggplants. It is a Filipino dish called Kare Kare Pata (Oxtail stew).  Our friends made us the most fabulous holiday meal, we were able to have the traditional Filipino foods that we only get about once a year.  Lets face it, we can eat turkey and ham anytime of the year, but there is nothing like a friend slaving over a hot stove to make you something special and traditional to their culture.  The other dishes are posted separately, but since this is my husband's favorite, I will start with this one.
Everyone has their own special way of making  Kare Kare, this is a fairly mild version where no particular flavor will stand out, it is balanced well.  Of course, by adding the shrimp paste (bagoong) on the rice, you can change the flavor by degrees. I love Baby Bok Choy, so I would add more to this dish than you might. I would also make the eggplant smaller than this photo, they are easier to cut when raw. They are slippery little suckers to cut once they have been in broth.

Ingredients

3-4 pounds of oxtail

(6-8 cups) water

2 beef bouillon cubes Baby Bok Choy

1/4 pound long green beans cute into 2 inch sizes, or just cut in  half

1 Japanese eggplant (cut in bite sized pieces)  or a few small chinese eggplant (brinjal)

1 medium onion, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp achuete (annatto) powder

1/2 cup peanut butter for thickening (creamy)

Bagoong (shrimp paste) to taste salt and pepper How to make it: 1. Boil oxtail for at least 2 hours in the salt and pepper seasoned water. Add the beef bouillon cubes. Skim off fat as it cooks and at the end. Remove the meat from the broth and set aside. 2. Cook the Baby Bok Choy, long beans, and eggplant in the broth until they are just tender. Season with salt and pepper. 3. In a different large pan, saute the onion in the olive oil and add the peanut butter. Add achuete powder for color and add garlic right at the end so it won't impart a bitter or burnt flavor. 4. Pour in half the oxtail broth and cook 5 minutes. Add the oxtail and cook for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the broth and the vegetables. Serve with brown rice and bagoong(shrimp paste).

Did I at least get an honorable mention?

I was on David Pogue's page today and noticed he had a new book for sale:
The World According to Twitter
By David Pogue and His 500,000 Followers
The wit and wisdom of the Twittersphere captured in a collection of hand-picked tweets.



Now,  I am tempted to buy this book just to see if he gave me credit for sucking him into the twittersphere.  Let me explain...
A few years ago, when I was "into" twitter, I noticed that my favorite tech guru was listed, but had no tweets.  He had many followers, but no tweets.  I emailed him, despite his page-long explanation of why he doesn't normally respond to emails, and asked him why he had not tweeted. Here is my email to him, which I have lovingly saved for 2 years:

On 12/5/08 6:58 AM, "michelle -----" wrote:

By now you know that twitter is like crack for some people, you have  a decent following and you haven't tweeted in a year.  I am just wondering why you stopped using it.  Was a fun toy that couldn't sustain itself, did you not find anyone interesting to follow? Just curious.  There are tons of people who throw up twitpics and the applications are  multiplying day by day.  I think there are a lot of annoying marketing people on there, but there are also some very funny people, i just dump the ones I don't like. I'm a bit of a twitch that way. throw your followers a bone, too lazy to correct this i am drying my hair at the same time.

His response:
I’m glad you wrote... I was just thinking about this last night...

I DON’T GET IT!

I need a Twitter teacher.

I’ve sent out tweets several times, and they just... disappear into the void. How do I know if anyone’s listening? Sometimes I pose a question ... nobody answers.

I once saw a guy with a Twitter program that runs in the corner of his Mac screen, so he doesn’t have to be logged into the Web site to do Twittering. What was that?

Can you help me?

Hope your hair dried OK!


dp

My response:

I think that application is called twitterific, it is for the macs.  I have a

gadget on my blog so when I am workign there I can tweet from my blog and see

what is being posed by the people I am following.  You have a bunch of

followers already so THEY will see what you are tweeting every time you tweet,

you will see the people you are following.  A lot of twitterers talk to each

other, they put an @sign in front of the username they are addressing. then

when you are in your home page you can look to the right and check your @

messages first to see if anyone had something to say directly to you.

you can also DM each other if you are following each other.

Tweets can be general or specific, it depends on your style.  I will email

more later, go to get back to the class.

Michelle -----------

A short relationship followed with questions asked through twitter on DMs, but they were BORING, so I won't share them here. Since he dived back in, Dave has tweeted 3,500 times has 1,327,540 followers, has written at least five columns about the application, and has now written a book.  I think I deserve an honorable mention.

My most successful student...

Test blog from phone<3

Science Fair Jog

After last week's tooltime from Tolis, I was inspired to test out his web2.0 tool, Jog the Web. I have had occasion to use it twice in as many days for two differet teachers.  Thanks Tolis!  Here is the jog we created this morning for teachers conducting science fairs who don't want their students looking at conclusions, just the project ideas and structures.

Science Fair Jog for Ms. DeTullio

Our Science Fair Jog

UPDATE:  Using this resource almost every day now for many different teachers.  I love the organization it offers- just link the jog on their sidebar and students have a ready made webquest or digital map to follow.  

"The Gift"

My daughter's Select Choir Group singing "The Gift" on Lite Rock 96.9 this morning. I cannot believe how this all worked out.  I was sick this morning and stayed home from work and then my daughter texted me that she was on the radio and to turn it on.  I heard her say something about GOING to a radio station, I did not hear anything about her SINGING on the radio with her choir.  How cool! I am so glad I did not miss it.  Divine intervention, Dr. Ackerman called it. So this is what happens when dad signs a permission slip I have never even seen.  Now I am so full of holiday spirit I may actually write out a Christmas card or two, after I take more aspirin and get some rest.

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"My Favorite Things" and "Sleigh Ride"

My daughter's Select Choir Group performing live this morning on Lite Rock 96.9.

"My Favorite Things"
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"Sleigh Ride"

Chasing the Night

Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen

My rating: 3 1/2 of 5 stars


I really liked the plot, it was interesting and contained many of the CSI type elements I look for. However, there are many characters who were only half developed. I do not know if they are in her other novels, SO, I may revise this review as I read more from Johansen. I just found out that this is a the latest in a series, though I cannot tell from the book where in the timeline it falls. SERIOUS ERROR! I can already tell that Johansen favors a strong heroine or in this case, a few strong heroines. Each character had a rich, serious back story that we only get glimpses of, so I wanted more, More, MORE. There were possible conflicts that never quite reached the boilover point and the dialogue doesn't always reflect the inner struggles of the characters. I would favor a more human vulnerability from time to time over the struggle to always be strong and driven. Great cliffhanger ending that makes me think I missed some MAJOR character development in other works. I did read Silent Thunder by this author and it was unconnected to this story. I will definitely read more. It is clear that each character from this book could have their own spin-off series, so now I have to go and research who is in which book in which order. It would have been nice if this was included IN the book as a guide.




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IKEA Thanksgiving Parade Finale 2010

 My baby in front of Santa!

IKEA Thanksgiving Parade 2010

My Daughter's Choir performing in the parade.

42 of 3123...

I finally got around to de-authorizing my computers in tunes, and reauthorizing two of them. I had only one computer left and was sure I had not de-authorized two machines I used in two different schools a while back.  I think it is  a shame we can only do this once a year, I mean, what does it cost Apple anyway?  the 42 of 3123 represents the fact that I finally turned on home sharing between my two macbooks.  Right now 3123 songs are making their way through space to live on my other laptop.  It is a beautiful thing. I will update later and tell you how long it took.  Here is a link telling you how to use home sharing in itunes.  Now I have to figure out how to share the  playlists and  the settings for each ipod and nano.

Blood Vines

Blood Vines by Erica Spindler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I rate books by my ability to put them down.  If I can, they don't reach the top of my pile.  While I COULD put Spindler's Blood Vines down, I was also happy to pick it back up again.  It was worth the overdue fine at the library.  I thought I would get more wine country, but it was a book about personal relationships and family ties set against the backdrop of California Wine Country.  Fast paced action, a bit of steaminess, and enough murder and mystery to keep the reader engaged, Blood Vines will while away the hours and challenge your mind to find out who is behind all the blood in the wine caves.


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Private Life

Private Life by Jane Smiley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I did not care much for this book except for the historical relevance to Einstein, Word War II, and the San Francisco Earthquake/fire.  Long suffering woman married to a man who lives on his own level.  Not enough hope to keep me going. I did finish it, but it became a chore.


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Weekly Floride Treatments-Weird to me

The school nurse came by the classroom this morning  and left these little cups filled with green liquid.  "Are they mouthwash," I asked the other teacher?
Chuckling, she replied, "No honey, they are fluoride treatments."

I had heard of these mythical treatments but have never seen them before, outside of that stuff the dentist puts on our teeth twice a year. That is what living in the country is all about, well water you can't drink because of high sodium content and Fluoride treatments.

All she does is smile?

During a Skype session with my evil twin Sheila the students clustered around and wanted to extend their greetings.  They could see my face and Sheila's as we talked to each other.  Then, we lost connection. When we reestablished it, Sheila did not automatically turn her video; on  her avatar was showing instead.  One of the students stopped by my desk and watched for a few minutes and then scoffed, "All she does is smile?"  I could not stop laughing.

"In the midst of my preparations for hari-kari"

I did not SEE the calendar mention about class not being held this week, and I was waiting for everyone to show up so I could finally get my tooltime out of the way. To my dismay, no one appeared. After about 10 minutes,  I  looked at the calendar again and realized I was looking at the wrong week and I was two weeks off. "In the midst of my preparations for hari-kari" I decided to just go ahead and have my tooltime! I It has literally been hanging over my head for weeks and I archived it for your viewing pleasure. I am sorry you all missed it, but I can be persuaded to redo it live, for a nominal fee.

Technology Invasion!

I was teaching a bunch of teachers how to use blogging with their students and a teacher mentioned the invasion of technology. WHAT A MIND BLOWER!   I am an integrationist, not an invader, but ultimately,  this is how the teachers view these changes to their curriculum.    I know where they are coming from, no one likes to be told to do something that is not of their own choosing and teachers have had to deal with NCLB and many more mandates for years.  They are fed up.  I have to walk on eggs sometimes because they are so adamantly opposed to technology.  Don't get me wrong, they act like they are interested, they do their best to "fit it in,"  but I can hear them the second my back is turned, complaining to each other about what they have to do now.   Technology upsets their pacing charts, it gets in the way of content during the learning curve process.  They make little digs about technology and I have to really try not to get upset and take it personally.  But I am the face of what they are hating and that is difficult.
I have to remind myself that there are things I do
not like to do either.  After all, I hate math, I really really hate it, and I try to act excited about it when I have to teach it, but lets face it, we all have different interests, and that is what makes us interesting to other people.  I respect the teachers I work with and pray that I keep understanding their pain as they try to change the way they teach to fit the interests of the generation we are teaching.  It IS hard, technology integration is unlike any other educational reform that has ever taken place.  It is constantly changing and shifting and is sometimes like working on quicksand.

You have to get it done and fast because the internet could go down, the moviemaker could freeze up again, the edublog logins will fail due to timing out.  It is stressful and uncomfortable for anyone who doesn't love and embrace technology.   For all the teachers forced to integrate technology, I feel for you. My hope is to be less of an invader and more of an organic presence over the year.

What really happened to the Roanoke Colony

 This was a project that my son and his 7th grade friends worked on for a weekend.  They had to explain the disappearance of the Roanoke colony. They also had to explain the word Croatan carved into a post. They clearly had lots of fun.  It looked way better on the big screen with a disk. but you know how much resolution is lost when uploading to youtube.  Welcome any suggestions about boosting resolution.  Someone gave me handbreak, I have to figure out how to use it.
This is not a repeat post but rather an update as to my progress burning the project. Again, I do not have a superdrive but I WAS able to save as a disk image and burn that with an external drive. WOW it works, I read it in the forums as I mentioned in the earlier post, but I implemented it last night and burned copies for all my son's friends who took part. It would have been better if the kids had seen what I did for them so that they could do it, but they all have piano and babysitting and all those other things going on.

Identity Crisis

Sometimes our plans do not always pan out exactly as we wish.  This mixed media piece by a local artist became an amalgam of an idea and the result of experimental painting and oil pastel techniques.  It was meant to be one thing for his class and grew into another.  Abstract painting was not as he expected it to be.  His description of his painting process and the process of this particular piece was quite interesting.  For more information on this artist, contact me.  I would appreciate if you could comment on what you thought this painting represented.  I will be happy to forward your feedback to the artist. I will not tell you what it was meant to be, I will await your comments.

Can You See Me Now?

One of my friends, who shall remain nameless, thinks that he is invisible when wearing his "Digital Camouflage jacket." Since I am a techie, I should not be able to see him. What do you think?  I think I can still see him, but I do need glasses you know.

Not There Anymore

I am not a happy person all the time, I get depressed or tired and I tend to take it out on the people around me who love me. I know I can get away with it. But if I was to stay that way for an extended period of time, it would wear on them and they would stop caring about me and my feelings. It would affect them too.

 I can put up with a lot, but I am not impervious to depressed behavior either. People who are miserable do affect the ones they love. Because they are depressed and want to bury themselves away from the world, they are free to wallow in their misery. They are perhaps not aware of the ones they leave behind. What about the people who enjoyed talking with you and hanging out? Are they not important?
 Losing someone to depression is a loss, it is like a death, because they are just not there anymore. They have left us behind and can't get beyond their own misery. Think about it, when someone you love dies and you can't just pick up the phone and call them, it hurts. You get that little shock all over again every time it happens. When someone you love is depressed and refuses to answer the phone, it is not much different. You still have that instinct to call only you also know that you are not stronger than the depression. Not strong enough to break through that veil at all. Either way, it is sad being the one left behind.

Convention 2010

Another year passes and we crashed as many hospitality events as we could.  In an effort to not lose my mind over being charged twenty bucks a day for valet parking at the Sheraton at the Convention Center, I made sure they could not charge me for anything else if I could help it.  I will not reveal my secrets, because I plan on using them in the coming years.  I love getting together with my friends once a year and staying over, even though we all live close enough to drive home each night.  The chance to catch up and share our lives is worth the few hundred bucks we spend for our outing. Shopping was out this year as I did not feel like braving the rain to get to the outlets. Consequently, my son STILL does not have his new winter coat.  I will have to go out this week and get one. I also have to return a sweater. I was busy in class HOTEL WIMBA and ordered in some delicious room service from the Tun Tavern on my first night in AC.  Never did get around to returning that sweater but I was relieved that my class went well.  I was worried that my connection wouldn't be good enough to participate in the online session. As soon as I was done, I met my friends for the dirtiest martini ever and we spent the rest of the night laughing our butts off and sharing our latest news. My friends may live far away, but it only took a hug to get back into the swing of things and it was like we never parted.

PLN

Working hard on my PLN, I met a lot of very grr people at the NJEA convention this past week and I am connecting to them using Grouply, Ning, Thinkfinity Community, Linkedin and Delicious.  I have learned how to USE my network on Delicious instead of just treating it as a repository for my bookmarks. Adding my Delicious feed to my blog was easy but it is disappointing that I only get the last five bookmarks I added on this Blogger site.  I will start to post the feeds of the people in my network and this will give me a bit more of what I really want. I have taken charge of connecting to people outside of my personal Facebook and have started honing my Twitter friends into categories that match the different interests in my life.  While this takes lots of time, I am sure it will be rewarding and will help me stay on top of my game in my field of study.  My fingers hurt. Now I have to have a professional look over what I have done and get back to me with more direction. I have to wait for people to accept my friend requests on the various social platforms as well.

We have had lots of problems with the grouply, apparently only the group creator can send invites to our group, in the Ning platform we could all invite people into the group.  It could be an administrator setting that is off, but whatever the reason, it is not acting as user friendly.  I have 119 members to connect to in this group, but the never share anything.  I guess if it is a mandatory thing instead of a passion, you just don't get participation.

My blog is getting some major updating, I have been tagging appropriately, so that I can split off some of my posts to specific blogs if I need to do so in future. Zemanta in Firefox has been helpful as it suggests tags I do not think about. You all know I just throw everything in here and sort later, so I am in the sorting process. I have added feeds of some of the blogs I follow in my personal life and in class on this site as well.

This Weekend's Work

I am very tired. The toughest part was letting the kids take total charge of their project.  I just manned the cameras and assisted with editing for like 15 hours.
Problems we encountered:

1. Objects in park that did hindered our commitment to historical accuracy (such as cars, trash cans, and someone blasting "Eye of the Tiger").
2. Wardrobe malfunctions and misinformation.
3. The noise of the fire station horns every half hour, along with the church bells.
4. One weird looking duck that kept distracting the actors.
5. A table of donuts and coffee that distracted the crew AND actors.
6. Not enough baby wipes to get off all that face paint.
7. Taping over the opening sequence- having to copy another scene and reversing it in imovie.
8. Not being able to match the sepia tone in the movie clips to the picture clips and having to use all black/white instead.
9. Not being able to edit out the rope tied to the canoe, the canoe club, the outbuildings, the trash cans, the cars, or the barbeque pits in video clips. (We could only do this in still shots).
10. Not having a super drive on my macbook to burn the DVD movie for best resolution.
11. Not being able to get George's Mom's superdrive to work and having to upload all our beautiful work to the internet instead, at only 12 frames per second on youtube and 30 frames a second on iweb. ( I could just cry).
12. Just found this tidbit in the forums and it is too late! "If you'd like to transfer a file to burn on another mac, go back to the project on your mac and use the Save As Disc Image command. This creates a virtual DVD that you can move to another computer and Copy to an actual DVD."

SO WHY WAS IT A GOOD WEEKEND? 
 I got to work with my son and his friends for this 7th grade project, they were extremely prepared with a script, a storyboard in mind, costumes and a boat.  They were creative, flexible and funny as all get out. While I am extremely tired, I am so glad I had the opportunity to assist them.

Who Follows Directions Anyway?

Do we read directions anymore?  Sometimes I do, and it is the thing I complain about to my son, "Always read the directions, honey."  If I followed my own advice,  I could have saved myself some time in last week's class. This week I had a new dilemma, after setting up edublogs for 25 students and having to go into their emails getting their logins, and then logging in to change their passwords to be the same as the other web 2.0 tools they use, I could scream.  Turns out I could have set the password if I had clicked on the advanced blog creation button and set the password from the very beginning.  I WAS looking for the manual but all they had were a bunch of pdfs, not even addressing the issue.  It seems that when I go looking for directions I never find them. When they are there, I may ignore them and play for a while instead, trying to figure out the solution.

Why are you raising your hand?

Mrs. V asked, "Why are you raising your hand? So the computer can see you?" She was using the Smart word randomizer feature to call up students to share their daily journal stories.  The students wanted to be picked,  and kept raising their hands. It was the funniest thing.    Apparently that paradigm shift has not yet occurred.

Tech Slam

Check it out, tech slam.

Smartboards need Smart Teachers

In the last week, after our training from Faisal, I was really struck by how well the mimeo worked.  I have heard of mimeos hiding in closets in some districts and I personally know some teachers that have Easyteach boards in their rooms that they never touch. Why?  They lack training.  It is not a good idea to spend money on technology and not FULLY train teachers how to use them.  I had no training when I received my Promethean board. It took a me a year to fully understand how to use all the features and I would have used it for more if I had been trained for a few full days.  The training has to involve not just the features, but the content area toolbars and resources.  Teachers need TIME to build or change resources.  Unfortunately, districts want the biggest bang for their bucks, so they choose increased technology over training.  If we had the chance to learn our craft, we would be more effective and could turnkey our knowledge with other teachers in our district during district professional development.  I am seeing a trend toward this area in some schools, simply because districts cannot afford to bring people in from outside.   It is not enough.
If there is a teacher in a school who knows what they are doing, we can use prep times to be in their rooms and learn from them as they use the technology.  Both can get professional development hours for this.  We started off in the field as simple observers in our fieldwork classes, and it is still a wonderful method of learning as we attempt to keep up with the latest innovations in education. Here is a district goal outlined by Alan November, senior partner at Educational Renaissance Planners in Evanston, Illinois:

• Develop a technology budget, earmarking funding not only to acquire technology and design the infrastructure but also to ensure successful plan implementation by means of professional development for school staff and adherence to rules of thumb for professional development. Include funding for a technology specialist to provide ongoing support and feedback to staff.

Since this is the job I am performing right now, Technology Integrationist, I am more aware than ever of the lack of technology education our teachers have.  The little things like saving to a jump drive and printing in greyscale are big dilemmas to teachers who are now expected to provide interactive lessons using Smart boards.  I only hope that we move away from the drive-by trainings that don't provide the ongoing assistance teachers really need.  Only some of the teachers are comfortable with screencasts and webinars, a huge population of teachers need hands-on training that can be repeated as they need it. As I try to squeeze such trainings into lunch periods and preps, I get frustrated.  I feel like every other teacher feels when their students are just about to complete an objective and the bell rings.  I will be pushing for some substitute coverage so I can get more time with individual teachers.  Luckily I work in districts that have technology-rich goals, so I may actually get somewhere.  

Parent Night for Talent 21 Grant

It was a rewarding evening for the parents of the Talent 21 students in Woodbine, NJ.  They were able to use their child's new laptop and learn about the acceptable use policy, insurance options and the rationale for  the laptop rollout. Parent asked questions abou the use of laptops in their homes and in school.

 These students are the lucky few, they will have one-to- one computing for three years, across all subject areas.  One of the challenges they face is the learning curve to use the technology in a constructive way to learn content and share what they have learned with others.  Every day new challenges arise, new technologies are available, and they will keep pace with theses lightning changes.  This ability to adapt will serve them well in the future as they compete for jobs in a technology rich society.

Hazardous Waste Drop-off for Atlantic County

It is that time again!  Bring all your hazardous waste to the drop-off this Saturday instead of dumping it down the sewers.  I know some people in my neighborhood do this , because there is a scour hole in MY backyard.  I see the paint and the oil and the pesticides and the everything else as it trickles out of the sewer pipe, and into our beautiful town lake.    For all my readers who do not live in my county, please look for your own Hazardous waste disposal day in YOUR county. 


Here is the Official Announcement:

Atlantic County residents will be able to drop-off household hazardous waste from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 6^th, 2010 at the  Atlantic County Utilities Authority Environmental Park located at 6700 Delilah Road in Egg Harbor Township.

The next household hazardous waste drop-off date is scheduled for 9 – 2 pm on Saturday, January 8th, 2011 at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority Environmental Park located at 6700 Delilah Road in Egg Harbor Township.

The household hazardous waste program is open to Atlantic County residents only. Those wishing to participate must bring proof of residency. The maximum amount of household hazardous material allowed for disposal is 30 gallons and/or 200 pounds (dry weight) per household. Participants may bring materials from more than one household, which can save you and a friend or neighbor time and gas money.

Materials cannot be brought in containers that exceed five gallons and no containers will be returned, no exceptions. Most importantly, before bringing a material please be sure that it is an acceptable product. For more information, please call (609) 272-6950 or visit the ACUA’s website at www.acua.com/hhw .

Robert J. Chitren, C.E.P

Associate Director

Know your Demographic!

UDL & Audience

After last week's class I knew that demographics plays an important part
 of every advertising campaign.  I always knew it,  but until I personally had to develop a product it didn't impact me as much.  In writing class we always teach our students to be aware of their audience.  This week as I assisted a school librarian build her own website, we had some incredible conversations about the choices she was making for including images on her pages.  She looked for African-American student photos because she thought her students would not connect with pictures of  children that were
 from a different demographic.  She was unhappy at the lack of images associated with African American students reading magazines.  There were more caucasian students reading than the diverse images she was looking for. Looking at her process from a UDL perspective, she builds images into her lessons that she knows the students will identify with.

Technology-enabled Substitutes

Yesterday, The substitutes of one of the school districts I work for participated in professional development. They learned how to access the teacher's websites and to use the Smartboards. Technology-enabled substitutes will be able to carry on with lessons in the technology-enabled classrooms when the teachers ...moreare away. The laptops can still come out and the students do not have to complete worksheets all day long.

The substitutes spent the morning in trainings and the afternoons with teachers in their rooms learning how technology is used in the classroom. This experience was the first of its kind that I ever witnessed. The principal also conducted a training session with the substitutes on how to be an effective substitute in the district. This planning for school-wide and student success is commendable. We will provide substitutes with a list of every teacher's website until the district website can be updated to include that information. They were also given directions for laptop basics and turning on projectors and smartboards.  An issue still outstanding is the ability to log into the teacher laptops.  A substitute username and password will have to be enabled on all machines and laptops that are connected to the smartboards. It would
be helpful to create hotsheets for each room that is technology enabled for the subs with quick reference sheets for the programs the students may be using.  We should also create a substitute website that has information and training tutorials.  Since the technology-enabled substitutes will be called first to serve in those classrooms, it does provide incentive for them to learn on an ongoing basis.
UPDATE!
On a sad note, in another school, the susbstitutes  allowed students from another class to use the 6th grader's laptops.  Substitutes need to follow the plans we leave for them as teachers, they definetly shoud never allow students to tell them what they "usually" do, because the students "usually" lie  to substitutes.  When in doubt, check with another teacher nearby, call the office and just maintain that it is your responsibility to follow the teacher's plans.  As a teacher it is hard enough to miss a day with our class, it causes huge problems when susbtitutes deviate from our plans.  We spend time getting those plans ready and it is frustrating  when we come back to havoc. In this instance, the offending students tried to visit blocked sites, they changed the students backgrounds and settings and added items to their favorites.