Wonderful explanation.....

Think Tech tumblr - Technology in Education

Okay, so the guy (I assume) did not have his name anywhere on his blog.  Anonymous is a good way to go in many things.

Someone posted it on Facebook - oh that would be Kelli the queen of Adult Ed.  Anyway, this is a lovely explanation of why Teachers get fed up with other people telling us how to do our jobs.  Have you ever looked at the class list for teacher curriculum.  Philosophy and "How the brain works" types classes fit in there.
 "WHY?" you ask, because teachers are dealing with Brains that are NOT done growing.

Those students sitting out in front of you have half Baked brains and that is BEFORE they drink that caffeinated beverage or Monster Drink, or eat that horrible bag of Hot Cheetos in front of you, or even worse, get High before school or even better drunk.  (Don't get me started on Red Dye 40)

Those students are still creating brain cells that will be important to them down the road.

So the next time someone tries to tell me or my friends how to do our job. You can go take a couple classes on adolescent development, and maybe a few more on social work in teenagers.
Think that would be a great thing for parents to need to do.  Your kid enters High school or Middle school and you need to go take a couple classes.

Matt, I think that is a calling for you.

Thanks for letting me rant.


Twitter- 20 things to help teach  - Just found that and figured this was the best place to stick it.

ANNOYED

Sorry for the Screaming.

I wanted to share this really cool article with you.
And I refuse to do it.

Why?

The sight that the article was on had not just one Fill the screen Ad that I closed but then ANOTHER ad popped up at the bottom of the page with AUDIO and Video.

I was impressed with the writing of the article so I slogged past the horrible ads and read the whole thing.  But I will not Share a link to an article with that much garbage on the page.  There were like 6 more ads running down the side of the page.

The Article was about WHY they ask you so many questions when you adopt an animal.  Be it a dog, or cat or whatever.
I was impressed with the overall quality of the article.  Yes, they really do need to ask you those questions and yes, answer them honestly, or you are no better than the person that was the reason the dog showed up at the rescue in the first place.

I love my two dogs, and yes, they have done things that I think other people might have taken them back.  The $600 in medical bills for that garbage escapade is the price you pay for having a pet.

So, the next time you hear someone complain about the price of a pure bred dog or even worse the price of an adopted dog.  The agency is trying to pay for all the other dogs that weren't adopted, the cost of the shots, the ring worm they had to get rid of and the neuters for all the animals that show up.  If you aren't willing to pay that price, then you might not be willing to get medical attention if something happens to YOUR pet.

Remember, the money you spent to get the pet is not the last you will pay, like a toy.  (Although with tablet you just keep right on paying)  So, that pet - is going to COST you more money.  Figure out if you can AFFORD it before you bring it home.

Update Apps - Lose it!!! and Coupon Sherpa

Alright-y then,
Tom gave me all kinds of crap for not actually TRYING the apps out.
So I did.

Lose it -

I think I like it.  Not sure if the novelty will wear off, but it's sort of fun putting all the stuff i that I'm eating.
I love the scan the bar code deal.  Coke, Chobani, Grape nuts,- the thing works a ton better if you can actually scan a bar code of whatever it is your eating.
My biggest problem is that the size of things like - Milk or cereal - how much am I really eating?  I am not going to measure out all the food I eat. I don't see that happening.
Here is a screen shot of this mornings excitement.

I had to manually add the walking, but that wasn't too bad. I actually did more walking than my Run Keeper would admit, because When I stopped to pick up the poop in the yard - well she kept pausing.  I think that map probably looks hysterical today.  Lets see.


These are screen shots from Run Keeper.  This app I have been using since Early April.
And as you can see, my road does not exist yet.  If you come see me it will take you to Turkey run, behind our house.

 That is just my back yard.  HA
<---- p="">
This was the entire walk ---->

You can see all the pauses on the left side of the whole walk, where I was walking the dogs.  They either had to sniff, pee, or leave me presents.

Of course most of you are like - why is she talking about this.  Well, it shows WHY- I can't get my time down for a mile. LOL


Coupon Sherpa -

Yeah, I was right.  Not much in there- okay- lots of stuff that some people I know will be happy about.  Toy R Us and Baby's R Us of course have a bunch of stuff.

They have in Store Coupons, that have the bar code on them, so the person at the cash register can get it off your phone.   (Warning for those of you YOUNG people who have cracked screens or the cracked Screen film on your phone, this isn't going to work well for you - but what do you care - you won't use coupons anyway.)
They also have online coupons, where they will tell you the coupon code to type in.

My biggest problem is that they want you to give your email address to all the wonderful stores to sign you up to get the coupons.  Now, I know a few people and I myself get email from some stores.  It CLOGS up the darn inbox.
If they would PROMISE not to email me anymore and just send stuff to Coupon Sherpa - I would LOVE IT.  But, I am very sure that when I sign up to get coupons from Qdoba they are just going spam my inbox.
Yes, I know how to filter all that stuff to other spots in my inbox- but I still have to set it up to do that.

I have several more apps to work on- expect more on this subject.

Apps

Back to Dinosaur Training......

I was asked today by the Dinosaur to check out some apps to see if they were worth using or losing.
This is a bit of a challenge for me, because, well - I've gotten rather lazy.  (See previous posts. LOL)

Anyway - First one on the list is - Lose it.

I Google'd Lose it and found there is an App for both the iPhone and Kindle fire.  It might be the same app, didn't see a picture of the icon on the Amazon page.  But I did find the reviews there and that is really what I am looking for.

• The good - people say it is sort of balanced and they do a pretty good job of keeping track of all the stuff they eat. You can find lots of food from different restaurants.
• I noticed someone on the iPhone said it used to sync with RunKeeper (which I do use), but after an update it wasn't working.  Those kind of complaints happen when one app updates and the other hasn't yet.  I figure that is what happened.  RunKeeper and this app look like they are in it for the long haul.
• It has some complaints that connecting to social media might be on the premium version - of course, same for RunKeeper.  I still use the free version and am doing ok.  

So the question becomes - would I use this app.   I totally should use this app.  I know I need to lose a little weight and maybe my lovely self could be addicted to the filling in the info, instead of filling my face.  Ahh, what a lovely idea.  I haven't used it, but I'd be willing to give the free version a try.

Second app -  Coupon Sherpa

Ah, they named stuff after me.  Actually there are about 10 Apps with Sherpa in the name and then there is a company called Sherpa Solutions Business that makes a ton of apps.  So, much came up when I did a search for the app.  I found an About.Com review of the app and it made sense.

• This app is great if you have kids or buy lots of clothes, shoes and books.
• This is does nothing if you want to get your grocery coupons for food.
• Oh, if you love Starbucks- I saw it listed, so yeah okay- if you could get a Starbucks coupon each week, that could be a big saver.
• I think they have stuff for fast food and entertainment. 

Tanya from About.com said she saved 15% on something at Barnes and Noble and then 10% at Petco.  Sadly my dog food does not come from Petco.  My boys have delicate stomachs, ha ha ha. 

 For Free I would be willing to give it a try, I need to make some room on the screens. LOL

Third App -  Book Crawler Lite  

This app I can way in on a little more myself.  I did go check the reviews on my phone and then hit someone else's blog and their full review on it.  I personally use iBookshelf, that came out way before the Apple IOS update that included the books and newspaper shelf thing as a part of the phone.  And I found some interesting info.....

• Book Crawler shares all your books.  Other people see what you are reading.  (umm, I already do that with Goodreads - I don't need another app to do that)
• The Blog I found said they had a real problem with scanning their books in.  YES, you do have to download one of the Pic-to-shop or something like that scanner- but I already have that stuff for the QR codes everywhere.   Their problem was the phone can not keep up with the scanner, you can scan a ton of books, but it has to search online for the info to go with the ISBN number. (which means it has to connect online)
•  Oh, I just noticed on my iBookshelf that it connects to Goodreads and will show me reviews from that website.  (I totally do not need Book Crawler)
• I liked iBookshelf because it had a space for me to say if someone borrowed the book from me and WHO has it.  THAT is worth everything.  

Overall, I already have this app covered and I'll certainly stick to iBookshelf.  I still have a ton of books to add to it anyway, hate to start over- because that would suck... LOL  I wonder if I can go in and link iBookshelf to my Goodreads log in.  That would save a ton of time.    I totally PASS on this App.

Last one today -  Walkie Talkie Apps....

This category I'm not so sure about.  There were 15 apps right at the top.  One had a free version and then a paid version. ugh.  Okay, so I guess the point of this app is so that you are not using minutes but you can still talk on your phone.  This is where they DIVERGE greatly.

I read a ton of reviews and it is almost like there are two versions of this type of app.

1.  The phones talk to each other over wifi - okay we already have that with Face Time???
2.  The phones talk to each other using Bluetooth.  (Um, severe distance limitations)
3.  They can either be live conversations or sort of saved things that go over the internet to someone else and they can listen later.  Basically like text talking.  The one app had people saying they really liked that feature as they were not texting but talking to someone- while driving. hmmmm  
4. The biggest problem is that you MUST have both people with the same app on their phone.  I know young people are really into a million apps on the phone, but really, I think I'm not impressed.
5. Several people used it as baby monitors or a way to talk to each other from one end of the house to the other without waking the baby.  Okay, useful.
6. One person said it was the best way to keep in contact with family overseas and deployed.  If you have wifi you can talk, I would think Facetime would be better, but hey Facetime uses a ton more bandwidth and battery I would guess.

The one that seemed to have the best reviews was Voxer Walkie-Talkie PTT.  

I would be willing to try it out, but you have to have someone else with the same app, and I'm not sure if you have to start on the same wifi network.  

That used way more brain power than I was expecting.  Sure, only looked at what other people had to say.  I will download the first two and give them a try.  I don't really have any spending money right now so I don't know how much good Coupon Sherpa will do me for a couple months.  

Dinosaur wants me to figure out how to link Calendars - that is going to be way harder.  I'm hoping someone figured that out......  

Maybe tomorrow I'll have more....  Sorry no pictures this time.

Feeling Sick - but not....

Most people know that my husband suffers from Migraines.
Migraines suck- and I guess you could say I have joined the ranks of Migraine sufferers.

If I count today- which I should as I just took a pill - it has been 14 days with a headache.
Now, I would never say it is the worst thing that ever happened to me. But I will tell you- I can not get much done in this state. I'm content to sit and stare at the world and try to ignore the pain in my head.

Now, I didn't ignore this. I went to the doctor. We guess I have a sinus infection, probably from the new and exciting allergies that I'm experiencing in Kentucky. The bad part is the allergies I'm experiencing here do not affect me the same way as Michigan. Usually an allergy attack has me sneezing and draining and miserable. I had some drainage, but nothing worth mentioning. Guess what- it isn't draining like I need it to. That seems to be the problem, it is all stuck in my head and I can't get it out.

If one more person mentions the Netti pot to me I might snap. Yes, I have heard of it and no, I don't like it and sure I really should give it a real try. It just bothers me that I need to do something that feels so very wrong.  I don't know if as a kid all the time I tried to spend in pools basically did this for me. LOL  Isn't that a lovely thought.

I'm going out today, so you win. I'll get a Netti pot and see if I can figure it out. It can't be all that much worse than the almost constant headaches. ugh
Oh yeah, the weather here is beyond weird.  Hot and Humid today- in the 90's. Not my idea of fun....

1 or 2 spaces?

I just read the most frightening thing ever in my adult life.
Two spaces is WRONG.     (Article from Slate Magazine)

I pride myself on remembering many things from my time sitting in a classroom. Most of the time I catch some really cool stuff and that I will pass on to others. Hence the reason I am a teaching in the first place. But I just read something that makes me feel about one inch tall. "Using 2 spaces after a period is wrong."

I almost feel ill.

I have to admit that I did learn to type on a manual typewriter. My first class in typing was on one. I then proceeded to take electric typing, because we had it- instead of the computer classes I so desperately wanted but was unable to find at the time. So, I admit- I do the 2 space thing after the period.

Well, I did until today. I vow to try and not do 2 spaces behind a period ever again. Now, I can't promise the iPhone will not do it for me, but I will not do it on purpose ever again.

The worst part about the whole thing is that I'm sure I own or owned an MLA format book that specifically tells you not to do the 2 space thing.  I will happily tell you that I probably never opened the book other than to look up how to do a citation.  And I bet, I never really even used the book for that.

At MSU I had a book for newspaper writing, all the proper abbreviations and a few other things like that in there. You would think the professor that made me get that book would have taught us the 2 space thing???

So there, feel stupid right along with me. Typographers stand up tall and tell us like it is, NO NEED FOR TWO SPACES. (We can talk about the all caps thing later.)