Job Applications

It occurs to me that job applications now are much more difficult to deal with.

My case being today, I spent 5+ hours working on ONE job application.
First because they asked a question that I really had to think about and go searching for the proper words to express my thoughts in the answer.
Second because they asked for 15 years of job info.  Yes - 15 years.
I had to dig around in papers that I thought were long gone to get the rest of the info.  Thank goodness for Google, otherwise I would not have had addresses to go with some of those 15 years.  Heck, I don't have address for at least 1 or 2 because the business is no longer around.

The funny thing is - this is not the first day I have worked on that application.  I was just very determined today to finish it.

I don't feel to terrible about the really hard question, even though I know I asked about 5 people for help.  I got some and got some better ideas of where to find the right words, but it was tough.

I just sort of felt 15 years was a little too much to ask for.  In this world of I only had that job to tide me over, or that business closed down and that's why I'm looking, to the poor teachers who keep getting laid off (You know who you are). 15 years could take a couple pages.  I even left out the substitute teaching I did this past year, because I have NO idea what address to put down for those weird companies.

I have tried to keep some of the more difficult information stored in my contacts now, but I still have to hit google almost every time I do an application, because I just don't have a list of ALL the jobs I had in one place.

So, MY suggestion to all of you- is to start that list now.  Sure you'll be dropping those wonderful years at Taco Bell off your Resume real soon, but who knows how far back your next employer will ask you to take your list.
Make sure you have a company name, address, phone number - the actual dates you worked there and probably someone you liked to keep on a list with their own email and phone number - just in case the company goes down.
I do have info on a couple people who I worked with from companies that are no longer around. I put their name and number down in case they want to just talk to someone who worked with me.

Good luck in Your Job searching.  I know mine is going very slow.

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.

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.

Nostalgia

As I find myself in Michigan today, many thoughts were running through my head as I got ready to go out and meet the world.

As I was musing over how awesome it is that George Takei has become such a big hit now, even more so than when he was on Star Trek.  And there is one HUGE reason for that - FACEBOOK.

I know, it seems soooo very weird that an actor that I would see maybe once every few years when they finally started making moves in the 80's, is now bigger than ever in his golden years.

Think about it.  What did he do between the 60's when they made the original Tv Show and the 80's?Being that was more than 10 years.

Ok, I know - go buy one of his books and he will tell me.  I plan to, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

But now, 20 years after the 80's and BOOM!!  With a little help from Facebook and the Star Trek Movie franchise getting a BIG smash in the new version, George is Back.  Along with Lenord Nemoy actually being in the movie, and William Shatner managing to keep his career afloat with commercials and sit coms - our friends are back and better than ever.

I really wish my dad was around to see all this.  That is the crux of today's thoughts.  My dad would have LOVED Facebook, once he realized that he could see George and others almost everyday.  I'm sure the idea of watching what other people do all day would have bored him to tears, but he enjoyed Puns and George is full of those, and he enjoyed reveling in those great moments we share with each other on Facebook now.

I love that I get to know when my Friends kids do something amazing.  I know I won't be there for most of the things that happen, but I get to KNOW about them.  Heck I even get to see some of them.  

So, I know some people think, why in the world would I move away, Hey a job is a job and you have to take what you can get.  Plus, I think Tom and I both needed something new to do and look at.  I was going stir crazy with the politics and the job situation here in Mich.   Not that it doesn't look bleak and weird in Kentucky sometimes, but at least it is new.

So, wake up, enjoy your day and think of what thing or device your family members would have thought as completely awesome today.  My dad would have LOVED a Kindle or Nook - book Hog all the way-  and I think he would have got a kick out of Facebook.

A new Year and New Titles

It seems that many things are changing in my world.

First, we are moving and I'm in the middle of chaos trying to organize what it going, and what is getting tossed, given away or sold.  The sold part isn't working very well.  I have a Large Dinning room table that I'd like to sell, but no takers. It is nice, just needs some love and well, somewhere bigger to put it.

Second, I'm still looking for a job.  Yeah, that's a toughy. But what else can I do, unemployment runs out and well, the government has some fun rules.  They don't seem to apply to everyone, but they certainly apply to me.

Third, I have taken my tech-y status to a new level.    As a part of that, people are calling on me a lot more to help with a lot of the little trouble shooting stuff on their computers, phones and tablets.  I am seriously helping a few people get into the 21st century before I leave town.  That is the funny thing, people that were willing to wait or hang on are like - oh no, you'll be gone, then where will I go for tech support.

Which brings me back to why in the world am I blogging again.

The Dinosaur (my friend) and I have decided to blog a bit about our experiences - me from the side of a teacher and her from the side of a learner.  Or as we decided earlier today - the Dinosaur (Brontosaurus like) who is enjoying hanging out just chewing the grass and letting things pass by, to me the Dinosaur Trainer.
Said Dinosaur has decided that becoming extinct in this world doesn't sound like as much fun as it could be.  We have already decided that the Mayan Apocalypse was said Dinosaur joining Facebook.  It fit. LOL

I've noticed that some days I am much better than others helping people with their technology. I've decided that I should reflect on this process and make sure that I'm not pushing people too fast, or forgetting a step in my explanations.

So, between our two blogs, it might be an interesting read.  Who knows, it may be nothing, but if I get more specific in my explanations and learn to go slow enough, I may be able to use that later.

(I just realized there is going to be a really big post here..... too many things in my head today.)

OK, so to go with the theme of ,"What am I teaching other people?", here are the items we have been working with this past year.

1.  Mostly Apple products.  Yup - I will admit that I am a fan of Steve Jobs (RIP) and well, his stuff speaks to me.  The funny thing is- people are buying Apply products BECAUSE a bunch of their friends also have them.  (I'll get into some reasons later.)
2.  Phones and Tablets - Phones are now computers, not phones and Tablets have huge capabilities, just have to dig it up.  Not easy really, too many hidden things and sadly they DO NOT set you up well at the store, OK - I'll admit that we don't go to the APPLE store to buy stuff anyway.  (That's another story)
3. Computers - I do really have something to say here. Go OPEN source or go home. Yup ok, that's it. If you want to get a desktop and don't want an Apple, then get something open source.  What does that mean?   Well, I prefer PowerSpec by Microcenter.  It's a computer store (with tons of stuff) that originates in MI and OH, I think.  I can pull parts and swap stuff, very important when you don't want to spend 5 days looking for drivers from your NOT friendly neighborhood big PC companies.
4.  Scanners - this originates with me and the stupid software that comes with them.  UGH, that sucked and I'm not even going to go there today.
5. Google Documents or now called DRIVE.  Best thing ever designed (OK, I'm exaggerating) but best use of CLOUD stuff out there.  Saves my bacon, and really helps students keep there stuff together.  I mean, I have cool papers and like 9 chapters of a Memoir LOST to the voids, because I did not have this option.  How many times do you change computers now, how many times does a hard drive fail and you didn't back things up.  AHHHH, I might have all that stuff on a cd somewhere, but still have to go looking.
6. The Cloud - great idea, still not working right.  I can tell you that much.  At least in regards to phone OS change up grades in Apple.  I hope its working better in other stuff, but we had a big glitch last fall.

Alright, on to other things.  Remind me later I have lots to write about those 6 topics, I'm sure we will come up with more.

Fantasy or Sci-Fi or anything not very realistic in BOOKs and my African American Students.

I have been tormented for 7 years now with the lack on interest or even willingness of my AA students to even try to read Fantasy stories. I keep finding them only reading simple realistic books with too much sex usually and then written at a 5th grade level in Ebonics.  

As an English teacher this makes me crazy.  How am I to teach them the proper way to spell and use grammar if they are continually reading books that refuse to use proper grammar???  They want to say that it is separate from what we do in school, and that is complete crap.  I grew up reading, and I know most of them would say, "At least I am reading" and sure you could go with that.  But, when you look at terrible spelling or complete lack of grammar for that long, you are going to emulate that.  

I know that to be true.  I count myself as a perfect example.  I pick up accents.  I don't know why, some people can't understand even the smallest change in accent - where as I just pick it up and go with it.  I might not know all the slang words, but I do get a lilt or drawl or just start using "You all" pretty quick.

I can only guess it's from my Grandmother having a Southern Accent when I was young. or I just like the sounds.  Anyway- I had a small break through this morning, because of my friend.

I had a conversation with the Dinosaur this morning and we hashed out a couple things.

1. I have to approach the subject differently with the students.   She had the great idea that I should coach the idea in the way of Martin Luther King.   How was he to imagine or become aware of what things really could be if he did not let himself see BEYOND what was happening in front of him.   How could he find that dream of people working together and living together if he hadn't imagined it.
2. Which comes to the idea of explaining Fantasy as as story of people, and it doesn't matter what they look like. (They had real trouble dealing with Trolls and Vampires and stuff living in the same place- which really was the point of the book - I digress.) The story revolves around that person trying to figure out how something works, do they need to change, does the situation need to change, or is there really a bad guy.
3. Also, we talked about starting with shorter works - less characters to remember - and then find AA authors.  Octavia Butler is the only one either of us knew off the top or our heads.  I'd like to find more and read their work.  Good place for me to start.
4. So, The ACT MME crap wants them to focus on realistic reading (which they don't like either) that includes facts and maybe even charts to figure things out.  I agree they need to know how to do that.  But I feel, if they can't imagine anything in their heads in the first place, if you try to make them SEE how the graph helped explain the why or what of something - it won't work there either.

In the spirit of this - with Martin Luther King's Birthday celebration and Barack Obama's 2nd term Inauguration this weekend.  It's time for me to find some AA authors in Sci-fi or Fantasy.