Educator, Thinker, Consultant

Author: Troy (Page 1 of 31)

Educator, Thinker, Moodler, Podcaster, Open-source advocate. Check out the world's longest running middle school focused podcast at https://middleschoolmatters.com

Weekly Review 2024-08

Whew! I’m behind again. A busy couple of weeks.

No School

School was canceled due to snow, ice, and trees being down. We kept our power but had a good bit of ice. I ran the snowblower on Saturday to get everything cleared out. However, the snow turned to ice/rain/snow/sleet mix. Sunday morning I felt more like I was running a Zamboni than a snowblower. Fortunately, my neighbor plowed the end of the driveway for me.

The roads were good. Our town and the neighboring ones were good at staying on top of plowing the roads. Thus, grocery shopping was completed.

I used the day of working from home to get some work done.

Keybow 2040

I also spent a little bit of time working on programming the Pimaroni Keybow 2024. It’s a neat little device, but I don’t have tons of Python experience, so it’s proving, well, frustrating. I can get the basic programming to work, i.e. the keys enter numbers or letters and light up when depressed. However, I’m struggling with advanced coding to get a key to open a webpage. I don’t seem to be the only one as I’ve seen several posts asking the same question but no one posts the actual answer. Occasionally, they will say, ah, I got it. However, they don’t post the actual “it”.

So, I’ll keep on working on this as I get time. If you know CircuitPY and would like to shoot me some code on assigning a key to a website, gosh, I’d be appreciative.

Taxes

I’ve completed our taxes, which seems like it is harder than it should be. I’m no billionaire, so I pay taxes. Plus, I get to file in multiple states.

Make People Sad

Sometimes in my job, I have to tell people “no”. Sometimes, I have to tell people that they can’t use a “thing” that they like to use. I heard another Tech Director express this as sometimes my job is to “make people sad”. I laughed. That’s a great way of expressing this. It was also nice to hear that others have to do this as well.

This was part of the Cyber Storm event that I took part in. Cyber Storm is a preparation exercise to help schools prepare for cyber intrusions, network issues, cyber incidents, and more. The training was great. It was nice to know that others are dealing with some of the same issues.

Otter AI

I also shared a note about Otter.AI. Otter AI is a Zoom plug-in that records everything that is said and provides a transcript. It is especially popular for some Special Needs parents. Their pitch is that you never need to take notes. Think about this though. They are recording everything that is said during a meeting for a special needs situation. Think about the potentially private, personal information shared during those meetings.

Caulking

Not my favorite job, but once again this weekend I caulked. The thing is that the caulk removal and cleaning is a ton of work. The actual caulking is pretty quick. Nice clean caulk is now in place though.

52Frames

I scrolled through the 52Frames Photo Challenge. I tried to “like” a variety of photos (that I actually liked). My idea was to give some positive feedback. I know that I enjoy getting a notification that someone liked one of my photos, so I thought that I’d share that love a little bit.

I’ve continued to submit pictures to 52Frames. I’m enjoying the process and the satisfaction of meeting the submission guidelines. I’m generally posting those separately, so I won’t repeat them here.

Oh William!

I did read Oh William! by Elizabeth Stroud. I enjoyed it very much. I document my books read under the Hobbies tab. I probably should redo that as it is currently an HTML table.

52 Frames- Symmetrical Composition

This week’s Photo Challenge is Symmetrical Composition. It was a nice exercise to look for symmetry around me. Thus, I enjoyed this challenge. I took a few “backup” pictures with my phone during the week.

However, I visited the park across from the State House (capital building of Maine). I went there as I noticed the nice symmetry of the trees lining the path.

What struck me was the benches. I get a sense of longing, of waiting from the benches.

My second choice was a similar picture of a couple walking. This one ALMOST did it for me.

I think that if the dog wasn’t in the picture blocking the bench, it may have been the choice. I like the balance of the couple walking, both with black coats and jeans. Interestingly to me, the focus of the picture is completely different.

Did I make the correct choice?

Google Sheets Fun

I’ve previously posted about a volunteer form that I created. Apparently, there was an issue with the form, so I had to take a look.

Basically, there is a form that collects volunteers and the days that they will be volunteering. This all goes into a spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet is set up to allow for a printable sheet by each day. The day is picked in a cell that uses Data Validation. Previously, I had the data validation pulling from a range of dates. However, this meant that the dates weren’t in any real order. So, I thought about it and added a column to pull all of the dates from the range into a single column. This was done via the UNIQUE and FLATTEN commands. Thus,

=UNIQUE(FLATTEN(VDates))

was entered. This is great as it identifies UNIQUE dates, thus no duplicates, and FLATTENS the various cells into one column. (The range of cells has been named “VDates” via the Data | Named ranges menu selection. Thus M2:W is named “VDates”).

This is great, except that the dates are not SORTed. So, in the next column, I simply created a formula to sort them (

=SORT(Y2:Y,1,FALSE)).

The formula reaches into the previous column (Y), is only going to create 1 column, and FALSE is for is_ascending – i.e. this will be in reverse chronological order).

Now, the Date cell uses Data Validation that pulls from that one column. Everything is fixed and running fine.

Click to add tags…

Weekly Review 2024-07

Jason Isbell

We enjoyed the wonderful Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit live in concert this week. He is always good. If you get a chance, go see him.

The opener wasn’t our favorite. The concert did start on time, though the wait between the opener finishing and Jason Isbell starting was a little longer than I thought.

CBG

We ended up at CBG for dinner before the concert. It’s a nice little “dive bar”. I had a smash burger that was very satisfying.

Sam Spade Ending

Rm and I watched the rebooted Sam Spade. We enjoyed most of the show except for the ending. The show seemed to be more reflective of old-time shows. Clive Owen is wonderful. The whole show is beautifully filmed.

Ah, but the ending. Lots can be forgiven in a show. But the ending of this one was inexcusable.

Steak and Martini’s

Sometimes the very best dinners are at home. We had some wonderful steaks, with roasted potatoes, and carrots.

Plus, we hadn’t had martini’s in a while, so….

Perfect pairing.

52Frames

I have kept my 52Frames streak alive. This week was on intentional camera movement (ICM). Although this isn’t my usual photography jam, I did enjoy the process and learning with this one. I want to experiment a little bit more in the future.

Faucet Switch

Also had the opportunity to help my daughter switch out a faucet. Having the right tools can be crucial. Sometimes, it is helpful if something is installed badly. In this case, the sink wasn’t actually attached to anything (other than pipes), so we were able to flip it over and get everything accomplished.

Bezzle

I finished reading The Bezzle by Cory Doctorow. The book is very much in line with Cory’s thoughts and focus of late. This is the second book in a series on Martin Hench, Forensic Accountant. It has a different style and feel than the first Martin Hench book (Red Team Blues). I enjoyed both books.

Blogrolls

I also wrote up a quick post about Blogrolls. I based this off of a post by Ben Werd. As a follow-up, I heard from the outstanding Alan Levine.

Blog Rolls

The wonderful Ben Werd has a nice write-up (*first seen on a Mastodon post*) on why he doesn’t have a blogroll. He makes some great points.

  • Picking a list for a blogroll leads to exclusion, who does he exclude?
  • How should the list be organized?
  • What about the ebb and flow? Not all blogs are updated regularly

Everyone should decide on an individual basis what is right for their particular wants/needs/thoughts etc. Ben does have a really neat Sources Page that serves the same purpose as a Blog Roll for him. I agree that the Sources Page is pretty neat, but it is different to me.

Selfishly, I wish that Ben would have a blogroll. I would love to see who highlights. However, this is really Ben’s choice, not mine. I wouldn’t expect him to mark everyone.

I do like blogrolls. They are an additional way to discover neat people and blogs. Most of my discovery right now is through Mastodon. With the movement back to self-hosted content, blogrolls could be valuable.

I don’t have a blogroll. Maybe I should create one. I’ll be thinking on it. In the meantime, go read the write up.

52Frames ICM

The Photo Challenge for this week is intentional camera movement (ICM). I watched the resource on creating an ICM image and the main point seemed to be the wonders of creating an “abstract image”.

I came down to two pictures that I liked for this challenge. I’ve submitted the top picture (and titled it “Ghosted Piers”). The second image was more abstract, but at the end of the day, I liked the first one a bit more.

An intentionally blurry picture demonstrating intentional camera movement. The picture appears to have water at the bottom and two ghost like images of a bridge support.
Ghosted Piers.
Taken at Casco Bay in Portland, Maine. All rights reserved.

This was my second choice. This was also taken at Casco Bay.

An abstract photo created using intentional camera movement.
Casco Bay. All rights reserved.

Weekly Review 2024-06

Workcation

Well, I had a “workcation” this past week. The week was filled with painting two rooms. This took a bit longer than expected. I had expected more efficiencies from doing two rooms at once than I actually saw. It certainly didn’t take twice as long, but longer than I had hoped.

Thus, between painting and keeping Hazel active (hey, a dog’s got to play), my week “off” certainly didn’t feel like it.

Hidden Potential

I did finish Adam Grant’s book “Hidden Potential”. It’s a generally quick and easy read. There wasn’t a ton of new information (learning styles, don’t exist, it’s OK to fail, etc) for me, but lots of good reminders. For example, I know that it’s OK to fail, and actually more productive, but I fail to implement that in my life (see what I did there). It was a great reminder for me to get out of my comfortable level and try things, fail at them and work on improving.

This is a good book to share with students and the younger people in your life. (*Nothing wrong with those older reading it too, it’s just like the adage that the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago.)

Weekly Review 2024-05

Vacation Time

With a week off, it’s time for some fun and excitement. That’s right, it’s time to paint! Well, maybe not so much fun and excitement as a lot of work and disruption. However, I know that when it’s done, I’ll be quite happy.

More paint prep. This always takes longer than I think. Plus, doing two rooms seems like a bit more than twice the work. You’d think it would feel a bit less than two as it should be more efficient. This may be just a bit of mental jiu-jitsu. It may really take less time and be more efficient, it just isn’t feeling that way right now.

I bought two gallons of paint (different colors). As is usual, got a paint opening tool, a couple of spouts, and three stir sticks. Wait. Three stir sticks? What is the math that goes on in the head of the person mixing the paint?

Photo Challenge

I was able to submit for the Photo Challenge again this week. I actually had a couple of pictures that I liked.

Website Update

I finally got around to reviewing the theme for this site. I made a change. Originally, I was looking at some themes that are much more picture intensive. However, I realized that I don’t have a ton of highly engaging pictures of me, and no interest in trying to create them, and I prefer to have full blog posts displayed. Most of the visually focused themes default to the blog summary instead of the blog post. I’ve always focused on the whole blog post rather than the summary. In practice, this means that the summaries are less than ideal. I’m working on writing better summaries, but this means that a layout with lots of pictures and summaries didn’t reflect what I wanted.

Rememberances

A couple of “oldies but goodies” came up in some discussions today.

I have used both of these as discussion points. They are highly entertaining and generally useful to spur a discussion.

52Frames Week 7 Photo Challenge

Unexplored is the theme for this week. The bonus challenge was to involve a stranger. My choice this week didn’t include the bonus challenge.

Here was my choice for the submission.

A train trussel in front of a brick three story building. A river flows below the trussel.

Other Considerations:

Here are the other considerations.

I was going to title this one, “Cupid Missed”. I found a random arrow embedded in a tree.

An arrow in a tree with a train trussel in the background.

While at the park, a group of ducks came swimming up the river. I got a few shots of them, but I like one of a couple of them taking off best.

4 ducks in a river. One is in the air, one is just starting to fly from the river. The other two are swimmingn in the river.

I’m not sure which church this is. I like the steeple, but am less thrilled with the storage container in front. Maybe when the trees fill in this can be a better shot.

A church with a steeple behind some leafless trees. Plus, two evergreen trees close to the church.

Field Trips Spreadsheet

In chatting with an Administrative Assistant, I noted the frustration with them not knowing about Field Trips.

Hey, I thought. I’ve done a Bus Field Trip request form. So, what if I took the data from that and pushed it to a new spreadsheet with just the particular school’s request?

I created a new spreadsheet, wrote a quick QUERY(IMPORTRANGE) formula, and now they are all set. (I used Google Sheets for this.)

The formula goes in cell A2. (I copy and paste the header information, row 1, from the originating sheet).

=QUERY(IMPORTRANGE(“GOOGLE SHEET URL WITH THE DATA“,”TABNAME!A:R”), “SELECT * WHERE Col7=’SCHOOLNAME‘”)
Thus (some data truncated for privacy): =QUERY(IMPORTRANGE(“https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1……./edit#gid=1……2″,”D….w!A:R”), “SELECT * WHERE Col7=’Middle School'”)

Here are the import parts:

  • = to start a formula
  • QUERY – I want to limit the information that I’m pulling from another sheet
  • (IMPORTRANGE – brings the data from another spreadsheet
  • (URL – of the sheet that you are pulling from,
  • , – breaks for the next section
  • “Tab Name” – the name of the tab that you are pulling information from (Note the double quote marks here)
  • !
  • A:R – the column range of information that you are pulling from that spreadsheet (*Note the closing double quote marks)
  • ,
  • “SELECT * – this selects ALL (*Note the double quote marks)
  • WHERE Col7 – the tells the formula which column to match – (7 = Col E)
  • =
  • ‘Middle School’ (*Note the single quote marks around the EXACT text that you want to match)
  • ” – Close the double quotes
  • ) – Close the parenthesis from the one be QUERY and IMPORTRANGE

Once you do this you will see a error. Click on that to see the “Allow Access” button.

Then I went into the spreadsheet and shared it with the appropriate people. I have also warned them not to type into any cell that is synced. They can use text effects (like strikethrough), or filters, but they can’t type over anything (that breaks the sync and will remove all existing data).

This at least provides them with the field trips for which a bus is requested (which is most of them).

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