Author: Troy (Page 5 of 31)

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

H5P Presentation

November 28, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

Check out my presentation: “Open Source H5P and Me” from the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference.

Description

Learn how to find, create, and share FREE interactive digital activities using the open-source project H5P. Interactive video, Word completion, Choose your own adventure, Cornell Notes, Dictation, Put images into order, Students identifying words, Students answering verbally, and more are possible.

Below is a quick movie of the slides. This will definitely make more sense if you’ve seen the presentation as I tend to use images and talk about things.

If you’d like to check out some of the examples of H5P, you can head over to the MasterMoodle Moodle site. Click the login button in the top right. You can create an account. Use the enrollment key of CMTC23.

Weekly Update 2023-09

November 16, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

AI Art

I started another AI Art session. This one is with a “challenging” class of all 8th grade boys. We’ve had a minute to come to grips with my expectations.

Bronco

The Bronco had a voluntary recall. I scheduled the service a couple of weeks ago. We arrived to drop off the Bronco on the night before. Upon arriving at the dealer to drop it off, my wife waved me over to let me know that there was still cold air coming out of the vents (we’d driven far enough for the air to have warmed up). So, I left a note on the drop-off slip about the cold air.
I got a call at the end of the day. The recall was all set, but the cold air was the issue of the water pump failing. Bad news, the water pump is on backorder and not available until the end of the month. Then, we just did one last week under an “emergency” and got the part in two days (uh oh, now it sounds like a more common issue). The timing couldn’t have been better in one respect. Apparently, the water pump led to the loss of anti-freeze. So, because of the recall, I was able to get the issue addressed without major damage.

Battery

Since the Bronco is still in the shop, a spot is open in the garage. So, out I went to move my little old Focus into the garage for a nice warm overnight stay (yea, no scrapping windows). Er, except the Focus wasn’t starting. Being old and having experience, I knew immediately that the battery needed replacement. I pulled out the Mustang and gave the Focus a jump (confirming the battery issue).

In the morning, I jumped the Focus again and headed off the fix-it shop. Upon arriving, I asked if they had time to replace a battery. (Why not replace it myself you ask? I’ve had the battery replaced once and it is tucked under the vents and crammed in.)

Winterize

I took a day to prepare for winter. The patio table has been put away. The flower pots on the deck have been relocated to the shed. Markers to line the driveway for snow removal have been put into place. Heat mats for the steps out the back door have been installed.

Kennebunkport

Every once in a while, we like to head off to somewhere we haven’t been. Kennebunkport was the choice this week.
Kennebunkport was a nice visit. We found some nice shops and a wonderful beach. Since it is after Labor Day, there were several dogs running around the beach. There was a nice coffee shop, a vinegar shop, and more.
Kennebunkport will be on our return list.

Vault

The Vault was this weekend. Since it is after Halloween, the focus was Christmas (insert eye roll here). We ended up purchasing a bi-level tray for the kitchen and a serving tray.

Kitchen

The kitchen is finally tiled. After waiting overnight for the tile to fully dry, I reinstalled the appliances:

Dishwasher
Stove
Refrigerator
D1 swung by to help me relocate and “nail” down the island. After having the island up on dollys for quite a long time, the island now seems low. I’ll get used to it, probably pretty quickly, but right now it just seems low.

I still need to clean up the cabinets and refinish at least one.

Voting

This November 7th was voting day for Maine. On the ballot were eight citizen initiatives. I made sure that I voted.

Shoeshine

Since my wonderful wife and I enjoy movies, I’ve subscribed to Delphi’s Screening Room. The latest movie available was Shoeshine (1946). This is an Italian movie with subtitles.

Snow

First bit of snow this morning. Not enough to “stick”, but counts as first snow.

Week Note 2023-08

November 6, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

Week note appears to truly be a misnomer. This is the first one in a while.

Kitchen Redo

The kitchen floor was scheduled for this coming week. Monday night I got a text asking if they could start tomorrow. Well, no. There were plans for Tuesday. However, Wednesday was cool to start.
So, Tuesday night I pulled out the fridge, the dishwasher, and the stove. They showed up on Wednesday. Since we picked a smaller tile, there was a discussion about the tile that we had chosen. The tile is a smaller brick style. This takes longer to install; there is more of it, more spacing, etc.
The job was planned as a three-day job. Wednesday was the installation of the backer board and prep (mostly backer board, as I had leveled the floor and removed everything). Thursday was installing half the tile. Friday was installing the next half, well, almost as there was one corner that is a tight fit between the cabinets and wall to finish. So, no using the kitchen over the weekend. We did go to D1’s house on Friday, with friends, pre-planned. Then, we went to D1’s house again on Saturday to make and eat dinner. Rm went to D1’s house to cook up some soup on Sunday.
Monday, tilers finished grouting the kitchen. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow (Tuesday) to clean up and start putting the kitchen back together.

Picture of white, bricks on a kitchen floor

Breakfast and a Show

On Saturday morning, since I couldn’t make pancakes, we went out for pancakes. We went to a local spot. We sat at the counter. The counter faces the servers and the kitchen. There was obviously a mistake made in entering another order. There was lots of discussion. A server came to get our order. More discussion between the cooks and the servers. Next, our server went into the back area and came out wearing a coat. She then walked out the door. The servers were confused and concerned. (** I truly hope that she is OK and whatever she is dealing with gets resolved.**)

Breakfast was terrific, it’s always good. I got the 2-2-2 Riverview. 2 pancakes (big as my head), 2 eggs (over easy), and 2 slices of bacon.

Screen Door

I made progress on installing the front screen door. I had to create a transom to support the door in the open position so that I could install the door hinges. I made an error in failing to account for the spacing of the hinges. This was a quick adjustment, and now the base of the door is installed. (It’s also painted, not shown.)

WordPress Auto-Generated

The kitchen floor renovation began on Wednesday and finished on Monday. Due to space constraints, one corner took longer than planned. Accustomed to at-home meals, the author visited a local restaurant for breakfast while the kitchen was unusable. They witnessed an unexpected incident involving a suddenly emotional server. Meanwhile, they made progress installing the front screen door, overcoming minor errors in hinge spacing.

Tragedy in Maine

October 27, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

On Wednesday evening (October 25th), an individual attacked a Bowling Alley and a Bar & Grille. The individual used an AR-15, which has no other use than quickly and efficiently killing humans, to shoot a wide variety of innocent people. Currently, 18 people are identified as having lost their lives. 18 people who won’t be coming home. 18 people who won’t be hugging their family members. Numerous people won’t be sharing stories, laughs, or hugs with those 18 people.

Thursday, news was that the perpetrator had not been found yet. Androscoggin County has been placed in a “shelter in place”. Lots of schools and businesses are closed. My school is also closed.

We’ve been practicing active shooter drills for decades. We’ve ingrained into students that someone could show up and shoot up their school. We surreptitiously essentially told teachers that we expect them to be prepared to lay down their lives for our children.

A teacher in Virginia was shot by a six-year-old. The teacher is trying to sue the school district for negligence. The school district’s response is that this is covered under “workman’s compensation” since the event was, essentially part of the job description. (Yes, in reality, I understand that this is a lot of legal wrangling to prevent the school district from paying out millions of dollars, but the underlying argument still rings to the expectation that this could happen to teachers.)

I realized that my own reaction was very different than many others. I have lived a different life. For me, this has been somewhat of a constant since 9/11. Having lived and worked in Dearborn, MI, we were under constant threat of violence. I can’t remember the number of videos that I’ve seen of “patriots” driving around Dearborn threatening “those foreigners”. Nor can I remember the number of threats to come to Dearborn to do harm. (On October 12th, there was a threat to “come to Dearborn and attack Palestinians”).

Some of my friends and former students immigrated to the United States from places where wars were common and ongoing. So their lived experience was fear of losing loved ones.

How many school shootings have we had (58 as of the moment I’m typing this)? How many mass shootings have been in the U.S. this year alone (587 as of the moment I’m typing this)?

America is pretty much alone in the type of violence. We could do something. We actually had a ban on assault rifles at one point, but Congress let it sunset. Jared Golden, one of five Democrats to vote against banning assault rifles is now coming out in support of an assault rifle ban. We shouldn’t have to wait for enough Congress people to experience firsthand the pain of attacks by an assault rifle in order to pass legislation. We can vote for representatives who will take this issue seriously.

It’s beyond time that we take action. Get out and vote for sanity.

Not being Good is Great

October 25, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I really do wish that past me had learned this lesson. However, present me is trying really hard to implement the advice here.

When Kurt Vonnegut was fifteen, he spent a month or so working on an archeological dig.

*(A rather peculiar place for a young man that would one day grow up to become a tremendous writer of science fiction.) *

He once told a story of how he was talking to one of the archeologists one day over lunch and the archeologist was bombarding him with all of the typical getting to know you questions…

“Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject?”

Vonnegut told the archeologist that while he didn’t play any sports he was in theater, choir, played violin and piano and used to take art classes.

The archeologist was impressed.

“Wow. That’s amazing!”

To which Kurt Vonnegut responded…

“Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”

And this is where the archeologist said something to Kurt Vonnegut that Vonnegut would later say changed the trajectory of his thinking…

“I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.”

Here was how Vonnegut said the quote changed him…

“…I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could “Win” at them.”

Tracking Kids

October 23, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

An article by 9to5 Mac, titled “Tens of millions of teens want parents to track them, finds survey” cites a WSJ article about kids being tracked (which is behind a paywall).

@9to5Mac

This is interesting. Gen Z (aged 11-26) wants to be tracked by their parents. Given that Life360 was called out for selling precise location data, this is very interesting.

It seems as though teenagers have always wanted to have freedom, to find their own way, to start developing independence and separation from their parents.

The article mentions:

Specific time tracking (like when out on a date)
Mental health (anxiety)
Better relationship with parents

Some Thoughts on X, er, Twitter

October 13, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I used to be a Twitter user. I joined Twitter in June of 2008. I used Twitter for a good number of conferences. I met people, made connections, found resources, and more through Twitter.

In 2018, I tried out Mastodon. I loved the idea. However, there really weren’t many educators there. So, I kept the account but also stayed on Twitter.

With the purchase of Twitter, and the changes that wrought, I left Twitter.

There are still tons of people on Twitter, er X. On one hand, I understand why. There are still lots of good links and good people on X. However, X now supports a great amount of misinformation and disinformation. Actively.

I’m off Twitter and I’ll explain why.

Now some people don’t see that much. So, their belief is that it really doesn’t matter. I think it does.

Discrimination, bias, and manipulation matter. Even if you don’t see it all the time. Kind of like, I don’t actively see racial discrimination every day. But I know that it exists. I don’t support places that support racial discrimination even if I don’t necessarily see it.

I won’t support Twitter. Be clear, having an account on Twitter and using it, supports Twitter. If you are logging in to Twitter, if you are checking Twitter, you are supporting Twitter. Obviously, if you are paying for an account, you are supporting Twitter.

I’m choosing not to support the bias and manipulation that is now Twitter. Yet, I understand that others may not have the same opinion. Twitter was a very valuable resource. Lots of educational organizations still support X and Facebook. Recently, a Maine Department of Education representative was asked about a grant opportunity. Their answer was to check “Twitter or Facebook”. This is frustrating to me. In order to get information about a grant I have to give my attention to “Twitter” now X or Facebook (which has been caught lying and doing bad things repeatedly).

Maine, like most states, is very concerned about privacy and security. There is even a current ban on State departments using AI due to privacy and security. Yet, the Maine Department of Education is actively supporting two companies that do not respect privacy and security.

Again, on one hand I understand. It’s hard to keep track of who is supporting what. It’s tough if you don’t obviously see the bias and discrimination.

On the other, isn’t this what being an informed citizen is about? Shouldn’t we be aware of those sites that we support? Do we bear any responsibility to be proactive about combatting discrimination and bias?

H5P in Google Classroom

October 12, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’ve been a proponent of H5P. H5P creates interactive activities. I’ve long used it within Moodle to create activities for students to utilize. H5P is open-source. This means that I don’t have to worry about them switching to a paid model and losing all of my material.

H5P has a wide variety of interactive tools. These include Interactive Videos, Flashcards, Dictation Activities, Speak the Word, and much, much more.

However, most teachers only use Google Classroom. Google Classroom is “easy” to use. It also doesn’t do much.

While I have mostly used H5P in Moodle, I have used Lumi as well. Lumi is a stand-alone H5P creation and editing tool. You can download the full application (Mac, Windows, or Linux), so that you own and control all of the data and information. You can use their cloud version as well.

While I was using Lumi, I realized that it will export activities as a web page. Hm. If it’s a web page, one could put the link in Google Classroom. I created an activity, exported that activity to a web page, uploaded the web page to Google Drive, and then linked it in Google Classroom.

Guess what? Google removed the ability to serve web pages from Google Drive, so one still needs to find a place to host the activity. Lumi still makes it easy to create, but you can also use the H5P WordPress plugin. Or, you can take advantage of the power and ease of use of Moodle.

Hacking BookStack

October 11, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’m a big fan of open-source software. One that I’ve implemented in a couple of different places now is BookStack. BookStack is an open-source wiki platform. BooksStack is also very flexible.

However, we use formalized outlines. There is a desire to have a traditional outline:

Roman Upper Case (I.)
1. Alpha Upper Case (A.)
  1. Numeric (1.)
    1. Alpha Lower Case (a.)
      1. Roman Lower case (i.)
        However, Markdown doesn’t follow that structure by default. Alas, neither does BookStack.

Traditionally, Markdown doesn’t really “do” the traditional outline. I like to write in Markdown, and BookStack supports Markdown.

One of the beauties of open-source software is usually flexibility.

BookStack does include a way to customize your text and entries. Head over to Settings, Customization. Scroll down to “Custom Head HTML Content”

Here you can add some CSS to style your pages as you wish.

First of all, I wanted to change the font. This is pretty straightforward.

<link href="https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Serif" rel="stylesheet">
<style>
h1, h2, h3, h4, body, button, input, select, label, textarea {
  font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size:1.2em; color: black; </style>
<style>
.page-content h1 { font-size: 2rem; }
.page-content h2 { font-size: 1.8rem; }
.page-content h3 { font-size: 1.6rem; }
.page-content h4 { font-size: 1.4rem; }
.page-content h5 { font-size: 1.3rem; }
.page-content h6 { font-size: 1.15rem; }
</style>

This sets the font to “Noto”, which is a serif Google Font. By including elements (h1,h2…), everything will be in the Noto font

The bottom section controls the header size, with each level being a bit smaller than the preceding level.

Great so far. But what about the outline?

To structure the outline, I added the following:

<link href="https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Serif" rel="stylesheet">
<style>
h1, h2, h3, h4, body, button, input, select, label, textarea {
  font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size:1.2em; color: black;
}
.CodeMirror, pre, #markdown-editor-input, .editor-toolbar, .code-base {
  font-family: monospace;
}
    ol {
       list-style: upper-roman; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
      } 
    ol > li >ol {
       list-style: upper-alpha; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
    }
    ol > li > ol > li > ol {
       list-style: decimal ; style="margin-bottom: 100px;margin-right: 40px;"
    }
    ol > li > ol > li > ol  li > ol {
       list-style: lower-alpha ; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
      }
    ol > li > ol > li > ol > li > ol  li > ol {
       list-style: lower-roman ; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
      }
</style>
<style>
.page-content h1 { font-size: 2rem; }
.page-content h2 { font-size: 1.8rem; }
.page-content h3 { font-size: 1.6rem; }
.page-content h4 { font-size: 1.4rem; }
.page-content h5 { font-size: 1.3rem; }
.page-content h6 { font-size: 1.15rem; }
</style>

This adds the outline (in Markdown, the ordered list) that I need.

Looking better, but…

The lines are too close together. There is no visual break between each element.

Back to Customizing.

I add:

li {
margin: 1em 0;
}

to each ordered outline. This creates visual space between each item. So, my customization now looks like this:

<link href="https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Serif" rel="stylesheet">
<style>
h1, h2, h3, h4, body, button, input, select, label, textarea {
  font-family: "Noto Serif", serif; font-size:1.2em; color: black;
}
.CodeMirror, pre, #markdown-editor-input, .editor-toolbar, .code-base {
  font-family: monospace;
}
    ol {
       list-style: upper-roman; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
      } 
      li {
        margin: 1em 0;
        }
    ol > li >ol {
       list-style: upper-alpha; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
    }
      li {
        margin: 1em 0;
        }
    ol > li > ol > li > ol {
       list-style: decimal ; style="margin-bottom: 100px;margin-right: 40px;"
    }
      li {
        margin: 1em 0;
        }
    ol > li > ol > li > ol  li > ol {
       list-style: lower-alpha ; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
      }
      li {
        margin: 1em 0;
        }
    ol > li > ol > li > ol > li > ol  li > ol {
       list-style: lower-roman ; style="margin-bottom: 40px;margin-right: 40px;"
      }
      li {
        margin: 1em 0;
        }
</style>
<style>
.page-content h1 { font-size: 2rem; }
.page-content h2 { font-size: 1.8rem; }
.page-content h3 { font-size: 1.6rem; }
.page-content h4 { font-size: 1.4rem; }
.page-content h5 { font-size: 1.3rem; }
.page-content h6 { font-size: 1.15rem; }
</style>

This is looking better. I may have more work to do, but I’m happy with the results so far.

Weekly Update 07

October 1, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

What a week this was. I base that largely on one event.

Disseratation Defense

My youngest successfully defended her PhD. She is now a Dr. Her dissertation, THE EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF AWNS IN THE GRASS SUBFAMILY POOIDEAE, allowed me to learn a bit more about what she does.

We left to visit. The night before involved a bit of last minute sewing and dinner. She was obviously very ready to defend her dissertation.

It was really wonderful to meet some of her colleagues. It was especially nice to her others describe her and her work.

She did the work. All credit goes to her. I’m just impressed and proud of the work that she has done.

Parent Night

I’ve also scheduled a Parent Tech Night for work. This will center on student use of devices, what the school does to help keep students’ safe, and what parents can do.

Karma

I posted an issue on Reddit about Darktale (menus not displaying correctly). It was deleted (pending moderator approval) as I don’t have enough Karma points.

Darktable issue was quickly solved through the Darktable forums though. And then I wrote it up.

Karma Part 2

Then there was this article on leaving teaching and going to work for Costco. Someone trying to tell me something?

In truth, the ex-techer makes more now as she has risen up to do training for corporate. The article headline is thus, a bit misleading.

Volunteer Sheet

I had to update the Volunteer Sheet. Thankfully, I had fully written up this process on this site. For some reason, I had to re-add the filter individually. Not sure why I had to do that, but everything works perfectly now.