Category: Weekly Review (Page 3 of 5)

COVID

COVID finally caught up with me. Thankfully, I’m fully vaccinated, so the disease wasn’t fatal for me. Relatively, this was a like a pretty bad head cold for me. Be safe, and take precautions.

More AI

Tami Brass has a neat write-up about AI, teaching, and middle school. It is definitely worth a read.

Christmas

We got to spend some times with the kids around Christmas. This is one of the biggest reasons that we moved to Maine. It is great to have those opportunities.

We also got to spend some time with some new good friends.

Christmas with Kennerly

We did attend “Christmas with Kennerly” at the Portland Symphony. It was a good show and help us get into the Christmas mood.

After Twitter

“The internet’s town square should never have been one specific website with its own specific rules and incentives. It should have been, and should be, the web itself.”
Brent Simmons

I’ve pretty consistently heard Twitter referred to as the digital “Town Square”. However, Town Square as a privately owned rather than a publicly available place seems to be heading in the wrong direction. Whenever one person has complete control of the Town Square, it no longer becomes the Town Square, but a Square of an individual.

This is part of the balance that should be in America. America should really be reflective of three different components: People, Business, Goverment. There should be tension amongst those three. However, far too many people believe that Business (this is often pushed in terms of “freedom”), should be the default for everything. This leads to abuse by businesses. Business is designed to make money. This is partly why the stratification of wealth is continuing to be skewed. Business has managed to bake into the American psyche that freedom, letting business do what it wants, is what makes America great.

Twitter is proving to be a place that I don’t want to be. I’m working at making sure that I control my information. This is another thing that sounds great but takes effort. Mastodon is having a moment, but there are issues with Mastodon as well. Lots of people have moved to Mastodon, many looking for it to be “Twitter”, but the experience is different.

At the end of the day, people tend to want easy. Dr. Doug Belshaw and I have had a couple of conversations about this. I still believe that people want things to be very obvious and don’t want to learn how to control things. Dr. Belshaw is more optimistic.

With people moving to Mastodon, there is talk about the “return of the web”. This refers to blogging, and really people owning their own data. I’m still not convinced. The smallest roadblocks can be experience enders for many. People need to have something clear and easy to start with.

As one example, I’ve been hearing about how Linux is going to be the big thing this year.

Linux

I heard for years about how “this year is going to be the year of Linux”. It is finally as easy to use as Windows, gives you much more power, you can do so much, …. And, yet, we still haven’t gotten to the “year of Linux”. Yes, Linux is just about everywhere. But, it is “unseen”. Linux is used as an embedded system.

People clearly don’t want the maintenance and effort that Linux requires. People seem to want things that are familiar, and “easy”.

Down For the Count

For the first time in a couple of years, I got sick. It seems to have been food poisoning, several COVID tests continually came back negative. So Saturday was no podcast. I was pretty much out for the whole day.

Back to Work

Time for schools to open. Time for me to be back to work full time. This was the first summer that I had off in roughly twelve years. (To be clear, I still did lots of work this summer. I still held meetings with my guys. But I didn’t work every day. I mostly had meetings remotely.)

I’m hoping that this year will be much more “normal”. There were so many things that I wanted to do last year, but just couldn’t.

Moodle Times

Lots of Moodle work over the past couple of weeks. This was generated by yearly training requirements. Every year, we need to do compliance training. It’s not the most enthralling experience (either for the teachers that take it or the organization that has to provide it), but it is an important process. There are legal considerations.

I utilized Lesson for the staff members. This allows me to control their path so that they must be successful. If they don’t get a question correct, I can give them information and redirect them to try again. I give them unlimited attempts so, really, they just need to pay a little bit of attention and they will be successful. However, I hit just a bit of a roadblock. Even though I have no penalties set, and the highest attempt, by default, Moodle tells them that their additional attempt may not count. Ouch. Some staff members will read that and freak out. Not what I want. So, a quick trip to Language Strings and I can then edit out that parenthetical language. Now the staff members will not receive the inaccurate language. Yea!

I’m being told that the Lesson module will be deprecated in the future. There is a push for H5P to be utilized instead. Now, I love H5P. But there are issues with H5P sometimes too. For example, I also did the activities in H5P, since I did them last year in H5P, it was a simple Reuse download and upload. H5P is currently duplicating the Header (which is really ugly and confusing for users). There is a CSS addition to remove the extra Heading.

/* Hide the doubling of the description on H5P activities */
div#hvpintro.box.py-3.mod_introbox {
display: none!important;
}

That goes into the Raw Initial SCSS box. This fixes the duplicate header.

However, the Lesson module ends up being much cleaner and better organized. Specifically, in H5P, the student (in this case the staff) has to click on the “Submit Report” button to, well, Submit their answers. Since this looks like a summary sheet, some staff members miss that they need to click that button.

So, I generally try to add in a bit of humor. (I have to be very careful about this though.) Everyone has an indicator of Awesomeness. Each staff member can see their very own Current Level of Awesomeness… via Checklist plugin and the Checklist block. This provides the staff members with a quick thermometer of how much they have completed and how much is left to go.
*Mine is empty as I’m the teacher of the course. I also have the ability, and the button, for the Overview of Students.

Once they have completed the course, every user gets a badge and a certificate. Moodle has two different certificate possibilities (which leads to some confusion). One of them gave me fits trying to develop the certificate. I couldn’t get elements to reliably “stick” where they were put.

The documentation on the other one is less than stellar. Developed for Moodle Workplace, rather than the open-source Moodle version, it is built-in to Workplace. The key is to add an activity “Course Certificate” and the appropriate restrictions. Then, things work wonderfully well.

Presentation

Yea, my presentation proposal was accepted. Now, I have to prepare a presentation. I’ll be presenting on H5P at the ACTEM Conference. I have some ideas on how to structure the presentation, but I need to further develop them. I’m thinking that I’ll be making them play as part of the presentation. That may involve setting up a server. There are some great support resources available, so mostly, I’ll be putting my spin on the use of H5P.

Vactionland

It seems like I’m still on vacation in many ways. Some of this is due to a conscious decision to enjoy things. Some is probably due to moving and not having the same kind of supports and connections around. I don’t really have friends in the area. Many of the places that we are going are places that we are learning about. We lack familiarity of place and people. Thus, things sometimes seem more like vacation than home.,

Book Banning

There are several movements to ban books around the country. Here in Maine, two books seem to be under the microscope. There is a push from some people to ban GenderQueer by Maia Kobabe. This is a graphic novel that is in some high schools. I borrowed it from Hoopla through my local library. It is a quick read. The book addresses growing up, sexuality, and gender identification. This is definitely a book that high schoolers should have access to. Even though it may make some parents feel uncomfortable, it is crucial that our teenagers have access to this information. Our goal should never be to make things like they were for us but to make things better for our kids.

Hypothesis

I’m a big fan of Hypothesis. Essentially, Hypothesis is social bookmarking. Hypothesis allows for annotation on web pages. These annotations can be public or private and include tagging. I’ve used Hypothesis to replace Diigo. I had used Diigo for quite a while, but then reached the limits of the free version. Hypothesis is free and open-source. Theoretically, I could set up a server to run Hypothesis, but that isn’t necessary. The web version of Hypothesis doesn’t have limits.

Hypothesis also allows for the use of groups. I use this group feature pretty extensively. I have a group for Middle School Matters which I use to bookmark things for the Middle School Matters Podcast.

One of the features that I would love, is the ability to see annotations or bookmarks by groups. I would love to see an indicator as to which group a site is bookmarked in.

Dinner with Friends

We had a terrific dinner with a couple of friends. Rm made some Detroit Style Pizza. Yes, this involved purchasing the correct pan (you’ve got to have the proper tools). This was the first go with the new pan. I must say, Rm knocked it out of the park as usual. Anyway, everyone enjoyed the pizza.

We also shared some Venor’s with them. This is a magical elixir that is difficult to get in Maine. Maine has Moxie, like several other local area specialties. Venor’s is really a treat for us.

We also shared a bottle of wine from Black Star Farms Winery that was acquired on a recent trip back to Michigan. We are big fans of the wines from Black Star Farms Winery. We now have a couple more friends that are also fans (at least of the Arcturos Pinot Noir).

Clambake

We also had an opportunity to partake in the Cabbage Island Clambake. This was part of enjoying our wedding anniversary. We headed down to Booth Bay Harbor and checked in. Naturally, we were a bit early, so we got to do a little wandering around Booth Bay as well. The boat ride out includes a tour and explanation of some of the islands.

Then it’s time to dock on Cabbage Island. You can see and smell the smoke rising from the prep area. We disembarked on the island and found a table overlooking the water. There was a young married couple there as well.

A bit of conversation, a bit of enjoying the view, and it’s time for dinner. We started with clam chowder. We were lucky enough to be able to go up to collect our dinner early. Oh, what a dinner it was. Two lobsters, corn on the cob, oysters, onion, and an egg. The couple next to us had a great time working on the lobsters and such. Next up was a generous piece of blueberry cake.

We had some time left so we took a quick walk over to the other side of the island to watch the sunset.

The ferry ride back was much quicker (which I’m sure Hazel appreciated).

D1 Housework

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit D1 and help her with some work around the house. This is one of the main reasons that we moved to Maine in the first place.

For some reason, it is much easier to work on someone else’s house. The motivation seems a bit higher. I really enjoyed helping her out and getting to hang out with her for a while.

Dark Table

I’ve been working on increasing my proficiency in photography. As part of that, I’ve been working on improving my photo editing skills. Really, I should say developing (see what I did there?) my skills as I’m starting out as a total newbie.

Anyway, along those lines, I’ve started a series on Darktable through Youtube. Darktable is an open-source photo editing program. Yes, I do have access to Adobe Lightroom through work. However, photography is mostly for personal pleasure. I like to keep some of those lines clear. When the time comes and I don’t have access through work, I don’t want to lose all my photos.

So, I’m starting with the basics and learning Darktable. Darktable is a really powerful program that can really do so much. I’ll never win awards, but I am enjoying figuring out what I like and how to improve the pictures that I take.

I have learned and applied a few specific things with Darktable already. Now though, I’m looking to really build my understanding and ability to correct photos to what I want to see.

Cars and Independence

Two of the cars now have updated registrations and inspections. It is a big change moving from cars being registered to match my birthday to being registered all willy-nilly. Plus, in Maine, there is no reminder mailed to me to register my cars. I’ve got to do the adult thing and keep track of that myself. So, all set now, reminders set for the future, and one more difference noted between living in Maine versus Michigan.

Schooner Charm

Rm and I had a wonderful trip on the Schooner Charm. The day was very hot so getting out on the water and the cooling effects of doing so, was greatly appreciated. There is something very calming about being out on the ocean. Due to the hot weather, there was a bit of haze in the distance. Largely this had the effect of seeming like we were out on the water far from land.

Google Photo Embed

We all love pictures. It can be great to share pictures. However, how that happens can matter. One way to do this is to move all of your pictures into a service that hosts and serves them. Usually, this is at the “cost” of everyone staying in that service. For example, Facebook will host your pictures, but they will then keep you in their service (and all that that entails).

I use a self-hosted version of WordPress to post my material. This means that I have control over all the data, but it also means that I have to pay for storage, bandwidth, etc. Pictures can quickly use up space.

Google meanwhile, offers to host and provide photos. You can easily share pictures in Google Photo through a link. However, you can’t embed that link in a WordPress site. Unless…..

The wonderful Amit Agarwal over digital inspiration has developed a site that converts Google Photos links into links that can be embedded into WordPress. Brilliant.

MIFF

We took the opportunity to attend the Maine International Film Festival. We had a terrific time. We had to adjust our schedule as the first movie (Il Paradiso del Pavone (The Peacock’s Paradise)) that we wanted to see was having technical difficulties (no subtitles).

• Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris – This was a wonderful needed diversion. This was our favorite movie of the set.
• The Story of My Wife – This was a complex story where we just kept thinking, geez, if they only would have a conversation.
• River – important but not thrilling
• Straighten Up and Fly Right – This was an interesting movie on being different.
• Penelope, My Love – based on the real-life experience of a couple with a daughter on the autistic spectrum.

Hazel

Turns out, Hazel is a very strong swimmer. We took her kayaking (with her “shark” life jacket. She quickly jumped out of the kayak and started swimming about. The first time, she kind of went head first under, but quickly changed to jumping out with her head up.

We had taken her into the water in bits to make sure that she was safe. With the latest experience though, she is clearly a strong swimmer.

Clouds

I’m loving all the wonderful views of clouds here in Maine. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Rm to D2

Rm took the opportunity to visit our youngest daughter. This is the major reason that we moved to Maine in the first place. All reported a great time.

Wedding & Vacation

We traveled back to Michigan to attend a wedding and enjoy a bit of a vacation. We brought in a wonderful couple to watch Hazel while we were gone.

We traveled all day to Dearborn, arriving in time to enjoy some chicken shawarma sandwiches, tabouli, fatoush, and hummus. The next day we picked up some Michigan favorites (Vernor’s, spices, etc.). We also visited and cleaned Rm’s Dad’s gravesite. Then we headed to Dearborn Brewing, yep, I brought my mug back, for some good beer. We were able to chat with Chris and Amy for a while.

The next day was the wedding. Christian and Jenna had a wonderful ceremony. In between, we stopped off at Qawah House for some coffee. A medium pot of wonderful deliciousness. The reception was fun. After the reception, we headed to La Feria. Though short-staffed, who isn’t these days, the wait was short, and the service was phenomenal (as usual). We cruised around downtown Detroit as visitors.

We headed up to Traverse City the next day. The morning drive was nice. We were surprised that Mackinaw Brewing was closed on a Sunday. Bummer, but it’ll be open tomorrow.

Monday we started with a quick trip up to the Mission Point Lighthouse. This is a wonderful little lighthouse on the 45 parallel. After that we headed off to Traverse City and some wine tasting. The weather was beautiful to sit outside and sip some wine. We stopped at Bonobo Winery for a tasting flight. We enjoyed some conversation and a terrific view. The wine was very good. We headed around to Sutton’s Bay, with a quick stop at Moomer’s for lunch (ice cream – this is vacation after all). The ice cream was wonderful. Next to Sutton’s Bay. We enjoyed wandering around Sutton’s Bay. We even picked up a Peacock for the garden.

We stopped at Black Star Farms for another wine tasting. This one was a bit of a challenge since we know and like so many of their wines. Still, we found a new wine and purchased a few bottles to bring home.

Back to Traverse City. Cherry Republic was sadly out of sour cherry balls. Even sadder, Mackinaw Brewing no longer carries the Havarti Cheese appetizers (think mozzarella sticks with Havarti cheese). I was able to pick up a couple of hats from Diversions. Rm did some shoe shopping with no luck.

We headed back up to Mission Point Lighthouse to enjoy the sunset. What a beautiful evening.

The next day was another travel day. We headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame area. The only issue was Waze deciding to send us through Canada after I had checked to make sure that it wasn’t. It’s frustrating when you can’t change the route to what you want. Thankfully, I’ve made the trip before, so we could avoid the directions.

The Baseball Hall of Fame was next on our agenda. I had purchased the earliest possible entry time and was glad that I did. We enjoyed seeing the history and controversies presented in the Hall. It was getting pretty packed by the time we left. We had a nice lunch (hot dogs of course, in honor of baseball) and wandered Cooperstown. Then, time for the ride home.

Turkeys?

On our way to pick up our farm share, we saw a family of what looked like turkeys. Two adults and about nine offspring were crossing the road. I saw looked like turkeys, except brown in color, because at least one of them took off in flight (cue Les Nessman here). I’m still searching for what they were.

Kayaking

Pleasant Pond

This was a really nice spot. There is kind of like a river that runs around the edge. Very smooth to kayak on. Rm and I had a nice time.

Great Moose Lake

This was an easy spot to get to. Daughter 1, a friend of hers, and I had a good time. Great Moose Lake is pretty wide. We headed, at a leisurely pace, out toward an island. This was the first time I took my camera as well. i didn’t get a great many good pictures, but I do feel confident in taking the camera in the future.

Swan Lake

Rm, Daughter 2, and I met up at Swan Lake. The Lake was fine, but there were too many motorized craft. It was great to see Daughter 2.

Sir

One of Daughter 1 friends went kayaking with us. She addressed me as “Sir”. I told her to please call me “Troy”, or most anything else but “late for dinner”. I wanted to use humor a bit to let her know that I was totally fine without the honorific. I totally get why. She has respect for her elders. She is also a Doctor. In a different setting, the dynamic would be very different. The context is really important here. I could just as well be meeting her where she was the Doctor and I would be using the honorifics.

Summer Projects

This is the first summer that I’ve had off in over 10 years. Since we’ve moved into a new (old) house, there is lots to do. We’ve been here a year now, and I’m behind where I really wanted to be. I’ve gotten a couple of rooms painted (and installed beadboard in one), but there are many rooms left to go.

I’m working on the hallway and stairs right now. It really does make a difference to get things painted.

I’m also getting quotes on tiling the kitchen and painting the shutters. Ah, the joys of home ownership.

Dinner with Friends

We had a terrific evening of dinner with friends. It’s really nice to be able to get together and learn about new people.

Weather

We get the weather for the entire state. This fascinates me as in my previous neighborhood, we got hyperlocalized weather.

Open Source

Coco Material. I found this site this week and I like it – a lot. Open source, hand drawn cartoons and resources that you (or kids) can modify easily. Free to use – even commercially.

Dine and Discuss

I’ve been invited to a conference called Dine and Discuss. I love this idea.

Crypto

I have some cryptocurrency.

MOOSE

Maine Opportunities for Online Sustained Education
I’ve worked more on MOOSE this week. I’ve got the Data Collection piece much closer to done. It was surprisingly hard to find good ideas for Data Collection. Most of the models that I found were focused on whole-class instruction. Since this has to be available for individual use as well as whole-class, I needed to create something that could be done individually.

I have also finished up the Food Waste section.

I’m getting used to the workflow for Drupal. It still takes a bit of thinking, but at least now I pretty much have the workflow down.

Chasing People Out

One of the side effects (and it’s intentional) of several of the laws that we are now seeing passed in certain parts of the country is to drive people out. The Washington Post posted an article about a Florida teacher who is leaving teaching. See the teacher is gay and married. She’s afraid to talk about her life and/or her marriage. Teachers have been encouraged to talk about their life in general. Teachers talk about their spouse (unless of course that spouse is the same sex).

Keep in mind, we have a teacher shortage. Keep in mind that kids need to see the real world. Having a teacher married to someone of the same sex is not going to change anything about the life partner choice that kid will make. However, it might just make that kid kinder, more respectful, more understanding, and more compassionate.