February 29, 2012

Thursday: It is leap day! I feel like we should all be celebrating today because there is only one of these every 4 years.

Yesterday Emily, Grant, and I helped the 2nd graders with the Chromebooks--my what a difference from the 5th grade. Today we are helping the 4th grade. Occasionally you may be sent to work with one of these classes to help them on projects and answer questions. I have a Chromebook in my office for you to work on and get familiar with it.

Ben figured out how to set them up to print to the new printer so we are going to have to do this for each account. We will start with all 5th graders. We can do this from any computer with Google chrome on it.

I am also going to give the computer you all work on to FLCN and move mine to your spot and I'll have a new Win 7 machine. Not really looking forward to this but it is a necessity at some point.

The nComputing devices are working. We will probably deliver and set up on Friday. Tomorrow is a short day.

I MUST have permission slips signed now in order for me to text you and vice versa as of March 1. I have the permission slips ready to go. Be sure to get one from me and bring it back TOMORROW.

Have a good day!

February 28, 2012

Tuesday: Well we put the first set of chromebooks in the hands of 5th graders yesterday and one class of 8th grade. Overall things went well--there were a few hitches with logins and some lag time with the router and/or bandwidth and all those hitting the web at the same time. Today we are going to help the 2nd grade at 1 p.m. and tomorrow the 4th grade at 1:30.

I also got the memory in for the two machines we are going to set up in the MS with the nComputing devices. One is installed and working (YEAH!) and we will get the other one going today also. We will be delivering those later this week.

Make sure you talk to me about your website and questionnaire. I think all of you have changes to make on the questionnaire before we send it out to someone. I made copies of the evalluation form so that I could keep one and you have one since I haven't finished them yet. I did enter the website grades to the grade book.

Have a good day.

February 25, 2012

Saturday: Well, I'm having an exciting Saturday evening. I graded all of your web sites this morning and looked at all the questionnaires that I could find. I cannot find any from Ben, Emily, or Grant. I checked my e-mail and shared documents. You all need to always use my lori.kempker@gmail account. Some went to my blairoaks.k12.mo.us account and others were e-mailed and other shared documents.

Here's the deal--if you create something in Google--share it with me using the gmail account above. Then I can put it into folders and find it easily. When you e-mail it, it is just a link and then I can't store it with the others. So if you have not shared your document(s), go back and do that now. I need to talk to each of you about your project before we send the questionnaires. Hopefully that will get done this week.

Monday--Devun and Ben need to go to Mrs. Maples room to help with Chromebooks. look back at Friday's blog for the other hours to also go. Text me at the beginning of your hour if you are not sure what to do.

Hope your weekend is going well.

February 24, 2012

Friday: What a quick week. Still plugging along with Chromebook stuff. On Monday we are going to help the 5th grade, Tuesday the 2nd grade and Wednesday the 4th grade with their new Chromebooks. I don't know what hours for sure on all of them but Monday will be 1, 2, 5, and 6th hours. So you guys plan on being in the MS in Ms. Maples room. I will remind you.

I have more I could say but for now--have a good weekend.

February 23, 2012

Thursday: well, we are not getting the "Cloud Printer" to work and Google has not returned my call on the apps question I have for the Chromebooks. I'm feeling frustration! We are setting up all the 5th grade accounts and some 8th grade. That will take pretty much all day I think. (for you all anyway)

I will talk to you when you come to class.

February 22, 2012

Wednesday: already half-way through the week. I am trying to figure out all the chromebook stuff and how to get the apps to appear on the machines. It isn't working because I can't find the instructions. I did realize that I haven't gone all the way through the setup steps so as I do that this morning, maybe I'll figure it out. I also put a phone call in to Google.

I have to take my son to have some allergy tests done this morning so I'll be leaving around 10:30 and be back around 1 probably. I want to get the other chromebooks delivered to the elementary and put them in the cart if possible. I'll leave written instructions or text you during your class.

I apologize for not delving into your projects fully yet. I feel that I must get the chomebooks taken care of first and then I'll direct my attention that way. That's why this is an independent class--lack of supervision from your instructor. :)

Have a good day.

February 21, 2012

Tuesday: I hope everyone had a great extendend break. I had lots of company at my house so I didn't get much accomplished but it was fun. My husband and I went and test drove an SUV yesterday and I fell in love with the Acadia.

Goals for the week: Get all the Chromebooks delivered and set up in the carts. I also have to get the admin portion of it working correctly so that is a goal for today. I also need to order monitors and mice as we are going to set up another nComputing device for the MS. I will also need to do some work with core data and EOC preparation this week.

Tomorrow I may be gone from 10:30 till ??. my son is having allergy testing done. If my husband can go with him, then I'll be here. Have a good day.

Oh yea, I want to talk to each of you about your careers and who might be able to answer your questions. If you have not shared the questions with me yet. Do that today.

February 16, 2012

Thursday: The conference I went to was great! I learned lots of new technology and some cool websites. I'm sure I'll be sharing some of them with you. I need to spend a little time looking over them first.

As for your projects, I've been crazy busy and haven't looked at the websites but will do so soon. (time to spruce them up if they are not top-notch already) Share your questions/forms with me so that I can look over them and then next week I'll work with Mrs. Shanley to find people for you to send them to. Oh yea, please make sure you did not do any copying and pasting into your web site. I truly frown apon that. Everything needs to be in your own words.

Have a great 4-day weekend.

February 13, 2012

Monday: Blogging late as usual. I've been so rushed today with getting a bunch of stuff done before going to my conference the next two days and now getting out early has shortened it even more. I've been trying to get the wireless set up for the Chromebook carts--done, an emergency phone list ready for coach Drehle for football--done, directions, hotel reservation confirmation, conference sessions, etc... for the 7 of us going tomorrow--half done! I can finish that at home.

I want you to work on your Google form for your project while I am gone. I do not have Grant or Kellen's web site yet. :( Where is it? Also write a reflection paper about what you learned aobout your career research, what you think you are going to do and where you are going to do it at (school). What questions do you still have about this career choice, are you nervous that you'll go to school for years and then not like it, what are alternatives etc... My son graduated with a degree in Marketing and a Master in Business Administration and is working for himself right now but he learned how to make a business plan, approach the banks, etc... Do you have an ultimate goal in life?

If you need to text me, that's fine. I'll be able to respond. Be good, stay around the office and I'll let you know if you need to help anyone. I'll be checking my mail.

February 8, 2012

Wednesday: I am staying home this morning because my son is not feeling well at all and I'm not really up to par either. I think I will be in around noon if Austin starts feeling better. I don't have anything to tell you to do at this moment except for Ben. Ben--Mrs. Anderson at the MS has asked specifically for you to come over 2nd hour. I'll watch my e-mail and text you if you need to go anywhere. Use this opportunity to get your websites finished. I expect great looking sites since you've had a lot of time to do them.

February 7, 2012

Tuesday: I have decided that since I will be gone Tuesday and Wednesday of next week that you can work on your Google forms questions and your reflection paper while I am gone. I do want you to have the website finished by this Friday and to share it with me by the end of the day. The other 2 parts can be done next week. Talk to me about who you would like to send your questionnaire to and I'll see what I can do. Eight to ten questions will be plenty on that.

have a good day!

February 6, 2012

Monday: Well, Friday did not go so well and I was extremely busy this morning with phone calls from cooks, secretaries, teachers, etc... about the new PowerSchool. I was here on Friday night until 11 p.m. getting the server back up and running. We had multiple problems that we had to work through and all of them took hours. Had it gone smoothly, we should have been done by 4 p.m. :(

Do not forget that your websites are due at the end of the week. I won't be here part or all of the day Friday, so make sure you share your website with me on Google or e-mail me the web address. I will be sure to check that I have them by the end of the day. They won't be graded that fast but I'll check to be sure you are on time.

See ya tomorrow!

February 3, 2012

Friday: Normally I'm happy about Friday's but I am wiping out the PowerSchool server and upgrading it to Windows2008 server and PowerSchool 7. I have Scott coming to actually do the work but I'll be involved and it makes me very nervous. I am trying to get as much backed up as possible in case of disaster. I have run a transcript for every hs student, exported all the teacher grades into pdf files, and I'm running the backups that they recommend from the server. I'll be here all weekend if it doesn't go well.

Today you can expiriment with a Chromebook if you would like or work on your project. I will let you know if I need you to go some place. I am running to eat lunch with my son today for Catholic Schools week so I'll be gone for a bit around noon.

February 2, 2012

Thursday: THE CHROMEBOOKS ARE HERE! They arrived yesterday around lunch time and as of 9 a.m. today, they are all unboxed and we are updating the first dozen or so. It takes over an hour to update them after turning them on and finding the wireless. So it is a slow process to start with but once they are updated, all should go well. If you need to work on your website, do so while we are waiting or at home. Don't wait until the last minute.

February 1, 2012

Wednesday: I got all of the users uploaded to the Google Apps dashboard with the help of Ben, Caleb, Curtis, and Alex who helped type in the e-mail addresses for every student in 3rd through 11th grade. We will see if we add seniors this year. I don't think they will use it much so I don't think we will need to with only 4 months of school left.

Chromebooks will be here tomorrow so get your web sites and research finished. I will be gone part or all of the day on Feb. 10 so you must share your site with me or e-mail me the address of the site by that day.