Day: December 8, 2019

My Week Ending 2019-12-08

by dougpete, posted in Just Rambling

Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

  • This is an interesting look at Personalized Professional Learning. It’s a nice view of the personal rather than the “one size fits all”.
  • I actually enjoyed doing the annual performance review with my superintendents. With their heavy workload, it was a chance to advocate for things important to me that they may not know about.
  • All teachers should put this bit of Canadiana in their bookmarks. I guarantee that there will be times that you can really use them.
  • From me, an update to the Hour of Code with new resources and ones that are good for yet another year.
  • They might be illegal in Australia, but I think you might be hard presssed to use them anywhere.
  • This is great news for those who are visually impaired. I wonder if there will be enough uptake to make it reasonable in price.
  • This is how to do it but I would think that there’s something missing. You don’t do it because that side of the fence looks greener.
  • Fabulous news about Canadian high school students and their reading levels. I hope that governments are paying attention. It doesn’t happen by accident.
  • I’ve been a user of Windows for a long, long time. I’ve always been frustrated that it doesn’t do these sorts of things by itself.
  • I guessed correctly what the answer to this question was just by looking at the title. Sorry, Apple, Microsoft, Google…
  • This is a scary statistic and it a strong reason why media literacy needs to be taught. I wonder, though, how teachers would stand up to the same test.
  • Google Search has become so involved that I guess we do need refresher courses on how to search effectively.
  • And you know what, for the most part, it never will. I just hope that it doesn’t get put into place, watch the failure, and then fix it on the back of students.
  • Google Earth continues to evolve and get better. No more checking out your back yard; here are some great activities to try.
  • I do worry about accounts on services that I no longer use. What happens to my details? How do I close them?

Blog Posts on doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog.

#FollowFriday – December 6, 2019

https://wke.lt/w/s/xL8DXG

voicEd Radio

My on demand radio page can be found here.  

This week’s show – https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/december-4/

Intro song:

Blog posts this week came from:

  • @cherandpete
  • @MzMollyTL
  • @mediasee
  • @A_M_L_
  • @DebbieDonsky
  • @hj_dewaard

Technology Troubleshooting

One of the aggravating things about buying ham at the supermarket is the packaging. For the price, you get about 50% water, it seems!

Last week, we happened to be on Lauzon Road in Windsor and noticed the Honey Bee Ham store and went in. If you’ve never had a ham from them, you don’t know what you’re missing.

We weren’t in the market for a full ham but decided to pick up some slices for sandwiches. I’ll admit that the sticker shock was there when we got the final bill.

But, it was so nice to have water-free sandwiches.

Video of the Week

There’s nothing worse than an empty net goal. This collection of empty net saves will have you wanted to stand and applaud if you’re a hockey fan.

Photo of the Week

I know that I used this picture this morning but I like it enough to reshare. What do you get when you cross a goose and a guitar? Go to Kingsville to see it live.

Thanks for reading. Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

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Whatever happened to …

by dougpete, posted in Just Rambling

… that one street?

In my childhood, it was Raglan Street.

It was where all the rich people lived and it seemed like every house was lit up and decorated for the Christmas season. It was a family tradition to get into the car when it was very dark, scrape the ice off the inside of the back windows so that we could see out and then go for a drive to see everything.

It wasn’t like there weren’t lights in other places. We had lightbulbs around the front window of our house and my mother would always paint a winter scene on the window. My daughter tries to keep up the tradition.

But it didn’t seem like any other street in town had all of the houses decorated. On that one street, you could see it all!

We went for a drive to Kingsville last night to see the spectacular display at the park there. The winner for us was this one.

Of course, there had to be a wild goose theme. This is Jack Miner’s hood afterall.

Around here, you don’t have to drive to Kingsville though. We have our own River Lights where two of the downtown parks are done up magnificently. My favourite is the town fountain which, despite my picture, isn’t leaning in real life.

And, the Bright Lights Windsor display opened last night. Link and some pictures are available here.

It’s not just in the community. At my high school, you would end up being assigned to a Grade 9 home room and you’d grow with them from 10, 11, and 12. Annually, the student council would have a door decorating contest and we were all in on that. At least for Grade 9 and 10. It became less cool to do that once you got older! I don’t recall that we ever won but I remember kids (and me) bringing in old decorations and end of roll wrapping paper to do the door on B41. One year, we even had a string of lights.

Christmas displays aren’t necessarily about lights. I received an invitation to visit the Duff-Baby house from David Garlick.

I’m hoping that we can swing it.

Driving to Kingsville and back home, we were impressed with the lights that were on display everyone, even on farms. It was a far cry from the past. Lights were everywhere and it made for a quick drive.

Despite all this, there are still memories of that one street from a long time ago.

How about you? Any memories? Please share them in the comments below.

  • growing up, or even now, was there that one street that was a must see?
  • does your community have a light display that everyone wants to check out?
  • how about your place? Do you decorate? Laser lights can be rough on a dog
  • was it colder back then or have cars got better? I can’t remember the last time I had frost on the inside of my car
  • do you make memorable trips to see the lights? As a kid, a biggie for us was to Victoria Park in London. These days, it’s the Dufferin Islands in Niagara Falls

Get into the holiday spirit and share some thoughts! And, a picture or two would be nice as well.

This post comes from:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com

If you read it anywhere else, it’s not the original.

OTR Links 12/08/2019

by dougpete, posted in Links

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.