Day: February 14, 2021

My Week Ending 2021-02-14


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.

Sunday

  • If you’re a fan of the Canadian Football League or just interested in the game, you have to visit the Hall of Fame if you’re in Hamilton
  • Google’s new plans for tracking may not use cookies in the future. A discussion of what might be

Monday

  • I know that it’s pretty cool here in Southern Ontario but it’s nowhere near what it’s like in Edmonton
  • This is an inspiring story about student involvement in the development of their city. We need more of this

Tuesday

  • Team building is important all the time but can be a challenge when the classes go virtual. Here are some tips
  • During lockdown, even the nicest of people are having difficulties. Sadly, some are taking out their ire on teachers

Wednesday

  • Super Bowl advertising is like a call to action for media literacy but the techniques described here for use in the classroom could be used all the time
  • The rules for the different colour safety zones in Ontario have changed and will come into place for most next week

Thursday

  • It may well be that people don’t want to use computers and technology in the classroom for a while and that’s understandable. There will come a time when it’s good to go again and here are some Youtube channels to use
  • It sounds like it’s going to be difficult to find a place to eat in downtown Toronto with these restaurants closing

Friday

  • A story about Toronto neighbourhoods suffering from the lack of Black history education
  • If you’re an administrator or a boss, here are 10 of the worst behaviours that you should avoid

Saturday

  • If you’re using Windows 10, this is why you want to update right now
  • I had no idea that I could record telephone calls on my Android phone. After reading this article, I now know how

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – February 12, 2021

https://wakelet.com/wake/KO0I3O2DU7sKJL76JdUWY

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about politics, the unsung, creativity, connections, and coins

The show is available here: https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/personal-politics-creativity-and-counting-coins/

  • Matthew Morris – @callmemrmorris
  • Pav Wander – @PavWander
  • Jessica Outram – @jessicaoutram
  • Joël McLean – @jprofNB
  • Alice Aspinall – @aliceaspinall

Intro Song:

Closing Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 9:15 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

If you follow my #FollowFriday messages, you’ll probably already know that some of them are created in advance.

It was always my desire to schedule the list of people who actually appear in the This Week in Ontario Edublogs first. The announcement of the post is automatic from WordPress.

Sometimes the Twitter message is first; sometimes the announcement of the post is first. I wanted to make it right.

The solution was so simple I can’t believe that it took me so long. WordPress is scheduled to send notification out at 5:00 and I had the Twitter message scheduled for 5:00. So, it was like a race to see which one got there first.

Then, a stroke of genius (for me, at least). I could make it right by scheduling the Twitter message for 4:59!

All is right in my little section of the world!

Video of the Week

Now we know. I have too many ways of charging accumulated over the years.

Photo of the Week

This was so cool. Facing north at the Kings Navy Yard, there is about 30 m of ice along the shore. I don’t know if it was the current but all the Canada Geese were lined up at the edge. I thought that odd and wonderful enough to take a picture in the deep freeze.


Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

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

Whatever happened to …


… Valentine’s Day?

Growing up, this was a puzzle. Is it Valentine’s Day or is it St. Valentine’s Day. I remember going to the library at the time and doing some research about St. Valentine. It’s not a pleasant story.

Valentine’s Day was always a big deal at my school. I can remember decorating little paper bags and then taping them to the side of the desk. For the day, Mom would have bought one of those 30 packs of Valentine’s Day cards. We’d separate them and then carefully go through the class deciding who would get which card. This was really important; you didn’t want to mess up. At the end of the day, I’d take them home and re-read them.

Later, as a secondary school teacher, I kind of did the same thing. For my homeroom, there was a card for every student and one of those little plastic cases of cinnamon hearts. For my classes, you could get the hearts by the big bag and so I’d laid out a bowl as they came into class. Even the coolest kids took a handful. Imagine trying to do that these days!

But this is 2021. Not all schools in the province are even open to celebrate in a traditional manner. Even the ones that are do it at a social distance and my insiders tell me that card sharing wasn’t happening. The ultimate indignity is that Valentine’s Day is not even on a school day.

But Valentine’s Day is for lovers. I’ve actually had only a single person as a girlfriend and later as a wife for Valentine’s Day. It’s been for a lot of years and we’ve always tried to do something special for the two of us. Usually, it means something chocolatey, some flowers, and going out for supper.

As luck would have it, this popped up in my Facebook memories yesterday from last year. We went out for Mexican food at Chicano’s in town. Now, before you think I’ve gone all sappy , I bought the Gerber Daisies (her favourite) but the signage and other things including the strategic placement of the restaurant menu are from my daughter.

No photo description available.
No photo description available.

Things are going to be different this year. Restaurants are closed as is the flower store in town. I could have gone through the grocery store and grabbed some flowers and a chocolate bar or two but then something neat happened …

In town, there’s a Frozen Yogurt store that is normally closed for the winter but they have a special product for the day.

May be an image of one or more people and text

But, as luck would have it, we were walking the other day and she suggested that we just skip Valentine’s Day this year. Yikes. I had to pre-order this stuff. It was going to be there for me. To drive another stake into the concept, I have to pick it up Saturday between 10 and 12. Where do you hide frozen gifts on the 13th to give on the 14th?

For today, how’s Valentine’s Day going to be in your world?

  • do you have any memories of Valentine’s Day in your own personal school days?
  • were you able to celebrate with your own students this year? How?
  • do you have any special things that you do with family every year?
  • are you celebrating with your significant other this year or have you taken a pass and blamed it on COVID?
  • is takeout a suitable substitute for going to a restaurant?

As always, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

And, have a Happy Valentine’s Day, however you spend it.

OTR Links 02/14/2021


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