Groovy Sputum

Technical Literacy

I am working on a project for an educational technology class that I am taking that deals with the Ohio Content Standards. Basically, these are all the things that the State of Ohio says a child needs to know or be able to do at each grade level.

One of the things that I am doing is setting up vertical progressions with the Ohio Technology Standards. A vertical progression is a map of all the things a student needs to learn about a specific topic from kindergarten through high school graduation. Many teachers only look at what needs to be taught/learned at the grade level they are assigned to teach. That is fine, but it doesn’t show the whole educational picture. A vertical progression is a better way of looking at content standards because it shows not only what is to be learned at the current grade level, but also what has been learned (or should have been learned) at previous levels and what will be taught in the future. If the student is struggling with the new material, a teacher using a vertical progression needs only to go down the progression to a previous level, reteach what wasn’t learned, and then proceed back up the progression.

As I have been working, the thought came to me: how technically literate are you? I thought it would be fun to list a few vertical progressions and let you do a self check of your technical literacy. I am starting with an easy topic: basic operations. Take a look at the list below and see if you can do all the things. You can check out what grade level you were supposed to have learned it, too.

• Grade 5: Select the appropriate device to store needed information and independently save and access stored information from portable devices (e.g., how large is the saved information? do others need to use the information? what device will best store this information?)
• Grade 4: Demonstrate ability to login and use basic network services.
• Grade 4: Discuss different software programs and what they do.
• Grade 4: Discuss image formats (JPEG, GIF, TIFF).
• Grade 4: Save, transport and access stored information from portable devices (e.g., portable hard drives, universal serial bus-2014;USB devices, memory sticks).
• Grade 3: Identify and use input and output devices to operate and interact with computers and multimedia technology resources (e.g., scanner, digital cameras).
• Grade 3: Discuss networks and their use (e.g., how computers connect to printers, servers and the Internet).
• Grade 3: Identify and use a variety of software programs.
• Grade 3: Use technologies for particular content areas (e.g., calculators for math, computerized microscopes for science and books on CD-ROM for language arts).
• Grade 2: Know that software is necessary to operate computer technology.
• Grade 2: Use a variety of computer and multimedia technology resources for directed learning activities (e.g., computer, VCR/DVD player, audio player, camera).
• Grade 2: Identify and use input and output devices to operate and interact with computers and multimedia technology resources (e.g., scanner, digital camera, video camera).
• Grade 1: Discuss software and why it is necessary to operate computer and multimedia technology.
• Grade 1: Start, use and exit software programs with teacher assistance.
• Grade 1: Use input (keyboard, mouse) and output (printer) devices to operate computer and multimedia technology tools with teacher assistance.
• Grade K: Identify and use input (keyboard, mouse) and output (printer) devices to operate computer and multimedia technology tools with teacher assistance.
• Grade K: Use software programs with teacher assistance.

Sir Duke

I was watching some of “The Neighborhood Ball” the other night and was delighted to see Stevie Wonder performing his hit Signed, Sealed, Delivered for the new President. Man, I like Stevie. He is such a great writer, singer, and performer. There aren’t may artist now days who have all three of those areas mastered. The guy has written some of the grooviest tunes ever, can play the keys with the best of them, and has a great voice.

This is one of the reasons I dislike American Idol: the judges focus so much on how the person looks and sounds, but they may know nothing about music, or how to play an instrument, or how to write anything. To me, they are just pretty faces that can sing. Money generators, if you will, for the record companies. Stevie is the antithesis of American Idol.

Whenever I think of Stevie Wonder, I think of one of my fondest memories as a kid: listening to Sir Duke on 8 track while camping with my family in my grandpa’s Airstream. I remember my dad liking that song and since it was on 8 track, in order to listen to it a second time, you had to go around the horn, so to speak, and wait for the whole 8 track to play through before getting to the song again. It was worth the wait, though. What a great song!

Got ‘Em

The annual mouse migration into mom’s house began a few weeks ago and I promptly laid out the sticky paper traps that my dad had purchased some time ago. These traps are advertised as the “humane” way to get rid of mice. No poison, no painful spring trap, no gross blood. The problem is they don’t work.

So, I purchased an 8 pack of the traditional Victor mouse traps this afternoon and set them before dinner. I put a few in the kitchen, a few in the furnace room, and a few behind a cabinet where I discovered a mouse hole the other day.

I decided to check them before we watched our evening installment of Andy Griffith with the kids and low and behold, I had one. I thought about snapping a photo on Valerie’s new camera (she loves it, by the way), but I figured it was a bit too much for my women kin folk to handle.

I threw that one away, feeling proud that I was able to cheer my wife a bit with a simple act of pest control. She’s not scared of mice, but she does hate the droppings they leave and the thought of them walking on the countertops at night.

After disposing of the mouse, I posted a few Facebook photos from when I was in college, watched some tv with the kids, and decided to check the remaining seven traps before putting the kids to bed. Low and behold, we had another one! I showed the kids (they love that kind of thing…they are like me) and I was barely finished washing my hands when SNAP!…I heard a third trap go.

Needless to say, I am feeling pretty good about my mouse trapping skills right now. I’m kinda’ like a ninja when it comes to killing mice. Awesome. That’s a good word for it, really. Awesome.

Great Googly Moogly!

I have a little digital weather station at mom’s house (yes, I am a nerd) and when I woke up this morning, it read -22.5! Yikes! I snapped a quick photo as evidence. I haven’t tested my theory, but I think it is cold enough for spit to be frozen before it hits the ground.

What I Gave For Christmas

I can proudly say that I spent WAY more on gifts for my wife, mother, and in-laws this year than I did on my kids. That is saying something in light of the fact that I have 7 children. In previous years, Valerie and I have felt that the kids get too much and don’t appreciate things the way they should because they get too many presents. So, we tried to tone things down a bit this year.

First, I got Valerie a Kodak Z712 IS camera. It is a 2007 model that I got for a VERY good price. I, ahem…SHE, loves it! It is not too big, can act as a point and shoot, but also has the whistles and bells of a higher end camera (with out the price).

Then, we gave a Kodak P720 digital picture frame for both my mother and Valerie’s parents. This was the first year in a long time that we knew immediately that our gift was a hit with Peter: he immediately opened the box, read the manual, and went home and loaded the thing with like 300 pictures.

Like I said, we toned things down a lot for the kids. S has been longing for an American Girl Doll, so it was decided that we would go together with our parents to get her one. That would be her only present this year since it is such a large ticket item.

We got A a sketch book called “The Girl’s Doodle Book” along with a deluxe set of 50 Crayola colored pencils. I wasn’t sure if she would like it, but man, she tells me every day how much she likes it.

S wanted a Webkinz, but not just any Webkinz. He wanted a bat. The problem, however, was that the bat was a special Halloween Webkinz. It pretty much sold out in stores in October, so off to eBay I went. I actually got one for the same price I would have paid at Meijer.

We got N a G.I. Joe motorcycle/action figure set. He pretty much likes anything that S likes, and we figured that they could play with it together.

A is only two, so she has particular tastes. We say a pair of slippers that looked like princess shoes. She wore them for three days straight after she opened them, so I guess they were a hit.

C, our 16 month old, loves books. One in particular he loves is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”. Our former copy was a traditional paper copy which had been toddlered to death. So, we found a heavy duty board book edition for him. I also gave him a board book copy of “I Love You, Stinky Face”, which is also a hit.

What I Got For Chrismas

My wife saw how desperately I needed a new wallet, so she went to Khol’s (there was a sale!) and gave me a nice bi-fold. I particularly like the fact that it holds 6 cards in independent pockets and it has two separate bill compartments. Very nice.

Valerie also got me “Christmas Vacation” on DVD. I don’t know any guy in America that wouldn’t love that. Then, my mother gave me some money and I ordered “Lost: Season 4″ from Amazon (one click, baby!) and a few compact discs from Best Buy: Nickle Creek’s first album and Brad Paisley’s “Play”. Good stuff.

Someone once told me that contentment is not having what you want, but wanting what you have. I feel very content this Christmas. That’s a good thing.