Amazon

Baseball Game

Principles of Technology 2016

Old school VOM. Still works. 

Measuring voltage 

Weather Reporter: John Blake

Electric Curcuits

Circuit laboratory activity 

Lab 1M1 Setup

1M1 lab setup. 

Vectors in Mechanical Forces

Ready for Christmas Break!

Science

What kind of cloud is this?

With all the BS, Why Teach?

I could not sleep after walking the dog in the middle of the night. It had rained and thundered since midday and the dog hates stormy weather. So, at 2;20 AM, I was awakened and got my shoes on and walked the dog. 

Upon making it safely back inside, from a successful dog walk spurspectivel, I grabbed my iPhone and deleted the spam emails. I addicted to social media. There, I admit it I checked the notifications on my Facebook newsfeed and flipped to my Radarscope app to check storm locations. Speed reading the notifications, I noticed a couple of comments on my Summertime 2014 photo album. After clicking on the link and reading and indicating I "Liked" the comments I had one of those rare moments of inspirations to write down my thoughts. Blogging takes a huge effort on my part. I'm a horrible writer. I write the way I talk-- Redneck and proud. 

On the comment notifications, one of my former students and my mother caught my attention. My former student is now a an experienced elementary teacher. She earned a Masters degree and National Board Certified.  She is also my daughter's sister-in-law. She commented on my photo album saying, "it's so funny...when I see your pics each day I think, John [Blake] is so awesome with technology. And then the teacher in me, that has actually grown to enjoy teaching science, remembers how awesome you were as a science teacher and the majority of your pics are about science, weather, and nature! She continues, her comment on Facebook in a reply to my mother's comment discussed below. "I loved having John as a teacher Grandma! We had so much fun in his class because he was passionate about what he was teaching! It makes a difference in the impact you have in your classroom!" 

In a comment by my 88 year old mother and retired college professor, she reminded me to celebrate my successes. Life is like a war. Days with their changes are like battles. Parents can be various types of participants. I've been blessed with loving supportive parents. They still teach. This Favebook comment is a lesson we all need to remember when we are wondering why the hell we got into education or any career. Work hard, be passionate, listen more than you talk, and It's all about the children. 

"You should make a copy of AT's complement and FRAME it!Nice to know your efforts were appreciated!" --Dr. Eugenia Q. Blake. 

Thanks for the kind words Amanda Tedder and thanks for my mother's comments. 

Walking with my GoPro

Morning Haze

Saturday observations.

Pink Classroom?

Managing USB cables: Classroom iPad Cart

This may not be a tip for everyone but it if you are using laptop carts to store and charge Apple iPads, this is what I have tries to organize my charger cables.

Researching the topic was not easy. Googling the topic USB cables and about any type of search I could dream up was pointless. I have learned to use YouTube to search for "how tos". 

However, the best solution I could find for how to wrap up or roll these Apple lightning cables was to use a $4 cable gadget. I liked it, but I have 650 iPads. 

So, this nylon strap may be the best. 

I tried rubber bands, but they dry out during the school year and have to be replaced. Baggy or twist ties was suggested. However, the wire in these ties requires too much time to attach. 

Nylon zip ties are strong and easy to apply. The photo below illustrates what it looks like. 

This looks better than the rubber bands I used in this cart. 

I need to rework this cart. Remove the rubber bands and then tie them with the nylon ties.

Here's the video: It shows how to pull the cable in its factory wrapper so the nylon zip tie can be attached.

Here is what the cables should look like in the cart.

AUP

iPad Carts

, originally uploaded by The Blake Slate.

Middle School 1:1 program is moving from MacBooks to iPads. More later...

Mako shark attacking a PelagicView dredge

My daughter shared this cool video with me through Facebook this morning. This is really cool. The guys that shot this video used a GoPro Hero 3. The music track is awesome. Play this on your TV is possible.

Sharing resources

I remember teaching when I had used the day textbook for so many years, and answered the same questions by students that I even had the page numbers memorized. "Yes Larry, the answer to that question is correct and we talked about it when we covered acids and bases in Chapter 12 and its on page 215." My students would shake their heads and mumble "dang, he has the whole book memorized". 

Back then, with 4X4 classes, teachers taught the same content twice in the year. That was fine, but it was repetitive. 

Today's classroom has changed. Students still use textbooks. However, iPads and MacBooks in our 1:1 classes enable learners to access video clips, tutorials, collaborative chats, and Skype sessions with experts. 

We started in 2008. One of the first tools for sharing we trained teachers to use was Delicious. Great tool. However, it faded in popularity. Some complained it was too much to worry with. Some said it was filling up their inbox. Whatever reason it is not used. 

Many of our teachers are Pinterest users. They share jewelry, Bible quotes, and receipts. However, social media is not without issues. Personally, I never got into Pinterest. I tried it one time on my phone to help locate resources for using iPads in our school. It is additive and there are many Pinners. 

However, it's not something I would want to explain to a 6th student. I have students that would spend the entire school year on Pinterest repinning bulldogs or rap stars. My concern is that Pinterest is not a classroom-friendly site. 

Much to my surprise, their is a site that combines the functionality of Pinterest with the power of Delicious and supports the classroom. EduClipper.net is promising. I set up my account and tried it on an iPad mini and iPhone. They need a mobile app for the small screen. It works ok on the iPad. 

Give it a try. Post your comments here.