I Should Be Marking

Two posts in an hour? Unprecedented. I would prefer to stagger them but that way I’d just not get round to writing everything down.

Well, my 3year old PowerBook (Mac laptop) was finally due for replacement and I have to say it’s done me proud. It’s happily kept up with a suite full of brand new Intel iMacs despite being built on the old PowerPC architecture. It stills beats my 6 month old desktop PC at home once I get more than two applications running simultaneously (and I quite often get well into double figures) but the Superdrive had gone, I’d replaced the hard drive once (down to 60GB which was perpetually full to burtsing), it’s taken a knock to one corner at some point in the past and it’s standard practice at work to replace every 3 years anyway.

And so to my new toy - a brand spanking 15″ MacBook Pro. Not the top of the line 17″ version - I couldn’t justify the expense and wouldn’t want a laptop that big anyway TBH. Externally it looks very similar but with a bigger trackpad, built in iSight camera and few scratches you can tell the difference if you stand them side by side. Leopard, the latest Mac operating system is everything Vista wishes it could have been. Some graphical and efficiency improvements but otherwise the same solid, reliable and effective OS I had been using previously.

Using Bootcamp I can boot into Windows for those essential high powered applications (Read: I could now play games if only I had the time!), Parallels allows me to run Windows within Leopard (so AQA Exampro, Teacher’s Report Assistant and Paint.net all work as well as IE for compatability testing) and I’ve even installed Ubuntu linux in Parallels as well (although, again, I’ve not had time to play with it yet).

Another issue is that I’ve changed my mind on browsers. I’ve been an Opera fanboy for a while now and never warmed to Safari, my new browser of choice. It’s slick, efficient, quick and the main reason I loved Opera - the ’speed dial’ - also works in Safari (well, the CMD-# keyboard shortcut for bookmarks does which amounts to the same thing AFAIC).

My biggest issue is still with online WYSIWYG editors. Moodle, Joomla, B2Evolution and Wordpress all of which I use regularly) come with WYSIWYG editors that just don’t work with either Safari or Opera. I’m forced to resort to Firefox in order to get line breaks working, or else hand code the HTML (which negates the whole point of a WYSIWYG editor in the first place).

It’s a small price to pay and only a minor inconvenience but overall I’m still a very happy bunny!

Clicky!

Phew! Well, it took two whole lessons to get right, but such is life.

My Year 8s spent half a lesson using the rubber stamp and lasso tools in Fireworks to create ‘Spot the Difference’ pictures. The plan was to spend half a lesson uploading them to the class blog for all the world to see. I’d spent quite a bit of time getting the permissions right on the blog to make sure the kids had access to the files area and had thought everything should be fine. Hmmm.

First of all, the file size limit was too small, so I opened it up.

Secondly, the files were still too big as we had saved the edited versions as PNG files. So do I stop and have a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of file sizes or rush through a quick export in order to get it done? Well, as I’m being observed I go for the latter in order to reach my objective.

Thirdly I find we can’t upload files with spaces or punctuation in the filename - which is about two thirds of them, so we have to fix that.

Fourthly the software is set up to allow one directory per blog rather than per student, so we need to get them to create their own folder within the files section - using their first name for example.

Three of them are called Michael. At this point I’ve managed to create a nice head-sized dent in the wall.

Brilliant! We’re all uploaded. Now simply write a post and use the ‘Files’ button to add the images in. Except that this opens a new window which doesn’t automagically close once you’ve added the files. And so, Year 8 pupils being Year 8 pupils, they simply click the ‘Add’ button until it realises what they mean and does it right, resulting in half a dozen entries consisting of 24 copies of an image set to 1280×960. Then the bell went.

The next lesson we started from the point where we had done the image editing. I talked a lot about file types, the export process (people kept complaining that when they exported their PNG as a JPG they still had a PNG file on their desktop. Aaarrgghh!!), the upload process, the adding of images to the blog post and the structure of a blog entry (Introduction, Description, Discussion - the last part always being the most difficult to tease out).

So a partial success and a lot of lessons learned. I don’t think blogs are cutting edge, although their use in lessons still is to a large degree - especially in secondary schools where lessons are shorter, classes change more frequently, etc. I certainly feel like I’m on the forefront, but maybe that’s just me!

Well, it’s that time of year again. Coursework gone, exam classes all but finished and thoughts turn to KS3 next year. It’s about time we made sure we covered the basics of Flash, I’d like to do some more targeted graphics work in conjunction with the art department and in Year 9 we’re replacing the Theme Park project with a Grand Designs project.Design three houses in Google Sketchup, build a spreadsheet model to look at costs and present an interactive brochure in Flash.  Should be a challenge, but more interesting and relevant for where we want pupils to go. By far the hardest thing is fitting everything into the time available and trying to balance moving forward with the inevitable gaps created by shuffling a unit from Year 8 to Year 7 (effectively missing an entire cohort). Still, anything beats marking coursework!

My Y11 marking went ages ago and my Sixth Form coursework was all done by the end of the weekend - so no more marking! Just a few revision classes to finish off for Y11 and my exam classes are all done.

Mrs. HH says she starts to like me again once I get past May as I return to being a normal human being. I wouldn’t go that far but I can already feel the relief setting in. Not a bad haul of coursework marks either, considering.

So for all those who have just, or have nearly finished their marking. Have a nice relaxing day/week/weekend from me (when you get there).

It’s not the right word, but I’m having a mental block. Settling, acceptance, being too focused on just getting coursework in on time and getting the exam classes prepared. Between that and feeling guilty for not completing my iMedia writeups here has kept me from posting for far too long. (Edit: Re-reading that it makes no sense, but hopefully you can figure out what I meant)

I feel a bit of reflection would be pretty useful at the minute. I’m starting to worry that I’ve lost that drive to self-evaluate every lesson in order to improve and started going through the motions of teaching a lesson and just moving on. I suppose it’s inevitable that a bit of that young, enthusiastic edge would wear down (young, fnaar) but I’m determined not to lose it entirely so self reflection begins again in earnest.

What have I found out during the hiatus?

• Edexcel Applied ICT Unit 10 (multimedia - done in Flash) is hard work and we really need to get Flash going a lot earlier in the school. I need to get a Y7 unit put together for next year. (DJ Phillips - formerly of GCSEICT.com has a fantastic resource here)
• Scratch is great. I’ve had classes making simple ‘dodge the ball’ games, car racing games, helicopter games - I’m going to get my iMedia group to make a version of Pong if I get time.
• You can lead a Y10 class to enlightenment, but when you stick a video camera in their hands they’ll stick act like prats, forget the meaning of the word ‘continuity’ and somehow ‘forget’ to record half of their script (and that’s if they remember to take their script with them!).

It’s been hard work, but fun (the best way to be IMHO) and I was promoted to Asst. HoD last month (which means I’m either doing something right or I’m hiding it well). We’re also interviewing for a new colleague on Monday, should be fun!

Will write again soon, promise.