Wow here we are starting the 2011-2012 school year. We had a wonderful speaker today to start the school year. He talked about losing adultitis and having fun in the moment. Trying not to live via your to do list but just live your life. The biggest part I got out of it was if your life was a book/movie would it be a good one with lots of really good scenes or just jumping from one thing to the next. I think I jump to much and I do not enjoy more moments. I will work on that. To learn more about this I signed up for a newsletter to keep me thinking and living young. Here is the website Adultitis. Some good laughs were had.
I am under some additional stress to start the school year as I will be missing the first two days due to the death of my Grandmother. She was 91 and had a very blessed life and I am going to be with my family to help celebrate all she did for us. But that leaves my classroom to start the year! Yikes.
I love to use technology but I am concerned that my technology is not going to work and that my sub will struggle and the kids will misbehave. I have come up with activities for two of my classes just a couple more to come up with. But I am having them create a voki introduction of themself. This will help me to learn more about them, plus they get to play with technology. I am just crossing my toes that all the equipment works and kids can log in. Here is my voki for one of my classes.
So I just looked over my hours for the summer. Since school got out I have put in 270 hours of work that has been unpaid. That is a pretty good chunk of time out of my so called vacation. I will keep adding my additional hours put in to see how long it takes me to get to 2,000 hours.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Concession Room Set-up for First Home Football Game
Well the room is set up and ready for our first event on Friday. Today I had to make sure that the candy was put away and ready to sell. We put the candy in containers so every candy starts with 30, this makes it easier for clubs to know what their starting amount to calculate how much they have used at the end of the night. I did receive an order for candy/hot dogs/nachos. All the items get just left in the middle of the room so everything needs to be put away. I also use this time to go through and dispose of items that are just left in the room from outside organizations using the room.
I was also lucky to haul down to the room 16 cases of water and 9 cases of Gatorade. Once in the room I had to load up the cooler to be sure that they were ready and cooled for sale. I was lucky to have a student walk by and ask if I needed help and I said "YES". He brought the Ice Cream cooler back to the room and the Nacho Machine. This saved me 3 separate trips to just get all the equipment in the right spot. If he had not asked it would have taken me at least an additional 1.5 hours of work ! THANK YOU!
I did also fill out paperwork to pay the three different businesses that I received inventory from. It is not hard but just takes a lot of time to do it all. I know our auditors like how we do it, but it is cumbersome for the large amount of paperwork I do for this task.
I am find this job duty very thankless. I work very had to maintain a high level of accuracy in billing and receiving of inventory but leadership and colleagues nit pick everything that is done without a thanks or appreciation. I don't need constant positive reinforcement, but all I hear is the negative and it is getting very old. I am seriously thinking of retiring my running this additional non-paid responsibility.
I know students get a lot out of running the business, but they also do not get respect from people. I will be doing a lot of reflecting on this a lot this year. Let's see how the school year goes.
I was also lucky to haul down to the room 16 cases of water and 9 cases of Gatorade. Once in the room I had to load up the cooler to be sure that they were ready and cooled for sale. I was lucky to have a student walk by and ask if I needed help and I said "YES". He brought the Ice Cream cooler back to the room and the Nacho Machine. This saved me 3 separate trips to just get all the equipment in the right spot. If he had not asked it would have taken me at least an additional 1.5 hours of work ! THANK YOU!
I did also fill out paperwork to pay the three different businesses that I received inventory from. It is not hard but just takes a lot of time to do it all. I know our auditors like how we do it, but it is cumbersome for the large amount of paperwork I do for this task.
I am find this job duty very thankless. I work very had to maintain a high level of accuracy in billing and receiving of inventory but leadership and colleagues nit pick everything that is done without a thanks or appreciation. I don't need constant positive reinforcement, but all I hear is the negative and it is getting very old. I am seriously thinking of retiring my running this additional non-paid responsibility.
I know students get a lot out of running the business, but they also do not get respect from people. I will be doing a lot of reflecting on this a lot this year. Let's see how the school year goes.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom - Webinar
Working at school and I attended a webinar in which they discussed ways to use Google Apps for classroom teachers. I am working with the high school for them to become a Google Apps school and my role is going to be to help roll out how to implement it for the building.
I had troubles getting into the webinar and having audio. I tried for over 15 minutes to call into the conference call number but could not get it to work. Very frustrating for me because I was so excited to listen to the ideas. So here is a list of some of the ideas I got from the webinar
Google Docs
Journals, instead of bringing home
Translate Letter to parents in a different language
Parent Sign up Sheet
Science Experiment, then used a motion Chart as a Google gadget, Google lookup
Flash Cards (Google gadget), use a center for classroom.
Forms:
great way to collection information, give immediate results. Get some pre-assessment and the results and can use fluburu (? spelling) to grade forms and Google spreadsheet. They do recommend changing the template to make it more exciting.
Ways to use forms: student surveys, observations, online reading records, discipline referrals, collect information from parents/teachers, spelling tests or multiplication test, collecting science data,
Calendar:
Sending invitation for meeting and including a Google document, show standards mapping, add fun calendars such as Brewers or Packer's schedule.
Gmail:
Methods translation to work with parents who are not using the same primary language, global pen pals,
Talk:
Doing a video chat to bring in guest speaker or conference. Meet with students to help with work.
Sites:
Website creation tool, you can edit and publish it live instantaneously. embedding calendar, calendar or any other apps is easy. Can create e-portfolio, can create projects and reports, curriculum sharing.
Blogger:
Run classroom and use for lesson plans, easily intergrates with forms and documents.
Run classroom and use for lesson plans, easily intergrates with forms and documents.
Google Moderator
Reflect on daily learning. Students can read each other's reflections and vote up the responses that they like the best.
I will be going back and rewatching this webnair to get all the tips and you may see another post on this area.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Freshmen Orientation
Today was the day that all the incoming new students at Seymour get to obtain their schedules, pay their fees, get their picture taken. Also perfect opportunity for new members for Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). I had been working with my state officer in preparing a speech to give to students and parents about the importance of being involved in activities while in high school. We specifically do not tell them to join FBLA but what they can get out of being involved, this way every club in school is not trying to give a speech for them to join.
I went to school two times today because there was orientation at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. We had a display board to promote FBLA and handouts to encourage people to join. We had 4 to 5 officers there to help answer questions and encourage students to join. I did not have to do much but help the state officer practice her speech with a microphone and just facilitate the FBLA booth. My husband was out of town so I brought my two young boys with and that always means for interesting times. My oldest who has helped out with activities was walking up to parents and students handing out packets and telling them to join FBLA (as you can tell he is not shy), the younger boy was just content to run and play in the hallways.
It was about 5 hours of at school helping to get student involved in FBLA which is good exposure for the club. Hopefully it will pay off at our first meeting.
I went to school two times today because there was orientation at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. We had a display board to promote FBLA and handouts to encourage people to join. We had 4 to 5 officers there to help answer questions and encourage students to join. I did not have to do much but help the state officer practice her speech with a microphone and just facilitate the FBLA booth. My husband was out of town so I brought my two young boys with and that always means for interesting times. My oldest who has helped out with activities was walking up to parents and students handing out packets and telling them to join FBLA (as you can tell he is not shy), the younger boy was just content to run and play in the hallways.
It was about 5 hours of at school helping to get student involved in FBLA which is good exposure for the club. Hopefully it will pay off at our first meeting.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Freshmen Orientation Speech
The entire officer team for Seymour FBLA will be there to help but our state officer is giving the speech in her uniform to make more of a presence. I had not heard the speech in its entirety so on my way to and from Milwaukee today I called and listen to it over the phone. I gave her some edit revisions and then set a time for later to have a Skype meeting to see her give the speech. Again we tweaked the phrases and highlighted important details. This use of technology is great for students to see business applications not just the social part of the tool.
Monday will be a big day for FBLA getting to meet and great the incoming Freshmen. I hope we get some students excited about it.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Aplia - Online Working Papers
I was on a Webinar today to review the use of Aplia online working papers for Accounting. I would say that I love using the online working papers vs the printed workbook. The use of online papers has made the teaching and assessment much nicer for students and me. When I give an assignment it automatically grades the assignment the moment the due date. This immediate feedback is great because students don't have to wait for me to grade their assignments to find out how they did.
One part that I constantly am concerned about is if students go back and look over their work. As a teacher I always felt better when I passed back papers to students because they then had an opportunity to look at what they did. I know student can do that online but they often just look at the grade and not necessarily what they did incorrectly. I think I need to just get over it, but one why I give power back to students is if they disagree with how Aplia graded their homework, they can print their work and write out using accounting terms of why they should get points back for their work. Often students will do this so I know they do look at some of their work.
This webinar was a review for me of the basic setup and use of Aplia, but it is good to go over the basics that you might forget. I am also giving a workshop at Wisconsin Business Education Association (WBEA) fall conference on using Aplia in high school accounting class in conjunction with Cengage representative. So I now know I will have more information for this presentation.
This webinar lasted over 1 hour.
One part that I constantly am concerned about is if students go back and look over their work. As a teacher I always felt better when I passed back papers to students because they then had an opportunity to look at what they did. I know student can do that online but they often just look at the grade and not necessarily what they did incorrectly. I think I need to just get over it, but one why I give power back to students is if they disagree with how Aplia graded their homework, they can print their work and write out using accounting terms of why they should get points back for their work. Often students will do this so I know they do look at some of their work.
This webinar was a review for me of the basic setup and use of Aplia, but it is good to go over the basics that you might forget. I am also giving a workshop at Wisconsin Business Education Association (WBEA) fall conference on using Aplia in high school accounting class in conjunction with Cengage representative. So I now know I will have more information for this presentation.
This webinar lasted over 1 hour.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Google Webinar - Google Apps for Education
I watched a webinar today that was advertised through Wisconsin CESA as help for school to roll into the use of Google Apps. I have watched one previous webinar and had our Tech Guru watch the integration one. The one I watched today was truly an overview of what Google can offer a school.
One of the best points I got out of it was: Why not go to the cloud. This is an interesting point, I have been moving to the cloud for a while, just for the pure fact that I don't want to carry around a flash drive, burn a CD, or email back and forth a file and remember which email as the most current version. I have to take a backseat and think about the rest of the people in my building. I need to think more like them, but it stumps me. I just love to use technology to make my life easier. I know I sometimes get sidetracked trying to find an easier way of doing a job, but in the end I will do tasks more efficiently
Just this week I met the new Principal at our elementary school. I got a quick introduction and then she asked the Tech Guru a question on how to link files from the server to her Ipad, she got the response of it can't be done. Then I pipped up and said, use dropbox. It is free and works great. To me this is second nature, find a solution to the problem. With my new role of tech integration at the high school I will need to consider lots of fears that people have in technology and embrace the role of bring them along.
Also in the Webinar I got an overview of all the apps that are available, but one of the nicest features with Google apps is the single sign-in. It alleviates the issue with student not remembering username and passwords. They will always have access to their files instead of saving it to the network and not being able to work on it at home because they don't have the file or don't have the program. The only limitation is they need to have a device and have access to the internet. I did a survey with our school to see how much access we have to the internet, of course it is not everyone but it is getting better.
My next step in rolling out Google Apps is going to be looking over the agreement with CESA. But I really don't see why we need to go with them when we are already signed up. Again more research. Anyone out there know why I should sign the Wisconsin state Google agreement vs just keeping with registered domain name I setup last year?
One of the best points I got out of it was: Why not go to the cloud. This is an interesting point, I have been moving to the cloud for a while, just for the pure fact that I don't want to carry around a flash drive, burn a CD, or email back and forth a file and remember which email as the most current version. I have to take a backseat and think about the rest of the people in my building. I need to think more like them, but it stumps me. I just love to use technology to make my life easier. I know I sometimes get sidetracked trying to find an easier way of doing a job, but in the end I will do tasks more efficiently
Just this week I met the new Principal at our elementary school. I got a quick introduction and then she asked the Tech Guru a question on how to link files from the server to her Ipad, she got the response of it can't be done. Then I pipped up and said, use dropbox. It is free and works great. To me this is second nature, find a solution to the problem. With my new role of tech integration at the high school I will need to consider lots of fears that people have in technology and embrace the role of bring them along.
Also in the Webinar I got an overview of all the apps that are available, but one of the nicest features with Google apps is the single sign-in. It alleviates the issue with student not remembering username and passwords. They will always have access to their files instead of saving it to the network and not being able to work on it at home because they don't have the file or don't have the program. The only limitation is they need to have a device and have access to the internet. I did a survey with our school to see how much access we have to the internet, of course it is not everyone but it is getting better.
My next step in rolling out Google Apps is going to be looking over the agreement with CESA. But I really don't see why we need to go with them when we are already signed up. Again more research. Anyone out there know why I should sign the Wisconsin state Google agreement vs just keeping with registered domain name I setup last year?
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Concession Stand - Start of school year setup
Have you ever thought about the popcorn/soda or candy you get when you go to a sporting event? I do, all the time. One of my jobs that I do during my teaching day is to organize and stock the concession stand for the high school. Our first home sporting event is August 26 (first day of school is September 1). We have a home football game. To me a home football games means about 200 hot dog/buns, and approximately 20 cases of water and G2. Let alone the candy, soda, popcorn, ice cream etc.
In order for the room to be fully stocked I have to order at least a week ahead of time. This is where the problem begins, because so many people are just use to items being available to them that they don't understand or just don't care to think about what happens behinds the scenes. I work with 5 different vendors to get products in the room and the vendors deliver on different days. But I usually plan on all my products being there by Wednesday of the week. So planning events we look at the type of event football vs swimming and the teams. The school closer to us tend to bring more fans than a school over 1 1/2 hours away.
I do have 1 student that helps me manage the room. Every year I train someone new and I have had some wonderful student really take the initiative and do a great job of understanding the ordering and bill paying procedure of the school more than fellow teachers. It is difficult to jump into this role in the fall for the students because it is so fast paced. In one week we could have 4 different organizations selling which means we need to count inventory after each event, and prepare an invoice for bill and then get a new inventory count sheet for the next group.
I do all of this using Quickbooks. It does a great job on tracking inventory (as long as students can count correctly) as well as a tool for purchase orders and customer invoices. Prior to using quickbooks I did everything in excel with each event on a separate sheet and it worked, but not quite as efficient (I would never go back).
Well today was the day I went into school to get the first order ready. I am always ready in August to work on this project but I have NEVER gotten concrete information on what events are happening or even who is working the events prior to needing the information. I always have to beg to get the data I need, and I often get the look or comment of you can find it or it is not that big of deal. This gets my goat. I have long and often said I am doing my job well if you don't hear anything about the concession stand, because that means people are happy with what is happening, but if something went wrong then they will hear about it. I prefer for it to work seamlessly and effortlessly, but I have people who don't agree.
First of all I do not get paid or get a prep or even 1 class period a day to do this job. I manage and teach a student on how to do all of the ordering, billing, and counting. I have long been the advocate of the group that sells on Friday night also needs to be the group that sells on Saturday because I WILL not come in or make my student come in over the weekend to count inventory on who sells what. I know there are people who think I am to narrow minded but I take extreme pride in making sure everything is balanced and comes out after every event. They go with the philosophy of just divide it in half and that will be fine, but I know of the different cost and sales that can happen I know that one group could come up short money.
I know I need to just let it go when I have the same people complaining about the same thing year after year, but it is getting harder. So maybe a new perspective this year? I don't know. I do know there are lots of times I am willing to say go ahead and manage it yourself. We will see how this year goes. I do have more flexibility in my schedule this year than last so that may help only time will tell.
I did put in 2 hours at school today (yes I even had to bring my two boys with and they had fun building box houses thanks to Cindy).
In order for the room to be fully stocked I have to order at least a week ahead of time. This is where the problem begins, because so many people are just use to items being available to them that they don't understand or just don't care to think about what happens behinds the scenes. I work with 5 different vendors to get products in the room and the vendors deliver on different days. But I usually plan on all my products being there by Wednesday of the week. So planning events we look at the type of event football vs swimming and the teams. The school closer to us tend to bring more fans than a school over 1 1/2 hours away.
I do have 1 student that helps me manage the room. Every year I train someone new and I have had some wonderful student really take the initiative and do a great job of understanding the ordering and bill paying procedure of the school more than fellow teachers. It is difficult to jump into this role in the fall for the students because it is so fast paced. In one week we could have 4 different organizations selling which means we need to count inventory after each event, and prepare an invoice for bill and then get a new inventory count sheet for the next group.
I do all of this using Quickbooks. It does a great job on tracking inventory (as long as students can count correctly) as well as a tool for purchase orders and customer invoices. Prior to using quickbooks I did everything in excel with each event on a separate sheet and it worked, but not quite as efficient (I would never go back).
Well today was the day I went into school to get the first order ready. I am always ready in August to work on this project but I have NEVER gotten concrete information on what events are happening or even who is working the events prior to needing the information. I always have to beg to get the data I need, and I often get the look or comment of you can find it or it is not that big of deal. This gets my goat. I have long and often said I am doing my job well if you don't hear anything about the concession stand, because that means people are happy with what is happening, but if something went wrong then they will hear about it. I prefer for it to work seamlessly and effortlessly, but I have people who don't agree.
First of all I do not get paid or get a prep or even 1 class period a day to do this job. I manage and teach a student on how to do all of the ordering, billing, and counting. I have long been the advocate of the group that sells on Friday night also needs to be the group that sells on Saturday because I WILL not come in or make my student come in over the weekend to count inventory on who sells what. I know there are people who think I am to narrow minded but I take extreme pride in making sure everything is balanced and comes out after every event. They go with the philosophy of just divide it in half and that will be fine, but I know of the different cost and sales that can happen I know that one group could come up short money.
I know I need to just let it go when I have the same people complaining about the same thing year after year, but it is getting harder. So maybe a new perspective this year? I don't know. I do know there are lots of times I am willing to say go ahead and manage it yourself. We will see how this year goes. I do have more flexibility in my schedule this year than last so that may help only time will tell.
I did put in 2 hours at school today (yes I even had to bring my two boys with and they had fun building box houses thanks to Cindy).
Monday, August 15, 2011
FBLA State Planning Committee - Attaining Sponsorship
Being an Adviser to Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) is a part of my career that is a constant. I have had the pleasure of working with 4 wonderful students as they took charge of their future and became Wisconsin State Officers, now I am working on my leadership for the state of Wisconsin.
I was asked this spring to work on the state planning committee for Wisconsin FBLA. Basically working with the committee we pull together the conference for over 2,000 students (and their always happy and deadline following advisers). I knew a couple of people on the committee and I talked it over with my husband on whether I should take on this responsibility (he tells me all the time I work too much and too late). I really felt that this would help me to be a better adviser and give more opportunities to the students at Seymour. So I said yes.
So far I have traveled to LaCrosse to get a tour of the facilities and hash out with fellow members who is doing what. Because someone new was on the committee that is always a good time to figure out what should be done where and with whom. Not having a lot of background on who previously did what I said "tell me what you want me to do, and I will do it!" I have been to several of these conferences to know and comprehend all the background work that needs to be done, but now I have the task of pulling pieces of it together with a great team.
I had a meeting with the state adviser on Thursday to go over my responsibilities and see her vision of where the organization can grow to. We went over in detail each assigned duties, some seem relativity easy (contacting police department and inform them of our conference and schedule) and other daunting (securing sponsorship for events and prizes for awards). This last task was the one that received the most of our time because it heavily relied upon for the continued growth of the organization. But where does one start? I can not focus my attention on smaller businesses, because they need to support the local chapters. I need big businesses that hopefully still have money/resources to give to educational programs like FBLA. The cold letter/phone call is so much hard to garner support. I have been thinking through a flier to help showcase what FBLA can do, but I know that lots of businesses put money and resources into these items only for them to find the direct route to the recycling bin.
So what are your thoughts on how to solicit business? What businesses to contact? Where do I get the list of large corporation in Wisconsin/Nation?
I did work 8 hours this day on this and reading my classroom.
I was asked this spring to work on the state planning committee for Wisconsin FBLA. Basically working with the committee we pull together the conference for over 2,000 students (and their always happy and deadline following advisers). I knew a couple of people on the committee and I talked it over with my husband on whether I should take on this responsibility (he tells me all the time I work too much and too late). I really felt that this would help me to be a better adviser and give more opportunities to the students at Seymour. So I said yes.
So far I have traveled to LaCrosse to get a tour of the facilities and hash out with fellow members who is doing what. Because someone new was on the committee that is always a good time to figure out what should be done where and with whom. Not having a lot of background on who previously did what I said "tell me what you want me to do, and I will do it!" I have been to several of these conferences to know and comprehend all the background work that needs to be done, but now I have the task of pulling pieces of it together with a great team.
I had a meeting with the state adviser on Thursday to go over my responsibilities and see her vision of where the organization can grow to. We went over in detail each assigned duties, some seem relativity easy (contacting police department and inform them of our conference and schedule) and other daunting (securing sponsorship for events and prizes for awards). This last task was the one that received the most of our time because it heavily relied upon for the continued growth of the organization. But where does one start? I can not focus my attention on smaller businesses, because they need to support the local chapters. I need big businesses that hopefully still have money/resources to give to educational programs like FBLA. The cold letter/phone call is so much hard to garner support. I have been thinking through a flier to help showcase what FBLA can do, but I know that lots of businesses put money and resources into these items only for them to find the direct route to the recycling bin.
So what are your thoughts on how to solicit business? What businesses to contact? Where do I get the list of large corporation in Wisconsin/Nation?
I did work 8 hours this day on this and reading my classroom.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Past Student E-mail
This is a post regarding an email I just received today. I often wonder if I push students too much (yes they complain and say nobody else makes them do this much work -Except Mr. Swett). Student will tell me that they sign up for classes that they don't have to do as much work in. So therefore my classes have lower number and because I am an elective it puts my job in jeopardy.
I feel this email reinforces I am doing the right thing. But how to get more students to realize it? Any advice?
I feel this email reinforces I am doing the right thing. But how to get more students to realize it? Any advice?
Hello Mrs. Grassel,
I’m not sure if you remember me from several years ago…but I took accounting my Senior year. I just wanted to share with you something really cool. I’m a 2 degree (junior) at the Air Force Academy right now, and I just started my majors classes this semester. I am a business management major, and one of our first required courses is financial management. Out of a class of about 20+ students, I’m the only one who has had any prior accounting classes. The coolest part…even after almost 4 years I still remember almost everything you taught…Our college course looks like it’s going to be exactly what we did in high school, just with a “college text”. Thank you so much for teaching passionately and well!
Hope everything at school and home is going great,
Ben Fischl
Makes me proud to be a teacher! :)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
FBLA Seymour Officer Make a Calendar & More Google Apps
It is so wonderful to work with students and see them excited for what they want to do. Today was the day where Seymour officer plan their year. I had prior today worked with Taylor (our president and current state officer) on ideas and thoughts for the year. This was easy to do because we have spent over 2 weeks together this summer as well as the constant emails and text messages about projects. Using gmail accounts I am hoping will make it easier to communicate, but I have to get the entire officer team use to login in and checking email (it is too slow and cumbersome, I will probably text them to check email).
We started the day talking about ideas and thoughts for the day and goals for the chapter. We did a lot of talking at Local Officer Training in the Dells but three officers could not make it, so this was to be the time for the entire team to pull it together. Unfortunately two officers did not show (I know they were out of the country early this summer but they had said they would be back by August 10, which is why we picked this date). Anyway we had to work, so ides and projects were just assigned to them. I took the ideas and dates and put them into the shared google calendar that I created. Again I am hoping this will help them to realize time commitments.
Here is a screen shot of just one of our months that we planned. We still don't have concession dates in the calendar because . . . . well I am not going to talk about it. It makes my blood boil. Anyway here is a screen shot.
Such is the day and life of an adviser of FBLA I do really enjoy working with the students but you can see how my calendar is pretty busy and that does not include work assignments and of course family.
The day went very well, after I was done finishing the calendar for everyone the work for Freshman Orientation was completed. We have a presentation to all incoming Freshman on the importance of being involved in extra-curricular in high school. We don't just focus on FBLA, but all activities and sports and what it can do to help.
Also planned was permission slips for trips to Madison and Milwaukee. The homecoming float design is done and I will have pictures after the parade (it should be fun). We are having committees to work on all of this, so we have to get officers ready to have club members help with the projects.
I was at school from 8 to 4. I did have a lengthy converstation with Andy our Tech Guru about Google apps and what he learned in a Webinar he did today, because I knew it was over my head. He said he would do the serve side work, BIG SMILE. He did give me some research on cost and size issues with a depolyment the size of the high school. So I will be having more blog post on that topic. I estimated that I would like to have it ready to roll out to the entire building at the start of 2nd Semester, but deploying and testing with students and staff during 2nd quarter. I hope that is not too far off, but I also want to plan some training in there with my new Technology Coaching hours.
After work at school I came home and finished two photobooks I wanted to have done for FBLA. I would say I have had 3 hours of work to create these albums for FBLA and tonight I can say they are ordered. I will then have them for Freshman Orientation on August 22. Here is a link to the blog post with one of the albums.
11 hours of work today.
We started the day talking about ideas and thoughts for the day and goals for the chapter. We did a lot of talking at Local Officer Training in the Dells but three officers could not make it, so this was to be the time for the entire team to pull it together. Unfortunately two officers did not show (I know they were out of the country early this summer but they had said they would be back by August 10, which is why we picked this date). Anyway we had to work, so ides and projects were just assigned to them. I took the ideas and dates and put them into the shared google calendar that I created. Again I am hoping this will help them to realize time commitments.
Here is a screen shot of just one of our months that we planned. We still don't have concession dates in the calendar because . . . . well I am not going to talk about it. It makes my blood boil. Anyway here is a screen shot.
Such is the day and life of an adviser of FBLA I do really enjoy working with the students but you can see how my calendar is pretty busy and that does not include work assignments and of course family.
The day went very well, after I was done finishing the calendar for everyone the work for Freshman Orientation was completed. We have a presentation to all incoming Freshman on the importance of being involved in extra-curricular in high school. We don't just focus on FBLA, but all activities and sports and what it can do to help.
Also planned was permission slips for trips to Madison and Milwaukee. The homecoming float design is done and I will have pictures after the parade (it should be fun). We are having committees to work on all of this, so we have to get officers ready to have club members help with the projects.
I was at school from 8 to 4. I did have a lengthy converstation with Andy our Tech Guru about Google apps and what he learned in a Webinar he did today, because I knew it was over my head. He said he would do the serve side work, BIG SMILE. He did give me some research on cost and size issues with a depolyment the size of the high school. So I will be having more blog post on that topic. I estimated that I would like to have it ready to roll out to the entire building at the start of 2nd Semester, but deploying and testing with students and staff during 2nd quarter. I hope that is not too far off, but I also want to plan some training in there with my new Technology Coaching hours.
After work at school I came home and finished two photobooks I wanted to have done for FBLA. I would say I have had 3 hours of work to create these albums for FBLA and tonight I can say they are ordered. I will then have them for Freshman Orientation on August 22. Here is a link to the blog post with one of the albums.
11 hours of work today.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Classroom Set up-day 2, technology coach?
So before and after my work today on Quickbooks I was also trying to setup my classroom. Things that I know I still have to do, receive and put away all the ordered material. Including stamping all the new books for Office 2010 that we are getting. Separate books for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and of course Publisher. That fun still awaits me.
I did have the privilege of talking with our district technology guru today (what a nice guy :) ). I shared with him a problem that I noticed on my machine, and thought might cause some problems for teachers/staff unable to find a solution. So here it is: when I click on my documents it gives me an error message saying it can't be found. I can very easily find it by clicking on my computer and then clicking my drive on the server, but any spot in windows that says my documents use to go to my drive on the network now doesn't work. Andy (the nice computer guru) changed some things (I know technical term) on the network in order to manage it better (YEA!), but this is what cause the problem. The direct point to my files on the server location is wrong, so I think it will be wrong for everyone at the high school ?? So is it better to know and fix now, I hope so otherwise there will be a lot of tech support tickets going out on it.
I also talked with Andy about getting my computer up to Windows 7. My entire lab is Windows 7 and I thoroughly believe I should be demonstrating within the same environment that that the students are working in. So we had a big discussion on Windows Licensing and and nice new automation to work with Windows using a KMS update (I am hoping that I am remembering it correctly) and how this great automation system is not working and he is working to determine what the issue is. Good Luck!
After my quickbooks session I was then able to meet with my Principal and Vice Principal to discuss the schedule for next year and what it looks like for the business department. My district has been great on maintaining high moral for employees through the issue happening in Wisconsin and to teacher unions, so I was nervous to find out what they really wanted from Cindy and I.
Reduced funding means reduce staff. How is this happening? Not hiring back all the retirees that left, some positions are going unfilled and others are being filled by half-time staff, but I always hear on how they are looking to best suit the needs of the students. Cindy is going to be working a some capacity in the Middle School. She has done this previously and is very willing and excited to do this. The problem being is they don't know what she is teaching or even what grade. Let me tell you this dose not sit well with her. Cindy is a great planner and likes to have the time to think through what she will be doing and what is the best way possible to attain this. I know she will be do a fantastic job, but I was really hoping that this meeting would alleviate some of her stress, alas not yet.
I had for most of last year meet with the principal for 1 prep period a week talking about technology and where we can go and what Seymour can do. I know we missed weeks, but I can't say how much this has helped our communication. Prior to last school year I didn't feel appreciated or valued for my knowledge or contribution to the school, so I am glad to have put the time in to build that relationship. So what does that mean for my schedule? I am now going to have time during the day to teach teacher technology! Yippee! I have lots of ideas, exciting (just hope I don't lose contact wit my FBLA kids).
I did ask for a statement or sheet from my principal and vice principal on their goals/vision or thoughts on what they would like to have accomplished during my time. I have ideas, but I need to make sure that we are both on the same page. So if you have ideas on how I can help get the technology train moving. Let me know. I know one of my first steps is Google Apps up and running for students and staff and the school (then training them on how to use it).
So busy day 6 hours on my previous post on quickbooks and 3 hours on this. Don't forget you can click on the link on the right to see my total hours work today. Current I am 221.5 hours since school got out. That is over 5.5 weeks if you say you work 40 hours a week.
I did have the privilege of talking with our district technology guru today (what a nice guy :) ). I shared with him a problem that I noticed on my machine, and thought might cause some problems for teachers/staff unable to find a solution. So here it is: when I click on my documents it gives me an error message saying it can't be found. I can very easily find it by clicking on my computer and then clicking my drive on the server, but any spot in windows that says my documents use to go to my drive on the network now doesn't work. Andy (the nice computer guru) changed some things (I know technical term) on the network in order to manage it better (YEA!), but this is what cause the problem. The direct point to my files on the server location is wrong, so I think it will be wrong for everyone at the high school ?? So is it better to know and fix now, I hope so otherwise there will be a lot of tech support tickets going out on it.
I also talked with Andy about getting my computer up to Windows 7. My entire lab is Windows 7 and I thoroughly believe I should be demonstrating within the same environment that that the students are working in. So we had a big discussion on Windows Licensing and and nice new automation to work with Windows using a KMS update (I am hoping that I am remembering it correctly) and how this great automation system is not working and he is working to determine what the issue is. Good Luck!
After my quickbooks session I was then able to meet with my Principal and Vice Principal to discuss the schedule for next year and what it looks like for the business department. My district has been great on maintaining high moral for employees through the issue happening in Wisconsin and to teacher unions, so I was nervous to find out what they really wanted from Cindy and I.
Reduced funding means reduce staff. How is this happening? Not hiring back all the retirees that left, some positions are going unfilled and others are being filled by half-time staff, but I always hear on how they are looking to best suit the needs of the students. Cindy is going to be working a some capacity in the Middle School. She has done this previously and is very willing and excited to do this. The problem being is they don't know what she is teaching or even what grade. Let me tell you this dose not sit well with her. Cindy is a great planner and likes to have the time to think through what she will be doing and what is the best way possible to attain this. I know she will be do a fantastic job, but I was really hoping that this meeting would alleviate some of her stress, alas not yet.
I had for most of last year meet with the principal for 1 prep period a week talking about technology and where we can go and what Seymour can do. I know we missed weeks, but I can't say how much this has helped our communication. Prior to last school year I didn't feel appreciated or valued for my knowledge or contribution to the school, so I am glad to have put the time in to build that relationship. So what does that mean for my schedule? I am now going to have time during the day to teach teacher technology! Yippee! I have lots of ideas, exciting (just hope I don't lose contact wit my FBLA kids).
I did ask for a statement or sheet from my principal and vice principal on their goals/vision or thoughts on what they would like to have accomplished during my time. I have ideas, but I need to make sure that we are both on the same page. So if you have ideas on how I can help get the technology train moving. Let me know. I know one of my first steps is Google Apps up and running for students and staff and the school (then training them on how to use it).
So busy day 6 hours on my previous post on quickbooks and 3 hours on this. Don't forget you can click on the link on the right to see my total hours work today. Current I am 221.5 hours since school got out. That is over 5.5 weeks if you say you work 40 hours a week.
Quickbooks for Professional Organization
I have used the software quickbooks in my accounting class, because it is good for students to understand and be familiar with what is used by many businesses and organizations. I do have 2009 loaded on my classroom lab and I used it exclusively for main tainting the school's concession stand inventory and billing. It works great! I did take some time to learn and sometimes I had to not think in terms of the basic debit/credit double entry accounting that I go over with the students.
Today I had the pleasure to work with a colleague to get quickbooks up and running for WBEA (Wisconsin Business Education Association). Previously all our book work was done in excel (which can work, but just more cumbersome). The hard part was thinking about what we really needed the software to do for the organization and what members are use to seeing. The current treasurer Allie Holtzer is doing a fantastic job, but we worked together along with Cindy Otto on streaming the work in order to be able to create budget figures for the budget committee and a profit and loss statement for our activities.
The fact that our fiscal period runs from July to June is very much in alignment with how school districts do their funding. It works great, except that our convention is held in September and many people pay registration in May (unearned revenue for the current year) and also pay membership dues for the upcoming school year (again unearned revenue). So why the big deal. It does not show a true representation of the revenue and expenses for activities happening withing the fiscal period. So the research begins, Cindy headed up how to initial record the unearned revenue (or even expenses) for the current fiscal period. My job was to work on getting the chart of account set-up to make it easy to work with the prior year's budgets and with the unearned revenue and expenses (and also to be able to import a CVS or .xls file instead of typing them all in).
It was determined for unearned revenue to debit cash and credit an account classification of Other Current Liabilities. Then on the first day of the next fiscal period do adjusting entries to get it out of the permanent liability account and into it correct income account. A similar procedure was set up for unearned expenses but cash would be credited and a debit to an account classified as Other Current Assets. This will then keep all current expenses and revenue within the correct fiscal period (cross your fingers).
The next big decisions was how to deal with the enormous amount of accounts. For example we had 6 different accounts for registration. So do we make accounts called membership registration, convention registration etc.. We determined the use of the class system would best serve our needs. When any transactions take place you choose the account registration and then choose the class convention. It is also much easier to create a profit and loss statement for every event or class we have. We did have to make sure that we had matching other current asset/liability accounts to make the adjusting entries easier and the beginning of the next fiscal period.
We spent 6 hours working on just getting the software setup and being able to enter just a few transactions. Now my friend Allie is going to back track and enter in all of the 2010-2011 fiscal period transactions into this new format, so we can have budget figures for next year and accurate financial statements for our upcoming convention
Today I had the pleasure to work with a colleague to get quickbooks up and running for WBEA (Wisconsin Business Education Association). Previously all our book work was done in excel (which can work, but just more cumbersome). The hard part was thinking about what we really needed the software to do for the organization and what members are use to seeing. The current treasurer Allie Holtzer is doing a fantastic job, but we worked together along with Cindy Otto on streaming the work in order to be able to create budget figures for the budget committee and a profit and loss statement for our activities.
The fact that our fiscal period runs from July to June is very much in alignment with how school districts do their funding. It works great, except that our convention is held in September and many people pay registration in May (unearned revenue for the current year) and also pay membership dues for the upcoming school year (again unearned revenue). So why the big deal. It does not show a true representation of the revenue and expenses for activities happening withing the fiscal period. So the research begins, Cindy headed up how to initial record the unearned revenue (or even expenses) for the current fiscal period. My job was to work on getting the chart of account set-up to make it easy to work with the prior year's budgets and with the unearned revenue and expenses (and also to be able to import a CVS or .xls file instead of typing them all in).
It was determined for unearned revenue to debit cash and credit an account classification of Other Current Liabilities. Then on the first day of the next fiscal period do adjusting entries to get it out of the permanent liability account and into it correct income account. A similar procedure was set up for unearned expenses but cash would be credited and a debit to an account classified as Other Current Assets. This will then keep all current expenses and revenue within the correct fiscal period (cross your fingers).
The next big decisions was how to deal with the enormous amount of accounts. For example we had 6 different accounts for registration. So do we make accounts called membership registration, convention registration etc.. We determined the use of the class system would best serve our needs. When any transactions take place you choose the account registration and then choose the class convention. It is also much easier to create a profit and loss statement for every event or class we have. We did have to make sure that we had matching other current asset/liability accounts to make the adjusting entries easier and the beginning of the next fiscal period.
We spent 6 hours working on just getting the software setup and being able to enter just a few transactions. Now my friend Allie is going to back track and enter in all of the 2010-2011 fiscal period transactions into this new format, so we can have budget figures for next year and accurate financial statements for our upcoming convention
Monday, August 8, 2011
Organizing Classroom
So I went to school to get my room ready because of summer cleaning and new items being brought in.
The day started with logging into the computer and then doing updates on all the software that has updates for the summer. I have been using Google Chrome more and I did download that browser and I worked on getting it setup and personalized to increase my productivity.
I was also able to go through and create gmail accounts for the Seymour FBLA officer team and a created a shared calendar so that the officers will be organized and prepared for the meeting we will be having this week.I am continually thinking of ways to make the students more in charge of the organization but that means I need to be even further ahead. I am getting there, especially because I have such great other FBLA advisers that share ideas (Jan I, Michelle M, Cindy O, & Jen W to just name a few of the awesome advisers that I some day hope to be more like). I did take the html embed code for the shareable calendar and embed that on the Seymour High School's FBLA webpage. I admit I don't update it often because I don't know how often it is referenced, but I hope this will help.
I of course did send a lot of emails, when don't I. I was trying to coordinate a meeting with my administration for the upcoming school year. Which makes me think of organizing the concession stand calendar and dealing with individuals that are not as passionate as myself for the endeavor. I am trying to remain calm!
I have yet to double check to see if my student computers are set up correctly. I usually just check a few to be sure it is all there. Nothing like planning a lesson and then discovering the software doesn't work and is not loaded. Here is the dilemma if I login I have admin rights and it works but students logging with with fewer privileges it sometimes doesn't work. I will have to come up with a work around for that.
The day was productive, but never productive enough. It was nice to ride my bike to school (plus Gordon rode his bike to day care for the day and loved it). I worked 6 hours and could have work a ton more.
I did go pick my my personal PC from the repair shop (botched unpartition of the C drive came up with a bad boot file for Windows) but when I went to set it up I discovered my LCD monitor was not working. So of course I took it apart. Here is what it looks like
The day started with logging into the computer and then doing updates on all the software that has updates for the summer. I have been using Google Chrome more and I did download that browser and I worked on getting it setup and personalized to increase my productivity.
I was also able to go through and create gmail accounts for the Seymour FBLA officer team and a created a shared calendar so that the officers will be organized and prepared for the meeting we will be having this week.I am continually thinking of ways to make the students more in charge of the organization but that means I need to be even further ahead. I am getting there, especially because I have such great other FBLA advisers that share ideas (Jan I, Michelle M, Cindy O, & Jen W to just name a few of the awesome advisers that I some day hope to be more like). I did take the html embed code for the shareable calendar and embed that on the Seymour High School's FBLA webpage. I admit I don't update it often because I don't know how often it is referenced, but I hope this will help.
I of course did send a lot of emails, when don't I. I was trying to coordinate a meeting with my administration for the upcoming school year. Which makes me think of organizing the concession stand calendar and dealing with individuals that are not as passionate as myself for the endeavor. I am trying to remain calm!
I have yet to double check to see if my student computers are set up correctly. I usually just check a few to be sure it is all there. Nothing like planning a lesson and then discovering the software doesn't work and is not loaded. Here is the dilemma if I login I have admin rights and it works but students logging with with fewer privileges it sometimes doesn't work. I will have to come up with a work around for that.
The day was productive, but never productive enough. It was nice to ride my bike to school (plus Gordon rode his bike to day care for the day and loved it). I worked 6 hours and could have work a ton more.
I did go pick my my personal PC from the repair shop (botched unpartition of the C drive came up with a bad boot file for Windows) but when I went to set it up I discovered my LCD monitor was not working. So of course I took it apart. Here is what it looks like
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Google Apps Webinar
I signed up at watched a Google Apps Seminar today. It was for IT admins (which I am not), but I wanted to have an understanding of what needs to go into rolling out Google Apps for our school. One thing I now know is that I need to know more.
The topics covered were: Organizational Layout, Mail Flow, User Provisioning, Data Migration, and Authentication
Organizational Layout:
Making sure that you have groups setup in order to set policies for different users. For example students to use gmail but the teachers still continue to use exchange. In order to do this it is important to have a seperate domain name for students. Teachers would have seymour.k12.wi.us but what should we give to students? students.seymour.k12.wi.us that seems logical but is a very long address for the students to remember and they already don't like to use email because it is so slow and cumbersome vs texting.
Mail Flow:
My understanding is that teacher email would be unaffected but I will need to research wether we need to have student emails archieved. If they do then we may need to set up and use postini? I don't know our school's policy so research will be needed.
User Provisioning:
This is my biggest concern!!! Who is going to update and maintain all the users. I know I do not want to type in 800+ users. They did talk about using a CSV file to upload but then at the end of the year you need at add more users and delete graduating students and who is going to take the time to do that (not ME). They did discuss the use of active directory sync to manage users and I strongly feel that is route to go. I don't know how that will integrate with PowerSchool so again more research. Another plus of active directory sync there doesn't need to be anyone with a work ticket to reset passwords when a student forgets it (which is all the time).
Data Migration:
Ok, by this point my mind was wandering. But who is going to migrate the contacts/calenders? Does it go to to the users to do? Or does the IT department do it. There are pluses and minus to each. If IT does it all data is migrated even if it is old and isnt' used, and you are only limited by your bandwith size. Users migrating means that they have to understand what to do, which is training. I think we need to do more technology training, but not this type of training.
Authentication:
You can either authenticate using Google Authorization or SAML 2.0 SSO (I don't know what the second option is). I like the thought of using Google Authorization because you can log in anywhere using any Google login site. That means on your mobile device or any Google page that has a login. I did get that the second options was for organizations that wanted to security and passwords on their servers. It seems like more work to me.
The end of the presentation suppose to be about Wisconsin Google Apps for Education but there was a problem with the presentation.
The topics covered were: Organizational Layout, Mail Flow, User Provisioning, Data Migration, and Authentication
Organizational Layout:
Making sure that you have groups setup in order to set policies for different users. For example students to use gmail but the teachers still continue to use exchange. In order to do this it is important to have a seperate domain name for students. Teachers would have seymour.k12.wi.us but what should we give to students? students.seymour.k12.wi.us that seems logical but is a very long address for the students to remember and they already don't like to use email because it is so slow and cumbersome vs texting.
Mail Flow:
My understanding is that teacher email would be unaffected but I will need to research wether we need to have student emails archieved. If they do then we may need to set up and use postini? I don't know our school's policy so research will be needed.
User Provisioning:
This is my biggest concern!!! Who is going to update and maintain all the users. I know I do not want to type in 800+ users. They did talk about using a CSV file to upload but then at the end of the year you need at add more users and delete graduating students and who is going to take the time to do that (not ME). They did discuss the use of active directory sync to manage users and I strongly feel that is route to go. I don't know how that will integrate with PowerSchool so again more research. Another plus of active directory sync there doesn't need to be anyone with a work ticket to reset passwords when a student forgets it (which is all the time).
Data Migration:
Ok, by this point my mind was wandering. But who is going to migrate the contacts/calenders? Does it go to to the users to do? Or does the IT department do it. There are pluses and minus to each. If IT does it all data is migrated even if it is old and isnt' used, and you are only limited by your bandwith size. Users migrating means that they have to understand what to do, which is training. I think we need to do more technology training, but not this type of training.
Authentication:
You can either authenticate using Google Authorization or SAML 2.0 SSO (I don't know what the second option is). I like the thought of using Google Authorization because you can log in anywhere using any Google login site. That means on your mobile device or any Google page that has a login. I did get that the second options was for organizations that wanted to security and passwords on their servers. It seems like more work to me.
The end of the presentation suppose to be about Wisconsin Google Apps for Education but there was a problem with the presentation.
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