Playing Tag with Others: Part One

garden
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel.

OK, so I got tagged by Nancy Schofield in her blog and since it is New Year's Eve (and I have Scottish ancestors..) I guess I should try to think of 5 things that readers don't know about me.

Ten years ago, when I wrote my first Web page, it was considered inappropriate to talk about yourself beyond your professional life so I am surprised at the public "social" nature that is evolving.

1. Not too many people have a photo of their earliest memory. Here's mine! I remember the heat of the sun and how it hurt my eyes and the overwhelming smell of the flowers. As a blonde, I don't like being outdoors too long and I have allergies. Notice how I am trying to get away.

OK, that's the first thing you might know about me. I don't stay outdoors very long.

Technorati:
Nancy Schofield

Blink:
Nancy Schofield's Education Blog

I, Robot

Here's a short video of my robot cleaning!

I, Robot
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel.

A surprise Christmas gift from my husband. A robot to clean the floors! Of course, I said, "I thought that was your job" which is of course, why he bought it.

The entertainment value for a techie like me certainly was worth it. It's a Roomba (Sage). We have named her "Fannie" after the woman who cleaned for my grandmother. (She was a favorite person in my life.) My grandparents lived in a big English Tudor house on the edge of Roger Williams Park on the Cranston-Providence, RI line. I don't know how she kept it clean. It was so big I had my own room. I loved being an only grandchild.

"Fannie" cleaned my living room and kitchen floor for over an hour and at one point went under the couch. Later, she did get stuck under there and made an "uh-oh" sound and we had to get her out of there. When she got tired, she backed into her dock for recharging.

Christmas, 1952

Christmas, 1952
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel.

This is the earliest Christmas I really remember clearly. Technology has improved this photo quite a lot. It is very yellow (I made it grayscale) and it is quite dark and of course, very old.

This is the living room of my maternal grandparents where I spent many holidays. The doll I am touching has a knob on the top of its head which spins the face to ones of different expressions like crying, smiling and sleeping. I can remember the scratchy wool bathrobe and my feet are hot in the slippers.

Take a lot of photos at the holidays and don't forget to date them.

And on this day, the winter solstice, I wish all of you a happy holiday season.

Building Students 4 the 21st Century

Most of the blogs I read have covered the story in Time Magazine's December 18th issue. "How to Build a Student for the 21st Century." Even though I read it online, I bought a print copy of the magazine to keep and to remind me of the content of this article in the coming months.

Certainly there are not enough Web sites that have readable content for young children. Is this because teachers of early grades are not creating them? I was interested enough in the Curriki Wiki mentioned in this article to put it at the top of my list to explore tomorrow.

At this time of year, it is hard to find time when you are a teacher to even know that Time magazine featured this article as most teachers struggle with teaching, their own education, aging parents and young children on a daily basis. It's hard to be a citizen of the world when you sit in traffic, worry about overspending and are asleep on the couch at 9PM.

Zire 72 on Vacation

Zire 72 on Vacation
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel.

My friend and cohort in technological foolery, Dr. Ragen Tiliakos gave me this very cute "beach" chair which is designed for cell phone but I think my trusty Zire 72 looks best relaxing in it.

At this time of year, it is good to take a day to just rest before the onslaught of the holidays. I think I'd better tell my Zire to move over.

We the Teachers

While browsing those Rob Lucas's blog called Teachers Lounge, I discovered that he has a wiki called the OER (Open Educational Resources) Grapevine. In this wiki was a link to a Web resource called We the Teachers.

Since I am a believer in shared resources and the collaboration that goes with it, I decided to join this group. I am also a member of Teachade which is another collaborative meeting spot for educators.

I wonder who I will meet? Maybe you?

Memories of Mom

mom-frame
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel.

I've been working on this cameo of the last photo of my mom and since I have migrated to the new version of Blogger (called Blogger-Beta), I had to create new connections from Flickr to that new account. Well, no wonder it didn't work!

So Mom can be my test posting!

Wrestling with a Printer

As the Christmas and New Year's holiday time fast approaches, many of us (who are the oldest of the family) open photo albums and sit for a quiet few minutes alone looking at photos and remembering times long past.

This week, I started to work with my new printer, an EpsonStylus Photo R800, giving myself the challenge of learning to print borderless prints and printing directly onto a CD/DVD. The borderless prints are quite easy if you stick to using the software called FilmFactory on the installation CD, but, after checking the EPSON Web site, it seems this application is no longer supported. It certainly makes me wonder how old the CD was that came with this brand new printer?

A friend calls printers the "invention of the devil" and certainly that remark describes the experience everytime I buy a new printer. It's like starting all over again as if I knew nothing about printing.

Printing on an ink-ject compatible CD/DVD was much easier than anticipated. First, you burn the data onto the CD and then you print on it. This process went fine except as I was following along with the manual, I discovered one spot in the directions where I could not make the choice given in the steps, but the printing went fine anyway.

You would think this fancy printer would print simple labels for me but so far I have had no luck and no reply to my email to EPSON has been given. (Note: since this posting EPSON has given me a solution which I will try.)

Nothing is simple in December!

Blogging Overload

by Midge Frazel

Subscribing to the feed of the blogs of others using Bloglines is so easy that I have discovered that I have too much to review and read each day. It's something like "biting off more than I can chew".

I can see this is about managing technology information as it once was with email. I find myself breezing through my email messages with my mouse ready to click "Delete" all too quickly.

I do keep wondering how teachers are keeping up with the new Web 2.0 tools since my own Web 1.0 Web pages (some made as much as 9 years ago and sadly out-of-date) are getting a lot of visits especially in November and December.

Warm Holiday Web Pages

by Midge Frazel

OK, so snow is not warm...but gingerbread surely is!

I created these pages some years ago and like my pages revolving around Thanksgiving and character education, they are my top visits for fall and winter ideas for the classroom.

Join me in the Comfy Conference Room on Tuesday (12/12) at 8PM at Tappedin to learn about how thematic pages fit into the curriculum. Sue Roseman and I are teaming up this month to help teachers keep their sanity through December and January.

Technorati Tags
snow| gingerbread| tappedin

Happy Birthday to my Web site!

The Hostess
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel.

by Midge Frazel

On December 2, 1996, I posted my first Web page to the Internet. I created it with Claris Home Page which I won at a MacWorld in Boston the previous August.

Joe Souza helped me learn to FTP and encouraged me to learn to write pages. After meeting Kathy Schrock, I began to write pages (in HTML) with her help too.

I can't believe it has been ten years! I feel like a pioneer.

Photo of Midge taken by Heather on Thanksgiving Morning at Midge's home in Bridgewater, MA.