Archive for September, 2005

New Whiteboards

New Whiteboards

Originally uploaded by timlauer.

Spent some time at school on Saturday helping my music teacher, Tony Jamesbarry, replace his old chalkboard with whiteboard material. He picked up two 4′ x 8′ sheets of tileboard for $22 at Lowe’s. The dimensions of the old chalkboard were the same as the tile board, so we easily unscrewed the frame from the wall, took down the old chalkboard sheets, replaced them with the whiteboard sheets and reinstalled the framing. Quite an improvement…

We plan to tackle another classroom next week and hope to get them all completed through the course of the school year.

Flyr: Flickr + Google Maps…

Screenshot 06-4Flyr is a web tool that combines a Flickr search tool with a Google Maps interface. Search results can be displayed as an overlay in Google Earth, plotted onto a Google Maps, or returned as a set of thumbnails images.

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Areameter…. Using Google Maps to Calculate Area

Screenshot 06-3The Areometer Google Maps tool computes the area of an enclosed path in Google Maps. Similar to many of the Google Maps pedometer tools, except this one computes the area of an enclosed space.

Via Google Maps Mania

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Busy Week…

Screenshot 03-3Last week at Lewis Elementary we began the new school year. I have been busy with the start of school and have not had much time to read weblogs, let alone post anything to mine. (I have been posting quite a bit to the Lewis site and to the weblog that we use internally as our staff bulletin… lots of revisions to music and PE schedules… )

One thing I have been very busy with is developing and revising school related schedules for things such as lunch duty and rainy day recess. I have been using a beta copy of OmniGraffle 4 Professional to create these and plan to purchase it once the beta period is over. It is a Mac OS X application that is similar in function to Visio.

I’ve found it very useful for creating flow charts and grids. I has an outlining feature that lets you quickly organize ideas in a list and creates a graphical view on the fly. Also has a presentation mode so you can create multiple pages and present them from within the application.

The image above is a screen shot from OmniGraffle 4 which shows a draft of our duty schedule…

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Google Maps as a Visual Disaster Wiki

Screenshot 01-10Wired has an interview with Jonathan Mendez and Greg Stoll who have created a map using Google Maps, that allows people to report on the condition of locations damaged by Hurricane Katrina…

Via: Wired News: A Disaster Map ‘Wiki’ Is Born

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Katrina’s Aftermath…

School Group Aims to Help Katrina’s Youngest Victims

Thousands of children who were just about to begin a new school year have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Scott Montgomery, chief of staff for the Council of Chief State School Officers, tells Linda Wertheimer what his organization is doing to help.

Katrina Evacuees Go All the Way to Memphis

At a Red Roof Inn in downtown Memphis, general manager Michelle Williams and hotel guest Randy Adams are coordinating efforts to help a weary collection of hurricane evacuees cope. Adams is among those who fled New Orleans ahead of Katrina.

Interesting discussions on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday… The whole aspect of planning, or lack of, regarding dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katriana. With the large numbers of people displaced… How do you get things such as schools back up and running… As someone who is responsible for a school, I know that we’ll be reviewing our disaster plan.

The other piece is a nice change of pace… After all the stories of the slow response from the government it was nice to hear the story of Michelle Williams and Randy Adams, two people who rose to the occasion… Seems to me we ought to put them in charge of the relief effort…

Note: Both audio pieces will be available later today…



I also read a very good post by Ton Zijlstra discussing the events of the past week on the Gulf Coast and the slow response by all levels of government both before and after the storm and flooding. It is interesting to read the thoughts of someone who lives outside the US and see how we are being perceived. He notes that it makes him wonder why we elect the leaders we do… I’d say well… we didn’t but that is another story… He notes that the flooded area of New Orleans is starting to be refereed to as Lake George

Ed Tech Coast to Coast #2 is Up…

On Thursday afternoon, I sat down to talk, via Skype, with Will Richardson and Tim Wilson and the result is Ed Tech Coast to Coast #2. Our friend Steve Burt could not join use as he was traveling on a bus between from Camana to Arequipa in Southern Peru.

Download: ETC2C-20050901 (18.7 MB, 40:43)

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