I'm Technically Speaking

Here where I live we are "digging out" of the foot of snow that has blanketed our surroundings. My kids have loved it. Wednesday they let out school early and we have been out the rest of the week. For the kids it has meant extra tv, playing in the snow, snow ice-cream and sledding. Here are just a couple of highlights: I find myself wanting to complain. Complain about being stuck inside, stuck with kids that don't know what to do with themselves...just stuck. But the truth is I need to "dig out" of that attitude! We have had extra mornings to snuggle and sleep in. We had cookie making with my science class. I can't even begin to express how cool it was to have my college girls and my girls together for this special time! And the icing on the cake? I have to say was family time sledding.  The best way to reduce stress...slide down a hill like a loon on your belly! Happy digging out!

I have spent the last couple days on the couch taking care of my youngest with her first case of the "stomach bug". Yesterday we watched the movie Bedtime Stories and today I am inspired to continue the saga of the technology princess on her adventure. If you didn't catch the story you can catch up  here . Last we read:  Upon her arrival at the destination, she found herself a smidgen under dressed for this beach.... (see below and ignore the guy in the picture...more on him later in another story). Well, this is the story about "that guy" in the picture. The call of the beach had beaconed them. Days of lessons indoors had been endured and the allure of the city and its beauty could no longer be ignored. Although, the princess might have questioned her dress it would not diminish her adventure in one bit. The private car (taxi) had taken them to the beach. My memories are unclear as to how much talk if any this ride had. I do know that the t...

Yes, this is another shameless plug for my favorite professional development tool.... SimpleK12 and a little for myself. Not too long ago I was interviewed via Skype for a promotional video and it is now live! Take a look for yourself and watch for me...

This is a story about a girl and a shirt.... Once upon a time (July 2012), a young princess (technology princess?) went outside the comforts of her castle (home) and set out for an adventure in a far way land (California). During this adventure (ISTE Conference), in the far way land, she met many merchants (vendors) giving samples of their wares (free stuff). Not accustomed to such giving, she accepted excitedly. She gathered blouses (t-shirts), musical instruments (noisy squeaker things), quills (pencils/pens) and even a rare animal (frog toy). Oh, how she relished her new found treasures (piled them on her suitcase). Then at the end of a very long day of lessons (conference sessions), a few of her new acquaintances ask  for the gift of her presence at (everyone decided to go to) the beach. Oh, how the princess had longed for seeing this beach! For you see, there are not any beaches near the castle (Kansas). A quick carriage ride (8 block walk or more) back to the...

"I like to move it, move it." That is what song came into my mind as I thought of this technology app. I had not seen this before and when I did, I had to find out how to do it! The saying goes that a picture is like a thousand words (did I get close?). Anyway, then I would ask how much more would a moving picture be worth? Because honestly there is just something about an animated gif! Check out the one that I made in just a few minutes.... Here is how I created the animated gif: I used the app Gif Shop . Once you have the free app on your iPhone, iPad, etc. you are ready to get started. Click on the "+" and you will have a capture screen like below: Sadly one of the trickiest part for me was learning how to "capture" the image. I wanted to click the checkmark on the bottom of the screen, however, you are to touch the screen inside the green circle for it to image capture. Once you have captured the images that you want, you wi...

I have had several things that I planned to accomplish while on break, but remaking a personal website was not on the list! Thankful however, that I realized it was gone while on break! For several years now I have "mooched" off of a friend's web hosting service. There had been talk before about the friend keeping the service or not, but it never crossed my mind to back up or save the  information somehow. The end result is that for right now, it is gone...all of it. Those of you who have worked with creating website will understand the amount of time that went into the site and now the amount of time that will go into creating something new. Here is a sneak peek of my recreated site: I kept the name "Educate Me". It is what I have created for myself in the social media word  (educatememrsn). To change it seemed too overwhelming. The tag line changed from "join in the journey" to a pottery theme. It seemed only natural to join together a coupl...

Little did I know the treasure that I had on my computer! One day I had needed a photo editing tool for my Mac. I was in the middle of creating a brochure and had no idea how to deal with the photos that needed editing. So I did a search of the world wide web and found GIMP. Honestly I had tried a couple Mac apps, but they did not give all the options that I needed. GIMP looked like just the solution.... GIMP which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free download! It was relatively easy to use without any tutorials, but I would suggest investing the time to go through them (linked here ). I was able to crop and make some changes (all be it frustrated changes) with just a "guess and check" mentality. I became really excited once I saw a webinar on SimpleK12 over the use of GIMP.  Discover the Power of Image Editing (It's Easy and Free)  by Kim Munoz. This will be re-cast on January 4th! This program has a lot to offer! Here are a couple of th...