neffi16isstillhere

I'm Back!

2011-04-19T11:59:00.002-04:00

So it's been a while since I've done anything on blogger. Oh well, I have lots of excuses but I won't bore you with any. Suffice it to say that they are perfectly good excuses which have little or nothing to do with laziness.

So why today? While I was taking my morning nap I dreamt of making fabulous Easter Confections for Sunday to share with people that I like. So I decided to look them up and go to the store. I found a really neat blog and wanted to write a comment. I couldn't even remember my login so I had to take 15 minutes to try to remember, fail and just reset it anyway. Here I am. Luckily I was smart enough to leave the desired blog up in another tab, so all is not completely lost. In case I forget to come back and link it search, Desert Candy on blogger.com.

So what's this button for.....?

2009-06-17T07:03:00.001-04:00

Ok, so now lets try to remember why I downloaded scribefire. I wish I knew how to use this better. I might have something to say after all...... Looks like you'll be enjoying my favorite you tube video (so that's what that button does.

German Coast guard trainee

Ok, what does this button do? Well, I see that I have to know the url for the image to appear. Seems like a search window to click and drag an image from would come in handy. I'll just put a picture of me from my computer instead. I look confused that's because I don't know the difference between my blogs API or my FTP as I was given the choice when I tried to post this picture. I chose the former. It worked.
flickr wasn't any easier to use.

So far I don't much like scribe fire. Perhaps someone could school me on this?

neffi16isstillhere

2009-06-17T06:50:00.001-04:00

Well, I guess it sorta worked (Zemanta) because I got my pretty flower.

I thought I was more savvy

2009-06-17T06:41:00.002-04:00

Image by zaQography via Flickr

I thought I was more e-savvy. I just downloaded this Zemanta add-on for my firefox browser. Apparently I can see and use the Zemanta content but I cannot get the pretty pictures to appear. I do have scribefire and meebo already. I think this is a little case of overkill for me since I rarely do blog and I'm not sure how to use what I already have. STORY OF MY LIFE! Perhaps the Zemanta folks have put it in the blogger buzz so that "blogger dummies" like myself will tangle with it and give up yet again on blogging. I forget what I wanted to blog about usually anyways. Maybe next time.

On Vaca

2008-07-23T08:25:00.002-04:00

I'm on vacation right now. We're at Virginia Beach and, it is beautiful. I just got back from walking with my husband to a coffee shop down the street. We came back to a room with beds full of sleeping children. Four to be exact. We leave today to go to South Carolina to an Army boot camp graduation where we will drop of child #4 back to her mother. Then we head off to Myrtle Beach for a day and then back to good ole Michigan. BUT FIRST the husband and the children will drop me off in Ohiopyle, Pa. I will be camping with some friends from church and going WHITE WATER RAFTING all day on Tuesday. Can I tell you I am so excited? I am so excited. I went once in college and it was one of the very best things I have done in my entire life. One of those "close to God," experiences that stay with you. So I get to go again. This time I"m not afraid. I think I'm just in denial. Before you have kids you fear nothing. Now that I have kids, I can't afford not to. So, I'm going and if you don't hear from me again, it may be because I am stuck in and undercut rock under water!!

Who Cares About Grades?

2008-07-02T23:29:00.000-04:00

I have never really cared about grades. This is not to say that achievement isn't important. What I really mean is that my satisfaction with my performance isn't measured by my gpa. This was apparent in high school, college and homeschooling. In high school I didn't care because I felt I couldn't get the best grades. The kids that did made it look alot harder than it was to get those grades. In college I started with this low standard and then decided to ignore my grades because I wanted to know and master everything that was expected of me. This served me well. My gpa was not the highest but was "up there". We all know that grades are set based on many different expectations but do not often enough actually reflect knowlege gain. Sometimes you score high enough on just the right test, paper etc. and it brings your grade up. Sometimes your prof may base a great deal of your grade on subjective expectations like participation. This is where the teacher's pet benefits greatly. Lastly there are those that do not score well but have a fair amount of knowlege and mastery. In this case you probably know more than enough to know what you don't know. You may come away from that class knowing and understanding more than the 4.0 types.Sure you could say that my thought process is flawed. You could say that not caring about grades will not get you good grades and will not give you an added edge over your counterparts vying for the same position or program etc. Being less concientous about grades and a competitive edge is part and parcel of the motives and direction of such an earnest learner. Putting your focus away from the competitive raucous should bring it in, rather. Being focused on what you want to accomplish to satisfy your own aspirations as opposed to being better than everyone else will lend much better results. There will likely be opportunities that those clawing their way to the top will lose out on. It's also likely that that focus will be just exactly why you can benefit in certain sought after positions.I should add here that as a home educator a. I did keep records of what the kids learned well. This allowed me to guage just where they needed to go next. It also took out the pressure of getting a high enough score to go to the next chapter. Instead I had my finger on their learning pulse knowing exactly where they were and tailoring the next step to make the best use of their time and energy. Some subjects come more easily than others. Sometimes that one extra day/week/month on a difficult concept made all the difference. We didn't move on until they knew it well and were comfortable with it. This is a really good way to bring up a motivated learner. What more do you really need. This equips them to become whatever they want!

Results are in. The first year back in public school was a win!

2008-06-25T17:14:00.001-04:00

I'm a new blogger so please be patient. I have lots of witty and informative things to say, though. Today let's start with this. My 7th grader just got her end of year report card today. Her final gpa for the year is 3.95. This is wonderful but doesn't tell the whole story. I started homeschooling ( or home educating, rather) 1/2 way through 3rd grade. At the time she was going through an emotionally distressing time. This having to do with her biological father and his home. She is also a girl with adhd. She was a mess at the time but her academic shortcomings were consistent even from the start- in young 4's. She was a talker. She was one of those, lets spend the entire evening doing homework while mom sits on top of her. She was daily forgetting her student planner. She wanted feedback for her every move. She couldn't even complete writing a word without her needing an atta girl for her attempted neat penmanship. Most of all she needed me with her all the time. So I brought her home after the fall semester in 3rd grade and restarted 3rd grade in January at home. She continued to have the same trouble through the first2 or so years at home. I stuck with her though, not going any faster than she could work. I tried a lot of different methods with her. I don't know exactly which ones worked best but the 'tough love' ones didn't at all. She eventually began to work more and more independently as I began to work with her younger siblings.

I decided to send them all to public school for the fall of 07-08 school year. She more than suprised me with every aspect of her performance. I was on cloud nine at her 1st parent teacher conference. I couldn't have painted a better picture of a model student! Of course she got lots of the, "what a pleasure to have in class," and "she is such a delightful student" but what's more is she got some other comments that just astounded me! Her teachers all had her as their favorite (pet) student. They all remarked at her willingness to learn and motivate independently. They noted her eagerness to learn and please. Even more that she was very enthusiatic in the subject matter. The child's lowest grade was an A- in math (not her best subject) but was still recognized for her performance in math.

I can't say that I'm confident that all that she'll learn in public school is let's say...academic enough... to prepare her for university, but she is certainly accomplishing more than I did at that age. I am truly amazed!

Firefox 3 anyone?

2008-06-17T21:04:00.000-04:00

Oh me Oh my!! I have Firefox 3!!!!!!! Why must I always have shiny and new? I couldn't tell ya! So here are some of my favorite add-ons, split browser, piclens, downthemall!, Remove It Permanently, scribefire (I haven't used this yet but it looks good. So you should go get firefox3 now and customize accordingly. Ok so I wanted to fwd: the link for the split browser to my friend and it took too long so I hope my friend is reading this!!