I'm bloggin'! Seriously?!

June's restaurant--Cafe LULU

2009-07-07T15:40:00.005-05:00

A new favorite spot. Cafe LuLu is located in the new hip and trendy Bay View area. This place was fabulous. I have been back twice since this first stop with the nail group.

If you'd like something with a little more kick, Cafe Lu Lu has a nice bar. The menu consists of appetizers, pizzas, sandwiches, and salads. We had one pizza order and the rest were melts. Delicious!! Cafe LuLu also offers breakfast entrees on the weekend. I just might have to check that out, too!!

SMART Board Jeopardy

2009-07-07T15:38:00.000-05:00

Here is my class in action. We are playing Jeopardy on our SMART Board

International Exports, Ltd (a.k.a The Safe House)

2009-05-28T19:09:00.005-05:00

So this month our five "operatives" headed to the Safe House. Two members arrived ahead of the other three and had to do jumping jacks to gain entrance. So naturally they were watching the television monitor expecting to be entertained as the remaining three of us were asked to make fools of ourselves. As Laura and I waited for Gloria to find downtown parking and meet us in the entry area, we received a phone call informing us that several Milwaukee Public Schools were closing down due to swine flu precautions. You can imagine how exciting that was. Never in our careers in MPS had schools been closed for health issues.

Gloria arrived, we pushed the bookcase open and walked right inside. No password, no shenanigans! The first two "spies", Lori and Michelle, were not pleased with our lack of public humiliation.

The restaurant has a very interesting atmosphere. Lots of nooks and crannies. Bathroom doors that don't lead to bathrooms. Several levels of bars and seating areas. The food was just mediocre. Basic salads and sandwiches, nothing too exciting.

We ate our dinners and then of course sat around to chat. We were somewhat turned off when, after having been told by our waitress to stay as long as we liked, we were asked to leave because our table was in demand. We would have been more sympathetic if the restaurant was crowded. But that not being the case, the request left us with a "bad taste" in our mouths.

A new Web 2.0 application to try--Voki

2009-03-24T21:50:00.002-05:00

Get a Voki now!

I attended the WEMTA conference in Madison today. What an amazing day! I came home with so many great ideas, I cannot wait to try them all out. Here is the first one. Voki's. Kids create an avatar. They can then narrate it with up to one minute of audio. You can even make the audio portion with a free phone call! It only took a few minutes to do, although I will admit that you could spend a lot more time just designing your avatar. Give it a try. It is a lot of fun!!

Best Pizza in Milwaukee--Hands down!!

2009-03-22T14:48:00.007-05:00

My nail group decided to complete the Pizza Man vs. Balistreri's comparison this month. Unfortunately we were done one member due to illness. I am personally a Balistreri's fan. Just to be clear, this is Balistreri's Italian American Ristorante on 68th St., not their Bluemound Inn. If you like a super thin cracker crust pizza, it is the place for you, too! My son, however, loves Pizza Man. So you have to let people decide for themselves. We ordered the largest pizza with cheese, sausage, and fresh mushrooms. You have to specify fresh mushrooms or you end up with the canned version. I am not a fan of canned mushrooms. I think there might be a small extra charge for fresh.

We also had an order of garlic bread. Their garlic bread is just okay. (As a side note, an interesting thing happened to the remainder of our garlic bread when the women at the table beside us vacated. One of the remaining pieces of bread in the basket decided to attach itself to this woman's rear end, and leave with her.) Needless to say, we were finished with the bread basket. This is an indication of the proximity of the tables. It's a pretty tight squeeze.

The vote was unanimous. Four votes for Balistreri's. This was reinforced when our bill came. Splitting a total tab of $31.00 four ways is pretty economical. Especially when everyone took home their own doggie bag. One lucky person received two extra pieces. Anyone want to fess up?

Riding the Pepper

2009-01-29T21:07:00.007-06:00

January's stop was La Perla, a well known Milwaukee Mexican restaurant. It is located on the corner of 5th and National. There are many great Mexican restaurants in that area, but only one where you can ride the chili pepper.

The meals were good, most of us opting for some combination plate. You know how that goes. As Laura says, it all pretty much tastes the same, it just comes in different shapes. When the dinners arrived, it was difficult to figure out which was which. Hopefully everyone got what they ordered. The biggest concern was the guacamole. When Michelle's plate came without it, she was very disappointed. After all, what is Mexican food without guacamole? She was planning to ask the waiter when he came back with my dinner, which was called tequila shrimp, but was basically shrimp fajitas. (I'm not sure where the tequila fit in all of this.) But to everyone's delight, the waiter carried not only my plate, but plates filled with sour cream and the missing guacamole!!!

But of course the highlight of the night came when Lori climbed on the infamous pepper for her highly anticipated ride. We were unsure how the process worked, but rather quickly saw the coin box. So we all dug in our purses for quarters. Upon asking the waiter how much it cost imagine our surprise when his answer, "one" was not "one dollar" but only "one quarter"! We had gathered enough quarters for Lori to ride the pepper all the way home!! We laughed so hard that our cheeks hurt. Of course the other patrons looked at us strangely, but, hey when is the last time you were so entertained for just one small quarter?

December's Stop: George Watt's Tea Room

2008-12-29T16:30:00.009-06:00

So this morning, our group, sans one member with childcare issues, headed downtown to George Watt's Tea Room for breakfast. We were advised to make reservations early, as many people are in town over the holidays, and the seats can fill up fast. So you can imagine our surprise when we stepped off the elevator into our own private dining room. It was a very cheerful area, decorated in turquoise. We were alone for the remainder of breakfast. Other customers began filing in as we approached the lunch hour.

The menu offered several delicious items. Two of us opted for omelets, one ham and swiss and the other roasted vegetable. They were delicious! Served with wheat toast made from homemade bread. Quite a treat for someone who doesn't even buy bread most of the time.

The other two friends ordered the macadamia nut, croissant french toast. They assured us it was quite delicious as well. It certainly looked yummy!

I was rather surprised when I was the only one to order tea, after all, we were in a tea shop! (But then again, not everyone drank margaritas on the margarita cruise.)

After catching up on the latest stories of everyone's families, including a new member of the young driving population, we were on our way. There is quite an eclectic assortment of gifts to browse in the gift shop.

This was definitely a place to visit again!

Nail Group does Milwaukee

2008-12-24T09:20:00.008-06:00

So, for sixteen years, the five of us, Nail Group, have met every month to do our nails. It started out as a Mary Kay nail party and just grew into our own "poker" night. We took turns hosting at our homes. Three of the five have new homes since it all started.

So now we have decided it is time to change our focus. Lori has a magazine that had an article listing all the things that Milwaukeeans need to experience. Let the games begin!!

So August took us on the Edelweiss Margarita Cruise. All the margaritas you can drink and a taco bar. We went on this cruise during the Harley 105th Anniversary celebration, so we were on a boat full of Harley enthusiasts. It was very chilly that night, so it might have been a lot more fun on a hot summer night, but it started the roll.

Our next monthly stop was Elsa's. Of course you have to have their famous grilled cheese sandwich. Not for the vegetarian in the crowd, as it is loaded with crispy bacon strips!

And then in November, we visited Pizza Man, on North Avenue. Milwaukee's famous pizza. Thin cracker crust. Very delicious. So now I have brought us up to speed. I vow to be more prompt after our future outings. And more detailed.

Viva La Vida

2008-06-24T23:14:00.006-05:00

Lyrics | Viva La Vida lyrics

Listen to my new favorite song Viva La Vida by Coldplay

Web page is back from the designer!!

2008-05-29T11:30:00.004-05:00

And I really like it! I was so worried that I would not like the way it turned out. But it is actually very nice. Our logo turned out great. The rotating picture space is very large. So far there is only one picture there, but we did ask them to load a few more. We had a design meeting today to approve the template. Now it will take several weeks for them to add the design to our starter site. I will post the link once it is ready to go.

Zablocki's new website

The webpage project forges onward

2008-05-19T10:50:00.003-05:00

It seems that I have been neglecting my blog. I have been crazy busy with building the school web page. School Fusion is still in the process of designing the page. I have been busy building the pages themselves. My tech coordinator and I have put in many hours deciding how to layout the navigation and what the pages should look like. There have been some glitches along the way, but for the most part, it is coming along nicely. Sometime this week we should get the screen shots for their design. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I can't wait to see their creation, but I am worried that I may not like it. I guess we shall cross that bridge when we get there!

Josh Leo's Vlog

2008-05-01T10:47:00.003-05:00

If you are looking for a delightful vlog to follow, subscribe to Josh Leo's Vlog. He has the most enjoyable videos for you to watch. His topics cover a wide range of materials. The quality of the video is very professional. I look forward to new posts. Check it out!

JOTT

2008-05-01T10:38:00.002-05:00

Let me introduce you to my new favorite web 2.0 tool. Jott is something that I was introduced to in my Monday night class. It is an application that allows you to send emails and text messages using a telephone and your voice. After setting things up, you can call Jott at a toll free number. You select the person you would like to "jott" and then speak your message. When you finish speaking, the voice on the line says, "got it!" and your message is on it's way.

You can "jott" yourself. This has already come in handy for me, as I so frequently get to work, sit down at my computer, and then ask myself, "What was I going to look up?" So now when I am driving to work, I just "jott" myself a reminder. Then when I sit down at the computer, I have an email which reminds me!

My mom is having road runner problems, and has been unable to access her email As soon as I got home from class Monday night, I set up an account for her. Now she is at least able to send a message to her email buddies. She isn't able to check back, but at least she can inform them as to why she has been e-mail a.w.o.l.!

I have already introduced several friends to this great new tool. You might like it, too!

Stress Relief

2008-04-28T10:09:00.001-05:00

Sometimes when you are having a rough day there is nothing better than a fresh sheet of BUBBLEWRAP!! So go ahead! Destress! Enjoy!

G-cast

2008-04-27T12:52:00.003-05:00

I tried out the podcasting service offered by G-cast. It doesn't get too much easier than this. All you need is a telephone. You create the podcast via a simple phone call. That is something most students would be able to do. The site made me believe that I could add music to my post. It uses Garageband for this. Although I tried to do this, I was not successful. It seems that I may need to play around and experiment with their site a little bit more. If anyone knows the trick for this, please share.

Social Bookmarking

2008-04-27T12:37:00.002-05:00

We are now living in a world where you can share just about anything on your computer, so why not your bookmarks? One great perk of using this is the ability to share them with yourself when you are using a different computer.

But think about how a service like this can be helpful to teachers. You can bookmark a group of sites that you want your students to use during a certain activity or a assignment. Rather than making a list of sites that the students have to type in, you can bookmark them and share them. Then the students can access them from any computer, too.

I am finding that more and more I prefer to just store all of the things that I might need somewhere that is accessible from the web. That way I can access information, no matter where I am.

Podcasting and vlogs

2008-04-27T11:47:00.005-05:00

Thank you, Mary Beth! I wanted to add pictures to my podcast but did not know of a tool to use to facilitate that. She introduced me to Microsoft Photo Story. What an awesome and very easy to use application. This is very useful software for classroom teachers. You also have the capability to add background music. I didn't think that really worked in my case, plus I remembered all the worries about copyright law that we learned in School and Technology Law. So here is my podcast/vlog!

District Red Tape

2008-04-25T14:06:00.003-05:00

I was a little upset to hear about a problem my tech coordinator had at his other school this week. It was related to our webpage redesign. You will recall that we are contracting with a content management system called School Fusion, a company that I learned about in my last class. He was very impressed with them, so he proposed the idea to his other school. After some negotiations, they decided to take out a contract with them as well.

Well, when running their contract through the district office, the head of technology from MPS was extremely upset and told them "absolutely not." The principal was called and scolded.

I feel this shows the lack of knowledge about current technology on the part of the district office. They are requiring the school to use the services of the district's technology office (at a price, of course) to create their page. What this "leader of technology" obviously doesn't understand, is the difference between what he has to offer, a static web page, and what School Fusion has to offer, a webpage where teachers can have their own classroom pages that they themselves can update from any computer.

I felt bad, because I was the one who introduced the whole idea in the first place. I guess I should be thankful that we were able to get our contract without being picked up on the radar. It sure doesn't seem very fair, that a school can be told how they have to spend their own budget.

Neck and neck, just like Hillary and Barack

2008-04-23T13:05:00.002-05:00

Well, the logo verdicts are back. It rather amazes me how votes can go. I started with three choices and it was close. 21-17-21. So I had a run off vote for the top two. It then came down to an almost 50-50 split. Reminded me of the presidential primaries, where every time we vote, we don't really get much closer to a decision.

I decided that as the person who is driving the website redesign, I would make the executive decision. It didn't seem too unfair as my first choice was already out of the running. Right now I only have a pdf file containing the new logo, so I can't post it here just yet. I will as soon as I receive the image in a different format!

You make a difference

2008-04-19T17:19:00.001-05:00

Just received this video called Who I am Makes a Difference in an email from my mom. It was one of those things that caught me at the right time. What do you think?

Schools' responsibility for technology in education

2008-04-19T09:39:00.003-05:00

We continue to talk about how the world of K-12 education is behind the rest of society when it comes to technology. After doing some of the readings for my digital media class this week, I realize how irresponsible that is. Technology is the way of the future. The children that are sitting in our classrooms today will be immersed in technology in their careers as well as their day to day lives. Obviously we do not know what form that is going to take in the future, but isn't it our responsibility as educators to start preparing them for their own futures?

After reading the article The Rise of Crowdsourcing from Wired Magazine 2006, which discusses the livelihood of professional photographers who sell stock photos, I realize that the children who sit in front of us today will need to be fluent in technology to survive in the working world of tomorrow. These photographers used to be able to sell their photos for large sums of money. Now the availabilty of online resources has made dramatic cuts into their pocketbooks. If children are not prepared to function in this ever changing world, how will they survive?

It seems that no matter the field, technological literacy will be essential. At my doctor's office, a small hand held computer now comes into the exam room to record all of my medical history. Paperless statements are the wave of the future. (I paid my bills online for the first time last night.) Look at the large number of companies who are networked through Facebook. Then look back and try to find the school districts included. Better yet, try to find the school districts who even allow access!

It is actually apalling that schools, the places that should be embracing technology and teaching kids the amazing capabilities that come with it as well as the cautions that should be exercised, are the very places that seem to be afraid to accept the world in which we are already living, let alone the one that lies ahead. Can we really be that irresponsible?

Slide Show Widget

2008-04-16T19:12:00.004-05:00

Tonight's mission was to figure out how to add a slideshow to my blog. When I simply added a flickr slideshow, I was not given the choice of which photos I wished to include. There were certainly some that I wasn't interested in adding to the show. So I set out to ask Google how it could be done. I was led to a widget that allowed me to find the photos I wanted to include.

I was not happy with the borders and such that were included, so I went to my color pix selector that I mentioned in my last post and matched the colors of all the background to the page color. Then you could not see the ugly borders.

I still prefer the look of the original slideshow, but it is better to have the option of selecting my own photos. Now I just have to go and take some photos that I really want to use. The winter photos that I am starting with need to make way for spring!

Update: Ah, much better. I found the photos I took of all of my flowers last summer. Much better than winter snowstorm pictures!

Finding a logo

2008-04-15T20:10:00.000-05:00

You have no idea how difficult this has been. I was soooo happy with the eagle I found. I was sure that it was perfect. As a matter of fact I still like it a lot! I like the way the starburst around his head matches the starbursts that MPS uses in its logos. I showed it to a few of my colleagues and they all seemed to like my selection.

Then I shared it with my tech coordinator and principal, the others on my web design team, and neither one like it. I couldn't believe it because I was sure this was "the one"!

So now I have searched all of the clip art sites that I can possibly find. Nothing fits the bill in my book. So yesterday I talked with one of the district's graphic designers. She is going to make a few mock ups and get back to me later this week. I hope she has the solution. I pretty much do not know where else to go after this. What do you think? Doesn't this guy look like the real "Rocky Zablocki"?

Making the Big decisions--First colors

2008-04-15T12:09:00.001-05:00

I met with my Tech coordinator on Thursday afternoon. We have to start to make all of the big decisions regarding our web page. Things like top vs. side navigation. What size we want the page to be. Weather. Landing page or not. Rotating images on the header.

One of the decisions involves color choices. I found two really great sites to help choose colors. The first one, http://www.colorsontheweb.com/colorwheel.asp, lets you spin a color wheel and see what the colors will look like when they are combined.

The second, http://www.colorschemer.com/colorpix_info.php, is a handy little tool that you download. It will give you the hexadecimal number of any color that you roll the mouse over. You would be amazed at how many different colors there really are!

I spent a great deal of time spinning the wheel until I found several combinations that looked good. Of course I had to save the final decision for my principal. She was very agreeable to my suggestions. Now it is on to the artwork!

The webpage process rolls on

2008-04-15T11:28:00.001-05:00

The webpage process took a hiatus over spring break. But we are back on track! Late last week, my small group of my principal, my tech coordinator, and myself met to discuss some "must haves" for our webpage.
We now have the lauchpad, so we have a list of tasks to complete. I am currently working on design principals......color and artwork, those kinds of things. I found an eagle that I'd like to use as a mascot. I have a second choice as well, so we shall see what the rest of the committee thinks.

First posted on Bloglines on April 7, 2008

The contract arrives

2008-04-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

Today we received the contract from School Fusion! I cannot wait to get started. I just hope I get the launchpad materials before Spring break so I can start looking at it! Also...today I figured out how to put a counter on my webpage. Now we shall see if any families are actually using it!!

First posted on Bloglines on March 18, 2008

Website decisions

2008-04-15T11:25:00.000-05:00

Today we met with some people from the district's communication department. They want to design our webpage. They just did not have the same things that School Fusion has to offer. What they are talking about is a more static webpage. It would be something you would put out there and pretty much leave it alone. Only a few people would be able to update the page. And only from one designated computer. With the School Fusion site, every teacher will be able to update their own page whenever and from wherever they wish. They were pretty persistent, but we know this is not what we are looking for!

First posted on Bloglines on March 17, 2008

School Website

2008-04-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

I have decided to transfer over my Blogline blogs.......they predate some of the other things I have added to my blog. So this will upset my anal need to be sequencing accurately, but I guess life goes on!!

I am in the process of revamping the website for my school. I am currently working with School Fusion, a content management system, to develop a new website. This morning my principal, school secretary, tech coordinator, and I met with a rep from the company to view an online demo. I think they were all very impressed. I am really hoping that we will all agree to sign a contract with this company. Right now we are waiting for the rep to create a "sandbox", or practice site, for us to experiment with. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I do not hold the power here, so we whall see how this evolves.

First posted on Bloglines on March 13, 2008

Flickr in the Classroom

2008-04-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

I have thought about how I could utilize this technology in my classroom. I currently have a website which I update on a weekly basis. I have a page to which I add approximately 8 - 10 photos. When I update with new photos, the old photos are no longer available for viewing. If I started a Flickr account for my classroom I could post the albums there. Parents would then be able to go back and see all the pictures from the year.

I am contemplating how I would be able to invite all those parents to be friends, as it doesn't seem like a good idea to have the students photos posted publicly. I feel that as I am adding more technology to my class, I will need to be asking parents for their email addresses when I send home those start of the year letters asking for contact information.

Experimenting with Flickr

2008-04-09T19:35:00.001-05:00

It was over spring break while I was reading some of the material for my class, that I saw a link to Flickr. I clicked on it, and the next thing I knew, I was digging my digital camera out of my purse and experimenting with uploading pictures. My real motivation behind this involves my mother and her photo email attachments. She is a very new digital immigrant, and has learned how to take pictures and email them to the family. The trouble with this is, that it can be somewhat annoying and time consuming to download all of those photos one by one. My interest in Flickr was to see if this was something easy enough to teach my mother to do.

I feel that it is probably something that she can handle with a bit of instruction. It took some playing around on my part to figure out how the process works. But now that I have tried it, I will be adding my own photos to my own site. It is a great way to organize and share photos. I like the feature of putting the photos into sets. It is pretty nice that the program can tell you on exactly which day each photo was taken! I plan to continue to develop my web photo album. And one of these days, I should have a chance to teach my mom as well.

Why Blogger?

2008-04-09T13:01:00.000-05:00

I am required to start a blog for my Digital Media course. I had started a Bloglines blog. It wasn't very exciting. I didn't see any way to personalize the blog. Then we started talking about adding comments and everyone in class was having some trouble with that. So I decided to try a new site. So last night I went back to a blogger site I had opened for an earlier class. Problem was, I hadn't done anything with it at all. I didn't know how! Now that I am studying blogging, I am able to do what I need to do.

This site allows much more personalization. Templates....font choices...color choices.......The ability to edit posts after you post them. I am now actually looking forward to using my new blog!

Blogging Baptism

2008-04-08T18:29:00.001-05:00

I am about to embark on a new adventure. This is my first leap into blogging. I am not really sure that I have a whole lot to say to the world, but I guess I will give it a whirl. As a teenager who couldn't be kept off the telephone, I guess I must have plenty of things to say. It is just time to get out there and try it in a whole new way. So here, I go. I am blogging! Seriously??