For years I have wanted to computerize my lesson plans. Yes, I have typed my lessons. But each year it is the same process. I have been able to copy-and-paste, but that is inefficient. I have run into all sorts of troubles trying to do what I have wanted to do and keep putting off the project.
Late last school year my district announced that we would finally be required to submit our lesson plans electronically. They crafted a Word document they expect each teacher to use. Faced with that, I figured it was time to get my act together.
The template provided is not helpful to me. It displays five days of lessons spread out over how many ever pages it will take. The way it is constructed, long thin columns that break in the middle of lessons make a muddled mess out of the plans. To me, plans should be functional. A document like that would not serve me well, nor do I think it will serve a substitute well.
Nevertheless . . .
So in June i began building a database of my lessons. The idea is that the database will hold all my lessons. Once typed, I will not need to re-type them or copy-and-paste them ever again. Sure, some lessons will be tweaked. Some new lessons will be added, but the majority of this busy work will be done.
From there I figured there had to be some way to populate the district’s Word template. Since it is to be uploaded to a server, I’ll never have to print this thing, so the formatting is not a hige concern; I can provide the data in exactly the same format they designed. All I’ll do is link it to my database and populate the template weekly with my lessons.
It sounded reasonable, but it proved to be much more difficult for me than I thought at first. I tried everything in my skillset to dump 40 lessons weekly into this template, but I could not do so other than as a typical mail merge, which created a 40-page document. While I wouldn’t really care, that is not what was expected.
I sought all sorts of technical help from certified Office developers. I had a plan at one point to join the 40 lessons into one record. While I knew that was inefficient, it would do the trick. Each lesson has eight required fields (although my plans have many more). With 40 lessons per week, I was looking at creating a record with 320 fields. While I struggled looking for a way to join all these fields, someone mentioned to me that the database is not capable of handling that many fields in a record. Sigh . . .
I was back at square one. I spent all day on this and finally found a way. Directory merges are just the thing for this project. Once I taught myself this process, all came together fairly quickly. I was stumped for a bit until I realized next is the cell beside the cell I am working on, not the one below it, like I wanted it to be. I adjust a table in the database to account for this since I saw no way to change the direction. From there it was just cleaning up some stuff.
I knew there was a way to get 40 merges onto one table, I just had no idea how to do so. Now I know.
My first week of plans are done. Now I’ll create a template to display these same lessons in a usable format for me. It’ll be trivial work at this point.
It feels good to solve a sticky project. I have taken one of the tasks of my job I do not care for and made it an efficient process. Now that it is built, I can look forward to next year when I will gain lots of time in my schedule. Woo hoo!
I’ve owned two JVC camcorders in my life. the first I purchased in the summer of 2000. I loved that thing. It went with me everywhere. Over time, however, it began sputtering and eventually the motor went. Upon researching it, I found that this was a common problem with JVC camcorders. It wasn’t worth repairing.
Gert and I, despite the disappointment, purchased a new JVC in 2004. I used it a lot. It’s not a high-end camcorder, but it meets our needs. Meets. That means it still works. More than four years later all is well and good with the camcorder. Nevertheless, I’ll never purchase another.
Last winter I purchased Gert a new desktop. Of course, we could have opted for XP at that point, but took the plunge to Vista. I rarely use that computer, preferring my POC laptop instead. The laptop is just fine for me. I occasionally will pull a video from the camcorder and post it, but it is always a shorter clip, if you hadn’t noticed.
Well, Gert has been pushing for me to produce another movie. She likes the ones I have done in the past (not available to the public, I am sorry to say). It would be a stretch to produce such a thing on the laptop. I tried to render one once and it locked this thing up for a day.
Not a problem, we have this wizbang new desktop with lots of memory, a hge drive, and better firewire than the laptop. I finally sat down to do that this morning. It’s 10:00 a.m. and I am back at the laptop.
JVC has abandoned my camcorder. Why? Simple, money. Vista recognizes the camcorder, can control the device, but cannot capture the video. It needs an updated driver. JVC has written no such driver. No one has, which I find interesting. Usually I can find a driver somewhere. Even Gert’s old non-name scanner I found a driver for. But not for the JVC. They would much prefer I purchase a new camcorder. And I may. It won’t be a JVC though, and I told them that. Sheesh . . .
Apparently, some firewire cards with the TI chipset will function. I will look into that, although I am not particularly fond of having to purchase parts for a new computer. We shall see.
In the meantime, it looks like I’ll be stripping the laptop down to free up as much space on here to work on video in small increments. Wish me luck . . .
Many industries have two major competitors. Ford v. Chevy. Coke v. Pepsi. Mac v. PC. Garmin v. Magellan.
When I first got into geocaching I did a lot of research on GPS units. At the time, late 2001 and again in early 2002, Magellan was the company. Their units were accurate, had quad helix antennae, and were generally considered better. I had two Magellans (315 and Meridian Gold). I only had one customer service experience with Magellan. I sent the Merigold in to correct the blue spot issue. They promptly returned the unit with an extra data cable and some other stuff. I was pleased.
But over the years Magellan seems to have changed. Thales, the parent company, discontinued my line of GPS units and essentially abandoned the consumer handheld line. Tales of customer service woes were everywhere.
Garmin is a smart company. While it was the second-rate company seven years ago, it pounced on the opportunity and has claimed its rightful spot as the leader in the consumer GPS division. Sure, it has been greatly helped by its auto units, particularly the Nuvi, but their handheld units have come a long way. The days of producing units that lost signal under trees is long gone. The 60 and 76 series were so popular and reliable there is an entire generation of user sworn to Garmin. I even read comments now that one knows caches are placed with a Garmin because Magellan-placed caches are 30 feet off. That is funny (really funny) for those of us who recall the situation a few years ago.
And while I never had a problem with the Merigold, I decided to update to the Garmin Colorado earlier this year. I love it! There have been some firmware issues, but Garmin has addressed most of those. Even with the couple outstanding issues, I prefer using this unit than the Merigold that still sits in my bag.
I had my first customer service issue with Garmin this week.
In addition to the Colorado, I also purchased a car mount. It is so much smaller than the Magellan mounts I have. The thing is wonderful. The way it works is that there is a disk with a strong double-sided sticky thing that attaches to the dash. Then the mount suctions to that disk.
I am in the process of buying a new car. When I do, that sticky disk isn’t going to transfer to the new vehicle. I looked at the Garmin site, but never saw the part. I do not want to purchase a new mount, just this plastic disk.
I filled out a form with customer service. The form is poorly designed as there is no confirmation once you submit it. I didn’t know if it was sent or not. I sent it a couple times. I had nothing for a day and a half. Coming home from a long day of car shopping today, I figured I would wait on the phone to talk to someone.
There was no need. Checking my e-mail, Garmin had written. A ew disk is in the mail free of charge. That is good customer service! Thank you.
I wish I had toured the Garmin headquarters when I took that photograph a couple years ago. As I recall, I was dragging from an all-night caching outing in Witchita.
Many industries have two major competitors. Ford v. Chevy. Coke v. Pepsi. Mac v. PC. Garmin v. Magellan.