Mountain Music

mountain_music
Originally uploaded by pwhyte

Had a very nostalgic weekend of scanning photos from Mom's old album. Will have to get her to sit down with me so I can add notes etc. to the pics. This one for example, I have no idea who they are or where exactly the photo was taken.

The extended family has always had lots of musicians - some whose reputations are well know for hundreds of miles around home (in WV).

Will soon finish this album and be able to take it back to her and bring another one home to work on - she won't let me have more than one at a time, lol!

SCOCA's Curriculum Integration Blog

Shewww.... no time to blog here anymore. But I've been very busy with the SCOCA Curriculum Integration Blog. Also had the flu... or something like it! Arrrgh...

Farmer Gwen

Farmer Gwen
Originally uploaded by pwhyte

Well, she turned 91 last week. She has given up any kind of garden, but still likes her potted plants on the porch.

I had taken her some crazy looking gourds last year at Halloween for a basket on the table. She saved them, cut them open and dried the seeds and planted a few in the flower containers on the porch this summer. They grew and grew and grew! They took over the glider, so now she is just letting them have the glider for the rest of the summer, lol. She had intended for them to climb the rot iron posts on the porch, but the gourds preferred the glider. She has harvested a couple already, and has a few more coming on.

She will always find a way to grow some kind of crop!

Barn Invasion

IMG_0541
Originally uploaded by pwhyte

This is what happens to the barn if we don't get down there for a month in the summer to keep up with the mowing, weed eating and applying RoundUp....

We don't know what this vine is, but it has been impossible to kill it. It looks like a squash or melon vine, but it never blooms or produces any fruit. It was there when we bought the farm, and we just can't seem to stop it!

It is kinda pretty, but sure looks like we have neglected the place! Will get it carved back this weekend. :-)

Big shoes to fill

Big shoe
Originally uploaded by KaiChanVong

I am taking Melissa Higgs-Horwell's position at SCOCA. As of Friday she has officially retired. I am thrilled to have this opportunity - but apprehensive at the same time because Melissa has been such a driving force in education in general and specifically with video conferencing in the South Region. She has been the heart and soul of IVC for the past 8+ years. She knows everyone, and people all over the state know and admire her.

They are indeed "Big shoes to fill," but I welcome the opportunity to give it my best shot. I hope people will understand that I can't be Melissa, but I will work very hard to keep the projects and initiatives she has developed growing and prospering. I'm sure she feels like she has left her "baby" in my care and I hope not to disappoint her. :-)

My hope is for Melissa to really enjoy life - she has earned it. I also hope that "enjoying life" will mean that she continues to contribute to the education world and that we will have the opportunity to work together again - soon! I miss her already.

Down the "Country Music Highway"

I headed out on Friday to spend the weekend with my FEMA guy.... He was supposed to be in Louisville, so I was thinking shopping... But on Thursday, they sent him over to eastern Kentucky to Pikeville, so I headed down the Country Music Highway for the weekend. Shopping would not be the same in Pikeville, but it was a good weekend just the same.

On the way down, I passed through Ashland and Catlettsburg. The Marathon Refinery at Catlettsburg on the Ohio River is pretty impressive. My Mom and Dad were married in Catlettsburg in 1939. Then I passed the big AEP Power Plant (Kentucky Power) as I headed south along the Big Sandy River enroute to Pikeville. It's pretty incredible how much energy flows out of Appalachia via the electric and refineries and railways loaded with coal. You'd think that the local people would reap more rewards than they do for supplying so much of the energy used in the eastern US.

I passed through Prestonsburg, and saw the signs to the Jenny Wiley State Park, but didn't have time to stop there. Maybe next trip...

As I got into Pikeville, I was amazed by the Cut-Through. In the 1970's, the Army Core of Engineers re-routed the river, the railroad and the highway by cutting through the mountain. All the way down Route 23 (which is a nice 4 lane), there had been lots of cuts into the mountains, but this one at Pikeville was the most incredible.

I spent some time at the pool and soaked up some sun on Saturday. We had dinner at the Landmark Inn Saturday evening. Dinner was excellent and the atmosphere was a little 1950ish... Quite charming. We also had a couple of meals at El Azul Grande too, their food was great too. Maybe I am just tired of my own cooking at this point though. :-)

On Sunday, we went over the see The Breaks Interstate Park and did a little hiking... We hiked the Overlook Trail - it was too hot for a lot of strenuous up hill stuff! It was beautiful and we were lucky because there were still some rhododendron and mountain laurel in bloom.

On the way home, I noticed that KY's deer crossing signs looked like they had HUGE deer down there... LOL, when I checked on it when I got home, low and behold it was an ELK Crossing sign!

Summer Reading (er... make that "Listening")

It seems to me that those "long, lazy days of summer" don't exist anymore... I can't remember a long, lazy summer day since I was about 7! The summers seem to be shorter and even our kids lead very busy lives.

So that leaves little time for summer reading. But if you want to try to work in some summer reading/listening for your children, check out the University of South Florida's Lit2Go section on iTunes U. You'll find lots of wonderful classics formatted in mp3's that you can download to an iPod to take along on the family vacation or that weekend outing to the country. The University of South Florida has more than 3000 podcasts organized by grade level, so you're sure to find appropriate reading/listening materials for your child.

You will need to have iTunes installed to use this link. While you're there, check out their TechEase section too if your summer plans include learning some new educational software this summer!

Lit2Go from the University of South Florida on iTunes U.

Shrooms! Woohoo :-)

Shrooms
Originally uploaded by pwhyte

First weekend out to the cabin for the spring and it was fabulous! The weather was warm and sunny and we had a great time.

We went hunting for 'shrooms - they are not actually mushrooms at all, but morels. We found about 60 on Friday, another 60 or so on Saturday and Bill found more than 30 on Sunday after we left.

We set up an assembly line on the porch on Saturday evening and cooked them, mmm, mmm. We actually had to use farm eggs (no regular white eggs at the local grocery) - I'm not a big fan of brown farm eggs, but...



We just rolled them in eggs beaten up with a little milk and then in flour and popped them into an electric skillet with some cooking oil. (I know, not very healthy, but they're 'shrooms!)




This is the batter recipe that I usually use for onion rings and mushrooms - it's even UNHEALTHIER! But it is sooooo good!

Batter for Shrooms

1 c. sifted all purpose flour
2 tsp. salt
1 and 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg yolk
2/3 c. milk
1 tbs. salad oil
1 egg white

• Sift flour, salt and baking powder into medium bowl. Set aside.
  
• Beat egg yolk slightly in bowl, then stir in milk and salad oil. Add to flour mixture, stirring until smooth.
  
• Beat egg white until soft peaks form. Fold into batter.
  
• Dip shrooms into batter. Let excess drip into bowl. Drop into hot oil or shortening. Fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

For some more information on hunting spring mushrooms, check here.

Are Textbooks Becoming Obsolete?

I remember when I was a classroom teacher (quite a long time ago, I haven’t taught in the K-12 setting since 1998), having new textbooks and being excited that they came with some electronic resources. I remember having a difficult time organizing other resources that I liked to use in my classroom. I started with jotting notes to myself in the margins of the teachers’ manual, but then I developed an extensive file of lesson plans (it takes years to really put that together) with all the resources and where to find them included. There were books, videos and filmstrips in our school library, there were things on instructional television that I could have our media specialist record for me, and then there were some very good 16MM films that I could order by mail from the Media Centers. It was always difficult to time the arrival of the films because you had to order at least two weeks ahead of time and then you could keep them only for a couple of days. Sometimes I would have to adjust my lessons and it would throw the timing for these resources off and I would have to send them back without using them. The public library was also a good source for materials, but it was a 30 minute drive there after school to get the materials and then another trip to return them. All of this coordination of resources was a daunting task... And even with great lesson plans, each year I need to adjust my lessons based on how my students were doing, so it was always changing. And that was long before all the great internet resources and things like TeacherTube!

There were times when the textbook simply did not match my “Course of Study,” which is what we went by back then because there were no Academic Content Standards yet.

When I first learned about wikis, my first thought was “Wow - this is the exactly what I needed all those years ago for organizing my resources!” And after using them for a few years now, I am starting to think that perhaps a wiki would make a fabulous replacement for the textbook. I think you could use the the outline provided by the Academic Content Standards and put together the best possible resources for teaching them. You would have so much more than “text on the page” for differentiating instruction. You could have sections for student contributions and your classroom would become more dynamic with projects. A classroom wiki combined with a good collection of reference books in the back of the room seems to me like it would be a perfect setup.

I realize that this would take time, so maybe a teacher would just begin using the wiki in conjunction with their textbook as supplemental material. I really think that after a couple of years, it would be a much better resource than the textbook.

I think students might agree....





What do you think? I found this article interesting.

The eTech State Technology Conference

Another great conference from eTech... As always, too busy with presentations and the booth to attend very many sessions, but the ones I got to go to were great.

We also helped out in the Ohio on iTunes U area that eTech had set up for the launch of the new Ohio sections in iTunes U. The site launched on January 27, timed for conference, and they have been uploading content pretty steadily since the launch. I'm very excited about these new resources for Ohio teachers. I hope that it continues to grow, especially with submissions from K-12 schools. This may just prove to be the ultimate resource for our teachers.

My presentation (which eTech recorded for inclusion in the Ohio on iTunes U site) was at 8:00 am on Monday morning - I know, horrible time slot. I didn't expect to have a full session since lots of people drive in for the day and lots of others were still checking in and getting their conference materials. However, I had more than 120 in my session! The room was set up for 160, so you couldn't really say it was a full session, but I thought it was a fabulous turnout for that time slot! I hope I made it worth the effort of getting up and moving so early on a Monday morning! If you wanted to see my session and didn't make it, eTech will be posting them on iTunes U in late March or early April. I will update with a link as soon as it is available.

My resource page for this presentation can be found here.

Happy birthday to Joanie...

Today is her birthday - that's us there a few years ago (in 1957 to be exact). She is one of my 3 older sisters, but the one closest to me in age. And at the rate she's going, she will soon be younger than me!

She's also my BFF. Don't know what I (or the rest of our family) would do without her. Happy Birthday Joanie, I love ya.