M.A. Hochberg’s Technology for Teaching

Today I had another computer that would not boot. It gets as far as the gray Apple and gears spinning screen and hangs there. Normally, my “quick fix” solution is to boot it to CD and then run Disk Utilities. I even have a supply of system discs for each OS X version. Then I discovered that all the discs I had were for desktop machines and they would not work on a laptop.

Fortunately, I was able to boot the computer in Safe Mode (Shift/Power Button) and that cleared up the problem.

New item for my to-do list: get original CDs for all versions of laptops we use.

When I returned the laptop to it’s owner, I also gave them a hard copy of

http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/my_mac_wont_start.html

It’s a tiny booklet that has the basic troubleshooting steps in it.

With all the changes in our classroom configurations, we created new room folders on the school server. It certainly made it easier to get folders for everyone but…..

you also have to change the permissions for the new classroom folder so students can save their work in their folders. Here’s what to do:

1. Connect to the server and open the Rooms folder.
2. Select one of the classroom folders (i.e., mlrm20).
3. Press Command-I to see the Ownership and Permissions.
4. In the Owner field, after “4jNET\” type the user name that students use to log in (i.e., mlrm20).
5. Click on “Apply to enclosed items.”
6. Repeat for each class folder that is having problems.

Thanks to Peggy for teaching me this—and thank goodness it was only one class that couldn’t save their work!

I love this bookmark manger. It’s easy to use and, most importantly for students, a very clean and uncluttered look. They have now added the option to use it without any ads. The price is quite reasonable too. $15 per year for 5 accounts.

We only have one account so far but have talked about adding two more: one for parents and another for staff.

http://my.portaportal.com/ 

You can see the links for MLBV and Howard Elementary portaportals on the right.

I’ve decided that the best place to keep the notes and ideas about the various projects I am working on would be here in a blog. Until now, I would write up how I did things in a Word document and file it on my computer. I think a blog would be a better place.

1. I can access it from anywhere.
2. I can get ideas from other people.
3. It can be a resource for other users.