fun

This is my job. It’s awesome.

Posted on by ColinJagoe

I’m working away on a snow day assessing some student work today. The assignment was to come up examples that explain Newton’s 3 Laws. This is what I received from one student.

Notice how i used three superheroes, and though they may have been marvel ones, that its not because i dislike DC. Also i do poke fun at aquaman, but this is mainly in jest because i do (somewhat) respect him as a hero. Ladies and gents, Newtons laws

 

Newtons Second Law.

Peter Parker hears that the Rhino is in town. Quickly he finds the nearest convenient storage closet and puts on his costume; Becoming spider man. He then jumps out of the 23rdfloor of the Daily Bugel and shoots strings of web onto miscellaneous objects overhead, his relatively light weight is easily supported by the web. On the way back However he Is carrying Marry Jane on his back. This time the mass that spider man has to carry is greater; and therefore the force of tension on the web is greater.

Newtons first Law.

Deadpool is racing down the streets in a sports car stolen from the King Pin. Unfortunately Deadpool gets distracted by an attractive jogger on the side of the road, and accidentally swerves into a fire-hydrant, bringing his car to an abrupt stop, but since his body was in motion it wanted to stay in the said forward motion, and Deadpool is shoot out of his front windshield, splatting on a nearby building. #seatbeltsforpansies

Newtons Third Law.

Aqua man punches a wall. Since Aquaman obviously doesn’t possess enough strength to break a wall, the force that Aquaman applies on the wall is the same force that the wall applies on Aquaman.

So there’s that. Gives me a good laugh. And it’s a decent understanding of the Laws to boot.

Please ignore…

Posted on by ColinJagoe

This is mostly a test. Had to change how a few plugins were setup, including the one I use to auto-tweet posts as they are posted to the blog. If you read this, please consider it a test, and return to your normal routine.

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Among The Missing

Posted on by ColinJagoe

I think I’ve been among the missing on the blog for a while now. I’ve got a few ideas for posts brewing in my head as I wind up 5 years as a consultant and prepare to head back to the classroom in the fall. I plan on getting to some of those thoughts soon(ish). I’m also just finishing up a course I’ve been taking for the last 2 months, cause I had too much time on my hands. Oh, and the 3 month old little boy is taking up the rest of it. (The ‘too much time’ comment was sarcastic, in case you wondered… )

In the meantime, here was my own personal top ten I received on Father’s Day. 🙂

My own personal Top 10

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Intro Guitar Class

Posted on by ColinJagoe

I’ve just joined a open class offered up by @bryanjack. He’s teaching intro guitar at his school, and opened up the class to the web. I’ve been thinking about how to play more and learn more guitar and music lately, and this seems to be a great idea. A community of players of all abilities working together, jamming and learning. Mostly I hope to get some motivation out of it. Learning some new things about songwriting, recording etc.. but mainly its the community of players that is the best thing. Really looking forward to seeing what students create, both in his class, and the online motley crew that he’s gathering together.

You can see my intro post and video over at the class website.

Rock on!

 

Photo blogging

Posted on by ColinJagoe

It’s been about a year and a half since I stopped doing my photo-a-day project. I had done it for over 2 years at that point, and had really learned a lot about photography and editing. There were a few reasons for ending, but I wasn’t unhappy to stop with it. It was time. 

But now I think I might be back in the 2013/365 game. I took a few pics over the first few days of 2013 and posted them. I’ve used a few of the topics on Today’s Posting for inspiration, but not everyday. Some days it’s just been a snap of life. I think that this time, I’m not so interested in making the perfect photo, but rather making a bit of a document of the year as it occurs. 

One thing that has gotten me back in the game is the changing options for making photos.  I have a nice DSLR that I use for my photograpy and I used to drag it around with me in the car whenever I went anywhere. But in the last year, after acquiring on iPhone 4S with a 8 MP camera (the same as my first DSLR only a few years ago) I’ve found that most of the pics I’ve taken have been with it. It’s a truism that the best camera is the one that you have with you. So I’m not so concerned about having my full size camera with me, as I have a decent one in my pocket all the time. 

The other thing is the variety and utility of editing options available on the phone and iPad. With their new app, Flickr has rekindled my interest in using it for both editing and posting to Flickr. Instagram never really captured my favour, and with the recent brou-ha-ha about privacy, I’m happy to leave it alone. I’ve also been playing with various editing apps on my iPad, and have found that Snapseed and Camera Awesome and iPhoto for iPad are really fun editing apps. In fact, all the pics I’ve taken and posted so far have been editing in one of those three apps and uploaded to Flickr. One of the things that got to be a drag was the daily routine of putting pictures from my DSLR on my computer in iPhoto or Aperture, editing if needed, and uploading. Now I’ve done it all from my living room comfy chair and my iPad. Even the ones from my DSLR have been added to the iPad using the camera kit attachment and then editing right on the iPad. Easy peasy. 

So far, so good. Easy, fun and I’m learnig a ton about these various options. One might say I’m a bit amped up again about taking and making photos. Rock on! 

Amped

I still have a blog

Posted on by ColinJagoe

So it occurred to me today that I have a blog. Still. I was talking to someone this week about how many people start these up with good intentions and then lose steam. I’m not sure why that is, but I’d guess that there are tons of reasons. I think for me it was just a matter of decompressing and taking some ‘me’ time over the summer and not getting back. I’m thinking I need to make a point of it. Not to make some mark on the universe, but to help refine thoughts of my own.

My danger is that I tend to rant about things, and I’m not sure that this is where I want to post rants that stay forever. No one needs that. Perhaps I need a theme, or will start a storyline or something completely off the wall.

I’ll think about it.

Any ideas for blogging out there?

Stay Curious!

Posted on by ColinJagoe

Ran across this video today. I liked it so much I thought I’d post it on my blog. 🙂

Skillshare appears to be a website where you can take classes from a variety of people in a variety of areas. It looks quite interesting.

There’s a lot of good one liners in the video. I like “It doesn’t matter what you ask, just that you ask.. Because the questions you find are more important than the answers”

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=34853044&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=f36c21&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

The Future Belongs to the Curious from Skillshare on Vimeo.

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Are we the 2%?

Posted on by ColinJagoe

Many teachers used to be the students who were good at the system. I think that’s a fair statement. I know I was. I didn’t have to work too hard in school, it came fairly easily to me. I got by, played the game, did fine, went to university, and the pattern repeated.  How many students become teachers? What’s the ratio?

According to World Bank, there are about 34 million people in Canada, and according to Stats Canada as of March 2008 there were about 5.2 million students in Canada, and 692,000 teachers. This means that currently about 2% of the population of Canada are currently in a classroom as a teacher.

So does this mean that the ones who are in the school system as teachers and administrators are the 2% that succeeded under the system, and therefore we are less likely to think that the system needs an overhaul and change?  With all the Occupy Wall Street protests around North America pointing out that the top 1% of earners are in control of the majority of decision making, maybe it’s worth a few minutes to consider this in an education context.

Are WE the 2%? If so, what do we do now?

WordPress iOS

Posted on by ColinJagoe

Hey, I like it. I just updated the WordPress iOS app on my iPad, and I’m trying it out. I’ve got my external Bluetooth keyboard going, because I really don’t do very well typing on the iPad. It’s ok for a quick tweet or two, but I much prefer a real keyboard. WordPress just updated their app, and I thought I’d give it a whirl. I like that they made a few things much easier than their previous version. We can now bold words very easily, as well as other tasks like making a link to an outside page. I know a little bit of HTML, enough to get by, but not having to think about it makes life much easier with this.

20110925-211022.jpg I think it has always handled images ok, but I pulled one of my library to upload and see what it look like and how it deals with it. If you blog, and have a WordPress blog and an iOS device, it might be worth updating your app, or getting it for the first time to give a try.