I've spent most of the day writing report cards. Not the most fun way to spend a week, but it has become my reality three times a year. At least writing reports is easier now then it was when I first started teaching and all report cards were done by hand. It is so much nicer now to sometimes write -one- comment and then be able to paste it over into all 29 report cards or to write an "A" comment for Science, say, and paste it into the reports of all students with an A in Science. I learn a little more about how to make writing reports easier each time I write them.
When not writing report cards today I spent most of the time playing with my new printer/scanner. I'm ecstatic about the quality of the photographs I've been printing out here. Even on plain white paper they are practically photographic quality. It hit me as I was sitting here this morning that I pretty much have a full photo lab right here in my office now. In the period of just a few minutes I can take a digital photo, upload it to the computer and then print it out in near photographic form. It's still quite a marvel to me.
Love my new scanner, too. I scanned in a couple of old Urban Tapestry photos earlier today to e-mail to Jodi so she can work on updating the Urban Tapestry website. I bought a Harry Potter card last week with the Hogwarts crest on it so the Gr. 5 students can send a thank you card to their principal and vice-principal to thank them for their help in organizing our movie trip. I liked the crest well enough that I scanned it into my computer today, too, for future potential cross-stitch patterns. I know this is pretty common-place to many of you, but, again, it's quite a marvel to me to have these abilities at my fingertips!
John installed my CD-burner today, but I've had no time to play with it. I'm keen to start an archive for my digital photos and burn a disc with all the mastered live tracks from UT's upcoming CD, so I can listen to them altogether at my leisure, but that will have to wait until at least the end of next week when report cards are in.
Did take a break last night with John and watched the third of four discs in the "Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition" DVD. Wow, these documentaries are incredible, tracing the movie from a biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, through the script writing process, through art design and sets and costuming and that was just the third disc! The four disc is promising 3 1/2 more hours of documentaries taking the movie through shooting and right to the opening night premieres. As much care seems to have gone into these extra features as went into the extended movie itself. Got to agree with the number of critics who are calling this the DVD of the year, though I may be a bit biased :).
When not writing report cards today I spent most of the time playing with my new printer/scanner. I'm ecstatic about the quality of the photographs I've been printing out here. Even on plain white paper they are practically photographic quality. It hit me as I was sitting here this morning that I pretty much have a full photo lab right here in my office now. In the period of just a few minutes I can take a digital photo, upload it to the computer and then print it out in near photographic form. It's still quite a marvel to me.
Love my new scanner, too. I scanned in a couple of old Urban Tapestry photos earlier today to e-mail to Jodi so she can work on updating the Urban Tapestry website. I bought a Harry Potter card last week with the Hogwarts crest on it so the Gr. 5 students can send a thank you card to their principal and vice-principal to thank them for their help in organizing our movie trip. I liked the crest well enough that I scanned it into my computer today, too, for future potential cross-stitch patterns. I know this is pretty common-place to many of you, but, again, it's quite a marvel to me to have these abilities at my fingertips!
John installed my CD-burner today, but I've had no time to play with it. I'm keen to start an archive for my digital photos and burn a disc with all the mastered live tracks from UT's upcoming CD, so I can listen to them altogether at my leisure, but that will have to wait until at least the end of next week when report cards are in.
Did take a break last night with John and watched the third of four discs in the "Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition" DVD. Wow, these documentaries are incredible, tracing the movie from a biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, through the script writing process, through art design and sets and costuming and that was just the third disc! The four disc is promising 3 1/2 more hours of documentaries taking the movie through shooting and right to the opening night premieres. As much care seems to have gone into these extra features as went into the extended movie itself. Got to agree with the number of critics who are calling this the DVD of the year, though I may be a bit biased :).