Ms. Nancy's Library & Technology Blog

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

We almost got caught by a sneaker wave yesterday on the Oregon coast. Well, I’d better make that, we got caught by a sneaker wave and almost got washed away. Managed to hang on and we were OK, but man, oh, man. It was scary.

Kids, please watch this video with your grown-ups. Grown-ups, please watch this video with your kids. It just might save your life.

Here’s to a happy — and safe — summer when it gets here.

Have a good night.

— Mrs. R.

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

This school year is just flying by… and Geography Quest Quiz Day is April 30. If you would like to study with us, we’re learning all about the following countries:

Level 1: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina & Bulgaria

Level 2: Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary & Italy

Level 3: Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova & Romania

Level 4: Monaco, Montenegro, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia & Slovakia

Level 5: Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland & Vatican City

Study hard, friends, and learn a lot 🙂

Check out these websites for help:

I Like to Learn

Sheppard Software

Stack the Countries

Here’s a cat picture for you. OK, that’s all I’ve got. Hope you had a nice weekend! See you this week, kids, and we’ll get some work done.

— Mrs. R

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Oh, this one is fun! Wonderville… Check it out. (The Alberta Science Museum site, not the other one with a similar name.)

Have a great week, everyone…

— Mrs. R

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Is everyone having a good spring break?

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

If you are bored, don’t forget your…

Dance Mat Typing

Typing Agent

Student Source!

IXL! (if you are not one of my students, you can click on “learn more about IXL” for a trial version) and…

Coding, coding and more coding.

Also, we saw a whole bunch of pirates at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, eating party food with their wives and kids. Hmmm. What do you make of that?

Yeah, I’m not so sure, either.

However, my daughter and I made up a bunch of pirate jokes in their honor, so here you go…

Where does a pirate leave his dog?
In the yaaaaaard

What does a pirate do on his birthday?
Throws a paaaaaaaaarty.

How does a pirate pay for his dinner?
With a credit caaaaaaaaaaaaaard!

There were more, but you’ll have to wait until later. See you next Monday, kids 🙂

— Mrs. R

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Why wouldn’t the crab share his toys?

Because he was shellfish.

I love my students for many, many reasons, but one of the top reasons? They tell me great jokes all day long.

What do ducks like to eat with their soup?

Quackers.

Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in the mud, and cross the road again?

Cuz he was a dirty double-crosser.

More?

A girl said she remembered me from the vegetarian club, but I swear I’d never met herbivore.

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Matthew.

Matthew who?

Matthew need help with, but Social Studies you can handle.

OK, is that enough? No? OK, then…

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Cello.

Cello who?

Cello there, dahling, how are you?

All for now! Four more days until spring break…

Love,

Mrs. R

(Photo by Steve Rawley)

Please don’t let your computer problems wash you out to sea.

A disclaimer: I am not giving this advice as a paid representative of the school district.

But I do often get asked, by my students, friends and family members, How do I fix my computer at home? So here are some tips (which I borrowed freely from my husband, Computer Guy):

1) If your computer is more than six months old… Buy a new computer.

2) Gah. I do not care for that advice, being a fan of the reduce/re-use/recycle school of thought.

3) Make sure you’re running a good virus protection program such as Windows Defender. (It is free to download.)

4) You might want to buy some additional memory for your machine. (Runs about $40 or so?) Crucial.com is a good analysis tool to see what kind of memory your computer needs.

5) If all else fails, and if it’s a Windows machine, you can try re-installing Windows, but you will need to save your data first. (Also, you will need to have your original Windows disks). Save your data to an external hard drive (they run about 100 bucks, and it’s good to have an extra on hand to do your back-ups, anyway.) (You do do regular back-ups on your machine, I hope?) If there’s not too much data, you might be able to use a thumb drive (or two) to save your info. (These are inexpensive now — I usually pick them up at Fred Meyer for $10. You can find them in the check-out line, or in the home electronics section).

6) We got rid of Microsoft at our house (thank you, 29 viruses from the Cartoon Network website) (yes, I said it, 29 viruses! We’re not immune over here) and swapped to Linux, using Ubuntu, a free, open-source Operating System. It took me awhile to get the hang of the word processing feature, but now I would not switch back for anything.

7) PS this is not a ad or endorsement for anybody or anything, I just feel your pain when your computer crashes.

Hope this helps a little? Have a great week! Eight more days until spring break for us, woooooooooooooooot!

— Mrs. R

Hello, geography fans!

Time to do a fast study for this month’s Geography Quest.

Level 1: Belarus, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia
Level 2: Finland, France, Germany, Iceland
Level 3: Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia
Level 4: Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway,Poland
Level 5: Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, United Kingdom

Highlights: Kremlin and Red Square (Russia), Eiffel Tower (France), Pingvellir National Park (Iceland), the Oresund Bridge (Denmark & Sweden), Cologne Cathedral (Germany) and the Atomium (Belgium)

Please check out:
I Like to Learn

Lizard Point

Sheppard Software

And… Stack the Countries (this one you have to pay for).

Testing for our students will take place from 8:10-10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. (Early this month, due to spring break.)

Good luck!

— Mrs. R

What did the chickpea say when she had a stomachache?

“I falafel!”

OK, that was pretty bad. So here’s another one…

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Doris.

Doris who?

Doris locked, that’s why I’m knocking!

Happy Sunday, everyone.

— Ms. Nancy

Did you hear about the truckload of tortoises that crashed?

What a turtle disaster.

(Ducks like jokes.)

(Photo by Steve Rawley)