Pre K Penmanship Activities Digital and Print

As the weather turns cooler and the holidays (and possible snow days) approach you may have some little ones around. Why not create a few penmanship papers for them to doodle with or demonstrate their newly learned skills while they are on holiday or snowed in during the winter weather days?.

I have to give some credit to +Kimberly Geswein  for sharing the KG Primary Penmanship Fonts  . Read the comments. If you use editing tools in your text document tools, you may want to turn them off when you create a document with the KG Primary Fonts with lines. Of course, always review the product in the print preview mode before you print. Now if we can get that font in Google Docs, that would be great.

I also have to give some credit to Donna Young and her home school site (+DonnaYoung.org). If you are snowed in with little ones, Donna's site has something you can use for all learning levels.

I also used some free fonts from Educational Fontware. 

These are just a couple of tools that family and friends may want to incorporate with the little ones around who want to show you what they have learned or some fun activities to refresh your old school learning with those who will replace us. I created a few worksheets so the GBaby can practice and showcase her penmanship over the holidays and possible snow days.

Gone digital?

I have to give props to +Richard Byrne who blogs at Free Technology for Teachers (and is present in so many social media streams) for sharing this blog post in December 2011, 123s ABCs - A Handwriting Practice App for Android Devices. Hat tip to +Richard Byrne and his +Free Technology for Teachers blog. I look to his blog for many reasons but particularly regarding learning, whether for myself, friends, family, wounded warriors or people who need to expand their perspective.

Whatever your mobile device there are apps for babies and toddlers to enhance learning. Check the source, analyze the permissions, and ruggedize your device before putting the device in the little one's hands. Whether you search Google Play , iTunes , or Amazon Apps, or Windows Phone Apps there are apps for everyone. Enjoy your shared teachable and learning moments throughout the year.

It is hard to believe that a year ago I wrote, Turned the old smart phone into a child friendly device for the GBaby, November 3, 2013.

While going through this learning adventure with the GBaby, I am reminded how my penmanship has regressed over the last 20 years while integrating technology into my own life.

Thanks to +PBS KIDS and +Sesame Street for providing many activities for the family to do throughout the year too.

So what apps and activities are you integrating to keep the youngsters' gray matter active during the holidays and snow days?

Doctoral dropout and Custodial GMama

It is official. I withdrew from my Comps and from NCU. It is OK, I can return when I have time. There are times when you have to choose the hard right over the easy wrong. I admit...I wanted to complete my last year...comps and the dissertation phases and be done with something I started.

I beat myself up and down trying to make life work with school, work, custodial grandparenthood, and 4 generations in a household. The last year has been full of adapt, implement, and overcome moments. This post is kind of long...so pour your drink of choice and get comfortable.

While many children under the age of 2 have a digital presence, I have only shared Jazlyn's pictures with select individuals through Picasa. Below is the reason that I chose to be a Doctoral Dropout for now. She is definitely a gadget girl who likes to tinker, from the iPad to the Kindle Fire and she loves Elmo. I did create a GMail address for her so that I can share all of the events that have kept us so busy and so she is not mistaken when she Googles her own parents.

I did not want to be called "Grandma" so I am opting for "GMama". My neighbors adopted the GMama and GDaddy titles and to this day their granddaughter calls them by that title respectively. The other grandmothers in this picture are happy to be grandmothers, both are younger than me and with younger children at home. I know there is another blogosphere on why young adults have unprotected sex.

It is challenging seeking help for our young adult children who want and need to move on with life. I loved being an empty nester in North Carolina. I thought returning to Augusta, GA would encourage my daughter to move on with her life. We went to counseling. The other family talked her into self admitting to the hospital. I am trying to protect my daughter's HIPPA rights but I know that I am not alone in this situation. Then she aged out of my insurance program and does not have any benefits through her employer.

My lawyer said that grandparent custody cases are rising for his firm. Choosing to seek custody of Jazlyn was a tough decision but after a few incidents, consulting with my own mother, and heightened media of the Casey Anthony case...I opted for going to court versus having my daughter committed through probate court.  I work with three other women who are stepping up as custodial grandparents. My daughter has not lost her parental rights...she must show that she can support herself and her child. 

I will continue to blog as the Unique Ed Techie and just update the profile descriptions throughout the web. I thought about starting another page with a tab at the top and opted against it because I am a unique educational technologist in my personal and professional life. Who knows what the future holds? Maybe I will throw my name in the race for school board in May 2012...maybe our prayers will be answered and my daughter will get her life together and be the responsible single mother that I know she can be...maybe...regardless of what happens I will continue to blog, maybe more that I don't have as much research and reading to do and maybe less because of what LiL JJ brings to our life.

Single parenthood the first time was challenging and never did I think I would be going through this again particularly at this time in my life when I wanted to enjoy "Me Time". I am thankful for everyone in my village for making this work. I am particularly thankful to my mom as I could not continue in my career without her being there for Jazlyn when she cannot go to daycare and I know she did not expect to be taking care of babies after recovering from her fractured neck vertabrates in November 2009.


I know something has happened to my young adult daughter that I cannot help her with. I continue to take the high road and move forward as the other options would put me behind bars. She will not discuss anything with me but apparently lashes out at me via her social media connections. She has blocked anyone who may contact me about her on or offline behavior.


Jumping off of the virtual blog soap box. Keep us in warm thoughts and prayers this season along with those service members who continue to serve and keep on learning every day!

Are you a paragon of pedagogical prodigiousness? Or do you settle?

Do you settle for sensible solutions for our people and our times? Are you sharing knowledge to build stronger fishnets, improved plows, and better yeos?

Or do you hear the trumpet fanfare as you perpetuate your Noble (or mobile) kingdom of learning in your role as the Laudatory Lord or Leading Lady of Learning and as paragons of pedagogical prodigiousness?

For those who know me...the 21st century label, title, category sticks in my craw but I adapt, implement, and overcome (AIO). I came across this book in the recommended readings for my account, 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times in Books 24x7 through AKO (What is Army Knowledge Online?). 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times is also available with a limited preview through Google Books.

While there are many interesting points in the book, the sidebar of the novel, The Once and the Future King caught my attention in the Kingdom of Learnalot, Kingdom of Learning, Software & Hardware Guilds, Sir Ludd & the Luddites, Laudatory Lord & Leading Lady of Learning, Paragons of Pedagogical Prodigiousness and King Wallace's closing statement, “‘Tis time to return to your plans my dearest—stronger fishnets for the fishermen, improved plows for the plowmen, better yeos for the yeomen— sensible solutions for our people and our times.

Chapter 4: Digital Literacy Skills—Info-Savvy, Media-Fluent, Tech-Tuned opens with this quote, "It is no longer enough simply to read and write. Our children must learn how to spot a stereotype, isolate a social cliché, and distinguish facts from propaganda, analysis from banter, and important news from coverage". —Ernest Boyer, past president, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Read The Once and the Future on beginning on page 62 

As the story ends:
King Wallace turned to his Queen. “Alas, my Lady, you were right all along. We are not in the least ready for the great Knowledge Age or the noble Learning Society.

“‘Tis time to return to your plans my dearest—stronger fishnets for the fishermen, improved plows for the plowmen, better yeos for the yeomen— sensible solutions for our people and our times."

“Perhaps, my dear, one fine day in the far-off future, there will come a time when learning is truly king.”
“And queen,” added Her Highness.

Do you settle for sensible solutions for our people and our times? Are you sharing knowledge to build stronger fishnets, improved plows, and better yeos?

Or do you hear the trumpet fanfare as you perpetuate your Noble (or mobile) kingdom of learning in your role as the Laudatory Lord or Leading Lady of Learning and as paragons of pedagogical prodigiousness?

Comments, recommendations, and/or checks in the reaction box are always welcome.

Reflection and Perspectives

How often do you pause and reflect on your efforts, accomplishments, and adjust your avenues of approach? How do you encourage others to self reflect and view different perspectives in the learning environment?

Whether I am in a formal or informal learning environment I am often reminded of the story of "The Blind Men and the Elephant". Today you can see the various credits in the Wikipedia article or through the 1000+ titles in Google Books.

So how often do you put yourself in the position of the blind men and the elephant to see another person's perspective?

I am not sure how old I was when I first read this story but I know it factors into my life, regardless of my role of the hour. Wikipedia describes a few versions of the story but this quote from the Buddhist version caught my attention: "Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing...In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus."

So for those who are sharing knowledge in any learning environment, ensure you are not right fighting for a truth which may only be a half truth, take a moment and listen, and see if you can "Seek first to understand then be understood" (Steven Covey).

The learning process is not an "us vs. them" battlefield. The lifelong learning process is one part of the "unity" within the community. What role do you fill?

Some quotes that have caught my attention during my homework and research assignments this week:

Quotes from Robert M. Hutchins:

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives."

“It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts…it is to teach them to think.”

“Education is a kind of continuing dialogue, and a dialogue assumes different points of view.”

“My idea of education is to unsettle the minds of the young and inflame their intellects.”

From Peter F. Drucker:

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.

So how often do you pause and reflect on your efforts, accomplishments, and adjust your avenues of approach? How do you encourage others to self reflect and view different perspectives in the learning environment?

Comments are always welcome.

Would you work or learn from you?

Colonel Garland Williams, Ph.D presented the keynote address to the Intermediate Course Class 9-09 from the Army Management Staff College. He reflected and shared with us how many keynote speakers he remembers/ed throughout his military and educational graduations.

This caused many of us to reflect on our own graduation ceremonies. Do you remember the keynote speakers or themes during any of your graduations?

So he asked, "Would you work for you?" He then took us through some key points to consider.

Time - Are you generous with your time and stingy with your people's time?

Reliability - Are you there during the good and the bad times? Are you there for the personal important events like birthday parties, graduations, funerals, etc.?

Unwavering support to your people and Underwrite honest mistakes - People don't come to work to intentionally screw up; Underwrite honest mistakes so that they can continue to grow, experiment, and learn.

Stability - Do you take good and bad news equally well? Don't shoot the messenger.

Transparency - It is OK to protect secrets from the enemy, but your vision and thoughts need to be transparent to your people. They need to be able to make decisions in accordance with (IAW) your intent when you aren't there.

Then he asked us what did the first letters of the key points spell out. TRUST

The TRUST acronym can also be used in self reflection as an educator, formal or informal. In your daily, weekly, and/or monthly reflections, remember...someone is always learning...from you, in spite of you, around you, and/or imitating you. If you haven't participated as a student in the lifelong learning process lately, take a day and participate as a student.

So would you work or learn from you?

Want to know more about CES? Transforming Leaders Through Education

The three major underpinnings of CES are Student Centered, Problem Based, Experiential, and Inquiry Learning establish the foundation of success in the Intermediate Course on how to develop a cohesive organization, while applying leadership skills to achieve results. These underpinnings are supported using Army doctrine; educational and leadership theories; small group instruction; along with a combination of behaviorist, cognitivist (information processing), and constructivist learning theories.

Changing focus

As I move closer to the stage where I have to narrow down the focus for my thesis, the focus of the blog will share lessons learned, info from my favorite bloggers, technology links, and what we can do to help our students succeed.

The Richmond County Board of Education provides this information on the About Us link from the home page.

Learning Today...Leading Tomorrow

The Mission of the Richmond County School System is to educate students to become lifelong learners and productive citizens.

1. Every person has the right to a quality education.
2. Education is the shared responsibility of the individual, home, school, and community.
3. Every person can learn.
4. Respect and acceptance are essential for learning and personal development.
5. A safe, healthy and orderly environment is essential to learning.
6. Communication is the key to understanding among people.
7. Excellence cannot be compromised.

While the board claims this mission statement was developed from the results of a survey, bring up the subject of lifelong learning in a F2F (Face to Face) conversation and the responses vary from A to Z. This is also challenging when the graduation rate for the 10 high schools in this area range from 100% to 30%. While one person cannot do it all, if everyone did a little bit the district would see the change in attitudes toward education and improve the district as a whole.

I want to share this link from the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County's (PLCMC) project Learning 2.0 which hosts the "23 Things" Project. While I know this is old news in the online world there are many people who are not connected and are missing out on expanding their personal learning network. Thing #2 Lifelong Learning & L2 provides information on the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners.

The digital divide amongst parents, teachers, students, administrators, alumni, and community members of this district is so varied I thought a post about the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners is something to be shared. Maybe someone will request that 23 Things (which is now grown to 65 Things) can be used to help bridge the digital divide. Maybe individuals will incorporate the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners. Maybe someone will follow the lead of other school districts and incorporate an opportunity for individuals to earn PLUs, CECs, or some type of credit for those students stuck taking a gapfiller course.

Comments and recommendations are always welcome and do not worry because the school district blocks blogs so no one at the brick and mortar schools will read this.

For those who have completed 23 Things, PLCMC created Learning 2.1 Explore, Discover, Play. Have fun improving your skills and sharing knowledge!