Entering BonnieVille (I'm back after a short break in blogging.) Hope you enjoy.

When you enter BonnieVille you will find random thoughts on a plethora of topics:
Agriculture business
Farm wife life
Farming
Technology
Microsoft Office 2010 Tips
Social Media
Shopping
Photography
Inspiration
Other people’s stuff
Husband
Son
Daughter
Time management
Books to read
Books I’ve read
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Humor
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 Places I’ve been
 Places I dream about going
Community College Instructor

Don't Stop Believing in your Dreams

What's your biggest dream and goal? If you could go anywhere or do anything where would you go or what would you do? Please comment below. 

Quotes: 
Share your dreams with others:  Surround yourself with those who believe in you and who are will help you achieve your goals. --Lisa Marie Yost

Dreams are like stars-- you may never touch them, but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny. -- Author Unknown

Resources:

Go ahead, comment. I want to know. 

Bringing Food Home - Wordless Wednesday

Just Ask a Farmer

“Agriculture is the science of applying all known sciences.”

What important message does the general public need to know about Agriculture?

I asked this question in class recently to generate a discussion. It was a rewarding experience to hear how the students felt about the public’s perception of Agriculture and what they really need to know.

Here are some of the responses that the students feel the general public needs to know about Agriculture:

·         Farmers are the biggest advocates for the environment and use best conservation practices.

·         Learn where their food comes from, how it is created, and the hard work that goes in to food production.

·         High food prices are not to be blamed on those that produce it.

·         The crops we produce supply more than food to the world.

·         Don’t take agriculture for granted.

·         Get your education from the actual people in agriculture not from someone’s opinion. Find out the facts from an actual farmer.

·         Learn how food really gets to your table.

·         Learn the difference between animal welfare and animal rights.

·         Farming isn’t easy. It takes education and management skills.

·         It’s not going away and everyone needs it to survive.

·         Farmers feed the world.

·         Appreciate where your food comes from.

·         If you have questions about Agriculture or where your food comes from just ask a farmer!

I was excited to hear how passionate they are about the career path they’ve chosen and that they are not afraid to share it. I was impressed how quickly they responded to defend agriculture.  They know the consumer is not getting the “right” information and understand how important education from the right source is.

“You see real ongoing, lifelong education doesn’t answer questions; it provokes them.” Luci Swindoll

Generating your very own QR(Quick Response) Code

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.”

I just created my first QR Code, printed it out and it worked the first time I scanned it! It's easier than you think.

I used the Free QR Code generator at http://www.qrstuff.com/

I'm using QR Code Scanner Pro http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/13962  on my Blackberry to scan these codes. There are so many different uses for them and you see them everywhere.

WHAT'S A QR CODE?

A QR Code (it stands for "Quick Response") is a cell phone readable bar code that can store website URL's, plain text, phone numbers, email addresses and pretty much any other alphanumeric data

What’s My Name?

Putting names and faces together in the college classroom while building community.

W hen you

E nter this

L earning community

C onsider yourself

O ne of the important

M embers of a group who

E njoys working and being together!

Getting to know over 120 brand new students’ names in my classes is not easy and used to take forever when you only see them twice a week. Several years ago I started taking my new students pictures the first day of classes. I would have them printed and then put their names with their pictures on pieces of paper by class. That helped a lot. However I knew there had to be a better way. Just a few years ago I came up with the idea of having a seating arrangement in my classroom and organized my daily sign in sheets accordingly. Well, I came up with a very useful idea for putting the students’ pictures next to their names on the seating chart/sign in sheets. I’ve been doing this now for a few years and it has been very useful in helping me get to know the students by name in the first few weeks. It doesn’t take me a whole semester to learn some of their names.

This is also a good way to bring community in to the classroom. The students get to know each other by name and face also. This year I waited until the second day of class with me to take their picture. It’s also the day I have them sign their name on a printed seating chart. After that I went around the room where they were sitting and took their pictures. This made putting the pictures in the seating chart document so much easier. I’m always looking for ways to improve in my classroom so it feels good when I find creative ways to make things easier and keep me organized.

Here is an example of an attendance sign in sheet that I’ve created:

My computer classroom layout:

Ten computers on each side of the room. Instructor station at one end, projected screen at the other.

Archiving Facebook Content, Is there an App for that?

Well it’s not an App it’s a simple tool built right in to the Facebook Account Settings.

Ever wondered how you could go back to some of your FB posts from several months ago? Maybe you wanted to remember how you worded something or what you may have shared during a certain event. Well, I have always wished there was a way to go back or compile all my Facebook posts and content so I could access them any time I felt the need to.

This week I stumbled on to a tool in FB that allows you to archive your content and download it so you have a backup of it and an easy way to look back. I followed through a few simple steps and now have easy access to content I’ve posted, including all my pictures I’ve posted over the past few years.

Now I have an idea for an App (maybe there is one already) that would actually publish your Facebook content in to a booklet format, kind of like a scrapbook or journal that you could have printed. Ok, you want to say: ‘dream on Bonnie’ but I know there is one for “publishing your Blog content in to a book to print like a journal” so this could become reality if the App isn’t out there already. If you know of an App that does this for FB I hope you will share it with me.

I hope you find this to be a simple, useful tool that will help you be more productive.

After this step it will take you to a screen that tells you it is processing your download and that it will email you when the download is ready. From the email you click on the link to download a Zipped file of your content. You will need to have Winzip installed on your computer in order to unzip the file and access the folders/files that make up the archive. From there you can move the folders and files to where you would like them stored. It doesn’t take very long before your download is ready. So if you don’t receive a notification you may have to go to your account settings and make sure you receive FB updates in your email. This whole process took me less than 15 minutes.

Good luck.