Okay. So I drive to ETSU on the one day I usually have reserved for housework, laundry, yada, yada so that I can scan all my documents into pdf files for another class. I do this so that I'm not one of thousands crowding around a few scanners at the last moment next week. Brilliant, huh???? Well......I wind up scanning my documents (all 27 pages) about four times!!!! Why??? Because the first scan I do in black & white and I can't read half of what I hand wrote -- in pencil. I begin to rewrite all my pages with a pen and say to myself, "self...this is gonna take forEVER to do...gotta be an easier way." So I decide to rescan one page using grayscale settings. Eureka!!! It'll work just fine. So I then put all my pages back into the scanner for rescanning, wait several minutes and I realize that I forgot to tell it to use grayscale! You see, it automatically chooses black & white. I have to tell it EVERY TIME if I want to make a change. Grrrrr......so I rescan yet again ALL 27 PAGES!!! This time I am successful. You can read everything! Yay me.
I then send the documents to my professor via email. Aren't I smart? I decide to go ahead and send my powerpoint as well. Only one portion left to send later. Gosh, I'm brilliant...I'm cookin' now. I then decide to check out a large article sent to me by another professor. After I take a gander at that, I decide I need to check my ETSU email one last time. Oh CRAP...my pdf files have been returned to me. The file is too large. Okay...where is Tami Baker? She's teaching a class, of course. So I ask the guy in the lab for assistance. We study, we work, we look for a solution to the problem so that I don't have to scan ALL 27 PAGES yet again. FINALLY this brilliant young man finds how we can reduce the size of my file! Yay. We reduce the file. I resend via email. I'm done. I'm great. I'm thrilled!
I wake up early this morning (after a late night) and realize...I wasn't supposed to send my pdf files nor my powerpoint to my professor via email. I was supposed to send them via the D2L dropbox!!! Good Lord...deliver me.
I get up, go find my flash drive (thank you Lord for giving me the good sense to save all these changes on my flash drive). I start up the ole laptop. Go to my ETSU email only to find some emails from said professor that basically tell me I've screwed up. Take a look at the syllabus. Why am I sending her things via email? OMG....I'm such a doofus. So I reply to her lovely emails that I had a brain fart yesterday after my scanning and sending difficulties and just realized what I had done and had planned to resend via the D2L dropbox.
Okay......so what do I have on tap for today? FINISH the math remediation plan...FINISH the assessment write up...get together all materials for Mondays first class...finish an article (a long, yet very interesting one) for my first class...review my knapsack paper...read, read, read............
So why am I typing on my blog instead of getting my rear in gear? Well, ya know...when I get frustrated, I HAVE to vent. Since I didn't have anything or anyone to hit, I decided to smack the keyboard around a bit and vent on here.
Well, off to the papers!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Most Excellent Day!
I had the best day today. I spent the my first day in my third grade classroom at Blountville Elementary School. I LOVE my mentor teacher. She is awesome.
I was so blown away.....from the first thing this morning til the end of the day. Some children walked into the room early and just started passing out notebooks and folders. As others came in, they put their lunch boxes, bags, etc. in their proper spots, sat at their desk and began morning work. Without being told!
Even when the class was engaged in discussion or other lessons, the room was always under control. This teacher has the class well trained. They were so great. She only had to call down a student or two a few times during the day. Nothing serious. But, she said something once to the offender and that was it!
She is totally engaged with those kids. And you can tell how much they love her. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to go back.
I got to help quite a bit too!!! Yay.....
Hope everyone else has a good placement.
I was so blown away.....from the first thing this morning til the end of the day. Some children walked into the room early and just started passing out notebooks and folders. As others came in, they put their lunch boxes, bags, etc. in their proper spots, sat at their desk and began morning work. Without being told!
Even when the class was engaged in discussion or other lessons, the room was always under control. This teacher has the class well trained. They were so great. She only had to call down a student or two a few times during the day. Nothing serious. But, she said something once to the offender and that was it!
She is totally engaged with those kids. And you can tell how much they love her. It was an awesome experience and I can't wait to go back.
I got to help quite a bit too!!! Yay.....
Hope everyone else has a good placement.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Papers, papers, papers
Okay...so this week is devoted to writing papers. A remediation plan for Math, an assessment and evaluation for READ, my cultural knapsack for Social Studies. (Those are listed in order from most challenging to least challenging for me.) Because this blog is set up due to a social studies requirement, I'd like to address the cultural knapsack at this time......
I LOVE diversity (maybe that's the real reason I wanna blog about my cultural knapsack!) Diversity....what does that mean? What does that mean to me? What experiences do I have with diversity? Well, first of all, I'm older than all my classmates, so I've certainly got lots more experience, right? Hmmmmm.
Growing up in the North then moving to the South whilst a teenager is certainly gonna give me a variety of exposures to cultural diversity, right? Yes! Actually it has. Growing up in the 60's and 70's is gonna give me some pretty good stuff to write about, right? Yep! You see, I was around when President Kennedy was assassinated. When Martin Luther King was assassinated. When Medgar Evers was assassinated. When it wasn't okay for a black boy and a white girl to date. When a person with mental and physical disabilities went to a different school. I grew up in a time when segregation of all types was the norm -- especially in the South. I never saw so much emphasis on boy's sports until I moved down here. There were actually STADIUMS for high school boys to play in!!! I had never known that before.
Okay, so what seems to be the problem with writing this cultural knapsack paper? Well, actually, there isn't a problem, except to limit it to just a few pages!!! Because I have history, I have opinions, I have exposure. So, now what? I guess I just need to reread what I've written and see if it provides a flavor of what my cultural knapsack holds.
If you've read this entire post, I thank you for putting up with my rambling.
I LOVE diversity (maybe that's the real reason I wanna blog about my cultural knapsack!) Diversity....what does that mean? What does that mean to me? What experiences do I have with diversity? Well, first of all, I'm older than all my classmates, so I've certainly got lots more experience, right? Hmmmmm.
Growing up in the North then moving to the South whilst a teenager is certainly gonna give me a variety of exposures to cultural diversity, right? Yes! Actually it has. Growing up in the 60's and 70's is gonna give me some pretty good stuff to write about, right? Yep! You see, I was around when President Kennedy was assassinated. When Martin Luther King was assassinated. When Medgar Evers was assassinated. When it wasn't okay for a black boy and a white girl to date. When a person with mental and physical disabilities went to a different school. I grew up in a time when segregation of all types was the norm -- especially in the South. I never saw so much emphasis on boy's sports until I moved down here. There were actually STADIUMS for high school boys to play in!!! I had never known that before.
Okay, so what seems to be the problem with writing this cultural knapsack paper? Well, actually, there isn't a problem, except to limit it to just a few pages!!! Because I have history, I have opinions, I have exposure. So, now what? I guess I just need to reread what I've written and see if it provides a flavor of what my cultural knapsack holds.
If you've read this entire post, I thank you for putting up with my rambling.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
What a week!
What a crazy, busy week.
Read, read, read. It seems we have more reading to do than we have time to get it done in. Then, there are papers, assessments, projects, observations and teaching. Shew. Can you say "OVERWHELMING"?
But, we will pull each other up and through all of this. We will succeed. We can do this.
I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the classes. They are fun and full of great information. It's the after-class-is-over work that overwhelms me at the moment.
Soooo......come on classmates, friends.....let's get some positive vibes going. Let's roll up our sleeves and get this!
Read, read, read. It seems we have more reading to do than we have time to get it done in. Then, there are papers, assessments, projects, observations and teaching. Shew. Can you say "OVERWHELMING"?
But, we will pull each other up and through all of this. We will succeed. We can do this.
I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the classes. They are fun and full of great information. It's the after-class-is-over work that overwhelms me at the moment.
Soooo......come on classmates, friends.....let's get some positive vibes going. Let's roll up our sleeves and get this!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Overwhelming!
Okay....so we are all getting pretty overwhelmed. Today we found out that there are several major projects/papers due very soon. Are we EVER gonna find the time to get them done? Are we EVER gonna get instructions for completing one of the major papers?
I don't really have the answer to my own question. I can only guess and pray. I think our professors are quite approachable, so I say we start working on our paper and take it to him for his perusal. If he dismisses us, then we've still learned a lesson...don't be that kind of teacher!
We can do this guys! We WILL get through Block. We are gonna support each other and DO this!!!!
Okay...now that I've tried to convince you, I'm gonna try to convince myself! :^}
I don't really have the answer to my own question. I can only guess and pray. I think our professors are quite approachable, so I say we start working on our paper and take it to him for his perusal. If he dismisses us, then we've still learned a lesson...don't be that kind of teacher!
We can do this guys! We WILL get through Block. We are gonna support each other and DO this!!!!
Okay...now that I've tried to convince you, I'm gonna try to convince myself! :^}
Friday, September 10, 2010
Blogging for Block
Social Studies. Hmmm......what do I think about this subject? My initial thoughts...bleh!
Social Studies had always been my least favorite subject all through school. I don't remember ever liking it. Memorizing dates, locating continents, countries, cities, etc. was never on my top ten list of favorites. Remembering the order of dead presidents...who really cares? What's that got to do with anything?
Then....just a few years ago, I had the most wonderful History teacher at ETSU. I can't remember her name, but she was a grad student from the UK. She LOVED American History and was working on her masters. She made the second section of American History so interesting and fun that I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. We didn't memorize dates, but we did get a "feel" for the order of historical events. (MUCH better than memorizing the dates of the Civil War or some inoquous event.)
Although Social Studies is still not my favorite subject, I do have an appreciation of what NOT to do if I should have to teach it. I pray I will be able to make the subject matter fun and exciting and get my students involved in a meaningful way.
So....here's to this semester's block and my progression through it!
Social Studies had always been my least favorite subject all through school. I don't remember ever liking it. Memorizing dates, locating continents, countries, cities, etc. was never on my top ten list of favorites. Remembering the order of dead presidents...who really cares? What's that got to do with anything?
Then....just a few years ago, I had the most wonderful History teacher at ETSU. I can't remember her name, but she was a grad student from the UK. She LOVED American History and was working on her masters. She made the second section of American History so interesting and fun that I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. We didn't memorize dates, but we did get a "feel" for the order of historical events. (MUCH better than memorizing the dates of the Civil War or some inoquous event.)
Although Social Studies is still not my favorite subject, I do have an appreciation of what NOT to do if I should have to teach it. I pray I will be able to make the subject matter fun and exciting and get my students involved in a meaningful way.
So....here's to this semester's block and my progression through it!
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